Bundestagswahl (Elections) 2009

Germany went to the polls on Sunday to elect a new government. This meant they would be choosing the next chancellor to lead the country. Though most expected the current center-right Chancellor, Angela Merkel, to prevail over her center-left party rival, Frank-Walter Steinmeyer, many also had hoped the Wahlkampf (campaign) to be invigorated by the fact that Steinmeyer has been Merkel’s foreign minister until Sunday. How exciting! However, this face-off turned out to be the least exciting and least anticipated aspect of the entire campaign. Instead, the political buzz in Germany this week has surrounded which smaller parties would join the next governing coalition with whom. This phenomenon really got me thinking about the differences between the U.S. and German systems. Before you immediately close this window for fear of what highfalutin academic mumbo-jumbo is about to follow, bear with me for three points (or just skip to the last one).

1) I’ve long been a believer the proportional representation voting system enjoyed by many democracies of the world, and by Germany in particular (How their system works). Despite foreign-sounding concepts such as mixed-member districts, overhang seats, and casting two votes, it does a much better job of proportionately reflecting the political persuasions of the population than the American system of “winner take all.” Because of this key difference, I’m super-jealous that the Germans enjoy...

2) ...a multiple-party system. I admit that I’m biased against the American two-party system that utterly fails to represent my political interests, but I also believe there’s some value in having more than the tired old left-right spectrum from which to choose my representatives. Granted, some of the smaller parties fail to make it into the government, but as this very election demonstrated, it was the success of three smaller parties actually determined the flavor of the government.

3) Speaking of smaller parties... the most entertaining aspect of all this? More nuanced parties means diverse political beliefs and thus: fantastic political advertising! Though I think Die Piraten (The Pirate Party) might be my favorite party I encountered, below are some campaign posters that particularly caught my eye.

The Retired Persons Party. Ok, perhaps a little too targeted.

The Greens did well this election, here campaigning against atomic energy. But isn't atomic energy supposed to be clean and green?

"Wealth for everyone." These are the successors of the old East German Socialist Party and they still managed to win almost 12 percent of the vote with this slogan. Maybe I'm mistaken, but seriously guys, didn't we already try this once before?

"Finished with the Crisis Chaos! Forward to True Socialism!" The Germans weren't so convinced.

"Our Crisis Advisors." With pictures of Marx, Lenin, and some other bearded dude. I think the German Communist Party needs to start with some better campaign advisors, much less economic advisors. Didn't pay off.

Taste of home and a loser no more!!!

Last night we had burritos from Berlin Burrito Company, a recent addition to our Schöneberg neighborhood. It's no Chipotle, but it's a lot closer than anything else we've found. They even serve lime rice with cilantro and black beans. You don't even know how much we crave black beans.

This afternoon I won two games of Tischtennis in a row. Third game was a draw and NO, John didn't let me win.

All in all - a very good start to our first weekend back in Berlin.

So I Must Have Learned Something in Three Weeks

As you may or may not have guessed from recent blog entries, part of my fellowship year here in Germany is participating in three long seminars which are intended to provide me with first-hand insights into the country and its people. Our first seminar - a three week journey through some of Germany’s largest cities - just concluded, and I must say it’s been nothing short of a whirlwind. I’ve met with countless businesspeople and public officials, taken numerous city tours, and logged some serious (often stressful) hours on trains, buses, U-Bahns, and more trains. I admit that it takes more than three weeks to truly understand a country, but nonetheless I feel that this trip has set me well on my way towards a greater understanding.

When most Americans (myself included) are asked about their mental picture of Germany, they imagine men in Lederhosen and women wearing the Dirndl, likely enjoying huge beers, pretzels, and sausages, and probably driving high-quality automobiles. In short, they imagine the region of Bavaria (Bayern) in southern Germany. This makes sense. Americans’ experience in Germany has been traditionally rooted in the south, first because that was our sector of Germany after the war, and second because we American tourists still flock to Munich as the destination of our German vacations. Not surprisingly, just as New Yorkers differ from Texans, there is more to Germany than we Americans see on postcards (though I still send them). My first and perhaps most simplistic observation: Germany is a culturally diverse place. What I find remarkable is the fact that it retains this diversity. Germany is about the size of Montana or roughly half the size of Texas, and yet it its 82 million inhabitants make its population larger than that of California, Texas, and New York combined. With such cramped domestic quarters smashed between nine other European countries, one might expect a high degree cultural homogenization or even dilution. Not so. While there are plenty of similarities to tie the country together, the German regions seem proud of their distinctive cultural differences and intent on preserving them. The influx of immigrants also adds a new layer of cultural diversity as well.

