Specially the Rhineland is known for its crazy and wild traditions around this 5th season. In most areas it is called Fasching – here they call it Karneval.

It officially starts at 11.11 am on the 11/11 – so today. But it gets really excessive from a day in February called Weiberfastnacht. It is the Thursday before Ash Wednesday and this week is filled with parties and parades. Weiberfastnacht means the carnival for women (Weiber). The ladies go out and dance, drink, and make new friends. The theme of the day is: Everything can – nothing has to. Don’t get the wrong impression of women from the Rhineland now. They just like to celebrate. Everything else is just serendipity.

By the way men are of course also welcome to join the parties on the Weiberfastnacht. You would just not initially go out with your male friends or partner.

You have the chance to meet princes, cowboys, hula girls, pirates, hippies, and animals of all kinds on Cologne´s, Mainz´s or other streets in the Rhineland. The whole area is in an exceptional state. Not only are the bars filled and you hear special Karneval music everywhere, but you also have the opportunity to join one of the countless carnival events. Big arenas are filled with thousands of dressed up people. Comedians and carnival bands ensure that the evening is a real success.

The following weekend is packed with street parades in all cities and villages. Everybody joins – it is just not an option to stay at home. Everybody admires the great dance and music performances and the decorated tractors and cars. Every parade has its own carnival prince and princess.

All kids are looking forward to it. It is very exciting. The participants of the parades throw candy to the kids and it is a lot of fun. All candy that is thrown is called Kamelle – no matter if it is sweets, gummi bears or full bars of chocolate.

After the parade the party continues in all bars, in private houses and on the street. The music played is quite simple … I mean – after drinking and partying for one week difficult lyrics are just not possible anymore.

On Ash Wednesday the whole fun is over and the fasting period until Easter starts.

Here is a short video to give you a little taste:

You think this is weird? I am fully with you. This is, why this article was written by my friend Christine. Many years back she moved from Bavaria to Bonn – which is in the Rhine area. I am not sure, if this was due to her love for their excessive carnival traditions or if maybe her job played a role. She has a natural talent for this event. I think she must have lived there in a former life. No clue where she gets the ideas for her costumes every year from.

I – on the contrary – have a “Faschingssperre“. I simply don´t get the whole thing. So I would have been the wrong one to tell you about it.

Fancy joining the party next year? I am sure I can organise some further tips for you from THE pro in case you plan a trip.

Do you celebrate carnival in your culture? How do you spend those crazy days?

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Never  hear about St. Martin?

Martin of Tours was a French Roman soldier who later on became bishop. He is most famous for his cutting of the cloak in half to share with a beggar on a cold winter evening.

In memory of him hiding from becoming a bishop in the goose pen and being betrayed by the sound of the geese, people share a goose with friends or family the night of the 11^th. In the really old days people started a 40 day long fasting period the day after this feast. This period was shortened later on by the church and is now known as Advent – the 24 days leading up to Christmas eve.

From being a French tradition it spread all over Europe and is well known and celebrated in most countries.

In Germany most kindergarten or school classes have a little lantern procession on the 11th or the night before – so today. For weeks they prepare lanterns and rehearse famous St. Martin´s songs. The most famous song is probably this one:

So why does she tell us today and not tomorrow, the 11^th ? … Well…. There is another fancy tradition coming up tomorrow, which I would like to introduce to you. And beside that. You might be inspired and spontaneously invite your family, friends or neighbors for a little feast. Bon appetite!

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The way we grew up though differs tremendously. Talking about our childhood and experiences with the DDR I have to admit – I feel excluded. I have not watched Pitiplatsch on East German TV when I was a child, I did not line up to buy bananas, and when I wanted to eat melon I just asked my mum if she could bring one from the supermarket. Chocolate or vanilla milk we got in the school breaks, and I have never demonstrated for my right of freedom.

Some of my friends have. Christian´s mum took him to the famous Monday demonstrations in his home town. For him it was a cool lantern procession and it was great fun. He did not understand the impact it had on his country´s future. He was 11.

Shortly after – exactly today 25 years ago – the wall was gone. People could go where they wanted. None of their families immediately took their kids and visited the unknown West. All three of them agree. “You didn´t know if they would close the border again. It was too risky. We waited to see what would happen.”

After a while they went to the West to experience how it looks like on the other side.Every DDR citizen received 100 German mark (around 50 Euros)– the so called Begrüssungseld. Caroline still has what she was allowed to buy from her money. She decided to go for a blue Mickey mouse. She took it with her when she moved to Denmark.

Christian remembers that on the way to the West you still had to get your passport stamped. As a DDR citizen you were used to lining up. So they lined up at the one border control booth where everybody was standing and waiting. It took a while until they realized that there were more border control houses accessible.

Lining up was a natural thing in the DDR. A lack of resources led to people buying tons of shampoo when it was available. You never knew when you would have a chance to get it again. You might have even changed clothes and lined up again to receive another ration. Suddenly lining up was not necessary anymore. Easy to get used to when you are 10 years old – but what a difference for those who grew up in the DDR and suddenly had to integrate into a system that worked quite differently.

