ArenaNet:International cultural references/Germany

International cultural references
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There are some famous rock/pop bands in Germany that a lot of people know (even abroad). Just to mention a few commercially very successful ones:

• Die Toten Hosen (Translates to "The Dead Trousers")
• Die Ärzte (Translates to "The Doctors")
• Die Prinzen (Translates to "The Princes")
• Xavier Naidoo

Some famous comedians:

• Harald Schmidt (Political)
• Stefan Raab (Makes fun of anything T_T)
• Michael Mittermeier (Standup)
• Helge Schneider (Famous for weird songs like "Katzenklo" (translates to "Cat litter pan) and "Das Mörchen Lied" ("The little carrot song")

Other cultural phenomenas:

• Thomas Gottschalk and the show he does, called "Wetten, dass..?", which roughly translates to "I bet that..". Basically its a show people go to, to perform weird bets as in..."I bet I can make a truck stand on beer glasses with all 4 wheels, without them breaking.". There are always some international stars at the show who have to place bets on whether or not the person in question can achieve this. If the star gets it wrong, they have to do some, mostly embarrassing task of some kind.
• Fasching/Karneval/Fastnacht is the German equivalent to Carnival. Its starts on the 11/11/XX and ends on "Ash Wednesday". The festivities reach their Zenith some time in February. Some schools even have a holiday in February for that reason.
• A few years ago there was this social marketing campaign supported by any form of media, called "Du bist Deutschland" ("You are Germany"), aiming to create a more positive feeling within the country. "Du bist Deutschland" is a sentence anyone knows over here, and some kind of reference to that would surely put smiles on a lot of peoples faces.

...Hmm there was another thing I was going to add, perhaps it will come back to me later. ^^ 0xLunarEffect 23:01, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Oh, not to forget the classic philosophers/composers/writers like Händel, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Goethe, Schiller, Grimm, Marx, Nietzsche, Kant, Schopenhauer... 0xLunarEffect 23:15, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Don't forget about Otto von Bismark. He was instrumental in the unification of Germany(edit The first one.).--SirFranz 02:49, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

A note to OxLunarEffect and Sir Franz: I work with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and I tell guests to our concert hall -- which is renowned for its acoustics and its exceptional earthquake safety -- "If there is an earthquake, pray that you are at Benaroya Hall]. Preferably listening to Brahms." He's a heartfelt favourite of mine, as you can see. ;) -- Gaile 03:00, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

I may do just that, the only time I was in Seattle was on a army cadet trip so i didn't have much time for the tourist thing (got to climb on tanks and APCs at the army base though). I don't know how widespread its use is but my Oma makes a slave made of Comfrey(Comfrey is used for a variety of ailments such as broken bones and acne). --SirFranz 06:09, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Ah, Brahms, how could I forget -_o . Hehe, classical music during an earthquake gives the crescendo(sp?) a whole new dimension xD LunarEffect 22:05, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm a little bored at the moment, so I'm adding some trivia about the Rhine-Main-area..

1. The Rhine-Main-area stretches, varying by definition, from Mainz (western) to Hanau (eastern) and from Bad Homburg (northern) to Darmstadt (southern). (Other definitions stretch from Bingen, Rüdesheim to Miltenberg, and from Wetzlar, Limburg, Giessen, Alsfeld to Worms.)
2. Famous modern comedians from the Rhine-Main are Martin Schneider (linguistic humor, speaks the southern hassian dialect), Kaya Yanar (satiricial and cultural humor, hails from Frankfurt and is very well known for his roles as "Ranjid" (an indian) and "Hakan" (who works as a bouncer, repeated line is "Ey, du komms' hier nicht rein!"/"Oy, you won't get in here!"), Sven Hieronymus (local humor, also does a bit of linguistic humor, speaks Meenzerisch, a dialect mostly influenced by hassian and french. Some say it's mostly mumbling.), Mundstuhl (linguistic humor, fairly well known through their usage of Kanak Sprak, german influenced by turkish. Strangely enough, some people listening to Hip Hop adapted this slang.) and Badesalz (linguistic humor, pioneers of modern comedy in Germany.).
3. There are also several music bands from the Rhine-Main which are known further than Hanau, among them Böhse Onkelz and the Rodgau Monotones.
4. The Automobile brand Opel hails from Rüsselsheim.
5. There are several sports clubs and athletes from the Rhine-Main, among them Frankfurt Lions (ice-hockey), SG Eintracht Frankfurt (soccer, the club, or rather, the players are also known as Schlabbekicker), 1. FSV Mainz 05 (soccer), Offenbacher Kicker FC (soccer, rival of Eintracht, also known for its rather charmant stadium.). As it is with sports, there are also clubs which have been mostly forgotten over the time or that have been disbanded, among them SG Wallau-Massenheim (Handball, still active as SG Wallau in the 2nd German Handball league), Frankfurt Galaxy (football, member of the disbanded NFL Europe, founding member), FSV Frankfurt (soccer, was a local giant until the late 60s, now plays in the 2nd Bundesliga after years of playing in amateur leagues), SV Darmstadt 98 (soccer, was also a local giant until the late 80s, now plays in the 4th league after avoiding bankrupt).
6. Food. The Rhine-Main has lots of it, and also has some specialities, among them the Frankfurt Grie Soß (green sauce, with seven herbs; served with egg and potatoes; german wikipedia is a lot more specific), Handkäs mit Musigg (sour milk cheese with onions), Spundekäs (cream cheese with pepper, salt and capsicumpowder (for clarification: Paprikapulver). Good for dipping with Pretzels.), Zwiwwelkoche (comparable to a quiche, with onions. Mostly served with wine and Federweißer.). Wine is also important, areas within the Rhein-Main wellknown for their wines are the Rheingau and Rheinhessen.
7. People: Everyone knows Johann Wolfgang Goethe and what he did. He was born in Frankfurt. Nearly everybody knows what Johann Gutenberg did. He has been elected man of the millenium by TIME magazine, for inventing the book press with interchangeable letters. He was born in Mainz. Most people will also know Rudi Völler, as his activity as soccer player and team manager of the national soccer team have granted him some publicity. He was born in Hanau.

In lieu of a username on GWW, 84.176.85.114 13:30, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

I just remembered a few german authors, among them authors who hailed from Germany but chose exile over censorship and modern authors. I'm not going to include people like Susanne Fröhlich or Florian Illies (although I like Illies style).

• Anna Seghers (Das siebte Kreuz, Transit)
• Mann-Familie
  • Thomas Mann (Die Buddenbrooks, Mario und der Zauberer)
  • Klaus Mann (Mephisto)
• Kurt Tucholsky (Träumereien an preußischen Kaminen, "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles. Ein Bilderbuch [...]")
• Stefan Zweig (Schachnovelle)
• Max Frisch (Andorra)
• Ottfried Preußler (Krabat, Die kleine Hexe)
• Michael Ende (Die Unendliche Geschichte, Momo, Jim Knopf)
• Walter Moers (Käpt'n Blaubär)
• Wolfgang Hohlbein
• Johann Wolfgang Goethe (Faust I, die Leiden des jungen Werther)
• Friedrich Schiller (Die Glocke, Die Räuber)

As an exception to this, I would like to add Martin Luther.

There are, of course, a lot more authors, ranging from Schiller, Goethe and Lessing down to modern autobiographists and people who write books just because everybody does it nowadays (like Stefan Effenberg and Dieter Bohlen. I don't know who buys their books, but they have been financially successful.). --84.176.85.114 14:03, 14 October 2008 (UTC)