Germany & German Culture

The Amber Room

Worth in the excess of 100million US$ and often described as "The Eighth Wonder of The World", the Amber Room is a missing treasure which has fascinated art historians and bounty hunters for generations. It is a room decorated entirely with the light precious stone amber, essentially fossilised tree sap. It was first created in Germany in the 1700s, then was given to Russia before returning to Germany in Nazi times. People have searched for it ever since it disappeared at the end of World War II but to no avail. Many believe that it is cursed, and may have been responsible for the grisly deaths of several people involved with it.
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German Beer

Beer is a very important part of life for many Germans. Germans have the third largest annual consumption of beer per head in Europe, beaten only by the Czech Republic and Ireland.
There are a vast variety of German beers, some of which are popular worldwide, and inter-brewery competition within Germany is fierce, so the standard is very high.
Despite hundreds of years of innovation though, German beer's characteristics and flavour have remained relatively unchanged, thanks mainly to the oldest food regulation in the world, Germany's famous Reinheitsgebot.
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Berlin Wall

For almost thirty years the Berlin Wall divided the city of Berlin in two. Overnight its construction separated friends from friends, family from relatives, and one half of a great city from the other. Then one day in 1989, among scenes of great rejoicing and delight, this symbol of oppression was torn down by the very people it was designed to control.
That great day will be remembered by many for generations, but so too will the preceding decades of conflict and strife that the Wall represented. Today, the Berlin Wall is barely visible, although where it once stood has been marked out in downtown Berlin over a distance of 20 kilometres with a red line or a double row of cobblestones. All that remains are a few vestiges about 1.5 km in length kept as memorials.
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Books on Germany

Looking for a good read on Germany? Interested in German culture, language and history or thinking of visiting the country on business or vacation?
In association with Amazon we review some of our favourite books on Germany.
Titles from Lonely Planet, Fodor's, Frommer's, Penguin, Aurum Press, McGraw-Hill, Workman Publishing, Insight Guides, Cambridge University Press, Rough Guides and Eyewitness.
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German Cars

Germany was the birth place of the automobile, In 1876 the four-stroke engine was invented by Nikolaus August Otto, then in 1887 Karl Benz attached a couch to an internal combustion engine, thus creating the first vehicle comparable to the modern car. Germany now produces about 10 million cars per year. The industry employs about 1.26 million people. German companies such as Audi, Daimler, Mercedes, BMW, Volkswagen and Porsche have factories producing millions of cars all over the world. Mercedes was originally named after a client's daughter, Volkswagen means 'people's car', and BMW stands for 'Bayerische Motoren Werke' – 'Bavarian Motor Works'.
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Crime

The case of the cannibal Armin Meiwes shocked Germany and the world. Meiwes was convicted of killing and eating a willing partner, Bernd-Jurgen Brandes, after first dining on his victim's flambéed penis.
Meiwes was convicted only of manslaughter because cannibalism is not strictly speaking a crime in Germany, and because his victim had volunteered to be eaten after replying to an internet advert.
The two met after Meiwes placed the advert searching for a well built man happy to be killed and eaten.
Brandes replied to the advert and wrote his will immediately before he was killed. The couple first romped on a bare bed, and Brandes, high on a combination of alcohol and painkillers, asked Meiwes to bite his penis off.
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Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein made enormous advances in physics and became the first, and perhaps only, 'super star scientist', achieving great fame throughout the world. He campaigned for many political issues, and his pressuring US President Roosevelt to develop the atom bomb may have been crucial to the outcome of the Second World War.
Einstein was born in Germany on March 14th 1879 and died in the US in 1955. After his death his body was cremated but his brain was examined and preserved in a jar. Contrary to many peoples' expectations nothing unusual was found (it was of average weight).
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German Food

Thinking about German food most people imagine sauerkraut, massive sausages, and foaming mugs of beer. It's true a lot of Germans love that, but it's by no means the whole story.
There is now lots of lighter, modern 'German' food, and of course Germany is well stocked with Turkish, Italian, Thai, Greek and Yugoslavian and Indian restaurants. Most popular are the Turkish restaurants with Doner Kebabs (Döner Kebap) and Falafel leading the way.
In Berlin almost every street has a Turkish restaurant, some of which are open 24 hours.
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Johannes Gutenberg

Johannes Gutenberg is widely credited as being the father of printing in Europe.
Certain printing methods were available long before his time, but they were too slow and it was Gutenberg who made them practically applicable. Prior to his work on the printing press, it took scribes approximately twenty years to transcribe a single copy of the Bible.
Most books were then chained to the shelves, available only to a privileged few. His inventions meant that reading finally became available to a wider audience, a precursor to the Renaissance and the modern scientific age.
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Angela Merkel

In 2005 Angela Merkel (nee Kasner) defeated the incumbent Gerhard Schroeder to become German Chancellor, the first leader of the reunited Germany to come from East Germany, and the first female Chancellor in Germany.
Being the daughter of a member of the clergy meant life was never easy for the young Merkel. Her family had shelves full of banned books, watched West German television, and even enjoyed games of Monopoly, the capitalist game of the enemy West.
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German Philosophers

