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Archive-name: german-faq/part2
Last modified: 2001-09-02 Posting-Frequency: monthly URL: http://www.watzmann.net/scg/ Version: 2001-09 See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge
This is part 2 of the ASCII version of the FAQ list for
soc.culture.german. Find the WWW version at
<http://www.watzmann.net/scg/index.html>. The FAQ is posted on
the first of every month.
Table of Contents for Part 2
=============================
5. The Internet
5.1 Side Remarks on the Structure
5.2 Finding Germany-Related Information on the Net
5.2.1 Search Engines
5.2.1.1 Germany-Specific
5.2.1.2 Libraries
5.2.1.3 Generic WWW Searchers
5.2.2 Country Codes etc.
5.2.3 Cities
5.2.4 Companies
5.2.5 Miscellaneous Collections of Data on/from Germany
5.3 List of Anonymous ftp Servers in Germany
5.4 Dedicated People's Pages
5.5 Email in Germany
5.5.1 Finding Email Addresses
5.5.1.1 College Students' Addresses
5.6 Getting Internet Access
5.6.1 Universities
5.6.2 Internet Provider Lists and Searchers
5.6.3 Private Networks
5.6.4 T-online
5.6.5 Public Unix Systems
5.6.6 Your Local BBS
5.7 de.* Newsgroups
5.7.1 Page comments
6. Geography
6.1 Statistics
6.1.1 The 16 Federal States
6.1.2 Cities with >100,000 Citizens
6.2 Daylight Savings Time
6.3 No AM/PM -- 24 hr!
6.4 Maps online and on paper
6.4.1 Online maps
6.4.2 Maps on paper
6.5 World Wide Weather
6.6 Astronomy, As Observed in Germany
6.6.1 Page comments
7. Language
7.1 Internet resources for learning German
7.2 Learning German as an Adult
7.3 What does the Adjective
7.4 German is so Strange...or is it?
7.5 Duden Editorial Board
7.6 German Words in English
7.7 Tongue Twisters
7.8 Platt
7.8.1 FOLKHART
7.8.2 Listserver LOWLANDS-L for Friesisch and Niederdeutsch
7.8.3 Page comments
5. The Internet
A great source of information on the Internet in general and the
Usenet in particular are the FAQs posted to the newsgroups
news.answers and alt.internet.services.
Obtain basic information
<ftp://ftp.sura.net/pub/nic/network.service.guides/how.to.email.guide/>
on email on the internet.
5.1. Side Remarks on the Structure
o WiN <http://www.dfn.de/> is the Wissenschafts-Netz, connecting
universities, Max Planck institutes and other science-related
institutions. Run by Deutsche Telekom for the DFN-Verein
<http://www.dfn.de/dfn/home.html>, it currently
<http://www.dfn.de/pictures/dfn-pictures/win-status.gif> has
backbones with bandwidths of 1.92 MBit/sec; some are already, many
lines are going to be expanded in 1996/97 to 34 MBit/sec. 1996-07
Connections from WiN to US-based networks usually are 1 to 6
Mbit/sec fast.
o DE-NIC <http://www.nic.de/> the network information center for the
*.DE domain. Their main task is the coordinated distribution of
internet numbers and services. They also prepare statistics about
the hardware constituting the net. In Nov/95, for instance, there
where some 400,000 machines with internet access in Germany, 2
million in Europe; growth is exponential with a doubling period of
little more than a year. 1995-12
5.2. Finding Germany-Related Information on the Net
5.2.1. Search Engines
5.2.1.1. Germany-Specific
o web.de -- Deutschland im Internet; <http://Web.de> points to
German language information pages. 1996-04
o DINO page <http://www.dino-online.de/>
o BundesDatenAutobahn <http://www.bda.de/>
o Quantum Server <http://www.quantum.de/zahlen/>
5.2.1.2. Libraries
o U Karlsruhe; The WWW Virtual Library: German Subject Catalogue
<http://www.rz.uni-
karlsruhe.de/Outerspace/VirtualLibrary/index.en.html> 1996-02
o U Duesseldorf; Virtual Library <http://www.rz.uni-
duesseldorf.de/WWW/ulb/virtbibl.html> 1996-02
o TU Darmstadt; Libraries in Hessen <http://www.tu-
darmstadt.de/ze/lbs.html> 1996-05
o U Cologne; university libraries <http://www.rrz.uni-
koeln.de/bibliotheken/index.html> 1996-05
5.2.1.3. Generic WWW Searchers
Since there are so many of these robots,
<http://info.webcrawler.com/mak/projects/robots/faq.html> I will only
give Meta searchers -- pointers to pointers...
o German metasearch <http://www.metager.de/>
o Metasearch <http://metasearch.com/>
o CUSI <http://pubweb.nexor.co.uk/public/cusi/cusi.html>
o Ralf's collection of spiders, robots, crawlers, etc.
<http://www.physics.purdue.edu/~vogelges/searcher.html>
5.2.2. Country Codes etc.
o phone country codes; from Germany
<http://www.quantum.de/zahlen/vorwahl-de-int.html>
o phone country codes; to Germany
<http://www.quantum.de/zahlen/vorwahl-int-de.html>
o country codes <http://www.quantum.de/zahlen/country.html>
o ISO 4217 currency codes <http://www.xe.net/gen/iso4217.htm>
5.2.3. Cities
o Arthur Teschler (email Arthur.Teschler@uni-giessen.de) provides a
neat mailserver which allows for substring as well as soundex
searches in a database of than 50,000 entries of municipality data.
