German culture
The culture of Germany can refer to the culture of today's Federal Republic of Germany or to the culture of the German-speaking people in historical Germany, the German-speaking area of Central Europe, with its diverse West Germanic and finally German dialects (→ dialect continuum ) as well as its art and cultural history, their origins go back to the time of the Celts , Teutons and Romans . German and German refer to the mother tongue, not to a state. Since the Middle Ages, this German culture has produced a large number of personalities who have shaped the style and epoch. In a wide variety of disciplines, German-speaking cultural workers became pioneers of new intellectual currents and developments. Some German artists are among the protagonists of western civilization .
For centuries, German culture, with Germany as the historical name for the German-speaking area, has primarily defined itself through the common language. The cultures of the Federal Republic of Germany, German-speaking Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, South Tyrol etc. all belong to the German language and cultural area.
Beyond the new borders of the empire , around 1900 many people ascribed the characteristics of a German cultural nation to the country.
The spread of mass media in the 20th century has given popular culture a high priority in German society. The spread of the Internet in the 21st century has led to a differentiation of the cultural landscape and changed the forms of niche and scene cultures .
Literature and philosophy
The most important manuscript in the development of the German language and at the same time the oldest German book is the so-called Abrogans with the Lord's Prayer of the Codex Sangallensis 911 as well as the translations Notkers des Deutschen . They are kept in the St. Gallen Abbey Library.
German literature goes back to the early Middle Ages , when the first medieval libraries with manuscripts and book illuminations emerged. Of particular note is the minnesang , which has been handed down in the unique Codex Manesse , among other things . The best known minstrel is Walther von der Vogelweide . A cornerstone of German literature is the verse epic of the Nibelungenlied .
At the end of the Middle Ages, book printing by Johannes Gutenberg with movable type proved to be revolutionary . His most important work was the printing of the Gutenberg Bibles . Finally, parchment could be replaced as writing material by the much cheaper paper .
The term of the land of poets and thinkers , which is still used in some cases, dates from before 1871 .
The most important German authors are u. a. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller and the Brothers Grimm . With Heinrich Heine , Kurt Tucholsky , Bertolt Brecht , Thomas and Heinrich Mann or Hannah Arendt , important writers stood out in their day.
In the 20th century, German Nobel Prize winners for literature were Theodor Mommsen (1902), Rudolf Eucken (1908), Paul Heyse (1910), Gerhart Hauptmann (1912), Thomas Mann (1929), Hermann Hesse (1946), Heinrich Böll (1972) and Günter Grass (1999), in the 21st century Herta Müller (2009).
The Frankfurt Book Fair is the most important meeting place for the international publishing industry and the literary scene. There, the “best novel in the German language” is awarded the German Book Prize every year . The Leipzig Book Fair Prize is of great importance for new publications .
The most influential German philosophers include Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz , Nikolaus von Kues , Immanuel Kant , Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel , Arthur Schopenhauer , Martin Heidegger and Friedrich Nietzsche . Several significant philosophical currents emanated from German philosophers: German idealism as well as the Marxism founded by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels . In the 20th century, the critical theory of the so-called Frankfurt School by Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer was particularly important. In her successor, Jürgen Habermas became one of the world's most famous living philosophers.
music
Germany can look back on a long and varied musical history. From an economic point of view, the country is the third largest music market in the world.
The history of European classical music is largely shaped by German composers. Due to the central location of Germany, different musical traditions from all over Europe could flow together here. Church music and organ building flourished in the Baroque period. Important baroque composers were a. Heinrich Schütz , Georg Friedrich Handel , Johann Sebastian Bach . The composers of the Mannheim School , Ludwig van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , who is also considered an Austrian composer, formed the style for the Viennese Classic . Beginning at the time of the Vormärz , the accompanied song was developed into a separate art genre by composers such as Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy . Other important German romantic composers were Johannes Brahms , Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss . In the 20th century u. a. the composers Carl Orff and Hanns Eisler popularity. After 1950, the development of serial and electronic music by composers like Karlheinz Stockhausen was significant in West Germany . In the new music has Werner Henze gained international importance. Important contemporary German composers are z. B. Wolfgang Rihm as well as the worldwide very successful film music composer Hans Zimmer .
The popular music in Germany was much of the 20th century of pop and folk music influenced. Performers of the genre are u. a. Helene Fischer , Heino and Max Raabe . Krautrock , which emerged in the late 1960s, had an impact on the emergence of various forms of rock music and electronic music , whose pioneers included the German musicians Kraftwerk , Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream . The establishment of an independent, internationally successful German pop and rock music , known as the “ New German Wave ”, reached its commercial climax in the early 1980s with artists such as Nena , Hubert Kah and Peter Schilling . Other successful interpreters of this time are the synth pop group Alphaville , Trio , Extrabreit , Joachim Witt , DAF , Ideal , Münchener Freiheit and the Spider Murphy Gang .
Well-known representatives of Ostrock are City , Karat , Silly , Keimzeit , Karussell , electra and the Puhdys . Many of the GDR bands were censored or even banned because of their freedom and change-looking texts, but thanks to secret concerts at the end of the 1980s they successfully managed to protest against the regime. a. for the resolution of rock musicians and songwriters .
German-language alternative and punk rock has been widespread since its inception in the 1980s . The most successful representatives include Die Ärzte , Beatsteaks , Nina Hagen and Die Toten Hosen . Internationally popular are the German rock bands The Rattles or The Lords as well as the hard rock band Scorpions and Rammstein , the best-known representatives of the so-called New German Hardness , to which Oomph! and be numbered unholy . Sportfreunde Stiller , Tocotronic , Blumfeld , Selig and Jennifer Rostock produce popular indie rock and pop . In the reggae / dancehall area , a. Seeed and her singer Peter Fox and the group Culcha Candela were successful. Successful German-speaking hip-hop artists are u. a. Die Fantastischen Vier , Fettes Brot , Marteria , Samy Deluxe , Jan Delay , Blumentopf , Bushido , KIZ , Casper , Cro , Sido and Deichkind .