A good example of this interplay between regional and national diversity is food. On the national level, it seems no matter where you are, you are sure to find pork, potatoes, cabbage, and beer. However, culinary variations abound, depending on the region. I only really found pork knuckle (Schweinshaxe) and Weißwurst in Munich, Sauerbraten (German beef pot roast) in Köln and the Rhineland, and predominantly Fisch-based dinners in Hamburg. Döner Kebab, the Turkish specialty, and Currywurst were predominantly found in Berlin. In Munich I drank lots of Hefe-Weizen and Oktoberfest beer, while in Köln it seems the only beer on offer was the regional specialty, Kölsch. What is brewed in Karlsruhe or Frankfurt just isn’t found in Hamburg or Berlin - and all seem content that it remains this way.

I learned so much during these last three weeks and I plan to write several posts in the next several days sharing some of it with you. So... stay tuned.

Berlin called. You should come home.

Safely back in Berlin we're still working on a way to process/encapsulate the last 3 weeks. John is still at it, in meetings even here in Berlin so until he can give you a better picture of seminar 1, here are my thoughts.

In the last 3 weeks, one or both of us was in the following German cities:

Stuttgart

Heidelberg

Karlsruhe

Munich

Andechs

Dachau

Bonn

Köln

Essen

Dusseldorf

Frankfurt

Hamburg

Travemünde

Lübeck

Berlin

Germany is an amazing country - it's diverse in people, architecture, food, accents, train stations, bathrooms, attitudes towards tourists, availability of sausage and pretzels, and of course, so much more. There's been a lot of travel, a lot of packing and unpacking, a lot of meals out in restaurants. We're both pretty excited to be unpacked and back in the apartment in Berlin.

Two major developments in my life as a result of the trip.

1. I now happily drink water "with gas." Beginning of the trip I was snubbing this fancy water; now I'm craving it at most meals and Wasser mit Kohlensäure was one of our first purchases on the first grocery run. In response to my initial reluctance to accept carbonated water, Nat (one of the Boschies) told me not to think of it as water, but instead as something special, a treat if you will. And as soon as I relinquished the expectation for plain ol' tap water, I was in love with the fizzy, refreshing goodness.

2. I learned (and this really has nothing to do with Germany but did occur in one of the hotel rooms) that there is a country between France and Spain called Andorra. In fact, there's a whole host of small countries in Europe that I didn't even know existed. Remarkable. They are called the European Microstates. Wikipedia that one and let your mind be blown.

(I realize that after taking pictures of every other German city, I haven't really shown you much of our neighborhood. This picture is a school down the street, that stands across from a church. I'll get some more pictures up soon!)

Facilities in Köln

Often it's the little things that most capture my imagination. In Köln it's neither the architecture nor the people; it's the potties. Okay, so you may have seen or heard of everything I'm about to mention. If so, grant me my naive awe. If not, then read on and be amazed.

The Bosch spouses chose to spend part of yesterday in a very posh cafe for kaffee and kuchen, a typical German afternoon activity of coffee or tea and a selection of "cakes." This is an aside, but German cakes and I don't really get along. Many of the cakes and tortes are topped with fruit, or have a fruit layer, or are entirely composed of fruit. And we all know how I feel about cooked fruit. So finding a cake was a challenge in and of itself. But that's neither here nor there, back to miracle toilette technologies...

At the end of our time in the cafe one of the wives returned from the restroom and said "You have to go to the bathroom." I thought, "Well, in fact Andrea, I do not," but I figured polite behavior called for me to continue to listen. Her only answer to my confused look was "You'll see. Don't worry. Just lock the door." What?!?! Well, now I had to go.

Cut to the bathroom and picture for a moment an entirely clear glass door as the only barrier between your potty and the outside world. Just glass and you. I had not forgotten Andrea's warning so I boldly stepped in and...just locked the door. Like magic my clear door was suddenly frosted. FROSTED!!! It was instantaneous. Throwing aside my near constant fear of being discovered a tourist I let out "Whoa, cool!" and proceeded to lock and unlock the door to prolong the mystery. (The science has since been explained to me. The magic hasn't faded.)

Second remarkable WC: right here in our very hotel room. This little gem is remarkable for 2 reasons. One - when the TV is on in the bedroom, the sound is piped into the bathroom. This may seem at first glance superfluous. In fact, it's fantastic in the mornings when you've got the news on waiting for the 60 seconds of weather amidst the hour of talk. Second - our bathroom mirror has a strategically placed square that does not fog up. No matter how hot the shower, no matter how hard you breathe on it (I tried), it does not fog. Simply amazing.

Perhaps my obsession with the loos of this city can best be explained with a description of our last latrine in Munich. First of all, the entirely glass shower was exposed to the hotel room, an arms length from the bed. The "door" between the room and the commode room was in fact just a piece of frosted glass that slid on a track and did not come to the floor. This is an entirely awkward lavatory situation.

