Final Post!!!!

Jacob Mackedanz
Ger 110
12/19/12
Final Post


German 110 was a great class because it helped cover the culture of Germany in many ranges of time. Some of the things I learned this semester would include things like German states, some of the industries that built Germany, and time of war and how Germany has prevailed through it all. We also read the book “ All quiet on the western front”, and also watched a few movies in class as well. One of my favorite topics that we talked about this semester would have to be today’s youth of Germany. Overall the time we spent was vary rewarding. Not only because its an interesting place in the world by because it’s a place that means something to me because it is the place that my decedents came from.

The youth of Germany was one of my favorite topics because it gave us a look into the what Germany is like today. Berlin calling was an awesome movie because it related German youth and music all in one category. The music is something that I experienced when I went to Germany in high school. The clubs all seemed to be filled with the youth and a general trend to music was something that they all had in common. The music isn’t like any thing else you have ever really heard before because it is techno music. Techno music is a type of music where you can create a beat and put any other background music to a rhythm on computer soft wear and create a song out of it.

The next thing that I liked in class was the movie we watched called Der Baadder Meinhof Komplex. I enjoyed this movie because it was a new topic that I had no idea about. I guess I cant say I had no idea because I had herd about the bombings during the Olympics but other then that I didn’t really know much about it. This was a dark time in German history a time when the youth felt that they couldn’t do any thing to voice there opinion. They took it to the extreme and pretty much invented terrorism in the process of trying to be heard. There was many bombing and many people killed in the process. One thing that was weird about the situation was the fact that there was three different waves to the RAF. Its different because as it showed in the movie the first wave that started all of this didn’t even really know the third wave, but the third wave looked up to the first in so many ways.

The final thing that I enjoyed about the class was doing some of the group presentations. We found out that its hard to try and get a big group of people together to complete a general task. But at the same time in order for you to get through that much information you need to do it in groups like that and I kind of liked it. One of my reasons that I enjoyed it was because you all do the research and it kind of creates a bound in your group which  allows you to meet knew people and have something to kind of start conversation. One of the group presentations that I did this semester was 18th century Germany industry. This was a fun topic because we had a little difficulty finding information but the things we did find were fairly interesting. Like I would have never guessed that textiles would have been one of the first things to be industrialized. And I also never really looked into the steam engine and how much of a roll it played on the entire industrial revolution.

Overall the class was a lot of fun and vary interesting I enjoyed it vary much. I liked the topics we discussed , the presentations that were given, and the movies that we watched in class because they really open my eyes to German culture.

Food (Breakfast)

Jake Mackedanz

Germ 110

12/12/12

Food

Traditional German breakfast is nothing really like what we do over here in the U.S. In the U.S. I think hot foods like sausage pancakes and stuff of this nature is what we see as a traditional breakfast. Well at least that what it is as I see it or at least it was before fast food came about. Well when I was in Germany one of my favorite things would be the breakfast that I was served every morning not only in my family stay but at hotels as well. What I noticed was there is a lot of breads, cheese, and meats. And its not stuff that has a shelf life of 3 years it was all fresh my family stay mom would get up early and go out in the morning to a bakery close to the house and pick up the breads and rolls and giant soft pretzels. The cheese we had been in the house but not refrigerated, she would cut the dried cheese off in the morning and cut a few slices to eat. A couple of the days I was there we had a dried beef and sliced salami as well. Another thing that I have never seen before was a soft boiled egg or poached egg. It was interesting to say the least because I thought they were just hard boiled eggs and made every one laugh the morning I cracked on open and to my surprise yoke ran everywhere. I chose to write about this because this is one of my favorite memories that have of my weeks in Germany. There was nothing else like that experience and some of my favorite memories were made there.

Blue sheet questions

Jake Mackedanz

Germ 110

12/12/12

Blue sheet questions

11.        

I think they started like every protest starts simple picketing and righting in newspapers to state their opinion. The fact that the prince’s men went out and attacked them and the police did nothing that shows that the authority decided that they had the power in there hand and could do what they wanted. After the first protester was killed by the cops they took it extreme by attacking the authority directly and it seems like they almost lost sight of what they were first protesting and just were directly attacking the authority and making it seem as if everything was there fault.

22.         

Well at the beginning I guess I was fully with the group and what they stood for but my opinion changed as soon as they took it to another level of attacking with bombs and strategic terroristic threats.

33.         

I really think it did because he was rude but he stood his ground on what he thought. I think the rudeness came as he got further elected as the leader and power goes to most peoples head right away and I believe that this is what we were seeing.

