Leave it to Munich to give birth to Germany’s only photography service devoted exclusively to bottles. With Oktoberfest in its midst and the wine country all around, it’s no wonder that the locals have bottles on the brain. ;-)

The specific locals are Moritz Wurfbaum, Catharina van Delden, and Veronika Wurfbaum. Moritz Wurfbaum and Catharina van Delden are a part of innosabi, a Munich based consumer innovation and product development company. Veronika Wurfbaum is the main photographer.

The company they’ve launched together is called Flaschenfotos, and the premise is simple.

They shoot bottles.

Their goal is to provide outstanding service in their niche, so the only other product they offer is Flaschenfotos T-shirts.

The company was founded in August, and the online site was launched in September.

If you’ve been reading my writings on business in Germany, you know that you really can start a company that quickly, and that Germany is very friendly to start ups like this.

It has a straightforward pricing structure based on the number of bottles shot. Each bottle shot against a white background in high resolution. The bottles are then retouched (airbrushing is not just for models anymore! ;-) so they are ready for print and online media uses.

There is a discount for organic and fair trade products, and the target market is retailers, bloggers, and journalists looking for graphics to go with their products.

Given that Germany has more than 40,000 wine producers alone, the company certainly has plenty of bottles to go after even before starting in on the local beer masters!

It’s always interesting to me to see what my fellow Germans are coming up with for business ideas, especially when they target off-beat markets like this. It’s just another example of how creative German people really can be, and the possibilities available to you if you want to start your own business in Germany.

—Marcus

While Bambi might remind you of a certain cartoon character by Disney, in Germany a BAMBI does not live in the forest. If you have one, it lives in a place of honor in your home or is on display at your office. The solid gold fawn represents a pinnacle of personal achievement.

The BAMBI Award may not be well known in the U.S., but in the world of European and international entertainment it is better known than the Oscars or the Grammy’s. In Germany, surveys have shown that 94% of the population is aware of the award — and I’m assuming the other 6% are still babies (who were left unasked… ;-).

The BAMBIs are simply that big.

Created in 1948, the award originally honored movie stars. Over the years, it has evolved to glorify all facets of media entertainment as well as global achievements and excellence in general categories.

Despite the versatility of the categories, the criteria remains strict: You must be extremely popular in your category. Also, award winners are those who “with vision and creativity who affected and inspired the German public” for that year.

The award winners are selected exclusively by Hubert Burda Media, the largest print media group in Germany (they run more than 60% of the magazines). The exclusivity and the limited award categories makes the prize truly treasured.

The 2009 and 2010 BAMBI awards will be presented in Potsdam, at the Babelsberg Film Studio Park. This park is the world’s oldest studio grounds and a very prestigious one, having shot movies with everyone from Marlene Dietrich to Tom Cruise and Matt Damon.

The ceremony tomorrow, November 26th, will be a glittering celebrity event, as it is every year. More than 6 million Germans tune in to watch annually, and the event is carried on most major networks along with Deutsche Welle.

Attending is the place to see and be seen for the fall, so everyone who is anyone will be out on the red carpets, hoping to be noticed and wishing to win a BAMBI of their very own.

—Marcus

It can be very hard to keep up with all the news in Germany when you aren’t in the country. I remember in my early travel days trying to call home and get the latest information, or hunting down old newspapers for stories. I am glad those days are gone!

For three years, I’ve found myself depending on the main news network from Germany, Deutsche Welle. It provides updates for the international community from Germany. It is a service I have found invaluable for helping me stay in touch as I travel, and I know many others who also love it.

You can enjoy their updates in many different ways. There is the online portal, DW-World.de, which is available in 30 languages. There is also a DW-Akademie, which runs a radio broadcast and trainings. Last but not least is DW-TV, available on satellite and cable worldwide networks in German, English, Arabic, and Spanish.

Even though I am not an advocate of television in general, watching Deutsche Welle from time to time makes me feel more connected to my beloved homeland whenever I’m abroad. They focus on current events, and pan-European decisions that impact Germany. Unlike some of the tabloid and infotainment offerings you can find, Deutsche Welle is very well regarded as a credible news source.

