Gerhard Richter Painting

Art is one of the strongest, transcontinental languages. Paintings travel across the world and miraculously enjoyed by vastly different cultures. The German documentary, Gerhard Richter Painting, directed by Corina Belz, follows the internationally renowned artist, Gerhard Richter through his late artistic career and daily studio and gallery life. 

Gerhard Richter was born in Dresden, Saxony, leaving school after the 10th grade to apprentice as a stage set painter before attending the Dresden Academy of fine arts. Two months before the building of the Berlin Wall, Richter escaped from East to West Germany. After his escape he began studying at the Kunst Akadamie Dusseldorf where he discovered Capitalistic Realism, an art form he utilized as an anti-style of art, "appropriating the political shorthand of advertising." Richter now lives and works out of Cologne. 

Richter's works generally depict "illusionistic space." His earliest works created during the early 60's and 70's are called photo-paintings, taken from newspapers, personal photos or books. In the late 60's early 70's his works turned along a more abstract path with his "Grey paintings." The film begins by giving a scroll by of his earlier works (photo-realistic), preceded by an early interview with him after his move out of the east, and finally shows Richter painting two different human sized abstract paintings. We watch his cheerful little minions cleaning up for him, and purifying his paint. Ah this is how real artists work (good to know, as an art student).

This documentary on the influential artist, Gerhard Richter, moves along at a slow, real-life pace. I would recommend the documentary if you are interested in German culture, art, and the workings of the mind of an artist. Despite the 10 minute waiting period, the beginning scene in which Richter paints on two canvases at once is highly interesting for the sake of watching an abstract artist's process. I think it is common for people, even artists, to walk into a museum and automatically disregard an abstract work as silly. However simply through watching the process and the artist in action that opinion could drastically alter, as mine has. Even though the movie progresses extremely slowly, I felt as if I couldn't look away for fear of missing an important scene of "art action." You can watch this documentary on Netflix.

Dorothy

The Last Supper: Bier!

Haaaaaalllllllloooooo!!!

How is everyone doing? This will be the last blog for German Food & Culture. So, naturally I saved the best for last: German Beer. The Germans have perfected the tasty drink and Germany is constantly associated with great beer. The Germans even have a 16 day festival dedicated to drinking beer and socializing. This famous festival is known as Oktoberfest.

Oktoberfest is a 16 day festival held from late September to the first week of October. It is a celebration of beer and the coming of Fall. It is held in Bavaria in the major city of Munich.  Historically, it started as a festival to celebrate the marriage of Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese. Oktoberfest has very strict rules regarding the Beer. The beer MUST be brewed within the city limits of Munich. The beer must be brewed to certain and very specific expectations.
These are the breweries that can produce Oktoberfest Beer:

-Hacker-Pschorr-Bräu
-Augustiner-Bräu
-Löwenbräu 
-Paulaner-Bräu
-Spatenbräu
-Staatliches Hofbräu-München

However, these breweries and delicious beer can only be found in Munich. But you can still get delicious imported beer here in Seattle! Located in Pike Place right next to the original Starbucks, is a wonderful Bavarian market. This market is appropriately called "Bavarian Meat Delicatessen". There are great Hefeweizen's, Weissbeir, Pilsner, Dunkles, and Altbier!

So check it out!!

The world is obsessed with German beer, especially the United States. I mean, being able to drink at 16 in Germany?!! What?!?! That's awesome!! So in many parts of the world, one can find a nice German beer and one sip will make you feel like you're on top of the mountain tops overlooking Munich, or maybe laughing and talking with some strangers you just met at Oktoberfest.

Overall, there is one thing that is constantly true about beer:

Beer makes the world go 'round!

The UW Germanics Department: A Brief History on Denny Hall

The very first thing people learn on their freshman campus tour at University of Washington in Seattle is that Denny Hall is the oldest building on UW soil.

Denny Hall is my favorite building on the university's campus; and I'm not just saying that because I am a Germanics major. When I first set foot on UW ground, Denny Hall was the first building that caught my eye. I marveled at its bavarian style architecture. During the three years I have attended UW, Denny has been like a miniature portal to my old German world. When I am around it or in it, I feel like I am back in Oldenburg. Denny Hall has become a significant part of my college experience.

Construction on Denny Hall began on the fourth of July of 1894 when a crowd of 1000 people gathered at the University of Washington's new campus for the cornerstone laying of the site's first structure.

With the help of architect Charles W. Saunders, the four stories of Denny hall were constructed within a year. It was  made ouf of Enumclaw cornerstone and pressed brick with terra cotta details.

By September 1895, its 35 rooms were opened to student body of little more than 200 people. It was first called the Administration building and housed six of the university's laboratories, a library with 50 chairs, a museum, and faculty rooms.

Today this building hosts the Germanics and Anthropology department at the University of Washington.

Hilary

New EURO Setup?

German national football team players Bastian Schweinsteiger (left) and
Phillip Lahm (right). Image obtained from Google.

UEFA EURO tournaments.  Don't know what I'm talking about?  Here's a bit of background to get you up to speed about.

Think of the UEFA EURO tournament as being just like the FIFA World Cup that's hosted every 4 years, except that participating national teams may only come from European countries.  Now I won't dwell on this issue but it's interesting to look at the countries that participate regularly and compare that with EU members.    Turkey participated in EURO 2008 but has had its EU ascension hopes waitlisted for decades.  Ponder that thought; maybe do some personal research but I'm leaving this point alone now.