The "RAF" Red Army Faction

Jacob Mackedanz

German 110

RAF

The RAF or Red Army Faction is a sever left wing terrorist group that was founded in Germany in the 1970’s.They called themselves on urban guerilla group which would make planed attacks within the urban environment of Germany.  There was several people that consider them the founders of the group, Andreas Baader, Gundrun Ensslin, Horst Mahler and Ulrike Meinhof. They were described as a communist and anti-imperialism group engaged in an armed resistance. As in the movie it was depicted that they did do some training with other communist groups that would help them learn techniques of bomb making and handling weapons. I consider them myself to be kind of an extreme version of a hippy. Taking their views vary serious and stopping at nothing to get a point across.

They existed from 1970 to 1998 with the main part of their deployment being in 1977. In 1977 they took their extreme views to a new level and it became known at “German Autumn”. The RAF was held accounted for up to 34 deaths. But they took credit for up to 296 bomb attacks, arson and other things as well.

The first generation was Baader and his associates, the second generation of the RAF was in operation  in the late 1970’s, and finally the third generation was in operation in the 19080’s  and 1990’s.

On april 20 1998 there was an 8 page typed document that was sent to a German news agency that was signed “RAF” declaring that the group had dissolved

Reaction to Der Baadder Meinhof Komplex

Jacob Mackedanz

German 110

Der Baader Meinhof Komplex

The movie showed that begging of terrorism which I found to be interesting. Because I would have never guess that Germany would have been the one to invent terrorism. One thing I did note that is when violence starts it just keeps escalading and will never stop because one side always has to retaliate more than the next. But in the movie they showed it escalading and the other side wasn’t retaliating but the RAF wanted bigger things to happen so they keep going bigger and bigger to try and get there point across.

I was not to familiar with this topic so it was nice to have the movie showed in class because it opened up my eyes to a new dark period in German history. I knew of the attacks on the Olympics but other than that I was completely clueless. I think that is a radical view point of German youth and we are only seeing the extremes of one group yet again. The movie kind of relates to Berlin Calling because this is kind of a way of the youth showing their presence in Germany and what they experience. I like the idea of being able to see these viewpoints because it’s interesting but I think the directors are pushing them a little bit farther than reality to get the point across.

I liked the part in the movie where she says its not about what we are doing and the fact that we did kill people but the fact that its getting recognized and they were going through the trouble of disturbing the entire country to find them proves that they are being herd. Another thing I thought was interesting in the movie was the fact that the one guy starved himself to death just to show how much he believed in the movement they were trying to make. I don’t believe they went about getting heard the right way though because there is many other ways of stepping out and being noticed rather than killing innocent people.

Berlin Calling Reaction

Jake Mackedanz

Ger. 110

Berlin Calling

I thought berlin calling was an awesome look into some of the youth of Germany obviously it’s just one section of Germany’s youth but it was still a pretty good look into what I would think there life would be like. I personally like the techno music and the music that was in the movies is like nothing I have heard before which was awesome. I think that the life that he was living was something you wouldn’t see very much because the character in the movie would be considered a higher class because of his music and was at a celebrity status. So to generalize the entire techno community to be at the same level as he was would not be fair to them. Because I’m sure that there are some in this group that don’t do the things that were shown in the movie. The amount of drugs that were in the movie also was kind of a generalization but probably a pretty close one. I personally know that one of the things that seem to go around is high dose prescription pain killers and mix them with alcohol because when I was in Germany in some of the clubs you would see this happen. But overall I really thought the movie was good. It gave me a different prospective into some of the youth in Germany’s lives. But I believe that this is only one small piece of the German youth of today because I know there are some youth today that are vary tied up into their schooling and getting into a university. And then there is also another part of the youth who is into languages because early in German schools the children have to learn a second language which I think is an awesome idea. I would say this was one of the most interesting things that we have done this year and I appreciate it being a part of the curriculum.

11.       I think drugs are kind of an everyday part of life for Ickarus and it’s a time for him to have a good time and just let loose.

22.       They take drugs to enhance the time they are having and make the experience like nothing else. They do them before shows during shows to make it more fun. They take them by snorting them or taking pills. The drugs that were showed in the movie were like exdicie, prescription drugs, cocaine, and marijuana.

33.       His relapse is because of the life that he is choosing to live and the stress of trying to produce top notch music. They choose drugs because it’s a way to enhance the “show” and have a good time.

44.       Some of the people that were shown in the movie lived a cross over life where they chose to mix luxuries with the lower class and live the free life. Another way of life we see is the life of drugs and low end were all they have is there drugs, crappy houses and a few dollars.

55.       Yes I think that Germany will go away from the large industry and become more youth interested and become a leader among entertainment.

66.       I guess there are some older movies that kind of depict this life like Greece and south side story, or movies like 8 mile.