Results provide: Gemeindekennziffer, county, region and state, zip
code, population, geographical location, topographical maps. For
more information send email:
To: Arthur.Teschler@uni-giessen.de Subject: _GEO_ 1st line:
INFO
1996-02 ok
o postal zipcodes <http://www.quantum.de/cgi-bin/plz>
o international airports <http://www.quantum.de/zahlen/airport-
int.html>
o phone area codes <http://www.quantum.de/zahlen/vorwahl-de.html>
o geographic coordinates <http://www.quantum.de/zahlen/koord-
int.html>
o license plate numbers <http://www.quantum.de/zahlen/kfz-de.html>
5.2.4. Companies
o a nice collection
<http://www.corporateinformation.com/decorp.html> of web-pages to
search for and research German companies. 1998-04
o email-addresses of companies <http://www.quantum.de/zahlen/firmen-
email.html>
o zipcodes of companies <http://www.quantum.de/zahlen/plz-
gross.html>
o European Banks <http://www.wiso.gwdg.de/ifbg/bank_eur.html>
1996-04
o German Banks <http://www.dino-online.de/seiten/go13cb.htm>
o bank routes (<EM>Bankleitzahlen</EM>) using postal codes
<http://www.quantum.de/zahlen/blz-plz.html>
o Bankleitzahlen pur <http://www.quantum.de/zahlen/blz-noplz.html>
5.2.5. Miscellaneous Collections of Data on/from Germany
Before I re-invent everything <http://userpage.chemie.fu-
berlin.de/adressen/brd.html> ...I'll much rather tell you where to
find original sources ;-)
The CIA world factbook has a section on Germany,
<http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/gm.html> too.
Dino online <http://www.dino-online.de/> is also a real saurus...
The Kassandra Project has a number of nice links
<http://www.reed.edu/~ccampbel/tkp/links.html> for various topics.
1996-03
5.3. List of Anonymous ftp Servers in Germany
Christian Hettler ( hettler@ask.uni-karlsruhe.de) maintains a list
which you can get via ftp <ftp://ftp.ask.uni-
karlsruhe.de/pub/info/ftp-list-de> from U Karlsruhe or at its WWW
version <http://www.ask.uni-karlsruhe.de/ftp/ftp-list-de.html> or
through an email server: send an email (leave subject blank)
To: mail-server@ask.uni-karlsruhe.de begin send
/pub/info/ftp-list-de end
5.4. Dedicated People's Pages
Here are quite a few people who collect their own URL's on German
resources. Chances are, you'll find a lot that is not included in this
FAQ ;-)..
o Katharina Davitt's Deutsches Eck <http://www.german-usa.com>
1996-10
o Stephan Gloge's Homepage <http://www.cris.com/~mrglueck/>
1996-02
o Gary Kemper's German Resources
<http://www.deltanet.com/users/gkemper/ger.html> 1996-02
o Carl Butler's collection of German newspapers, magazines, etc.
<http://www.duke.edu/~cgv/library/> 1996-04
o Axel Boldt's thoughts on cultural differences between the USA and
Germany <http://math-www.uni-paderborn.de/~axel/us-d.html>
o Nikolaus Duttler's Munich complete guide
<http://homepages.munich.netsurf.de/Nikolaus.Duttler/munich.htm>,
with valuable information on Munich, Bavaria and the Oktoberfest.
5.5.
Email in Germany
The pointers and tools described here are mostly of general interest
in the sense that their scope is not restricted to Germany.
5.5.1. Finding Email Addresses
If the resources listed below don't help, you should, no have to, read
the excellent How to find people's email addresses
<http://www.qucis.queensu.ca/FAQs/email/finding.html> FAQ maintained
by David Alex Lamb. You should probably read that FAQ in any event.
It's good.
Another very complete answer is the FAQ: How to find people's E-mail
addresses, frequently posted in the newsgroup news.answers and also
available by sending email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the line
send usenet/news.answers/finding-addresses in the body.
As a last resort, you can post an I'm looking for a friend - note in
an appropriate newsgroup. Don't tell them I said that ...
Email search engines on the web
o The most convenient search engine is the Meta Email
Search Agent <http://mesa.rrzn.uni-hannover.de/> at the
Universitaet Hannover. The agent queries several email search
sites at the same time --- you only need to fill out one search
form ! 1999-08
o The Germany-specific search engines suchen.de
<http://www.suchen.de/> and the email directory
<http://www.email-verzeichnis.de/> of Deutsche Telekom.
o US-based services such as Yahoo people search
<http://people.yahoo.com/>, switchboard.com
<http://www.switchboard.com/bin/cgiemail.dll?LNK=3:17&MEM=1> and
Lycos' WhoWhere <http://www.whowhere.lycos.com/> 1999-08
General search engines
Of course, you might be lucky and your long-lost friend has a
web-page, and it belongs to the 30% of the web that search
engines index. In that case, using the usual search engines like
AltaVista <http://www.altavista.com/> or Google
<http://www.google.com> might get you somewhere.
Usenet
If you have a hunch that the person you're looking for is
posting on Usenet, try to locate them through DejaNews
<http://www.deja.com/usenet>.
WHOIS queries
If the person you are looking for has their own domain
(something like dein-freund.de or your-friend.com) you might be
able to locate them through WHOIS. Depending on the domain name,
you have to look at different WHOIS servers. Use Network
Solutions' web search <http://www.networksolutions.com/cgi-
bin/whois/whois/> for .com,.net or .org domains. For European
domains such as .de,.at or .ch use Ripe's WHOIS servers
<http://www.ripe.net/db/whois.html>.
