So Done. My MIind. My Brain is Slithering Out My Ear

                This is being written in the aftermath of an 11 page research paper.

                All hope of survival has been lost.

                And sanity is no longer in the equation.

                Tonight. WE RIDE.

 

                So after that little loss of brain cells…Welcome to the German Culture final. Tonight we’ll be focusing on something I happened to stumble upon on Tumblr (which is legitimately the best website ever. EVER.) Naturally since Tumblr is only a blogging site I had to go a look for the source (Here you go: http://news.yahoo.com/german-police-used-only-85-bullets-against-people-155155175.html  ) Pretty legit. To summarize, German police only used 85 bullets against people this year and only 6 people ended up dead in the end. That was then followed by the story of the U.S. cops who shot 90 bullets at one unarmed murder suspect. Really guys? Really? Moral of the story: Likely to do with gun control.

 A few nights ago I spent 15 minutes explaining to my parents what the RAF was and what they did. It’s nice to know you can take things learned in class and use them in real life. Especially now with the type of world we live in and the fact that they were basically the first modern day terrorist group. Even though there’ve been like four posts (or what feels like four posts) on the RAF, the evolution of their group through the different time periods is fascinating as it get s more radical and violent towards civilians as it goes.

However, unlike the people who keep killing here, they did it to make a point and create change. Mass killings here are done by people who find that killing others is the easiest way to get their names into people’s households. American’s have an almost sickening obsession with becoming famous and coupled with a terrible mental health system and easy access to guns. We’re sorta asking for it.

Which leads into something I sorta wish we’d gone through in class. How the healthcare system works and what they do for people with mental illnesses because the only thing to go off of really is what we saw in Berlin Calling and that had more to do with addiction than anything.

While looking into the story on the police, the comments the people made on the article became the most fascinating part. Some people were saying that because Germany has laxer restrictions on drugs, it is less necessary for them to take out the dealers in the fashion that the American’s do. Another said due to the fact that America’s population is 4 times larger than that of Germany’s it’s somewhat expected. Then there was a whole bunch of really not politically correct jokes that naturally would show up where they’re not wanted.

Someone then dropped in to talk about how the German police force was trained. They’re better at hand to hand and riot control and apparently very good with a night stick. If you’re good with that and the subject is unarmed, it’s unnecessary to shoot. Here it seems as if that’s the only thing the cops know how to do. If you can’t make them go quietly, pull a gun on them and hope they understand it’s a real threat because they don’t know who has weapons on them and who doesn’t.

I’m honestly running out of things to talk about and I have a good 300 words to go. Usually I’m so good at this. Dragging things out until they’re just ridiculous. 800 words isn’t even that much. MY MIND IS EXPLODING. MAKE IT STOP.

Ah-Ha! We should have gone over some recent German pop culture. I mean really. Who’s famous there that we don’t know about here, who’s big there besides Hasslehoff. Though I guess we kinda did but not really. There were some people mentioned during the states presentations but didn’t really get to learn a whole lot about it. Pop culture is necessary to a thriving society. Seriously. Pop culture is whatever people are talking about. Shakespeare would have been pop culture at one point. What are German’s talking about right now?

Also a quick dive into the learning of foreign languages there. Here we sit down and we have a class on it and that’s all we learn. There (and I was talking to a girl who actually lives in Germany) they have English integrated into other subjects so it’s like learning the language in real time which is awesome and for the most part would probably be easier. Wouldn’t you think?

I really enjoyed this class for all I got behind on my posts (whoops) and I’ve already been able to take the stuff I learned from it and share it with other people. Yay German Culture! Yaaaaaay.

Everything Makes Sense Now

German's certainly do like their breads, to the point where expats are most likely to complain about the lack of bread where they relocated than anything else. Which isn't surprising seeing as the German's actually have a veritable natural rainbow of bread colors ranging from the black (technically dark brown, but no one follows technicalities anymore) Schwarzbrot to the average white bread that we know and love here and every shade of brown and gray in between.

