Germany Blog

Stories, tips, and reflections about life, travel, and culture in Germany.

  • Oktoberfest Overweeningly Celebrates 200 Years

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    With Oktoberfest just underway, there’s still some time to celebrate and experience this essential south German holiday, even if you couldn’t or can’t make it there in person this year. 2010 is a milestone year for this Bavarian tradition, as it celebrates 200 years of fun, food and beer.

    Here are some of the festival’s most enduring traditions and experiences.

    The Beer

    What would Oktoberfest be without the BEER? There are about fourteen huge beer tents where you can enter (at no charge) and drink to your heart’s content.

    You don’t want to miss the Hofbräu Festzelt, the largest and most popular — at least with the tourists — of them all. The festive music of the oom-pah bands is a highlight of the Hofbräu’s tent, as well as their signature brew, Hofbräu. In fact, there are six breweries that are represented at Oktoberfest.

    In addition to Hofbräu, you can try Spaten, Lowenbrau, Paulaner (that’s where I usually found the most beautiful ladies), Augustiner or Hacker Pschorr. Generally, these are served in a one-liter beer stein where you can (barely) raise the glass and toast your fellow revelers with the German word for Cheers! — Prost! :-)

    The Date

    Many people wonder why Oktoberfest actually begins in September. We Germans do, in fact, know our dates and have a reason for this discrepancy.

    The first Oktoberfest began as a wedding celebration for Crown Prince (and later King) Ludwig I. He married Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen on October 7, 1810. Five days after, on October 12, Ludwig decided to hold a horse race in honor of his recent nuptials. The event was such a success, that he did it again the following year. By 1816, there was already a carnival feel to the festival with new booths and events.

    They eventually decided to move the festival into September. One reason was that the weather was a bit nicer and milder at that time. In 1994, it was modified again to end with German Unity Day on October 3.

    The length of Oktoberfest is dependent on what date the first Sunday of the month happens to be.

    The Food

    When you’ve drunk your fill of that delicious German beer, there’s no better accompaniment than some traditional Bavarian food. Some Oktoberfest specialties include pork knuckles (Haxn), spit-roasted chicken (Hendl), skewers of grilled whitefish (Steckerlfisch) and of course, German sausage (Wurstl).

    And don’t overlook the snacks! Bavaria is famous for its over-sized pretzels (Brezel) and almonds glazed with sugar (Gebrannte Mandeln).

    The Dancing

    Music is an important part of Oktoberfest. All the beer tents will feature oom-pah bands or other traditional music. And with music, of course, there’s plenty of dancing opportunities. The most famous of these traditional dances is the Chicken Dance!

    To begin, make your fingers into the shape of a chicken beak, opening and closing them. Next is the arm-flapping, with your elbows out and hands under your armpits. Then comes the bended knees and body-wiggling. Finally, stand up again, clap your hands and spinning in a circle or grab a partner and spin with them.

    Each move is repeated four times, and gets faster as the song plays on.

    And the advanced version is to do the aforementioned on the tables. ;-)

    The Funfair

    The Funfair has been another vital part of the Oktoberfest celebrations since the 19th century. There are roller coasters, Ferris wheels and other thrill rides. There’s even more food available here on the Budenstraße, or Avenue of Booths, and games of chance.

    And don’t forget the souvenir and numerous other stands, where you can buy/shoot/play/box something that will help you to always remember your time at our Oktoberfest.

    —Marcus

  • Rhineland-Palatinate’s Secret Shoe Route Still Offers Gems

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    The Rhineland-Palatinate’s shoe-making route was never supposed to be a secret. Hordes of tourists and German nationals were supposed to visit every year — or at least that’s what the marketing people hoped.

    Unfortunately, unlike the Romantic Road, the Shoe-makers road, or Deutsche Schuhstraße as it’s called in German, didn’t catch on. It launched with great fanfare in 1977, but the marketing blitz soon fizzled, leaving it abandoned and deleted from the guidebooks.

    Rather than being a cause of sorrow, this presents a special opportunity for modern day visitors.

    Now I know you are running all over the country this month trying to catch all of the wonderful fall festivals going on — and that will certainly wear out your shoes. What better souvenir than a custom-made pair of shoes ordered in off the old shoe-making road?

    You see, even though the marketing geniuses walked away from promoting the shoe-makers route, the shopkeepers and craftsmen are still in existence. All you need to do to get a pair of shoes that will fit in a way you’ll never forget is drop by one of their stores.

    Officially, the shoe-making route goes through the entire Südwestpfalz, starting in Waldfischbach-Burgalben and ending in the Hauenstein area. Some of the towns on the way include Clausen, Leimen, Merzalben, Rodalben, Pirmasens, Lemberg, Eppenbrunn, Fischbach, Rumbach, Erlenbach, and Lug. Most are tiny craft towns and villages of only a few hundred or a few thousand people located on highways B10 and B70.

    The bulk of the currently operating shoemakers are in Pirmasens, which has its own Schuhstraße dedicated to shoe shops. You can easily find the shoe-maker you want here with a little researching.

    It does help to speak some German, but at the end of the day, a foot is a foot and these people are in the business of making shoes to fit toes from any culture.

    Whether you wander into Pirmasens or another town on the route, you will find shopkeepers more than ready to tailor something to fit or sell you something handcrafted and beautiful to wear home as a treasured souvenir that last longer than one from anywhere else in the world.

    —Marcus

  • German’s Generous Spirits Rank High In World Giving Index

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    Germany is full of kind, generous people. Don’t think I’m biased just because I’m German — here’s yet another proof!