The more information you know about your associate (name, place of
business or school, and so on) the better your chances are!
5.5.1.1. College Students' Addresses
Try a second source <http://www.qucis.queensu.ca/FAQs/college-
email/college.html> to find the email address of a certain college or
university. It contains only a few German addresses as of now
<http://www.cs.queensu.ca/FAQs/college-email/country/Germany-C.html>.
If your university is not listed, send a detailed description of how
to find email addresses at that place to
dalamb@qucis.queensu.ca. If you have a person's name and their
academic location in Germany, you may try a netfind for the domain
name
o uni-stadt.de for Universitaeten
o fh-stadt.de for Fachhochschulen
o tu-stadt.de for Technische Universitaeten
o th-stadt.de for Technische Hochschulen
where stadt is to be replaced by the name of the town where the person
lives. For example, the domain of the Universitaet Karlsruhe is uni-
karlsruhe.de with the main web-site at http://www.uni-karlsruhe.de
1999-08
5.6.
Getting Internet Access
The indispensable Heise Verlag <http://www.heise.de/> maintains a
newsticker and a comprehensive list of ISPs in Germany and their rates
on this page <http://www.heise.de/itarif/>.
A lot of the bigger cities have Internet cafes that let you surf the
web and write email, for a fee, of course.
One particularly nifty outcome of the deregulation of the German phone
market is that some phone companies provide very useful services:
Arcor <http://www.arcor.de> provides PPP service without any signup.
To use it, configure your PC's PPP software to dial the number 01070
0192070, username arcor, password internet, DNS server 145.253.2.11.
The cost of 6 to 10 Pfennige will appear on your next phone bill. This
will most probably not work in hotels as it selects Arcor as the phone
company with the 01070 prefix, which hotels often disable. But asking
can't hurt, either.
5.6.1. Universities
Statistics about University-Originated access to the Net
Ralf Taprogge is conducting a survey about internet accessibility at
German universities. He posts his results <http://www.uni-
muenster.de/Publizistik/MAG3/ifp/taprogg/> on the WWW. As of early
December 1995, the following data had emerged:
For those 47 Universities that had answered...
o Some 800,000 students were enrolled total.
o About 120,000 students had email accounts.
o More than 85% of the universities offer SLIP/PPP for modem access.
o More than 50% offer students to create WWW-pages. 1996-1 If the
university offers Internet access, you can be sure that the
services are not very much like what American students are used to.
For example ftp might be very(!) restricted.
Usually you'll have to be a student, postdoc, etc. to be entitled for
email access at your university. Ask for email at your local
Rechenzentrum. 1994-3
5.6.2. Internet Provider Lists and Searchers
Unfortunately, flat rate internet access in Germany is still not
available, or if you find it, you pay a king's ransom (something like
100 DM/month) for it. Not only do you pay the phone company per minute
while you are online, you have to pay your internet service provider
per minute, too. A typical offering is the one by T-Online
<http://www.t-online.de>, which charges you 8 DM/month and then 0.03
DM/min while you are t-online.
Fokus <http://www.fokus.gmd.de/linux/linux-net.html> has a good list
of ISP search engines. That page lists ISP search engines for Germany,
Europe, the USA and the whole wide world. 1999-08
Among them are the ISP search page <http://www.heise.de/ct/provider/>
for German Internet providers by the computer magazine c't. A similar
page <http://www-cache.rrzn.uni-hannover.de/such-prov.html> exists at
the Universitaet Hannover.1999-08
The pages of 56k.com <http://www.56k.com/> contain very comprehensive
lists of US Internet service providers. Network USA's overview over
internet-providers around the world
<http://www.netusa.net/ISP/> contains also pointers to German
providers. <http://www.netusa.net/ISP/49.index.html>
Wolfgang Sander-Beuermann used to maintain an FAQ on Internet access
in Germany <http://pcdis.rrzn.uni-hannover.de/inet-zu-de.html>. He
stopped maintaining it in November 1998, though it's still available.
1999-08
Read de.etc.lists (see `The Internet' on how) Look for Jan
Richert's list publicuucp.
And finally look for Benoit Carl Lips' list of dial-in connections in
Europe. Obtain the latest version from the USENET groups
alt.internet.access.wanted and alt.internet.services. 1995-4
5.6.3. Private Networks
There are a number of ways besides university connections to stay on-
line. Truly commercial providers (like UUnet, etc.) may be a little
too complete in service and price for one's personal email and news
service needs. Private BBS-based networks like FIDO, MAUS, Z-Netz,
Comlink... offer cheap connections to Internet and USENET. Their news
and mail service should be satisfactory; IRC, WWW, ftp, and such
services are usually not provided. Be aware; the telephone bills from
the German Telekom could prove to be nasty. :-(
MAUS.NET, SUBNET, INDIVIDUAL.NET
To get access to a NON COMMERCIAL BBS (like MAUS-NET). You can
only read or write messages or use email. Most of these feed
into SUB.NET or INDIVIDUAL.NET (IN) ... which is why you might
want to consider getting their services directly; their
internet connection is also faster and more complete.
Sub.Net
SubNet e.V., Geschaeftsstelle c/o Heiko Rupp, Gerwigstr. 5,
76131 Karlsruhe, fax +49 721 661937, email
info@subnet.sub.net 1994-10
Individual Network
About 40 DM/month for IP, possibly less for news and mail only.
