The Numbering System

If you walk around any major German city....along the way, there are trees, and you will notice a "tag" on most major avenues on each tree.

What the park service of each town has done.....with younger apprentice kids under their training program is have them go out and ID trees.

If you went and asked about two hundred trees along such and such avenue...they'd tell you X number of elms or oaks.  A map would lay out the trees and locations.

Does any of this really matter?  As an American, I can say it's nice data.....but it's hard to see value.  Of course, if you got a dozen 15-year old kids sitting around, and just want to toss busy work at them.....well...it's not for a total loss.  The other side of this is that you can kinda predict when the trees have reached maximum age and should plan a campaign to cut them and plant new trees.

Christmas Shock in Germany

The Catholic Church up in Koln....over Christmas....had a morning ceremony.  In the midst of the priest doing the mandated Catholic activities....some gal came out a side door, removed her top, and jumped up behind the priest and choir guys....waving boobs to the public.

Her comments, while in this state of excitement?  Something to the effect "I am God", with the slogan written on her chest in some hearty marker-type ink.

Waving her arms and jumping around, you can imagine the shock and utter surprise of the folks in the audience.  Typically, it's a pretty dull ceremony, and you try to just stay awake.

The priest?  Well....he noted afterwards that it wasn't a big deal, and all could be forgiven.  The head of the Catholic Association for the region?  Well....he had stronger words.  He hinted that nothing can justify this type of action....absolutely nothing.  The local Green Party?  Oddly enough, they even came out and questioned how this really achieves anything.

Over the past year or two....a number of radical groups have recruited young women, and been challenging various church groups throughout Europe and Russia.  I won't call it a cult, but it's a political agenda group with questionable motives on the end-result.

What happens now?  Well....I'm guessing a bunch of guys start to show up at Catholic services in hopes of a topless gal showing up.  It may take forty or fifty visits....but the statistics ought to be in their favor.  Topless selling better than God?  Well....yeah, this is Germany, you know.

Maut Version 2.0

Part of the agreement for the new German government to exist (between the CDU/CSU and SPD)....is this autobahn tax episode.  A year ago.....the idea was deemed as non-existent and most everyone in Germany would have put a bet down that nothing would come of the idea.  Today, it's going to occur.....unless something comes along to stop it.

The deal is simple.....you are a resident of some neighboring country and need across Germany to reach your destination (business trip or vacation) in a private car.  To use German autobahns.....you will buy a pass at some gas station upon entry into Germany.  The yearly cost?  Around one hundred Euro.  The cost for a two-week card?  It hasn't been discussed yet but I'd guess at fifteen Euro.

The transportation ministry is moving on the project but admits it just won't happen in 2014.  The card needs to be developed, and some type of box at gas stations would likely need to be developed to sell the card.  Call the next six months simply the planning stage.

Over the past couple of days....the Austrians got into the debate.  Basically, they are feeling hostile over this new tax that affects them.  Course, in public, they can't admit that they already do the same thing with road tax for foreigners as they enter Austria.  The talk indicates that they will go to the EU court of justice, and seek to stop the matter.

How many Austrians would this affect?  They have a population of 8.4 million residents.  You can figure that half are kids or older folks....that won't come into the equation.  Austria is a small country and a lot of the smaller business operations rely upon travel and sales in Bavaria.  I'd figure around 1.5 million Austrians will have to pay the Maut....to enter Germany.

An American could view this as simply a necessity.  We've been on toll roads in various states, and know the procedures for avoiding them if necessary.  Austrians might think in this way for a short while....avoiding German autobahns.  Maybe a few folks might make this work.  But in the end.....the majority are going to pay.

Affecting the Dutch?  Yes, a large segment of the Dutch population take vacations in Germany, and down into Switzerland, Austria and Italy.  I'd take a guess that roughly two million Dutch of the sixteen million population.....will end up with Maut.

The French?  For the majority of a year, I rarely ever see French cars on the autobahn.  The concentration would be in June or July, in the vacation period.  There might be a million French who buy the Maut cards.

I should state this obvious fact.....Maut version 1.0 was a complete disaster in the late 1990s.  The Germans in charge of that effort....screwed up to the ninth degree.  Screwups pushed that program to almost three years beyond the actual delivery date.  Should we expect problems in this effort?  Yeah, probably.  I could see the EU court folks getting involved and forcing some changes.....which would occur after the Germans had already invested a hundred million Euro into the effort.

So I will predict....2015 will come and no Maut will be in effect.  Maybe by the end of 2016....but it might actually be 2017 before we see this new Maut in effect.  Just my humble opinion after watching history unfold.

The Jihad Travelers

If you had roughly two-hundred-and-forty American citizens over the past two years run off from the US and get into some Jihad war conflict somewhere in the world....would you be kinda worried when that conflict comes to an end, and the folks elect to return back to the US?

Naturally, you'd sit and pause over this idea.  If they were going, and staying....you wouldn't really care.  But coming back, and being all charged up over your accomplishments and enthusiastic-Jihad achievements?

So it is....with Germany.  They've sat and watched folks leave and figure out where they went.  They know at least one kid of the age of fifteen....who has gone off to the war in Syria.  There's some fear in Germany over more folks getting charged up, and the numbers could go beyond just a couple hundred.

The German news media has chosen to report on the topic....but in the barest of terms.  They won't write of implications or what happens after the war.  German political figures are fairly quiet on the matter.  They'd rather not engage on this topic in public forums.

Germans are practical folks.  They don't tend to run off and get into conflicts, life-threatening situations, or get doped up on some religious crusade.  After two major wars, they've come to question themselves and big decisions.  Frankly, they don't see much positive in folks getting charged up and running off to Syria to engage in a war.

Germans also have the tendency to keep in-depth records and remember things.  Each of these two hundred-and-fifty folks?  They've got their name written down somewhere.  I'm guessing when they all return, and there's some behavior issues noted with a couple of folks.....there might be a tendency to call up the names and invite each of the folks down to some police station to have a chat.  Nothing drastic.....perhaps just a word of advice from some old German political figure and the local police chief.  Maybe it's advice well taken....maybe it's wasted advice.

From the old quote.....nothing good of this can come.

Frankfurt-Hahn Airport

If you live in the Frankfurt region.....you will have heard of Frankfurt-Hahn.  About thirty miles to the west of Wiesbaden....lies this old US airbase.  Hahn was essentially in the middle of nowhere.  If you drove out the gate....there was a small town, and then....farms, lots of farms.

As the Americans shutdown the base.....some talk got generated on how the runway might be used.  Eventually, they came to decide on making it a alternate airport of sorts.

RyanAir came in....the discount Irish company, and growth occurred.  Jobs started to come into the Hunsruck region.  It wasn't a big deal....but it certainly helped to replace the American business lost.

The airport consist of massive parking, and a medium-sized building.  Around the perimeter of the airport....maybe a dozen buildings.  Over the years....a couple of cargo airlines have come in, and Hahn has become this small solution of sorts for visitors traveling into Germany from European locations.  Cheap ticket to arrive, a car rental shop, and off you go.

Well....the airport has tended to survive off some government subsidy assistance.  And RyanAir regarded the positive tax structure in maximizing their business at Hahn.  That's about to change.

