presents
Writers Choice Ein herzliches Dankeschön an die Jungs für all die Mühe, die sie in dieses Magazin gesteckt haben. Ich hoffe, ihr hattet Spaß!!
Lisa, German Assitant This year’s magazine has been exceptionally good, with new members joining us. I’m looking forward to the BFG article.
James, Editor
IV Year
I have enjoyed German Magazine Club this year, and the new first years are very entertaining and have settled in well.
Matthew, III Year
CONTENTS PAGE 4 ……………………………………………………… AACHEN CHRISTMAS MARKET PAGE 6 ……………………………………………………… MUNICH PAGE 7 ……………………………………………………… NEUSCHWANSTEIN CASTLE PAGE 8 ……………………………………………………… THE SALZBURG REGION PAGE 9 ……………………………………………………… ZELL AM SEE
I enjoyed writing and learning more about Germany, and it’s chocolate especially. I’m looking forward to writing the next issue.
Thomas, II Year I have enjoyed writing about the Aachen Christmas Market and I hope the publication comes together well.
Arev, I Year
PAGE 10 ……………………………………………………. THE BLACK FOREST PAGE 11 …………………………………………………….. MINIATUR WUNDERLAND
Tuesdays 1:30 PM
PAGE 12 ……………………………………………………. SIGHTSEEING IN GERMANY PAGE 13 ……………………………………………………. THE DEUTSCHE BAHN PAGE 14 ……………………………………………………. CHALETS PAGE 15 ……………………………………………………. GERMAN CHOCOLATE PAGE 16 ……………………………………………………. MILKA AND RITTER SPORT PAGE 17 …………………………………………………… . BUGATTI PAGE 18 ……………………………………………………. BUSINESS IN GERMANY PAGE 19 ……………………………………………………. BUNDESTAGSWAHL 2013 PAGE 20 ……………………………………………………. GERMAN POLITICS PAGE 21 ……………………………………………………. BEFORE THE UNIFICATION OF GERMANY PAGE 22 ……………………………………………………. GERMAN WEATHER
L4 Computer Room All Years Welcome
Aachen Christmas Market Das ist der Weihnachtsmarkt. The Roots The center of this magical location is the Aachen Cathedral, which dates back to the 9th century. A small wooden village spreads out around this imposing structure. Since 1973, this event has been held attracting many visitors of all ages. Geographically, Aachen is the most Western town of Germany. Aachen Cathedral was erected on the orders of Charlemagne in the year 796 and was, at the time, the largest cathedral in this area. On his death, Charlemagne's remains were put in the cathedral and can be seen there to this day. The cathedral was extended several times in later ages, turning it into a unique mixture of building styles. For
A panoramic view of the Aachen village.
600 years, from 936 to 1531, Aachen Cathedral was the church of the coronation of 30 German kings and 12 queens, over the course of 500 years. The church was built by Charlemagne and is still the main attraction of the city. In addition to holding the remains of its founder, it became the burial place of his successor Otto III. Aachen Cathedral has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Printen The giant Printen figure is the symbol of the area, also the most iconic Christmas biscuit of the place. Printen, comes from the word print, because the sweets are made by printing the amusing shape on a special dough. There are many varieties: soft ones, hard ones and ones that ‘get stuck in your teeth’. Many love them, but only few know what’s in them. Being the local depiction of Gingerbread, even Charlemagne - the ruler of the early Frankish empire - is said to have loved them. He ruled the whole of the land from his throne in Aachen.
Where Is Aachen? As already mentioned, Aachen is the most Western town of
Germany. It stands on the
border which crosses over with Belgium. The Aachen town is north
to the Alps – the landscape
is regular.
Visitors at Aachen Aachen boasts over 1.5 Million visitors every year, partly because Printen isn’t the only specialty
offered at this magical
place! Some stalls feature hand-made candies, including flavors such as raspberry, cream and
mulled wine, their
ingredients consist of: sugar, juices and corn syrup. Making the candies is an art. Other festive
decorations and goods
attract visitors from all around the world.
Aachen’s Coat of Arms
The Charlemagne Award Since the year 1950, a community of Aachen citizens annually awards the Charlemagne Prize – In German: Karlspreis- to characters of outstanding service to the unification of Europe. It is usually awarded on Ascension Day at the City Hall. Most recently this year, the Charlemagne Award was awarded to Dalia Grybauskaitė, the President of Lithuania. Also, the International Charlemagne Prize was awarded in
2000 to the President of the United States, Bill Clinton, for his personal contribution to co-operation with the states of Europe, for the preservation of peace, freedom, democracy and human rights in
Europe, and for his support of the enlargement of the European Union
By Arev Melikyan
#weihnachtsmarkt
German Magazine Club – Arev Melikyan – Aachen Christmas Market – November 2013
Munich is the capital of Bavaria. It is located on the river Isar and is north of the Alps. It has a population of 1.5million. Its German name is München, deriving from Munichen, the word meaning ‘by the monks’. It is so called because originally monks from Benedictine founded the city.
