Final Report

This semester I had a great time in this class. Literally speaking, we covered more than I expected. We not only talked about the positive side of Germany but also the negative side. I like the movies recommended. Through those media, we could learn about what happened in the 70s and 80s without losing interest. The RAF was the part that impressed me most. Also through some research, I learned what happened during that time. Maybe this is a personal reflection, but I am just not a big fan of geography and politics. The war and history part is what I like most. And through watching movies, I think we could learn that most effectively. In this class we got touched on the WWII and terrorism in Germany. The terrorism in Germany was totally new for me. I did not know that much about the RAF in Germany before, only heard little about them. So, with the digging after class, I learned much about RAF. The RAF was formed under a police society circumstance. Those generation lived with knowing Nazi so that they knew what would happen if nobody standing out and speaking out. We once had a debate about the violent resistance or not. I chose the violent side, that was partially affected by the movie. The terrorism was absolutely wrong but their will to build a better world through their fight was right. What they did at first was good, just burning a department store without killing anyone. That kind of action could remind others but relatively safe. I never think putting problem above a table and negotiate would work for a national or social conflict. If speech would work, then why do they bother using violence?
The stuff about Germany happened in 19th century and 18th century was attractive but the materials seemed to be insufficient. I like the famous people part, this looks like a biography, and that worked out very well. The stories are always more appeal to me than just reading materials.
The discussion about Berlin Wall was very fun. I did not know the west and east people treat it so differently, like two extremes. Before the wall was pushed down, people there lived in two ways. The west lived in capitalism while the east lived in communist. Once they united together, the capitalism swept the east. Millions of people lost their jobs, and that was shown in the movie Goodbye Lenin
The last part about food was not that attractive, I think if we could make the food for extra credits and share in class maybe people would not lose interest and patience for the last meeting. For me, I like delicious food very much, but just doing research without tasting them, it seems like lack persuasion.      

Goodbye Lenin

This movie is about a single mother raising a boy in East Germany. The mom was a big fan of the socialist East Germany.Her husband ran away from her and got into the West Germany so she had to raise Alex herself. In 1989, Alex was caught for a parade. His mom witnessed that and passed out by heart-attack. She kept unconscious for a long time, long enough for everything she knew to change. When she woke up, the society became totally different, for example, the Berlin wall had been torn down, the democracy of Germany was gone. The doctor told Alex that his mom could not take any more stimulation otherwise it may kill her. So her boy tried everything to make a world his mom familiar with. In the end, Alex put his mother's ashes in a rocket made by himself and fired it. Because in that time, their idol was the astronaut of East Germany.  
This movie was not only about the blood relation between mom and son but also a movie about belief. We have no rights to criticize her mother's belief in communist, because we can hardly imagine the spirit inside his mother. Alex tried all he could to protect mom's passed out belief. That was the love from Alex to support the lies, those white lies.  

Research about RAF

July 2nd,1968, a protest against the Vietnam War was held by students. And there was two department stores in Frankfurt got fired up. The arsonists were caught and kept in prison for three years. Some people think that the cause of RAF was a leftover problem from Nazi. They did not reflected upon their mistakes, thus the teenagers were against capitalism. The society judged these people as extremely left wing.
There were three generations of RAF. Andreas Baader was an extreme person among those students in protest. He was rescued by journalist Ultrike Meinhof on May 14th,1970. This action was the formation of the RAF. The first generation were urban guerrilla, they were a group of people against imperialism. That was a small group about 10 people. And after they got caught, the 2nd generation took place. The 2nd generation was formed to rescue the 1st generation. The 2nd did a lot of terrorism and tried to force the government set them free. In the autumn, 1977, all the 1st generation leaders committed suicides in the prison. After that, in 1980s, the 3rd generation of RAF formed. There were about 20 people. Those people continued on terrorism.
July 20, 1998, there was an 8 page statement from media which declared the ending of RAF.
The terrorism made by RAF was little bit different from those terrorism today. RAF was a kind of revolution, they tried to fight against the imperialism and capitalism, tried to fight for a better world.    