Anyways, EURO.  Okay so it's reminiscent of a European-style World Cup and, personally, I think it's more interesting to watch than the World Cup because I like European football teams.

The tournament structure of EURO has always been like that of the World Cup; a host nation is chosen and all of the tournament matches are played at venues around the host country.  Well this might not be the case for EURO 2020.  I've stumbled upon article that suggests that the UEFA President Michel Platini is considering changing the layout for this particular tournament and having it be played at stadiums around the CONTINENT.  Sacrebleu!  What is this madness?!?  Below I will outline Mr. Platini's rationale and then state why I think he's a little off his rocker...

Platini states that by having 12 different countries host matches across Europe, the costs of the tournament would not be a burden on a single (or sometimes pair) host country.  Alright, I concede that this is a decent reason for suggesting this new tournament format.  Afterall, Europe has failed to recover from the economic crisis to the extent that the United States has and, looking to the future, it seems logical that hosting a tournament of this magnitude risks a host country's economic recovery.  But I'd like to make one point.  Countries vie to host a EURO tournament for the glory.  They don't do something like this because it will be fiscally profitable in the short run.  If a country can host a good tournament, then they can hope for increased tourist revenue in the years to come and the title of EURO host city long into the future.

This is almost like the head of the Olympic committee to suggest that the Olympics should be held AROUND THE WORLD, instead of in one lucky country.

Now I recognize that if EURO 2020 were to be held in this new layout as is currently being discussed, it would shine the spotlight on cities all around Europe simultaneously.  And perhaps it would reinforce the idea of a "shared European identity" that the EU is pushing so hard to create.  But this tournament is not designed to bring neighboring countries closer together.  National teams train to win, not to make friends.

As a football fan living in America, I think that this is a poor choice in the spirit of EURO competitions, even if it is a fiscally-responsible one for Europe.

Sarah

Winnetou

Karl May's novels of the fictional Native American hero, Winnetou gave lasting impressions of America to unexposed German population and became a collection of stories required in classes in Germany and beloved by many. May, having never traveled to America, based his stories off of the impressions received from other travelers. He wrote his stories between 1875 and 1910. The stories were so beloved in Nazi Germany that they were not banned, like many books were. They cling to romantic ideas where man is close to nature, and May sympathizes with the native population who have not yet found the time or need for ideas such as industrial growth or worldly expansion. These stories, and the film adaptations present the intrigue for internationalism, desire to understand varying cultures, and give insight into the challenges encountered in multicultural societies. In these stories we observe cultures clashing due to different ideologies, interests and cultural understandings.

The movie adaptations of the book, first released in 1963 and directed by Harald Reinl, consist of an international cast including the German actor Mario Adorf, American actor Lex Barker and the French actor Pierre Brice. The movie takes the audience through a world of tragedy, strugle, love, and brotherhood. Watch Winnetou I on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zklMom_5cp0

Germans in your own home?

For those travelers who wish to see the world on a budget and meet locals along the way couchsurfing remains a very promising option.  If you're not familiar http://www.couchsurfing.org/ is a website that enables hosts and travelers to find people they feel they'd get along with to stay with for a period of time on travels in almost any country and any major city on earth.  While this may sound sketchy to the unknown the website has had very few issues regarding safety, feedback left by other surfers allows people to have an idea of what staying with someone might be like and if they seem trustworthy.  If you would like to meet travelers and make new friends offering up your couch to surfers is a great way to do so.  In my time of offering my couch up on couchsurfing I have met many interesting and friendly people, a majority of which were Germans.


Germans are known for their love of travel and general respect for the countries they visit, and every German person I have hosted has been respectable and a joy to hang out with.  Many German visitors I have had wished to spend time with me and my friends doing what we normally do for fun, and have been great company and provided a great outlet for me to practice my German with a native speaker.  Lots of these German travelers came from work and travel adventures in Canada to see the United States, some of them spent their first day in the US with me and I was always very happy to show them around and provide them with a great experience in Seattle.




















Germans are not the only people you will meet if you offer up your couch of course.  I have hosted all sorts of travelers, from Hong Kong to Uzbekistan I have met and made great friends from all over the world.  If you are trusting in the general good of human beings and want to meet fellow world explorers than I cannot think of a better outlet than offering up your couch for them.
Steven

Time for Leavenworth!

Guten Tag!!

It is Autumn and the evenings tend to get chilly quickly. It is the season for eating tantalizing Bavarian food and listening to happy German Christmas music!! Spending Winter in Germany would be an amazing experience, but not everyone can afford for it. However, if you can experience an incredible get-away or want to feel as you have gone to Germany, you can do that in Washington state. Do you want to enjoy a little Germany adventure here in Washington? I am going to introduce you a day trip to the town called Leavenworth, two hours car ride from Seattle, also known as “German Village”.

Leavenworth, is a fascinating Bavarian village in Washington. If you want to take a break from the blue, cold, and wet weather of Seattle, take a beautiful two hours drive towards east through the mountains to Leavenworth. This German Village located between mountains has nicer weather than Seattle. In this town, you do not even feel you are in the U.S. 

There are a lot of pastry and bakeries along with many German restaurants and beer gardens. There is the one authentic German bakery called Bavarian Bakery. This bakery is run by German owner who is also known as a great baker. There is always a big line of people who want to try real German bread.  During Christmas time, their Christmas tree is decorated with their original pretzels. This bakery is also doing delivery service, therefore, many people in Seattle area can enjoy real German taste.

Bis Dann!

Randy