tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88086393809800920752024-02-12T15:47:16.014+01:00Always greener
Notes from an American on the other side.Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.comBlogger402125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-35130549717952325732016-02-05T15:13:00.001+01:002016-02-05T15:25:19.212+01:00Freiburg memories: my first car and German customer service (not)Okay, this one is not going to mean much to very many people, but I found two slides of my first car. In 1995, I bought a 1979 VW Golf diesel. Here it is, probably parked somewhere in St Georgen (I had a friend who lived in Hartkirch, but I can't even remember her name) – and probably a bit too close to the intersection.
The car cost me 1,000 DM. But the insurance was a shocker – Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-57757592477444193762016-02-03T09:27:00.005+01:002016-02-03T18:38:09.532+01:00Freiburg memories: MartinsbräuThis passage to the Fressgässle and Martinsbräu is where I used to go have lunch quite often when I worked at the University. Not much has changed in this image (but if you notice anything, drop me a comment). The Fressgässle, in contrast, was completely renovated years ago and changed quite a bit. It is a good example of something I wish I would have taken a picture of – I took pictures of Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-72029029538392144602016-01-26T12:46:00.005+01:002016-01-28T12:49:07.848+01:00Freiburg memories: Theaterläden and WeingartenWhen I arrived in Freiburg, Cinemaxx was still a parking lot. The modern buildings there today replaced more modest structures seen in this picture. You can also see them at the right of the theater (the big building on the left) in the picture below, taken from the cathedral spire around 1994.
The buildings were not much to look at and were probably intended to be provisional anyway, a bit Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-77781476130047033082016-01-25T12:47:00.000+01:002016-01-25T12:51:10.033+01:00Freiburg memories: the clownI remember two "public figures" from my first few years in Freiburg. One of them is the famous beggar from the fountain at Martinstor, a descendent of a Swiss nobleman; the other, a clown who used to perform on Saturdays in the center of town. His entire show consisted of two things: walking behind other people and caricaturing their gait; and acting as though he was pulling streetcars and buses.Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-37317681190403149032016-01-24T12:07:00.001+01:002016-01-25T11:41:43.830+01:00Freiburg memories: Basler TorBasler Tor is a weird place. It is basically a collection of prefab concrete high-rises. Little information is available about its history online, but there is no indication that any historic gate or anything was ever here. Visitors to the city might believe that Basler Tor sounds like one of the remaining historic city gates (the two that survive are Schwabentor and Martinstor), but in fact Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-88294074428864743142016-01-23T10:57:00.004+01:002016-01-24T11:03:02.972+01:00Freiburg memories: Schlossberg, Gerberau, and FischerauIn my first semester as an exchange student in Freiburg, I continued taking Dutch classes. My Dutch teacher was a guy my age, and he told me I should meet his wife, who was also from the States. I went over to their place in Gerberau, a street in the pedestrian zone of downtown Freiburg, and we took a trip through the black forest in their Volkswagen golf. They had to park their car more than Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-66861385463275143522016-01-22T11:18:00.001+01:002016-01-22T11:25:58.708+01:00Freiburg memories: AugustinerplatzWhen I arrived in Freiburg in 1992, Augustinerplatz had not yet become the major meeting place that it now is in the warm season. Today, it is packed with young people when the weather is good (see this photo). The owner of Capri, a café/bar at the edge of the square, recently told me that, as far as he can remember, the square became a huge place to hang out at the end of the 1990s. A Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-38091855960099342732016-01-21T13:00:00.003+01:002016-01-21T13:07:06.873+01:00Freiburg memories: Schlappen and Bermuda TriangleThe first bar I visited in Freiburg was Schlappen – in mid September 1992. The sign is visible just behind the street light on the left. The word is generally understood to mean "slipper," but it could also mean someone who is exhausted – there is no slipper or other footwear on the sign.
