Final Overview

Final Report

When signing up for German culture class, I went into it thinking I would learn a few different things about the people, some cultural aspects like holidays and foods. I went into the class thinking it would be what you get out of a “second language” class, with out learning the language. It turned out to be that it was much more than just what I had been expecting. We not only covered the history of the country and its culture, the holidays, foods and such, but also learned about things that are happening today. We learned much about the issues Germany faced, which is not always what you get to learn about when taking a culture class.

            The class began with learning about each of the 16 states within Germany. Each of these 16 states having its own unique identity. Of these states, the ones that stuck out were Bavaria and of course Berlin. Bavaria stands out for the “fairy tale king”, he was the king that built the famous Neuschwanstein castle. The castle is beautiful and looks just like the people call it, a fairy tale castle.  Bavaria also stands out for Munich’s famous Oktoberfest. Berlin of course stands out because it is the capital of Germany. It has a name for itself all over the world. For it was the city/state that was divided for a very long time. The Berlin wall is known all over, and was recently torn down. I learned that those on East Berlin side where not allowed out. The wall was built with the intent to keep the East Berliners in and from fleeing to West Berlin. For the living conditions in East Berlin had become terrible, while that of the West had skyrocketed and the population grew. The wall that so long had separated the two sides was finally torn down around twenty years ago. The east and west unified into one state Oct. 3 1990.

            In class we also were assigned a book. It was titled “All Quiet on the Western Front”. This book showed the life of a young WWI soldier and his experiences through the war. The book not only showed me the life of a soldier, it made me get “inside” the character, almost like you were the character. Each chapter had its own explanation on what it was trying to get across to the reader, it enveloped one with the pure hatrited that was going on at the time. The hatried of those in power, not those actually on the battle ground. For a piece of the book that I remember it said something along the lines of “its not the other man that we are fighting, its something higher, the emporor, or whom ever of power, is the one that wants this war. The other men are just like us, fighting for that man of power.”(All Quiet on the Western Front). It showed me that not all Germans at that time were bad, it was more so the leaders, which just as in any case most of the time, it is the leaders that want the war, not the everyday people.

            History, literature, arts, and industry all of these topics were covered during our time in this class. This part of the class really made me realize how many things actually do come or started in Germany. Bayer, which is a household name now days began its start in Germany. German born, Friedrich Bayer, who invented it in 1897, created Bayer. Also we learned that a lot of the inner working of cars were designed in Germany.

            The class also had a few movies that pertainted to what we were discussing at the time. When we were on the topic of youth, we viewed the movie, “The Baader-Meinhof Complex”. This movie was very insightful to see what the youth of the time period of the Vietnam War was like. The movie focused on the RAF, which was an extremist group focused on changing the current government system. The movie “Berlin Calling” was also one that portrayed youth in Germany. This movie focused on a young dj and his life. It showed how easily excusable drugs and alcohol were to the youth of this culture.  

            This class was informative and enjoyable. It was a great way to learn about another culture, and learn the history as well as the current day issues. The class turned out to be much more than I had previously expected and I enjoyed learning about a culture that seems so far away. 

German Food

Himmel und Erde or in English heaven and earth
This is a traditional German dish that is more popular in the areas of Lower Saxony, Silesia, Rhineland, and Westphalia. This dish has been around since the 18th centruy, and the name came from the name of  two main ingredients, apples of heaven and apples of earth.

This dish is consisted of black pudding, fried onions and mashed potatos with apple sauce. Usually served with sausage.

