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My personal view of Germany |
| Geography | |
| As you see, we have a large coastline in the north of Germany. In the
central region there are some highlands like the "Harz"; and in the south
you find the foothills of the Alps and the Alps with the highest German
mountain, the "Zugspitze" (2962m). We have a temperate climate with average rainfalls year-round (ok-in the winter it`s snow.) In the west the weather is more influenced by the ocean currents; in the east it`s a little bit more continental. In Germany there are no real hurricanes and no earthquakes; the only natural disasters are periodical flooding of the rivers, because we have altered their normal flow. |
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| Education | |
| At the age of 3-4 most of the children in Germany go to a
"Kindergarten"(it`s a German word!). If they are 6-7, every child goes to
the "Grundschule", the German grade school. The teachers have to
decide there, to which other school we go afterwards. There are 3
opportunities: The first is the "Hauptschule". The pupil who elects this
option has to stay there from the 7th to the 9th or 10th grade. After that they do a combination of on-the-job training and a vocational school. The pupil who chooses the second possible option goes to the "Realschule". He stays there also up to the 10th grade but is taught on a higher level. They also start working with a mix of vocational school after that. And the third option is to go to the "Gymnasium" from the 7th to the 13th grade. This is the highest level and the pupil who goes this way is allowed to go to the university afterwards. So these are three main educational options. There are several other combinations in other parts of Germany and you can change from one school to another if you`re notgood enough or if you want to go to the "Gymnasium" after finishing the "Realschule". If you choose to stay at school for 12-13 years, you can go to the university for about 5 years to receive a "Diplom" or a "Magister". And if you have the money and the time and the fun to do that, you`re able to receive your Ph.D. 2-3 years after that. In every topic we call this degree a Dr. |
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| Politics | |
| We have a lot of political parties in Germany, but there are only 4 that are big enough to get more than 5% of the votes so that they have representation in the parliament.
The CDU (/CSU) is a conservative party, the SPD is more like the democratic party in the USA. The FDP call itself "the liberal party"; for me they are the the party of the business people. And there`s the Green Party; they support the ecological orientation of the society. From 1998 till now the SPD and the "Greens" govern in Germany. |
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| Economy | |
| Even though Germany is a very small country (about half the size of Texas),
it was the world's largest exporter in 2003. We produce all the goods of a modern industrial nation, especially
cars (Daimler, BMW, VW, Porsche,...), electronics, machines,
pharmaceuticals, etc. A large portion of the energy (about 30%) is produced by nuclear plants, but the new government decided to opt out in the next two decades, so we will transition to renewable energies. |
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| Food | |
| No, we don`t eat sauerkraut all the time! Perhaps in Bavaria, but that`s not the real Germany, that`s Bavaria, something completely different. In Germany there are only a few persons who eat sauerkraut all the time and wear leather trousers ;-). So what we really eat here is rolls oder muesli in the morning; noodles, rice or potatoes with meet and/or vegetables at lunch and bread or brown bread in the evening. To complete this: what we drink is mineral water, juice and a lot of tea and coffee. If we drink alcohol, we normally drink beer or wine. |
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| Events/sightseeing | |
| Hum, this is not a very easy section... You have seen the long history of our family and we have such a lot of historical houses, churches, ruins and so on, and most of them are worth visiting it. The "Loreley" and the "Castle Neuschwanstein" are the typical places we show the Japanese and American tourists ;-). What`s really interesting now is our capital Berlin. It changes its appearance every day and there are a lot of festivals,concerts,etc. And every year there`s the "Loveparade", a big techno-parade with more than million youngsters/ravers. |  (Small part of the Loveparade 1999) |
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If you`re in the north of Germany, visit the coast and Hamburg with it`s
great (Baetcke-) houses and the harbour. In the middle of Germany you have to visit Hannover and Goettingen, the city of our ancestors, in the south try to see the wine growing areas and Munich. |
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| Media | |
| Normally we have about 35 TV channels in Germany. A few are under public
law, they are more highbrow and they are not allowed to show advertisements in the evening. The others are free channels, with more serials (especially from the USA), more sensational reports and more commercials. And there are a few foreign channels like TV5 (France), TRT (Turkey), NBC, BBC, CNN. The internet is quite expensive in Germany; it`s about 1.5 cent per minute, but it`s free at the university, so you know where I surf normally... |
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| Weapons | |
| I added this point, because I think it`s a little bit different between
Germany and the USA. In Germany weapons are very restricted. No one is
allowed to possess a gun in Germany, except the army, the police, the
marksmen and hunters (but the last two have a lot of restrictions and have to take special training). And every weapon has a number and must be
registered with the administrative body, so we can trace back every time
who`s the owner of a gun. So most of the people don`t have guns. If we want to defense ourselves, we call the police, they are fast enough. It`s much more peaceful here with only such a few weapons in Germany. |
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| ...and the rest | |
| - To get a driving licence you have to be 18 years old, you need to go to a driving school for a few month in the evening and it costs about 1000$ (fuel is about 3.5$ a gallon). - You must be 16 to be allowed to buy cigaretts or beer, and 18 if you want to buy the hard alcohol. - You can drink your beer whereever you want. - We pay with the Euro. - 1 inch = 2,54 cm (centimeters); 1 yard = 91,44 cm = 0,9 meters; 1 mile = 1609,34 meters. - We use the "." to seperate big numbers like a million (1.000.000) and the "," like I did it before. - °Celsius = (°F - 32) x 5/9 - U.S. gallon = 3,785 liters; so a U.S. barrel = 119,2 l; 1 ounce = 28,35 gram; 1 pound = 0,453 kg. - Yes, we caused two world wars. But I left the history out, it`s too extensive, ask me if you want tho know something special. - The most pupular place (for a German) for a vacation: The coast or the Alpes. In Europe: Spain, Italy or France if you like it hot :-) and Norway or Sweden for adventure holidays. In the world: Canary Islands (ok- belongs to Spain, I know), the Caribbean Sea (especially Dom. Rep.) and the USA. - We have more such nice girls like Claudia Schiffer or Heidi Klum in Germany ;-) - Tell me what you want to know, I`ll add it. Tobi |
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