Holstein Kiel sends FC Bayern Munich home in Second Round of German Soccer Cup- Score: 6-5

Photo by Tembela Bohle on Pexels.com

KIEL- The soccer players from the second-profi league Holstein Kiel must have watched what the American Football team Cleveland Browns did to the Pittsburgh Steelers prior to last night’s match. The Browns outplayed the AFC North and seven-time Super Bowl champion Steelers from start to finish on Sunday night in Pittsburgh by a score of 48-37, giving the team their first playoff win in 27 years. The Browns had already entered the playoffs for the first time since the 2002 season with a victory in the last game of the season a week earlier.

The Storks from Holstein Kiel had a lot of motivation with them as they hosted the 30-time German Bundesliga regular season and 20-time German Cup champions last night. Like the Browns, Kiel took advantages of several flaws that have been exposed in the Munich team during the regular soccer team and played, toe-to-toe throughout the game and in overtime. This includes poor defense and an aging team, another common ground that Munich and Pittsburgh both have.  In the end, it took a series of penalty shoot-outs and Fin Bartels (Kiel) shot into the goal guarded by Manuel Neuner (Munich) to seal the deal.

Here’s the video with some highlights:

Kiel awaits its next opponent in the third round against its second-league opponent, SV Darmstadt 98. That game is to be played on February 2^nd or 3^rd. The team has yet to win its first ever German Cup in its 118-year history. The team is currently in third place in the regular season standings in the second league and if it plays as successful there as they did against Munich, they could end up in the 1^st league for the first time since 1963 next season. The regular season in the second league is expected to end in June. 

As for Munich, despite currently sitting in first place in the regular season standings in the 1^st league, the team will have to deal with several issues within the team to ensure they can fend off Dortmund, Leverkusen, Leipzig and even Union Berlin for their 31^st regular season title. Unlike the Steelers, who are seeing some of their players consider retirement already in the infancy of the 8-month offseason and perhaps may have seen Ben Rothlisberger play for the last time in his career, Munich will have to adjust on the fly as their season ends in June, but have international competition, like the Champions League to contend with. It’s a question of how much is too much- something head coach Hansi Flick will have to answer and quickly.

But for now, people in Kiel and the rest of Schleswig-Holstein are celebrating. No more will they have to endure Munich’s jinx laden with beer, white sausage and pretzels. They are now celebrating the upset with their own delicacies- namely, Matjes filet sandwich, fried potatoes with bacon, a good bottle of Flensburger beer and some Danish licorice from Tom’s- all a cornerstone of Schleswig-Holstein’s delicious meal.

The Flensburg Files would like to congratulate both Kiel and Cleveland for their David-versus-Goliath upsets. This is definitely one for the books, especially if you are a sportsfan. 🙂

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Bundesliga Guessing Quiz: The Answers

After a season of records in 2017/18 and the decisions have been made for the teams winning the relegation playoffs (a heartfelt congrats to the teams that won successfully), let’s have a look at the answers to the quiz dealing with the history of the Bundesliga. As we know, Hamburg was the last founding team to relegate into the second league. But what about the history of the other teams. After doing your homework, let’s check our answers, shall we? 🙂

Guessing Quiz:

1. Who were the founding fathers of the Bundesliga in 1963? There were 18 of them.

Eintracht Braunschweig, Werder Bremen, Hamburger SV, Borussia Dortmund, 1. FC Köln, Meidericher SV (now MSV Duisburg), Preußen Münster, Schalke 04, 1. FC Kaiserslautern, 1. FC Saarbrücken, Eintracht Frankfurt, Karlsruher SC, 1. FC Nürnberg, 1860 Munich, VfB Stuttgart, Hertha BSC

 

2. Bayern Munich entered the top league later on and has been in the Bundesliga ever since. It now holds the title for being in the top league the longest without ever being demoted.

When did the team enter?  1965   When did the team win its first title?  1969

 

 

3. Another team entered the Bundesliga and has yet to also play in the second league after being demoted. It holds the second longest record of its kind. Which team was it and when did it enter the first league for the first time ever?

Bayer Leverkusen entered the Bundesliga in 1979 and has been there ever since. 

 

4. One of the founding fathers actually had to play in the second league only once. After four years it returned to the top league and has been there ever since. It currently holds the title as the second longest tenured team even after it had been demoted before. Which team was that and how many years has it been in the league since its last demotion?

Borussia Dortmund entered the second league in 1972 and  had played there before reentering the top league in 1976, where it has remained there ever since. 

 

5. Prior to HSV’s demotion to the second league, there were two other founding teams that had been in the top league for at least three decades before being demoted for the first time. Which teams were they and when did they get demoted for the first time?

FC Cologne and FC Kaiserslautern

 

6. Which (current) founding team in the Bundesliga has never won any titles since the league’s creation?

Hertha BSC Berlin

 

7. Which two founding members of the Bundesliga has been in the top league the shortest time (and has still yet to return)?

Preussen Münster and FC Saarbrücken

 

8. Which German cities used to host two Bundesliga teams, one of which was a founding member of the team? Which teams are they?

Munich, Hamburg and Stuttgart

 

9. Which German cities used to have two professional teams in the second league competing with each other before one of the two was promoted to the top league?

Berlin and Frankfurt

 

10. Which team would have competed with HSV as the longest tenured Bundesliga team had it not been for the one-year exile in the second league? Hint: This team has been in the second and third tiers since 2006.