Regional differences apply in price and service. 1996-07
Email in-info@individual.net or write: Individual Network e.V.,
Geschaeftsstelle, Scheideweg 65, D-26121 Oldenburg, Germany, tel
+49(441)9808556, fax +49(441)9808557 1994-6
Maus.Net
Their official homepage <http://www.maus.de> is now available.
1997-10 If you happen to know the license plate id
<http://www.physics.purdue.edu/~vogelges/kfz.html> (Search for
KFZ-Kennzeichen <http://www.quantum.de/zahlen/kfz-de.html> at
the quantum server.) for the area of your interest try the
following (note that this method is not guaranteed to work!)
SYSOP@license plate id.MAUS.DE example: SYSOP@K.MAUS.DE for
service in the Cologne area.
In the body of the message ask for the telephone number of your
local BBS box. 1994-2
5.6.4. T-online
All over Germany you can take "Deutsche Telekom" directly with its t-
online service.
The price for T-Online access is DM 8,-/Month access fee (including
two free hours) and DM 0,03/min usage fee (including phone costs!).
5.6.5. Public Unix Systems
The following represents a condensed version of the dial-in access
possibilities in Germany as cited in Benoit Carl Lips' list (see
`Lists of Public Unix Systems')
APC/Comlink e.V.
Emil-Meyer-Str. 20, D-30165 Hannover email
support@oln.comlink.apc.org
CUBENet GmbH
Ohlauer Str. 74, D-80997 Muenchen email info@cube.net
DFN-Verein e. V.
Pariser Strasse 44, D - 1000 Berlin 15 email dfn-
verein@dfn.dbp.de
UUnet Germany (UUnet Deutschland GmbH)
Emil-Figge-Strasse 80, D-44227 Dortmund email info@de.uu.net
homepage <http://www.de.uu.net/> 1998-03
GeoNetn (GeoNet Mailbox Systems)
email GmbH@geod.geonet.de <mailto:GmbH@geod.geonet.de>
Individual Network (IN)
Scheideweg 65, D-26121 Oldenburg email IN-Info@Individual.NET
access: Aachen, Augsburg, Berlin, Bielefeld, Boeblingen, Bonn,
Braunschweig, Bremen, Chemnitz, Darmstadt, Dortmund, Dresden,
Duesseldorf, Duisburg, Erfurt, Erlangen, Flensburg,
Frankfurt/Main, Friedberg, Giessen, Goettingen, Halle, Hamburg,
Hannover, Heilbronn, Jena, Kaiserslautern, Kassel, Kiel, Koeln,
Konstanz, Leipzig, Ludwigshafen, Luebeck, Lueneburger Heide ,
Magdeburg, Mannheim, Muenchen, Muenster, Nuernberg, Oldenburg,
Osnabrueck, Paderborn, Passau, Pforzheim, Pirmasens, Regensburg,
Rendsburg, Rostock, Ruhrgebiet, Saarbruecken, Schauenburg,
Sauerland, Schleswig, Schwerin, Stuttgart, Tuebingen, Ulm,
Velbert, Weser-Ems, Wetzlar, Wolfsburg, Wuerzburg, Wuppertal
Interactive Network Information Systems GmbH i.Gr.
Spohrstrasse 24, D-60318 Frankfurt am Main email
info@nacamar.de, WWW, <http://www.nacamar.de/> fax 06103-966127
Chemnitz, Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, Bielefeld, Hannover, Kassel,
Duesseldorf, Aachen, Bonn, Gau-Algesheim, Koeln, Mainz,
Frankfurt/Main, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Wiesbaden, Heidelberg,
Dreieich, Kaiserslautern, Saarbruecken, Darmstadt, Nidderau,
Aalen, Stuttgart, Heilbronn, Augsburg, Muenchen, Nuernberg,
Weiden, Wuerzburg
Interactive Networx GmbH (unlisys InterNET Services)
Hardenbergplatz 2, D-10623 Berlin email
info@unlisys.net
INS
Ruhr-Area, Germany email info@ins.net
CompuServe Germany
tel +49(130)864643 (toll free),
+49(89)66550-111
access: Berlin, Hamburg, Hannover, Duesseldorf, Koeln,
Frankfurt/Main Karlsruhe, Muenchen, Nuernberg
Lemke & Fuerst GbR
Kleinknechtstrasse 35, 70567 Stuttgart email info@lf.net
NACAMAR Deutschland
Kirchweg 22, D-63033 Dreieich (near Frankfurt) email
landi@nacamar.de
NCS GmbH
Amalienstr. 17-21, 26135 Oldenburg email info@nordwest.de
NET GmbH
Figarostr. 3, 70597 Stuttgart email info@n-e-t.de
Netzwerk und telematic GmbH, Geschaeftsbereich Xlink" Vincenz-
Priessnitz-Strasse 3, 76131 Karlsruhe email info@xlink.net, or
no sales@xlink.net their web site <http://www.xlink.net> tel
+49(721)96520 fax +49(721)9652210
1995-4
For my taste a truly exquisite WWW-server finder is
http://www.entry.de/ <http://www.entry.de/> 1997-05
5.6.6. Your Local BBS
If you don't have email access, you might want to pick up the latest
issue of C'T computer magazine <http://www.heise.de/ct/> to look up
the list of phone numbers of all network systems. Then dial into the
appropriate BBS and ask the local sysop about fees for connection.
Cost?