http://www.research-in-germany.de/discover-germany/26412/german-food-and-drink.html

movie questions

The Baader-Meinhoff group began its first protest in peaceful ways of protesting the diplomat. Once acts of violence was used upon them, and with no help or safety from the police, the group became more "violent" and angry. They then resulted to acting with violence themselves. They started small by bombing property, but tried to be sure that no people were hurt. They planned these placings of the bombs quite carefully. They soon became more careless and started putting bombs in places where people were.
In the beginning of the movie the group was easier to sympathize with, they were a group banning together for a cause that was not only within their lifes" but alson world wide. They were willing to use force-but not so far as to kill people especially innocent people  Toward the end of the movie the generation that was taking over the "cause" used force not to go for a cause, for they really knew not of what they were fighting for. They fought and used weapons to only allow these first put in jain to come out, they used more force than necessary and ended up killing many people. This group was hard to sympathize with for they knew not of what they were fighting for, and yet they kept going and creating more devastation and violence then they should.
In my view the rudeness displayed by Andreas Baader played a key role in the goups dynamics. His "rudeness" kept everyone on one page. It made sure that everyone was going to understand why they were there and that they had a cause to keep fighting for. He kept people in the "line" and made sure they did not "chicken out", everyone was kept in the group and therefore the same mindset.
Using force or violent acts to persuade people that your cause is right, is not always the answer. Though if another acted violent upon you, who was going about peacefully, then violence is something that you would almost need to fall back upon. I know that you can't fight fire with fire, but in the case of violent acts, sometimes fighting back with strong intentions, but not to kill is what is necessary.

Der Baader-Meinkof Kmoplex & Rote Armee Fraktion

Der Baader-Meinhof Kmoplex

The film Badder-Meinhof could have many different reviews by different viewers. Some would say this film was inspirational, others could say it was radical and not necessary to create into a movie. I personally found the film interesting, and thought it was a radical decision to put this real life experience,(with a movie twist) into a film. To see these “younger generation” rebelling against everything they grew up with and to take a stand and not let their voices be silenced, is almost inspiring. Of course in my own opinion they routes they took were some what radical, such as making bombs and placing them in different locations, example, the judges car. The fact that some of those women were willing to give up there children to make this “movement” heard. To be able to leave behind everything they knew to make sure they were able to make their “voices” heard. The things they choose to do got somewhat out of hand. The up-rise became almost unstoppable. The chairman knew that they needed to be stopped, and he at least found was to complete this task. The events that happened in this movie I feel are some what radical, I believe that the other generations should hear out the younger generation, but with violence, I think nothing would ever be solved.

Rote Armee Fraktion

The Rote Armee Fraktion, or otherwise known as the Red Army Faction, was developed by students that were fighting against perceived Nazism that they thought was in the German government and within the economy. Founded by Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Horst Mahler and Ulrike Meinhof in 1970.. The RAF fought against the war in Vietnam and social classes as well as Nazism.

The first generation supported themselves through bank robberies and engaged in terrorist bombings and arson, especially in West Germany corporations. They also kidnapped and assassinated prominent political and business people. This group began to go beyond West Germany and occasionally allied itself with the militant Palestinian groups.

The second generation came with the former members of the Socialist Patients’ collective. The third generation were attributed the actions that were between 1980s and 1990. The end of RAF, was announced by an eight-page letter that was faxed to the Reuters News agency declaring that the group was no more, that it had dissolved.

The similarities with this group and its actions to today’s terrorist attacks, would right away be the bombing. Similar to the actions of the RAF, today’s terrorist still result to bombing. Another similarity would be that each of these groups wants to “be heard”. They have some sort of plan or idea that they think would be better for people than what is happening.  One major difference though would be  that today, we do not know who these terrorist are, we can pin point countries at some points, but we do not know the face of the terrorist. Unlike the RAF, which there were able to identify the people behind the acts, today terrorist are everywhere, even here in our own country. 

