One Less Year of School

For most of the last century, German high school students graduated after their thirteenth year of school. They had, on average, one more year of school than their American counterparts.

(Quick review: after fourth grade, students head to one of three types of school - the Hauptschule with grades five through nine, after which an apprenticeship probably awaits; a Realschule with grades five through ten, leading probably to a technical college (Fachhochschule); or the Gymnasium, grades five through thirteen, perhaps leading to a university.)

A transformation has taken place in Germany over the last decade however; now the majority of students are finished after grade twelve. They take their Abitur - a massive battery of tests - a year earlier.

Why this change? In part, to standardize the German system to the other nations; in part, to get young people onto the job market quicker. Economists hope that this will result in a larger number of wage earners relative to the number of retirees. Germany faces, as do all developed nations, a shortage of young people; the simple fact is that married couples are not having enough children.

Potential problems include a higher percentage of students who will need to repeat a grade - the total amount of material to be learned has not been reduced, and with more content being covered each year, it is more likely that a student will flunk. The Abitur, occurring a year earlier, still covers the same amount of material.

Another difficulty is that more students may choose to simply take a year off before going to the university. This would negate the hoped-for gain of having them on the job market a year earlier.

Some Germans wondered if this new system would necessitate a return to classes on Saturdays, which was a practice in some German areas during the mid-twentieth century; so far, however, this has not occurred.

Although the transition to twelve years of schooling was done in part to synchronize the German system with the rest of Europe, German schools had traditionally fewer hours of class per day than schools in other countries. Nudging the schools toward day-long instruction is a massive shift, changing physical needs in terms of buildings (most German schools had no cafeterias, because children went home for lunch), and changing societal and cultural patterns.

Of Germany's sixteen states (Bundesländer), only Rheinland-Pfalz has not completed the transition to twelves grades. The other territories had completed the transition by the 2012/2013 academic year (some earlier). Although the transition seems to be irrevocable, some critics are demanding a return to the thirteen-year system.

German Music in Hollywood

Composer Klaus Badelt was born in 1967 in Frankfurt, Germany. A decade younger than one of Hollywood's other leading composers, Hans Zimmer, Badelt got his start working for Zimmer. Both Badelt and Zimmer have been, and continue to be, creative engines, turning out one success after another for the movie industry.

Among the movies for which Klaus Badelt has composed music are K-19: the Widowmaker and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. He also composed the music for the closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics.

Outside of Hollywood, Badelt has composed music for many German movies and television shows. He also worked in China, creating the score for the 2005 movie The Promise; many critics have written that his work on The Promise is his best.

Why is the German Economy So Strong?

As the debt crisis - started in Greece, Portugal, Italy, Spain, and Ireland - shakes most of the Euro economies, it becomes ever more clear that Germany is a source of economic stability for the Euro zone. When other countries created massive debt to finance the follies of their governments - lunacies like free public health care - Germany's government decided to avoid borrowing massive amounts of money. Economists Vern Terpstra and Kenneth David write:

Wealth, of course, is obtained by two processes: (1) acquiring it and (2) by forgoing current consumption, holding on to it. Cultures differ in their values toward both of these processes. For example, the United States is more consumption-oriented than Western European countries. Americans more often take advantage of present opportunities to earn income by moonlighting or by having dual-career households. A higher percentage of American wives hold jobs than to European wives. Germans are more critical of wives' employment than people in any other large Western country. On the other hand, Americans are not so strongly oriented as are the Germans to holding on to what they have earned. Americans use installment debt freely, whereas its use in Germany is very low. The German word for debt, Schuld, is the same as the word for guilt.

Not only are the Germans more debt-adverse than other countries, but they also have managed to retain a higher quality of life for females: while German women are more likely than women in other countries to have a university education, they are less likely to hold jobs, leaving them free to enrich family life, pursue the arts and sports, and engage in politics. As a consequence, German children have a higher literacy rate, having spent more time during the first five years of life in the presence of their mothers.

Culture: a Moving Target

When one tries to describe or compare cultures, the risks arise mainly from generalizations. Generalizations almost always have exceptions, and even when general statements are nearly correct, time often changes that.