FC Kaiserslautern

 

11. Which seven teams have won doubles at least once (meaning the national cup and the Bundesliga title)? Hint: Four were from the former western half and three from the eastern half of Germany.

On the western side, we have Bayern Munich, FC Cologne, Werder Bremen and Borussia Dortmund.

On the eastern side we had Dynamo Dresden, Dynamo Berlin and Hansa Rostock

 

12. Of the three in the former East German Bundesliga (which dissolved after German reunification in 1990), which of them was the longest tenured team in the Bundesliga?

Hansa Rostock: 1995- 2005

13. Of the three above-mentioned teams, which ones defeated FC Bayern Munich once before 1990 and at least once since then?

Dynamo Dresden

Fast fact: Rostock and Bayern Munich were rivalries before Rostock’s demise beginning in 2005

 

14. Since when has FC Bayern Munich finished no worse than third place? Fifth place?

Bayern Munich has finished no worse than 3rd since 2007 and no worse than 5th since 1995, when they finished 6th. The worst they have finished was 12th in 1978. 

15. The following teams had mascots. What were they?

Eintract Brunswick           Lions

MSV Duisburg                   Zebras

FC Kaiserslautern             Devils

Hertha BSC Berlin            The Iron Ladies

Eintracht Frankfurt          Eagles

Hamburg SV                      Dinosaurs

FC Cologne                        Billy Goats

 

Bonus: Holstein Kiel, whose mascot is the flying stork  has not been in the Bundesliga since 1981.

 

ONE MORE THING: 1899 Hoffenheim still holds the title as the only “small town” team that is in the Bundesliga. The community of only 4,000 people marched through the ranks and entered the league in 2007 and has been there since.  They play at a stadium near Mannheim. 

 

 

Genre of the Week: Planet Germany: Eine Expedition in die Heimat des Hawaii-Toasts

Author’s Note: This Genre of the Week has been pushed up a couple days due to important commitments. This is the first review that has been done by a guest columnist. And for a good reason….. 🙂

When we look at Germans, we look at high quality and how they strive to achieve perfection, priding on the likes of BMW, Nutella, soccer, universities and a good beer. However, when asking a German whether they are proud of their culture or how they perceive us Americans and our way of looking at things, we see and hear another story.  In this book review, Planet Germany: An Expedition into the country that is home to Hawaiian toasts (this is the English equivalent to the original title), Eric T. Hansen takes a look at the old question of German identity and how the Germans look at their own culture, from a humorous point of view. This review was done by Ann Marie Ackermann, an American expatriate living in Germany and working as a lawyer, translator and a writer. Here’s a look at the reason why a person should think about reading this book:

A case of a lost cultural identity

Can it be that the Germans really don’t know themselves? And that they need an American to hold up a mirror and show them why the rest of the world holds its arms open to the German culture?

One American who’s been living in Germany since 1983 seems to think so. Eric T. Hansen’s book, Planet Germany, dissects the German psyche. His scalpel is his rare sense of humor, and he cuts through layers of poor national self-esteem to find the ingenuity that created Hawaii toast. I say “rare” because Hansen manages to elicit laughs from both Americans and Germans. Any American expat in Germany will appreciate the book, not only for the insights into the collective mind of the German folk, but for Hansen’s satire.

The world admires the Germans, but the Germans don’t know it

It was in a shopping mall in Magdeburg, Germany that Hansen discovered Germans don’t know who they are. The author, a journalist, was writing an article about exports, and asked shoppers what German products and personalities they thought would be popular in America.

“Nothing,” said the shoppers. One German man said he couldn’t imagine Americans would be interested in anything from Germany.

Frustrated, Hansen spouted a number of possibilities. “What about Mercedes? Volkswagen? BMW? Are there any German cars that aren’t famous in America?” His list went on:  Braun, Bosch, and Siemens? Gummi bears and “Nutella”? Lowenbräu? Blaupunkt and Grundig? Claudia Schiffer and Heidi Klum? Das Boot, Lola rennt, and the Brother Grimm fairy tales? Wolfgang Petersen and Roland Emmerich? Kraftwerk, Nena, Rammstein, and the Scorpions?

But it’s not easy to impress a German. “That might be,” said the man. “But nothing else.”

Americanization of Germany or Germanization of America?

We – the American expat community in Germany – have all heard it before. At some point a German has sat down with us in a café and started complaining about how the Americans are taking over the German culture.

The first time I heard it, I was incensed. Every individual German votes with his or her wallet by selecting products. Collectively, the country has chosen the culture it has now. Why blame the Americans? But on a deeper level, does a country really lose its culture by purchasing foreign merchandise like Coca-cola, jeans, and pop music? In the United States, we eat tacos and sushi, sing French and German Christmas carols, and listen to Jamaican rhythms. But we call that enriching our culture.

Oh no, says Hansen. That’s not what the Germans really mean. “Americanization” for them really means “modernization.” Alas, the Germans are just mourning the loss of the culture they knew as children.

Hansen puts the complaint under a microscope and finds a better case for the Germanization of America. At the time he wrote his book (2007), the value of German exports to the United States was almost one third more than the other way around. That’s not bad for a country half the size of Texas.

But the Germans better watch out. There is another country that’s done a lot more to infiltrate their country: Sweden. Germans read Astrid Lindgren as children and buy clothing at H&M. They listen to Abba and buy their first furniture from Ikea. They read mysteries by Henning Mankell and watch movies with Ingrid Bergman. And if that’s enough, says Hansen, the Swedes have to go out and flood Germany with Knäckebrot.  But nobody in Germany talks about “Swedenization.”