The most famous German-speaking pop musicians of the past few years include James Last , Udo Lindenberg , Peter Maffay , Herbert Grönemeyer , Westernhagen , Silbermond , Juli , Ich + Ich , Frida Gold , Tim Bendzko , Andreas Bourani and the singer Xavier Naidoo . The English-speaking band Reamonn was popular across Europe. In 2010 Lena won the Eurovision Song Contest for Germany . The productions of Frank Farian with Boney M. and Milli Vanilli , Dieter Bohlen (with Modern Talking ), the casting band No Angels , the metal band Blind Guardian , the singer Sarah Connor , the violinist David Garrett and the Tokio Hotel is a popular band , especially among female teenagers . German producers also play an important role in electro and techno music. B. Mousse T. , Paul van Dyk , Scooter , 2raumwohnung , Tomcraft , Moguai , The Disco Boys , Lexy & K-Paul , Kai Tracid , Tiefschwarz , Blank & Jones and Paul Kalkbrenner .
Jazz in Germany has a long tradition at least since the swing era of the 1930s, with a broad reception of traditional jazz after World War II ( Dixieland and others) as well as in other European countries, but also in modern jazz , with musicians like the trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff or in free jazz Peter Brötzmann and others were also perceived internationally as examples of the emancipation of European jazz and set their own international accents. From the 1970s, was fusion jazz from Klaus Doldinger's Passport very successful internationally. Important festivals include the Frankfurt Jazz Festival (since 1953), the JazzFest Berlin (from 1964), the Moers Festival (from 1972) and Jazzopen Stuttgart (from 2006). There are major broadcast big bands, a network of jazz clubs and numerous independent labels, of which ECM is best known internationally.
Until 2010, the Love Parade was one of the world's largest music events. German music festivals of paramount importance today are Rock am Ring , Wacken Open Air , Fusion Festival , Berlin Music Week , Hurricane Festival , Southside , SonneMondSterne , Deichbrand , Melt !, Schlossgrabenfest , Summerjam , Nature One , Mayday , Airbeat One , With Full Force and the WGT . Town music festivals such as the Fête de la Musique or the Honky Tonk take place all over Germany. There are also many smaller festivals that serve certain styles of music, regions or topics. A festival guide on the Internet shows over 350 festivals in Germany for the 2011 season, although not all have been recorded yet.
The leading international trade fair for making music is the Frankfurt Music Fair . A significant German Music Competition is the annual Federal Vision Song Contest . The Berlin-based StartUp SoundCloud is one of the most important platforms for musicians all over the world.
Movie
Films have been produced in German-speaking countries since the end of the 19th century. The Berlin Varieté Wintergarten became the first cinema in history when the Skladanowsky brothers showed a film there in front of an audience in 1895. The Babelsberg film studio in Potsdam near Berlin was founded in 1912, making it the world's first large film studio - and a forerunner to Hollywood . Today it is producing films of international format again and is considered one of the largest film studios in Europe. Babelsberg became synonymous with the successful popular film. A wide variety of genres were newly developed in this early phase of the film. The film Metropolis by Fritz Lang , produced in 1927, became the first science fiction feature film . In 1930, The Blue Angel with Marlene Dietrich became an international success for German talkies .
In the period between 1933 and 1945, German film was often used as a propaganda medium. The films made by Leni Riefenstahl at this time established new standards in the field of documentary film . Various techniques were later implemented in commercials . After 1945 took place in West Germany , the UFA production back to; among other things, Heimatfilme became popular. From the 1960s onwards, Wallace and Winnetou films became popular. With the spread of television sets and the emerging competition from television series and films , the cinema industry fell into a crisis that was countered with the New German Film . Rainer Werner Fassbinder , Wim Wenders , Volker Schlöndorff and Werner Herzog became the most important representatives of auteur films at that time. Directors like Konrad Wolf shaped filmmaking in the GDR. With the conversion of film funding, large-scale productions like those by Bernd Eichinger could be implemented in the 1980s . Since 1990, relationship comedies have become increasingly popular. After the turn of the millennium, some genre films found their audiences. The German-Turkish cinema received attention and a wide variety of youth films were able to find a niche audience. Only a few German films were also internationally successful.
Important German film studios are Bavaria Film , Constantin Film , MMC and UFA. Among the most successful German directors and film producers of modern times are u. a. Roland Emmerich , Wolfgang Petersen , Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck , Caroline Link , Wolfgang Becker and Fatih Akin . Other well-known filmmakers are Til Schweiger , Michael Herbig , Andreas Dresen , Uwe Boll , Dani Levy , Oskar Roehler , Uli Edel and Tom Tykwer .
In total, more than 10,000 films were made by 2013 with German participation. In 2011 there were a total of 1671 movie theaters with 4640 cinemas in Germany. The number of visitors was around 129.6 million. Of the 532 first screenings in the same year, 212 were films with predominantly German production participation, including 132 feature films and 80 documentaries. The market share of German productions was 21.8 percent (16.8% in the previous year).
The most important award of the Federal Republic of Germany is the German Film Prize with the "Lola", which is awarded annually by the German Film Academy . The European Film Prize "Felix" is awarded every second year in Berlin. The Berlin International Film Festival, known as the “Berlinale” , is staged every February and has established itself as a globally significant event in the film world.
Visual arts
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CD Friedrich The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, 1818 |
Franz Marc Blue Horse 1911 |
Important German Renaissance artists include Albrecht Altdorfer , Lucas Cranach the Elder , Matthias Grünewald , Hans Holbein the Younger and, probably the most famous of them, Albrecht Dürer .
