- Expensive – Building Cologne Cathedral today again would cost more than 10 billion Euro
- Heavily romantic – many couples put padlocks on the Hohenzollernbrücke as a sign of their eternal love. All padlocks together weigh about 15 tons.
- The Airport Köln/Bonn is the one of only few emergency landing spot for NASA space shuttles.
- long-lasting – Building Cologne Cathedral took 623 years. Today it is the third largest cathedral in the world.
- cheers – Kölsch is the city’s traditional beer: sweeter than usual beer and served in very small glasses, it contains the same percentage of alcohol as other beers.
- special feelings – No other city in Germany loves and celebrates itself as much as Cologne does:
- several songs about the city and their love to the city
- Kölsch beer
- the relationship of FC Köln and its fans is unique and very tight (Prinz Poldi)
- The Catholic Church has bestowed upon Cologne the title of “holy city”. Only Rome and Constantinople (today Istanbul) possess this title as well.
- Underneath the University of Cologne a 215 m long old mine tunnel including an mining lift exists.
- Cologne was the first German city to introduce a waste collection system using closed containers.
- bad luck – Cologne is the largest and most popular city of North Rhine-Westphalia (the state it is situated in) however it is not the capital. This may be one of several reasons for the ongoing and constant competition between Düsseldorf and Cologne, the two cities who hate each other.
Category Archives: Leisure time
Happy Birthday EU! – 60 years after the Treaties of Rome
60 years ago the foundation for today’s EU was laid when Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Germany signed the Treaties of Rome.
60 years of development, successes, crises and backdrops, but most important of all: 60 years of peace in Europe and 60 years of growing together to one Union.
The EU’s development until today was never easy or without backdrops and problems: France didn’t want Great Britain to join, the Empty Chair Crisis and the non-completion of a European Constitution. However, the EU always found an answer, a solution to the problem and developed further, came back stronger.
The Common European Market was established, inner-EU border-controls abolished and the Euro invented.
And today? Where is Europe heading?
Of course there are problems and crises the EU has to face, maybe more challenging than ever before, or just different?
Migration from Northern Africa, terrorism, and still some outliers of the financial crisis are challenging, however the EU is strong enough to combat these challenges, if it stays together, if we stay together.
Anti-EU movements within some Nation-States, such as political organizations or Brexit as the ultimate are developments within the nations and among the people of Europe. Nevertheless, the reaction to Brexit as well as the recent outcomes of the election in the Netherlands show that the people still believe in the EU, and we should do so! The EU offers a lot: we can travel through the EU as we like, without a passport, for most of the countries we do not even have to change money. Without the EU every of our countries would be alone, would be a minor player (if so at all) at the world scene, between America, China and Russia.
Therefore, we should March For Europe, we should celebrate and we should thank what it brought already and what it offers us.
By Ann-Kristin Gross
Top Ten Fun Facts – Stuttgart
- having vineyards since 3 AD, Stuttgart is the only city in Germany with a municipal wine estate, which covers 15.5 hectares
- City of science – Stuttgart has the highest density of scientific, academic and research organizations in Germany
- Cradle of the automobile – housing two of the world’s most popular car firms Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, Stuttgart offers to automobile museums (of course Mercedes and Porsche) and the Käfer (second most sold car of the world) was developed here!
- featuring many vineyards, parks and forests Stuttgart belongs to the greenest cities of Europe. Especially ‘The Green U’ a 8 km long ring made up of parks, offers many recreational areas
- The Teddybear as we all know it today was invented and born in Stuttgart by Richard Steiff
- Stuttgart’s Ballett ranks among the world’s best dance institutions and is highly renowned
- The first TV tower of the world was build in Stuttgart and you can still visit it!
- City of the Maultäschle – Maultäschle, a typical Swabian dish (and Stuttgart is the capital of the Swabian region) was invented for being allowed eating meat on Good Friday. Normally, you do not eat meat on Good Friday, however the Swabians invented Maultaschen as ‘God is not able to see the meat inside the dough’. So they could eat meat and god did not notice
- one Europe’s largest christmas markets takes place in Stuttgart every year between the last Thursday of November and 23rd December. Dating back to approximately 1692 and comprising about 280 decorated stalls it attracts around 3 million visitors every year!
