Currywurst!

The German culture has created a variety of delicious experiences for the traveling epicurean. Perhaps the easiest one to enjoy is the famous "Currywurst".

Although far more flavorful than fast food, Currywurst is easily and quickly prepared, leading to its popularity among street vendors. Most German cities have dozens of street-corner stands (called "Imbiss") at which pedestrians stop to enjoy this delicacy.

As its name indicates, Currywurst begins with a sausage, usually a mild Bratwurst, which is gently grilled over coals or browned on a griddle. Once ready, the sausage is cut into coin-shaped slices. A sauce, made from ketchup or tomato sauce, and containing a dash of curry or other spices, is warmed separately, and then poured over the sausage slices. Finally, a generous amount of curry power is dusted over the dish.

It is usually served with a crusty roll ('Brötchen'), and eaten with a fork.

There are numerous variations on the basic design; the type of sausage can vary, including some varieties with no skin. The exact composition of the ketchup sauce also varies, being thicker or thinner, and seasoned variously.

The dish was apparently created in Berlin in 1949 by Herta Heuwer. Her original recipe apparently included a dash of Worcestershire sauce. The concoction was immediately popular, and has sold steadily ever since.

Want a Better Salary? Learn German

A recent study, reported in Forbes magazine, tells us that learning German will earn you more than studying Spanish or French. In business, technical, medical, and scientific fields, your paycheck grows when you can read German:

Albert Saiz, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania, and Elena Zoido, an economist at the consulting group LECG, published a study comparing wage premiums for American college graduates who spoke Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian and Chinese as a second language. 

In their findings, the law of supply and demand prevailed. With its 1.7% wage premium, Spanish was the least valuable, followed by French (2.7%). Knowledge of German, Italian, Russian and Chinese was slightly more valuable, translating into an average 4% income boost.

For a recent MBA, or a new graduate in engineering, this could mean $2300 or more in your pocket each year. For an experienced worker several years out of college, it would be double that or more.

Want a larger income? Study German!

Studying Something Useful for a Career in Business

When German-speaking countries like Austria and Switzerland do billions of dollars of business with American companies, it comes as no surprise that German is a useful language for people seeking careers in the business world. ABC News reports that

What are the top three most useful languages for business after English? Surprisingly, Spanish didn't make the cut despite being the official language of 20 countries and spoken by over 329 million people, according to Bloomberg Rankings.

Although many counselors in high schools, colleges, and universities are still advising students to take Spanish, it's clear that languages like German, Russian, and others are more practical in the economy.

To create the list, Bloomberg Rankings identified the 25 languages with the greatest number of native speakers, then narrowed the list to the 11 official languages of G20 countries, excluding those that designated English.

Bloomberg's methods are but one of several possible ways of analyzing why German is more useful than Spanish. Instead of variables like total number of speakers and which countries have identified a given language as their official language, one could also look at factors like total dollar volume of import and export, number of patents filed, or technical papers published in a given language. In addition, one could review the number of contracts written in a language, or the number of internet transactions in a language.

Bloomberg notes their list differs from the top foreign languages studied in U.S. colleges in 2009 from the Modern Language Association, published in December 2010.

Spanish topped that list with 864, 986 enrollments, dwarfing French which followed next with 216, 419 (no. 2), German (no. 3), American Sign Language (no. 4), Italian (no. 5), Japanese (no. 6), Chinese (no. 7), Arabic (no. 8), Latin (no. 9) and Russian (no. 10).

Sadly, many educational institutions remain out of step with the global market: if Spanish is not very useful for doing business or technical research, we need to have our students studying other languages.

Germany Avoids Debt Crisis

With countries from the U.S. to Greece suffering from the results of borrowing too much money, how has Germany managed to keep its economy strong (and its credit rating better than America's)? Chancellor Angela Merkel has worked to avoid debt, and encouraged other European countries to do the same. Various news services (AP, Reuters, and Fox) report that Merkel

called for all euro zone nations to enact constitutional amendments requiring balanced budgets. They said they want the process completed by the summer of 2012, but it would almost certainly run into protracted political difficulties in many countries.

