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Archive for the ‘Film’ Category

Autumn News

Posted in Film on October 24, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Dear Stammtisch Friends

The nights getting longer and with the first snow forecast, here are some ideas to keep warm:

The Tyneside Cinema will show this week the German film Barbara, which won a Silver Bear at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. If you go tonight – Wednesday, 24 October – the film will be on at 5.45pm and then followed by a La nguage Cafe session that you can join if you want to.

Also if you missed out on the Brandling Villa’s Oktoberfest and fancy some German food, then head down to the Broad Chare at the Quayside. Until the end of the month, they have some German dishes on the menu, such as Bratwurst, Sauerkraut & Kartoffelsalat, Schweinebraten, Kloss & Blaukraut and Jaegerschnitzel. On draft you’ll also get WEST’s Oktoberfestbier.

Another date in the diary is 16 April 2013! That’s when Germany’s Comedy Ambassador to Great Britain – the very funny Henning Wehn, will be at the Stand Comedy Cafe in Newcastle. Tanja, who saw him there earlier this year, got this tip well ahead by the Stand. I’m sure this would be a great night out for our Stammtisch!

Not so far in the distant future is the 60th and also final Weihnachtsbasar at the United Reformed Church in Newcastle. It will take pla ce on 24 November from 11am to 2pm and as usual there will be the cafe, stands and the Christmas carol singing. If you want to get involved, let me know and I’ll forward you the forms.

I can highly recommend to you Spotlight magazines that I’ve been subscribing to for almost three decades. They’re currently running a promotion, where you can download gratis this month’s magazine as an e-paper and get the chance to win an iPad. You’ll get magazines to learn/improve English (Spotlight, Business Spotlight, Spot on), French (Ecoute), Spanish (Ecos), Italian (Adesso) or German (Deutsch perfekt). Visit their Facebook site and enter the free draw.

The Guardian recently ran a series of articles entitled Germany: The Accidental Empire, wh ich you may find interesting.

And last, but not least – Jo Chexal is now not only able to do your biometric passports at the German Honorary Consul’s offices in Newcastle Civic Centre, Registrar’s Entrance, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8PS. A photographer can also join you at the appointments to get the right passport sized photographs done then and there. To make an appointment, either email Jo at  newcastle-upon-tyne@hk-diplo.de or call 0191 233 6317. 

I’ll also let you know soon about our annual Christmas Dinner.

Keep warm

Manuela

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Broad Chare, Books & More

Posted in Film on April 18, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Dear Stammtisch Friends

Thanks again to everybody who has already registered for our Stammtisch next Monday, 23 April at The Broad Chare in Newcastle. Alongside the fabulous English menu, the chefs have added Gulaschsuppe, gebratene Schweinshaxe mit Kartoffelbrei und Sauerkraut und Apfelstrudel for our group. We will meet at 6.30pm in the bar and dinner starts at 7pm. If you haven’t booked yet, but want to join us, let me know by Friday. Also if you’ve booked and can’t come along, please let me know as otherwise we’re reserving too many tables and the Broad Chare does get busy.

We have also received a book recommendation, which has been warmly recommended for any German newcomer in the UK. It’s aptly called ‘Grossbritannien’ and was written by Thomas Kielinger (Verlag: C.H. Beck, ISBN: 978 3 406 57849 6). The ‚Welt’ correspondent apparently provides an overview of English history, in particular its relationship with Germany. It examines in detail the special character traits of the English and how that can create misunderstandings for those with a German background. According to our reviewer this has been explained very clearly, is written extremely fluently and entertaining, which makes reading of the 260 pages extremely easy and quick.

Another Stammtisch follower is German born Christiane Williams who lives in Teesside. She has recently written a children’s book in both German and English, which has just been published. It’s about a little girl that spends an afternoon baking with a fairy. The books are suitable to read to children from the age of 4 years. The book will soon be available on Amazon and in the iBook Store, but you can also check it out directly at the publishers: English Version, German Version.

In Leipzig, language school owner, three times dad and master story teller James Parsons is developing a new audio book both in English and German called ‘Gabriel und die frechen Affen’. This project will be financed through crowdfunding and if you want to find out more and/or support James in his activities, visit the website: http://www.startnext.de/gabriel

The Guardian recently had a survey entitled ‘Will language skills help you stand out in the job market?’ Visit the Guardian website for this article, but we would also be interested in your views.

http://careers.guardian.co.uk/language-skills-job-market?CMP

See you on Monday!