Let's take a moment to check in on Rye.

"Hello, Rye. Tell me, what's your story?"

"Well, funny story really, no body used to take me seriously because they said I tasted terrible and had to be mixed with other grains to make my existance as a food tolerable. Now I laugh because I'm one of the most popular grains in Northern and Eastern Europe because I'm damn good with the cold and snow doesn't kill me like the overrated wheat that's grown everywhere else. Also, I grow so fast that weeds can barely take root. I'm just that awesome I guess."

"How many different types of breads are you in?"

"Well, I'm commonly used in pumpernikel and crisp breads as well as Weizenmischbrot, Mehrkornbrot, Roggenbrot, Sonnenblumenkernbrot, Kürbiskernbrot,  and Zwiebelbrot. As you can tell, people actually love me."

"Well as a bread lover myself I can honestly say that I don't love you."

And that concludes our interview with Rye.
And this post.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rye
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_cuisine#Desserts

I ACTUALLY DID THIS ON TIME.

 The first generation of the RAF was relatively careful with what they did and I believe they were relatively certain they’d lose people along the way. Their very first attacks were robbing banks and only taking the money from the very rich and then the ever present ‘escalation’ appeared. They started growing out and attacking American military bases in Germany. Things then started going awry after the attack on The Springer (or whatever that newspaper thing was called). In that case they had called the company to tell them there was a bomb but the company didn’t do anything and therefore innocent civilians were killed.

At the beginning of the movie the RAF seemed to be doing justified activity against the government because things needed to change and peaceful protests weren’t working.  As the RAF grew further and further away from the first generation they seemed to grow further and further from their original cause and much less approachable because things were starting to change and their cause seemed less viable.

He acted like the ultimate teenage rebel and as if he’d never grown up honestly. This was good from the group perspective, he was there to give them a vision and the attitude the group needed to succeed even though it alienated Ulrike, especially towards the end. It was bad when dealing with people in positions of power who do not treat kindly to those with that kind of attitude.

That Moment When You Recognize Someone But It Ends Up That They Just Look Exactly Like An Actor.

The first thing I’d like to comment on is David Brühl. Why? Because he’s a fantastic actor and there’s a whole little crack in the Tumblr wall dedicated to him. He’s also going to be in a movie with the British actor Benedict Cumberbatch somewhere within the next couple of years. Also, he knows how to speak like five different languages proficiently which is a lot a lot.

Also worthy of mention is Burghart Klaussner, he is also a good actor. I was just wondering if this genre of movies does as the BBC does and constantly reuses the same actors over and over? No? Must just be me then…

Well, it’s not letting me watch the second half of Goodbye Lenin, which is really, really depressing because I liked that one much more than The Edukators. Goodbye Lenin had a much better style of storytelling and honestly learned a lot about the reunification of East and West Germany. The Edukators on the other hand, whilst telling a different story, still had no excuse for moving so slow that it felt like a week’s worth of movie watching.

In both movies however, the same theme remains; the same theme in Baader-Meinhof, and Berlin Calling. The theme of escalation. In The Edukators it is when they end up kidnapping the man instead of just doing the rearrangement of furniture and in Goodbye Lenin it is Alex getting so caught up in lying to his mother that it becomes easier to unravel it.

Take a moment to also compare and contrast the two characters that Daniel Brühl plays. Alex, a much more innocent character trying to do his best to make up for giving his mother the heart attack that put her in a coma and Jan, the relatively stoic activist who breaks into people’s houses but doesn’t steal anything in the hopes that they’ll become completely paranoid about their money. In both movies money does play a big part. Remembering in Goodbye Lenin when East Germany was crossing over to the DM from the currency they were using before and Alex’s mother couldn’t remember where she’d stashed her savings and both the kids look disappointed. Money in The Edukators is slightly self-explanatory. Jan, Peter, and Jule are basically broke and are fighting for better working conditions and pay for people in Asia, so they go into rich people’s villas and rearrange everything until they end up kidnapping one.

