Here´s an audiovisual comprehension about the sea. Watch the video and answer the questions afterwards. Attentions: This one might be for advanced learners!
Here are the questions:
1. How many percent of the oxygen is produced by plants living in the sea?
2. What is the alternative word for „Ebbe und Flut“?
3. The sea is important for us. Why is this? Name three keywords.
4. Beside pollution, we also harm the sea by … it.
5. What can we do to participate in the protection of the sea?
At the end of the year 2011, I posted an article called „Some simple fatcs about Germany“. While doing the research for this article, I discovered some other interesting facts about Germany that I didn´t know before though I´m living here since I was born.
One of them was about religions. For not being very religiös (religious) myself, I normally don´t care much about religious topics. But when I read about the spreading of the different religions, this sounded quite interesting to me.
So, to come to a point, we have countless religions respectively subassembly groups or Abspaltungen (split-offs) of them. The biggest main religion is das Christentum (Christianity). Out of this main religion there are also the most split-offs. Take a look:
- Römisch-katholische Kirche (Roman Catholic Church)
- Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (Protestant Church of Germany)
- Orthodoxes Christentum (Orthodox Christianity)
- Neuapostolische Kirche (New Apostolic Church)
- Zeugen Jehovas (Jehovah´s Witnesses)
- Baptisten (Baptists)
- Mennoniten (Mennonites)
- Selbständige Evangelische-Lutherische Kirche
- Pfingstler
- Siebenten-Tags-Adventisten
- Kirche Jesu Christi der Heiligen der Letzten Tage (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
- Altkatholische Kirche
- Christliche Wissenschaft
- Anglikaner (Anglicans)
Beside Christianity we also have Islam, das Judentum (Jewry), Hinduismus (Hinduism) and Buddhismus (Buddhism) in Germany.
Here are some numbers of the strongest religions in Germany:
| Konfessionslos | 28.214.000 | 34,60% |
| Römisch-katholische Kirche | 24.909.332 | 30,50% |
| Evangelische Landeskirchen | 24.194.986 | 29,50% |
| Islam | 4.000.000 | 4,88% |
| Griechische-Orthodoxe Kirche | 450.000 | 0,55% |
| Neuapostolische Kirche | 359.833 | 0,44% |
| Rumänisch-Orthodoxe Kirche | 300.000 | 0,36% |
| Serbisch-Orthodoxe Kirche | 250.000 | 0,31% |
| Buddhisten | 245.000 | 0,30% |
| Juden | 200.000 | 0,24% |
| Russisch-Orthodoxe Kirche | 180.000 | 0,22% |
Martin Luther
Die Missionierung (proselytization) took place from the 6th to the 10th century. Whereas Protestant reformation began in the 16th century with Martin Luther (1483-1546). The interesting thing is, before World War 1, approximately 60% of the Bevölkerung (population) in Germany was affected by the Protestant Church. Nowadays, the two main religions have almost the same number of members. The Roman Catholic Church even has a slight Vorsprung (advance).
The orthodox churches came with the immigrants. Most of them were coming from eastern countries like Greek, Serbia, Russia, Bulgaria…
Jehovah`s Witnesses were founded in the USA and exists in Germany since 1903.
Islam has its own Untergruppen (subassembly groups) as well (Sunnites, Shiites, Alevites and even further ones). Most of the people in Germany with an islamic background have turkish roots.
Most of the Jews living in Germany have their origin in Eastern Europe. Nowadays we have approximetaly 200.000 of them in Germany. There are Jewish communities in Germany since the 1st centruy, so this is the oldest Glaubensgemeinschaft (denomination) that we have here.
Well, as far as I can overlook this, almost every religion is somehow represented in Germany. But also a third af the population is konfessionslos (undenominational), that means without a certain religion. In my optinion this makes people diverse and interesting. As long as everybody stays tolerant and respects other persuasions, it is a great way to do so.
Some vocabulary to this post:
religiös – religious
die Abspaltung – split-off
das Christentum – Christianity
die Römisch-katholische Kirche – Roman Catholic Church
die Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland – Protestant Church of Germany
das Orthodoxes Christentum – Orthodox Christianity
die Neuapostolische Kirche – New Apostolic Church
die Zeugen Jehovas – Jehovah´s Witnesses
die Baptisten – Baptists
die Mennoniten – Mennonites
die Kirche Jesu Christi der Heiligen der Letzten Tage – Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
die Anglikaner – Anglicans
das Judentum – Jewry
der Hinduismus – Hinduism
der Buddhismus – Buddhism
die Missionierung - proselytization
die Bevölkerung – population
der Vorsprung – advance
die Untergruppe – subassembly group
die Glaubensgemeinschaft - denomination
konfessionslos - undenominational
Hi everybody, I wish you a happy new year and all the best for 2012!!! Keep you courage on learning German and stay tunded!