Hahn says because of more limited flights and less business.....at least a hundred employees from the airport will be dismissed by 2018.  The EU rules are that subsidy action by the government has to end by 2024, period.

Roughly 2.7 million travelers go in or go out via Hahn in an average year.  You can add up the numbers and realize that it's a fair number of passengers.  The trouble is.....RyanAir's whole existence is tied to cheap tickets.  If they can't sell at a certain price....they leave (they've proven that point several times).

Presently, between Frankfurt-Hahn and the new Kassel airport (about 90 miles NE of Wiesbaden).....the region has a fair amount of runway and airport space to expand and build onto.  The Frankfurt airport?  Well....this regional fight over noise and night operations has turned into a bloody mess recently.

Making alternate use of the two limited business airports?  The only way possible would involve some kind of fast-rail project where a guy could get off a plane in Hahn, get aboard a rapid rail and be at the Frankfurt airport fifteen minutes later.  So far, no one has openly discussed this.  I think most of the big players are waiting on massive demands to Frankfurt's airport before they engage on some use of the two alternate airports.

So when you hear about the talk of Frankfurt-Hahn and their subsidy debate.....you will grasp the whole picture.  An airport with potential, but only existing because of cheap discounted tickets and tax money.  It's not exactly the business theme that a real organization would develop and stay in business long-term.  Yeah, it's a gimmick situation....at best.

The Book Problem

30 April 2015 is an odd day in Germany.

Germany has this plain and simple law in effect that copyright of books is guaranteed for seventy years.  After that, it all goes into public domain.  That means anyone can print the book and profit from it.  The original writer and family?  Nothing.

On this spring-like day in 2015, the copyright to Mein Kampf will run out.  For the last couple of years....various political and media folks in Germany have talked of the implications.  The state of Bavaria is the current owner of the book and has been able keep it under wraps.

Across the internet, illegal copies of Hitler's book have been around.  If left to the current German government....they'd like to allow publishing of the two-volume series....with a slight change.  There would be commentary inserted into the new publication to openly criticize the original material.

So for a number of months, this project was discussed.  A number of people were willing to involve themselves into the discussion and help pile on negative commentary.  Along the way....some folks came up and said printing of any part of Mein Kampf was wrong.  Even if you put into critical commentary and heavy featured the thinking as 'stupid'.....it was wrong to print the book.

This week, it appears the anti-printing group has won.  The project to piece together negative commentary and print the book in 2015....won't happen (at least with the current thinking).

I sat years ago and tried to read Mein Kampf.  It was a copy from the Air Force base library.  I doubt if I got more than twenty pages into it....before coming to a conclusion that it was an awful bad piece of political commentary.  I stopped at that point...questioned myself on how I'd possibly continue reading it, and then just put it down.

The odds of a thousand Germans ever reading the whole thing and comprehending it (in the 1920's and 1930s)?  Less than a fifty-percent chance.  I suspect the mass of people who bought the book in 1925 and 1926....put it on their coffee table or desk at work.  They impressed people with a quote or two, but I doubt if one percent of the book owners ever read it.

So this brings me to this whole project of commentary added to the original book.  Once you get into this practice....it starts to invite people to view the idea of all books eventually having a commentary added.  Maybe the Bible?  Maybe the Koran?  I'm not of the belief that commentary added....ever gets read, or accepted.

It's a fair sized mess, and as we come to the end of 2014, you can suspect that this is one of the top ten issues resting on German society as they enter 2015.

This Weekend in Hamburg

Somewhere along the Saint Pauli district of Hamburg here in Germany....lays the "Esso" houses.

They got their name mostly from being next door to a Esso gas station.  It might be an indicator of the world status of the obsolete buildings.

For roughly twenty years, there's been an effort to go ahead and admit the buildings are in bad shape as apartment buildings, and tear them down.  The general belief though.....is that once torn down....they'd be rebuilt as office buildings or commercial real estate.

All of this figures into a issue that will pop up this weekend in Hamburg, with massive rallies expected and radicals out in force.  The cops are keen on planning a safe weekend....and have basically gotten several hundred additional cops from around Germany to come up and stay the weekend....to keep a eye on trouble-makers.

The house issue?  Just one of a dozen issues playing into the radical agenda for the area.  There's some foreign folks trying to get resident status in the city, and the city council isn't buying off on that idea.

The Esso houses?  Well....it's generally been said by the media that no real improvements have been made over the years.  A number of the apartments have simply been taken over by radicals.....no rent apparently.....and simply squatting on the property.

Over the last week or two....someone called up the cops and spoke of the building shaking, and there's some hint of a imminent collapse.  This suggestion got an engineer crew out, and they kinda agreed....there's some big issues with the building.  So they evacuated at least one of the buildings last Saturday.

You can sense that there's no one much in the city government or real estate market who cares much for the buildings.  Structurally, by the time you add up what it costs to bring the buildings to code....it probably equals the same amount to build new buildings.  The city government likely knows that, and will simply wait patiently for some event to occur....giving them a chance to clear the buildings and knock them down.

What's all this lead to?  Well....this weekend will be a fairly hostile weekend in Hamburg.  At least five hundred cops will be out in force during the evening hours.  You can expect the news media to cover it and note the destruction done by the radical elements in the city.

The Nuclear Power Dilemma of Germany

In the past couple of weeks, there's been this infighting of sorts between the EU and Germany.  For an American, it's an odd fight.

The EU was basically designed to take the various members of the union....onto another level of 'togetherness' and 'unity'.  As long as the EU body votes in favor of something, and the member states cooperate.....things are fine.  At the point where a member state goes onto to do something that possibly violates the EU rules....it drags the enforcement arm into a fight.

The issue?  After the Japanese nuclear plant episode, Germany got a bit hyper about operating nuclear power plants.  It was an odd change in character.  No other European country went to the extremes of planning changes....as Germany did.  The end of the planning effort simply spelled out the end of nuclear power in Germany, and a major push on alternate sources of power production.

Journalists will write various stances on the German change.  Some articles will be in complete agreement.  Some will spell out the economic problems of this sudden change.  Some will talk about implications for decades to come.

To make Germany's anti-nuclear power plant plan work....the government came to one simple conclusion.  They had to inject German federal money....into the system.  You can call it grants, or tax credits, or whatever.  Basically.....money came out of one German government pocket....and went into various alternate power developmental projects.  Some are wind-related....some are solar-related...some deal with steam.

The number thrown around for credits and grants for 2014?  Some journalists quote thirty billion Euro that the German government will spend in some fashion.  The thing is....the money gets spread out.  Heavy-users of electrical power?  They get a piece of the money.

As you can figure.....the EU folks are watching this and believe it's a violation of their general rules.  If the money had been solely for developmental stages or such....the EU might have just gone on and just noted some simple negative comments.  In this case.....big-name German companies.....who use massive power in their production cycle....got the money as well.  For the EU ethic's folks.....you can't do this legally under EU rules.

Some folks think that the EU is after Germany because of the high road that Germany has been occupied upon for the last couple of years and the economic 'push' by Germany against EU states.  An attempt to slam Germany on this funding issue?  Yeah....it could be that simple.