The most important baroque masters from Germany are Johann Baptist Zimmermann , the Asam brothers and Peter Paul Rubens, who was born in Siegen but emigrated to Antwerp .
In addition to Caspar David Friedrich, the artists Philipp Otto Runge , Carl Spitzweg and the Nazarene Philipp Veit are important romantics . Prussian painters like Anton von Werner and Emil Hünten stand for history painting , the Munich and Düsseldorf painting schools are of international importance. Of world renown are u. a. the impressionist Max Liebermann , the surrealists Max Ernst , Hans Richter and Hans Arp , as well as the expressionists Max Beckmann , Paul Klee , Gabriele Münter and Otto Dix . The two expressionist artist communities " Brücke " and " Der Blaue Reiter " were outstanding in terms of their influence .
In the second half of the 20th century, the Documenta developed into the leading art exhibition. Younger artists of this period include the versatile Jörg Immendorff , the performance artist and conceptualist Joseph Beuys and the New Wild counting Markus Lüpertz and Martin Kippenberger .
In the 1960s in the Rhineland a. a. with Nam June Paik , Wolf Vostell and HA Schult new art forms such as happening , video art and the Fluxus movement. Important photo artists in the 20th century were Helmut Newton , Sigmar Polke and Gunter Sachs .
In the GDR, the Leipzig School around Werner Tübke , Bernhard Heisig and Wolfgang Mattheuer was formative. Among the important contemporary artists include the Neoexpressionist Georg Baselitz , who in the tradition of history painting standing Anselm Kiefer that the Capitalist Realism formative Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter , and the landmark of irony Rosemarie Trockel . The "deceptive idyll" Performing Norbert Bisky that the New Leipzig School counted Neo Rauch and Aris Kalaizis , as well as focused on history paintings Daniel Richter are examples of very successful artists of the post-reunification generation . The world's largest art forger trial to date was carried out by Wolfgang Beltracchi .
The most famous contemporary German photographers include Andreas Gursky , Peter Lindbergh , Wolfgang Tillmans , Horst P. Horst and Thomas Ruff .
architecture
Germany has a rich and diverse architectural history that is closely interwoven with the western architectural history of neighboring countries. The basis was primarily the architecture of Roman antiquity , from which unique buildings have been preserved, such as the Porta Nigra in Trier and the Roman Theater in Mainz, which was uncovered from 1999 . Some pre-Romanesque buildings such as the Lorsch gate hall still show the development towards the Romanesque , which began in the Holy Roman Empire around 1030. The Gothic began in France, the first Gothic buildings in the Holy Roman Empire were built from around 1230, for example the Church of Our Lady in Trier.
Around 1520, the Renaissance came from what is now Italy to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, with the Augsburg and Bremen town hall as outstanding examples . The baroque style began in 1650. The works of Balthasar Neumann , the Wieskirche and the Ludwigsburg residential palace are prominent . Around 1770 the style epoch of classicism began. Examples are the Brandenburg Gate by Carl Gotthard Langhans , as well as the Old Museum and Charlottenhof Palace in Berlin by Karl Friedrich Schinkel - a Prussian master builder who, in the form of the Schinkel School, influenced many subsequent generations around the world, including through his work at the Berlin Building Academy .
Some of the most famous buildings in Germany were built in the style epoch of historicism (around 1840 to around 1900); Examples of this are the Dresden Semperoper , the Berlin Cathedral and the Schwerin Palace . Influential architects of this era were u. a. Gottfried Semper , Friedrich August Stüler , Friedrich von Gärtner and the first larger architectural offices such as Cremer & Wolffenstein and Schilling & Graebner . As a result of industrialization, the founding period and strong population growth, this time architecturally shaped the majority of Germany. Entire urban areas on the edge of the block emerged for all strata of the population, such as in Berlin through the metropolitan Hobrecht Plan , as well as villa colonies and densely built-up suburbs . Regional-specific styles such as the Hanover Architecture School , the Nuremberg Style , the Semper Nicolai School in the Dresden area and the Johann Albrecht Style in Mecklenburg also developed . Sometimes there were stylistic deviations from city to city. Well-kept Wilhelminian-style districts are nowadays the preferred residential area or trendy district in many cities and combine urban life.
At the beginning of the 20th century, German architects were pioneers of classical modernism . The German Werkbund, founded in 1907, developed a precursor to this . Walter Gropius as the founder of the Bauhaus School, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and the New Frankfurt set the impetus for New Building that continues to shape architecture worldwide today. The first German high-rise buildings were also built, especially in Berlin. A modern style that is largely specific to Germany is Expressionism . A movement accompanying the modernist movement from 1904 until the early 1960s was the homeland security architecture , which maintained and further developed the architecture typical of the region in many places. In the architecture Nazism often prevailed a monumental, autocratic style, it emerged as the showpiece Olympic Stadium . In the period of reconstruction after the war, pragmatism prevailed, there were many large individual buildings and scattered settlements , the GDR architecture was initially characterized by socialist classicism , later by industrial construction methods such as the prefabricated building. The architecture scene was also looking for more extravagant forms of expression for solitary buildings. In the Federal Republic of Germany, the post-modern Olympic Stadium in Munich by Frei Otto and Behnisch, completed in 1972, was an important project that carried the new self-image of German architecture into the world. With the 256 m high Frankfurt Messeturm , the hitherto tallest skyscraper in Europe was built in 1991 , which was replaced in 1997 by the Commerzbank Tower , which is still Germany's tallest skyscraper . The tallest structure on German soil is the 368 m high Berlin TV tower , which was inaugurated in 1969.