A typical user, reading news from de.* and sci.* might want to expect
about 10DM connection fee and 15DM in telephone charges (using an off-
line reader!)
5.7. de.* Newsgroups
The de.* newsgroups are a good idea if you would like to know more
about Germany and you are able to read and write German try the
newsgroups in the de.* hierarchy. Those newsgroups are mostly
available in Germany and at some sites in the US. Specifically parts
of the hierarchies maus.*, fido.* and cl.* are fed into international
news channels. (Note that these groups usually converse in German-only
mode...) 1994-11
NNTP
You can try and nag your sysadmin or Internet Service Provider
into carrying the newsgroups you are interested in. This will
be the easiest way for you to gain access to the de.* hierarchy.
Failing that, there are some providers that let you use their
news servers. One of them can be found at
http://news.cis.dfn.de/. This web page contains instructions on
how to get access to the news server. The service is free, but
requires registration by email. 1999-04
HTTP
DejaNews <http://www.deja.com/usenet/> archives pretty much all
the newsgroups known to mankind. You can search and browse their
archives to your hearts content, or simply read one of the de.*
groups with your web browser. 1999-04
5.7.1. Page comments
View/add comments
<http://www.watzmann.net/comments/list.php?page_id=9>
6. Geography
6.1. Statistics
6.1.1. The 16 Federal States
As of July 1999, the parliament resides in Berlin, but some government
agencies still remain in the old capital Bonn.
State Area km^2 Population Capital ISO 3166 abbrev.
Baden-Wuerttemberg 35 751.85 10 426 040 Stuttgart BW
Bayern 70 548.00 12 086 548 Muenchen BY
Berlin 890.77 3 398 822 Berlin BE
Brandenburg 29 475.84 2 590 375 Potsdam BB
Bremen 404.23 667 965 Bremen HB
Hamburg 755.20 1 700 089 Hamburg HH
Hessen 21 114.82 6 035 137 Wiesbaden HE
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 23 170.31 1 798 689 Schwerin MV
Niedersachsen 47 613.35 7 865 840 Hannover NI
Nordrhein-Westfalen 34 078.68 17 975 516 Duesseldorf NW
Rheinland-Pfalz 19 846.86 4 024 969 Mainz RP
Saarland 2 570.10 1 074 223 Saarbruecken SL
Sachsen 18 412.16 4 489 415 Dresden SN
Sachsen-Anhalt 20 446.56 2 674 490 Magdeburg ST
Schleswig-Holstein 15 770.49 2 766 057 Kiel SH
Thueringen 16 171.57 2 462 836 Erfurt TH
total 357 020.79 82 037 011 Berlin DE
The 16 federal states in overview (population figures
for 1998). Source: Global population project
<http://www.koeln.netsurf.de/~stefan.helders/r/r_de.htm>
6.1.2. Cities with >100,000 Citizens
6.2. Daylight Savings Time
From 1996 on, daylight savings time will start on the European
continent on the last Sunday of March 1:00 UTC (2:00 MEZ) and end on
the fourth Sunday in October 1:00 UTC (3:00 MESZ). At these times all
clocks are to be set one hour spring-ahead or fall-back.
6.3. No AM/PM -- 24 hr!
Although most everybody in Germany will comprehend (esp. when printed)
the AM/PM scheme for the time of the day, the 24hr notation is much(!)
preferred. (And no, 19:30 is not pronounced neunzehn hundert dreissig
Stunden; it is neuzehn Uhr dreissig.) 1997-01
6.4. Maps online and on paper
6.4.1. Online maps
Goodness, yes, there are maps... tons probably... like this zoomable
world-overview map
<http://mapweb.parc.xerox.com/map/ht=90.00/lat=52.50/lon=10.16/wd=180.00?280,106>
or this monster of political map (257kB)
<http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/europe/Germany.jpg>
A very nice overview of all German states <http://userpage.chemie.fu-
berlin.de/adressen/bl/bundeslaender.html> also gives you a lot of WWW
pointers to more information by-state! Check it out! 1995-5 And this
map of German WWW servers <http://www.entry.de/> lets you click for
information on individual cities. 1999-04
The best source for city maps (Stadtplaene) is Falk Online
<http://www.falk-online.de/>. They publish maps of all major German,
Swiss and Austrian cities. For looking up a specific address, you can
try your luck with MapQuest <http://www.mapquest.com>; their
collection of Germany maps isn't half bad. 1999-04
Quite a number of historical maps, which might also be useful in
genealogical research, can be found at the FEEFHS web site.