Germans as World Champion Complainers

Hansen’s satire shines most brightly in his chapter on why Germans believe complaining is a sign of higher intelligence. It’s sort of an unofficial German IQ test. Whoever does the best job of spontaneous criticism is the smartest. A comparison of the headlines in Spiegel and Time Magazine proves this, says Hansen: The American magazine offers information, and the German one critique. Even my German grandfather noticed this tendency. “When a German and an American both buy a new house,” he used to say, “the American guests come over and talk about everything they like about the house, and the Germans come over and find everything wrong with it.”

And here Germans are the Weltmeister. Just as Arabic has more words for “camel” than any other language in the world, Hansen points out, German has more words for criticism. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, because public, grassroots criticism plays an important role in democracy. Heck, Germans even have a holiday for political criticism. Have you ever watched German television during Fasching?

To anchor the importance of complaining in the German culture, Hansen applied for a job as professor at twenty German universities. He asked the universities to establish a chair for the esthetics of complaining (Nörgeleiästhetik) and offered a curriculum. Hansen includes his application in the book, and you can find the answers of three of the universities in the appendix. And don’t tell me the Germans have no sense of humor. When I read the appendix, I always have to pull out my Taschentücher because I start crying so hard.

About the book:

Eric T. Hansen, Planet Germany (Frankfurt a.M.: Fischer Verlag, 2007); 289 pages, in German. Eric T. Hansen is a journalist living in Berlin.

Author’s Fazit:

The book did provide the author with an idea for an activity that students in both Germany and elsewhere can try at home. Click onto this interview about Germany and what to expect. Make a list and ask yourselves whether there is more to Germany than what is mentioned here, and share it with your classmates and teacher. You’ll be amazed at the various answers brought up, especially if you as the teacher is a non-native German. Good luck with that! 🙂

Note: The video was produced by Jason Smith, Marc Schueler and Dan Wogawa in 2013 and powered by GoAnimate.

About the writer and critic:

Ann Marie Ackermann was a prosecutor in the United States before relocating to Germany, where she worked for 15 years as a legal and medical translator. Ann Marie now researches and writes historical true crime. Her first book, Death of an Assassin, will appear with Kent State University Press in 2017. It tells the true story of a German assassin who fled to the United States and became the first soldier to die under the American Civil War hero Robert E. Lee. You can visit Ann Marie’s website at http://www.annmarieackermann.com.

Germany Quiz Nr. 4: The Answers to the Questions about Lower Saxony

There was a request by one of the readers asking for just some interesting facts about Germany and some of the states instead of the Q & A that has been posted to date. My response is by taking the Q & A away, it will take the art out of finding out the most interesting facts about states, like this one: Lower Saxony.   😉   Admittedly there is so much to write about that even some questions had to be left out of this Quiz on Germany. But admittedly, the questions are a challenge and for those wanting the answers to the facts about this rather populous northern German state and their people, here they are below. Please note, the highlighted names contains links with additional information for you to click on and look at:

🙂

Variety Pack Questions:

1. Eight German States and the Baltic Sea border Lower Saxony, making it the most bordered state in Germany. True of False?

False. Counting the enclavement of Bremen, Lower Saxony is bordered by NINE states (Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Pommerania, Brandenburg, Hamburg, Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, Hesse, Bremen, and North-Rhine Westphalia), plus the NORTH Sea. It also shares a border with The Netherlands to the west. Now that’s a LOT of states. 

2a. Lower Saxony was officially established after World War II in 1946 and consisted of the mergers of four former kingdoms. Name two of the four kingdoms.  Hanover, Schaumburg-Lippe, Brunswick and Oldenburg

2b. Of the four kingdoms, which one was the largest? Hanover  

Note: It was suggested that a state of Hanover was created through the British Zone, but inspite of debates and protests, all four of the former kingdoms merged to become the state and was subsequentially renamed Lower Saxony. Today the names exists but as part of the 38 districts that exist in the state.

1. Put the following cities in order based on population from largest to smallest:

Oldenburg    Brunswick (Braunschweig)   Stade    Wolfsburg    Hannover   Lüneburg   Uelzen   Emden  Osnabrück

ANS:  1. Hanover (518,386); 2. Brunswick (247,227); 3. Oldenburg (159,610); 4. Osnabrück (156,315); 5. Wolfsburg (122,457); 6. Lüneburg (73,581) 7. Emden (49,790); 8. Stade (45,317); 9. Uelzen (33,269)

1. Lower Saxony is ranked SECOND in size behind Bavaria and FOURTH in population behind Bavaria, North Rhine Westphalia and Hesse, but is the state that is the most dense population of Germany.  True or False (just the points in cursive and bold print)

Lower Saxony is ranked fourth in population behind Bavaria, NRW and BADEN-WURTTEMBERG (ans. for 1st part is false)

But the state is the most densely populated in all of Germany. (True)

1. Which rivers flow through and/or in Lower Saxony? Name three of them.

ANS: Elbe, Oker, Ems, Weser, Aller, Seeve, Aue, and others. 

1. Braunkohl is a German vegetable that is well known in Lower Saxony and can be served with a local sausage. True or false?

TRUE: Never mistake this term with Braunkohle (brown coal) that you can find in the Ruhr River region and near Zittau in the Black Triangle Region. Both this rare cabbage type and the local (curry) sausage are a tasty combination.