In the last few decades, the development of architecture has become globalized, but at the same time regional references to historical models or local building methods are often made (also known as neo-classical architecture ). Movements such as New Urbanism have made small facades with mixed uses popular again, especially in the cities with the typical urban block edge construction . The reconstruction of cultural monuments destroyed by war or demolition is also important in the 21st century, prominent examples are the Dresden Frauenkirche including the Neumarkt , the Berlin City Palace , the Potsdamer Mitte with the City Palace and the Frankfurt Dom-Römer project .
German architects and architecture firms are active around the world today, some of the most renowned of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. a. Hans Kollhoff , GRAFT , Sergei Tchoban , Helmut Jahn , Ole Scheeren , OM Ungers , GMP , Ingenhoven , Sauerbruch Hutton , Hadi Teherani and Behnisch Architects . German winners of the renowned Pritzker Prize are Gottfried Böhm and Frei Otto. The Federal Foundation for Building Culture was founded in 2007 to promote awareness of architecture at home and abroad . Every year, the be Day of Architecture and Heritage Day organized.
Cultural and architectural monuments
The UNESCO leads 39 German contributions to the World Heritage , which are distributed in 15 of the 16 German states. The list was opened with the Aachen Cathedral in 1978; The latest addition in 2014 was the Westphalian monastery Corvey . There are some old towns with World Heritage status in Germany, including Stralsund and Wismar , Bamberg , Goslar , Quedlinburg , Lübeck and Regensburg , the largest medieval town north of the Alps. The Dresden Elbe Valley held World Heritage status from 2004 to 2009. In addition, UNESCO lists three World Heritage Sites with the Messel Pit , the primeval beech forests and the German Wadden Sea .
In addition to the World Heritage, the funding program for “Nationally Valuable Cultural Monuments” under the patronage of the Minister of State for Culture honors particularly important monuments nationwide. From 1950 to 2007 more than 500 cultural monuments were funded from this program with a total of around 280 million euros.
Cultural monuments that evoke an idea of German romanticism reach particularly high numbers of visitors. The castles of Neuschwanstein , Schwerin and Heidelberg , Hohenzollern Castle , the Wartburg , the Walhalla , the Upper Middle Rhine Valley with its castles and the medieval old towns of Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Rüdesheim am Rhein are among the world-famous tourist destinations.
Monuments and cityscapes from the time of the industrial revolution , such as splendid ensembles of spa architecture in the seaside resorts on the Baltic coast, health resorts inland or industrial monuments, are also enjoying increasing popularity and recognition .
Closed historical cityscapes are rarely found in major German cities today, as the Second World War and the urban redevelopment of the post-war period destroyed a large part of the cultural monuments. Exceptions are the world heritage cities of Erfurt , Halle , Heidelberg, Schwerin and Wiesbaden . Small and medium-sized towns with largely closed historical cityscapes can still be found quite often in Germany, with many once harmonious ensembles and the like. a. are threatened in their effect by decay, demolitions and "broken renovations" with facade smoothing and removal of stucco for energetically inefficient external insulation .
Museums
There are around 6,250 museums in Germany, including private and public collections, palaces and gardens. Berlin, which with more than 170 museums is one of the most renowned museum landscapes, is home to the Museum Island , which is part of the world heritage, and numerous globally important museums and collections . The Humboldt Forum is under construction there as the most important federal project .
The German Museum in Munich, the world's largest natural science and technology museum, and the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg, with one of the most important collections of culture and art from prehistory to the present day, are among the best-known museum institutions in Germany .
The state art collections in Dresden accommodate u. a. the Green Vault , a historical collection of the former treasury of the Wettin princes from the Renaissance to Classicism. The German Marine Museum with the Ozeaneum Stralsund is the largest marine museum in Germany.
Due to the world's longest tradition in automotive engineering, Germany has some of the largest vehicle collections in Europe, such as B. in Stuttgart in the Mercedes-Benz Museum and in the Porsche Museum , in Munich in the BMW Welt and in the Wolfsburg Autostadt . Due to a long tradition in the field of inventions and technical innovations, there are many other technical museums in Germany.
Celebrations and parties
The national holiday is the day of German unity on October 3rd, as agreed in the Unification Treaty on the accession of the German Democratic Republic to the Federal Republic of Germany. All other holidays are based on the laws of the countries. Eight of them are public holidays in all 16 countries: Good Friday , Easter Monday , Ascension Day , Whit Monday , the two Christmas holidays , New Year and Labor Day . The Reformation Day is a holiday in five countries. Like Sundays, “the state-recognized public holidays are legally protected as days of rest from work and spiritual exhilaration”.
Germany is known worldwide for its Christmas customs , including the traditional Christmas markets , Christmas trees , typical decorations such as Advent calendars and Christmas pyramids , as well as culinary specialties such as stollen , roasts and gingerbread . One of the biggest tourist attractions is also the Oktoberfest in Munich (also called “ d 'Wiesn ” in local dialect ), the largest folk festival in the world with almost seven million visitors . In Bad Cannstatt hosts the annual Stuttgart Beer Festival (on the Stuttgart Beer Festival ), the second largest with over 4.5 million visitors festival in the world, instead. Important Carnival, Fastnacht and Mardi Gras events include the Cologne Carnival , the Mainz Fastnacht , the Düsseldorf Carnival and the Swabian-Alemannic Fastnacht . The world's largest shooting festival takes place in Hanover every year .
The Kiel Week , a sailing regatta that has been held in Kiel since the end of the 19th century , is the largest sailing event in the world and one of the largest summer festivals in Northern Europe. The Hanse Sail in Rostock is one of the largest maritime festivals. The annual Hamburg Port Birthday and every two years the Cruise Days also take place in Northern Germany . The highlight of these festivities is the so-called parade of dream ships along the Hamburg harbor basin .