<http://feefhs.org> 1999-04
Rank Name Population
33 Aachen 246671
29 Augsburg 264764
81 Bergisch Gladbach 104991
1 Berlin 3475392
18 Bielefeld 324674
16 Bochum 401058
20 Bonn 296859
67 Bottrop 119676
30 Braunschweig 256267
10 Bremen 551604
55 Bremerhaven 131492
23 Chemnitz 279520
59 Cottbus 128121
9 Duesseldorf 574936
52 Darmstadt 139754
7 Dortmund 601966
15 Dresden 479273
11 Duisburg 536797
39 Erfurt 200799
82 Erlangen 102383
6 Essen 622380
75 Fuerth 108097
5 Frankfurt/M. 659803
40 Freiburg/Breisgau 197384
58 Goettingen 128419
22 Gelsenkirchen 295037
64 Gera 122974
37 Hagen 214877
21 Halle/Saale 295372
2 Hamburg 1702887
43 Hamm 182390
12 Hannover 524823
53 Heidelberg 139429
65 Heilbronn/N. 122396
44 Herne 180539
79 Hildesheim 106303
74 Ingolstadt 109666
84 Jena 100093
4 Koeln 962517
83 Kaiserslautern 102370
24 Karlsruhe 277998
38 Kassel 202158
32 Kiel 248931
73 Koblenz 109807
31 Krefeld 249565
36 Luebeck 217269
14 Leipzig 490851
49 Leverkusen 161761
46 Ludwigshafen 168130
28 Moenchengladbach 265312
45 Muelheim/Ruhr 177175
3 Muenchen 1255623
27 Muenster 267367
26 Magdeburg 270546
42 Mainz 185487
19 Mannheim 318025
78 Moers 106631
13 Nuernberg 498945
50 Neuss 148560
35 Oberhausen 226254
70 Offenbach/Main 116870
51 Oldenburg 147701
47 Osnabrueck 168078
56 Paderborn 130130
69 Pforzheim 117450
54 Potsdam 139262
61 Recklinghausen 127150
62 Regensburg 125337
63 Remscheid 123610
77 Reutlingen 107607
34 Rostock 237307
41 Saarbruecken 190902
68 Salzgitter 117684
66 Schwerin 122189
72 Siegen 111845
48 Solingen 166064
8 Stuttgart 594406
71 Ulm 114839
57 Wuerzburg 128875
25 Wiesbaden 270873
80 Witten 105807
60 Wolfsburg 128032
17 Wuppertal 386625
76 Zwickau 107988
total 26027788
Source: Fischer-Weltalmanach 1993-12
6.4.2. Maps on paper
The Mercedes Benz among German city maps are made by Falk Verlag
<http://www.falk-online.de/>. Their "patent folded" maps are available
in almost all airports, train stations etc. and make finding your way
around a city a pleasure. 1999-04
For driving around the country, several oil companies publish their
own collection of maps, leading to such luminaries of German
vacationing as the Shell-Atlas or the Aral-Atlas.
All of Germany is available on topographic maps of 1:25,000 scale, and
a large part of it even on 1:5000 scale. Find the right map for you by
using `Arthur Teschler's' email-server, (see Internet/Search
Engines) then contact the corresponding Landesvermessungsamt; they are
in the state capitals. 1996-02
Another option is to contact an international map shop, like
RV Geocenter Munich, tel +49(89)431890
1995-3
6.5. World Wide Weather
German weather forecasts are provided by donnerwetter.de
<http://www.donnerwetter.de/> and wetter.de <http://www.wetter.de>.
The Metereological Institute <http://www.met.fu-berlin.de/> of
the Free University in Berlin provides a page with additional links
<http://www.met.fu-berlin.de/english/Wetter/index.html>.
For a spiffy satellite image of all of Europe check out the MeteoSat 5
images <http://www.meteo.fr/temps/europe/modele/sous_panneaux.html> of
Meteo-France. 1999-08
6.6. Astronomy, As Observed in Germany
Astronomical events, <http://members.tripod.com/~apd2/apd.htm>
visibility and positions of heavenly bodies, calculated for your
location in Germany, international holidays and anniversaries, local
festivals, birthdays of famous Germans, religious holidays and feasts
... all in a handy pocket diary. For a German/English version email
norb@kcbbs.gen.nz 1999-01
6.6.1. Page comments
View/add comments
<http://www.watzmann.net/comments/list.php?page_id=10>
7. Language
7.1. Internet resources for learning German
University of Victoria's German for Beginners
<http://castle.uvic.ca/german/149/> is one of the first online-
courses. 1996-10
The Internet Handbook of Grammar
<http://www.travlang.com/languages/german/ihgg/index.html> provides an
introduction to the fundamentals of German grammar (intended for
beginning students)...
...so does the German Grammar
<http://www.wm.edu/CAS/modlang/grammnu.html> site 1996-10
The newsletter Der Weg and its associated website
<http://www.derweg.org/> are a great resource for anybody who wants to
learn German {[dash ]} if you already know some German since it is
entirely in German. It also has a very strong Christian slant.
7.2. Learning German as an Adult
Summary of experiences as reported by various readers of s.c.g (winter
95)
Courses and tapes recommended
o Berlitz Think and Talk German
o InLingua
o The taped exercises with the Deutsch 2000 course; available at
better stores in the US
o The Goethe Institutes <http://www.goethe.de/> (find their
addresses in `the section on Goethe Institutes')
o Mind Extension University (cable TV) has about 1.5 hours of German
language a day, and sometimes even have German classes; get info at
+1(800)777-MIND
o Concordia language camps in Minnesota. Excellent immersion
camps.1995-10
o The National Registration Center for Study Abroad evaluates and
coordinates immersive study programs at a variety of language
schools around the world, including Germany. You can get more
information from their web page
<http://www.execpc.com:80/~nrcsa/> 1995-10
o The Volkshochschulen <http://www.vhs.de/> offer courses for
foreigners. 1995-11
Reading
Reading German as a means to learning spoken German was high on
everyone's list. The following were recommended:
o children's books
o comic books
o trash novels
o Schau Ins Land - a monthly small magazine and cassette out of
Nashville is good for building vocabulary once you are at an
intermediate stage.
o the German edition of Mad Magazine.