For example, one might say that Germans usually have their main meal - their dinner - at noon, and smaller lighter meal in the evening. That generalization was once nearly true - maybe a century ago, but even then there were exceptions. Now, a growing segment of the population has its main meal in the evening, but a significant percentage still has a noon dinner, so generalizations about this topic are impossible.

The generalization that most German buildings don't have circular doorknobs - having instead lever-like door handles - still holds true, but the operative word there is 'most' inasmuch as a small handful of German architects use knobs.

So cultural generalization - whether about how Germans hold knives and forks in their hand, or which types of water they drink - are ever subject to change over time, and to exceptions at any one time. Beware!

Spaghetti Eis!

Every year, people visiting Germany fall in love with Spaghetti Eis - spaghetti ice cream. What is it?

No, it doesn't taste like spaghetti, and it's not made of spaghetti. Vanilla ice cream is put through a press, an extruder, and comes out looking like spaghetti. Strawberry sauce takes the place of tomato-based marinara sauce, lumps of chocolate substitute for meatballs, and some grated white chocolate for the parmesan cheese. Yum!

Creative chefs have invented numerous variations on the theme - vanilla sauce can substitute for Alfredo sauce, bits of candy can be shaped like mushrooms, and various flavors and colors of ice cream can imitate the colors of the various types of pasta. Try it!

The Flag

The Germans have had a long and complex relationship to their flag, especially in the years after 1945. In those first years after the war, any signs of patriotism were very uncomfortable for the Germans, who were wrestling with a national guilt complex. The occupying allied forces - France, England, Russia, and America - also discouraged patriotic symbols during the post-war years as part of a broader "de-Nazification" approach.

When the western allies - France, England, and America - merged their three occupational territories into the Federal Republic of Germany and granted political independence to it, the flag consisting of three vertical stripes became the official national symbol of West Germany. The Soviet occupational zone, known as the German Democratic Republic or East Germany, had a similar flag: the same black, red, and gold stripes, with a communist symbol in the center. Germany was leaving the wartime past behind, and taking its place among the modern nations of the world; but its citizens were still uncomfortable with the idea of the flag.

The flag had taken on the connotation of overbearing nationalism during the years between 1933 and 1945. Even though the modern German flag looks nothing like the old nationalist flag, the idea of any flag seemed dangerous to many Germans. Thus it was that the German flag was rarely seen in Germany.

In many nations, it is common to see the flag flying in front of schools, post offices, and offices. It is a sticker on cars, and a cloth patch sewn onto clothing. But in Germany the flag was nearly invisible.

A new time was emerging, however, as years went by, and the vast majority of citizens were born after 1945. This new generation was less susceptible to the psychological guilt complex which had plagued the older generation. Yet this newer generation was still wary of patriotic symbols.

At this point, it becomes helpful to clarify the distinction between 'healthy patriotism' and 'unhealthy nationalism.' Healthy patriotism is an attitude which expresses an affection for one's country, the attribution of value to the history and culture of one's nation, and a willingness to celebrate these. A healthy patriotism, however, allows one to have affection for other nations, and to appreciate and even celebrate the culture and history of other countries.

By contrast, an unhealthy nationalism imputes absolute value to one's own nation-state, claiming its priority and superiority over other nations, and in fact over any competing value like family, friendship, or religious faith. Unhealthy nationalism is, therefore, dangerous, the cause of wars and other forms of misery.

The German people, eager to avoid unhealthy nationalism and the dangers it brings with itself, went further than necessary, and abandoned a sense of healthy patriotism. As they old saying goes, they threw the baby out with the bath-water. Every occasion which might have been an opportunity to express healthy patriotism - the reunification of East and West Germany, the winning of an international soccer match, industrial and scientific achievements - was carefully celebrated in a manner devoid of national symbols.

The 2006 FIFA World Cup would change that. Germany was the host nation, and soccer teams representing nations from around the globe came to play at stadiums in Köln, Berlin, Stuttgart, München, Leipzig, and other major German cities. Fans and teams from other nations cheerfully waved and wore their respective flags.

