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Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category

Spring News

Posted in Books, Culture, Stammtisch, Travel on March 22, 2011| Leave a Comment »

On Monday, we had another successful evening at the Mansion House and I would like thank Gunther for the lovely meal and Councillor David Faulkner for his interesting talk on the Ruhr, which celebrated Capital of Culture in 2010. One of the acts that David mentioned was an American singer called Bobby McFerrin – who, I must admit, I wasn’t familiar with. But apparently everybody in Germany knew him and I thought I share his appearance at the Sing! Day of Song event at the Gelsenkirchener Schalke stadium with you, which is on YouTube – click here.

Stammtisch member Sylvia Graham is the honorary librarian of the Meissen Library at Durham Cathedral. This is a specialised collection of mainly protestant theology in German and does contain books not available anywhere else in Britain. There is a website www.meissenlibrarydurham.co.uk and Sylvia would be happy to reply to emails from anyone interested – jms.graham@btinternet.com.

From 1 April, our Stammtisch member Kim di Rollo will also be responsible not only for Brussel Airlines, but also Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines here in the region. She has also passed on an interesting website for small to medium sized businesses, where they can find out more about the Star Alliance Company Plus programme. This can cut company’s travel costs as member companies earn PlusPoints whenever their employees fly with one of the alliance’s 13 participating airlines– click here to get to the website.

And if you’re travelling to Germany and you’re not quite sure yet where to go and what to do – the ‘Germany is Wunderbar’ website might just give you a few ideas – http://germanyiswunderbar.com. Last week, the Guardian also had a very insightful series on Germany and you can still get this online – http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/germany.

This week Germany is also mourning the loss of Knut – the four-year old polar bear from Berlin Zoo, who passed away last Saturday. Happier news come from Nuremberg. Their star Flocke (snow flake), moved successfully to France last year with her Russian companion Rasputin and lives now at a sea water enclosure in Antibes. And her mother Vera just had two polar bear twins in December, who are doing very well. For photographs – click here.

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Helau Stammtisch!

Posted in Culture, Food & Drink, Stammtisch on March 8, 2011| Leave a Comment »

It’s the final hours of this year’s carnival and maybe you had a chance to join in the festivities somewhere around the world (apparently they even have a pet carnival in Rio)? I was wondering if some of our Stammtisch members fancy doing something for Fasching 2012? This could be activities with local schools or even a carnival ball with lots of fancy dress. It would be interesting to see if there’s some interest in this. Or maybe we’ll just join in the UK traditions and have some pancake instead? To give you 2012 Fasching dates, their will be ‘Weiberfastnacht’ on 16 February, ‘Rosenmontag’ is 20 February and finally Faschingsdienstag on 21 February. And maybe it’s not a good idea to tell the kids that in Germany the women cut off men’s ties….

We’ve already had quite a number of acceptances for our next Stammtisch on Monday, 21 March at the Mansion House in Jesmond. Please let me know by latest Thursday, 17 March if you’ll join us to make sure we have enough food for all. David Faulkner, the leader of Newcastle City Council, will talk about the Ruhr Capital of Culture from 6.30pm onwards, followed by our usual informal get-together and German Linseneintopf mit Bockwurst at £7.95 per person.

The other dates for your diary are Tuesday, 10 May for the Liebherr factory visit in Sunderland followed by Schnitzel & Bier Dinner and Tuesday, 21 June back at the Mansion House for an evening all about wine.

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Organ Recital at Martin Luther Church on 25 March

Posted in Events organised by Others, Music on March 8, 2011| Leave a Comment »

On Friday, 25 March 2011 there will also be an Organ Recital at the German speaking Martin Luther Church in Newcastle (Clarence Street/Copland Terrace – close to the Biscuit Factory). This is a rare opportunity to listen to this Rowntree & Brennan organ of 1976 as the church is only used for worships twice a month and meet up with German speaking people at the same time. The evening will start at 6.30pm and Moira Flanagain will play Buxtehude, Bach, Elgar, Grainger, Brahms and others. Admission fee is £5, which includes interval drinks.

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Books & Pennies

Posted in Books, Travel on March 8, 2011| Leave a Comment »

If you want to see what Germans are reading right now – the Stern had a review of popular novels earlier this year. Click here for details. One of our Stammtisch members also suggested a small book fair of German books. Maybe more of you have books you no longer want to keep, or language books you no longer need, but obviously it might be a bit pointless to just give them to a charity shop. Let me know your thoughts!

A few years ago Alexander von Schönburg, the younger brother of Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, described himself as being from an aristocratic family that had to get used to social decline over the past five centuries. At the beginning of the last decade, the journalist and his young family hit harder times after he lost his job. Drawing from this experience he wrote ‘Die Kunst des stilvollen Verarmens – wie man ohne Geld reich wird’ (the art of becoming poor stylishly – how to become rich without money’, which questions our pursuit of consumerism vs quality of life. You can order the book in German and French, but unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be an English version.

So if you’re looking after the pennies, there might just be a site for you when travelling: www.airbnb.com. Instead of staying in hotels, this offers you places to stay in people’s homes. The website, which started around three years ago, now offers accommodation in 9,299 cities in 172 countries around the world and has already arranged more than 1 million bookings.

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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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Culture Events in Newcastle and Durham

Posted in Books, Culture, Events organised by Others, Languages & Communications on September 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

If you’re interested in cultural events, there will be a free poetry reading by two poets from Tübingen on Monday 1st November. The reading is at Durham Clayport Library (Durham City centre) and will begin at 7pm – with German and English readings.

Newcastle University also have a series of seminars as part of their German Studies Programme 2010/2011, Semester 1 that you might be interested in:

  • Sue Vice: Claude Lanzmann’s Einsatzgruppen Interviews
    Location: Old Library Building, Research Beehive, room 2.20
    Time/Date: 14th October 2010, 16:00 – 17:00
  • Christiane Williams: Excitable Minds. The Possible Use and Abuse of 18th Century South Pacific Travelogues as Erotic Writings
    Location: Old Library Building, Research Beehive, room 2.20
    Time/Date: 21st October 2010, 16:00 – 17:00
  • German-English Poetry Reading and Workshop with Henning Ziebritzki & carolyn murphey melchers (Tübingen)
    Location: ! Hatton Gallery ! (Quadrangle)
    Time/Date: 2nd November 2010, 14:00 – 16:00
  • Nils Langer: Language Policies and Language Suppression in 19th Century Schleswig-Holstein
    Location: Old Library Building, Research Beehive, room 2.20
    Time/Date: 18th November 2010, 16:00 – 17:00
  • Martin Pickard: Johann Nepomuk von Poißl and German Opera in Early 19th Century Munich
    Location: ! CETL seminar room, Armstrong Building !
    Time/Date: 1st December 2010, 16:00 – 18:00

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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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