Willkommen!!

Welcome to our class blog!

We will be using this blog throughout the semester for two kinds of assignments:

1. Once per chapter, the homework plan will direct you to post a response to the culture readings for the chapter on the blog.

2. Roughly every other week, the homework plan will direct you to post here for your Abenteuer mit Deutsch (AMD) assignment. First you do a fun activity that involves German, then you post about it. You should spend an hour total on this (maybe 45-55 minutes doing something, 5-15 minutes posting about it). See Was ist ein AMD, AMD Ideen and Beispiele for ideas. This should get you excited about the kinds of things you can do!

Whenever you post something, please include your name and the name of the assignment (e.g. AMD2, Kultur5) as labels. See "Blog: How To" for more details!

Kultur1 - Henry Warrington

How German is American?
Having grown up in a very German influenced city this brochure was an interesting read. Cincinnati has many German influences scattered all throughout the city. I grew up eating brats and avoiding the sauerkraut that my parents would eat. I constantly heard about the crime happening in Over the Rhine, a predominantly African American community with very high levels of crime. I saw the ads for Cincinnati's annual Oktoberfest celebration and was always confused as to why it was in September. The popular bar in the town across the river is called the Hofbräuhaus. All of these things were just parts of my life while growing up. Never did I think about the heavy German influence on the local culture until later on in my teenage life. Reading "How German is American?" helped to solidify the culture influences in my mind and also helped to explain why they are not as obvious as other cultures' influence. As the brochure says, many of the German communities were the locations that African Americans moved into after World War II and that would help to explain why Over the Rhine is now a predominantly black neighborhood with only the name to remind people of its German heritage. Cincinnati's Oktoberfest, also known as Oktoberfest Zinzinnati, is a highly publicized event and I spent most of my childhood trying to figure out what those strange people were wearing. That was of course until I watched the Sound of Music and my mother explained what Lederhosen were. She also explained that I had a pair of Lederhosen when I was child. While reading the brochure and how it mentions that most American Oktoberfests are more about making German culture one culture, I know wonder to what extent Oktoberfest Zinzinnati, the largest Oktoberfest in the United States, boils down a multi-faceted and complex culture into one culture that can be summed up by beer, brats, sauerkraut, cheese, Lederhosen, and the chicken dance (apparently Oktoberfest Zinzinnati holds the world record for most participants in the chicken dance at 48,000 participants (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest_Zinzinnati)). "How German is American?" made me to begin asking the questions about how German is Cincinnati and how much of it is a farce versus true German heritage showing through after all these years.

Greetings and Farewells and Titles of Address
During most of my day to day conversations my typical greeting is some variation of "hello" whether is is "hello," "hey," or "hi" completely depends on how well I know the person and how excited I am to see them. While this type of greeting is my more colloquial greeting, when I am at work I greet most customers with "Good ______!" depending on the time of day and when they leave the store I either wish them a good day or a good night once again depending on the time of day. Along with the different greetings, my titles of address vary depending on the person and how well I know them. Close friends will get called anything from "dude" to "bud" to nothing. On the other hand, most adults or professionals I do not know well will be addressed as a Mr., Miss, Mrs., or Professor unless they ask me to call them differently. While at work I also address the customers as either Sir, Miss, or Ma'am depending on gender and age of the customer. While these different greetings and titles are different than the seemingly more formal German counterparts I think that they are no more or less formal but just different because of the two different cultures.
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Kapitel 1 Kultur

This article really made me think about the lack of a German sub-culture in America. My grandmother was born in Germany yet I know little to nothing about her culture. I wasn't surprised to find out that more Americans claim German ancestry than any other. My grandmother moved here after World War II, so I can understand her need to assimilate to American culture. I didn't know that German culture was so influential on the midwest. I enjoyed the piece on the Milwaukee Turners and what they did for physical education. I would like to visit New Glaus, Wisconsin one day. I guess that Michigan is a large German area.

Kultur 1

Reading this article made me reflect on how many things in American society were founded upon German ideals. One doesn't particularly realize the massive number of important societal constants that have German influences. Some of the most popular ones that were discussed in the article that I, also, personally, felt were more common include: kindergartens, Oscar Meyer, the Grimm Brothers' fairy tales, pretzels, Bambi, and the large vehicle manufacturers including Porsche, BMW and Audi. I, myself, am nearly fifty-percent German, so reading about the "Germanization" of the upper midwest America was very relatable. Beer gardens, Oktoberfest, Limburger cheese and frankfurters are all influenced by German culture. It was a very informative and interesting article.