1. At Steinhuder Lake,located west of Osnabrück, you will find eels. True or false?

FALSE: True there is a Steinhuder Lake and the eels are easy to find (and delicious when eating them), BUT the lake is northwest of Hanover. 

1. Das Alte Land, located in the vicinity of the Elbe River north and west of Hamburg is Germany’s fruit garden. Name three fruits that grow there annually.  Apples, Pears, Cherries, Berries, and other fruits. 

Multiple Choice:  Choose the correct city to answer the questions.

1. Which city is home of one of the three automobile manufacturers in Germany. Choose the city and fill in the blank regarding the car brand. (Hint: Fahrvergnügend is still the most popular car brand in the world.)

a. Wilhelmshaven          b. Wolfsburg         c. Celle       d. Lüneburg      e. Hannover

The car brand?  If you don’t know the car brand VOLKSWAGEN, Das Auto, then there’s something seriously wrong with you. 😉 

1. Which city in Lower Saxony does not have a college or university?  How many colleges and universities does the state have?  ANS HERE: 26; six of them are in Hanover.

a. Hildesheim     b. Göttingen     c. Hannover    d. Cuxhaven     e. Emden

f. Vechta      g. Bremervörde

1. In this town (A), you can try a drink with a spoon (B), but don’t forget to say your blessings first. 😉

A:

a. Bad Zwischenahn          b. Bad Brahmburg      c. Leer        d. Norden

e. Bad Oldesloe     f. Brunswick

B:

a. Braunschweiger Mumme      b. Löffeltee      c. Ammerländer Löffeltrunk

d. Angler Muck     e. Toter Bruder

LINK: AMMERLÄNDER LÖFFELTRUNK

1. Which city in Lower Saxony is not located in the Harz Mountains? (!: There are two different answers)

a. Goslar           b. Clausthal        c. Wenigerode        d. Osterode      e. Salzgitter       f. Braunlage

1. Which city does not have a premier league sports team?

a. Buxtehude     b. Hannover      c. Brunswick      d. Emden       e. Oldenburg

1. The New York Lions in the German American Football League is actually located in which city?

a. Hannover     b. Bremen        c. Brunswick       d. Göttingen     e. Celle

1. Germany has the only true transporter bridge in left the country. It is located in Lower Saxony in which community?

a. Ostende      b. Hannover     c. Wilhelmshaven     d. Stade     e. Brunswick

LINK: TRANSPORTER BRIDGE AT OSTENDE

1. The only combination cantilever-suspension-swing bridge left in Germany (and perhaps on European soil) is located in Lower Saxony. Where exactly is this bridge?

a. Göttingen    b. Wilhelmshaven    c. Lauenburg    d. Stadland   e. Hannover         f. Wattenscheid

LINK: WILHELMSHAVEN SWING BRIDGE

1. Which town in Lower Saxony will you most likely find in the US?

a. Emden    b. Bergen     c. Hanover     d. Oldenburg    e. Berne    f. Uelzen

FACT: There are 19 towns in the US that carry the name Hanover, as well as 23 townships. The largest of them is Hanover, New Hampshire, where the state university is located. That one has 11,800 inhabitants.

Celebrities and Birth Places: Determine whether these statements are true or false. If false, correct the statements

1. Maria Furtwängler, an actress who plays Charlotte Lindholm in the Tatort-Hannover series originates from Hanover.

ANS: False. She was born in Munich and belongs to one of the most powerful dynasties that still exist in Germany today. 

1. Heiner Brand, head coach of the German National Handball Team, was born and raised in Brunswick.

ANS: False. Brand was born in Gummersbach in North Rhine Westphalia. He is the only German handball player and coach to have won the World Championship both as a player (1978) and a coach (2007). He was coach of the German National Handball Team from 1997 until his resignation in 2011, taking the team all the way to the World Cup Championship in 2007.

1. In the film the Inglorious Bastards by Quentin Tarrantino, there were no German actors/actresses.

ANS: It would not be typical of the well-cultured producer and director to not have native-born German actors/actresses in a film, whose setting was in Nazi Germany. At least 25 people, including Daniel Brühl and Til Schweiger were casted alongside Brad Pitt in this film. This included Diane Kruger, who was born in Hildesheim (near Hanover) and played Bridget von Hammersmark in the film. A well-thought film produced by a well-known name, but the answer to this question is clearly FALSE!

1. Gerhard Schröder, the successor of Chancellor Angela Merkel, was born in Mecklenburg-Pommerania but grew up in Lower Saxony.

ANS: False. He was born and raised in Lower Saxony and even started his career in politics during his university days in Göttingen, thus paving a path to chancellorship, which he ruled Germany from 1998 until his landslide defeat in early elections in 2005, into the hands of the country’s current chancellor, Angela Merkel.

1. Herbert Grönemeyer calls Göttingen home. No wonder because he was born there.

ANS: True. Yet he was born there because his mother brought him into the world through a specialist in a very unusual way (read more here). He however was raised in Bochum in North Rhine Westphalia.

1. The band The Scorpions was established in Hanover with the lead singer originating from there.

ANS: True. Klause Meine originated from Hanover. Together with Rudolf Schenker (who was born in Hildesheim), the band was founded in Hanover. It is the longest running band in Germany and second longest in the world behind the Rolling Stones, having been in business for over 50 years.

