20 Jahre später ....

..dieBerliner Mauer fällt noch einmal. Aber diesmal eine bunte Mauer aus Dominosteinen. Aber seht selbst wie Berlin gestern abend 20 Jahre Mauerfall gefeiert hat....


Der erste von Künstlern gestaltete Dominostein fällt.....


... und es folgen viele weitere entlang der ehemaligen Mauer und das im strömenden Regen



Feuerwerk am Brandenburger Tor in Berlin

Deutschland feiert - but why??

Ganz einfach - Die Mauer ist weg!!! Germany celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Mauerfall. On November 9 1989 the Berlin wall came down. Aber wie kam das überhaupt - eine Mauer mitten in Berlin??


Teilung Deutschlands

After World War II (1939 - 1945) Germany was divided into 4 zones: die US- amerikanische, die britische, die französiche und die sowjetische Zone. The capital Berlin was divided aswell. In 1949 the western zones controlled by Britain, the US and France became the BRD (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) and the eastern Soviet zone became the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik). They were informally known as "Westdeutschland" and "Ostdeutschland". Hauptstadt of West-Germany was Bonn. A problem was the former capital Berlin because it is situated in the middle of the DDR. Great Britain, Frankreich and the USA didn't want the Soviet politicians to have the control over Berlin as they were afraid that the Soviet Union could control not only Berlin but whole Germany. Finally Berlin wurde into Westberlin and Ostberlin geteilt. The western part belonged to Westdeutschland and the eastern part to Ostdeutschland. In the middle of the DDR there was a little part which belonged to the BRD.

Leben in der BRD und DDR

West Germany was a democracy similar to the UK. During the following years especially America invested billions of dollars in Westdeutschland and the standard of living rose. Es ging den Leuten wieder besser und es gab wieder fast alles zu kaufen. Houses were build nad people began to have cars and things like TVs and Waschmaschinen. This time of economic growth in Westdeutschland beginnig in the 1950s is called "Wirtschaftswunder" (e.g. economic miracle).



In contrary the DDR was a Communist country like the Soviet Union and other "Eastern Bloc" countries. The people in the DDR didn't get support from the Soviet Union but they still had to pay for war damage. Den Leuten ging es viel schlechter. They earned less than people in Westdeutschland and it was impossible to get some things in shops in Ostdeutschland. Außerdem people in the DDR could not decide on what was going to happen in their country and the Regierung was very strict. Therefore a lot of people came over the border from Ostdeutschland nach Westdeutschland. Von 1949 bis 1961 more than zwei Millionen Menschen emigrated in die BRD. This was a big problem for the Regierung of the DDR because mainly young and educated people left the Land. The Politiker in the DDR were afraid that more and more people would leave their country. For this reason they closed the Grenze zur Bundesrepublik Deutschland. But the plan to build a Mauer surrounding West Berlin and to close the border between East and West Germany was top secret. In fact, Walter Ulbricht leader of East Germany, had said on June 15 1961 "Niemand hat dich Absicht eine Mauer zu errichten!" (e.g. Nobody wants to build a wall!)

Bau der Mauer

On August 13 1961 they started building a wall right through Berlin. At midnight Soviet and East German commanders ordered their armies out of their barrack. Soldaten and border police stood armed with machine guns while labourers laid concrete blocks and Stacheldraht (barbed wire). Kein Bürger der DDR sollte mehr in die BRD kommen können. More and more Menschen of the DDR were unhappy with their government. They did not want to be locked in their country. They were not allowed to travel in foreign countries and until 1964 people from Westberlin were not allowed to visit their relatives in Ostberlin. Thousands of people therefore tried to flee from the DDR. This was very gefährlich (dangerous) because the border between both states was guarded and the soldiers had the order to shoot everybody who tried to escape. More than 1000 people died auf der Flucht aus der DDR

Demonstrationen
Many years later there were protests against the East German Regierung. People who had stayed in the DDR started to demonstrate against the Regierung and politicians from other countries tried to persuade the DDR to open its borders again. Gorbatschow became president of the Soviet Union and there were a lot of reforms in the Eastern Bloc states. After Ungarn (Hungary) opened the Grenze to Austria in August 1989 more than 13,000 Ostdeutsche escaped within 3 days. This was the biggest escape since the Mauer was built. Eventually a new government took over and allowed free travel again from East to West. But what exactly happened on November 9 1989?

Fall der Mauer

Um 18.53h there is a Pressekonferenz and Günter Schabowski announces the new Reiserecht in der DDR. People had to apply for a visa but were allowed to travel everywhere. Those news spread quickly and were on the news at 20.00h. A lot of people went to see whether the border to Westberlin was really open and gathered at the Grenzübergang. The soldiers and police there didn't know anything about the new law and did not open the Tor. The crowd was shouting " Tor auf! Tor auf!". There were more and more people gathering at the border crossings in Berlin and finally the commander decided that they could not control the crowd any longer. They opened the border. Until 00.02h all Grenzübergänge in Berlin were open. Thousands of people crossed the border between Ost- und Westberlin in dieser Nacht and during the following day. Die Mauer war nach 28 Jahren gefallen. They were welcomed by thousands of Westberlinern who celebrated in front of the Brandenburger Tor all night and climbed the wall.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snsdDb7KDkg (English)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQpeNuZK-Mc (Deutsch)
For many of them it was true what Bürgermeistes Mompe said the following day: "Wir sind jetzt das glücklichste Volk auf der Welt!"