By 2006, most German soccer fans were solidly of the post-war generation. The time had come, and the social tabu against the flag fell. For the first time in many years, German fans waved their flags at soccer games, and painted their faces black, red, and gold. Clothing, and nearly any other conceivable item, was made with stripes in those colors: wallets, coffee cups, and icing on cakes, all bore the three stripes of the German flag.

In the joyful cheering of soccer fans, a big piece of national guilt and shame was finally buried. The sins and crimes of previous generation had inflicted pain on those born many years later, on those who had nothing to do with the mistakes of the past. From this point forward, the power of a previous century's evil to haunt the lives of later generations would be reduced.

Berlin - Great Place for a Vacation!

Berlin has it all - history, culture, and fun. Concerts, nightclubs, and parks to facilitate almost any type of sports mean that you're never bored when you're in Berlin. How did it get to be this way? William F. Buckley, Jr. writes:

It is a great, sprawling city, 344 square miles, eight times the size of Paris, three times the size of London. Its perimeter would encircle the five boroughs of New York City.

Like most major cities, Berlin is divided into neighborhoods or boroughs with their own names and distinctive styles - Spandau, Pankau, Treptow, Lichtenberg, etc.

Berlin turned out this way only in part because of organic growth. The decisive event in the city's aggrandizement was the annexation in 1920, under the Weimar government, of dozens of surrounding towns, villages, and estates into one administrative unit. Greater Berlin now had not just one but two rivers, the Spree and the Havel, and canals linking them. Within the city limits were the Berlin Forest, the Green Woods (Grünewald), and many acres of land suitable for orchards and truck farming. In all, a third of Berlin was, and still is, covered with parkland, forest, farmland, rivers, or lakes.

Berlin, then, contains within itself its own countryside. A short subway ride from the dense inner city lie woods and fields and lakes.

As European capitals go, Berlin is comparatively new. The first permanent settlements, along what is now Museum Island, in the eastern part of the city, date only from 1237 - a dozen or more centuries after the beginnings of many other European cities. Berlin grew slowly, set back by outbreaks of the Black Death, as also by devastating wars. Only a handful of buildings from the medieval and Renaissance periods survived the Thirty Years' War (1618 - 1648).

The village of Spandau was first mentioned in writing in 1197, although it was not incorporated into Berlin until 1920. Around the year 1600, the city had approximately 12,000 inhabitants. By the 1670's, the population will be growing fast, and the city becomes known as a safe haven for both Jews and Huguenots - groups being exiled from France. They enjoyed a warm reception: the war had ended in 1648, and religious liberty declared by the monarch.

The flowering of the city began at the end of that war, under the Great Elector, Friedrich Wilhelm von Hohenzollern. It was he who envisioned a wide avenue leading westward from his castle. For aesthetic reasons, as well as for comfort in the summer, he planted trees along it. The avenue thus formed became the heralded Unter den Linden - Under the Linden Trees.

By 1755, the population was around 100,000. From 1806 to 1814, Napoleon's French soldiers occupied Berlin; the city survived with relatively little destruction. By 1850, population neared 400,000.

Friedrich Wilhelm's successors were great builders, turning Berlin into a baroque city. Among the most notable of the new structures was Schloss Charlottenburg, which Friedrich I of Prussia ordered built some three miles to the west of the city center as a country retreat for his queen, Sophie Charlotte. In their day, at the end of the seventeenth century, the royal party would have traveled from their main castle down Unter den Linden and through a large hunting preserve to reach Schloss Charlottenburg. In the eighteenth century, that hunting preserve became a park, the Tiergarten, and the Brandenburg Gate was erected at the point where Unter den Linden comes up against the eastern edge of the Tiergarten. This immense gate, six columns topped with a chariot drawn by four horses, was modeled on the entrance to the Acropolis and became the universally recognized symbol of Berlin.

To this day, visitors see these structures, as the city of Berlin is once again a shining example of culture. If you plan to visit Berlin, stay at least a week to have enough time to explore the many exciting parts of this great city.