Concerning The General Public

One cannot incite social change through violence. Its only result is fear.

When people fear each other and themselves, the general population no longer longs for revolution, but for the safety that a secure government provides.

In the case of Baader-Meinhof, it started out as a protest gone very seriously wrong. The Persian Shah hired his own people and they attacked when the student protesters (protesting for equal rights in the Middle East). The police didn’t do anything. That’s what ultimately pissed people off. And when they did do something, they attacked the protestors not the first acting aggressors. This caused the general public to start fearing the government, believing it was a police state rather than the government it was supposed to be. This prompted rebellion and it escalated quickly. It died off a little and then the RAF reemerged in full force. And people were happy with it. They liked that they were doing something. And then they started getting violent. Really, really violent. And the RAF lost the support of the public because the public began to become afraid of them. They didn’t know where the bombs were, didn’t know who was going to die next. And they welcomed it when the government cracked down on them, they were okay with being man-handled to find the RAF members.

Because they were afraid.

Afraid that maybe next time they would be in the wrong spot at the wrong time.

Afraid that their family members could be next.

The general public does not handle fear well.

Finally Berlin Calls

Drugs are ultimately Ickarus’ bridge from reality into a world where nothing matters. He’s so sick of not being at the rest of the world’s standards whether it be music or with his family that he desperately wants to escape it. There is also the fact that most of his fans do the same thing for basically the same reason, rebelling against the force that had restrained them. It also does not help that they feel as if they have no other way to control their own futures. The drugs they take are generally hardcore and/or hallucinogenic to make them feel as if they have truly escaped the world, with the addition of when they take them (generally listening to music (techno, rave, or trance)) adds to feelings they get. From the movie you can see that there and here have almost the same standards (with them likely being more lax on the restrictions). We both have a section of young adults who have generally ceased to care and have begun to do what they want. Then there’s the portion who do what the others are doing but only on their off time so it does not affect their work. In the case of Ickarus’ work ethic, he’s good at what he does, but until he went to rehab it wasn’t as exceptional as it was after he was clean. Alice was also good at what she does; however most people who do what Ickarus did do not get second chances. I also don’t think she was German…either that or she had an impeccable English accent. And industrial nation though, is dependent on its youth. With an aging workforce that’ll eventually get too old to work and thus the opening of jobs that require focus and discipline. The youth at the moment will not be able to step into their shoes and fill the rolls. As for cult movies, I don’t really know of any as it’s not really my area of movie watching.

 

 

I really enjoyed the film. Engaging storyline, good acting, and excellent music. I particularly liked the doctor and Ickarus (though he got really frustrating at points). Of course the film was different from American films, it’s supposed to be. As high tech as Hollywood is all the good actors come from Europe as they tend to put more stock in art forms than Americans (most of whom seem to only be in it for the triviality of fame and money, not all, but a good portion). Also, because American culture has a stick up its ass, it ruins a lot of things that could become excellent plots. This movie in the U.S. would have been at the very least rated R if not higher due to the sheer amount of hardcore drugs and nudity. Hell, they put a warning if someone is smoking at any given time. This creates curiosity in the children the parents are being so overly protective of and makes them want to go out and see what they’re missing. In class we’ve talked about how nudity isn’t that big of a deal in Germany and most of the rest of Europe but lo’ and behold if someone is missing an article of clothing in America-There is a comic, made by a Danish woman, that portrays America’s allowance and lack of sensitivity to violence and its over-sensitivity to  nudity.

Here is the link: http://satwcomic.com/anything-but-that

Though it is not in the form of film, but a videogame, it still proves the point.

