Category: German culture and history
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Kraut and about – what are all those Germans doing abroad?
Germans immigrants used to flock to the U.S. They still go there in droves, but now they go back home again, as I discovered during my trip to New York.
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Think digital technology is a cure-all? Don’t bet your life on it
A WWII air raid siren startled me once while I waited for a train. Such an old technology could certainly be replaced with something better. At least that’s what I thought until a real emergency cropped up.
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Karl Marx’s penguin and Richard Wagner’s design for Madonna’s corset
1 May 2022 Karl Marx and Richard Wagner are featured in joint exhibits at the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin. But why, I wondered. The first man was a flaming revolutionary, forced to flee the country and live much of his life in exile. His name became synonymous with disastrous attempts to implement his philosophy. […]
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Ukraine on the train – from a military to a cultural conflict
Taking the train home from Berlin, some Ukrainians boarded the train. Watching their interactions with the conductor reminded me of my first experience taking German trains
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The ladies, the rest home and the bombs
The oldest residents of a rest home suddenly developed mild illnesses. They all shared a trauma from the distant past that had suddenly been revived overnight.
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Aren’t you glad you got the orange car after all?
The sky was suddenly a muddy orange, but what was causing it. I had an idea, but the thought was too scary to consider
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That map might just quash your travel plans – so focus on fun instead
Germans are usually so logical, it’s hard to believe how that can make such planning errors when they visit the U.S. Kind of gratifying, though.
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The distant agony of past wars is suddenly revived by the attack on Ukraine
The five German cities I visited on a college tour with my daughter were all steeped in the history from WWII or the Cold War – or both. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has triggered the largest influx of refugees in Europe since WWII into these same cities.
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Think your vacation was spectacular? Don’t make me yawn
Germans take vacations every year without fail. If you need to know something about your own country, just ask a German.
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Get that rotten banana peel out of the plastic recycling
Photo by Louis Hansel on Unsplash 13 February 2022 My muesli stuck in my throat listening to a recent National Public Radio (NPR) broadcast on a new recycling initiative in California. Recycling is new? Seriously? The woman interviewed was clearly a recycling newbie, as she left her organic waste in the kitchen and went off […]
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