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Tynemouth Village Christmas Festival on 3 December 2011

Posted in Events organised by Others, Film, Food & Drink on November 18, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

This year the Tynemouth Business Forum is organising its very first Christmas Festival on Saturday, 3 December from 12noon till 7pm.

There will be Christmas stalls at Tynemouth Village Green (just in front of King’s School), with mulled wine, hog roast, an opportunity to meet Santa & to feed reindeers, late shopping and carol singing.

The Priory Theatre is also showing some Christmas films – unfortunately Polar Express is already sold out, but there are still some tickets for A Wonderful Life (these can be bought for £5 at Tynemouth shops such as Children of the Revolution, Ruby & Frank’s, Allards’ or Busy Lizzies for the 7pm show.

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Summer Holidays

Posted in Books, Business, Film, Travel on August 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

In Bavaria, there is an exhibition about King Ludwig II from 14 May to 16 October 2011. It is the 125th anniversary of the mysterious death of the Bavarian King, who left behind the castles of Neuschwanstein, Herrenchiemsee and Linderhof. Related to the Austrian empress Elisabeth and a key supporter of Richard Wagner, the life and death of Ludwig II has been topic of various movies. Other Bavarian places to see are of course the capital Munich, Berchtesgaden, Starnberger 5-Seen Land, regional capital Nürnberg, world heritage site Bamberg or outdoor activities in Fränkische Schweiz (Franconian Switzerland).

This week, Tommy Jaud’s bestseller  Resturlaub saw its movie premier in Germany. A very funny novel about a man having his midlife crisis plays partly in Franconia and in Argentina. The trailer looks very silly (more a Hangover type of film) and won’t be an Oscar contender, but possibly quite entertaining.  Another bit of ‘easy reading’ would be Bavarian crime novels by Rita Falk. Winterkartoffelknödel was her first book and features an imaginary little village near Landshut. It also includes a glossary of Bavarian terms and some of her gran’s cooking recipes. Click here for a brief interview with the writer.

How real some of these stories described by Rita Falk are, just watch the news in Germany. Parts of Bavaria are currently on alert – no, not rioters – but because of an escaped cow. Yvonne has been on the run for the past two months and even Ernst, a bull brought in this week to provide a ‘honey trap’ has been unsuccessful. For a news video from Stern, click here.

Maybe while walking around Germany, you come across our fugitive cow and what else you can discover is described by Andreas Kieling who recorded his experience in ‘Ein deutscher Wandersommer’. And if you’re around Germany by bike, the ADFC (Allgemeiner Deutscher Fahrrad Club), Germany’s Cycling Club, provides some suggestions of tours on the 150,000 km of cycling routes in Germany. Deutsche Bahn obviously offers holidays by train.

2011 is also the year of the car. 125 years ago Carl Benz invented the first automobile and Bosch, the company of the inventor of the spark plug – celebrates its 125th company anniversary. Information on events places about the car, can be found by clicking on Automobilsommer Baden-Württemberg, Mercedes-Benz Museum, Porsche Museum, Boxenstop Tübingen, BMW Welt and the VW Museum.

We are currently trying to organise our Stammtisch events list for the autumn/winter and have been in discussion about a book swap event, a travel event, a beer festival and a historical link event (possibly Limes/Hadrian’s Wall). If you have additional ideas or know of venues where they will be able to serve German food, please let me know.

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Easter & May Stammtisch

Posted in Business, Film, Food & Drink, Stammtisch on April 27, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

I hope you all enjoyed a lovely Easter break – and those of you who were in Germany probably had to ‘endure’ the tropical climate there. And if you feel you had too many chocolate Easter eggs and are looking to watch future sugar intake, you might like this article in Stern on ‘Süssmacher’. It shows just how much sugar is in various (sometimes unsuspecting) products.

With Easter, Royal Weddings and so on, we thought April is just too busy for a Stammtisch. But in less than two weeks’ time – on Tuesday, 10 May – we will meet again. Ralph Sälzer, the managing director of the Liebherr factory in Sunderland has invited us to a factory tour, which will start at 6pm. From 7pm onwards, we will then be in the Irish pub TJ Doyles just up the road for German food (eg Schnitzel and Potato Salad) and German/Austrian beers. Dermot, who runs the Irish pub/restaurant, lived in Austria for a while and will make sure we have authentic food & drink. Please let me know if you will join us – either for the factory tour/for food & drink/or both – so that we can cater for this accordingly and I will also send directions to those who will come along.