1-2-3 1-2-3 Waltzing With a Hyperlink Trying To Destroy the World

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1emAa5TPzx2gI-D2XwgHW-ciyj09mO_2K_HBbUjOz3jg/present?pli=1&ueb=true#slide=id.p

The Innocence of Winging It

Talking points about the movie and the novel "All Quiet on the Western Front".

1. If you're going to include everything from the novel into the movie, why can't it happen in the order it was written? The dynamic of something chagnes everytime that happens even if it still portrays the same emotions as before.

2. Paul still believes in the innocence of youth deep down inside, if he didn't he wouldn't have lasted as long as he did. Even though most of war is luck, it still has a lot to do with mindset. The newbies in the trenches were likely to go crazy faster because they hadn't had time to adapt like the men who had been there longer. All about presence of mind.

3. The movie was banned from many countries (Italy (1956), Australia (1941), France (1963), and Austria (1980)) and almost banned in the U.S.because it was branded as "anti-military propaganda" and because it had a "sympathetic treatment of Germans".* And many versions of the movie were censored or cut to fit specific countries views. **

4. The director of the movie, while he was filming, actually put out a call for German WW1 army veterans to authenticate uniforms and equipment. Many were cast as officers in the movie and had them drill extras in the movie. **

5. A comical end note: Even though it is his death scene there was a large goof in production. Paul reaches for the butterfly with his left hand but in the close up it shows his right. The hand however, is not even Paul's actor to begin with. It is actually the director's. **








http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article.html?isPreview=&id=355269%7C357370&name=All-Quiet-On-the-Western-Front *

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020629/ **

Paul Baumer...My God That's One Letter Away From Bauman...

Paul Baumer is the narrator of the book, All Quiet On The Western Front. The book is narrated in 1st person and set up to be like a diary of Paul’s experiences during war.

When we start the story, he is a 19-year-old boy just graduated from high school with a mother, father, and older sister. Due to intense pressure from society (namely one of his school teachers), Paul enlists in the German army along with 27 of his other classmates. Paul begins the story with several friends, still a little green around the gills and optimistic about life. Most of the book is filled with Paul’s philosophical thinking, reflecting on the war and what it has done to him and the other men in his platoon. He talks about not only the physical limits he is pushed to, but also the psychological limits he experiences. Paul struggles with trying to keep his sanity while battling in a war he is losing, as well as dealing with the brutal situations which come with trench warfare.

"Just as we turn into animals when we go up to the line . . . so we turn into wags and loafers
when we are resting. . . . We want to live at any price; so we cannot burden ourselves with
feelings which, though they may be ornamental enough in peacetime, would be out of place
here.” (Chapter 7, All Quiet on the Western Front)

Paul speaks of how the war turned him into an animal during battle, because he could only rely
on his most basic instincts, or else he would surely die.

Paul Baumer is a kind and gentle young man, but because of the war and the pain it
induces, Paul learns how to disconnect his mind from his heart. By doing this, Paul becomes
unable to feel the heartache of his comrades’ deaths, as well as the ability to conjure the idea of
a future without war. The most disheartening thing that Paul loses because of the war was his
capacity to feel at home among his family and town that he once loved so much.



Mackenzie Branch
James Kreiman
Amanda Goedeke
Jake Mueller

All Quiet on the Western Front...Last Couple Pages...Does It Really Count As A Chapter?

By Chapter Twelve of All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Baumer is disillusioned with his role in life and the role of his life as it used to be. All his adult life he has been entrenched in a war that has basically consumed everything about the world as he knew it and destroyed his perception of what everyone else would see as a normal and functioning society. As seen in the chapter where he visits home, Paul actually misses the battlefield when he is gone. He can no longer function under the normal pressures of society as his body has gotten used to being in high pressure situations all the time.

“Everyone talks of peace and armistice. All wait. If it again proves an illusion, then they will break up; hope is high, it cannot be taken away again without upheaval. If there is not peace, then there will be revolution.” (Chapter 12, All Quiet on the Western Front)

            And even though he’d miss the battlefield, it has grown old. Watching people die and living in constant fear that he could be the next to go.