Bayern Munich is Germany’s most successful football team. They are the multiple time winners of the UEFA championship. The Allianz arena is where they train. It is a very big stadium. They also won the triple (the champion’s league, the “Deutsche Meisterschaft” and the “Pokal”).
Oktoberfest started in 1810 when the crown prince Ludwig married Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. Nowadays the occasion attracts millions of tourists that visit the beer tents (Bierzelte). Although it is called Oktoberfest the majority of the festival takes place in September. There is also many fairground rides for younger visitors.
Originally there was a twin castle, however Ludwig II demolished it so he could use the foundations to build Neuschwanstein. It was built as a place for the King (Ludwig).
The castle is 800m above sea level. It is on the South/West border of Bavaria. Three castles once stood on the current foundations of the castle, however these castles were combined to create neuschwanstein.
King Ludwig was the King of Bavaria, also known as the swan king. Ludwig was considered insane so his Uncle ruled before him. Ludwig’s ruled ended when he drowned himself on a walk with his mental doctor, who he also killed.
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Zell am See is in the west of Austria. It is a popular destination for tourists as in the summer you can go swimming in Lake Zell and in the winter you can go skiing on the surrounding mountains. In the city centre there is many café’s and ice cream parlour’s to spend evenings in.
The Lake is one of the main attractions of Zell am See. It looks beautiful and there is plenty of entertainment such as banana boat rides and swimming pools backing into the lake. You can also hire a boat for a couple of hours and go swimming or just paddle around. Lake Zell is 4.2km squared.
In winter Zell am See is packed with skiers as the surrounding mountains are the ideal place for skiing as they are smooth and at lots of different steepness’s so all the family can go. Many ski lifts travel up the mountains giving easy access to everywhere.
By Thomas Mitchell
The black forest is in South-West Germany. It is a wooded mountain range in Baden-Wurttemberg and its highest peak is Feldberg at 1,439 metres. It is famous for its Black Forest Gateau, a delicious fruity cake.
The black forest gateau is a chocolate sponge covered with cream and fruit. This is how you make it: 175g salted butter, plus extra for greasing, 200g bar dark chocolate, 300g plain flour, 375g golden caster sugar, 25g cocoa, 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda, 2 medium eggs, 200g buttermilk or natural yoghurt, 425g can pitted cherries, 2 tbsp juice reserved, rest drained, 100g morello cherry jam, 4 tbsp kirsch (or more juice from a can if you want it to be non-alcoholic), 500ml tub double cream, 3 tbsp icing sugar, 1 small punnet fresh cherries (optional) 1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line the base of 3 x 20cm cake tins. Boil the kettle. Put the butter and 75g chocolate broken into chunks in a small pan and gently heat, stirring, until completely melted. 2. Mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda with a pinch of salt in a mixing bowl. Whisk the eggs and buttermilk or yogurt together. Scrape the melted chocolate mixture and egg mixture into the dry ingredients, add 100ml boiling water and whizz briefly with an electric whisk until the cake batter is lump free. 3. Divide the mixture between the tins and bake for 25 mins, swapping the tins round after 20 mins if they’re on different shelves. To test they're done, push in a skewer and check that it comes out clean. 4. Prick the cakes a few times with a skewer. Mix together the 2 tbsp reserved cherry juice and the kirsch (or more juice) and drizzle over the cakes. Cool the cakes. 5. Mix together the remaining drained cherries and jam. Tip 200ml of the cream into a small pan and heat until just below simmering point. Chop the remaining chocolate and put in a heatproof bowl, pour over the hot cream and stir until melted. Set aside until spreadable. 6. When the cakes are cool whisk the remaining cream and the icing sugar together until softly whipped. Spread over two of the cakes, then spoon over the jammy cherries. Stack the cakes together. Spread the chocolate cream over the third cake and sit on top of the other cakes. Pile the fresh cherries in and around the cake and serve
Miniature Wunderland is the largest miniature railway in the world (it is in Hamburg,Germany). There are 12,000 metres of track in HO scale built by two brothers, Frederik and Gerrit Braun. It will finaly be finished in 2020. It uses 6,400 m² at the moment and it has 890 engines, with over 1100 wagons! It has cost €10,000,000 (£8,866,000) so far and has taken 500,000 hours to build. The building of Miniature Wunderland Twin brothers Frederik and Gerrit Braun first decided to build the world’s biggest model railway in 2000. They had to develop complex lighting and control systems for the miniature world. They had to get a huge loan from a bank to cover the construction costs, but they quickly paid it off. They have built 8 areas so far: Harz, Knuffingen, Austria, Hamburg, America, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Airport, France and Italy.