- Keeping up with Munich: Stuttgart has it’s own Oktoberfest – they call it Wasen instead of Wiesn and celebrate it two times a year! A bit smaller than Munich’s Oktoberfest, however it attracts nearly as much visitors as its big brother and is at least as amusing as the Wiesn
Top 10 Fun Facts – Berlin
- Berlin is unique, a city of superlatives and there are far more than 10 facts you should definitely know
- Sunny weather and culturally intense: Berlin has more museums than rainy days per year. Berlin offers more than 180 museums covering everything from arts over history and technical stuff to Currywurst and toys, while it rains only on about 106 days a year.
- Ever-moving city: Every hour 18 people move from one district to of the city to another one.
- Highly international: About 500,000 foreigners live in Berlin, coming from about 185 different nations. But Berlin is not only interesting to foreign nationalities: Many people from all over Germany live in Berlin and so it may not surprise that only 1/4 of all people living in Berlin, are born and raised in Berlin.
- Growing city: Every day 435 people move into Berlin while only 327 leave the city.
- Green, greener, Berlin: More than 44% of the city’s area is made up by parks, woods, river and other recreational areas. This makes Berlin the greenest city of Germany and high-ranking worldwide.
- City of superlatives:
- KaDeWe is the largest department store of Continental Europe
- longest beer-garden in the world (2.2 km long)
- East Side Gallery is largest open-air gallery of the world
- more than 9 times bigger than Paris
- more bridges than Venice
- Berlin is the only city in the world having 3 opera houses, comprising more than 4000 seats
- Ever wanted to get gold directly from an ATM? – At the Gallerie Lafayette in Friedrichstraße this is possible! You can buy gold in 250g portions from the ‘Gold ATM’
- Relaxed mentality: Berliners are least worried about the future than everyone else in Germany.
Top 10 Fun Facts – Frankfurt am Main
- International – It is estimated that people of approximately 180 different nationalities live in Frankfurt. This means that almost 1 in every 3 people living here do not hold a German passport.
- happy people – Frankfurt is one of the highest ranking cities of Germany and Europe regarding quality of life and life satisfaction.
- The world’s largest trade show for books is held in Frankfurt
- Frankfurter – the famous sausages originate from here.
- Mainhattan – Frankfurt’s nickname because of its significant skyline of skyscrapers, almost similar to Manhattan’s skyline, and the river Main dividing the city into two parts.
- Frankfurt and its surrounding area provide for a lot of nature. Additionally, Frankfurt has the largest inner-city forest in Germany.
- Culturally important – not only did Johannes Gutenberg the inventor of bookprinting live and work here, Johann Wolfgang Goethe was born and raised in Frankfurt as well.
- Frankfurt’s Henninger Tower is the highest beer reservoir in the world.
- Large, larger, Fraport – The airport of Frankfurt is not only the most frequented airport of Germany, having the highest travellar and visitor numbers, but it is also one of the largest airport in the world.
- After Wolrd War II Frankfurt contended for becoming the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany. However, obviously Frankfurt lost against Bonn.
Top 10 Fun facts – Hamburg
- John Lennon said: “I was born in Liverpool but raised in Hamburg
- When Hamburgers refer to the DOM they do not mean a church or cathedrale but a huge fair, taking place three times a year in Hamburg
- Hamburg has approximately 2500 bridges and hence not only more than Venice, Amsterdam and London combined, but it has more bridges than any other city of the world
- There are more millionaires living in Hamburg than in any other German city
- Hamburg is 7 times bigger than Paris and 14% of Hamburg is green space
- In Wedel is the ‘Willkomm-Höft’ situated. The only ship greeting dock of the world. It welcomes every ship entering the harbour of Hamburg with the national anthem and flag of the originating country
- The VIP-seats of the FC St.Pauli Stadium offer each an own Astra Pils tap as well as a small ice-rink where fresh Currywurst is served
- The Miniature Wonderland Hamburg is the largest railway museum as well as the largest model railway in the world. It inherits more the 12km of railway lines
- Only men as well as those women working there are allowed to enter the ‘Herbertstraße’ in Hamburg
- “Hummel, Hummel” “Mors, Mors” is a very common salutation in Hamburg. However, it is mere used as a distinctive mark and a battle cry among Hamburgers
Top 10 Fun facts – Munich
- Beer is considered food and not an alcoholic beverage in Bavaria
- The Biergartenverordnung allows you to bring and eat your own food in a Bavarian beergarden
- Oktoberfest is held in September mainly and ends the first weekend in October
- The Bavarian dialect is difficult, even for other Germans: Brötchen (Buns) are called Semmeln and the city’s name ‘München’ becomes ‘Minga’
- Munich’s specialty the ‘Weisswürste’ (white sausages) is served with sweet mustard and freshly baked pretzels and ONLY until 12:00 noon
- not counting the cities in Alaska, Munich is located more north than any larger city in the US
- The city’s name ‘München’ was derived from the old High German ‘Munichen’ and means ‘by the monks the place’
- According to legend the architect of the well-known Frauenkirche (Cathedral of Our Lady) tricked the devil into thinking the church having no windows. However, when the devil realised he had been duped he stamped his foot near the entrance. You can view the footprint called the devil’s step even today.