So the EU has said that they'd like to investigate all of this.  From the highest levels of the German government.....this isn't being received well.  They've kinda said....they won't cooperate.  You can imagine this EU investigative team arriving somewhere, and demanding access to records, and the Germans grinning because they just won't hand over the records.

The problem with all this.....is that it will get deeper into newspapers and news media within Europe, and eventually Germany.  The journalists are in a tough spot.  They usually are anti-nuclear power when they do articles like this.  To flip so quickly from nuke power to recyclable power?  You'd have to pull a couple of tricks out of the hat....which are probably not acceptable by today's ethics rules.  How would a journalist write a friendly piece out of this mess.....to help the German government?  That's the million-dollar question.

So, for the next six months....you will hear about this investigation by the EU and continue to hear the German talk over 'no' investigation.

The Expansion Topic

Living in Europe....gives me a unique prospective on things.

This week....there was a story out of the UK on city and town expansion.....and how fights are developing all over the UK between counties and city governments.

There's a rule in the UK...as a city, you can't expand out beyond the city limits....unless the county council gives you permission.  The city limits are usually defined and have been in place not just for years, but for decades.

So some cities and villages have reached a point where they really need to add suburbs (fresh new housing).  They've used every inch of city property, and it's time to expand out beyond the limits.  Well....the county governments aren't cooperating.  They've said a number of things which equate to limiting encroachment onto the rural regions.  What is farm property.....is going to stay farm property.

Naturally, you can guess the reaction.

This whole discussion is heading toward the Parliament and big-name political figures in the UK.  Most generally agree that city and village expansion is a natural thing.....it'll happen as necessary.  The political figures in the county governments aren't exactly agreeable to this.  And it's bound to generate a fair amount of tension over the next decade.

What you tend to learn after a while....is that most European cities and villages (not just the UK).....are fairly defined, and don't usually expand.  When you look over at Wiesbaden.....the city is iron-clad defined.  If you want new housing......it's mostly a situation where you buy a property with a house already on it, and do something creative with the backyard or you tear down the house and put up a two or three family house instead.

You can't walk out to the last ten feet of the city limits, and fix up the rule to expand another thousand feet onto the city.  It just won't happen.

For an American, it's an odd change.  Most US communities just accept expansion, period.  There's no real plan or vision....you just add and grin as you pass the expansion.  For some reasons, Europeans are picky about this.  A city is defined, for better or worse.

From the Weekend

Over the weekend, there was a minor fender-bender with the Chancellor's car.  What the press will generally say is that the Chancellor's two-car convoy was transiting from point A to point B, and some eighty-year old German guy glazed the side of the Chancellor's car.

The convoy stopped (you can imagine this scene), and checked out damage.  Obviously enough for a cop to be asked to come and make a report.  The Chancellor....always on a schedule....got into vehicle two and proceeded on.

The accident was viewed by some local cop and a report was issued.  End of the story.....well, it ought to be the end.

Today, there's a full-up investigation to find out who blabbed about the timeline of events from the regional police and security apparatus.  the local Potsdam newspaper apparently got the timeline, and published an in-depth report over the entire accident.

Being an American, I'm used to marginal journalism.  The accident is basically a four-line piece at best, and worthy of being on page six of a newspaper.  When you take a four-line piece, inject a timeline, do interviews, and twist the four lines into forty-four lines....it's a joke.  And when cops start to spend more time investigating leaks like this....it takes away from real police work.

Sitting at home now is some eighty-year old guy....who is likely getting calls from friends and neighbors.  They mostly kid him over hitting the Chancellor's car, and if he got her autograph.  His kids are likely questioning if he should still be driving.  And his mechanic is talking over the 'big' repair job.

Sadly, this is probably one of the ten big stories over Chancellor Merkel for 2013.  In comparison to the US President.....things aren't that bad in Germany.

"No" is the Answer

You kinda felt the shoe drop today.  Apparently, after all the issues with NSA and the spying done on the Chancellor's phone.....the Administration has come to say while deep into negotiations....they won't agree to include Germany on the no-spying list.

It's a short list of countries that are on the list....the UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.

Germany kinda hinted in strong language a month ago....that both Germany and France ought to be on the list.  It was the kind of hint that probably went with the word "implications".

They will likely agree to meet and talk more, but they've kinda laid down a card and said they aren't going past a certain point.  I'm guessing the Germans will play the delay game for six months, and then one day.....quietly shock the Americans by pretending to spy on them.

It'll be a laughable moment....some US embassy guy at a cafe with a friend, and then realizing that some guy in the room was the same guy following him on the street an hour earlier.  He'll report the episode, and the embassy security staff will identify that guy, along with forty others....as trackers on certain members of the staff.  They will ask for a private meeting with Berlin political figures to iron out this problem.  The Berlin guys will laugh and say this is simply implications version 1.0.  Then they will laugh and talk of version 2.0 and version 3.0..

A year or two into the implications phase....some embassy member will report his apartment is bugged.  Another will report a GPS-like device found on his car.  Another will comment on neighbors being asked about visitors to his apartment in the evening hours.

This is how things generally deteriorate and turn into a bigger mess.  At some point, five German professors on vacation in Nevada will be picked up and accused of spying on US military installations.

Next year is 2014, and a hundred years will have passed since some Hapsburg prince went off to survey the troops in Sarajevo and got whacked on the second assassination attempt of the day.  If he had taken the first attempt serious.....things might have gone different in history.  You get the impression that these Administration guys haven't studied the true value of history.....that if you forget things.....then they tend to repeat themselves.

German Politics and Cabinet Posts

As of this past weekend, the new government of Germany has been 'formed'.  For an American, it takes a couple of minutes to grasp and understand the whole concept of forming a government.

Elections were roughly three months ago.  In Germany, if you as a party don't clear fifty percent of the vote....then you form a collation or partnership.  This means you go to the number two winner of the election, or the number three winner, or the number four winner....and work up an agreement.

The CDU won by a fairly safe margin in the election, with their CSU associates in Bavaria.  The problem was.....it was not anywhere near fifty percent.

The talk of a partnership with the Green?  It came and went.

So, the CDU/CSU folks went back to talking to the SPD....for weeks and weeks.  An agreement was worked out.....where they will go over the next four years....what taxes are acceptable to increase....what pension reform will be accomplished....what trade changes will be pushed or declined.  It's a fairly long checklist over an agreement.

The final details?  Cabinet posts.  The SPD ends up with six cabinet posts.  The CDU/CSU folks end up with eight.

German politics run differently from US politics.  Germans try awful hard not to get into a really negative chat situation because they know there's to be a partnership deal always coming up every couple of years.  You have to maintain some friendly nature, and simply act professional.  So in Germany.....there's no political opera games as you'd note in the US.

Course, the question would come up.....if your guy takes over a cabinet post and screws up.....does it screw up the individual or the party itself?  The general answer is.....the party is the one with issues in the end.  They bring the guy in....."fire" him in some fashion, and move on.  So the party leadership is usually careful in checking out their major players, and ensuring they are competent.

Can the SPD do a great job and get rewarded in 2017's next election, with more votes?  Yes, they could.  Will Merkel run for another term in 2017?  Unknown at present.  Are there competent CDU folks to replace Merkel?  Yes, without any doubt.

