In today’s day and age where Hip-Hop and “Indie” music is part of the mainstream, I think old-timer music like Opera doesn’t get the respect it rightfully deserves.

Yes, I’m using this blog to tout the virtues of the German Opera.

I know you must be thinking, how “romantic” can German Opera be when the language itself sounds a bit harsh? Romantic or not, it took years for German opera writers to come out from behind the shadows of their Italian or French contemporaries.

While Heinrich Schütz is technically the father of the German opera (back in the early 17th century), it took the likes of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and eventually Richard Wagner (Mad King Ludwig II’s favorite guy) to bring into the light.

Many German language operas follow the tales of the Brothers Grimm (even making the story of Hansel & Gretel into a singing sensation). Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde is also a time-honored favorite.

These two operas aren’t the only ones sung in German. It wouldn’t be fair to leave out Beethoven’s Fidelio or Franz Lehar’s Die lustige Witwe (that would be the Merry Widow in English).

It wasn’t just German (or Austrian) composers that wrote German operas, Italians like Busoni wrote them as well.

Operas are grandiose productions, so it’s only fitting that they’re performed in magnificent music halls like the Munich National Theater (where the Bavarian State Opera performs), the Alter Oper in Frankfurt, and the Stuttgart National Theater (home of the Stuttgart State Opera).

I can’t think of a more appropriate venue for an over the top opera than an over the top theater. Can you?

Yeah, I know that opera is one of those musical stylings that either you love it or hate it, there’s no in-between. But c’mon, give it a chance. Just remember, it ain’t over ’til the “pleasantly plump” lady sings. ;-)

Germany’s got just about every kind of festival or market under the sun. What it doesn’t have is a festival dedicated to Schnapps. Or, I should say Schnäpse.

We all know Germany’s famous for its world-renowned beer, and its fantastic wines. I also think that it’s about time its schnapps be held in higher esteem.

When talking about the American version of what our friends on the other side of the pond call schnapps, for us this would be liqueurs such as the quite famous Jägermeister. Ever heard of it?

Yeah you have, if you ever tried a Jäger Bomb (that would be Jägermeister and Red Bull).

Today, though, I ain’t talkin’ about American schnapps or liqueurs but German Schnapps or German Liquor. So…

For my American friends, keep this in mind: The sugary schnapps you buy in the liquor store (root beer, butterscotch, banana, lemon, etc.) aren’t true German schnapps. Nope, the real German stuff is generally made with apples, pears, plums, and cherries; and is about 80 proof (which is about 40% alcohol by volume).

OK, and the occasional raspberry, but that makes something called Himbeergeist. It’s also meant to be drunk cold.

Confused? Don’t be, I’ll help you navigate your way around this clear, fermented, fruit-flavored drink. I already told you the typical flavors and proper drinking temperature, didn’t I?

Schnapps or liquor isn’t always listed as “Schnaps” on the label. You might see bottles with names like Kirschwasser (a cherry water made with morello cherries & served cold) that’s often drank either as an aperitif (before dinner) or a digestif, which would be an after dinner drink.

Kümmel is also a fine German schnapps made with caraway, cumin, and fennel. And while technically a schnapps, Steinhäger is a German gin that’s only allowed to be made in the Westphalian town of Steinhagen.

Even if you’re keen on drinking schnapps before or after a delicious German dinner, I still think it’s high time to create an entire schnapps or liquor festival.

But, if I totally dropped the ball and there is one out there, can someone let me know so I can come & have a good time?

In some ways it is stereotypical German behavior to be punctual and methodical. Kind of like, if you have to work late, there’s got to be something WRONG with you. Right?

Maybe this is why we love museums so much; where everything is categorized, labeled, and methodically documented. “Sniff-sniff,” it’s a beautiful thing, isn’t it?

Germany’s got a museum for just about everything and anything under the stars. Don’t want to be stuck indoors on a fine weather afternoon? No big deal, there are outdoor museum scattered all over the country, including the Winsen Museum Farm and the Hagen Westphalian Open-Air Museum.

Got a penchant for following military and war history? Check out the German Tank Museum, Königstein Fortress, and the Luftwaffenmuseum der Bundeswehr.

It might seem a bit odd to come all the way to Germany go see mummies. Both the cities of Bonn and Berlin house fantastic mummy exhibits at their respective museums.

Yeah, I’d think that the religious museums like the Lorsch Abbey and Michaelstein Abbey, and the Maulbronn Monastery seem a more likely choice to be found within the country.

But, I did say we like museums — so never mind.

Honestly, the land that IS modern day Germany has been around a lot longer than people, so no wonder we got all sorts of natural history museums. The State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart is fantastic, as is the Lower Saxony State Museum.