Balanced budgets are good for any country, anywhere, anytime. Perhaps America can learn from Germany on this topic.

Wirtschaftswunder - Economic Miracle

Todd Buell surveys the global economic climate, reviewing the data for May 2011, and notes the amazing performance of the German economy:

Some Germans and their politicians like to think of their country as the growth “locomotive” of the euro zone. Today’s initial GDP estimates bear out this claim, yet do little to solve the euro zone’s persistent problem of diverging growth trends.

Europe's problems cannot be overcome by the strong economies of countries like Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. The negative numbers from Spain, Greece, and France are pulling the "euro zone" down.

In adjusted terms, quarterly growth was 1.5%, well above economists’ forecast of 0.9%. Adjusted yearly growth of 4.9% was the highest ever recorded since pan-German data became available in 1991. Growth even reached its pre-crisis level, meaning that we can stop talking about “the recovery.” Indeed, the economy is healthy and hale.

The poorly-performing countries in the "euro zone" and in the rest of the world need to study the models set by Germany and its neighbors (including Poland and the Czech Republic). Greece, in particular, is a drag on European economics. The mixture of private debt and public debt in the United States is a drag on the world's economy.

There are clear signs that the euro zone is experiencing a degree of decoupling with countries following divergent paths. For example, French growth surged in the first quarter and Dutch, Belgian and Austrian GDP also grew by or at around 1.0% on the quarter. Meanwhile Portugal’s economy contracted by 0.7% while Spain’s expanded by a modest 0.3% for the first quarter.

Although central Europe can't single-handedly rescue the entire euro zone, it is at least helping to keep it afloat in the short run:

The German data showed broadly that the domestic economy made the main contribution toward output growth. For the euro zone as a whole, this is good, especially since it means German economic growth is going beyond its traditional strengths of exporting high-end machines and products.

Not only does Germany's growth keep Europe afloat, but it also gives the weaker-performing a potential trading partner:

A consumer-led development in Germany would mean that the country would up its imports, clearly benefiting other economies in the euro zone. For example, German strength can help Spain “export itself out of trouble,” Berenberg economist Holger Schmieding wrote in a note following the German release.

If Germany has already worked itself out of the economic downturn, it may show the way to other countries.

While Germans are not known for their outward displays of emotion (unless it involves the national soccer team), they can take pride in their, now fully completed, economic rebound. Support of the labor market through subsidized lower working hours during the downturn helped keep people on firms’ payrolls. When global demand returned, the workers were there to produce. Now they themselves can spend. It’s a virtuous circle, which some call a miracle.

In any case, Austria, Switzerland, and Germany offer a model for other economies, momentum for Europe's and the world's economies, and potential business and trading partners for forward-thinking businesses.

Strong Economies Pay the Price for Weaker Ones?

Chris Stirewalt, analyzing world business trends, noted that a pattern is developing among the industrial and post-industrial nations of the world:

Europe’s economy and currency are already a disaster, this will not make the rest of the world better disposed toward underwriting the misadventure of lashing the economies of strong nations like Germany and Britain to those of week sisters, like Greece and Spain.

As fewer nations around the world are able to sustain their own economies, the nations which have thus far done well at maintaining a stable business environment are being punished with the task of bailing out the losers.

The U of M Is the Biggest!

Of the twelve universities in the Big Ten, the University of Michigan has more undergraduate students listed as German majors than any of the others!

You don't have to be a German major to live in the U of M's North Quad, but living in the North Quad is one way you can live on the Central Campus: otherwise, most students are relegated to dormitories on the North Campus.

The North Quad is home to the Max Kade House, the university's German dorm program. Anyone interested in German can live in this newest, and most high-tech, of all U of M dorms.