Among the national events include the International Museum Day , the German Mill Day , the Fête de la Musique for the beginning of summer on June 21, the Day of Architecture and the Heritage Day . Events such as the Long Night of Museums or Long Night of Culture are held regularly in many cities .
kitchen
Traditional German cuisine varies from region to region. Usually it is related to the cultures of neighboring European countries. A wide variety of immigrant groups as well as typical Western eating habits have also greatly expanded the range of kitchen traditions in Germany. An increase in vegetarian diets can also be observed. According to the Michelin Guide 2015, top gastronomy in Germany has achieved a high international status. Nationwide, 282 restaurants have been awarded one or more stars, the second highest number in Europe after France .
The food supply for private households is characterized by a few providers: Edeka , Rewe , Aldi and the Schwarz Group (Lidl, Kaufland) alone serve 85% of the German food market.
Common German courts are u. a. the hard tags food goose with red cabbage, Kassel with cabbage , kale with smoked Mett or Bregenwurst and various stews . But very old and simple dishes such as poor knights or Labskaus are also common. In northern Germany in particular, potatoes are eaten in a variety of ways, while in the south traditional dumplings , spaetzle and noodles are more popular . Regional specialties are, for example, the white sausage in Old Bavaria, the bratwurst of the Franks, the pan roast in the Saarland, the Maultaschen in Baden-Württemberg or the Thuringian Rostbratwurst . Variants of fruit compote or quark dishes are often served as desserts.
Germany is known worldwide for its centuries-old beer brewing tradition . Many Germans prefer a locally produced beer . German wine is also popular in the country and increasingly beyond, a total of 16 growing areas for quality wine and 26 country wines are distinguished. The viticulture in Germany was begun by the Romans in the 2nd century on the Mosel. For climatic reasons, viticulture is more widespread in the west and south than in the north and east, especially in Rheinhessen , the Palatinate , Baden , Württemberg and on the Moselle . Apple cider is particularly common in the southwest. Mineral water , mostly carbonated , is the most frequently consumed soft drink in Germany. A relatively large amount of fruit juice, especially apple juice, is also drunk.
In Germany you will find a uniquely large selection of types of bread and sausages . The typical first meal of the day is usually a breakfast based on bread or rolls / rolls. In addition to hearty toppings such as cheese, sweet spreads with honey , jam or chocolate cream are popular. A boiled egg, cereal, or other milk-based breakfast cereal is also commonly eaten. To this end, coffee , in the north also reinforced tea drinking. Traditionally, the warm meal is taken at lunchtime and a bread meal in the evening.
Sweet pastries, cakes and large buttercream or cream cakes, such as Black Forest cake , Danube wave or Frankfurter Kranz , are part of the traditional festival program in Germany. They are especially served with afternoon coffee, some of which have specific traditional characteristics, such as the Bergische coffee table . Successfully exported sweets from Germany are among others. a. the Lübeck marzipan , the Dresdner Stollen as well as industrially produced sweets, chocolate products and snacks.
Fashion
The fashion industry is a traditional branch of the manufacturing industry in Germany. In around 1,300 almost exclusively medium-sized companies , around 130,000 employees generate a turnover of around 28 billion euros. The export quota is around 40 percent in the textile industry and 44 percent in the clothing industry (2008). This branch of industry is the second largest consumer goods branch in Germany after the food industry .
German fashion is known for its elegant lines, but also for its unconventional young designs and the wide variety of different styles. Berlin is regarded as a young and creative center in the international fashion scene. Which takes place twice a year, Berlin Fashion Week ( Fashion Week Berlin ) has become in a short time become one of the world's most important fashion events. Bread & Butter Berlin has established itself as an important trade fair for the everyday fashion market . Globally relevant fashion fairs are held in Düsseldorf , the fashion trading center with the highest turnover in Germany - for many years the world's largest fashion fair was the Collections Premiere Düsseldorf (CPD) organized by Igedo . Other important fashion centers are Munich , Hamburg and Cologne . Even smaller cities are centers for design and production as locations for large brands.
Worldwide famous German fashion designers are and were z. B. Karl Lagerfeld , Hugo Boss , Wolfgang Joop , Jil Sander , Michael Michalsky , Philipp Plein , Etienne Aigner , Torsten Amft , Dorothee Schumacher , Willy Bogner , Rudolf and Adi Dassler .
The established fashion brands from Germany include Boss , adidas , Puma , Escada , Joop! , MCM , Bruno Banani , Triumph , Schiesser , Talbot Runhof , Kaviar Gauche , Closed , Reusch , Valisere , Jack Wolfskin , Ulla Popken , Buffalo , Rohde , Zalando , Dr. Martens , P&C , Marc O'Polo , Tom Tailor , s.Oliver , Gerry Weber , Esprit and Wunderkind .
There are also a number of German models who have achieved international fame, especially the “supermodels” Claudia Schiffer , Heidi Klum , Tatjana Patitz , Nadja Auermann and Manon von Gerkan . Also, Diane Kruger , Eva Padberg , Toni Garrn , Julia Stegner , Nico , Franziska Knuppe , Vanessa Hegelmaier , Evelyn Sharma and the male models Nico Schwanz and Lars Burmeister are or were in demand worldwide.
Historically, the folk costume was widely used in Germany until the 20th century and was differentiated from bourgeois clothing. The traditional costume is still worn in various regions today, mostly for folk festivals and special occasions. The modern costume fashion is u. a. back to hunting and hiking clothing.
Games
German board games have a long tradition and are internationally successful. According to market researchers from Eurotoys, sales of German parlor games in 2007 were around 430 million euros. The number of new publications annually is estimated at 600 to 700. Well-known games are Mensch ärgere dich nicht , The Settlers von Catan or Tabu .