You can also use it as a way to improve your German language skills or keep your ear in practice. Though you can watch it in English, Spanish, and Arabic, their German language programming is targeted at people learning German in addition to those who already have German language skills. This is much better than boring tapes or classes!

New programs and formats are added constantly as the network expands. They currently claim more than 100 million worldwide listeners weekly.

I like to think of so many other lovers of Germany out there tuning in with me, and I invite you to be sure to take advantage of all the free resources and information provided at your finger tips by Deutsche Welle. :-)

—Marcus

Today, November 9th, 2009, is an emotionally loaded day for Germans. We are marking the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall — actually, the fall of the entire Wall that used to separate East from West Germany for more than 28 years.

Whether we will be one of the millions crowding the streets around the Brandenberg Gate or some of the millions watching at home, there is no doubt that we will be thinking about the Berlin Wall and its impact on our lives.

For me, it will be quite a day of reflection.

I remember the day the Berlin Wall came down very well as I was watching and listening to the news as much as I could that time, in every free minute that I had. I’m a West German and the happiness for my fellow East Germans sunk through my body as they finally climbed the Wall and experienced freedom that night.

It’s hard to recapture that excitement and the sensations, although people are trying. This past weekend has been “A Weekend of Freedom” in the media, with interviews, retrospectives, and footage clips of life with the Berlin Wall and the moment it was torn down. Check Deutsche Welle for special footage online if you missed the original broadcasts.

While all of the commentary is really something, there is also the impact of the images. You can see all kinds of images of the Berlin Wall online, including the famous graffiti on the western side of the Wall. The pictures span the infamous photos from the speeches promising us there would be no Wall to the well-known shots of the Wall being pulled down.

These shots will be reviewed again as the State Orchestra does its performance at the Brandenberg Gate tonight, and they pull down the large dominoes that are being used to symbolize the old cement of the Berlin Wall. There will be a large fireworks show starting as the “Wall” is pulled down, and I imagine that I will not be the only one watching with an emotional heart.

Are you going to be there? I know I am.

—Marcus

Throughout October and culminating November 9th, Germany is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Brandenburg Gate will serve as the site of the final celebratory concert and symbolic destruction of a 2 million domino wall.

However, while the German Democratic Republic may now be part of one Germany, Ostalgie is raising it from the dead.

Ostalgie is a German phrase that refers to the love of all things East German. It’s a very focused kind of nostalgia. Products, people, and habits that characterized East German life are the main beneficiaries.

For example, take the Trabant. The car was a symbol of East German life, and now it is being revived, thanks in part to Ostalgie. The Ampelmännchen, a traffic crossing man in East German, has been reborn as a lollipop.

Then there is the food . . . Spreewaldgurken, a kind of pickled cucumber that was a staple of East German cuisine, sells quite well. It has a kind of cult status, rather than a true deliciousness (in my opinion!).

And then there are the people . . . thanks to Ostalgie, many East German sports stars, celebrities, and entertainers have seen their careers reborn as commentators and guest stars. This only increased after 2003, when the movie Good Bye, Lenin! brought Ostalgie much more into the mainstream mind.

However, not everyone is amused by Ostalgie. Some Germans are still very emotional about the divided period, ambivalent about reunification, or hesitant to address it at all. It’s certainly something to be aware of as you watch and discuss the 20th anniversary celebrations.

To play more with the world of Ostalgie, seriously or in jest, you will find many links on the web.

You can find sites selling German border crossing signs, greeting cards with East German icons, and even sites that collect East German jokes. One of the largest English based sites is Grenzschild, which also publishes a guide to additional sites in English, German, and Russian to explore.

—Marcus

Many people who travel Germany in late October have remarked to me that German people don’t seem to be very into Halloween. This is no surprise. Despite the best efforts of the marketing people to turn Halloween into a global event, it isn’t one of the traditional German holidays.

Instead, on October 31st, some parts of Germany will be celebrating Reformation Day, but otherwise it’s a day like any other. The bigger day in Germany isn’t “All Hallow’s Eve” but rather November 1st, All Saints Day, Allerheiligen. It’s a public holiday in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Saarland.