“It cannot be that it has gone, the yearning that made our blood unquiet, the unknown, the perplexing, the oncoming things, the thousand faces of the future, the melodies from dreams and from books, the whispers and divinations of women; it cannot be that this has vanished in bombardment, in despair, in brothels.” (Chapter 12, All Quiet on the Western Front)

            It is possible though, that he still believes in the innocence of youth. That even though his classmates and other soldiers his age and younger have had to live and die on the battlefield, they still contain traces of the young men that they were. Hope for the future and hope of a future love still being held close to their hearts.

“There are not many of the old hands left. I am the last of the seven fellows from our class.” (Chapter 12, All Quiet on the Western Front)

            He is the last surviving character that was introduced at the beginning of the novel, which makes sense he being the narrator and all. Of course that all changes on the backside of the last page when we learn he died on the quietest day of the year in what is possibly the least descript death of a main character ever. What killed him? A sniper? Too much gas inhalation? A ninja? Maybe even a bee sting? It is unlikely however, that it was as is shown in the movie. There were no birds or drawings involved.

Amanda Goedeke
Mackenzie Branch
James Kreiman
Jake Mueller

 

German Political Party?

SPD Powerpoint!

 

 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1igAFBeu2S4hYtyugOA9J9WwstRHz3OybNAXFBhe1Oz0/present#slide=id.p

What is the German equivalent of a Ninja?
Do they even have an equivalent?

A Political Blogging Adventure

The SPD in Germany is going to be 150 years old in 2013 (aka their next federal elections). That will make it the oldest political party in Germany. If you think about it, America is only just over 200 years old as a nation. That means they’ve been around nearly as long as we have and they’re still not entirely sure what they’re doing. Then again, neither do we. Somehow, in our big powerful nation we’ve been pin headed into two major parties whilst the rest waddle around like beheaded chickens and try to make noise. Germany on the other hand has, lets see…at least FIVE that make noise on a regular basis. That makes much more sense than having TWO and they have a much smaller (geographically and population wise) country than we do. Just makes one wonder if they have as many issues with political party disagreements among the populace as we do. And just imagine what a family dinner could become like if they are anything like us. KABOOM. I had a cousin who just got back from visiting Germany a couple weeks ago and asked him what he gathered of the politics there.

“By pragmatic, I mean that they are forced to compromise with other parties since, normally, multiple parties have to get together to form a government. From what I understand, voters are more forgiving of deviations from party platform since they understand that compromise is a necessary effect of having to share power.”-Jared Bauman (what’s the nice thing about smart cousins? The fact that they’re smart and you can ask them questions and they know how to explain things)

Of course, my group specifically was taking a look at the SPD, so how does that apply to them? Well…They hit some bumps in the road as of late what with their candidate being voted in as Chancellor and then going back on the party’s word and cutting welfare (which the people object to; both the cutting of welfare and the going back on one’s word), but who doesn’t make mistakes? Apparently, cutting welfare is not a popular decision for any party platform…There next plans include creating a minimum wage, shutting down nuclear reactors and favoring a Eurozone fix (which I bet most Germans do seeing as it was one of the only countries who benefited from the change to Euro). Well, good luck guys…I hope your new head man does you good.

 

Sources:

Jared Bauman

http://www.eurointelligence.com/eurointelligence-news/archive/single-view/article/spd-in-favour-of-eurozone-bonds-as-crisis-worsens-ahead-of-summit.html

http://www.economist.com/node/14921351

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xsr1xa_ending-european-solidarity-the-spd-s-dilemma_news

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/where-do-they-stand-a-quick-guide-to-germany-s-political-parties-a-651388.html

A German Blogging Adventure...In Lower Saxony

http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/de-ni.html

 

Lower Saxony is located in the Northwestern part of Germany.