1. The Creator of English for Runaways originally came from Emden.

ANS: False. Heinz Heygen was born in Frankfurt/Main.

1.  Chris Barrie, a Hannoverer  who starred in the Tomb Raider movie, grew up in Northern Ireland.

ANS: True

1. Prince Ernst Augustus of Hanover was born in Hanover.

ANS: It is logical that the Prince, who is married to Princess Caroline of Monaco, and has his residence in Hanover, must be naturally-born Hannoverer. Hence, True. 🙂

BONUS QUESTION: Can you guess what that building in Brunswick is?

The building is the site of the Tauch Center, located across the Oker River from the campus of the Technical University. When it was built and other details is unknown, but you are free to add some information in the comment section if you wish to do that.

Germany Quiz 2: The Answers to the Questions about Hamburg

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburg#/media/File:Hamburg_montage.jpg

And now the moment you all have been waiting for: the answers to the Quiz on the German City-State of Hamburg. To access the quiz (if you have not tried it yet), click here. For those who have yet to visit the city, there are many opportunities to visit the sites, participate in many events in the fine arts sector or just enjoy the daily life as a Hamburger. The answers to the quiz should serve as a small whiff of what you should see in the hanseatic city. The Files will have some additional links to some other sites and sounds at the end of this article. Some other highlighted words in the answers also have links to their sources that will show you some more information about them, so check those out as well.

Let’s get a whiff of what you know about Hamburg, or rephrasing it, what you want to know more about the city 🙂  :

True or False?

1. Hamburg is bordered by Mecklenburg-Pommerania, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Saxony-Anhalt.

ANS: False. Hamburg only borders Lower Saxony and Schleswig Holstein. Mecklenburg-Pommerania is located only 25 km east of the city.

2. A Hamburger is a person born and raised in Hamburg.

ANS: True

3. The original sandwich Hamburger did NOT originate from the city of Hamburg

ANS: False. Despite controversy as to its origins, the original Hamburger consisted of minced steak patties, similar to Salisbury steak, on bread. For a time during World War I, the Hamburger was renamed Liberty steak. Yet the first American Hamburger was introduced in 1921 through a restaurant chain White Castle. The rest was history.

4. The official name of Hamburg is the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg

ANS:  True

5. Hamburg is the third largest city in Germany with 1.8 million inhabitants.

ANS: False. Hamburg is the second largest city behind Berlin, surpassing Munich and Cologne

6. The river passing through the city is the Elbe.

ANS: True

7. The premier soccer, handball and basketball teams are owned by Hamburger SV

ANS: False. Only HSV has a soccer and handball team in the German Premere League (Bundesliga)

8. Hamburg has the busiest train station in Europe.

ANS: False. With 450,000 people passing through the station daily, Hamburg is the busiest station in Germany BUT the second busiest in Europe behind Paris’ Gard du Nord.

9. Pauli has the largest island in Europe.

ANS: False. Wilhelmsburg is the largest island borough in Europe. St. Pauli is located northwest of there.

10. Hamburg has never hosted the Olympics.

ANS: True. If it wins the bid for the 2024 Olympics, it will be the state’s very first one.

11. Put the following bridges of Hamburg in order beginning with the oldest.

Kersten Miles Bridge (1897)         Hamburg-Harburg Bridge (1899)  Lombard Bridge (1865)

Freihafen Bridge (1917)                Kohlbrand Bridge (1974)              Feenteichbrücke (1884)

ANS: The Lombard Bridge is the oldest, followed by the Feenteich, Kersten Miles, Hamburg-Harburg, Freihafen and lastly, the Kohlbrand. 

12. The Freihafen Bridge was originally supposed to be a double-decker bridge serving what type of traffic on the upper deck?

ANS: Light rail (S-bahn) and subway (U-bahn) traffic. Unfortunately the rehabilitation in 1926, converting it into a single-level automobile traffic scrapped these plans.

13. There are more than _______ bridges in Hamburg- more than Venice, Pittsburgh and Berlin.

a. 1500           b. 2000                c. 2500                 d. 3000                e. 3500

ANS: 2,500

 

 

Odd One Out: Which of these celebrities was NOT born in Hamburg?

14. (Actors/ Actresses)   a. Udo Lindenberg    b. Til Schweiger       c. Evelyn Hamann            d. Caroline Beil

ANS: Til Schweiger. He was born in Freiburg im Breisgau. Yet he is in the Tatort Hamburg series.

15. (Writers)   a. Hans Massaquoi       b. Karen Duve    c. Wolf Biermann             d. Guido Hammesfahr

ANS: Guido Hammesfahr. He is neither a writer nor a Hamburger. He was born in Dierdorf near Neuwied in Rhineland-Palatinate. He plays Fritz Fuchs in the children’s series Löwenzahn. 

16. (Athletes)    a. Maya Lindholm       b. Richard Marx               c. John Jahr                       d. Anita Felguth

ANS: Richard Marx. He is a American songwriter from Chicago

17. (Architects)    a.  Heinrich Scheel     b. Carl Theodore Sorensen           c. Friedrich Voss      d. Charles Hartage

ANS: Friedrich Voss. The civil engineer responsible for the Hochdoon, Friedrichstadt and Rendsburg Bridges was born in Braunschweig (Brunswick) in Lower Saxony.

18. Which of these landmarks do NOT belong to Hamburg?            a. Hamburger Elbharmonie            b. Hafen City       c.Breathing Bridge      d. St. Nicholas Church      e. City Hall       f. Reeperbahn   g. All of them exist.