The biggest political issues for the next twelve months?  This debate over autobahn 'taxes' for foreigners to pay, if they transit the country.  By the end of 2014, most Germans anticipate a program will be in effect, and if you were to drive across the border and use the German highway system.....you'd pay something.  The question is more over.....how much?

A quiet period for the next four years?  An American might look at this and say yes.  Two major political parties have to grin toward the cameras and be careful about insults.....then conduct daily activities within each other's spaces.  It's the kind of thing that we'd admire and wish we had more of.....within the US.

The Pub Decline

When you travel around the German countryside....you tend to notice pubs and bars in every single German village.  Folks don't drive to some adjoining village to enjoy a beer or two....mostly over the fear of some alcohol check by the cops and the possible loss of a license.

If you live in a village of forty houses.....you likely have a pub.  A village of two hundred houses?  You might have two or three pubs or restaurants with a bar.

The German newspaper....Der Western....put up an interesting article today over the decline of pubs.  In particular.....in the Oberhausen area (up north, near the Dutch border).  Around thirty-five pubs have shut down this year (2013).

The decline is blamed on three issues.

First, Sky TV....the satellite service that brings soccer games into pubs.....went up in cost.  If you ran a pub of any degree.....you typically had to have a big-screen TV in some corner, and ensure soccer was on during the evening hours.  If you simply did marginal business with a dozen guys on an average evening.....it just won't pay to open the bar, pay the satellite cost, and make this a living.

Second, the smoking ban has irritated a lot of folks.  Once you get forced into walking outside and smoking there.....you ask yourself why stay for a second drink.  So you go on home after only one drink.  Bar owners have commented on this and noted that once a guy steps outside.....he's just not likely to come back.  The guy who used to drink three or four beers?  Gone, for the most part.

Third, taxes and operational cost make pubs a marginal business.  You just won't get rich off the business like you would have in the 1960s or 1970s.  It's mostly a break-even type atmosphere today....enough income to keep the place afloat, bill the utility bills, and maybe take a weekend trip once a year off the profits.  Why bother running a business when you can't get ahead?

In my village, there's basically two restaurants left running that operate a small bar area.  We used to have one full-up pub.....but things declined over the years and a couple of years ago, they shut down the operation.  In a village of four hundred homes.....there just isn't that much interest in pubs.  Guys got their satellite TV fixed up.....put up a big-screen TV in the basement room, tossed in a refrigerator, and have their own mini-pub set up for friends and neighbors to come over.

Things are changing.....sadly.

My Nazi and Jew Theory

After reading various books, and running around Germany for years and years....I've come to a unique theory over the Nazis and Jews.  It doesn't quiet fit the normal beliefs or political history.....but it might make more sense than what most people suggest.

In the early 1930s....there were around 500,000 Jews....more or less.  The German population in the same period?  Around sixty-five million.

It's a curious thing, as you wander around Germany, and note properties, farms, houses, and businesses which were Jewish owned or operated.  There are few books over the success rate of German Jews in business, agriculture, banking, hotels, or manufacturing.  But you tend to notice an awful lot of Jewish families that made it successfully.

So my unique theory is this.....it was more of a redistribution effort, than anything else.

You gaze at Jewish farms, that were emptied out in the mid-1930s, and became German owned over the next couple of years.  Jewish flower shops.  Jewish bakeries.  Jewish-owned industry operations. Jewish-owned coffee establishments.  The list goes on and on.

Each one of these....went through a redistribution phase.  They were owned and operated by Germans.  No one ever came back....to lay claim to the business, farm, or industry lost.

A unique social experiment?  Maybe.

Some Germans will challenge my suggestion....but I'd suggest that with Nazi-appointed judges in the right places.....most every Jewish owned home and business....moved into a transferable status.  It was a simple procedure.....court papers drawn....the right people lined up....ownership fixed by a redistribution phase.

I came to this unique idea today while walking through a local suburb of Wiesbaden....where Jewish stones were laid out on the street to note a house there at this address.  It was a nice house....especially for 1942 when they were taken.  The income level?  Left in question of course. But it wasn't a standard house....this Jewish gentleman and his wife were in the upper class.  The house ownership?  I would suggest that it went through several court actions, and quietly became someone's property within a year or two.  It's probably been sold six to eight times since WW II ended.

All for redistribution?  Yeah, it could be just that simple.  You can figure from the 500,000 Jews in Germany....at least 100,000 homes, and perhaps 20,000 farms.  Toss in the banks, the business fronts, and the industrial operations.....and there's a fair chunk of German capital and assets that went to some German in line.  Redistribution.

It would be a curious thing to line up the German census of 1925, and gaze across ownerships of shops, businesses, and homes of Jews.  It might take a year or two, with a dozen people....but I doubt if any other conclusion could be achieved....other than a redistribution effort.

Just my two cents on the subject.      

The "Fallen" Karstadt

Across Germany, there's a couple of major department stores....but the one that typically appears in most every major German city....is Karstadt.  There are roughly eighty of these stores across Germany.  The department store has been around since 1881.  The company even includes the KaDeWe store in Berlin....which is a one-of-a-kind shop where just about everything  you could imagine....is sold.  The Berlin KaDeWe store is featured in the picture There are 25,000 employees to the entire shop chain.

Karstadt did great business until the late 1990s.  Somewhere along the last ten years.....they've hit a marginal success rate.  A number of their operations have shut down, and they've gone through six bosses over the past decade....in an attempt to rebuild the success formula to the department store chain.

The latest boss?  The announcement from late yesterday is that a fashion designer boss from Sweden is coming in to manage the company and find some way out of the current trend situation.  The company critics tended to blame the last boss for being a non-German and having no German language ability (he was a Brit).  It's hard to say if the critics are right about the boss having to be a German or requiring the language to effectively run the operation. And yes.....this Swedish gal is rumored to be a non-German speaker as well.

I have shopped at Karstadt....both in Kaiserslautern and Wiesbaden.  I've also been to the KaDeWe store in Berlin.  An American would describe the store as a upscale Pennys....with a wide choice of home decoration items, nice gift ideas, upscale clothing options, and a fine choice of shoes.  Cheap?  Well....no.  If you want discount prices or you work with a limited budget.....you don't shop at Karstadt....plain and simple.

The selling points of the store?  Karstadt is unique.

They have a real chocolate department where fancy chocolates are sold....the type that Grandma would only offer you during the holiday season and in very limited quantities.

They have a fine pen department, where a 250 Euro ($325) pen can be found from France, or a fancy Swiss designer pen for 150 Euro ($200).

They have a decent wine department, where a fine bottle of Italian wine can be bought for 100 Euro ($125).

They offer a unique crystal and dining ware department, where you could buy a fancy coffee set for 225 Euro ($300).

People with a real income....shop at Karstadt.  People with a limited budget....simply browse and walk out empty handed.  There are fewer Germans with a real income....so more window shop, than occupy themselves with five-minute decisions over a eighty Euro fine pen and pencil set.

A dying operation?  No.  But Karstadt has a unique problem in that competition has been wedged up against them.  They need a theme....a couple of unique celebrity types (promi-characters), who try more to portray themselves in a comfy home environment with Karstadt items....without advertising a sale or discounted prices.  They aren't discount, and shouldn't ever lower themselves into that standard of business.