personal response to Baader-Meinhof Complex

This movie described the history of RAF(Rote Armee Fraktion). This is a very long and violent movie, these factors are necessary in a terrorism movie. The main characters of this movie they formed the group and tried to change how people thought during that time. Many people didn't understand the meaning of the wars happened in Vietnam. This movie is lively. Most of the statements were about the actions RAF took and their ideal political philosophy. The group had its own conflicts. Their actions did not turn to what they expected. And after their caught, the 2nd and 3rd generation of leaders took their place. The RAF was all about terrorism then. It had been far away from the 1st generation expected. And the judgement to them seemed to be endless. They knew they could not escape from that so the whole group committed a suicide. At the beginning, speeches were a lot, but as the movie went on, we could hardly see the speeches, even in the court. It seemed that all the stuff turned to the opposite side as the first generation expected. After watching the whole movie, I was very touched. I knew those terrorism was wrong, but I supported the RAF somewhere in my mind. The first generation was full of courage in a police country like that. They were patriotic and tried to do things to make it right. They knew what they could do was little, but they insisted and never gave up. At least,they tried their own for a better society instead of watching and doing nothing.

Answers to the blue sheet

1. The first generation of RAF was founded by several people,with Baader and Meinhof as leaders. Their first protest was implemented by placing a bomb in the department store. They picked a time when there were no people in the store, they just tried to notice the authorities and tried not to kill people. They did so to protest against the indifference of people who sit and watch the genocide in Vietnam. Speech was not strong enough so they took actions instead. As Meinhof said, throwing a single stone is a crime but throwing a thousand stones is a political action. They knew this kind of protest was an act of rebellion, but they just tried to warn people not just resign him/herself to doing nothing.

2. As the developing of RAF, the group changed. The first generation was not officially formed until Baader was caught and finally rescued. Before Meinhof joined them, they were just stealing things and acting as revolutionary. After RAF was founded, they turned into terrorists. They became more and more violent. They got amours and robbed banks. Making bombs and killing people was a piece of cake for them then. The 2nd and 3rd generation of RAF even kidnapped governmental officers and executed them.

3. Yes. At the beginning of the movie, I thought Baader was just a bludger. But as they formed the group I found out his behavior was meaningful to others. For example, he encouraged Peter, a young man escaped from Lucky City. They hanged out together, Baader taught him what was freedom. Even in the training camp, they took sunbathe naked.

4. I was in the violence group. The reason I chose that was because I believe action is stronger than speech. But the violence side did not mean that I am a violent person but for some cases like the revolution, I believe that a certain level of violence would be necessary. When the government failed its people, what would they do to make a difference? The violent way could make a attention immediately. The reason why speech was weak because in some countries the medium is under government control, they only report what the government allows.      

German Food

German Food--Roast Pork

Pork, beef, and poultry are the main varieties of meat consumed in Germany, with pork being the most popular. There are several ways to cook pork or even a whole pig.Spanferkel is a famous dish throughout Germany. A pig roast or hog roast is an event or gathering which involves the barbecuing of a whole hog (the castrated male pig or boar, bred for consumption at about 12 months old). A suckling pig (or sucking pig) is a piglet fed on its mother's milk (i.e., a piglet which is still a "suckling"). In culinary, a suckling pig is slaughtered between the ages of two and six weeks. It is traditionally cooked whole, often roasted, in various cuisines. It is usually prepared for special occasions and gatherings.

The meat from suckling pig is pale and tender and the cooked skin is crisp and can be used for pork rinds. The texture of the meat can be somewhat gelatinous due to the amount of collagen in a young pig.

Roast pork is a popular Sunday meal in Central Europe. In Germany, Schweinbraten is most often served with braised cabbage or sauekraut, dumplings and a fine pilsener. Schweinshaxe is also a famous way of cooking pork knuckle.       