Liebherr is one of the largest German family owned companies and employs around 32,000 people worldwide. It is not the only family owned company (Familienunternehmen) here in the North East, there is also Aldi, Lidl, Heraeus, Makro (Metro Group), Freudenberg and, of course, across the UK well-known brands such as BMW, Porsche, Dr Oetker, Bosch, Otto (they own Freemans/Grattan here), Würth, Haniel, Merck etc. Of Germany’s 1,500 world leaders (ie they are the number 1,2 or 3 in their particular sector), 70% are family owned and 51% of the largest listed 250 companies in Germany are also under one family’s control.

Just like anywhere else, family-owned companies in Germany face numerous challenges and a key one is to find a suitable and willing successor. The Handelsblatt has established a portal for business owners who are looking to sell their company. To see what type of businesses are available, visit the website Deutsche Unternehmerbörse.

Japan has dominated the news in recent months following the earth quake and subsequent impact on its nuclear industry. On a happier note, this year Germany celebrates 150 years’ friendship with Japan. Back in 1861 Prussia and Japan signed its first friendship and trade treaty, the foundation for this relationship. If you want to find out more about the background, activities and events that are taking place in Germany and Japan, visit the website. And do you know which German city is called ‘Klein-Tokio am Rhein’? In this German city, over 7,000 Japanese have found a new home and around 450 Japanese companies established a base in the region. The city on the Rhein will also be a focus for the 150 Year Celebrations with a traditional Japan Week from 21 to 28 May.

The Tyneside Cinema currently shows a new film directed by Wim Wenders. Pina is a tribute to the choreographer Pina Bausch and was filmed in Wuppertal. Click here to get to the film’s website. In the trailer you can see a famous train (Schwebebahn) and it’s safety was demonstrated in a very unique way. Does anybody know how and what happened next???

I would like to wish you all a great time on Friday whatever you’re doing and look forward to seeing you again soon.

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Entertainer Peter Alexander dies aged 84

Posted in Film on February 17, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Last weekend, the popular German entertainer Peter Alexander passed away at the age of 84. The Austrian started his successful singing and film career in the 1950s and his light hearted and popular films included ‘Im Weissen Roessl’, ‘Graf Bobby’ und ‘Charley’s Tante. He later presented the ‘Peter Alexander Show’ on German television, which regularly attracted audience figures of around 70%. Click here for a film clip on YouTube with the genius Heinz Erhard.

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New Year Greetings

Posted in Books, Business, Events organised by Others, Film, Food & Drink, Languages & Communications, Restaurants, Stammtisch on January 19, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Dear Stammtisch Friends

I hope you all had a great start to the snow free New Year and are enjoying the slightly warmer temperatures. We have now got another date for the Stammtisch at the Mansion House, which will be held on Monday, 21 March, starting at 6.30pm. Gunther will prepare a warming Linseneintopf mit Bockwurst (lentil stew) at a cost of £7.95 per person and the leader of Newcastle City Council, David Faulkner will also join us for a talk about the Ruhr Capital of Culture (Gelsenkirchen, Newcastle’s twin city in Germany was part of the celebrations last year). As usual, just let me know if you’re coming and payment will be again at the door.

We are also currently planning a German wine tasting evening later in the year, but more as soon as we’ve got this organised. If you have suggestions for future events/themes, please let me know – it would be great to get your ideas!

The Stammtisch also received an invitation from Newcastle City Council to the Holocaust Memorial Commemorative Event “Untold Stories”, which takes place on Sunday, 30 January from 3pm at the Journal Tyne Theatre at Westgate Road. There will be a commemorative performance, including keynote speeches from; Youk Chang, Professor Roberta Greene and Peter Kurer and a celebration of ‘The Galloping Stone’ an anthology of writing by clients, staff and volunteers from the Medical Foundation for the Care of the Victims of Torture, by Gillian Allnut and others from New Writing North. The programme will also feature classical and contemporary musical performances from Katie Doherty as well as a solo performance from Bradley Creswick leader of the Northern Sinfonia and a performance by Hotspur Children’s Choir. For further information about the event and to order your ticket – please visit: http://www.hmd.org.uk/events/find/north-east/11733newcastle-holocaust-memorial-commemorative-event-untold-stories.