Kultur 1

While reading the article I learned a lot of new and interesting things. I never knew that Germans had such an interest in Indians. I don't even know if Americans have clubs dedicated to Indians. I also never knew that Dutch was used to describe German people. I thought Dutch was an entirely separate category from German. Milwaukee being "the most German city in America" is weird. I would never have imagined Milwaukee to be the most German but when you refer back in the article in how Germans settled in wooded areas that reminded them of home, it makes a lot of sense. The idea of New Graus becoming "little Switzerland" makes me think of Frankenmuth, Michigan which is like a "little Germany".

Kultur 1

    For starters, I would just like to say that my background knowledge of German heritage in America and German culture overall before reading this article was pretty much nonexistent. It would be an understatement to say that I was surprised to find out that over 15% of America's population claim to have German heritage. Throughout my years in grade school, I had friends that lived on air bases in Rammstein, Germany that came to Delaware for school. They would bring back tales about being able to drink at the age of twelve or learning all the German that they knew through watching Spongebob with subtitles. At first this sounded silly to me: how could an entire culture be founded on alcohol and Spongebob? But after reading this article, my eyes have been opened as to how much German culture and American culture are intertwined.
    I would not go as far as to say that the two are completely alike, however the similarities are there. For instance, many English words are spelled and pronounced almost the same as German words. These cognates are the obvious and very easy connection from German to American culture. Seeing as Germans established their own school, theaters, businesses, and other forms of culture when they emigrated to America, it's not surprising that a lot of their culture mixed in with the resident American population. For instance, the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile is an easily recognized symbol of the hotdog, a food item that many take to be of American origin. However, many miss the point that Oscar Meyer is of German origins.
    I found it funny that my friends from Germany would always have something interesting to say about their times living in Germany. One would tell me that he would frequent beer gardens at the age of twelve and get as much alcohol as he could afford. I can remember thinking to myself, "How on earth did he manage to start drinking alcohol at the age of 12?" Through further reading of this article, it shows just how important beer is to German culture. Beer and breweries accompanied German immigrants on their journey to America as well, which is a large reason that German beer holds a heavy presence in America.
   I could write much more, but for now would be more interested in learning more about Germany, so with that I conclude this brief summary of what I got out of the article, "How German is American?"

Kultur 1 - Philip Picon

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this document about German-Americans. What interested me most about this reading is that they talk about how the "German Belt" is located in the upper Midwest. Being from New Jersey, far from the Midwest, I would say that I notice a decent amount of people from German heritage but only a few people who can speak German (mainly grandparents who moved here from Austria or Germany). However, since I am currently living in the upper Midwest, I figure that I will now notice German heritage more.

Being a fan of American history, I liked the description of how the Germans, when they immigrated, settled around each other and forged new communities. This reminded me of the segregation of cultures in New York City (Irish, Italians, Jews, and Germans). One of the pictures that stood out to me was the one titled "Oktoberfest." I have of course heard of "Oktoberfest" and I am sure that I knew it was German but it took until this point in time for me to really understand how much of a "signature event" it has become and how it ties many people back to Germany.

Towards the end of the reading, it started talking about how German-American culture has started to recede. Unfortunately, I feel that it is just a part of time passing since the mass amount of immigrants came over. Now I know you may not believe me but as I was reading the reading outside, one of the Oscar Meyer weiner cars drove by on Washtenaw Ave. I was blown away because it was as though the reading was coming to life and I was actually witnessing German-American culture while reading about German-American culture.

Finally, last semester I took a class about roots music and therefore I knew a little about how root music (German) influenced our current music. Having taken a language before, I realize that something that is just as important as learning the language of a country is understanding the culture, something this article helped me to do.

Kultur 1 -- Sophia Lee

Reading the history of the exchange between German and American culture was quite interesting. Surprisingly, I found that most of the information I read made sense in correlation to the events that were occurring at the time. When I think about diversity in America, I usually turn to the minorities. I didn't realize how much of an impact German culture had in the U.S. I have never heard of the "German belt" and when I did read about it in this article, it was utterly amusing. I never would have guessed! Since I technically live back in northern Illinois, I now want to learn a bit about the German community in my town. In history classes, I didn't really learn a whole lot about the settlements of different nationalities other than the French and English. So, this was a pretty good refresher for me.