Final thought - did you know that bathrooms are sometimes called "comfort stations"? Weird.

(The picture of me is courtesy of Chris, Eulynn's husband. I'm standing in front of the Köln cathedral.)

Safely in Cologne

After a long day of travel by cabs, trains and bikes, we have arrived in Cologne for the next few days. John is busy watching a major political debate in German so I thought I'd take the time to get down some thoughts.

Earlier in the week we spent a day in Andechs, a very cute village outside of Munich famous for 2 things: a functioning monastery that's ridiculously old and the beer which the monastery produces. It has been said that this is best beer in Bavaria. John would be a better judge of the beer, I mean it tasted pretty good to me. It's so good you can only drink it onsite and in the nearby village. There were no "to go" bottles of this stuff. The monastery and accompanying Rococo church were certainly beautiful. The church is insanely ornate; check out the pictures. We were treated to a tour that included a look at their collection of relics, kept behind a door that requires multiple skeleton keys to open and that has one of the most complicated locks we've ever seen.

Yesterday, we spent much of the day at the concentration camp in Dachau, outside of Munich. It's difficult to say how the day was, saying it was "great" doesn't seem quite appropriate. It was powerful, moving, hard and somber. The weather set a perfect scene: cold weather, gray skies and a biting wind. Despite the hoards of tourists, the museum and the grounds of the camp have an arresting impact. World War II is never far from your conscious (or conscience) in this country; the Germans are brutally honest about their horrific past and have taken care to preserve the history, even when it's damning, and to honor the many victims with thoughtful memorials. Both John and I have noted that our own exposure to the Holocaust was perhaps more sanitized than what we might have experienced here. German school children are required to visit a concentration camp as part of their curriculum and if they are shown the same documentary as we were shown, the children must certainly be as scarred as we were by the images of the camp. I've posted the pictures we took during the day here.

Today on our way from Munich to Köln we stopped in Bonn which is our potential second location in this year. We biked through the city and John and I both had our eyes open for the potential in the city. The impression was a good one despite the rain. The streets are clean and quaint. There's a major university in the center of the city and lots of green space and trees. Our interest has been piqued so if you have any information on Bonn, send it our way!

John starts another busy week in the morning. I'll be off to continue my touristing.

The Pictures are Up!!!

The pictures from the first part of the trip are up. These do not include John's. He needs to download pictures off of his camera. In general though, there are two ways to see our pictures:

1. (the far easier for you way) We put a link in a post that takes you to an album.

2. You click on whatever picture appears on the right hand side of the blog page and you'll be taken to one of our albums on Picasa. From the Picasa page you can click on a "Photos" tab and be taken to all the albums we put up.

Enjoy...and thanks for caring enough to even look at these! :)

Quick and easy way, click on the cities below:

Stuttgart

Heidelberg

Munich

Seminar 1 - A Different Perspective

As John noted before, my experience on the Seminar is very different than his. While I am invited to participate in some activities with all of the Fellows, much of my time is spent sight-seeing in the towns we visit, either with the other spouses or are on my own. So...

-I took a day trip from Stuttgart to Heidelberg, renowned for its cuteness and for it 800+ year old castle ruins.

-I wandered Stuttgart and visited the Stadtgallerie, easily one of the best art museums I've ever seen.

-I joined the fellows yesterday for a trip to Andechs which is a farming village, monastery and brewery. We toured the Rococo church (see the pictures to see the ornateness) and had dinner on the terrace of the brewery. The tour was all in German so I caught some of it. John filled in the rest.

-Today I struck out on my own in Munich for a very long bike ride. Other than a few hairy moments in traffic, it was perfect. I am back at the hotel, exhausted but satisfied!

Really, the best way to show you what I'm doing is through pictures so I'm in the process of putting everything up on Picassa. Take a look!

The Seminar Begins: Stuttgart and Karlsruhe

Herzliche Grüße aus München! First, I’d like to inform y'all that we arrived here on Tuesday night after two days in Stuttgart and a day trip to Karlsruhe. I must say that this first seminar, our three week tour through Deutschland, is off to a great start! My days are packed full of meetings with various people, while Lauren is spending most of her time sightseeing while joining me for the more cultural activities as well as the delicious meals. I don’t have much time, but my highlights so far include:

-a meeting with our benevolent hosts at Bosch headquarters in Stuttgart;

-a conversation with the Oberbürgermeister (mayor) of Stuttgart about his city, its strengths, and its future challenges;

-a four-story ride in the Rathaus (city hall) in a Paternoster elevator (doesn’t have a translation - look it up);

-eating dinner at the Bosch Stiftung, which enjoys a beautiful location next to Robert Bosch’s former home and is perched atop a hill overlooking the city of Stuttgart below;

-a visit to the Bundesverfassungsgericht (federal constitutional court), where we toured the building and discussed German constitutional questions at length with Professor Doktor Andreas Voßkuhle, Vize-Präsident of the court (the equivalent of meeting with the second highest ranking member of our Supreme Court);

-a hearty bayerische Brotzeit (Bavarian snacktime consisting of a selection of breads, pretzels, cold cuts, cheeses, pickles, and of course beer) upon arrival in Munich. Delicious!