The Lit & Phil also holds some events to commemorate the Holocaust and if you don’t know this landmark building next to the Central Station, go and check it out. It’s open to non-members and you will be impressed by this little oasis in bustling Newcastle. The Literary & Philosophical Society dates back to 1793 and some of the North East’s leading thinkers, inventors and business people have been amongst its members. The current building was opened in 1825 and today houses over 150,000 books and an extensive music library. To find out more about the society, the library and forthcoming events, visit www.litandphil.org.uk.

That a dog is for life and not just for Christmas, we all know. But last year the shelters were full of unwanted four-legged companions and many unfortunately had to be put down. If one of your new year resolutions is to keep fit, why not check out some of the local animal shelters (such as Brysons – www.brysons.org.uk) to get a suitable partner. And if you’re worried if you can take your dog to a pub for a well-deserved pint, there’s a great website that tells you where you both can go to – www.doggiepubs.org.uk.

And if you’re New Year resolution is to learn a new language – another Stammtisch member sent me this link to this free award-winning online language learning community: http://www.busuu.com/. If anybody has been on it and has some feedback, please post this here on our blog.

And if you’re a fluent German speaker, you might even want to head over there – apparently the German economy is doing rather well – with a 2010 growth of 3.6%. And the Handelsblatt recently reported that there are even 40,000 open ‘Hilfsarbeiter’ (un-/lower skilled labour) positions, which is surprising as we still have almost 3 million people unemployed. If you want to know what are Germany’s top 10 most sought after positions – Stern carried Adecco’s Stellenindex 2010. Click here for further details.

And if you want to know what Germans find entertaining – then just get ‘Hummeldumm’ – this is the title of one of Germany’s top selling books in 2010. I picked it up while on holiday last year and had a few giggles If anybody wants to borrow it, let me know. The author Tommy Jaud (a fellow Franconian) had already previous bestsellers with Vollidiot, Resturlaub and Millionaer. My personal favourite Resturlaub is currently being made into a movie – as I’ve just seen on Tommy Jaud’s homepage – http://www.tommyjaud.de/tommyjaud/home. Maybe when it’s out, we can persuade the Tyneside Cinema to do a special viewing for us.

Anyway, that’s it from me for today – if you can’t wait till 21 March for our next Stammtisch – let me know and I’ll ask the pub over the road here in Tynemouth if they’ll do us a very nice Schnitzel with Pommes.
Have a very enjoyable and successful 2011!

Warm regards

Manuela

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Merry Christmas / Frohe Weihnachten

Posted in Film, Stammtisch, Travel on December 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Dear Stammtisch Friends

First of all I would like to thank Gunther and his team at the Mansion House for our fabulous Christmas dinner earlier this month. A hard core of Stammtisch members braved the weather to come along to our last get-together of 2010.

If you’re not going to make it to Germany for the holidays – there are still some German Christmas Markets that you could visit right here in the UK. The Guardian had an insightful article about how the PR activities of the City of Frankfurt led to the development of the German Christmas markets in Birmingham (now apparently even bigger than Nuremberg or Dresden Christmas market), Edinburgh, Manchester and Leeds. Click here to be directed to the full article.

If you would like to watch a German film in the North East – the Tyneside Cinema will show again Metropolis on 2 January. If there’s interest in any other German films (current or classic), we can maybe arrange a private viewing for the Stammtisch in 2011.

You might be aware that Germany has been on terror alert. A Christmas market in Osnabrueck made the news earlier this month when 10 people were injured during an explosion … of a 600 litre Gluehwein (mulled wine) tank. Click here for the online news article.

And Bavaria, usually famous for its beer brewing tradition, has apparently also its own whisky distillery. A Stammtisch member drew our attention to the Slyrs Bavarian Malt Whisky Distillery in Schliersee. If anybody is nearby, maybe you can bring a bottle or two along to our next Stammtisch?

The snow and ice that first brought the UK to a standstill, has now also caused ‘Stillstand’ in Germany. Why we’re not coping with the winter conditions and the part the media plays, was examined in an article on the website NachDenkSeiten.

Unfortunately we can’t help moving the now on the roads, but recommend a small life saver when you want to walk outside in the snow and ice. Outdoor stores (I got mine in the LD Mountain Centre in Dean Street/Newcastle) sell crampons/ice grips to stop you literally sliding into the new year.

