This is where the German-speaking noder contingent gathers to drink Schnaps and plan the most efficient way to node things German on E2. Failing to do that we'll just drink more Schnaps, node Bavarian drinking songs and talk about football. Do not offend us or we'll send some funny-speaking people from the South to yodel outside your window.

This group plans to follow the model of the bakufu gang, who have been very successful at enhancing E2's Japanese content both quantitively and qualitatively, and provide consensus and authoritative output regarding the way the language, history and rich culture of the German-speaking world--that means principally Germany, Austria and part of Switzerland--is presented on E2.

News:

Lord Brawl says: Added a link to the usergroup message archive for the group.


Venerable members of this group:

Siobhan, VAG, Zarkonnen, ilteroi, Deckard97, eliserh, twylyte, izubachi, 00100, Redalien, diesterne, BurningTongues, smartalix, kohlcass, alex, Aerobe, memplex, Professor Pi, memplex, Professor Pi
This group of 20 members is led by Siobhan

The Zeche Zollverein in Essen, Germany was the largest and most modern coal mining plant in the heyday of the iron and steel industry.

Designed by Fritz Schupp and Martin Kremmer, rusty red steel and brick, building and machine are set against green fields and a blue sky. In a perpetual state of abstinence, this omnipotent, yet arranged marriage is forced to put on a brave smile and greet the daily visitors to its silent ruins. Groups of French and German students tread its geometric plains and lean against unwilling walls. Machines, forever silenced are mocked by bright red lights which try to inform us of past furies. The pair is believed to have been inspired by the New Functualism at the core of Bauhaus thinking and developed the site into a flexible industrial complex.

Well, I beg to differ.

On many occassions, the architecture's functionalism manifests itself as complete disregard to the same architectural dictum. It seems that the Krupp family were all for making a good impression, by whatever means necessary, and the architects catered to this need till the very last detail. The Doppelbock, the hauling framework of Shaft XII, has become symoblic of Zollverein and frequently participates in a visitor's first contact with the site. Despite it being read immediately as a structure executed for technical reasons, it is not representative of its mining predecessors. While potential clients were ushered around above ground, labourers were making their way beneath, literally under the direst of conditions. Should they ever set foot on a blade of grass in its welcoming zone, that is the "Ehrenhof" they would be fired on the spot.

Keep a watchful eye and you will notice stores made to look like well-lit office blocks and a fake staircase whose impossible 45 degree acclivity rises to the heavens. The function of most buildings is merely to satisfy clean perspectives and symmetries. Where central feautures cannot satisfy the principle of duality, suitable outstanding central feautures are made. The clean pattern language of the young architects, both in their twenties at the beginning of their planning, became blueprints in themselves for the development's overall monumental style.

'Through repeating similar elements, the impression of one single building-ensemble is intensified.
The simple forms of the individual cubes harmonize with the “large context” of the whole.
The single cube, being the simplest shape, offers a fairly uncomplicated adaptation to technical change, when objects must be exchanged or replaced'.

 

The Boiler Room's main hall echoes Antonio Sant'Elia's 1912-1914 highly futuristic sketches of cathedrals to an electric religion. There is no doubt that the pair were inspired by this artist's Futuristic drawings, whose visions have mostly graced the cinema screen One example is Fritz Lang's 1927 silent film 'Metropolis'. Indeed, the Zeche Zollverein, which was completed 5 years later illustrates the impression this Austrian film maker had on its authors. Did Schupp and Kremmer also know what future imperfect world was being devised?

Indeed, the Ruhr's activity was hardest hit in postwar Germany. In the course of 272 air raids during World War II, a massive 90 percemt of Essen city centre was destroyed, the remaining city area suffering 60 percent destruction. As the Ruhr Agreement within the Suggested Post-Surrender Program for Germany stated:

'Here lies the heart of German industrial power, the cauldron of wars. This area should not only be stripped of all presently existing industries but so weakened and controlled that it can not in the fore-seeable future become an industrial area.'