So when you hear about Karstadt, the new operations boss, and wonder what the whole thing is about.....you will identify it as an act of desperation by a "fallen" company in search of a mythical change.  If there ever was a sword-in-the-stone moment, or some damsel-to-be-rescued moment, this is it.....they need that kind of rescue.

The Bike Story

There's rarely a week that goes by in Wiesbaden.....where some bicyclist doesn't get hit or killed in an accident.  I've come to realize this after a couple of months in the local area.

Last night?  Somewhere on the main drag through the shopping district of town....some mid-twenties gal on a bike got hit and run over by a city bus.  They brought out a vehicle to lift the bus off her....but it was too late.

The cops will spend some man-hours to analyze the episode....but you can toss in darkness (after 7PM), a busy street, and virtually no real protection, and then come to the conclusion that it's closed.

Bicycling is a major deal in the local area.  In June and July.....on the streets of any German city....you see hundreds of folks over a eight hour period on bikes.  Most wear helmets...some don't.

I'm often amazed at the risk involved with heavy traffic and the number of folks who survive an entire day with no accidents.  On the back side of my village is a forest, with miles and miles of trails made for bikes.  Even in October with fall in full swing.....you could bump into a dozen guys or gals on bikes in the middle of the day.  It's the safest place in the world....but it's a recreational bike run.

From an American prospective, you'd have to be accepting of huge risk if you got into the German concept of biking from your house to your job daily.  Toss in darkness and traffic....it's not the normal type risk that Germans tend to accept or limit themselves.

From the local newspaper article this morning over last night's episode....the bus driver was in pretty bad shape after the accident.  The odds are.....he won't be driving again....ever.  There will be weeks and months of therapy, but I doubt if he is willing to step back onto a bus.

Life, as it is.....in Wiesbaden.

The Fake Front

Down in the old city part of Nuremberg, there's a cop station.  It was a plain regular building to start with, and along the way.....some folks got fancy ideas, a bit of cash, and they built a fake fortress-like front to the building.

A guy from Bama would pause and look over the idea.  It's just a regular two story block building to start with....nothing fancy or special about it.

You can figure there's about fifty thousand in stones, and probably three months of labor for a couple of guys to arrange the stones to cover only the front side of the building....in a special way.  It stands out.  Simple concept that you could repeat everywhere....if you just had real stone masons around.

The Debt Discussion

I have a special appreciation of German economic folks.  They sit down and review thousands of reports, then produce an exceptional report on the positives or negatives of German consumers.

This week?  There's a fresh new article over at the Wiesbaden Kurier (the local newspaper), which details the debt ratio of the local folks.

In the consumer world....there is debt, and then there is DEBT.  They can measure this business down to the ninth degree now, and you could be in really serious DEBT....and ever realizing it.

Here in Wiesbaden.....one out of every six adults....are mired so deeply into debt....that they will never be able to exit it and live a good life.  It's a pretty bad statistic....if you think about it.

The folks in Frankfurt?  Roughly eleven percent of the adult population are mired deeply into debt.
These economic guys even broke it down into postal codes....which is amazing.  Here on the northeast end of Wiesbaden....there are several upscale neighborhoods....like my village of Naurod.  This little village of roughly 4,000 residents.....was roughly around nine percent on the degree of debt.  Basically, they were mostly all living within the means of income.

I live in a nice little village, and have always come to note that the houses are kept in great condition....fine cars line up the streets of the village...and there's virtually no crime.

The worst area within the region for debt?  It's a curious thing....it's the Westend.  This is an area west of the shopping district, and you'd describe it as mostly a working class neighborhood area.  There, the debt percentage goes up around twenty-eight percent....roughly one out of every three residents are facing a major problem in life...at least economically.

Course, this all comes around to the two issues revolving around debt.  You have to have a decent paying job, and live within your means.  The folks in my village kinda fit that role model....but only because of a fair number of professional skill folks, who can afford the half-million Euro homes in the town.  They make enough....to stay above the debt level.

The Westend crowd?  It's a working class area.  This is where your bartenders, your cooks, your waitresses, your sales clerks, and your truck-drivers all live.

It's hard to be enthusiastic about debt.  People rarely resolve debt issues, and generally, you only get deeper into debt unless some relative passes on and leaves you capital to clean up your mess.  I'm guessing these economic experts sit at a pub at the end of such a project, sipping a beer, and wondering if they take this data, invent some type process, and dissolve debt overnight.  It might take more than one or two beers though.

Amazon in Germany

Sunday night was a curious event with the Gunther Jauch show.  It's the big political chat show of the week, for most Germans.

This week's topic?  Amazon.

The guests were an odd crowd.  It was mostly a dump-on-Amazon episode.  The aggressive nature was marked as a bad thing.  The management and pay scale of employees was marked as a negative.  And the threat across the spectrum for other German business operations was repeated over and over.

What was pointed out....is that the public is embracing Amazon and the one-button mentality.  The public in Germany wants a service where things are advertised neatly and in a concise fashion.  They want to have the ability to order while on the run.  And they want the item delivered in two or three days.

It got brought up that vegetables and fruit are next on the list for Amazon to develop and sell via the internet in Germany.  No one is sure where this will go and how successful it might be.  The chances that ten percent of the public might be dedicated to buying apples via the internet within five years?  There's no way to predict this.  But I would take a guess that five to ten percent of the German population will drift toward it and use it several times a year.

Amazon in Germany has a public appearance problem.  They are encroaching onto sacred German customer traditions.  There are various companies in Germany who have a fear of what is coming.

Wal-Mart came into Germany back in the 1990s, and found a fairly hostile atmosphere.  Legally, they were challenged over and over, for the practices that made them big money in the US.  Eventually, Wal-Mart felt enough pain, and gave up.  You can't start a Wal-Mart in Germany today....because of the 'fire-wall' that was put by Germans.

Amazon?  They've gone around the Wal-Mart issues, and put up fresh new problems.  The lesser of German companies will sit there and try to bad-mouth the company enough....hoping on the same end-solution as Wal-Mart.....dragging them to failure within Germany.

The problem?  There's just too many Germans using Amazon now.  If the workers got really greedy....Amazon could shut down one of the warehouse operations, and start moving some operations off into France, the Netherlands, Poland, or Czech.  A flick of the switch, and you would have exercised a change that was not possible back in the 1990s.

For this reason, I think Amazon is resolved to stay.  They don't have a plan "B" like Wal-Mart.

Statues

Nuremberg has a number of major statues in town.

I stood there today, with a couple that correspond with death.  It's an odd topic for a statue.  Forty years ago....they would have gone and done traditional statues.  Today?  The modern touch is to take risks.

There's at least eight different characters on the first picture.  All corresponding with death in some manner.

It's hard to say if there is a bid put up for a statue, or the city council has some inside artist with special favors.  The size of the statue relating to a cost?  Generally, yes.  This guy probably spent at least two or three years working on this piece.

This one to the right?  It's supposed to represent a 'death boat' where some folks are trying to get away from death within the boat.  Yeah, the gal is half-naked, and there is a raven perced somewhere on the boat with some dog yelping.  No....no cat, or cowboy armed with a pistol.

I guess I'm lucky not to be an artist.  I just wouldn't have this kind of imagination.