Resources:

http://www.food.com/recipe/german-roast-pig-spannferkel-171888

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_roast

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanferkel

Berlin calling

The drugs are all through the movie, and these mean a lot to the main character Ickarus. Ickarus had changed his attitude on drugs. Initially, he would looking for fun and thrill from the drugs as well as his inspiration for music so that he could avoid those uncomfortable things happened in real life. But things had changed since he took a hallucinogenic drug. Then he stated to get treated in a psychosis department. Finally, when he was cured, he found out the drugs were nothing but poison to him. He took some light drugs as dancing outreach and so on since Icklus' mother passed away. And at that time, he stated his life in those clubs. Once, the drug dealer sold him something like ice drug that caused him sick. That was a bad timing when his new work was almost done. His own album was about to publish but this case delayed it. He even got fired and made a scene in his boss' office.

When comparing this movie's character with real people from my hometown, it was pathetic. Because DJ is not an official job admitted by the government. Those people were not musicians in China. Those people do not have their own albums to sell and only work in pubs. By the way, there were not that many drugs in China, since all crimes related to drugs are very serious, some might lead to a death penalty. 

In my eyes, the young generation of Germany are not like the old days. Those diversity of jobs made it possible to develop a new kind of economy. This movie showed us about the musicians and a wise boss who buried the past.At least, I do not think a boss could bare someone the humiliated him or her before. 

Presentation for 19th century health and sports

link

expand on health

19th century and 20th century was the time when the medical cares well developed. German scientists had made several breakthroughs during the 19th and 20th century. There were many outstanding scientists, for example, the most influenced one in 19th century would be Rudolf Carl Virchow(1821～1902).  He was a German doctor, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist and politician, known for his advancement of public health. Referred to as "the father of modern pathology", he is considered one of the founders of social medicine. Virchow is credited with many important discoveries. His most widely known scientific contribution is his cell theory, which built on the work of Theodor Schwann. He is cited as the first to recognize leukemia cells. He was one of the first to accept the work of Robert Remak, who showed the origins of cells was the division of pre-existing cells.
The pace of medical advances quickened on all fronts in the 20th century. Breakthroughs came in biology, chemistry, physiology, pharmacology, and technology, often in converging or overlapping ways. New understanding of diseases brought new treatments and cures for many of these conditions. However, even as most of the killer epidemic diseases were conquered—and in the case of smallpox erased—new diseases emerged, such as AIDS.A pioneer in pharmacology was the German scientist Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915), who—after much trial and effort—synthesized the arsenic-based compound Salvarsan, the first effective treatment for syphilis, in 1909. Ehrlich, who coined the term "chemotherapy," thus created the first antibiotic drug. A generation later, another German, Gerhard Domagk (1895-1964), who worked for Bayer, produced the first useful sulfa drug (another antibiotic). This drug was used to treat streptoccal, or strep, diseases, including meningitis. Many new drugs followed in the 1950s, including cortisone, a steroid hormone that reduced inflammation and suppressed the immune system response. The first effective drugs for the treatment of mental illness also appeared in this era.

Source:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18696145, 11/14/2012
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Virchow, 11/14/2012

19th century Health and Sports

Health and Sports

Due to the poor environmental conditions, disease in the earlier part of the period ran rampant. As the century progressed and laws passed to correct the health concerns, the death rates of various illnesses began to drop and there were far less instances of ‘epidemic’ proportion. Some noticeable diseases include Chicken Pox, Cholera, Diphtheria, Poliomyelitis, Consumption and Smallpox. Among all of these, Cholera is the one most famous.

Cholera, known as one of the most dreaded of all diseases, acutely infectious, is caused by drinking water from contaminated sources. The first breakout of Cholera happened in India in 1817. Due to the developing international trade, the disease was spread other continents. For roughly counting, there were about six breakouts and 38 million people died during the first hundred years since Cholera found.