reaction paper to berlin calling

The movie "Berlin Calling" is that of the youth, and how it impacts society, and how youth individuals act. In the movie the main character Ickarus is a constant drug user, he seems to daily be consuming some sort of drug. Ecstasy to MDA to almost any drug one could think of is at one point found in Ickarus's blood stream. To him these pills make his life better, they I believe help him cope with his life. For we learn later on how as an 18 year old his mother died and his father could hardly raise him and his brother. So he went into the dj business. As a dj this is how Ickarus has access to all these drugs, through the "night life" seen. They are an excitement in his life for him and make his club dj-ing experience more fun. The movie shows how his usual does of cocaine and what have you starts to eat away at his life and Ickarus begins to make poor decisions in his life. The negative effects of the drugs seem to be no matter, for he continues to use. 
Many of the youth in this movie seem to be using and taking many sorts of drugs. They too find these avalible at any "night life" event. They are shown dealing in the bathrooms of the clubs. It seems that this is infact the popular thing to do at this point in time. These young people feel it give more excitement to their lives and makes things in live feel so much more better. This is not a foreign concept for even here today in America, people are using drugs to feel the excitement  or to fit into the crowd of people doing this "fad". Even in small towns kids are smoking "weed" to feel "cool". The feeling of power over their own bodies and being able to get that high from a drug regardless of the affects, seems to draw youth into the fad of using. 
This life would be shocking for me, I am from a smaller community, yet not a "sheltered" one. Kids in my high school did all sorts of drugs, but this form of mass dealing I suppose you could explain it as is just obscured. The fact that the drugs are so easily excess-able and that even in public places these people are taking the drugs right there. Drug usuing is nothing new in these times, for even now Colorado has legalized "weed". 

Questions:
Drugs to Ickarus seem to be a way to add more excitement to his life, and yet almost a way to cope with his life

The fans are taking drugs in the bathrooms of the clubs, they are sold the drugs right there, and also take "line" off of the back of the toliets, they take any from cocaine to ecstasy

Ickarus focus on drugs because that seems to be what his life revolves around after a while it seems that he enjoys the excitement it brings and helps him with his dj ing

people in my home place seem to not be anything like that of the movie. I know people in high school who took drugs, but nothing of this sort. The fact that you could buy them right in a bathroom of a club is nothing that I could imagine.

the youth culture seemed to want nothing of the old ways in Germany, from this movie. They defiantly had the power to change the way that Germany is viewed in the industrial aspect, if none of the youth fall in line and pick up after those generations that were before them

Walk the line is about Johnny Cash, it shows his influence on people, which is similar to Ickarus's influence in this movie.

Expanding on topics covered in class

My reaction to the topic of health in Germany was not so different to that of other countries. In earlier Germany, some of the topics covered within health caused a different reaction. Health all over at the earlier time periods were some what barbaric, hearing them expanded on made it even more clear just how much so. The difference of how they their health care system set up in Germany is very interesting as well.
In the earlier times of Germany many discoveries were made. One important one that was covered was that of the discovery of blood circulation. This was founded by William Harvey, who the presenters said stuck himself with needles to study the circulation. He was presumed the first to study biology as well.
Also in the earlier times of Germany, universal health care was introduced. Which is something that here in America people are arguing over in our time. The fact of universal health care is one of the major topics that is happing in debates in the States. People are calling it socialism, which to some in America it is a way of socialism, though not all agree. So to see this topic happen so long ago in another country and have it practically still in place is a wonder.
The 20th century though is where some of the most intriguing yet horrible discoveries. The 20th century like all should know was home to the error of the Nazi. Who during their "rein" "tested"(killed) drugs on Jews. They also created med/chemical that was dangerous to kill the Jews.  The fact that they used human beings to test drugs that they created was barbaric, as well as creating drugs/chemicals just for the purpose of killing the Jews was horrific. The Nazi also created a drug that they were planning on using for creating the "perfect solider", a drug that was cocaine based and made them into mindless soldiers. They also tested this drug, D-IX on the Jews as well.
During this same time period though, one of the most famous drugs was created, Bayer. Bayer is an aspirin we still see on the shelves of pharmacies, drugstore, grocery store, and more today. Bayer was developed in Barmen Germany in 1863.
They olympics at this time were highly dominated by East Germans who were taking steroids  Almost all who won at this time period, where "doping". Eleven out of thirteen medals were won because of steroids. This is just crazy, for now days all athletes are tested all the time for such things. If an athlete today was caught with steroids in his or her system today any title they won would most likely be taken away.

18th Century German Women