Its landscape mainly consists of the North German Plain. There’s also a small amount of highland in the south and heath, bog land with some forest thrown in there in the north and a small 12 island, island chain called the East Frisian Islands to the northwest floating in the North Sea. 325 miles of coastline are below sea level protected by dikes similar to ones in the neighboring Netherlands.

http://www.german-cities.com/lower-saxony-germany.html

                Lower Saxony’s biggest river is the Weser who runs through most of the lower half of the state and whose tributaries (the Fulda and the Werra) all flow into the North Sea. The fertile marshes that come at the mouth of these rivers creates a wonderful pasture land that supports the flourishing farming economy in the region. The northeastern area of the state is less fertile as it is mainly the Lüneburg Heath. The south central part contains two large lakes; Steinhuder and Dümmer, as well as the Weser, Deister, and Herz mountains.

                The climate in this area is mild winters, moderately warm summers, and steady year round rainfall.

Population 

The population of Lower Saxony is a little under 8 million people and it has an area of 47,609 square km. The south central belt holds the highest amount of the population while the northlands population is much sparser in comparison. The people Lower Saxony generally  consider themselves as Low German, an ancient Saxon line of origin and the use of Plattdeutsch (a mix of Dutch, Frisian, and English, very distinct from the more common High German. Some literature in the area is still printed in Plattdeutsch). Four-fifths of the state is Protestant with a Roman Catholic minority.

Age structure

• 0–14 years: 13.9% (male 5,894,724/female 5,590,373)
• 15–64 years: 66.3% (male 27,811,357/female 26,790,222)
• 65 years and over: 19.8% (male 6,771,972/female 9,542,348) (2007 est.)
• 0–14 years: 13.7% (male 5,768,366/female 5,470,516)
• 15–64 years: 66.1% (male 27,707,761/female 26,676,759)
• 65 years and over: 20.3% (male 7,004,805/female 9,701,551) (2010 est.)



http://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/153163177v7982197-little-boy-blowing-dandelion-clocks-hohnstorf-lower

Sex ratio

• At birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
• Under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
• 15–64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
• 65 years and over: 0.72 male(s)/female
• Total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2010 est.)

Economy 

 Agriculture is a big part of the economy in Lower Saxony. They grow wheat, potatoes, rye, and oats, the also raise beef, pork and poultry in this region. Mining has also been an important source of income for Lower Saxony. The most things mined now is iron and lignite but silver ore was a big part in the past. Lower Saxony is also an important supplier of crude oil in Europe. 

Manufacturing is also a large part to the economy with Hannover and Braunschweig being the main base of diversified industries. The biggest Lower Saxony manufacturer is Volkswagen having five production plants throughout the state. Chemicals, rubber goods, dyes and inks, radios, and other electronic equipment are also produced in this area.

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

 Lower Saxony exports mainly with the United States. In 2008 they exported 5,297,000,000 Euros worth of products to the United States.  Mainly do to the fact of the five Volkswagen plants.

A helpful thing to any good economy is having good transportation. Hannover is the most important road and railway junction in Northwestern Germany and also has the main airport for the state.. There is also a line of waterways that have greatly increased movement in the area helped along by the rivers in the area.

http://www.dredgingtoday.com/2012/04/05/germany-state-of-lower-saxony-assents-to-adjustment-of-elbe-navigation-channel/

 

Cities*

http://www.theodora.com/wfb/photos/germany/germany_photos_89.html

• Hanover (German: Hannover) — state capital
• Brunswick — the Lion City and centre of scientific research
• Cuxhaven — a popular seaside resort
• Goslar — beautiful mediaeval town and base for the Harz mountains
• Göttingen — ancient university town
• Hildesheim — wonderfully reconstructed old town around the market square
• Lüneburg — charming historic town and gateway to the Lüneburg Heath
• Oldenburg — cultural hub of the Oldenburg region with a beautiful castle park
• Schoeningen (German: "Schöningen") - mankind's oldest weapons ever found on earth over 320,000 years old