Video games are important cultural products in Germany; the local market is the fourth largest in the world. Well-known game developers in Germany are z. B. Blue Byte (including The Settlers ), Crytek ( Crysis ), Deck13 ( Ankh ), Egosoft ( X series ), Piranha Bytes ( Gothic ), Related Designs ( Anno ) and Yager Development ( Spec Ops ). With the spread of social networks, the web game developers Bigpoint , Gameforge and Wooga are among the market leaders today. Among the publishers are Deep Silver , Kalypso Media and Nintendo Europa, Koch Media is the largest independent publishing group for video games in Europe. The annual gamescom in Cologne is the world's leading trade fair for the video game industry. The German game industry associations are GAME and BIU .
society
Germany is a country shaped pluralistically by the European Enlightenment . People from 194 countries live in the Federal Republic. The population is characterized in a global context by a high level of education and an above-average standard of living. According to the World Values Survey , secular-rational values and an advanced level of personal self-development are valued in Germany.
According to a survey in 22 countries for the BBC in 2013, Germany enjoys a high international reputation among 16 countries examined. On average, 59 percent of those surveyed rate Germany's influence and political activity as positive, 15 percent have a negative image. This confirms the country's first place for the sixth time in a row since 2008.
politics
According to the constitution, cultural policy in Germany falls under the responsibility of the federal states. This should guarantee cultural diversity and regional identity. In the Federal Chancellery , the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media is responsible for cultural institutions and projects of national and national importance. Since the Maastricht Treaty in 1993, the EU has had important competencies in the field of copyright for creative professionals .
The Goethe Institutes serve to spread the German language and culture around the world . With a total of 158 locations, including liaison offices, the institute was represented in 93 countries in 2013.
media
German inventors and physicists made a key contribution to the prehistory of radio and television . For a long time, broadcasts on all topics were supplied to the population via analogue broadcast terrestrial television (UHF / VHF), regional cable companies (mostly analogue) and via satellite . Since 2003, terrestrial television has been supplied digitally in metropolitan areas, i.e. via the DVB-T standard. A complete digitization of television and radio is being implemented. Some providers also offer their programs in full or in part over the Internet, i.e. as part of (sometimes chargeable) IPTV , streaming or as Internet radio offers.
Germany has a dual broadcasting system wanted by the legislator , which means that in addition to license-financed public broadcasting, there are numerous private broadcasters whose programs are mostly advertising-financed.
When it comes to television in Germany, in addition to public television, which includes the ZDF and ARD stations such as the global Deutsche Welle , there are also private television providers . They include the ProSiebenSat.1 Group , the RTL Group , the Tele München Group and regional providers. In addition to free-to-air TV channels, there are also digital pay-TV offers from cable network operators and the pay-TV channel Sky .
The radio landscape in Germany is strongly characterized by regional channels, which mostly only broadcast in one or a few neighboring federal states. These radio programs are often dominated by public law and are broadcast by the respective regional broadcasters , such as Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) or Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), but also by private radio providers .
The German-speaking press landscape is diverse and offers its information in printed form, on the Internet and on mobile devices. The most widely read national daily newspapers include the Bild , the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , Die Welt , the Süddeutsche Zeitung , the Handelsblatt and the weekly newspaper Die Zeit . However, what is known as the one-newspaper circle is characteristic of the regional and local press offerings. H. in many regions there is only one daily local newspaper and thus a monopoly. News magazines that appear weekly include Der Spiegel , Focus and Stern magazine .
The use of social media and user-generated content such as B. blogs , video portals or the web encyclopedia Wikipedia also play an important role. The gross reach of social networks in January 2011 was 47.9 million people.
Online video platforms are particularly popular with young people, while traditional television is still widely used by this target group, but is becoming less important. A third of all young people surveyed for the JIM study stated in 2014 that they use the YouTube platform . A study on behalf of the youth magazine Bravo came to the result in 2015 that more than 60% visited the platform daily. About half of the young people follow so-called “YouTube stars”, who reach an audience of millions, also outside the platform. The video days , which were attended by 15,000 guests in 2015, have been established as industry and scene meetings since 2010 .
The Bertelsmann Group, Axel Springer SE and ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG are among the largest internationally active media companies based in Germany . The dpa is one of the most important news agencies in the world.
Sports
In 2009/10 around 27.8 million Germans were organized in 91,000 gymnastics and sports clubs. The vast majority of sports clubs are grouped together in the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB).
The German Reich hosted the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin and the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen , and the Federal Republic of Germany also hosted the 1972 Summer Games . In the all-time medal table of the Olympic Games , Germany takes third place.
In the 2010s, several Germany applications for the Olympics failed on the one hand because of competitors (Munich for the 2018 Olympics) and on the other hand because of popular resistance (Munich for the 2022 Olympics, Hamburg for the 2024 Olympics).
Soccer
The most common sport in Germany is soccer . Around 6.8 million members and around 172,000 teams are organized in 2012 in the German Football Association , which hosted the football world championships in 1974 and 2006 and is one of the largest and most successful sports associations worldwide . The German national football team in 1954, 1974, 1990 and 2014 World Cup winner . So far, Germany is the only country that has been able to become European and world champions in both women and men. The largest stadium, designed for international matches, is the Olympic Stadium (74,224 seats) in Berlin. The Westfalenstadion in Dortmund is the stadium with the largest number of authorized spectator seats for football matches at Bundesliga level with over 80,500 seats (24,454 of which are standing). The most successful German football club and the club with the largest number of members worldwide is FC Bayern Munich .
Handball
The handball Bundesliga is often regarded as the best division in the world for this sport, and the men's national team became world champions for the third time in 2007. Around 830,000 active members belong to around 4,500 associations (as of 2011). The umbrella organization for German handball is the German Handball Federation .