o annotated anthologies Factors to success
o be motivated
o set goals
o some period of total immersion in the spoken language
o visit Germany
o unlike English, German is pronounced as written; learn the
pronunciation of letters and diphthongs
o work through and learn German grammar; there is no way to escape
this
o do a daily word list
o work in a language course trip to Germany
o let your ear govern whether or not your mouth is doing the right
thing
o remember the article for every noun! Miscellaneous experiences:
I am learning German in the US, and though I have the bene-
fit of a German wife, she speaks such good English, that we
never talk in German. I get children's books from the
library (including picture dictionaries!), and I try to
watch as much German TV as we get on cable: (Mind Extension
University.) We also get the international channel, which
has other German shows. Also, get a short wave radio and
tune into Deutsche Welle, which broadcasts worldwide. I
decided that it's like learning a language as a kid. Kids
hear the language constantly, and absorb it all like
sponges; kids don't even speak until they've been hearing a
language for 12 to 24 months, so i figured I'd do the same,
and did a lot of listening, so it would seep into my soul,
and now, about a year later, I'm starting, with croaking
voice, to speak, and it's fun.
I learned German as an adult through a language 'school'
called Inlingua (they're like Berlitz). They offer instruc-
tion by native speaking teachers and it is taught by the
best method to learn although it can be expensive (my com-
pany picked up the tab). If taking a formal class such as I
did is not an option, I strongly suggest that while you are
learning German through tapes, community college courses,
etc., take every opportunity you can to speak German. In the
car, to spouse/kids/partner/ roommate, family, or even to
yourself. I would come home from class and tell my wife, in
German, what I learned in class or did at work that day. I
got some strange looks, but it really helped me to start
thinking in German. When you start dreaming in German,
you'll know you making good progress.
I have had German exchange students, and have had great
experiences with them. I would not recommend them as a way
to learn German, however, as they are interested only in
speaking English.
I learned to speak German in a small village outside a city
that had itself a rather boese dialect. I learned the local
platt, and found that I got on better with that than I did
with my attempts at high German. When speaking dialect I was
always mistaken for someone from a farm town over the next
hill, however on the rare occasions when I tried to speak
High German, I was spotted immediately as an Ami.
I've had good experiences renting from the German Language
Video Center (see `Audio / Video Tapes'.) They also
sell documentaries from Deutsche Welle TV for US$16.95,
which I think is the same price Deutsche Welle sells them
for. You can also get the documentaries on some PBS (Public
Broadcasting System) stations - in the San Francisco area,
channel 60 broadcast two episodes of Schauplatz Deutschland
starting last night at 11 p.m. It's in German with English
subtitles.
1995-3
After I had gotten somewhat into the basics of the language,
I started to read books that I had already read in
Norwegian. This enabled me to keep most of my mind on the
language, since I already knew what the story was.
In addition to this, it would come in handy if you can
listen to German on the radio, and after some time, and
practice, you should of course go to Germany for a month or
three.
NB: When going to Germany, go alone! I was in Germany once,
travelling with a group of other Norwegians, and whenever we
were two or more Norwegians in one spot, we would speak
Norwegian. I therefore made it a rule for myself to keep
away from my fellow travellers as much as possible.
Otherwise I would not have gotten full benefit of my stay.
1996-07
7.3. What does the Adjective German Mean?
The origins of the German language are quite manifold as various
peoples have influenced it throughout history. Conversely, there is an
impressive variety of expressions for the meaning of the adjective
German in those languages.
1. The German deutsch or (ancient) teutsch, has developed through
history in several stages, referring first to the language, then to
the people and finally to the territory. It stems from the old
German word thiutisk or theudisk, which the West Franks used since
the 9th Century to refer to their language, the common language, as
opposed to the educated language Latin. Karolus Magnus (Karl der
Grosse, Charlemagne, Charles the Great, 742-814 AD) took it to name
his multilingual and multicultural empire as deutsch because this
did mean just the people and had no specific reference to any
particular nation living in his empire. Other derivations from
theudisk found their way into a number of other languages, as well:
o Scandinavian: Tysk
o Italian: Tedeschi
o Dutch: Duits
2. Tribe names; many European peoples adopted the names of Germanic
tribes living close to their own territory:
o Latin; germanus in Latin meant the tribes settling in central
Europe. Probably originally adopted from the Germanic expression
spear-bearer (ger-man.)
o The English word Dutch is related to deutsch and originally meant
German. Since Holland became an independent country in the 17th
century, it was used for that former part of the German empire
only. The new word for Germany in English was adopted from Latin.
o French, Spanish and Portuguese: Alemans was the name for the
southwestern German tribe, next door neighbour to the French.
o The Baltic peoples picked a different German tribe as a word for
all of Germany: Saksalaiset. (Hence the Saxons as in Anglo-
Saxons...)
3. In Slavic dialects, the root *nEm- generally means "mute" (unable
to speak), dialectal data and the Church Slavic literature strongly
suggest that this root also means incomprehensible for the
listener, and, by extension, speaking a foreign language.
o Russian: Njemzij
o Polish: Niemzij
o Tchechian: Nemci
o Slovak: Nemec
o Croatian: Nijemac
o Serbian: Nemac 1996-06
o the Magyars took this term and called them Nimetek
1996-1
7.4. German is so Strange...or is it?
Long Words!,
The notorious Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitaensmuetze in all
its possible extensions is often cited as evidence how the German
language uniquely burdens all non-native speakers with what seems to
be nothing but curious absurdities.
What do you know? English, does not, either, regard this type of word
as excessively sesquipedalian...Richard Lederer (in Crazy English)
tells us that even antidisestablishmentarianism is not very
hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian. -- Hmm? Oh, German words are simply
concatenated? Well, that, as well, is not that unique. Ponder, for
instance, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis ... it is not
to be floccinaucinihilipilificated!