Oh, I didn’t even add in our two volcano museums which can be found in the Eifel Region — the German Volcano Museum Mendig a.k.a. Lava-Dome in Mendig and the Eifel Volcano Museum Daun in Daun. That counts as natural history, does it not?

And speaking of people, OF COURSE we’ve got museums dedicated to the best of the best of our homegrown sons and daughters. The Goethe House in Frankfurt am Main and the Karl Marx House in Trier are only two of the many museums that are all about famous Germans.

The long standing question to which “yes” would always be answer “is the Pope Catholic”? Well, in this case I’d like to ask, “Is the Pope German”?

The Supreme Pontiff sitting on the throne of St. Peter is in fact, German; and this is why his return to Germany September 22nd to the 25th is a very big deal.

http://www.papst-in-deutschland.de/english/

I know it’s a bit early to put this epic occasion in our blog event section (it is still summer, after all), but the chances of getting tickets to one of the five papal services (two in Freiburg, with one each in Erfurt, Etzelbach, and Berlin) are slim to none.

Sorry, more than a hundred thousand requests have already been sent; and seating is limited.

That’s too bad, but even if you can’t get yourself a ticket to the see the pope in action you can follow along the Benediktweg or Benedict Trail.

Yeah, that’s a shameless plug for a scenic route in Germany if ever I wrote one. ;-)

Pope Benedict XVI was born on April 16, 1927 as Joseph Ratzinger in Marktl am Inn in Upper Bavaria, but that’s not the only town on this 225 kilometer route.

You can see the village of Hufschlag (which is part of the town of Surberg), where the young Joseph’s parents bought a farm, or many amazingly beautiful monasteries or medieval churches in towns like Altötting, Neuötting, Hohenwart (Mehring), Burghausen, and Seeon-Seebruck.

Whew, I didn’t think I could stop mentioning Bavarian towns there for a second. ;-)

Many of the towns along the Benedict Trail might not have much to do with Benedict the Pope, some were important when he was just a mere Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger.

Ha, a mere Cardinal; like there are a bazillion of them walking city streets across the globe.

Whatever Pope Benedict’s name now or was, his return to Germany is momentous, as is the scenic route that bears his name.

On September 1st it’ll be 72 years since the official start of World War II. On September 4th, it’ll be 70 years to the day that the official deportations of Jews to the Lodz Ghetto in Poland started.

That day will also mark the closing of the special exhibition of the Lodz Ghetto (also called Ghetto Litzmannstadt) at the Nazi Documentation Center in Cologne. The entire special exhibit is of photographs taken within the ghetto looking at daily life, before its residents were sent to Auschwitz in 1944.

The building itself is a piece of history in the story of the Third Reich. The EL-DE Haus (located at Appellhofplatz 23-25) was once the HQ of the dreaded Gestapo; and the museum does have permanent exhibits on the history of Nazi Germany.

Just about a month after the Lodz Ghetto Exhibition closes, the Dresden War Museum will open its doors (slated for October 14). There’s no glossy candy-coating the wicked, ugliness of war on these exhibits, which is exactly what the museum plans to accomplish.

According to Der Spiegel, Dresden was the most and least logical place for the museum. It’s also where a number of Neo-Nazis gather every February to mark the city’s destruction date (it was leveled on Feb. 13, 1945 by the Allies).

Neo-Nazi groups also gather every year at the grave of one of Nazi Germany’s most notorious leaders, Rudolf Hess. Well, they did — until recently.

According to Der Spiegel, the town of Wunsiedel was tired of the group coming every year in August to “commemorate” the former Hitler Deputy — well they did until 2005 when the practice was banned.

Still, the folks in the sleepy Upper Franconian town didn’t think that was enough. They cremated his remains and scattered his ashes into the sea, with Hess’ family’s permission, of course.

Looks like it’s the dawn of a new day in Germany, doesn’t it?

Last week marked the 50th anniversary of the building of the infamous Berlin Wall. A series of events marking this not so auspicious day was (and is) found throughout Berlin and the rest of Germany.

It was on August 12th, 1961 that East Germany leader, Walter Ulbricht, gave the order to build a separation wall between them and the West Germans, which had started the day after. Hmm, interesting since only two months beforehand he said that “no one wants to build a wall.”

But, he did build a wall. A 160km concrete barrier around Berlin, to be exact.

As if the wall wasn’t insulting enough, watchtowers (which is believed that no two were alike) were added along the wall’s perimeter with soldiers ordered to shoot anyone trying to defect. They called it Repulikflucht, or illegal immigration.

East Germans were a bit creative in trying to flee to the more free West Germany, using a variety of methods to get across, including tunneling, hot air ballooning, and one soldier drove a tank through it.