The bottom picture?  Some chunky gal, eating a graham cracker, with a Timex watch on.  Yeah, she is sitting on a dragon.  As I walked up to it.....some six-year-old kid was standing there and looking at the gal.  I guess he was contemplating the graham cracker, and it's impact upon the gal.  Maybe.  I guess it's best not to think too deeply on things like this.

Ornaments

Yep, as you look closely at the Xmas decorations featured in this shop in Nuremberg....that is a gal in an exotic outfit in the middle.

Who would buy a tree ornament like that?  Most folks would like to avoid looks or questions on their choices of Christmas ornaments.  It simply begs questions....where'd you buy it, or who bought it for you.

The thing is....here in Germany....they will make just about every kind of ornament that you can imagine.  Want a bulldozer or Volkswagen Beetle car?  They got them, and ten thousand more.

Nuremberg Xmas Market

 I spent the weekend at the Nuremberg Christmas market.  From all the Xmas markets in Germany, this is the grand end-all, do-all market to visit.  There's no place in Germany that puts on a finer show.

On the right is a stand that features various items....all made out of chocolate (tools and horseshoes).  It's for the guy who has a sweet tooth.

You'd need just about an entire day to see the whole market, and live the experience.  My general advice is to find a smaller hotel on the end of town, and use the subway system (roughly five Euro for a all-day ticket).

There's stands for just about everything.  On the right here, is a kid's doll house 'fillers'.  You could spend easily five thousand Euro if you wanted fill up some little gal's entire house with unique items.

Food?  There's just about every type that you can imagine.  Same for the beverages.

The best point to start from?  In the middle of town is the train station, and if you exit.....out of the front door....there's the old city in front of you.  Just cross the street, and you are in the midst of the market.

Crowds?  Well....Sunday is typically the worse day of the week to make the walk.  Monday through Friday are lesser crowds.

Tourists?  Tons of them.  I'd imagine at least a hundred Japanese a day are touring the city and the market during the season.  Americans flying in?  Same deal.

General parking around the city, if you drive in?  My advice....get a city map and figure the dozen-odd parking garages nearest the old city area.  You can estimate all day parking at around ten Euro.

What should you avoid?  I'd generally tell  you to skip by hat stands.....they are at least twenty percent higher than most shops. Same for fancy statue shops.

The temperature issue?  Well....it is cold and you need to step indoors every hour or two to recharge on the temperature.

Examining the World Cup News

Last night, if you were around any Germans....you tended to notice a upbeat chat by German guys (yeah, German gals didn't really care).

The world soccer guys came out with the 'clusters' for the World Cup for next year.  For an American, none of this really is clear.  So I will spend a minute to explain this as simple as possible.

The World Cup guys come out every four years and play this do-or-die series.  There is a crowned champion.  For this series....it's all to be played in Brazil.

The big picture?  You have several groups of four teams (each has their country's team).  You play three games against your opponents in this group.  The two teams who win two games each...move on.  The other two get sent home.

How critical is the group match-ups?  It's really big stuff.....if you sat in the midst of a couple of German guys.  You don't want to have four decent teams in your group....that'd really spoil Germany's chances of moving up.

So the group that Germany sits amongst? Ghana, the US, and Portugal.  It took around sixty seconds for most German guys....upon coming to the news....to react and realize they have it made.  They will move on.  The Portugal folks?  They are just as happy.....they will beat at least the US and Ghana....maybe even Germany.  The Ghana folks?  They might beat the US, and that's big stuff for them.  As for the US team....led by their German coach?  Well....it's a dismal group to be in.....the odds are stacked against them to win a single game.

Yeah, it's kinda like March Madness.  Most German guys will chat over the match-ups and the possibility of Germany or Italy winning the World Cup.

So, as you stand near the water cooler next week at your German office.....as an American....you can sense the vast nature and importance of this World Cup group news.  We've got months to go....but summer of 2014 is a big deal....at least for a German soccer enthusiast.

Dampfnudelblues

Channel one (ARD) produced and delivered a krimi movie production last night.  I don't usually blog comments on the criminal movie episodes that appear on German TV.  Last night's show was different.

I'd almost suggest that Dampfnudelblues was capable of being delivered in US theaters, and possible making a run for an Oscar somewhere along the way.

It's hard to twist a cop and murder movie into a cynical comedy of sorts....but it was achieved in a five-star way last night.

It's a simple story.  Some guy is still living out of the family house and in his mid-30s as a police detective, in the middle of nowhere.  Mom is mostly logical but nuts.  Dad is a heavy weed smoker.  The brother is married to some Thai gal who hates Germany, and probably hates the husband more than average.

In the beginning, there's some school chief who is gay to some degree and into bondage.  Someone has done graffiti on his house, and he's called the cops.

The movie alongs along at a snail's pace.....showing life in a town where society has kinda dropped to first gear, and most folks are happy with soap opera lives.

The school chief ends up dead around twenty minutes into the movie, and the rest of the show is this tracking business and the twenty-odd locals who are a bit crazy.

Sebastian Bezzel plays the hopeless cop, with the crazy family, the crazy locals, and the crazy girlfriend.  He ought to get an oscar for his delivery.

At some point about half-way through the movie, they introduce Rudi (my favorite from the movie).  Rudi is this wannabe detective, who works as a local store detective....mostly because he's not really the type for real detective work.  Somehow, Rudi knows more about real detective work, than the cops involved in the case.

My advice....if you get a chance to watch Dampfnudelblues....with the sub-titles.....sit back and enjoy a 90-minute movie which has a leisure pace, and is very entertaining.  Note, there's only one dead body in this German cop movie.

An Icelandic Story

I am a stranger in a strange land.

It's generally my quote.....because of various circumstances....that I've come to be a Bama guy wandering around Germany, and the rest of Europe.  Things are a bit different.  Things happen around circumstances that an American cannot imagine.

This week in Iceland....a strange event occurred which draws an American's interest.

The cops got called in Reykjavik (the capital city).  It was a dire circumstance....some Iceland guy waving a rifle around at a window.  Fear gripped the residents of the neighborhood.  The cops arrived.  Some efforts were made to quietly end the situation.  That failed.  The cops ended up shooting the guy who held a hunting rifle.  He's dead.

The unusual circumstance to this?  He's the first guy in Icelandic history....shot by Icelandic cops.  They've faced off various folks before, but never resorted to using a pistol or rifle to take down a dangerous guy.

So far, the investigation is underway.  Cops won't say much.  There's a belief that drugs and alcohol were involved, but it'll be a month or two before the toxicology report bluntly says that to be a fact.

In a country of 325,000-odd folks, there are occasional murders and killings.  But some generally report that it's an average of maybe one per year.  They actually gone a year or two on some occasions with no dead bodies appearing.

From the Suddeutsche Zeitung, the reporter asked questions from an Icelandic resident who writes criminal books and murder stories.  It's a challenge....he admits.  You just can't write up a typical US murder book with several bodies appearing from a deranged killer.  Icelandic folks won't take it serious.  So you kinda limit yourself.  It kinda sounds like you can have one to two bodies max....otherwise, the typical Icelandic who-did-it-killer book is a failure.

The reporter never asked how many books a typical writer would sell off a fresh new story.  With only 325,000-odd residents....I'd think a thousand books might be average success, and five thousand would astronomical.