 

All living in the area, included skilled workers and their families, were encouraged to emigrate immediately. Though the mines were reopened eventually, the mining industry was in crisis: all mines in the Ruhrpot area - with the exception of the Zollverein colliery - ceased coal production and were mostly demolished between 1958 and 1973. In 1986, when Essen wiped the last specks of coal dust from its face, the Zollverein Mining Complex was not allowed to become a carcass of its former glory and was listed as a protected monument. It was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and works on a masterplan for the area began, under the direction of Rem Koolhaas.

The Masterplan has attempted to foster cultural heritage into the site by injecting it with a number of new businesses and activities generally based on Design. The Coal Washing plant is currently being transformed into a leisure are with a cafe, swimming facilities in the summertime and an ice skating rink during winter. Besides a number of exhibition spaces, there is also a cinema and workspaces for designers and artists. The Boiler House has been made into the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen by Norman Foster and showcases the winners of the annual red dot awards for product design and communication. The School for Design Business and Management was completed early in 2006 by SANAA while ENTRY 2006 made an appearance in the later months.

In 2002, the Zollverein celebrated its 70th birthday with a showing of 'Metropolis'. As an added treat, an impressive light show included circles of light moving up and down the chimneys of the Coal Washing facility. This imitated a scene were the robot Maria is brought to life in the same film. Perhaps, Zeche Zollverein is similarly slowly adjusting to being prodded and examined, cleansed of its past and hung out to dry.





Suggested Post Surrender Program for Germany Retrievd May 27, 2007 here
Zollverein website Retrieved May 28, 2007 here
Essen history Retrieved May 28, 2007 found here

Stop. Open this in a new tab.
Hit play.
Listen and read along.
Enjoy.


When I look at the collage of photos that I have been building and think, goodness, would you look at that, all of this has been me and none of it is anymore, and I want to know what happened to it all.

What happened to that girl, and where did that boy end up, and excuse me but has anyone seen that shirt that I am wearing in this one, because it really was a favorite, or that car, do you remember that car and everything that happened inside those four doors with the windows rolled up, goodness goodness they are all gone.

Maybe this is why I love photos instead of people, memories and past tenses and the details captured in freeze frame and I can hang it on my wall and I can put it in a book and I can keep it and I can look back and I can remember, but not relive.

That house and the winter I spent in it, the nights I crashed on the floor, the night, singular, that I crashed right there on the front lawn, the people that filled it and the people that will never be in it again, the Halloween party and then the Christmas party, and all the mornings I went to work still half drunk from the night before, here I am, here I am, here I am, snap snap snap, who was the eye behind this angle?

That car and the midnight drives to nowhere and the hazy 2 a.m. revalations made somewhere on a country road that I'll never travel again, the stories I used to tell, the books I could have written, would you look at that smile, it's as close as I'll ever give to genuine--

That girl, and that room, full of bright lights that seemingly never went off, and when they were off, it all felt wrong and out of place and I could traverse that place with my eyes closed but not with the lights off--

And that boy, I miss him so much and this is my only picture of him and if I would have known I would never get to take another of him--



stop stop stop. They keep blending in together. I don't mind.

A yeasty, sedimented wheat beer developed in Germany and popular throughout the world

The breweries of southern Germany were well-known for their distinctive beers, typically brewed with 25-50% wheat. To some of these wheat beers, brewmeisters would add large quantities of yeast, producing a cloudy brew known as weizenbier mit hefe (wheat beer with yeast). These beers became the delicious and unusual brew we know as hefeweizen.


James was a tall, good-looking computer programmer at the company where I worked. He had long, black hair and a beard, a wicked sense of humour and a ready laugh. Years before we met, he had been stationed, with a unit of fellow soldiers, near the Berlin Wall. James told me that base of operations was known as "Where World War III will Probably Start."

In our abundant spare time, James would hang out in my office. We would smoke cigarettes and he would amaze and entertain me with tales of sights I'd never seen and lands I'd never visited. He told me of castles on the Rhine, cold war fatalism, war games, and places he saw. And we talked about beer—always back to beer.