In 1989 after the East and West Berliners could cross “freely,” it was still dangerous, as the Soviets had buried landmines along the Eastern side — so it did take a while for it to be truly safe. And there’s no exact number of people who perished trying to cross the wall, estimates guess somewhere between 136-200 souls lost trying to reach freedom.

Now a little more than two decades after the fall of the wall, a new exhibit has opened up at Unter der Linden 40 in Berlin with never before seen photos taken from the East German perspective. Which is to say, taken from the eastern side of the wall.

The exhibit opened August 5th, which will until October 3 before heading off for an exhibition in Poland.

Maybe the exhibit should circle the globe, as a reminder of hope to all those who are repressed.

It’s official, you can buy anything on the Internet.

I was a bit stunned to see Shakespeare’s Globe Theater for sale on eBay a while back. Not the real Globe Theater in England, but a full-size replica at the famous Babelsberg Studios just outside of Berlin.

The best part? It would’ve only cost you 11.50 Euro to buy it. The down side? It would’ve cost you about 50,000 Euro to have it dismantled and carried away.

You really didn’t think they’d ship it to you in Some Small Town, USA, did you?

Still, would you’ve been interested?

The Babelsberg’s Globe Theater can actually seat 700 people; and is worth an estimated half a million Euro (approx. $716,000 USD). I can just imagine what the neighbors would say if you tried to put this out in your backyard.

It was a gift to the Shakespeare Company Berlin from the German-born director Roland Emmerich (he directed Independence Day with Will Smith) after he made the movie Anonymous.

The studio where this Shakespeare’s Globe sits is pretty historical in its own right; it’s the oldest theater in the world, ready to celebrate its 100th birthday next year.

Did you know that The Blue Angel (the movie that catapulted Marlene Dietrich to stardom) was made here in 1930, and Fritz Lang’s movie Metropolis was also made in the studio’s lot in 1927.

More modern movies have been made at Babelsberg Studios (all under the watchful eye of the Globe), including Valkyrie, The Reader (with Academy Award winner Kate Winslet), The Pianist, Inglorious Basterds, and The Ghost Writer.

Not to mention, the approximately 1000 movies made by Joseph Goebbels between 1933 and 1945. OK, they were propaganda films, but in terms of number of movies that’s still a whole lot being made.

If amazing pieces of cinematic art like the Globe Theater (or the closest you’ll get to the real one) were for sale on eBay, I guess it is true; you can buy anything on the internet.

It’s hot, and most likely you’ve managed to shed just about every ounce of clothing that‘s possible without being arrested for indecent exposure.

Summer’s rough, isn’t it?

However, if you want to shed ALL of your clothing, then you might as well do it at one of Germany’s nude beaches.

Nude beaches? Germany’s got nude beaches?

Yeah, it sure does and they are scattered throughout the country, so you’ll find one when you really want one (or, got the guts to go ;-).

Uh, where are they; and what are the “rules” for being there?

Let’s start at where it all started; the island (and town) of Sylt (in North Frisia). The entire island isn’t a beach for naturists (as nude beach goers are called), but an area of the island has been set aside for those looking to don their clothing since the 1920’s.

Situated on the Baltic Sea in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, you’ll find some nude beaches in the Rügen district. The white chalky cliffs make for a great background. Too bad though you can’t bring a camera to take pictures of them.

You really didn’t think you could bring cameras onto a nude beach, did you? ;-) Do yourself a favor and keep the camera put away until you’ve left the beach area. OK?

Even Berlin gets in on the nude beach action over at the Wannsee. The sandy beach might be clothes free, but make sure you’ve brought something to cover up with while you’re playing beach volleyball or are out paddle boating.

It’s always good form to bring something to sit on or cover up when you’re at a nude beach restaurant, or some other concession area. Sanitary, ya know.

Lower Saxony has got a nude beach on the island of Borkum. Whether you keep your clothes on or take them off, you’ll love the clear lakes and nude camping.

One thing, Gentlemen, if you’ve come to Borkum or some other nude beach to pick up the ladies; you better think twice. Nude beaches aren’t meat markets!

Yeah, that means you don’t invade anyone else’s space. And you certainly don’t want to be up close & personal not smellin’ all that fresh. So, make sure you’ve practiced some hygiene before arriving.

Look, don’t kill the messenger. I didn’t make the rules, I’m just passing them on. ;-)

Hamburg isn’t going to be left out. So, if you’re a true naturist, the Sommerbad Volksdorf is the place you’ll want to be.

Places like this are (believe it or not) quite family-friendly. So, please don’t come to the Sommerbad Volksdorf thinking it’s like Jamaica’s Hedonism. Keep the public displays of affection to a very (very, very) bare minimum.

Better yet, don’t display them at all.