My general impression....from watching various Icelandic TV series and around six Icelandic movies....it's kinda like Mayberry (the Andy Griffith town).  Folks know each other.  There's no NCAA stuff to argue over.  One guy might get all huffy about such-and-such snow shovel, while some other guy is snow-blower freak.  Some gal might get into a big catfight one night with another gal.....over the only eligible single guy in the fishing village, who happens to be forty and a marginal success in the barber trade.

There's going to be talk for weeks and months over this police shooting.  Someone will likely write the guy's life story.  Someone will make a epic poem over his demise.  Some gal will claim she knew him as a tender guy.  Who knows.....they might even erect a statue to the guy.....the only one ever shot by the cops....and likely on some liquor binge episode.  Stranger things in life have occurred.

Wiesbaden Likes It Tasty!

We are roughly eleven days away from a critical opening in Wiesbaden.  Yes, Tasty Donuts are coming to town......down on the shopping district.

Wiesbaden likes it tasty....is the slogan.

Will donuts in Wiesbaden sell?  It's hard to say.  It's not a big shop, at least from what used to be there before.

They picked a location about a block away from any bus passenger traffic.  A guy might travel via the city....jump off for eight minutes....and pick up some donuts before grabbing the next bus to work.  In this case?  You'd have to pause for twenty minutes to walk over to the spot, get in line, and make yourself happy.

My humble reaction is that they last twelve months before admitting that the location was a lousy choice.  But, if you have a good gimmick idea for a product.....you don't ask a lot of questions over the location when there are limited choices.  My pick would have been near the Luisenplatz bus stop where twenty buses stop and pause, or across from Deutsche Einheit from most buses stop.

The Nazis Back in Action?

While it's a rarely followed story in Germany.....there's a murder trial underway on a Nazi individual (there were several folks in the deal).....and around ten foreign guys killed over the past decade.  What the cops said during the period of the murders....was that they had no connection.

Somewhere along the way, they stumbled upon this one small German Nazi group.....who planned and carried out the murders.  The size of the group?  Three.  That's what makes this a bit unusual.  There's only one member who lives at this point....the other two have passed on (by their own hands).  At least three to five times a week, there's a brief 30-second update on the evening news.  The case against this remaining gal from the Nazi group is hard to figure.  To say it's an 'open-and-shut' case?  No....based on some evidence, it might be hard to connect her to various parts of the whole scheme.

This week, the cops finally finished up a preliminary review of all murders in Germany since 1990, which are unsolved.  They pick 1990....mostly because that's when the wall went down, and reunification occurred.

The total of unsolved murders?  3,300.

Well....the cops hint that roughly 849 folks are dead and of a suspicious nature that might relate to Nazi-like attacks.

You can imagine some German political figure standing there and trying to grasp the idea of a bunch of Nazi-related murders going on, and how things might not be as pure and clean as they'd like to believe.

The man-hours of doubling back to 849 cases of unsolved murder....some going back twenty years?  Even with a staff of twenty detectives....this could take two years to review and come to a conclusion acceptable to the public.  The odds of even ten-percent leading to a Nazi-like "hit"?  It's hard to imagine any reliable guess on this.

A couple of years ago, suggesting that a Nazi group of some type existed and was whacking a couple of foreign guys would have been laughed at in Germany.  Today?  We might come to some conclusion in a couple of years that three hundred foreign folks came to an untimely end....because of Nazi-cell operation.  Then what?

As hyper as Germans were about Islamic fundamentalists and the NSA business....they might have to suddenly get all peppy about Nazis and the threat of murders.

A Little Shop in Wiesbaden

In the midst of the shopping district of Wiesbaden, is Butlers.....on Neugasse Strasse.

It's an interesting gift shop.  If you had someone in mind for a birthday, or special gift.....with no idea of what to buy....then I'd suggest ten minutes in Butlers.

For guys and gals.....they feature around a thousand items in the store, which have a unique look or appeal.  From unusual coffee cups, to funny wall mounts.

There's artsy stuff, practical kitchen items, and items for the season.  I'd take a humble guess that a quarter of their products come and go on a monthly basis, with new and different items replacing them.

So if you've reached a point of desperation and need a gift for someone in a hurry....I'd recommend the guys at Butlers.

Germans and Gas Pricing

For several months, I've been noticing a trend.  If you drive enough around Germany at different times of the day.....passing gas stations....you start to notice wide variations of the pricing.  We aren't talking three or four cents....it's more like ten to seventeen cents.

Today, Focus put up an article discussing the matter, and how German society is simply accepting this change.

Most gas stations in Germany are now hooked up to electronic gas pricing signs.  The boss can update the sign hundreds of times per day.  Statistics are now being employed to show gas station owners of times when people tend to stop, or to pass by a gas station.

The highest prices?  Well....it's in the hours prior to six AM.  The logic being that gas station operations have to pay their evening employees more....so they need to make up for that 'loss'.

Last week, I came to pass one station that had gas down to 1.48 Euro a liter.  This was in mid-afternoon.  After five PM.....passing the same station, it was back to 1.56 Euro a liter.  An eight-cent difference in just a three hour period.

What does all this equal?  Well....it challenges Germans to continually be mindful of the best deal....at any time of the day.  Sadly, you could be on your way to a wedding or funeral.....already behind on the schedule, with at least sixty-percent of your tank full....then seeing a station offering 1.46 Euro a liter in front of you.  Naturally.....you are going to stop and fill up....even if you don't have the time, or the necessity to fill up.

If you had suggested to me a decade ago that a station might run through twelve different pricing situations for the same level of gas....in a twenty-four hour period....I would have said you were crazy.  Well.....we've arrived at this point.

My Grocery

A month ago, my one and only grocery in the village shut down for renovation.

It's the first real renovation in thirty-odd years.  They had repainted the exterior on occasion, added a freezer here and there, and a couple of years ago put in a bakery at the front door.

For five weeks, they literally tore the guts out of the interior.  New tile floor, fancy lighting, new display areas.  It's a million-dollar look now.

The odd thing about my grocery?  For a village of roughly four thousand, it's the only one.  If you drive over.....there's only thirty spots in the lot.  The entire interior is about the three-quarters the size of a college basketball court.  In comparison to your typical Piggly Wiggly?  It's maybe half the size.

They run an interesting concept.  In the chips area, there's only sixteen types of chips to pick from, and rarely more than ten bags of each to pick from.  The beer area?  Maybe forty types of beer, but never more than four six-packs of each on display.  There's no warehouse in the back to restock from.

Sometime after they close each evening....there's a tractor trailer vehicle that pulls up, and dumps out a computerized load from a warehouse in the region.  From the dozen-odd pallets coming off....the stock guys run through the place in an hour or two....tossing up replacement chips, beef, pork, wine, beer, and everything else.

If there ever was a run on pork chips....the place would be sold out in thirty seconds.  For some reason, this method tends to work.  A tiny grocery, for your basic needs.

The distance from my place to the grocery?  A two-minute walk.  Shockingly enough....the store now stays open till eight in the evening.  Twenty years ago....they would have been shutdown by six in the evening.