At some point, I trotted out an axiom I’d heard since first I ever fell in love with the imported beers such as Bass Ale and Heineken; "Of course, I can’t get anything nearly as good imported as I would get there."

He laughed and agreed, then a thought occurred, "There are a couple of really good ones you can get here though. They're damned close." He mentioned Paulaner Hefeweizen.

I bought some that very night.

From my first bottle, I was hooked.


What it is

Hefeweizen is a top-fermented, bottle-conditioned wheat beer. The yeast used in fermentation is not filtered out, leading to a cloudy brew with a flavour that is unlike other drinks. This beverage is usually made from 50-70% malted barley and 30-50% wheat, the percentage of wheat typically being higher in Europan breweries and lower in the United States. It is supposed to be the most popular wheat beer in the United States, and American-made Hefewiezens tend toward a lighter colour and taste than their European counterparts. Americans sometimes serve hefeweizen with a slice of lemon or orange, a practice frowned upon by beer aficionados and non-yanks alike—the acidity of citrus not only alters the flavour of the brew, but it also dissipates the head. This practice apparently began in East Germany but only took off in the States for some reason.

Hefeweizens tend to be very lightly hopped, leading to an exceptionally smooth beer with very little bitterness. Belgian brewers sometimes add coriander or other herbal flavours to hefeweizen. Bavarian weizen beer uses a distinctive yeast which gives it a unique taste and bouquet.

What's in a Name?

Hefeweizen is classed as a weissbier ('white beer,' more authentically spelled weißbier). This name derives from the fact that these wheat beers tend to be a light, amber colour (it may also come from the fact that the foam during the fermentation is apparently a snowy white). It is thus sometimes called Hefeweissbier or Hefeweisse. The name is sometimes hyphenated to Hefe-weizen. The fact that it is a weizenbier (‘wheat beer’), and also a weissbier makes for an attractive-sounding symmetry (that can bedevil non-German speakers).

  • Weizenstarkbier is a wheat beer with a somewhat high alcohol content. It is related to hefeweizen, but the two are not synonymous.
  • Kristallweizen is a clear wheat brew. It is filtered and thus not counted as a true hefeweizen.
  • Dunkelweizen is dark wheat beer. Some hefeweizen brews may be dark, but not all dunkelweizens have the yeasty hefewiezen character.

Enough With the Factual Stuff, Let's Drink!

Pour your hefeweizen from the bottle into a tall glass with a wide mouth (usually a narrow-based triangular or vase-shaped affair is used). Pour slowly, stopping to swirl the bottle in order to lift the sweet yeasty sediment. The head should be thick and uneven (what conoisseurs call a ‘rocky’ head)—this is a sign of a good beer, an even head usually means carbonation was added later. Serve cool or slightly chilled, but not ice-cold. Sip slowly, savouring the subtle mix of flavours that the beer offers.

Historical Stuff

The German beer purity laws (Reinheitsgebot) instituted in Bavaria in the early 16th century, forbade putting anything but barley, hops, and water into beers—spontaneous fermentation was used rather than yeast (a few beers, including lambics, are still made this way). Some say that this was done in order to save yeast for baking of bread, others say that the Bavarian royal family, which held a monopoly over barley production, wished to forcibly exclude wheat beers. Some breweries in Belgium were still making the wheat beers, and there was a black market for them in Germany during this time.

The laws were relaxed in 1850 and weizen beers took off, with Schneider Weisse being the first one produced.

How it tastes

The flavour is really where this beer stands out. Remarkably crisp, clean, sweet and full-bodied, hefeweizen does not taste like any other beer. The yeast and wheat give it a lovely bread flavour and most hefeweizens also have a fruit character with overtones of clove (created by the phenols that the yeast produces). Some brews have esters which can lend very slight hints of banana, pear, vanilla, or even bubble gum.

Sip hefeweizen in they way you would sip a fine wine. There is a disagreement among beer snobs as to whether to drink the head off, or to let it die down—I go for a middle path and let it die down partially. Inhale deeply over the beer to savor the aroma of it, then tip some into your mouth—sip, don't gulp. Allow it to swirl around, mixing the senses of smell and taste, then let it wash down the back of your tongue. Close your eyes. Picture wheat fields, golden stalks ripening in the sun’s warmth. Savour the subtle blend of sweet tastes!