Statistics Model Area Construction Areas Track Length Trains Wagons Longest Train Signals Computers Lights Buildings and Bridges Figures Work Hours Staff Construction Cost
2010 1,150 m² 8 12,000 Meters approx. 890 over 11,000 14.51 Meters 900 40 approx. 300,000 3,500 200,000 500,000 185 10,000,000 €
The future There’s still lots to do at Miniatur Wunderland as the team always think of new ideas. They plan to finish in 2020 with 12 areas and 1,300 trains! The different worlds will cover over 2,300m² and will cost €15,000,000(£13,395,000). They intend to create Japan with its bullet trains and Africa with its narrow gauge railways used for moving goods across the desert. Miniatur Wunderland still has a long way to go. Visit www.miniatur-wunderland.com for more information
Miniatur Wunderland- The worlds biggest model railway Brandenburg Gate-The main original gate to and from the city
Aachen Christmas market- The school visit this in the first year
Leipzig Book FairThe national book fair for Germany is held here
Constantine's throne hall- This beautiful hall was built in AD 310
Lake Constance-It is at the foot of the alps and the Rhine goes into it
World peace festival- This town celebrates the end of the 30 years war
Ulm medival city- This city was part of a major trading route
Neuschwanstien castle-This castle was built by king Ludwig in 1886
The German national railway company (Deutsche Bahn) logo.
DB Regio The Deutsche Bahn is split into four main groups, Arriva, DB Bahn, DB Netze and DB Schenker. Each is a company in its own right but they are all owned by Deutsche Bahn.
Arriva Arriva run bus and rail companies throughout 12 European countries including England. This part of the company is responsible for foreign affairs.
DB Regio Is responsible for short railway journeys. They do not decide what and when trains run but take orders from German state of Bundesländer.
DB Stadtverkehr DB Stadtverkehr works small suburban railways and Bhanbus.
DB Netze DB Netze Is responsible for all infrastructure and main line operations. This means it does the building and repairs on the railways.
DB Bahn DB Bahn is in charge of passenger trains and customer services. This is also divided into 3 semi companies. DB Fernverkehr, DB Regio and DB Stadtverkehr.
DB Fernverkehr DB fernverkehr operates long distant trains including all intercity train services.
DB Schenker For all freight trains, DB Schenker is the company to call. It is one of the top freight companies. It is:
No. 1 in Europe in rail freight No. 1 in Europe in combined transport No. 1 in Europe in land transportation No. 2 worldwide in air freight No. 3 worldwide in ocean freight No. 6 in global contract logistics
The chalet originated from the alpine counties of Europe. Chalets were built because all the necessary materials were nearby. The name comes from the Latin word for a shelter (callitum). Chalets were used when herders brought cows to graze higher in the mountains.
Nowadays Chalets are used for skiers and walkers who wish to visit mountains. Also these days the term “Chalet� applies to any holiday home even if it is neither near a mountain nor made of alpine wood.
These days Chalets are used to stay in for holidays. However in the past herders would stay in them whilst their livestock grazed on the hills. Herders would change the milk from cows into cheese so it would keep longer.
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Lindt sells many different types of chocolate, of many different styles. A Lindt factory is in Aachen, and is visited by German students on the Aachen Christmas market trip. Lindt & SprĂźngli has five other factories located in Kilchberg, Switzerland; Aachen, Oloron-Sainte-Marie, France; Induno Olona, Italy; Gloggnitz, Austria; and Stratham, New Hampshire in the United States.
Rausch are now into their third generation of being a family-owned company and at the beginning of this century branched out into making chocolate and currently produce a range of single origin chocolate at different cocoa levels.
Kinder sells chocolate like Kinder Surprise and Kinder Bueno. Kinder directly translates as children. Kinder is owned by Ferrero. Kinder Riegel is one of kinder’s most recent creation, it is represented by a glass of milk and a chocolate bar called Milch and Schokolade.
Milka is a well-known brand of traditional chocolate. They have been making good chocolate and pleasing people since 1825. They didn’t have the name Milka trademarked until 1901. Their trademark is a purple cow with a bell on its neck and it has been since before they trademarked it. Their trademark didn’t show up on billboards or be advertised until the 1950s it is sold in a bar shape but at Easter and Christmas they make many festive shapes like eggs and Santa.