I'll try to upload some pictures from my experiences when possible, but stay tuned for an update from Mrs. G, who will be providing a more picturesque glimpse into our travels. Bis dann!

Final Thoughts on Budapest (John's Part)

So a handful of final thoughts from Budapest:

On our last day, we figured our tired legs had logged enough miles of walking to warrant a couple hours in the renowned Széchenyi thermal baths located in City Park. Our visit on our last day can also be explained by our sincere reluctance to join the strange mix of locals and foreigners of all ages, wearing all manner of bathing suits, from the child-friendly to the embarrassingly inappropriate. But, we managed to curb our inhibitions, decipher the rather complicated series of entrance procedures, and find a nice place to sit and relax in the warm, mineral-rich waters. The experience was worth it, I think, if only for the amazing (and sometimes awkward) people-watching opportunities that arise from sitting in a large bath with hundreds of strangers.

One of the most interesting themes running throughout our Budapest trip was the Hungarians’ attitudes about their Communist past. We’d already received a nice dose of this sentiment living in Berlin, but here in Budapest the hostility and disgust is blatant. The exhibits in the House of Terror, the museum now located in the former headquarters of the Communist secret police, were hardly neutral in describing the Soviets or the Soviet-backed regime. Memento Park also subtly communicated how they felt about that dark forty years: Budapest has relegated every last Communist statue once standing in the city to this random plot of land on the remote outskirts of town. Our lovely hostess wondered why we would even want to venture out there. Though the Socialist-Realist sculpture was very interesting to see, you definitely got the sense that they’d rather forget all this even existed.

Lastly, if you plan to go to Budapest, we would recommend hiring a private tour guide for several hours. The Magyar (the Hungarian word for Hungarian) language is unbelievably difficult to even pronounce (much less understand) and very little of Budapest’s signage was in English. Thus, a little local knowledge went a long way in personalizing and enriching the city. However, this is apparently not something that “young folks” do; when our guide, Gabriella Török, showed up, she immediately approached the old couple sitting next to us and was shocked to discover that we had in fact hired her. We were her youngest tour ever! But no big deal - Gabriella provided the best four hours of the trip, and we would definitely recommend her.

Home again, home again...

Well, we’re safely home in Berlin. How strange to think of this foreign city as home but indeed as we rode the bus from the airport and saw our neighborhood, there was a collective sigh and delight in returning to the familiar. There’s no great way to tell you about all of Budapest but we have compared notes and decided the following thoughts might give you a glimpse of our trip.

Safety in the City

Despite warnings of pickpockets we felt safe the entirety of the trip until....we approached the metro system. There were several reasons to fear for your life: escalators in Budapest move at break-neck speeds. No, we’re not exaggerating, you literally had to jump on and then hold on to the rails for dear life. Getting off was equally exhilarating/terrifying and required much shuffling of feet, determining of vectors, and a quick prayer. The second reason you might contemplate the afterlife in the metro was the speed at which the doors of the trains opened and closed. From the moment the train arrived, you had less than 10 seconds to allow passengers off and to board the train yourself. Yes, I actually counted. (Fun fact dear readers: the Budapest metro is the oldest subway system in continental Europe.) As a final note, it appeared that a majority of the busses in the city were of Soviet origin and may or may not have had a tune up since the 60s. They rattled, fumed and shuddered up the hills of Buda.

Chowing Down

Overall our food experiences in Budapest were wunderbar. Hungarian food lives up to its hearty reputation. Portions were large, much was fried, and paprika was everywhere. This ain’t no American paprika thrown on potato salad for color. This stuff was potent and featured prominently on every menu.

Then we had dinner Wednesday night. We went to the 24-hour Pancake house. Now, we knew this was no Ihop. We expected a variety of crepes. What we did not predict was the preparation of the crepes. Have you seen...correction, have we made you watch Jim Gaffigan’s stand-up about Hot Pockets? Do you remember how they are cooked? Our crepes, like the Hot Pocket, were cooked in a dirty microwave. This wasn’t even done in secret; nope, right there behind the counter they threw in each dish, let it spin for 60 seconds, and then tossed your now boiling, lava hot pocket-o-goodness on your tray. If those microwaves are ever cleaned, it would be a miracle (much like the existence of St. Stephen’s shriveled right hand - see pictures for more information).

There is more to tell but I will leave that to my illustrious husband and tomorrow’s post. Until then, check out Budapest Day 3 pictures. Much love!