It should probably come as no surprise that hefeweizen goes extremely well with schnitzel, wursts, saurkraut, and other similarly Teutonic menu fare. Its flavour is subtle and complex enough to be served with hearty, savoury foods, things that can hold their own without being overpowered. Stews, meat & potatoes, roast beef, poultry dishes or sandwiches are good accompaniments to hefeweizen. It also seems to go exceptionally well with Asian cuisine (thanks Shaogo!). Foods which are overly spicy or powerfully flavoured may overwhelm the subtleties of the beer. Likewise, extremely bland or exceptionally subtle foods may get overpowered.


Hanging around after work with some Texan 'good old girls', I brought a bottle of Paulaner Hefeweizen and sipped it slowly from a plastic cup while they swigged down their Michelob Ultra. The gals wanted a taste of my "fancy German beer." I warned them that they wouldn't like it.

They didn't—of course they didn't.

If you are accustomed to Bud Light and that sort of thing, the complex flavour of hefeweizen is likely to be a very alien experience.

Good thing, too! This way, they did not drink up all my beer!


References:
Wikipedia
A British Guide to German Beer (online at http://www.germanbeerguide.co.uk/hefeweiz.html)
Jackson, Michael (no not THAT Michael Jackson!!!), “The Pocket Guide to Beer; A Discriminating Guide to the World’s Finest Beers” (Perigee, New York, 1982).

It should be pointed out that Brecht's use of the German word "fressen", instead of the usual word "essen," is not accidental and alludes to his low opinion of humanity as mere animals hidden under a thin veneer of culture and manners.

The German maxim "Tiere fressen, Mensche essen" (animals feed, humans eat) differentiates between the animal-like frenzy of eating and the human concept of eating, with table manners and conversation. My sense is that the germanic use of the word "fressen" is not like cows or sheep grazing on grassy hillsides, but connotes a predatory scene, like a lion hunting a gazelle, killing it, and then tearing it apart savagely for the meat.

Brecht's phrase is highly ironic. The reader expects to read the phrase, "Erst kommt das Essen, dann kommt die Moral." using the usual German word "essen" to mean, "first comes the meal, then comes the moral." Brecht's almost shocking use of the word "fressen" implies we are nothing more than animals, and our first priority is to be fed. Then to hear that Father will deliver a moral to us animals after the meal conjures up visions of a pride of lions sitting around the bones of some fresh kill, bloated and sated, while the alpha male pontificates about being polite to grandmothers, usw. It is a clever twist to what could be a very prosaic, pablum phrase. This, of course, is why Berthold Brecht is a genius.


User-contributed facts & anecdotes

"I don't think this is enough for its own write-up, but I thought I would mention to you that "fressen" is Yiddish slang for oral sex... or, often more specifically, cunnilingus. While Brecht himself was not a Jew, Kurt Weill was. Perhaps this is relevant, perhaps not." -- dharbigt

"my bf just did a production of Hansel und Gretel, where he mentioned the Witch's verb being "fressen" while the children's verb was "essen"" -- Sondheim

An alert NinjaPenguin has found a web site where you can buy tee shirts with this saying on it. Thanks NinjaP!

A Bundesland is a part of Germany, as you may compare it to States in the USA, they have some major differences. They only have limited powers over certain topics, for example education. There are nation-wide guidelines but the exact execution is based in the Bundesland.
If it would work this should be a pretty clever concept of federalism: Things which have to be done nation-wide should be done on the national level (criminal law, general guidelines). But as most democratic concepts this does not work perfect. The Bundesländer try to support their own region most. So it comes to differences between the Bundesländer, but also between the national level ( Bundestag) and the nation-wide representation of the Bundesländer, the Bundesrat. The Bundestag sometimes tries to lower its costs on the back of the Bundesländer.

Ok now some infos on the Bundesländer themself:
There are 16 Bundesländer