Ritter sport is a famous German brand of chocolate that is made in Germany and founded by Alfred Ritter. They sell 100 gram bars in either 16 or 9 squares. They do sell smaller and larger bars but they do not come in such a wide variety. They have a very large variety of bars; about 30 in total, not including the special varieties. These are made of all kinds of chocolate with all kinds of fillings and toppings from cookies to marzipan. The mottoes on their bars range from language to language. In England the motto is “quality in a square” or more recently “Quality. Chocolate. Squared.” The mascot is called Quadrago and is a baby dragon carrying a banner. This may come from the word ‘Ritter’ meaning knight.
Matthew dickinson
Bugatti is car manufacturer that makes fast cars, the 2nd and 3rd fastest road worthy cars and built by them. They are owned by Volkswagen, a German car manufacturer, so they can afford to lose the money they do on selling the cars.
The Bugatti Veyron Super sport has a top speed of 263mph and 1220bhp. It comes in many different colours which you can personalise and all this is only ÂŁ1 700 000. It is a great car and the cost is less than all the materials actually cost.
The Bugatti Veyron Vitesse is the convertible version of the super sport. Obviously it has a lower top speed of 255mph, which is the same as the Veyron. When ordering you can personalise the colours on the Bugatti.com website.
Thomas Mitchell
Business in Germany The System
The biggest type of German company is the Aktiengesellschaft (AG), which is similar to a Public Limited Company (plc), and it has many shareholders and is usually listed on the stock market, which is the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The German version of a Private Limited Company (Ltd.) is a Gessellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung (GmbH). The other models are the Gesellschaft bürgerlichen Rechts (GbR) and the Offene Handelsgesellschaft (OHG), which are simple one person or partnership businesses, and a Zweigniederlassung is a subsidiary of a German company, registered in a foreign country.
Big Companies With Germany being extremely successful in international business and having a strong economy, it is unsurprising that many German companies operate in Britain. The supermarkets Aldi and Lidl started in Germany and often sell German products. Beiersdorf AG is the company that is behind the ‘Nivea’ brand, and Deutsche Telekom owns T-Mobile. Many of us know the famous German car brands of Audi, VW (Volkswagen, Peoples Car), owned by Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft, and BMW (Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, Bavarian Motor Works plc). In Germany, Deutsche Bahn is the company that runs the railways and other transport and Lufthansa airlines and Hofbräuhaus (bierkeller und bier) are also known throughout the world.
Business Etiquette In Germany, businesses are organised to work like clockwork, with schedules and meetings being kept to, and people knowing what is expected of them, through laws, rules and procedures. Surprises are often disliked, and while the business systems are often very efficient, they are often not very flexible. Business people will nearly always wear tidy, black suits and dresses, without anything too ostentatious. State and federal laws strongly emphasize the need to be environmentally friendly (especially since the Green Party has grown), and they severely punish any form of bribery or corruption.
The Politics & the EU Germany has a big role in the EU, and its economy has greatly benefitted from being so. The Single market and the euro allow businesses to easily export their goods all over Europe, without import taxes or currency exchanges. During the recent economic depression, the strength of the German economy was proven, with it being hardly impacted.
By James Mitchell
Der Wahlkampf In the German federal elections, which are held every four years, voters have two votes – one for a representative of their district, and one for an overall party. The seats in the Bundestag are distributed according to the party vote, however a party must win 5% of the votes to qualify for this (however they still receive a seat if they have the majority in a district). Europe featured heavily in debates and manifestos in the run-up. Dr Merkel, who has a PhD in quantum chemistry, insisted the Euro-Zone was best for Germany, despite having to bailout other countries. The Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, also announced Greece would need another bailout. The SDP leader, Peer Steinbrück attacked her about the bailouts, demanding she “tells people the truth". Unemployment was also a heavily debated area. Polls suggested that that CDU/CSU - FDP (black–yellow coalition) would just win or just be under the required level of seats (50% of the bundestag seats) to get a majority.
Die Endergebnisse The results of the election to elect the 18th Bundestag of Germany were revealed after voting across the country on the 22nd September 2013 (8AM – 6PM). The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) joined with the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU) were the clear winners scoring 42% of the party votes. However the usual coalition partner, the Free Democratic Party (FDP), did not reach the 5% minimum vote level, and therefore did not join the Bundestag, which was completely unexpected. The other parties that made it into the parliament were: the Social Democratic Party (SPD), with 26% of the votes; The Left (DIE LINKE), with 9% of the votes; Alliance '90/The Greens (GRÜNE), with 8% of the vote. It is unusual to have so few parties in the Bundestag, and this last happened in 1987. Interestingly the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a euro-sceptic party formed in 2013, won the same amount of votes.
