Anyone who holds the typical belief that Germans are an efficient group of folks will be in for a surprise if they ever spend a significant amount of time in Berlin. In fact, in my experience Germans (or at least Berliners...) tend to make most things waayy more complicated and convoluted than they actually should be. Case in point: My attempt to buy a year's membership card today at Berlin Zoological Garten.
I recently found out that the yearly membership only costs 55 Euros and, since I like zoos and will have both the babies on my hands in August when their pre-school is closed, spending a lot of time there will be the perfect solution.
No playground mommy-dom boredom. No look-outs for kamikaze bicyclists. And all an easy twenty minute bus ride away. Anyway, when I got to the zoo I told the woman at the ticket stand that I wanted to buy the membership. "Oh no. You don't buy that from me," she said then went into this complicated spiel about how I had to go to such and such a Platz where the Info Center was. I managed to grumble a somewhat polite "Huh?" and finally she told me to just pay the 12 Euro entrance fee and walk to the left. Once I got to the Info Center they would credit this amount to my membership. I walked...and walked...and walked. No Info Center. Finally I was at the entrance at the other side of the zoo. "Oh yeah, the Info Center," the woman who I asked said. "It's back that way (the way I had just come). The entrance is really hard to find, but it's there." Toll....(great...) I did eventually get there and, after showing my I.D. (very official membership application. Indeed, I thought they might even ask for a blood sample...) I got my own bonafide Zoo Card complete with picture. Then we started finally having fun.
We watched this somewhat haggard looking elephant take the most awe-inspiring pee I've ever seen in my life (not that I've watched a lot of pee action, but still. It was very impressive...)
And I took lots of pictures, much to the apparent amusement of the Dutch tourists standing behind us.
When the babies are at Kita (pre-school) I'll probably still go to zoo sometimes on my own. It's only a half hour ride through lovely Tiergarten and the great beer garden Schleusenkrug is really close where they also have great (and cheap) grilled food. The zoo would also be a cool place to write and, of course, take photographs of animals that are actually alive. See you at the zoo, my friends! Bis bald.;)
A few weeks ago I did a lesson on German Schlager, but what a lot of people don't know is that, back in the 50s and 60s, most big American (Amis) and British (Tommys) pop stars also had versions of their hits that they sung in German for their German-speaking fans. Nowadays, of course, it is hip to sing or listen to music in English and most young Germans speak it well enough that they can mostly understand the lyrics (though this is not always a good thing. Try teaching your students again and again that the third person in English needs an "s" at the end of the verb in the present simple only to be contradicted by songs where someone sings "She don't call me anymore" or "He sing sad songs all night"....)
Anyway, some of the biggest of the big sung in German at some point in their career and these include:
1. The Beatles
Sie liebt dich, (yeah, yeah, yeah). P.S. What's up with the marching police men at the beginning of the video??
2. Elvis
Forget bloated, karate-chopping, Vegas Elvis. Look how adorable he was when he was young! He sings this German folk song partly in German, partly in English and was undoubtedly popular here since he was stationed in Germany during his army days.
3. Johnny Cash
Yes, the man in black apparently trägt auch Schwarz...
4. David Bowie
In the 80s, when there was a wall around Mitte and Prenzlauerberg and Kreuzberg was still full of commune-living left-wing radicals throwing rocks at police cars, Schöneberg was the hip place in Berlin to be. The neighborhood was also home to both David Bowie and Iggy Pop for a while. Of course, by then it was standard to just sing your hits in English but Bowie did Helden (Heroes) in German because, well, I guess he thought it was cool.
5. Bob Dylan
Ok, so I'm not sure if Bob himself sung in German, but here is a Schlager-esque German version of Blowin' in the Wind. Mega "groovy".
A couple of weeks ago an American woman commented on one of my blog entries and asked me what Schlager was. But how can you actually explain Schlager to someone who is not from Germany or has not at least spent a significant amount of time here? I went over to my good friend, Wikipedia and was surprised to discover they actually had an article about the music in English (click here to read it). They describe Schlager as highly sentimental ballads with themes like love and friendship. (Strangely, they do not mention anything about feathered hair, though you pretty much have to have it if you want to sing Schlager, at least if you are a man.) They also say Schlager can be compared to Easy Listening which is somewhat true. Think Air Supply with a polka beat.
Still, Schlager is a bit more complicated. Here are some "highlights" to help any non-Germans better understand the music and all its kitschy complexity.
Schlager is......
1. Somewhat surreal.
Or at least the Schlager star Heino was. He put on this kind of wacky hep cat persona and sometimes seems to be making fun of it all and yet he was definitely all Schlager (and got very rich doing it.) Weird. Also love how obviously bored the blonde smoker is in the second video.
2. Something many people were apparently not immune to.
I love Hildegard Knef. She was a great performer and has an unusual voice. A lot of her stuff I would classify more as Chanson, but not her biggest hit, Für Mich Solls Rote Rose Regnen. That song is Schlager pure, albeit in the better sense of the word.
3. Cheesy German folk music but not something you have to be German to perform (though you do have to sing in the language.)
Howard Carpendale is South African....
And Karel Gott is Die goldene Stimme aus Prag (The golden voice from Prague.) This first song, Biene Maja (theme song from a children's cartoon series of the same name) is probably his most well-known hit. In this next song he does what Schlager stars also love to do: translate songs from English. Here he is singing the Alphaville song Für Immer Jung (Forever Young). The stroll along the harbor is also tres Schlager.
4. Not just for straight people.
Not only does Schlager have a large gay following, some of its stars are also out of the closet. Patrick Lindner is openly homosexual and even adopted a son with his partner a couple of years ago. I'm sure a lot of the old stars were also gay. Check out this song by Roy Black.
Can you say "Gay Boy"? Rock Hudson, eat your heart out.
5. Sometimes so unbelievably bad you can hardly even find the words to describe it.
Especially the contemporary stuff they play on the Musikantenstadl. There is always a big, Disneyland-esque stage with lots of canned music and dancing (although kudos to Florian Silberreisen for performing here with a broken leg). What those kids are doing is called "schunkeln". When you listen to Schlager, you sway back and forth together in a group, usually also locking elbows. I only recommend it if you've also drunken a lot of beer. Then it's probably actually kind of fun.
Ok, if you were able to get through this list without becoming overly nauseated, then here are a few more gems for your viewing and listening pleasure:
The one hit wonder, Drafi Deutscher performing Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht, a song you can pretty much guarantee every German knows. I love that he actually has to ask the crowd to make space for him to get out onto the stage. YouTube also used to have a great video of him performing the song in the 60s where he looks exactly like Dieter, the Mike Myers Saturday Night Live character. Sony Entertainment had it removed from the site, those jerks!
Costa Cordalis singing Anita because you've gotta love that outfit and the floral Lei. Check out the kids in full schunkeln action!
Christian Anders singing Es Fährt ein Zug nach Nirgendwo (A Train Riding Nowhere). Just for the retro fun of the set.
ho holds the typical belief that Germans are an efficient group of folks will be in for a surprise if they ever spend a significant amount of time in Berlin. In fact, in my experience Germans (or at least Berliners...) tend to make most things waayy more complicated and convoluted than they actually should be. Case in point: My attempt to buy a year's membership card today at Berlin Zoological Garten.
ug is really close where they also have great (and cheap) grilled food. The zoo would also be a cool place to write and, of course, take photographs of animals that are actually alive. See you at the zoo, my friends! Bis bald. ;)