And yet . . . you do see Halloween things in the shops around the end of October. There are a few witches hats, monster masks, and orange and black products for sale. Some areas with a lot of expats will organize trick or treating door to door for children, but this isn’t a widespread custom.

A better plan to get the “Halloween Spirit” would be to take your family to one of the Pumpkin Festivals. These are more about celebrating the harvest and having a party than real Halloween, but they do include pumpkin carving contests, fun rides, and costume competitions.

Some of the biggest are in Dormagen, which has its own Pumpkin Island, and in amusement parks such as Belantis outside Leipzig, which incorporates a Halloween theme and offers discounts for children in costume, and the Europa-Park in Rust near Freiburg, which got an entire week of Halloween stuff going on.

This is not to imply that Germany is completely without a Halloween-like tradition, though. The Celtic people who are responsible for most of the Halloween legends lived in many places in Germany, leaving behind their stories of witches and ghouls.

The difference for us Germans is that we choose to acknowledge and celebrate those legends in April, not October. Known as Walpurgis Night, this “German Halloween” has bonfires, costume parties, and witch hats galore.

Thus, if you don’t feel like you’ve gotten the Halloween you wanted in Germany in October, well, you will just have to come back and visit again in the spring! ;-)

—Marcus

For many visitors to Germany, their first pictures of the country come to them through books and stories.

Even when you decide to live in Germany, you get influenced by the way the country looks in books. You may be moved to visit a new town, see a particular structure, or avoid a certain area all thanks to the words of a single writer.

For Germany, one writer has had a very profound effect on how the international community has viewed the country not just physically, but mentally. John Le Carré, a British author specializing in espionage books and suspense thrillers, set a significant number of his books in Germany. As best sellers, his books were the first experience of “real” German life that many people had, and the later movie adaptions have furthered his influence on the popular mind.

This makes it a pity that so many of his books were so very dark.

Although he has been honored with many awards and is critically regarded as having created a philosophically significant alternative to the glamorized James Bond world of the spy genre, his themes are not uplifting. In most cases, everything is morally clouded, and an aura of sadness, gloom, and hypocrisy hangs over his characters.

This gloom bleeds over into his descriptions of Germany. Its weather is cloudy, cold, and foggy, except for when it actively rains or snows. Buildings are drab when they are not ugly, and people are indifferent when they are not antagonistic.

Nothing is easy, nothing is fun, and the best you can hope for is to be left alone and die quietly in the distant future.

Although interesting, it’s quite depressing, really, and nothing like the real Germany. John Le Carré needed to create a certain mood for his books, and he didn’t need it to showcase all of the vibrancy and color of true German life. So he painted a very careful picture of the country, not realizing that later tour operators would put his checkpoints, government offices, and shoot-out sites into movies and tours.

The best antidote for the image in his work is to actually come to Germany. Hike the green hills, enjoy the sunshine, and talk with the people. Experience for yourself the sharp difference between fiction and reality! ;-)

—Marcus

Spätlese wines are yet another of German’s happy accidents.

The vintage as a class was born in 1775 at the famous Schloss Johannisberg winery, when the harvest was unfortunately delayed by about two weeks — legend has it the field master had been kidnapped, and they couldn’t start until his release. The grapes were harvested reluctantly, and no one thought the wine would amount to much.

With low expectations, the first wine was tasted… and now they deliberately pick the grapes late!

Spätlese, which simply means “late harvest,” was such an instant hit that just three years later it was being handed out to visiting nobles and royalty as a gift. Thomas Jefferson raved so much about his 1778 bottles that the wine became the new American must-have vintage.

Spätlese, my personal favorite of all German wines, has several specific characteristics that make it unique and pleasant to drink. Since the grapes are fully ripened when they are picked, they give a fuller body and more intense flavor than other German wines like Riesling or Kabinett. The wine is also known for its long finish and pleasant aroma.

Available as semi-sweet, Spätlese wines are forbidden by law from being artificially sweetened. The quality of the vintage depends very much on the soil and the weather of each season. 2007 and 2008 were very good years, and the early tests on the 2009 grapes has vintners very excited about the potential of this year’s harvest.

