Robert Schumann (8 June 1810 – 29 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He was born in Zwickau and died in a sanatorium in Bonn after a long time with mental health problems. Wikipedia has a detailed account of his life in German and English. If you’d rather read some … Read more
Image attribution: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-W0409-300 / Kolbe, Jörg / CC BY-SA 3.0 DE “Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet.” (Wikipedia) As it would have been his birthday today I thought you might like to look at the … Read more
Image attribution: Manfred Werner German actor Joachim Fuchsberger was born on the 11th March 1927 in Stuttgart and died on the 11th September 2014 in Grünwald, Bavaria. Joachim, also known as ‘Blacky’, Fuchsberger was a successful actor and TV host. He played many good characters in Edgar Wallace films. I found a few interesting videos on … Read more
“Käthe Kruse, who was born 17 September 1883 in Breslau and died 19 July 1968 in Murnau am Staffelsee, was a notable pioneer of German doll-making and went on to establish manufacturing principles which persist to this day.” (Wikipedia) Her career started when her first daughter wanted a doll but her husband refused to buy … Read more
Image attribution: Schrapers German actor Götz George was born on the 23rd July 1938 in Berlin and died on the 19th June 2016 in Hamburg. His acting career started off on stage and with small film roles until in 1981 he became Horst Schimanski in Tatort. Tatort is the longest-running German TV drama, showing feature-length episodes … Read more
This plaque of Dürer’s praying hands (betende Hände) was my grandparents’ and as a child I was fascinated by those hands. When my grandparents died, my aunt took the plaque and said it should go to me as Albrecht Dürer’s initials were the same as mine: A D. For a long time I wanted to … Read more
Image credit: Elke Wetzig German stage and TV actor Willy Millowitsch was born on the 8th January 1909. He had his own theatre, the Volkstheater Millowitsch in Cologne (now in the hands of his son Peter). For non Germans he was probably most known for his part in ‘National Lampoon’s European Vacation’ (German title ‘Hilfe, die … Read more
This month Germany is celebrating the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s reformation. Reformation Day is on the 31st October, the day, when in 1517 Luther nailed 95 theses onto the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. If you want to read them, they can be found here in German and here in English, but in … Read more
The author and painter Joachim Ringelnatz was born on the 7th August 1883 in Wurzen in Saxony. His real name was Hans Bötticher but in 1919 he changed it to Ringelnatz to be used as his pen name for his publications. People were speculation if Ringelnatz was a wordplay of animal names, like Ringelnatter (grass snake) … Read more
I always find it interesting to hear what inspires students to learn German. This weeks blog post is from a student, who wishes to remain anonymous, but has complained to me that whenever there is a blog post about the ‘Top 10 German singers’, the sites never mention Sandra. As I only remember Sandra … Read more
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