Really, very very very (...you get the picture) long words are not
used in German, despite their possibility -- anything comprised of
more than two parts (like Gedanken-anstoss) is rare. 1996-07
7.5. Duden Editorial Board
The most widely accepted authoritative answers to questions about the
German language are provided by the
Sprachberatungsstelle der Dudenredaktion, Postfach 100311,
68003 Mannheim, Germany, tel +49(0621)3901426
1996-03
7.6. German Words in English
Oh my -- there are so many...and yet, there are so few, compared to
the rest of all the English language. English has been influenced by
so(!) many languages, that each makes but a more or less insignifcant
portion of the whole. (Hope I don't insult any Latin speakers;-)
As languages do so often (except for esperanto, I am told;-) I shall
define a few arbitrary categories under which to collect some of those
words. (Apply the usual "include, but are not limited to"...)
Also, it should be noted that many of these words are of Yiddish
origin -- according to Webster's dictionary, which I shall take as the
definitive reference. Yiddish and German have had a somewhat
symbiotic relationship over the centuries, with German words making it
into Yiddish (e.g., Scheitel, Geld) and Yiddish words of differing
origins being added to German ; in both cases, Yiddish is the link
between quite a few German and English words.
Commonly known words
angst, blitz, bratwurst, geld, gestalt, gesundheit, hinterland,
kaffeeklatsch, kindergarten, rucksack, sauerkraut,
schadenfreude, umlaut, wanderlust, weltanschauung, weltschmerz
Words of scientific origin
ansatz, bremsstrahlung, eigen- (value, vector), entgegen and
zusammen, leitmotiv, reststrahlen, umklapp process, zwitterion
affenpinscher, deutsche mark, doberman pinscher, festschrift,
gegenschein, groschen, kaffeeklatsch, kirsch, kitsch,
meerschaum, putsch, putschist, schilling, schlemiel,
schlep(pen), schlieren, schmaltz, schnaps, schnauzer, schnitzel,
schnorkel, schnorrer, schnozzle, schorl, schottische, schuss
(Skiabfahrt), schwarmerei, tusche, wiener schnitzel,
blitzkrieg, ersatz, katzenjammer, kibbutz, kibitz, kibitzer,
pretzel seltzer, sitz bath, sitzkrieg, sitzmark, spitz, switzer,
waltz
my personal favorite
Gemuetlichkeit, zwieback
1999-04
7.7.
Tongue Twisters
Challenge your German pronunciation skills with these...
o Fischers Fritze fischt frische Fische.
o In Ulm, um Ulm und um Ulm herum.
o Der Cottbusser Postkutscher putzt den Cottbusser Postkutschkasten
mit Cottbusser Postkutschkastenpaste.
o Der uralte Riese Ruebezahl zaehlte rote Rueben im Riesengebirge.
o Zwischen zwei Zwetschgenzweigen zwitscherten zwei Schwalben.
o Blaukraut bleibt Blaukraut und Brautkleid bleibt Brautkleid.
o Hob's B'steck z'spot b'stoet. (Ich habe das Besteck zu spaet
bestellt.)
o Ob er aber ueber Oberammergau oder aber ueber Unterammergau kommt,
wuesste er noch nicht.
o Wir Wiener Weiber wuerden weisse Waesche waschen, wenn wir
wuessten, wo warmes Wasser waere.
o Es klapperten die Klapperschlangen bis die Klappern schlapper
klangen.
o In Mischa's Schischuh schwimmt ein Misch-Masch aus Sushi-Sossen.
o lilafarbenes wollenes Flanellaeppchen
Not strictly tongue twisters, more brain benders:
o Wenn hinter Fliegen Fliegen fliegen, fliegen Fliegen Fliegen nach.
o Wenn hinter Robben Robben robben, robben Robben Robben nach.
o Wenn hinter Griechen Griechen kriechen, kriechen Griechen Griechen
nach. (This one is particularly funny in Saxonian dialect)
7.8. Platt
Platt is the kind of German spoken mainly in northwestern Germany. It
is almost ununderstandable to people who only speak "high" German,
since it is very similar to Dutch and English; indeed, the transitions
between many Germanic languages are rather fluid and Platt is part of
the fluid link between Dutch and German.
7.8.1. FOLKHART
FOLKHART <http://members.aol.com/folkhart/index.html> is an ongoing
project of a group of American (mostly Midwestern) descendants of
Northwest German immigrants whose ancestral language is/was Low German
(Plattdeutsch); it was founded to provide an online vehicle to help to
learn/preserve/share/promote Platt (Low German). Sacred Seasons and
other classical texts present introductory Plattdeutsch language as
well as North German culture.
There is also an adjunct project called WIND-MILL
<http://members.aol.com/gowindmill/index.html> online. 1998-02
7.8.2.
Listserver LOWLANDS-L for Friesisch and Niederdeutsch
This email forum discusses those germanic languages and cultures that
originated from costal areas around the North Sea and the Baltic Sea,
including Frisian, Dutch, Lower Saxon, Afrikaans, and more.
To subscribe to the listserver...
send email To: listproc@lists.u.washington.edu with body
subscribe lowlands-l
For more information email H.A.Y. Wolf
<mailto:H.A.Y.Wolf@stud.let.ruu.nl> 1996-1
7.8.3. Page comments
View/add comments
<http://www.watzmann.net/comments/list.php?page_id=11>
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