A Brief History

Lower Saxony was created by the British military government merger with the Prussian state of Hanover and the State joined the Federal Republic with a new constitution on June 1^st 1993.      Before 1871 Lower Saxony was comprised of people from the Saxony tribe mainland in the early 1500’s Saxony was known as the “lower Saxony circle” which survived for several centuries as a “sub-principality” of the “Brunswick and Luneburg”.  It was mainly a medieval town. Before 1918 Lower Saxony was still a part of this until 1919 when Brunswick became a free state. From this time till 1948 parts Lower Saxony belonged to the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau. Up to this point most of Lower Saxony had been put together with the “Constituency Associatio n of Lower Saxony" done in 1920. So with the addition of a few more cities in 1947 Lower Saxony as it is known today was formed.

Culture



http://www.niedersachsen-tourism.com/on-tour-in-helmstedt-1

Theater
                There are three state theaters, one in Hannover, one in Brunswick, and one in Oldenburg. There are also two state playhouses as well as numerous independent theaters all over the place. Many of the smaller theaters really like their Low German.

"The programs of these theatres and playhouses are enriched by a number of outstanding seasonal events - Lower Saxony's dance and theatre festivals. Among the most important of these are the Oldenburg Ballet Festival (annual), the Gandersheim Cathedral Festival (annual), the Tanztheater International (International Dance Theatre) (held annually), Arena (held biennially, 2011), the festival Theaterformen (Forms of Theatre) which takes place in alternate years in Hannover und Brunswick, the Hildesheim Transeuropa Festival (held triennially,2012) and the Oldenburg Prisma Festival (biennially, 2011)."**

Heritage

                A variety of churches, manors, gardens, and castles testify to the rich cultural history and how the people of the past lived. There are 44,000 historical monuments that comprise of 82,000 structures.
"Including Cathedral and St Michaelis in Hildesheim, the castles of the Weser Renaissance (such as Hämelschenburg, Bevern and Schwöbber), the Fagus factory in Alfeld, the Rammelsberg mining museum, the Old Towns of Lüneburg and Goslar, the Town Halls in Osnabrück and Lüneburg, the Castle of Celle and two splendid hunting lodges: the Jagdschloss Clemenswerth in Sögel and Jagdschloss Gödens." ***

http://www.niedersachsen-tourism.com/romans-and-teutons-in-kalkriese-1

                Lower Saxony also has a large thing for archaeology after the finding of the oldest recorded spears (400,000 years old). Another find was the battle site between German tribes and Roman legions in 9 AD.

Linguistic Diversity

                Lower Saxony has one of the smallest linguistic areas in Europe called Saterland, they still speak Sater Frisian there which is the third variety of Frisian spoken to be granted official language recognition. Then there is the aforementioned Plattdeutsch, there are 8 million speakers in 8 German states and the highest quantity of them are from Lower Saxony the number coming in around 2 million. There are three varieties of Plattdeutsch present in Lower Saxony; Northern Low German, Easfalian, and Westfalian.

 

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/349980/Lower-Saxony 9/4/2012

http://www.international.niedersachsen.de/portal/live.php?navigation_id=28585&article_id=99328&_psmand=1016 9/4/2012

http://www.international.niedersachsen.de/portal/live.php?navigation_id=28586&article_id=99329&_psmand=1016 9/4/2012***

http://www.international.niedersachsen.de/portal/live.php?navigation_id=28582&article_id=99325&_psmand=1016, 9/4/2012**

http://www.international.niedersachsen.de/portal/live.php?navigation_id=28584&article_id=99327&_psmand=1016, 9/4/2012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_Saxony 9-3-12

http://photos.state.gov/libraries/hamburg/554091/pdf/German-American-Partnership-LowerSaxony.pdf

http://wikitravel.org/en/Lower_Saxony *