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The Week in Germany: Culture
September 14, 2007
Readings: TWIG Cannot Cover it All - But We Can Tell You Where
to Find it!
As you might imagine, the TWIG editors spend a lot of time sifting through
the mountain of information available on the Internet about Germany. For
those of you who are not quite as surflustig, we continue our
roving weekly selection of links to top-notch writing about Germany on
the Web. If you like TWIG, you might find these stories interesting as
well.
Happy Reading!
 Ich
Bin ein New Yorker
On the eve of this year's Steuben Parade, author Anna Steegman offers
a funny and poignant look at her experiences adjusting to life in New
York after moving there from Germany in the early 1980's. Her recollections
will be familiar to anyone who has tried to live in a language other than
the one they grew up with. She writes "Humor almost completely disappeared
from my life. Imagine the anguish of sitting with a group of people, all
of them roaring with laughter, while you, the oddball foreigner, struggle
to grasp the jokes. I consoled myself with Buster Keaton silents at Film
Forum." The story has a happy ending. of course; Ms. Steegman still
lives in New York and is about to publish a memoir - in English.
Where
the West Bank meets Bavaria
One of the great things about Oktoberfest is that it provides an excellent
model for fall celebrations across the world - beer, bratwurst, song and
dance are the key ingredients to good times in places as close as Cincinnati
and Milwauke, and as far flung as Blumenau Brazil and Hong Kong. The BBC
reports that Oktoberfest is even celebrated in the West Bank, where the
Khoury family has been brewing beer according to the German Purity Laws
since 1994. Thousands of visitors celebrated Oktoberfest in the Palestinian
Christian village of Taybeh (for which the beer is also named) at the
town's third annual Oktoberfest.
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| German author Karl May |
In
Germany, Wild for Winnetou
Karl May, the progenitor of Germany's wild west archetypes, has made several
appearances in TWIG recently. This week, we link to a New York Times
feature that profiles some of May's biggest fans and offers two perspectives
on Germany's love for Winnetou. On the one hand, he is "Paul Bunyan,
Abe Lincoln and Elvis rolled into one." On the other hand, he is
an ersatz hero for the German tribes, who were described by a Roman historian
as "uncorrupted, primitive, fierce and at one with nature, a people
on the edge of a corrupt and voracious empire."
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