ANS: All of them exist

19. The suburb of Wilhelmsburg was the site of two important events in 2013. Name these two worldly renowned events.

ANS: The International Building Expo (IBA) and the German Garden Show (BUGA)

20. Most of Hamburg’s food specialties uses this important ingredient                                                                                    a. fish            b. chicken           c. pork                 d. beef                 e. shrimp

ANS: Fish

 

21. One of the specialties, the Hamburger Labskaus is an entrée that consists of ____________, ________________ and ______________.

ANS: Corned beef, potatoes, beets and onions

22. Currywurst is a specialty most commonly found in Hamburg. True, false or naja?

ANS: Naja, currywurst is a popular specialty found in Hamburg, however, one can also find it in Berlin, Hanover, Bremen and other parts of northern Germany.

 

23. The Berenberg Bank is the ___________ bank in Germany and the ____________ oldest in the world. It was founded in _______________.

ANS: The Berenberg Bank is the oldest bank in Germany and the second oldest in the world. It was founded in 1590 by Paul and Hans Berenberg.

 

24. Which of the suburbs will you NOT find in Hamburg?            a. Hafen City              b. Altona             c. Harburg           d. Wilhelmsburg               e. Hamm            f. Horn                        g. Elmshorn        h. Pinneberg       i. Lurup                j. All of them exist in HH.

ANS: Elmshorn. Albeit located near Hamburg, it is an independent city located in Schleswig-Holstein.

25. Refer to Nr. 24 and identify which of the suburbs of Hamburg will you most commonly find in the US?

ANS: Altona. With only one ‘o’ you’ll find Altona in six US states, Manitoba, Ontario (Canada), the Virgin Islands and Victoria (Australia). With two ‘Os’, Altoona can be found in seven US states, including Pennsylvania, Iowa, Florida and Wisconsin.

For more information about Hamburg, here are a series of links for you to look at and plan your trip:

The Bridges of Hamburg: http://www.hamburgsbruecken.de/

The City of Hamburg Tourism: http://www.hamburg-travel.com/

Official Hamburg website: http://english.hamburg.de/?ba=english

Hamburg Portal: http://www.hamburgportal.de/

Bayern Munich has doped it way to the top!

From the Sports Arena

4-0 for Bayern Munich! If you add the blow-out against Barcelona during last night’s first game of the Champions League semi-finals in European Soccer to the blow-out games of four or more goals in the entire season so far in the golden anniversary season of German Soccer known as the Bundesliga, in 10 games, the Bavarian Texans from the south blew away eight teams by a score of 55-6! Two of the teams were right in FC’s Visier twice, including Hanover 96, which in two games were destroyed by a total of 11-1, including a 6-1 pasting last Saturday! Hamburg was the unfortunate victim of a 9-2 demolition a few weeks ago. Even Nuremberg was not safe.  One would think that after out-competing the teams enroute to their 24th season title with six-games left in the season that it would be enough, right?

Wrong!  Add a key player, like Mario Götze who decided to leave Dortmund for Munich after this season and a scandal involving Uli Honess, the team’s president for tax evasion and smuggling money in Switzerland, and we could see something unfolding in a fashion which makes Lance Armstrong’s confession to his doping escapade look like a dwarf!  And Armstrong was a professional cyclist before being defamed for his actions, setting up the stage for many cyclists to fall after him, like a domino effect.

In the era of pursuing people evading taxes and creating tax oasis, the news involving Honess is huge, for he had been touted as the man with morals, being straight and honest. Many players made a career at FC Bayern Munich, riding their way to many international cups and German Bundesliga championships, adding them to their resumès. Götze is looking at that particular opportunity that Dortmund had had last season when the team won the season title in Germany and is the other team competing with Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals.  But the tax scandal has raised many questions of whether FC Bayern Munich has other skeletons in the closet. After all, a team that has almost always sat on top of the throne did not do it the hard way. Something is a bit fatty there.

Perhaps one should have someone like Charlotte Lindholm, the police commissioner from Hanover who is also a Hanover 96 fan check it out. After all, like the other teams in the Bundesliga and those being promoted in the elite league, like Hertha BSC Berlin in the upcoming soccer season, Hanover 96 is trying to find ways to figure out whether FC Bayern’s successes were real or flawed. If the latter is the case, then even though it will not create defame in a degree similar to Penn State University’s college football program because of the child molestation scandal that was revealed in 2011, Lindholm’s first and foremost character will be Honess. Even if he was to resign to save FC Bayern’s face, both he and the team are not safe from the potential backlash that could come out of this scandal, one of possibly many that may come from the deep south of Germany.

Flensburg Files Fast Facts:

1. Commissioner Lindholm is from the German TV Krimi Series Tatort, which provides viewers on Sunday night with a new case from one of over 20 different cities, each of which has two detectives on the case. Lindholm is played by Maria Fürtwangler, who ironically originates from Munich.

2. FC Bayern Munich set the season record for winning the German soccer regular season title in the earliest fashion possible- with six games left in the season- two weeks ago. The team is on course to win the Triple Crown, which includes the Champions League Title and the German Cup (DFB Pokal). The Files will keep you posted on whether they will achieve this- also a record in itself.