You should be excited, too. Spätlese wines are excellent food pairings, especially with seafood dishes and spicy dishes. The complexity of the flavors with the long finish of the wine really enriches a meal.

Spätlese wines are meant to be enjoyed, rather than stored away for decades. You age a Spätlese for 3 -10 years, but they do peak at a relatively young age. Therefore, why wait to open a bottle? :-)

If you’d like recommendations, Terry Theise, one of the wine worlds leading sommelier’s, gave the 2008 Müller-Catoir Mandelring Scheurebe Spätlese (~$60 USD) a near perfect score. Other German wine houses making good quality Spätlese include Dönnhoff, Meulenhof Erdener, and Leitz Rüdesheimer.

—Marcus

With the summer heat still lingering, it’s the perfect time to go for a swim. And what better place to go than Berlin’s Bathtub?

Of course, Berlin’s Bathtub isn’t actually in Berlin, so don’t go looking for it there. To see this wonder, you need to head north for the day. Preferably for the weekend, or even a week!

Berlin’s Bathtub is the colloquial name for the island resort town of Usedom. It nestles on the border between Germany and Poland, with crisp white sands stretching out into the Baltic Sea.

When you arrive, you will naturally notice the sands. There are 42 km (30 miles) of white sand beaches, so it’s a little hard not to see them. And yet… what’s that sound? When the wind comes in off the ocean, the fine white sand rubs together in its own symphony.

People hearing these singing sands have likened the sound to an orchestra of tiny natural violins. It’s beautiful, but hard to describe. You’ll just have to go and see it for yourself, and the sands will be grateful to have you back.

The sands have been getting a bit ignored over the last few decades. The area has been settled since Neolithic times, and the royal families of Poland, Russia, and Prussia used to come here for retreats. Yet Sylt Island nearby was the place turned into a recreational mecca.

The end result for you is that Usedom’s villas, spas, and royal villages have become a special insider’s secret. Beautiful and relatively affordable, the sand and beach attractions are crowded but not to the extent one might think. In shoulder seasons, you can get especially good deals on hotels and beachfront apartment rentals.

Listening to the sands and soaking up the sun is but one way to pass the time here. There are all kinds of water sports on offer, as well as a booming spa culture in Amber and Imperial flavors.

However, if you just want to appreciate the view and relax, there is an 8 km (5 miles) promenade along the beach that is perfect for a morning or evening stroll to watch the sun over the ocean.

—Marcus

All over the world, people are really getting into the German spirit this month. I mean, with Oktorberfest on, the real Germans, part Germans, and wish-they-were Germans are really getting into German culture. Yet you can tell those who know what they are doing from those who don’t just by looking at the food.

You see, while Oktoberfest is a beer festival at heart, the soul of the event is the food. After all, you can’t very well enjoy fine German beers for hours without a little something to go along with it. So “traditional” food is brought out — sauerkraut, preztels, and sausage.

The mistake is in thinking that any sausage will do for Oktoberfest. Currywurst, bratwurst, kielbasa…

Wrong, wrong, and wrong.

To be truly authentic, you have to serve weisswurst.

Weißwurst is one of those delicious accidents. In 1857, Munich butcher Sepp Moser was out of his usual sausage making supplies. Forced to improvise, he invented the distinctive boiled veal sausage with the pig skin shell.

Now, more than 75 million weisswursts are made each year, and Munich butchers take the quality of their product very seriously. A good weisswurst should be white, like snow (OK, almost…), and you should be able to see small flecks of green seasoning through the casing. Faded gray sausages are imitations, and usually poor quality.

You can get good weisswurst from quality butchers all over the world, or in specialty import shops. Truly authentic sausages have a special seal indicating that they were made in Munich.

To further impress your guests, be sure to serve them correctly. Weisswursts are served in pairs. They are traditionally accompanied by sweet (!) mustard with puffy pretzels.

The taste combination is one that really invokes the spirit of true Oktoberfest. Once the weisswursts are ready, all that you need is some good beer to go with it. Purists will insist on weissbeer, but as long as you are serving the right food to go with it, I’ll toast you with any one of Germany’s excellent Oktoberfest brews! ;-)

—Marcus