As you see from the picture, this street divides up as a Y-junction. When I arrived in Freiburg, I do not Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-68522975670552682812016-01-20T18:32:00.001+01:002016-01-20T20:53:08.045+01:00Freiburg memories: Studentensiedlung (my dorm)I came to Freiburg in 1992 as a student for one year. This was the view of the dorms from the stairwell on the 11th floor in my building.
Not much to look at, but the flat I shared with a Canadian was pretty cool.
This is what my building looked like, and I was on the penultimate floor to the top.
The building down at the bottom is the administration for all of the dorms. One morning, I Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-43904674839479458692016-01-11T21:44:00.004+01:002016-01-20T20:47:52.574+01:00Freiburg memories: train stationVaguely, I remember the old train station in Freiburg. According to the German Wikipedia, Freiburg's train station was the first one completed after World War II – not surprisingly, given the city's proximity to France and its position within the then-French occupational zone. But the building was not much to look at. Originally conceived only as a provisional structure, it served Freiburg Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-7959545272393773582016-01-10T15:06:00.001+01:002016-01-20T18:06:00.482+01:00Freiburg memories: KonzerthausAs mentioned in yesterday's post, the Blue Bridge now leads to the Concert Hall. When the building was opened in the mid-1990s, I sang on stage. A number of the musicians I worked with had trouble participating because they had opposed the project, like quite a few Freiburg citizens who continue to oppose the modernization of the city. With some of these musicians, I also gave concerts at some Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-23124317008269952512016-01-08T16:57:00.004+01:002016-01-08T18:35:51.531+01:00Freiburg memories: the Blue BridgeI will remember the Blue Bridge. When I moved to Freiburg, the connection for cars had just been torn down (see this photo from 1992) to make it solely a pedestrian's bridge (including cyclists, of course). It leads straight from the Sacred Heart church in Stühlinger (visible in the second photo) to the new Konzerthaus (visible in the background of the top photo), which was only just barely a Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-66752217253261198062016-01-07T20:51:00.001+01:002016-01-07T20:52:10.847+01:00Freiburg memoriesThis year will be my last full year in Freiburg, Germany. In the late summer of 2017, I'm moving to Berlin. By that point, I will have spent 25 years in Freiburg and the area.
I therefore like to revive this basically defunct private blog to share some photos and memories. What better picture to start with than the one I have had outside my window for the past seven years. I always wanted to Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-46725459245493858262015-07-05T12:26:00.002+02:002015-07-05T12:37:04.416+02:00One good thing about a possible "oxi"
My dear friend Tobi posted a rant today
on the Greek crisis, replete with charges of “the facts… getting completely
distorted by politicians, demagogy, journalists & propaganda often viewed
ideologically.”
He recommends that we watch a 40-minute video to get the
real story. The link takes you to a speech given by Junker. I kid you not – to
get the “real story,” we are to listen to a singleCraighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-40933027567022263322014-06-01T20:25:00.000+02:002014-06-01T20:25:03.234+02:00German "oder" = "and"
Last year, I wrote about how the Germans (mis?)use their word for "or" to mean "and." Not everyone was convinced; see the comments below these articles.
Today, I present clear evidence – a sentence from German television (the nightly news, in fact) that must've been rehearsed, had definitely been edited, was probably read off a prompter, and drew no German's attention:
"Wenn Sie oder ich das Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-24461025094207818492014-04-01T17:44:00.002+02:002014-04-01T17:44:37.062+02:00Because I'm unhappyRecently, political website pointed out that Pharrell Williams' "Because I'm happy" has become an extremely popular, but unlikely protest song worldwide. Last month, I also saw him on German television explaining that the idea for the song came to him when he realized how he didn't like songs that tell people they have to be happy. You know, like "Don't worry, be happy":
Your landlord says the Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-21027904171919828472013-04-20T10:43:00.000+02:002013-04-20T17:40:46.638+02:00Willfully ignorant about raceOver at the Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates recently wrote about how Americans are not in a position to speak about race because we simply do not know our own history: Americans, he wrote, "do not know, not because they are ignorant, stupid, or immoral, they do not know because they are part of country that has decided that 'not knowing' is in its interest. There's no room for any sort of serious Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-78928320021370170262013-03-20T12:55:00.004+01:002013-03-20T12:57:13.478+01:00YouTube in BlurmanySometimes, it is hard to overlook how exceptional Germany is, even in negative instances. A few years ago, when Google began rolling out its Street View for more locations in Germany, there was unusual resistance among the general public, with quite a number of people participating in a campaign to have their own homes blurred – leading to the new word "Blurmany."