But, don’t let a few rules of etiquette keep you from enjoying the best of Germany’s nude beaches. Then again, most of these “rules” would apply if it was a clothing-required beach, as well. Right?

It was a sad day on August 3, 2011 when Mr. Rudolf Brazda died at the age 98. His age doesn’t make Herr Brazda’s story remarkable. The fact that he was the last known homosexual survivor of the Nazi death camps makes his story worth writing about.

His death forever silencing the first hand account of what it meant to be gay in the Third Reich (homosexuality was declared illegal in 1935).

He was sent to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in 1942, imprisoned there until the camp was liberated in 1945. He moved to France after the war ended, staying there until his death — where he was buried.

Now, sixty-six years after Brazda’s release from the Nazi’s persecution, there’s talk in Germany about legalizing same-sex marriages.

Yes, the country’s had same-sex partnerships for the last 10 years — but when it comes to things like adoption and taxes, the current law doesn’t measure up (legal marriage between same sex couples is legal in Norway, Sweded, Spain, and Portugal).

Even the conservative Catholic Church might be softening. The Archbishop of Munich says that all gays and lesbians are welcome — despite the teachings against the “S”-word between same sex couples.

While some gay and lesbian couples might not be ready to tie the knot, they (and hetero-folks) are more than welcome to party at Christopher Street Day or Berlin Gay Pride; a huge event every June.

Right before the festival kicks off, there’s a smaller one (the Lesbisch-Schwules Stadtfest) at the Nollendorfplatz in Schöneberg the week before.

Munich and Cologne also get in on the gay-filled action (oh, that doesn’t sound right, does it?) Sorry — I should say that Munich holds a Christopher Street Day of its own every August. As does the ColognePride in Cologne.

If you attend the event in Cologne or Berlin, stop by the memorials to those who were forced to wear the dreaded pink triangle in concentration camps — just like Mr. Brazda.

Rest in Peace, Sir — you deserve it.

Thanks to a post by Sandra at the German Language Blog, the German Kartoffelsalat with its incredibly versatile potato got some attention.

Sure Sandra was only talking about “German” potato salad; but there are a bazillion other recipes that calls for this pantry staple. How could there not be, Germans eat an average of 70kg of them a year.

Potatoes are eaten with just about anything in German cuisine, although what (and how) might be a regional thing.

For example, potato pancakes are served throughout the country; but the buttermilk variety are primarily made (and eaten, ha-ha) in Saxony’s Ore Mountain region.

Also made in Saxony (and Saxony-Anhalt) is Sauerkrautpuffer, another type of potato pancake made with (as its name suggests) sauerkraut. It also has a dash of cayenne pepper in there for extra zing. :-)

I’m a big a fan of potato pancakes as well as potato soup (Kartoffelsuppe). You’ll find all kinds of yummy goodness in a bowl — carrots, bacon, celery.

Great, now I want some. ;-)

In all fairness, and going back to Sandra’s topic, I should bring up potato salad (Kartoffelsalat). It’s not uncommon throughout Germany to find everything in the salad except the kitchen sink. Depending on who’s making it, you’ll get potato salad with either mayo or vinegar, cabbage or bacon, or cucumbers or leeks.

As if something made with mayo is the healthiest choice, wait until you try Kroketten. This potato recipe calls for frying up mashed potatoes until a they’re golden and crispy. This dish is usually served as a side-dish for some saucy meat dish, but ain’t that another blog altogether…

Not a heart healthy choice, but OHHHHHH so delicious.

I don’t want to leave out Kartoffelklöße, a potato dumpling that’s popular in Bavaria, Thuringia, and the Rhineland. The trick is not to leave them to chill in the fridge for longer than 4 hours, otherwise they’re too “moist.” When cooked (thrown into salted water) they float to the top. This way there’s no overcooking. How easy is that?

So, in case I’ve left you hungry, here’s a recipe for the Sauerkrautpuffer (thanks to our friends at GermanFoodGuide.com):

Sauerkrautpuffer

1 – 1 1/2 lbs Potatoes
8 oz Sauerkraut (ready-made in a glass jar or can)
2 Eggs
1 tablespoons Bread Crumbs
1 tablespoon Flour
Salt
Fresh Pepper
Pinch of Sugar
Pinch of Cayenne Pepper
Oil or Butter for frying

Wash & peel, then shred the potatoes into a bowl. Drain potato juice. Mix in the Sauerkraut, eggs, bread crumbs, and flour. Add seasoning to taste.

Heat oil or butter in a frying pan. Using a large spoon, add spoonfuls of batter to the pan forming pancakes. Brown on both sides. Remove from oil and allow to drip on paper towels briefly. Serve hot.

© Copyright German Food Guide

If you make these, give me a shout and let me know how they turned out!

—Marcus