The handball world championships in 1958 (GDR), 1961 (FRG), 1974 (GDR), 1982 (FRG), 2007 and 2019 (together with Denmark) took place in Germany.
hockey
In hockey , Germany's men's team became world champions in 2002 and 2006 and Olympic champions in 1972, 1992, 2008 and 2012. The women became Olympic champions in 2004 and world champions in 1976 and 1981. Both teams are leaders in indoor hockey .
Other team sports
Volleyball and beach volleyball became popular sports in the 1990s, and the German Volleyball Association had around 430,000 members in 2016.
NBA champion Dirk Nowitzki
Basketball and ice hockey are very important in terms of audience figures and media presence. In basketball, the German Dirk Nowitzki , who was elected MVP (most valuable player) in the North American professional league NBA in 2007 and in 2011 was the first German to win the NBA title with the Dallas Mavericks , was one of the best players in the world.
Motorsport
Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel
In motorsport , public interest is particularly focused on Formula 1 and the DTM , in which German drivers and designers were able to achieve top successes. With seven world championship titles, Michael Schumacher is the most successful Formula 1 driver to date and Sebastian Vettel is the youngest world champion in Formula 1 history. In rallying came world champion Walter Röhrl to world fame. The renowned Le Mans 24-hour race has already been won many times by the designers Porsche and Audi . The motorcycle sport in which the main focus on the road World Championships or MotoGP directed, has German world champion as Anton Mang produced.
Boxing
Germany can also look back on successes in boxing . The outstanding boxers include Max Schmeling and Henry Maske . The Ukrainian brothers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko as well as the Armenian-born Arthur Abraham fought for German boxing stables and were multiple world champions in their weight classes.
Winter sports
Winter sports have a long tradition in Germany. In bobsleigh , luge , biathlon , cross-country skiing and speed skating , German athletes were able to regularly win medals at world and European championships as well as at the Olympic Games. Other popular winter sports are ski jumping , with Sven Hannawald and Jens Weißflog as particularly successful athletes, as well as various alpine skiing sports . Katarina Witt is one of the greatest athletes in her discipline with two Olympic victories in figure skating .
Swimming
Also the swimming has to look at the membership figures of great importance in Germany. Important German (ex) swimmers are Klaus Steinbach , Werner Lampe , Hans Fassnacht , Michael Groß , Franziska van Almsick , the double Olympic champion Britta Steffen , world champion and world record holder Paul Biedermann and double world champion Florian Wellbrock .
Cycling
In the past, the popularity of cycling depended to a large extent on the current successes of German riders. Rudi Altig (in the 1960s) and Jan Ullrich were among the most successful cyclists of their time. With over 70 percent of the world championship titles won, Germany - including the GDR - is the leader in the indoor cycling disciplines of cycling and artificial cycling .
Sport shooting
Sports shooting is one of the oldest sports , with rifle guilds having been handed down since the 12th century . The German Shooting Association has around 1.4 million members. In total there are around six million sport shooters across Germany.
Other sports
In the 1980s and 1990s, tennis experienced a popularity that has not been restored since then , thanks to the successes of German athletes Boris Becker and Steffi Graf . In 2016 Angelique Kerber won the Australian Open in Melbourne and the US Open in New York. As a result, she became the second German number one in the WTA world rankings after Steffi Graf. In 2018, Kerber also won the Wimbledon Grand Slam tournament.
German athletes were also able to achieve great success in other sports such as fencing , riding , wrestling , rowing , canoeing and athletics . In table tennis counted Timo Boll , the Golf Bernhard Langer of the best players in the world.
literature
- Margarete Graf: Crash course Germany. DuMont, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-8321-7760-7 .
- Frank-Lothar Kroll : Culture, Education and Science in the 20th Century (= Encyclopedia of German History. Volume 65). R. Oldenbourg, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-486-55002-0 .
- Hermann Glaser : A Brief German Cultural History from 1945 to the Present. A west-east story from the end of the war to the present day. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 978-3-596-15730-3 .
- Jost Hermand : German cultural history of the 20th century. Primus, Darmstadt 2006, ISBN 3-89678-563-X .
- Axel Schildt , Detlef Siegfried : German cultural history: The Federal Republic from 1945 to the present. Carl Hanser, Munich 2009, ISBN 3-446-23414-4 .
- Werner Faulstich (Ed.): The culture of the 20th century at a glance. Wilhelm Fink, Paderborn 2011, ISBN 978-3-7705-5144-6 .
- Siegfried Müller : Culture in Germany. From the empire to reunification. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-17-031844-1 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Germany country profile , BBC, March 19, 2012. Retrieved January 3, 2013.
- ↑ Cf. Otto Dann , Nation und Nationalismus in Deutschland: 1770–1990 , 3rd, revised. and exp. Ed., Beck, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-406-34086-5 , p. 48 f.
- ^ Media history , Docupedia contemporary history , as of 2010. Accessed on January 3, 2013.
- ↑ Germany's third largest music market in the world ( memento of the original from December 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Federal Association of the Music Industry , April 13, 2011. Accessed January 3, 2013.
- ↑ http://www.festivalhopper.de/festivals-2011.php
- ↑ How SoundCloud Changed Music Forever , Gizmodo, June 16, 2014.
- ^ History. Studio Babelsberg. Retrieved December 3, 2013.
- ↑ Kino auf Abruf , Der Tagesspiegel, January 3, 2013. Accessed January 3, 2013.
- ↑ Figures from the film industry ( Memento from January 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.6 MB), FFA 2012. Retrieved on January 3, 2013.
- ↑ Townspeople like old-style apartments in block-edge districts , Basler Zeitung of November 21, 2013.
- ↑ Builders revive the past , Die Welt from December 18, 2014.