All the things you believed in being right for 40 years – or at least the way you did things – was now suddenly wrong. Political education in the DDR school was quite different than in West Germany. Additionally, the teachers who had told about the advantages of socialism and West Germany being the enemy were from one day to the other supposed to teach the great advantages of capitalism. Russian lessons were replaced by English lessons. Everything was different.

The first euphoria of a reunited Germany turned very fast into the West taking over the East. “Robber-knights” from the West went to buy pretty much every property available in East Germany for almost nothing. Still nowadays people suffer from this “take over”.

People you had been friends with turned sometimes out to have worked for the Stasi – spying on you. Do people want to know? What does it do to your level of trust when you suddenly find out that your best friend told all your secrets to the Stasi. Many decided not to take a look into their Stasi file.

A university career, family in the West, being active in the church. All reasons for being a suspect – and therefore people were spied on.

Caroline remembers times where the kids were sent out of the room because secret things were discussed. You always had to be careful what to share – even your husband or wife could have been working for the Stasi or your kids could have accidentally revealed something in school.

Were all Stasi employees bad people? Probably not. Some of them just wanted to work in a profession they were truly interested in – and the price was to work for the Stasi. Did they report everything or did they just report harmless things? Who knows. And nobody really wants to talk about it anymore.

“Life goes on and you just have to make the best out of it.” “Be happy for what you have.” Sentences we have probably all heard from our grandparents. It has a different meaning though for those who lived under restrictions and those who remember the times when your career path was dependent on your parents’ willingness to join the party.

Still today people are very suspicious and careful what to share with others. A result from many years living in this system?

What would my 3 friends have done, if the wall would not have come down?

Christian might not have become a dentist – he would have had to join the party to do so. Martina who chose a career in research says that she might have become a silent follower to be able to do what she wanted to do and Caroline was too young to even consider what she might have done.

Caroline, Martina, and Christian are grateful and happy for what has happened to their lives due to this historic event.

And although I grew up in the West with the options to travel everywhere, do what I wanted to do and say what I wanted to say without fearing the consequences, I am grateful.

We can all go anywhere we want to in the world and all four of us could take the decision to move to Denmark. 3 of us at this table could not have done that 25 years ago.

Thanks guys for sharing your stories!

Did you know about all of this? What are your stories you remember from the DDR or East and West?

If you are interested in more stories about the German reunification, have a look at Doreen’s and Katja’s stories.

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Oom-pah music, beer tent, Dirndl and Lederhosn.

Unfortunately this is not representing Germany. All those things very well describe Bavaria. Some part of Bavaria. The southern part.

I hope during one month of introducing different cultural aspects of Germany you will get a different picture of this very diverse country. But up to now we are still quite in the beginning of the months – therefore some stereotypes are of course allowed.

So here we go:

All people in Germany are like Bavarians….. Tell that to a person from Hamburg and the chance to become friends will very fast go down to zero.

Germany has all the same traditions. North and South – East and West.There are some quite significant differences. Carnival is the biggest event in the Cologne area. Try to call a business partner on “Faschingsmontag” – the Monday of the festivities. I would assume the chances of reaching anybody are quite low. In most other parts of Germany people might dress up a bit, but honestly, it is not the biggest event in Hamburg.

Everyone in Germany speaks the same language. German ≠ German. I have a friend in Berlin who just loooooves when I role the “r” the way we do it in the northern part of Bavaria. Little side note – the rolling “r” is not even the same in north and south Bavaria. And some people in Aachen would not understand what a person from Saxony with a strong accent tells them.

Roasted pork with dumplings is Germany´s national dish. Ah, nope. The north eats a lot of fish dishes (logic, since they have the sea right in front of their doorstep.) The south eats a lot of roasted pork and dumplings. Berlin is known for its Currywurst while the cuisine in the southwest is very much influenced by the French kitchen (again they are quite close to France).

Fashion = Dirndl and Lederhosn. If you would like to out yourself as a tourist, wear a Dirndl in Hamburg. You better not wear a Dirndl or Lederhosn outside of southern Germany – around Carnival times it is ok though. And even in Bavaria – again north and south differs here as well – not everybody has a Dirndl in their wardrobe. Coming from north Bavaria I got my first Dirndl when I moved to south Bavaria – Munich. It might be different nowadays, but back in the days running around in Dirndl was a definite no-go and considered really conservative – even strange – when you were under 65. There is by the way some great and quite famous German designers out there that you probably already know. Karl Lagerfeld, Bogner, Guido Maria Kretschmer, Wolfgang Joop to just name a few…. and you probably don´t know them for their Dirndls.

German music = oompah music. Yes – also. But again – Bavaria – in beer tents – at the Octoberfest. And even with the oompah music there are hugh differences. If you are not particularly into oompah music – try this one. LaBrassBanda. They are really cool and almost made it to the Eurovision Song Contest for Germany … but that´s another story.

Eventhough you thought you understand German you have not understood what this song is all about? Don´t worry – even as a native Bavarian (to be very specific Frankonian – which means I speak a very different language myself) I could not fully translate this song to you.

There are many more stereotypes on Germany and we will touch upon some more in later posts.

What stereotypes do you have about Germany?

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