 The 19th century also saw the rapid creation, development and codification of many sports, particularly in Britain and the United States. Association football, rugby union, baseball and many other sports were developed during the 19th century, while the British Empire facilitated the rapid spread of sports such as cricket to many different parts of the world. There is one thing has to mention for sports is revive of modern Olympic Games in 1894. The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, was a multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece, from April 6 to 15, 1896. It was the first international Olympic Games held in the Modern era. Because Ancient Greece was the birthplace of the Olympic Games, Athens was considered to be an appropriate choice to stage the inaugural modern Games. It was unanimously chosen as the host city during a congress organized by Pierre de Coubertin, a French pedagogue and historian, in Paris, on June 23, 1894. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was also instituted during this congress. This brought peace and friendship to the young people all over the world.

Reference:

http://logicmgmt.com/1876/overview/medicine/diseases.htm , 10/25/2012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_century , 10/25/2012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1896_Summer_Olympics , 10/25/2012

5 talking pts

• The damage to the young generation due to the cruel war
• The different attitudes of people enrolled in the war against those stayed behind are two extremes
• A wrong way of encouraging young people going to the battle fields
• It is a tragedy of the novel and the movie from our eyes, but this satisfied the soldiers' last will
• The war was cruel and tough, but the soldiers could find their own way to have fun or love during break 

Task 2 Paul Baumer

Task 2 Paul Baumer

Paul Baumer is the main character in this book. This man was a high school student before joining the army. By being taught from his teacher that soldier would be a national hero and all the other positive aspects of the war, he was encouraged to join the army not only from others but also his will. There were also three students joined the army with him at the same time. After ten weeks training, they all changed a lot. Though there were only ten weeks, but in Baumer’s eyes, those days were even more worth than the past ten years in school. Baumer and his comrades in arms were sent to the front line of battle field after ten weeks of trainings. The conditions were poor in battle field. Normally soldiers could not get enough food or even a private space when dumping. At the beginning, Baumer complained this, but soon he got used to it. The worst condition was once soldiers on the field, they would never know whether they could make it through or not. Baumer found that the people around him just got fewer and fewer and everything happened on the front line was hard to bear. Sometimes they might get too dirty for them to tolerate thus the flees would be anywhere on the body; the supplies were not in time such that they got nothing to eat and had to fight against the cold weather at the same time; shouting and screaming were everywhere you could hardly tell whether it was from enemies or companions; all the ground was on fire filled with dead bodies and blood. Everything was horrible but unstoppable for Baumer. He felt sorrow and pain when he lost his close friend Franz Kemmerich, who left him first. When he saw people struggling crawling back to base and died in hospital, he could no more felt the pride teacher once told him but pain and death instead.

Front line was like a cage, and people inside became animals. So did Baumer. But it was lucky for Baumer because he got a chance to go home. However, when he got home, he could not feel love but questioning instead. People around him thought he was a coward and they laughed at his attitude of war. But he was only about 20 years old, all he did during these years was killing enemies. His life was meaningless. He was disappointed and distressed. Those people at back didn’t know the cruel of the war. So he decided to go back to the front line again. As he wished, he died eventually.

This is Paul Baumer, from an optimistic, patriotic and passionate person to a fear, distressed and meaningless soldier.    

Task 1

This chapter was mostly described about the life before joining the army and early days of being a soldier. The memory for Paul Baumer was clear at the beginning. During the school days, people treated the poems and other compositions as preciousness. But as they leaving homes and becoming soldiers, those memories would be torn apart by the cruel life in war.

The life in the army is quite different from normal life. Battle could change what people think and how people judge things, especially the sense of worth. The war showed no sympathy to the people enrolled in it. Those young soldiers, they were close friends, helping each other, standing back to back. But as the battle started, with the strict and cruel training in army, their minds were twisted. It was totally a rebuild for those young soldiers since they were just students before. The slogans from their teachers felt so weak here. People in the army considered the physical benefit much more than mental. The Corporal Himmelstoss from No.9 platoon was a typical example of who got twisted by the war. He treated his soldiers as animals as I see. He was extremely mean to Baumer and Kropp. The corporal often asked Baumer doing unreasonable things. But these two young soldiers they just did not yield to him. They fought as hard as they could finally they owned the respect from him.