On that note, I would like to wish you all a very happy Christmas and a great start to 2011 / Frohe Weihnachten und einen guten Rutsch ins Jahr 2011.

Very best wishes

Manuela

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Food & Beer – It’s Oktoberfest Time

Posted in Film, Food & Drink, Languages & Communications, Music, Travel on September 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Grisinagott!

Now that autumn has well and truly arrived, we can celebrate the Oktoberfest! This year it’s a pretty significant date, as the Wies’n celebrates its 200th anniversary.

For those of you who can’t make it to Munich – one of the North East’s pubs has embraced our Bavarian festivities and maybe you want to join us on Thursday, 14 October from 6pm onwards at the Brandling Villa in Gosforth. Please let me know who wants to come so that we can reserve a table. On their beer menu you can find many local beers, but also Erdinger Dunkel, Köstritzer Schwarzbier and Schneider Weisse. The food bar will offer typical Oktoberfest dishes such as Hendl (grilled chicken), Schweinebraten (roast pork), Brezel (Pretzels), Knödel (potato dumplings), Bratwurst and Currywurst. For further information on the Brandling Villa, its Oktoberfest (14 – 16 October), directions and the menu, click here.

The Hilton in Gateshead, who hosted last year’s Oktoberfest, have a typical menu again up until 7 October. There you can get dishes such as Kartoffelsuppe (potato soup), Aufschnittsplatte (selection of meats/chees), Matjesfilet Hausfrauenart (herring with apples and cream), Schweineschnitzel mit Kartoffelsalat (pork cutlet and potatoe salad), Hähnchen “Cordon Bleu” mit Bratkartoffeln und roten Zwiebeln (chicken cordon bleu with roast potatoes and onions) sowie Bratwurst und Sauerkraut (grilled sausage and sauerkraut). And if you still have space for desert, there’s a choice of Zwetschenkuchen (plum cake), Apfeltorte (apple gateau) and Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (blackforest gateau).

And if that has not satisfied your appetite, you can always head north to Glasgow, where the WEST Brewery and Bar run an Oktoberfest all through the month. They are even brewing their very own OktoberWEST and have the WEST Oompah Band playing live every Friday from 7.30pm onwards – www.westbeer.com.

Being a typical Munich event, I thought maybe you want to brush up on your language skills? The Oktoberfest site provides you with a lot of information about the event, the history and also the language: http://www.oktoberfest.de/de/navitem/Gaudi/. The online dictionary can also be downloaded as an app and you might also check out the Stern video about the best apps for the Wies’n.

If you want to work on your pronunciation, you might want also to listen to a real Bavarian band – the Spider Murphy Gang, who in the 80s were super successful. Another great programme promoting the Bavarian language was the 10-part series Monaco Franze, which played in Munich. If you can remember this fab programme and are feeling nostalgic, there are quite a few clips on YouTube and there’s even a very entertaining fan page on Facebook. Here’s one where Monaco Franze shows you how to drive a civil servant around the bend – click here.

Civil servants and food leads to another story that recently made the news in Germany – and hopefully both the Hilton and the Brandling Villa take note as it’s all about Schnitzels. A restaurant owner got into trouble with the tax man as he sold disproportionately large Schnitzels to his very hungry guests in Saxony. To read the full story on Reuters, click here.

However, some civil servants do have a sense of humour and Swiss Bundesrat Merz showed this when delivering a speech on a new EU law re a specific Swiss meat and ‘slightly’ lost his composure in the process. His ‘speech’ has now become a YouTube hit – click here.

Anyway, I hope you’re all in good spirits and we see many of you at our October meeting on 14th at the Brandling Villa.

Tschüß

Manuela

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Open Air Cinema ‘Diary of a Lost Girl’

Posted in Events organised by Others, Film on July 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

filmposter10

On behalf of the Park’s Friends Group, Stammtisch member Sylvie Fish is currently organising an open air showing of a German silent movie in Heaton Park, Newcastle on Monday, 23 August.

G.W. Pabst’s ‘Diary of a Lost Girl’ (Tagebuch einer Verlorenen) starts at 8pm at the Pavillion, with live piano accompaniment by Neil Brand. Admission is free. For further info, email sylviefish@yahoo.com.

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