- ↑ Positions on the reconstruction of lost buildings and rooms ( Memento of the original from December 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , PDF ( Memento of the original from March 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Federal Institute for Building, Urban and Spatial Research (BBSR), Berlin 2010, accessed on December 19, 2014.
- ↑ Philip Jodidio: 100 Contemporary Architects ( English ), 1st edition, Taschen, January 21, 2008, ISBN 3-8365-0091-4 (accessed December 12, 2014).
- ^ German UNESCO Commission eV: World Heritage Sites in Germany , unesco.de. Retrieved January 3, 2013.
- ↑ Hannes Hintermeier : Capital of Culture 2010: Regensburg - Province only exists in the head , FAZ from September 3, 2004, accessed on April 17, 2015.
- ↑ Monument protection and building culture ( Memento of the original from October 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Thermal insulation: Germany im Dämmwahn , Wirtschaftswoche from January 25, 2013.
- ↑ Data from the Institute for Museum Research for 2009 (PDF; 1.2 MB). Retrieved January 3, 2013.
- ↑ Article 2 EV - Capital, Day of German Unity
- ↑ Art. 139 of the Weimar Constitution of August 11, 1919, which according to Art. 140 GG is “part of this Basic Law”.
- ↑ Gastarbeiterküche: Germany al dente , Die Zeit , December 19, 2012. Accessed on January 2, 2013.
- ↑ 282 restaurants awarded nationwide , Hamburger Abendblatt , November 6, 2014, accessed on January 22, 2015
- ↑ [1] "Edeka and Tengelmann - Cartel Office raises objection to takeover", by Heike Jahberg
- ↑ German sweets are even convincing in China , Die Welt , February 2, 2010. Accessed January 2, 2013.
- ^ BMWi sector focus on textiles and clothing . Retrieved November 1, 2014.
- ↑ Berlin Fashion Week ( Memento from December 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (official website)
- ↑ Guido M. Hartmann: Clothes make sales , Welt Online, July 16, 2013. Retrieved on August 17, 2014.
- ↑ The German fashion comes (also) from the province , Brigitte, edition 15/2012, accessed on January 18, 2014.
- ↑ Why German board games are so successful , Die Welt, February 15, 2008. Accessed April 26, 2015.
- ↑ Gus Mastrapa (s): Germany Becomes Europe's Largest Video Game Market . Wired.com. August 17, 2009. Retrieved September 18, 2014.
- ↑ Made in Germany: The most important PC games from Germany . PC games hardware . November 27, 2011. Retrieved December 9, 2014.
- ↑ Susanna Tatár (en): How NVIDIA Will Be Going Big at Gamescom, the World's Biggest Gaming Show . Nvidia. August 14, 2014. Retrieved September 17, 2014.
- ↑ Every eighth inhabitant is an immigrant ( memento of the original dated December 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , N24, December 18, 2012; 10.7 million migrants from 194 countries live in Germany , Federal Statistical Office, press release No. 448 of December 18, 2012. Accessed on February 21, 2014.
- ↑ Germany is the most respected country in the world , Spiegel Online, April 19, 2010. Retrieved January 3, 2013.
- ↑ BBC poll: Germany most popular country in the world , BBC, May 23, 2013. Accessed January 25, 2014.
- ↑ Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) . bund.de . Archived from the original on April 23, 2011. Retrieved January 3, 2013.
- ↑ Yearbook 2012/2013. (PDF) Goethe-Institut, p. 177 , archived from the original on November 11, 2013 ; Retrieved January 25, 2014 .
- ^ Hermann Meyn , Massenmedien in Deutschland , UVK, Konstanz 2004.
- ↑ Internet encyclopedia: These Wikipedia authors want to change the world , Die Welt, March 30, 2012. Retrieved January 4, 2013.
- ↑ An overview of the most important social media platforms in Germany . Social Media Switzerland. Archived from the original on January 17, 2013. Retrieved January 2, 2013.
- ↑ a b ARD / ZDF online study 2014 (press release) , September 5, 2014. Accessed on September 1, 2015. See also the detailed statistics from the study.
- ^ A b Medienpädagogischer Forschungsverbund Südwest (Ed.): JIM study 2014. Youth, Information, (Multi-) Media. Basic study on media handling of 12 to 19 year olds , November 2014 ( PDF ( Memento of the original from October 31, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ).
- ↑ YOU Study 2015: YouTube is the leading medium for young people , July 30, 2015. Accessed September 1, 2015.
- ↑ a b Alina Fichter: YouTube: There you are looking! , in: Die Zeit, No. 42/2013, online on October 12, 2013. Retrieved on September 1, 2015.
- ↑ a b Annette Mattgey: Youtube, Instagram, Facebook: The Trinity of Today's Youth . Published on the website of Werben & Sell magazine on March 25, 2015. Accessed September 1, 2015.
- ↑ Torsten Beermann: YouTube fans meet their heroes , WDR / tagesschau.de, August 7, 2015. Accessed September 1, 2015.
- ↑ German Olympic Sports Confederation: data and facts , status: 2009/2010. Retrieved January 2, 2013.
- ^ German Football Association: Membership Statistics , as of April 2012. Accessed on January 2, 2013.
- ^ Deutscher Handballbund: The company handball introduces itself , status: 2011. Accessed on January 2, 2013.
- ↑ Members of the German Volleyball Association, DVV Association Statistics 1982-2016, accessed on June 11, 2017.
- ↑ Honor: Nowitzki elected MVP , Spiegel Online, May 11, 2007. Accessed January 2, 2013.
- ↑ Hans-Thorald Michaelis: Schützengilden: Origin - Tradition - Development . Keyser, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-87405-163-3 , p. 95 .
- ^ DSB: German Rifle Federation . Retrieved January 2, 2013.