3. Yet Uli Honess is feeling the pressure of stepping down as President. Both German Chancellor Angela Merkel as well as the majority of the German population (63% in one poll) would like to see him resign and face tax evasion charges. Whether this will happen remains open at this time. However, speculation may exist that the soccer team may have some other flaws that have been stuffed away for some time but will eventually be made open to the public. More on the tex scandal here.

4. For those who did not know: Penn State Nittany Lions football was sanctioned after reports of a sex abuse scandal forced Joe Paterno to step down in November 2011. He died the following January. Jerry Sandusky, Paterno’s assistant football coach pleaded guilty to sexual abuse and was sentenced to life in prison in October 2012. Three other men involved are awaiting trial for covering up the scandal. The football team was forced to vacate all its wins between 1998 and 2011, plus its football titles and recruitment scholars and is facing a four-year ban from post-season competition, known as the Bowl Games. This was the worst scandal in sports history as of present…..

Flensburg Files Haliburton Guessing Quiz:

In connection with an upcoming article on Munich, how many towns in the United States carry the name Munich? And where are they located? I know one for sure and it will be the focus of an article on German-named villages in the US. Stay tuned! 🙂

Kiel finishes perfect season in……

HANDBALL!!! Each professional sport has its celebrity teams, no matter where you go. In the US, we have the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers in American Football, while in basketball, we have  the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Boston Celtics, just to name a few. In Germany, we take pride in our household and globalized sport, soccer. There we have the likes of Bayern Munich, 1899 Hoffenheim, Mainz and Frankfurt. But we also have another sport that has been gaining popularity in the last decade and has recently made news because of a feat that is unthinkable, but was accomplished. That sport is handball, and the team that has made headlines recently was one located in the far northern part of Germany is Kiel. A capital of Schleswig-Holstein and located one hour by train southeast of Flensburg, Kiel is famous for its city center and Horn harbor, where ships from Scandanavia and the UK come to dock. The city is also famous for its handball team, the THW Kiel Zebras. Established in 1904, the team had won 17 German Handball Premere League Titles, seven German Cup championships, and two Champions League titles (2007 and 2010). Apart from its northern rival, the SG Flensburg-Handewitt, it also has rivals in the Berlin Foxes and the SV Hamburg team.

This year, the Zebras wrote the history books in handball. The team went undefeated in regular season play, winning its 18th German Premere League Championship, finishing well ahead of second place Flensburg-Handewitt and third place Berlin. That was completed with its final game against Gummersbach, winning the match 39-29 to win its 34th game on 2 June.  This followed its eighth German Cup Championship a month earlier on 5 May, narrowly defeating Flensburg-Handewitt 33-31 in a hard fought match that ended in a complete 3-game sweep of its northern rival.  And finally, at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne on 27 May, Kiel defeated Athletico Madrid (Spain) 26-21 to win its third Champions League Title.  No other handball team has ever won the triple crown up until THW Kiel’s accomplishment of the impossible. However, the Zebras join other teams in German and European sports in the ranks of the Triple Crown winners. For instance in soccer, both FC Bayern Munich (men) and FFC Frankfurt (women) have won the triple three times on three separate occasions, but the Glasgow Rangers in Scottish soccer has won the Triple in men’s soccer seven times, the last time it happened being in 2003. More interesting is the fact that Kiel’s feat surpasses even the failed attempts of any German basketball team to win the Triple. Maccabi Tel Aviv has won the Triple five times, the last time being in 2005.

This leads to the question of what the triple crown is. If a team wins a triple, like Kiel has done this past season, then it means that the team won the regular season championship, the national cup and one championship on an international level. This is only applicable in sports that receive international recognition, which are soccer, basketball (in Europe), volleyball, ice hockey (in Europe) and now handball. It does not apply to any American sports, although it did host the internationally popular Lewis Cup in professional soccer from 1925 until its last championship in 1963. There, Fall River Marksman (Massachusetts)  and Brookhattan (New York) won Triples consisting of the Lewis Cup, the National Cup and the American Soccer League Championship in 1930 and 1945, respectively.

With Kiel entering uncharted territory, the next task is to go for a repeat of the Triple, which is next to impossible to do. Teams that have fallen to the Zebras in all three competitive championships are gearing up to take revenge on the team, including its northern rival from Flensburg, which might give the team its first defeat since SC Magdeburg defeated them on 4 May 2011, 30-24. But nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how Kiel will defend all three titles and make history even further, perhaps even eclipsing the soccer teams of Bayern Munich and FFC Frankfurt.

 

The Flensburg Files would like to congratulate the two Schleswig-Holstein handball profis on their successful 2012 run- SG Flensburg-Handewitt for its second place finish and most importantly, THW Kiel for its perfect season. Since both have qualified for the Champions League in the coming season, we would like to wish them best of luck in the international competition and all the best in the next season.

For those wanting to know more about handball, here is a simple guide to the game, which you can click on.

 

Fined for saying too little; fired for saying too much

I’m a big sports fan on both sides of the pond. Over here in Germany, I usually cheer for the local teams, like the soccer team Rot-Weiss Erfurt or Carl-Zeiss Jena, teams that can take down perrenial powerhouses, like the handball teams Flensburg-Handewitt and Kiel or the basketball teams in Bayreuth and Bamberg, and any team that can cut the Bundesliga soccer conquerers FC Bayern Munich down to size, like Mainz 05ers and 1899 Hoffenheim. In the US, apart from being a convert Pittsburgh Steelers fan, I usually rute for the teams originating from my homestate of Minnesota. That means, I cheer for the women’s basketball problem children of the WNBA the Minnesota Lynx, the rugrats of the men’s basketball team the Minnesota Timberwolves, the athletically enriched baseball team the Minnesota Twins, the college powerhouse to be types, the Minnesota Gophers, and lastly the (un-)professional football team, the Minnesota Vikings.