In Germany we often say “Ein gutes Neues!”, by the way 
Today I want to introduce a German movie to you that satirizes some aspects of the German Wiedervereinigung (reunion). The film is called Good-Bye Lenin and the story goes something like this:
In 1989, Alex Kerner and his mother Christiane are living in East Berlin. Shortly before the Mauer (wall) falls, Alex`s Mother, who is a dedicated supporter of the German Democratic Republic, has a Herzinfarkt (heart attack) and falls into a coma. During this coma, the Berlin Wall falls and the GDR becomes history. Most people celebrate the triumph of Kapitalismus (capitalism).
Eight months later, Christine awakes and seems to recover well. But now Alex has a big problem: How should he protect her mother´s geschwächtes (weakend) heart from a shock that would be unevitable? For she is not used to Coca-Cola, MacDonalds, Porsche and Mercedes.
So Alex is a smart guy and he decides to reconstruct the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic). At least in their small apartment. But this is sometimes harder than he ever imagined. A big Coca Cola Banner in front of a window of the apartment and former products that doesn´t exist anymore are just two problems that he faces while pretending that everything is still the same. His efforts to keep all the historical changes from his mother are both funny and rührend (poignant). But as time goes by, Alex reinvents history and creates a new version of what happened during his mothers` Koma (coma).
A friend of Alex even helps him to record their own version of the Nachrichtensendung (TV newscast) to show Christiane on video. As you can imagine, this is one of the funniest scenes in the whole film.
The movie was made in 2003 by Wolfgang Becker and was very succesfull in Germany as well as in other countries. I don´t exactly know if there is an English version, but I guess so. So if you go to a well equiped video store, you might find it.
The cast:
Daniel Brühl: Alexander Kerner
Katrin Sass: Christiane Kerner
Maria Simon: Ariane Kerner
Tschulpan Chamatowa: Lara
Florian Lukas: Denis
Here´s a trailer with English subtitles:
Some vocabulary to this post:
die Wiedervereinigung – reunion
die Mauer – wall
der Herzinfarkt – heart attack
der Kapitalismus – capitalism
geschwächt – weakend
Deutsche Demokratische Republik – German Democratic Republic
rührend – poignant
das Koma – coma
die Nachrichtensendung – TV newscast
This post is part of my Advent calendar on Facebook where I upload a photo every day that shows a particular German Christmas candy or decoration. I realized that I have much more to say about the “Stollen” than just a few words, thus, I decided to dedicate myself to this topic.
The “Stollen” is a German Christmas cake. Hence, it is also called “Weihnachtsstollen” (Christmas stolen/cake) or simply “Christstollen”. Some describe the “Stollen” as a kind of sweet German bread. But I don’t agree with this definition because for me a bread is something that I can slice and on which I can spread butter, soft cheese or put a slice of cheese or cold meat on it and the like. I would neither do this with a slice of “Stollen” because it is first of all, a very sweet pastry and secondly it is of a fairly crumbly consistency, hence, it is virtually impossible to spread anything on it. Moreover, I find the definition of ‘sweet German bread’ misleading since you could mistake a “Stollen” for Rosinenbrot (raisin bread), which are indeed two different baked goods.
All “Stollen” are not created equal, that is, there are different sorts of “Stollen”. The one you see in the picture above is a so-called Marzipanstollen (marzipan stollen cake), which means that it additionally contains a marzipan filling. You can see this filling in the two slices. That are the two spots that look so unbaked and/or raw. Germans use the term Marzipanstollen when they would like to make clear that they do not refer to a Christstollen that does not contain this marzipan filling.
Another sort of “Stollen” is the Mohnstollen (poppy seed stollen). In comparison to the pure “Stollen” and the “Marzipanstollen” it does not contain any raisins but only loads of poppy seeds.
Last but not least, I think it is a matter of taste whether you would like “Stollen”. For example, when I was a child I could not understand why all adults around me got so crazy when they were looking forward to have a slice of “Stollen” because I found it rather disgusting, probably primarily because of the raisins. But meanwhile I really like this cake and I already have had some sliced this year.
Have you ever tried “Stollen” and did you like it or would you go for it?