I like pretzels and  I like cheese. And I like Bambi. I haven't read the book, but the movie is definitely listed in my favorite classics. But now, I might have to go read the book to notice the differences from the movie. I especially enjoyed the mix of English and German words in the last bit of the article with "We kehr for you". It's nice to know that despite the fact that some German traditions had gradually faded into American cultures, there are still indications that just show how strong of an influence German culture had in America.

Kultur1

How German is American was an interesting read. The booklet explained that lack of German traditions in America was not due to outside pressures. It wasn't WWI or influences that cause German immigrants to neglect their ancestry. What happened was the German immigrants completely integrated with the Americans. Both of the peoples took on aspects of one another and became one. German immigrants gave us the Bratwursts, Frankfurter and, most importantly, beer! Much of this German influence is seen in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, known as the "Most German City in America". German immigrants also influenced the education system with an emphasis on early childhood education and the certification of teachers. Also, up until the mid twentieth century, German was the second most spoken language in America. The reason Germans were able to integrate so easily was the fact that they weren't "rigid" in their beliefs and traditions. That's not to say their beliefs and traditions weren't important to them. But the Germans were able to adopt American views and practices while retaining their values. This idea is show in the quote from Unser Adoptiv-Vaterland, "Mögen deutsche Gründlichkeit, bestandigkeit und Treue ach fernerhin die Kennzeichen des deutschen Elements in den Vereinigten Staaten bleiben und sich dem americanischen Nationalcharacter immer schärfer und bestimmter aufprägen."




This is an example of German influence in Milwaukee.  

Carsten Sprunger Kultur1

The "Where German is spoken" Brennpunkt Kultur section was particularly interesting for me. German is the native language of approx. 125 million people and is the most widely spoken language in the entire European Union. That's pretty impressive. It's also interesting that Germany's position in the EU has affected the interest in the language so drastically.
It's also pretty cool how German and English go together in the way that they do ("Denglisch"). Words like "Bestseller," "downloaden," "Event," "fit," comprise a small amount of the German vocabulary.
Another part of the article I liked was:
"The Wienermobile clearly speaks more to the stereotypical image of modern America as a monolithic culture than to the nineteenth-century roots of the Oscar Mayer Company; and the commercial success of American exports like hot dogs continues to feed that image. Below the surface, however, one finds much real and widespread diversity, often linked originally to particular regions, in areas such as foodways, but also artistic expression."

Amanda Knop Kultur1

I found this brochure on German-American life really interesting to read, because my family is so German. A lot of the stereotypical German ideas the brochure talks about are relevant to my family. We own a dachshund, my great uncle owns a sausage shop in Frankenmuth, my family has made homemade pretzels at my aunt's house, etc. I find the German stereotype really humorous, so I loved the picture of the German man driving through Milwaukee because it combines a lot of the cultural ideas of what it means to be German.

I did not realize that most people in America constitute themselves as German. German is the descent that most people claim to be in America (around 15%). Now that I think about it, this seems pretty accurate based on how many people say to be German when you ask of their heritage.

I thought it was interesting that in German culture, their black, red, and gold colors are rarely shown, except at international sporting events. In America, we are extremely patriotic and tend to flaunt our colors whenever possible. This seems to be a major cultural difference between our two countries.

I did not realize how many german phrases we use in English. Words such as "frank", "waltz", "angst", "uber", "foosball", "bestseller", "lifestyle", and even using phrases like "the dog wants out" are all German expressions that we use. I never really payed attention to the origins of some of these words.

Also, I have Germany to thank for "The Sound of Music" which happens to be one of my favorite movies.

Callie Chappell-- Kultur1

Interesting thoughts--
--despite later antisemitism during WWII, German assimilation into the US followed a more benign pattern with Native Americans. It seems traditional Native American culture spread more to German, than German culture spread to the USA.
--The creation of Pennsylvania Dutch-- an entirely new language founded as the bifurcation of American and German culture. Additionally. these festivals led to the widespread adoption of "Groundhog Day".
--Lasting dichotomy between German and American approaches to alcohol."Oktoberfest" is a distinctly German tradition, in contrast to many German traditions which have primarily assimilated into American culture.
--Despite being more socially-liberal today, German American culture is "rural Republican".
--Strong German influences in the modern American educational system. (Why German is still widely taught in school, for example)