The most ludicrous thing about Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-56658085018144766152013-03-17T11:55:00.000+01:002013-03-17T11:55:35.505+01:00Life after Google ReaderThe announcement that Google is shutting down its RSS Reader came as a shock to me this week, though apparently insiders saw this coming a few years ago. Rather than mope about what a lot of other people are saying – Google is evil – I am trying to take the situation as an opportunity.
In 2008, a colleague recommended that I switch to Gmail, which I had already had for a few years but was not Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-26121674432516575932013-03-07T13:43:00.000+01:002013-03-07T17:40:38.535+01:00US Nazi researchers "better at PR"You may have read that a group of US historians found that far more Nazi concentration camps, labor camps, and ghettos existed than was previously known – some 40,000, in fact.
Over at Die Zeit, a German historian has reacted to the publication with charges of plagiarism. German historian Wolfgang Benz says he was surprised to hear the US historian claim that German researchers were not given Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-1463922403167277002013-02-14T16:32:00.005+01:002015-12-21T14:16:37.579+01:00American notions of good writingOver at the New York Review of Books, Tim Parks, a writer/translator from the UK recently published a summary of his trials and tribulations with American publishing houses “correcting” his English and imposing all kinds of inexplicable style changes.
My experience has been the same. When I wrote my book "Zukunftsenergien" in German, my editor found all kinds of things that needed improving on Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-44703762464284506832013-02-12T11:01:00.000+01:002013-02-12T11:01:20.486+01:00Oder = and (continued again)Still trying to get my head around German "oder":
Ein
Beispiel hierfür wäre z.B. Ersatz von gesundheitsschädlichen ineffizienten
Kochstellen durch sichere Kochherde oder der Bau einfacher Biogasanlagen, die
mit Hausabfällen betrieben werden (siehe z.B.
www.niecrest.in).
Essentially, the German says (and I shorten): "one example is the use of inefficient cookers or the installation Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-28406953536827626802013-02-11T14:50:00.004+01:002013-02-11T14:50:30.378+01:00Oder = and (continued)Another great example of how the German "oder" actually means "and, not "or."
Wie geht es
einem Bürger, der verpflichtet wird, einen bestimmten Standard einzuhalten,
also zum Beispiel sein Auto umzurüsten, um eine „teure“ grüne Umweltplakette zu
erhalten, damit er auch in der Innenstadt von München, Stuttgart, Berlin oder Heidelberg fahren darf.
What do people think when
they are Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-3422872589533380572013-01-30T22:34:00.000+01:002013-01-30T22:40:01.757+01:00Does Nazi Germany show that citizens need guns?
Eighty years ago today, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany.
One of the arguments used by gun lobbyists in the US is that Hitler took away people's guns in Germany, and we see where that went. Until Newtown, I had not heard the argument, and I certainly haven't come across it in my 20+ years in Germany – so I wondered why it was new to me.
A closer look – and all of this is available inCraighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-50837657506451509572013-01-21T10:15:00.001+01:002013-01-21T10:15:56.694+01:00And = or?One absolutely bizarre thing about German is the tendency to use the word "or" (oder) in a list where we would always use "and" in English:
In Südafrika, Nordafrika oder Südamerika wird sich die Photovoltaik
ebenfalls verbreiten.
In South Africa, North Africa, and South America, photovoltaics will also
become widespread.
The problem for me here is that "or" is not motivated; no Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13753056386255047108noreply@blogger.com0