Though those soldiers had fought together and came up with deep relationships, life was still worthless. When Franz was wounded and lying on the bed, only Baumer came to his side and tried to comfort him. Muller cared about Franz’s boots much more than his life. The doctors were so cruel to those injured soldiers. Death was so easy for them to talk about. Franz was hopefully at the beginning but as time passed, he realized that he would probably die. Franz lost the hope and gave away his precious boots to Muller finally. Baumer was sorrowful and upset when he lost Franz but when he turned the boots to Mulle, Muller was very happy and gave Baumer some small prizes in return.     

My work on CDU-party

Click here for presentation link

My work on CDU party

The CDU is Christian based, it stands for Christian Democratic Union. Once received this project, our group divided the work into several. After each done, we just emailed our information to a person who took care of the PowerPoint presentation. I was one of three people who did the CDU party platform. Since this party was Christian based, the principles of Christian Democracy were applied. They believed that Christian understanding of humans and their responsibility toward God. But things changed little bit since 1994. New CDU party platform formed that time, focusing on freedom, justice and solidarity resting on Christian foundations. The present party platform was created in 1994 in response to domestic and international changes such as German reunification and the end of the East-West conflict. Similarly, Germany is again facing new circumstances on both the home and global fronts with the lines between the two become ever more blurred.

CDU has a wide range of membership. It consists however of people adhering to a variety of religions as well as non-religious individuals. The CDU's policies derive from Political Catholicism, Catholic social teaching and political Protestantism, as well as fiscal conservatism and national conservatism. The CDU was the first proponent of the social market economy, although the party has adopted more liberal economics policies since Helmut Kohl's term in office as the Chancellor of Germany (1982–1998).

Opponents of the CDU are the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), The Left party and Alliance '90/The Greens. The CDU has however governed in two Grand Coalitions with the SPD as well as in various coalitions with the Alliance '90/The Greens. The CDU rejects coalitions with either The Left or right-wing extremist parties.

The Free Democratic Party (FDP), a classical liberal party, is the preferred partner of any CDU government since the CDU and FDP have similar attitudes towards fiscal policy. As a conservative party, the CDU supports stronger punishments of crimes and supports involvement on the part of the Bundeswehr in cases of domestic anti-terrorism offensives as well as in natural catastrophes. In terms of immigrants, the CDU supports initiatives to integrate immigrants through language courses, and aims to further control immigration. Dual citizenship should only be allowed in exceptional cases.

Basing on my studies and other group work, I thought CDU is a liberal party. For example, they have some support to the immigrant and they are against abortions. Also, there are not only male chancellors but also females. From these facts we can also see the liberty.  

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Democratic_Union_(Germany)  ,18/09/2012

http://www.kas.de/db_files/dokumente/7_dokument_dok_pdf_8075_1.pdf  ,18/09/2012 

Brandenburg

History

Brandenburg is relatively new in its current form. It was one of the federal states that emerged after the reunification in 1990. In medieval times (and into early modern times) the area now known as Brandenburg was considered to be the area known as Prussia. Prussia was the first unified state of the German empire. From 1772 to 1918, the area was known as the Kingdom of Prussia, but the area still referred to as Brandenburg was the most important part of the kingdom, becoming a province of Prussia in 1815. There was a sharp increase in population during this time due to a booming industrial economy. Prussia became a free state in 1918 and in 1920 the greater Berlin area marked itself as its own province. Potsdam became the capital city of the Brandenburg province.

After World War II Prussia was dissolved and Brandenburg was split into separate districts. Brandenburg was a part of East Germany, where there was a socialist government.  Brandenburg remained a big player in the agricultural economy of East Germany. On October 15, 1990 the present form of Brandenburg was founded. The reunification of Germany brought much unemployment to the state, as its economy could not compete with the western half of Germany. Recently, the unemployment rate has declined and the economy has picked up significantly.