German and German speaking philosophers have made vast contributions to philosophy, and through philosophy, to the course of world history.
Perhaps the most influential were the 'great triumvirate' of Immanuel Kant, Georg Hegel and Karl Marx. Other noteworthy philosophers include Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger and the Nobel prize-winner Hermann Hesse.
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German Language & Useful Phrases

German is the official language of Germany, Liechtenstein and Austria, as well as being spoken in parts of Switzerland, eastern France, northern Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium, and a few places in Eastern Europe.
There are also large German speaking communities in North and South America. In total it is the mother tongue of about 100 million people. It is an Indo-European language particularly closely related to English, Frisian, Yiddish, Dutch, and Afrikaans.
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German Music

Germany undoubtedly has one of the greatest musical traditions of any country in the world.
Although in modern times few German bands have achieved international recognition, many influential classical composers have come from Germany.
They include Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Wagner and Mendelssohn to mention just a few. Germany also has a rich tradition of traditional folk songs and religious carols.
Rammstein and Kraftwerk are two of Germany's more famous modern bands.
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German Politics

Germany, or the Federal Republic of Germany as it is officially titled, is a parliamentary democracy of about 80 million people.
It was created in 1949 at the end of four years of Allied occupation after World War II. In 1990 it was united with East Germany (The German Democratic Republic). The post-unification political system is largely similar to that of pre-unification West Germany.
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Images of Germany

Germany is criss-crossed by rivers and waterways, enjoys a temperate climate, and the elevation of the land rises to well over 9,000 ft (2,700 m). It is natural that such a landscape should be characterized by great beauty and awe inspiring scenes. Furthermore, the long history of civilization there, as well as the country's cultural and technological preeminence, means that its human landscape makes for impressions as profound and beautiful as the natural. With the co-operation of the tourism departments of German cities, as well as that of several professional photographers, Soccerphile.com is proud to bring you a growing kaleidoscope of the many faces of Germany. Whether you are intending to visit Germany for the World Cup in 2006 and want a preview of what awaits you, or whether you are browsing for your viewing pleasure, click and enjoy a variety of sights from the very heart of Europe. Remember: our collection is growing. Please come back for more.
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Golf & Golf Courses in Germany

With more than 500 courses and 300,000 players Germany is certainly a place where you can enjoy good golf. It's crucial that you plan your trip properly in advance as you won't be able to just hire clubs and walk onto a course, but don't let that put you off, there are many great courses worth every Euro of the green fee. The number of German golf courses has rocketed in the last fifteen years, in part due to the popularity brought to the sport by the greatest German golfer of all time, Bernhard 'The Ice Man' Langer.
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History of German Football

Possibly there is no football so misunderstood as that of Germany. Non-Germans may think of them as professional, nearly invincible, and always playing the same style of football.
The facts do not bear out these perceptions though. Here are just a few examples:
Professionalism came late to German football and the national team regularly lost to professional teams such as England and Austria, sometimes by a large margin.
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Germany & The History of Brazilian Football

German hearts were broken by Brazil in the 2002 World Cup final. But historians of the game in Berlin, Cologne and Hamburg must have felt a certain amount of pride in the result. After all, it was the Germans who were partly responsible for the organisation of the Brazilian game and helped found the longest running football club in existence in the country. It would fall to Germans in the southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul to found Brazil's longest-running football club: Sport Club Rio Grande.
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German Wine

German wines are mainly white: the ratio of white to red wine produced in Germany is about 4 to 1.
Germany has a quarter of a million acres of vineyards. Prices of quality German wine in Germany are about 40% of the prices one would pay for the same wine in the USA and the UK.
White German wines can accompany a meal or be used for sipping.
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Gay and Lesbian Germany

A generally laid-back attitude towards sex in Germany makes the country a naturally attractive place for gays and lesbians to feel at home in. Germany, where people can sunbathe nude in the middle of the capital city; Germany, where it's de rigueur for men of whatever sexuality to parade as fat pouting dames on carnival night. Germany, where prostitution is legal and the age of consent is 14. A place that can be this relaxed and funloving is unlikely to get overly puritan about how gay men and women get their pleasures.
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Michael Schumacher

With a record seven World Driver's Championship victories, the most Grand Prix victories, and the most championship points ever, Michael Schumacher (alias 'The Red Baron', 'Red Devil' 'Schuey' or 'Schumi') is undoubtedly the most successful driver in Formula 1 history.
His father, Rolf Schumacher, owned the local go-karting track and Michael was racing karts by the age of four. He won the world Formula 3 series in 1990 and had success in the World Endurance Championship before getting his Formula 1 debut.
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Sex & Prostitution in Germany

It is estimated that 1.2 million German men use prostitutes each year, and the industry has an annual turnover of US$1.6 billion.
Prostitution was legalised in Germany in 2002. The idea was to remove the industry from criminal hands and thus reduce the illegal trafficking of women, make working conditions safer and reduce stigma.
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German Stereotypes

We all know what Germans are like, don't we? The men are fat, and love beer, leather trousers, sauerkraut or bratwurst and beer, and have dodgy facial hair. The women are icy Teutonic beauties with blonde hair and blue eyes. Both sexes loathe inefficiency, love the Fatherland, have never been late for anything in their lives, and would secretly quite like to invade Europe, even if they have to do it via the EU. They speak perfect English, and eat about five meals a day. They don't know the meaning of the word Witz (joke in German). Well, that's the stereotype, let's check out how true it is.
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