I now have one less team to cheer for as of last night- the unprofessional team, the Minnesota Vikings. Picked as contenders to win the Super Bowl, the team is completely in turmoil after losing to New England 28-18, falling to 2-5 with nine games left in the season, and a hometown favorite and high octane caliber player booted off the team just because he criticized the head coach’s play. That act is just the tip of the ice berg when it comes to unprofessionalism. Now the head coach is in the hot seat for not telling the owner about it earlier, and the players are poised to embarass him next Sunday by letting themselves get embarassed by the lowly Arizona Cardinals, in an attempt to have the now heavily disfavored coach sacked from his post. Not surprising if you see how he and another star player-the quarterback- are not getting along at all. Who are the people I’m mentioned here?  Randy Moss, who was given the shaft and Brad Childress, who dumped him right after the game.  Normally, I keep sports out of my column but this one was too irresistible to comment as I want to look at why Randy Moss, one of the best athletes to play the game got the shaft.

We all know that he was a very charasmatic and voicestrous player who lit up the Metrodome in Minneapolis for his high-flying performance and his antics that excited many fans and angered many. He was raw with regard to his conduct off the field when he was with the Vikings but matured when he went first to Oakland and then to New England. How he ended up back to Minnesota, where his career started still remains a mystery to many. Perhaps it was because of his outburst over Tom Brady’s hairdo, which Moss claimed he looked like a girl. Perhaps it was because of a need of a new environment or the need to return to where he started his career and his fans. Or perhaps he was part of Bill Belichick’s little scheme to obtain some valuable info on the opponent in order for the Patriots to win.  None of these theories made sense, nor did it make sense to boot Randy off the team where he started his career- the Minnesota Vikings- just because he was “lacking in performance” in the latter half of his one month stint, or lashed out at the food that was served to him the Friday before the last game as a Viking, or praised his former team for its performance. In either case, he was silent as a Viking, not taking any questions from the media and getting fined for it. And when he did speak, it costed him his job as a wide receiver, the one who broke record after record during his first seven year stint with Minnesota.  So what is up with the guy?  Why is he insociable, which was definitely not his style- at least not the style that he stood for during his first seven years in Minnesota?

We all know that he is getting up there with age. Not surprising that at the age of 33 he is in the twilight of his career and is  thinking that perhaps enough is enough in terms of his career. But as one can see with Brett Favre’s playing abilities at the age of 41, anything is possible if you make it happen. There is no way the Moss will hem and haw over his career like his former colleague quarterback did, which irritated Green Bay and the New York Jets respectively. If Moss was to go, he would go out with a bang, a Super Bowl ring, and an on-and-off -the- field record that is 2 kilometers long, but he would disappear from the limelight forever, never to be heard of again except in the record books.

Perhaps it is because he is missing that Super Bowl ring and he felt it would be beneficial to rejoin his former team to help Favre and his teammates get that ring, which would also coincide with the team’s 50th anniversary. Not surprising that the last Viking that accomplished that act with the same purpose was quarterback Fran Tarketon, who played for the Vikings from its inaugural season 1961 until he was traded to the New York Giants in 1966 and again from 1972 until his retirement in 1978.  Both players went to the Super Bowl- Tarketon three times in the 70s with the Vikings, Moss in 2008 with the Patriots. Both were defiant of the coach’s orders and tested their agility to their limits. However, both came up empty-handed with no Super Bowl rings. The difference between the two is the fact that Moss did have a chance to get the Vikings and himself that missing trophy. Now, he is no longer a Viking because of differences between him and Childress that made the two incompatible when it comes to communicating with each other and with the team. And this although he still has some years in him, or does he?

Perhaps he is at the crossroads now, trying to decide which path to take with his life, even if it means sacrificing his career as a football player. Finding something in life that a person enjoys does take a lot of time and painstaking effort to accomplish. But it is doable. If one feels that a career he has is not very awarding, then he looks around for something that does make him feel much more at home.  With the current trend he’s in, it would not be surprising that Randy Moss is at the crossroads and will do what I just mentioned above…. walk away and disappear, never to be seen again. In either case he cannot be a football player forever, and if he is tired of the press, perhaps there is another avenue to take where he can be himself and not take the heat from the media, let alone from the football league NFL for not taking on any interviews.

In either case, we will never know what led Randy Moss to come to Minnesota and stay for only a month, before Brad Childress gave him the boot, which leads to the last theory of him getting along more with his former coach Belichick than with Chilly, who is currently in hot water with owner Ziggy Wilf for doing that. We do know that he does have his fans and friends in Minnesota, who still support him despite all that is happening right now with the Vikings football team. We just don’t like the way the team is functioning as one big unit, which we can understand his dissatisfaction from start to finish. We just need to know why he was untypical during this last stint with the Vikings and what happened in this already weird and wild year in the NFL. Perhaps when he is ready for an interview from someone who is curious about it but not for the sake of money and fame, he will spill the beans. But time will tell when he will go unplugged and tell the truth. In the meantime, we can only wish him the best in whatever he wants to do in his life.

That’s a wrap from the Files. Until next time, folks.