The wall was knocked down and there are only few parts of it left as a memory an die deutsche Teilung. Almost one year later on October 3 1990 Germany was officially reunited aber das feiern wir nächstes Jahr!

Berlin wird leben und die Mauer wird fallen!!
(Willi Brandt 10.11.1989)

Hallo, Servus und Grüß Gott !!!

My name is Brigitte and I'm the Foreign Language Assistant for German in 2009/2010. I'm 21 and from the Allgäu (the southern part of Bavaria) in Germany. I'm a student at the University of Bamberg where I do English and Spanish. I love visiting foreign countries. Therefore I travel a lot in my free time and I like hiking, climbing, swimming, dancing, skiing and drama. For the next 9 month I'm going to work as a Foreign Language Assistant in Shimna, Bangor Grammar and at Queen's University in Belfast. I'm really looking forward to tell you a lot about Germany and to learn lots of facts about Northern Ireland. So if you have any questions about German or Germany let me know :) ..... See u maybe at the German Club. Yours Brigitte

Bundestagswahl

Es ist wieder soweit! Am 27. September wird gewählt. Und zwar der deutsche Bundestag.

To get an idea about the different political parties in Germany and what they stand for, you should check out the Wahl-o-Mat.

Viel Spaß und eine frohe Bundestagswahl

Benjamin

Click on the title of this post or go to
http://www.wahl-o-mat.de/bundestagswahl2009/main_app.php

Wir haben Marionettentheater gemacht!

Year 8 had learned lots of questions and answers in German this year, like:

Wie heisst du?

Wie geht's?

Wo wohnst du?

Wie bist du?

Hast du Geschwister?

To practise the questions and answers we decided to use puppets. And then we filmed the puppet shows. It was great fun! As well as the questions and answers, there was dancing and singing, and some very dramatic moments to.......Here are some stills from our movies:

Es hat Spass gemacht! Auf Wiedersehen!

Rueckkehr der Muellmondmaennchen - Return of the Aliens!

Wir haben wieder Muellmondmaenner gemacht und dabei die Koerperteile auf Deutsch gelernt. Wir mussten viel Limo trinken und viele Cerealien essen, um die ganzen Cartons und Plastikflaschen zu sammeln, aber es hat viel Spass gemacht!

Last year we made aliens to help learn parts of the body in German and it was so much fun we decided to do it again this year. We had to eat a lot of cereal and drink a lot of Coke to collect all the junk to do the modelling, though. Here are some of our creations:

Drei Monate in Nord Irland

Hallo,
mein Name ist Melissa und ich habe mich dazu entschieden einen drei monatigen Austausch nach Nord Irland zu machen.Der Grund dafuer war, dass ich mein Englisch verbessern, neue Leute kennen lernen und mal etwas anderes sehen wollte.
Heute bin ich schon mehr als 2 Monate hier und meine Ziele hab ich in die Realitaet umgesetzt.

Als ich hier hin kam und meinen ersten Tag in der Schule verbracht habe, merkte ich, wie anders alles ist.Ich hatte nur 3 Schulfaecher die ich noch dazu waehlen durfte.Ich entschied mich dann fuer Kunst, Englisch und Geschichte.Bald fand ich auch Freunde und hatte Spass an der Schule.
Nun ist mein letzter Tag hier in Shimna und dann heisst es Ferien!Ich werde dann noch die schoene Landschaft geniessen, die meiner Meinung nach viel schoener ist, als die in Deutschland, wo ich lebe und natuerlich verschiedene Dinge mit meinen Freunden machen.Im Grossen und Ganzen war meine Zeit hier sehr, sehr schoen und ich empfehle es Jedem, wenn er die Chance bekommt, sich auch fuer einen Austausch zu entscheiden.

Ben und Ian sprechen über Filme

Ben has sadly left and we're missing him already. But before he went we recorded a few new podcasts so we'd have something extra to remember him by: the general topic this week is films, but as ever we ramble around a bit! Enjoy!

We'll post the other recordings over the next couple of weeks.

Click on the title to listen or right-click and "save as" to download.

So long and thanks for all the fish

Fellow Shimnaens,

It is time Abschied zu nehmen. Having Andrea Bocelli's song stuck in my head, I'm writing my very last entry as a Foreign Language Assistant of Shimna Integrated College. It is time to pass on the torch to another German, who will hopefully at least half as motivated and devoted as I was (I think we will all agree that you cannot find a person with the same qualities (or flaws) like myself). Es hat mir sehr viel Spaß gemacht and I hope that I taught all of you well and that you got a bit more interested in both German as a language and German culture. This picture may be a reminder of my odd but nontheless high quality jokes:
It's been a blast for me and I'll leave Northern Ireland with fond memories.


Take care and good bye


Ben

Even more Munich photos!

This is probably the final instalment!

View of BMW-Welt from the Olympiapark:

Dachau town (much prettier than the concentration camp!):


That's about all our best photos - if you were on the trip and have any snaps you'd like to see here, pass them on to your German teacher! Everyone had a great time, practised their German and gained a really good appreciation of German history and culture.

Jahresschau

Ich bin auf diese Seite gestossen. Auf ihr kann man die letzten 60 Jahre von Deutschland in 15 minuetigen Videos nachverfolgen.

Viel Spass


http://www.60xdeutschland.de/

Ben und Ian: Gesundheit!

A third podcast from Ian and Ben, this time discussing health issues. Suitable for advanced learners. Click on the post title to listen, or right-click and "save as" to download!

Viel Spass!