Unfair

I rode the local bus yesterday, from Wiesbaden back to my village.  Normally, there's not much to see or do, for this sixteen-minute ride.  Yesterday was different.

I sat facing the rear, and about six feet in front of me.....sat a teenage German girl.  I'd estimate that she was fourteen.

The minute she sat down....she took out her cellphone and called "mama".....and so began a eight-minute conversation.

I sat there and hear the German expression "unfair" at least twenty times in this eight-minute talk.  It was loud enough that almost everyone in the front half of the bus could hear the talk.

My German is rusty, but this discussion went in the direction of time schedules, curfew, and expected time to be back home on Friday and Saturday evening.  Naturally, mama had set the curfew hours, and the teenager just continued to argue over and over.  I could tell....after three minutes, that several folks were now listening into the conversation.  Most of the women were lightly grinning.

The call eventually ended....only when the bus got to her stop, and she finally noted unfair for the last time.

There's typically three expressions that German teenagers like to use over and over.  Unfair, super (a cynical term usually meaning "absolutely great" in the negative way), and finally, there's erpressen (usually meaning you are blackmailing me).

A German kid between twelve and fifteen will use the three terms at least sixty times a week in conversation (my humble figure).  At some point around seventeen or eighteen.....reality hits, and suddenly they grasp the big world around themselves.  A German between the ages of eighteen and forty?  They usually go to using 'super'.....as the chief way to note a sarcastical moment and relieve frustration.

My wife is always anti-public transportation.....hating the crowds and the chaos of bus or train rides.  Me?  For some reason, it's like Alice in Wonderland....with a thousand characters that you tend to note on an average day.  Yesterday?  The unfair teenager.  Who knows what a simple sixteen minute trip next week will bring?

Soap-Opera Reality Has Finally Arrived

TV in Germany has a number of positives and negatives.  You can never bet on some new program, it's impact, it's authenticity, or how the audience will see the final product.  Winners and losers....often collude with each other.

So Sunday night came, and the regular history-cultural-National Geographic-like show "Terra X" came on.  It's a state-run TV production, on ZDF (channel 2).  It's on around 7:15PM, and runs for an hour.  It would be correct to say that they have ownership of time-spot and the show has been on for years (mostly successful because of the time-slot and the quality of the history story).

Typically, they put up a full hour (no TV commercials) of some moment in history.  They will spin the story of some Mayan King, a great walk in the middle of Africa, the last great king of France, or explain the Marco Polo legend with a camera traveling the exact same route.

Folks tend to like Terra X because it's four-star geography and history rolled into one.  They tell a story....in a prospective that makes it almost a movie, but shorter.  It's a simple format, and usually drives the viewer to ask more questions.

This Sunday's show opened up a six-part series....great women in world history.  The catch?  It's all told from their own perspective....like a reality series today.  The video is in the background, weaving all the scenes.....with the actress telling her own personal story.

Last night was Cleopatra.  It was an interesting change of pace from what  you'd expect.  Cleopatra basically told her soap-opera-like story.....love affair with a Roman general.....palace intrigue.....and a collapse in the end of her life with no avenues left.  Captivating, would be a good word for describing the hour-long episode.

What's left?  Five more worldly ladies. Princess Louise of Prussia (a Prussian gal who had brains), Sophie Scholl (a radical German gal from the 1930s who led anti-Nazi efforts and was executed for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets in 1943), Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great and the French warrior-leader-damsel Joan of Arc.

The selling point of this series is mostly a fictional piece of how they would have seen their lives played out, and what all this meant.  Some folks would have issues with the method of history being done this way.  In today's environment.....it's hard to get people interested in history, unless it's all done like the History Channel, or you work in imaginary drama into the piece.

Cleopatra's woes?  You could almost sense a Hollywood-like atmosphere in the mix.  A bunch of Lady GaGa-type characters, toss in some political maneuvers, Roman gladiators (guys always like that stuff), some romance, some love gained, some love lost, and you got yourself a five-star one-hour history lesson.

I would basically say that German state-run TV has watched enough of the History Channel....to figure out the right formula for telling a story.  Maybe it's not totally accurate or right....but folks like this kind of stuff.  In the end, history has to be entertaining....for us to pay any attention.

Anyway, Sunday evenings at 7:15PM.....on channel 2.  It's worth watching.

Amazon Talk in Germany

Twelve months have passed since the last Amazon strikes in Germany.  Frankly, we've come full-circle now....back to another month of anticipated strikes.

The union says it's the best time to prove their point.  Amazon is quietly viewing the issue.

What we do know is that Amazon is expanding out into Poland and Czech.  The management folks say it's good business operations and more access to the market.

What is going to happen one day...maybe not 2014....but 2015...is this odd strike reaction.  Amazon could shut half of their operations down in Germany and just say business went into a different direction.  They'd resettle the purchases to come from the Netherlands, and Poland.  When their union members get peppy, then they move the base of operations to another country.

Eventually, the union guys would be standing there and admitting each time a strike occurs....that some folks will be given a lesser shift, and less work, thus equaling less pay.

The strike strategy in Germany, at least from an American prospective....probably works in the 1970s and 1980s.  With the EU and open borders?  There's a bold new world coming into play.  And Amazon is going to play this to win.  One way or another.

The EU

For an American, the European Union (EU)....is a difficult thing to grasp and understand.

The concept....long ago....was that you'd enact a parliament of sorts....with representatives from various European countries....have a united currency....open up borders....and do things in a certain way (form).  It meant reaching a simplified way of doing business.

The deal was simple in the beginning.  You had a vote, and voted onto accepting some general rules to be in the EU.  Well...some legislatures discovered that their populations weren't so friendly toward this....so they didn't have the guts to vote....moving this to a national agenda that was voted by the public.  Some European countries accepted certain things in the deal....some didn't.

The British like being a distant part of the EU.....but won't give up the Pound.  Norway has little to no interest in any part of the EU....except for easy border access and trade relations.

Currently, there are eight countries on the road to some membership: Iceland (the economic downfall tossed their membership application to suspended for the present), Turkey (who is often identified as the 'bastard-child' of Europe), Albania (the poorest of the poor countries), Bosnia (continually talked about but rarely moves on their status), Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, and Montenegro (who no one can readily ID on a map).

Last week, chats came up about another new group of potential EU players.  Ukraine was mentioned around, with the expectations of this taking at least twenty years to clean up it's act.  Moldova?  Economically, it's doubtful that they can ever provide a clean book, or show no corruption within the government.  Georgia?  It's a thousand miles from Europe and it begs lots of questions about just how European it really is.

For an American, the EU is like the efforts of the US federal government in 1776.  It made economic sense to pull the thirteen states into some combined effort.  The idea that it'd one day be fifty states?  I would imagine that Thomas Jefferson, if told of this achievement....would be mostly shocked that one central government could stand over fifty states.

By 2050, there's likely to be forty states within the EU.  Some island states....like Cape Verde....will not be very easy to explain.  Some distant states....like Georgia....just won't make sense.  Yeah, Norway will stay be mostly a non-member.....just watching the events from the sidelines.  And yes, the British Pound will continue to exist.  

From an economic prospective, it's attractive.  Open borders....one currency....a banking sector that is simplified.....and people with some joint behaviors on culture and law.  Maybe it makes sense to accept this path.