The Landscape

Brandenburg is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 when West and East Germany were unified.  The state of Brandenburg is densely forested and contains Europe’s most extensive landscape of rivers and lakes.  There are more than 3000 lakes with the Havel, Spree, and Oder rivers.  It contains Lower Oder Valley National Park, three Biosphere Reserves and eleven Nature Parks.  Brandenburg surrounds Berlin but does not include the national capital and city-state.  The capital city of Brandenburg is Potsdam.  Other cities include Cottbus, Brandenburg an der Havel, and Frankfurt (Oder). 

Potsdam is situated on the River Havel and is the capital of Brandenburg.  It is the largest city in Brandenburg with twelve palaces, including Sanssouci Palace – the summer residence of King Frederick II.  Before 1918, Potsdam was the residence of the Prussian kings and German Kaisers.  Potsdam has many architecturally significant buildings associated with Prussian royalty.  The Babelsberg Film Studio is located in Potsdam and is the oldest, large-scale, film studio in the world.  There are three public colleges and more than 30 research institutes in the city.

Cottbus is the cultural centre of the Lower Sorbian minority.  It is also home of Brandenburg University of Technology and the maths/science-oriented Max-Steenback-Gymnasium, which is named after the physicist Max Steenbeck.

Brandenburg an der Havel, also known as Brandenburg City, is located on the banks of the River Havel and is the oldest town in the state.  During the Nazi era it had a concentration camp, one of the first in Germany.  After closing the camp, the Nazis used a prison in Gorden, a suburb of Brandenburg an der Havel, that later became the Brandenburg Euthanasia Centre.  Brandenburg an der Havel was one of the first locations where Nazis experimented with killing their victims by gas. 

Frankfurt (Oder) is a smaller city in Brandenburg located on the Oder River, which separates Germany and Poland.  Frankfurt (Oder) is not to be confused with the larger city Frankfurt am Main located in the state of Hesse.   Here, in Frankfurt (Oder) you can walk across the city bridge and be in the Polish town Slubice.  Frankfurt an der Oder has one the largest Gothic churches and one of the oldest medieval town halls.  The 18^th century German novelist and playwright, Heinrich von Kleist, is the town’s most famous resident.

Demographics

This is a state in northeastern Germany that surrounds, but is independent of the city of Berlin. Poland is to the east of this state and also bordered by other states of Germany such as, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in the north, Freistaat Sachsen in the south, Saxony-Anhalt in the west and Lower Saxony in the northwest. The capital of this state is Potsdam. The population was recorded as 2,495,635 in 2011. The state area is 29,478.63 km²(11,381.76 sq mi). 

Economy

The main economic industries include agriculture, automotive industry, energy industry, electrical industry and optical industry. 7 universities and 21 other higher-education institutions with more than 182,000 students, as well as over 100 private and public institutes and development facilities make Berlin-Brandenburg one of the densest research networks in Europe.

Brandenburg is a vital place for logistics. Nine out of ten of the biggest German logistic companies are located here, German Railways, German Post, Kühne+Nagel, Dachser, DPD, UPS, Rhenus, Panalpina and Fiege. There are also hundreds of bringing companies located here. The GDP of this state ranked 11^th in 2011 which was 55,090 Euro€ (76,680 US$). 

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg#Geography, 09/04/2012

http://www.brandenburg.de/cms/detail.php/bb2.c.413681.de, 09/04/2012

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20110509/NEWS02/705099975/1001，09/04/2012

http://www.login-bb.de/fileadmin/login/bilder/Presseveroeffentlichungen/WorldMarket_2008-6.pdf, 09/04/2012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_German_states_by_GDP#2011_List , 09/04/2012

http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/Germany/brandenburg.htm,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg (9/2/12)

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/77676/Brandenburg/277639/Geography (9/2/12)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_an_der_Havel, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potsdam (9/2/12)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottbus, http://www.study-in.de/en/life/culture-travel--11830/ (9/2/12)

http://www.germanfoodguide.com/brandenburg.htm (9/2/12)

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg (9/3/12)

http://www.genealogienetz.de/reg/BRG/bb.html (9/3/12)