- Munich’s English Garden is heavily influenced by Asian architecture, comprising Chinese pagodas, a Japanese teahouse as well as temples
- the oldest building in Munich known today is neither a church nor a Bavarian pub or tavern – it’s a toilet of the year 1260
Another kind of integration: participating in Carnival
Its coming closer again – every year between early-February and mid-March there is no other topic as highly discussed and dividing as Karneval or Fasching or Fasnet.
First, it divides German society in those going jeck (mad, crazy) during Karneval and those fleeing from the country to either go skiing or enjoying sun in a far-away Karneval-escape. Next, this season divides those who love Karneval into different groups, calling it Karneval, Fasching or Fasnet, depending on where they live.
While North-Rhine-Westphalia is a carnivals stronghold where it draws serious consequences to call this week of drinking alcohol and running around in crazy outfits Fasching. In the south however, it is opposite: do not say Karneval in Bavaria or Baden-Württemberg! It is at least Fasching, however a true Swabian would never say Fasching but Fasnet!
And of course every carnival stronghold is the best, in their eyes. The title of being THE carnival stronghold is highly contested, especially Cologne, Düsseldorf and Mainz are competing against each other and make fun of the others’ attempts of celebrating.
A quick tip:
When you participate in Cologne’s Karneval: Never say HELAU, shout ALAAF whenever possible 😉
When participating in Düsseldorf’s or Mainz’s celebrations use HELAU and do not try out what happens if you shout ALAAF.
ICH-Will-Deutsch-Lernen
“ich-will-deutsch-lernen” new onlineplatform for refugees and migrants
The German „Deutsche Volkshochschul – Verband” provides a tool to support migrants and refugees in learning German. Name of the webportal is “ich-will-deutsch-lernen”. The available platform implied a German language course which helps to learn and improve German language skills, starting from level A1 to level B1. The Volkshochschul – Verband want to support the integration of refugees and migrants in culture and social living.
The content of the digital courses is according to the rules of integration courses in Germany.
Furthermore the portal offers an extensive range of material for alphabetisation. And last but not least the portal provides also one tool to improve German professional jargon. The user can choose out of 30 cross-sectoral scenarios and 11 professional communication activities.
Everybody may use the tool: do-it-yourself-learner, teachers and professional learning classes.
Teacher of integration courses and German courses have to register and build up their own class online. Then they are able to supervise their participants. Learners who start on their own will be supervised by tutors of DVV.
ich-will-deutsch-lernen.de
update: there are new features available
Beginning of the festive season – Christmas markets
Autumn shows its wintry side those days in Germany: its cold and dark, snow is falling… So some festive atmosphere is coming up already – how great that most cities in Germany open their Christmas markets soon:
21st November – save the date: beginning of the festive season, time for savoring some Christmas treats.
A beautiful and popular tradition, making those cold, rainy days less dreary and shortening the time until Christmas. Visiting a Christmas Market with family, friends or colleagues. Chatting while having hot drinks or enjoying some Christmas biscuits, or better the good old Currywurst – Or a Bratwurst? Children can enjoy a ride on a merry-go-round, everything glooms and glows and its smelling Christmassy.
The most beautiful and most popular Christmas Markets of the German metropolises of Berlin, Munich and Stuttgart welcome their visitors with manifold Christmas treats, music and handicraft. Some Christmas Markets are open on certain weekends only, others are open throughout the entire pre-Christmas season.
The Christmas markets are various: some focus on carrousels and merry-go-rounds, some on handcrafted or design presents for Christmas and other on Christmassy treats and culinary delights.
What they all have in common: visiting a Christmas market is a welcomed alternative during the dark time of the year.