    The 2010 World Giving Index has been released by the Charities Aid Foundation. The organization used hard numbers from the Gallup Corporation to determine which world nations were the most charitable overall.

    Donating money to charitable causes, performing volunteer work, and being willing to help a stranger or someone you didn’t know were the main points going into the World Giving Index. However, the Charities Aid Foundation also looked at the breakdown between men and women, old and young, and happiness of the country as a whole when they were figuring their numbers.

    Germany did very well in the poll. We are ranked 18th worldwide for our generous spirits. Out of 153 countries, that’s doing pretty good!

    Some of the other interesting points that the report had to make about Germany were that 49% of us are giving money each month to a charitable cause. Men volunteer just slightly more hours per month than women, but almost 30% of the population of Germany volunteers time every month. An amazing 56% of us will help a stranger, one of the highest scores of any of the European nations.

    According to the report, one of the main drivers of giving in all countries was happiness instead of wealth. The more a nation was giving, the happier and more satisfied with life were its citizens. I think this also reflects very well on Germany, don’t you?

    Really, the report is just a nice bit of proof to back up what most people will experience when they come to Germany. All of the fairs, festivals, and special events that we are famous for depend on the charitable giving and volunteer hours put in by the hosting towns.

    From the massive regional volunteer effort that it takes to put on something like Oktoberfest — starting this Saturday! — to the focused local effort it takes to put on something like the Oberammergau Passion Play, Germany runs on the goodwill and kind hearts of its people.

    I know it, and you know it, too, if you’ve been here.

    Thanks to this survey, now the whole world can know! ;-)

    —Marcus

  • Frankfurt’s Business Focus Has A Soft Side

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    The smart eyes look to Frankfurt this month. ;-)

    Most people will be looking at Southern Germany right now, with the big Canstatter Wasen in Stuttgart and the opening of Oktoberfest in Munich. However, if you are looking to visit Germany this month, you may want to include Frankfurt am Main on your itinerary.

    Frankfurt has quite a business reputation — we Germans sometimes refer to it as Bank-furt or even die heimliche Haupstadt, our secret capital. Yet underneath that fine patina of high commerce, there is much more to than meets the eye.

    One element that makes Frankfurt very inviting is that it is not actually very big. Only about 660,000 people live here, which allows Frankfurt to maintain a small town feel that surprises many visitors. For all its fancy skyscrapers — we call the skyline here Mainhattan, naturally — there is a tight-knit community under all that steel and glass.

    Wandering down the Zeil, one of Frankfurt’s main shopping avenues, you will find that you can be warmly greeted just as though you were in a smaller town. Sit out in the square in front of the Römer, and you might think you’d slipped back into a medieval village.

    You can get even more of a feel for the historic side of Frankfurt riding on the Ebbelwei Express. It’s an old tram car and a bit kitschy, but the rides are cheap at 6 euros and the tickets include a salt biscuit snack and some of the region’s famous Apfelwein or apple juice if you like (hence its name Ebbelwei, Frankfurt’s slang for Apfelwein).

    To properly end a day out in Frankfurt, you have to go out for a decent meal. It’s a good thing locals like to work hard all day, or they’d never burn off the calories from the more than 3,000 Frankfurt restaurants. Executive Travel Magazine’s July issue named Gargantua as one of the best restaurants in the country, which of course you will have to test for yourself!

    September is also a time of year when the weather in Frankfurt is very good. Why fight the crowds elsewhere?

    Come to an easily explored and historically inviting destination of Germany this month to experience Frankfurt’s softer side for yourself.

    —Marcus

  • Deutsches Currywurst Museum Is A Cultural Adventure For The Senses

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    It’s no secret that we German’s love our sausages — or wurst. Being trilingual, I can’t help but make jokes about how the wurst meals here are the best, or how the wurst food you get in Germany is better than what you can have anywhere else.

    Naturally, it’s all wrong, since wurst is correctly pronounced with a hard “v” sound, but while the jokes may be terrible, the sausage is still legendary.

    In fact, one type of wurst is considered by so many to be the best that now it has its own museum near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Currywurst, a spicy snack popular throughout the country, is being elevated to its own special cultural attraction in a building on Schützenstraße 70 called Deutsches Currywurst Museum, open from 10 am to 10 pm daily with an entrance cost of 11 euros ($14 USD).

    Shockingly, we Germans are taking down an estimated 1,500 of these currywursts per minute. I’m not kidding — that’s 800 million currywursts consumed annually, and I pull down my fair share.

    Most currywursts are sold on the streets, with the largest concentration of currywurst vendors located in Berlin. Many also believe that the formulation for the special tomato curry sauce was invented by a Berliner, Herta Heuwer. This makes it no wonder that the German Currywurst Museum is located at the very heart of the city.

    Inside the museum, visitors are greeted by displays dedicated to all of the many varieties of currywurst. You can see displays of the different meal combinations, such as sliced sausage drenched in sauce with a bit of potato salad, or a hefty currywurst hot dog jutting out from its deliciously soggy bun.

    You will also find that you are very hungry as you pass through the exhibits, because the museum has something for all of your senses. There is an audio track of sizzling sausages echoing overhead, and a scent machine infuses the air with the odor of fresh currywurst.

    It’s all a bit over the top, which is why you absolutely have to see it all to believe its real. Go, see, buy a snack, and be sure to send me a copy when you get your photo taken in the life size currywurst truck in the final element of the museum!

    —Marcus