Welche Koalition? As the normal partner of the CDU/CSU had not made it into the Bundestag and no Party had a majority, a new coalition would have to be formed. The most likely coalition would be a Grand Coalition (CDU/CSU – SPD), however many SPD members opposed this idea. The SPD did not want to go into coalition with The Left, and neither did the Greens. The CSU did not want to work with the Greens. Formal talks began with other parties on the 4th October, and after 5 weeks of negotiations with the SPD, an agreement was reached on the night of the 27th – 28th November between the CDU/CSU and the SPD. 76% of SPD members voted to go ahead with the coalition, and on the 17th December 2013, the new government was sworn in with Angela Merkel as its chancellor. Joachim Gauck remains President, as this role is separate from the Government.
By James Mitchell
Dark blue = CSU; Light Blue = CDU; Red = SPD; Purple = The Left; Green: The Greens
No longer
Chancellor (Prime minister): Angela Merkel President (Head of state): Joachim Gauck In Germany they have a chancellor who acts like the prime minister and a president who acts like our Queen. They have three main parties: Free Democratic Party, Christian Democratic Union of Germany, and Social Democratic Party of Germany. The CDU is in charge of the chancellor and the president is usually independent of political parties. They meet in the Bundestag. Name
Abbr.
Leader
Christian Democratic Union of Germany Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands
CDU
Angela Merkel
Christian Social Union in Bavaria Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern
CSU
Horst Seehofer
Social Democratic Party of Germany Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands
SPD
Sigmar Gabriel
Free Democratic Party Freie Demokratische Partei
FDP
Christian Lindner
The Left Die Linke
LINKE
Katja Kipping and Bernd Riexinger
Alliance '90/The Greens Die Grünen
GRÜNE
Simone Peter and Cem Özdemir
Angela Merkel
Joachim Gauck
The Federal Republic of Germany coat of arms
Germany was officially united on 18 January 1871 at the Versailles Palace's Hall of Mirrors in France. The princes of the separate states agreed that Wilhelm of Prussia would become their Emperor. But this was the first step in the unification of Germany.
Before the unification It was originally made up of 300 separate states. Parts of Germany were owned by Austria, Hungary, France and Prussia. But because Germany kept on getting bigger and smaller, I am just going to write about the German borders.
Danish Border There have been many wars on the Danish border of Germany. The first Schleswig war lasted from 1848–1851 and ended in a Danish victory. But the Germans launched another attack on Denmark on 1 February 1864. The Prussian forces went into Schleswig to gain it back. This caused a lot of controversy as it was a violation of the London protocol, which meant that if Germany did not invade any countries, England would remain neutral in an upcoming Russian war. The war ended on 30 October 1864, with the Treaty of Vienna, which agreed that Prussia would own Schleswig and Austria would own administer Holstein, with Denmark receiving nothing. In World War 2, an attack called Operation Weserßbung (Weser is a river) was launched on Denmark and Norway. In the early morning of 9 April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway, claiming that they were protecting the country from England and France. If the Danes did not surrender, the Germans threatened to bomb the capital. Denmark surrendered after just 6 hours.
Map of the Germany area in 1512
A German jeep in Denmark.
Germany is about 137,000 square miles; therefore the weather is very different in different places. The north is very flat but the south is mountainous.
General weather The Baltic Sea coast has severe winters but steady summers. The North has a very steady climate while the South it has varied climates due to different altitudes. The average weather for January is 3˚C and 22˚C in July. Munich has about 220 hours of sunshine in July but in June they have about 110mm of rain. There summers can reach 22 ˚C but there winters can reach -5 ˚C.
Snow They have snow every winter in the south but not so much in the north. In Munich they get about 40 – 60 cm. Unlike England, the whole country does not grind to a halt. The airports may close for a couple of days but they have more snow trucks. The average conditions for Munich, Germany.
Rain There is generally more rain in the north and it will usually stay rainy all day once it has started. In the south there is less rain. There is not much fog and the air is not very humid. In the north there is a lot of cloud cover in the north.
Sun It is much sunnier in the south than the north. The summer is hotter than here but the winters are cooler.
Freak weather They are sometimes floods in the Oder and Elbe region. In the north they have high winds in the autumn and avalanches in the south.
German Magazine Club would like to thank: Lisa, for helping us with everything German Mrs Allen, for organising the club and providing refreshments And all of the GMC team for writing the articles