Commemorative Maibock Tapping

Be good to yourself and come welcome Summer at The Old German Beer Hall with the tradition of tapping the Maibock beer! Miss Wisconsin, Tracy Gest will drive the spigot into a barrel of Maibock beer on Thursday, April 27, 2006.

Each Spring, invited guests, business professionals, and dignitaries gather for this annual event.
By tradition, the first barrel of Maibock is tapped at the Hofbräuhaus in Munich, Germany during the last week of April. It’s a way to tune up for the merry month of May.

Adding to the importance of this occasion, is that Maibock beer from the Hofbräu has been voted number one in the world. The success story of Munich's oldest bock beer began in 1614. The powerfully aromatic flavor Hofbräu Maibock has for centuries been among the high points of the beer-lover’s calendar.

This year Milwaukee will experience its first Maibock barrel tapping. Festivities will begin at 6:00pm on April 27th . Following official Maibock keg tapping with all the pomp and ceremony benefiting so significant an event, will be live music by Larry Way!

Hans Weissgerber III is the indelible force behind this new generation of German Heritage. As one of his chief goals in opening The Old German Beer Hall (located at 1009 N. Old Third World Street), Hans and his team want to remind Milwaukeeans how fun Germans and their culture truly are. After all, Milwaukee is "the most German city in all of America."

So come and discover how MUCH fun German culture truly is by experiencing this new, traditional beer hall. Come enjoy the Maibock celebration!

For more information visit: www.oldgermanbeerhall.com.

World Cup trophy embarks on German tour

Source: The Week in Germany

The World Cup trophy has begun an unprecedented 3,107-mile road trip through Germany, offering fans a unique chance to get up close and personal with soccer's most coveted prize.

The tour kicked off Monday in the southern city of Freiburg, where excited fans waited for up to 30 minutes to get a glimpse of the 18-carat trophy. dpa photo

The trophy, which was crafted by Italian sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga and first used for the 1974 World Cup when Germany won the title at home, will make 21 stops around the country, including at all of the 12 host cities for the June 9-July 9 tournament

			2006 FIFA World Cup™ Click above to visit Germany's 12 Host Cities of 2006 FIFA World Cup™. From Hamburg to Munich, there are so many things to be discovered! World Cup 2006 in Germany From the German government Soccer in Germany From the German Foreign Office Official World Cup site From FIFA German Tourist Office Start planning your trip now!

"We are bringing the Holy Grail of world soccer to the fans," said tournament spokesperson Gerd Graus.

The tour kicked off Monday in the southern city of Freiburg, where excited fans waited for up to 30 minutes to get a glimpse of the 18-carat trophy that will be presented to the captain of the winning team in soccer's main event.

Soccer officials said the tour was arranged to acknowledge fans and thank the many volunteers involved in the game and the tournament.

Until recently, the original World Cup trophy was seen only rarely at official events such as the preliminary and final draws, the World Cup opener and final, or at the winning team's reception upon returning home.

When France and Japan staged similar road shows in 1998 and 2002, only a duplicate trophy was put on show while the real deal remained locked in a bank vault.

This year, though, the trophy toured the world between Jan. 6 and April 10, stopping in 29 countries. The current German leg of the tour will run until May 26 in Hamburg.

Links:

Soccer match a "time to make friends" at Embassy (from Germany Info)

For World Cup, Germans give themselves a friendly reminder (from Germany Info)

Germans do most for "mental fitness" among Europeans

Source: The Week in Germany

People living in Germany are more likely than their European neighbors to do mental training exercises and brain teasers to boost memory and brain power, according to a new study

Sudoku puzzles are immensely popular in Germany, no surprise considering Germans' penchant for mind teasers. dpa photo

The survey of 2,500 respondents in Germany, Italy, Great Britain, France, and Spain found that 40.6% of all Germans have done mental exercises, about twice as many as in other European nations, dpa news agency reported.

Germans were found to remember appointments better than others and could easily recall what they had to eat for dinner two nights earlier. They were less successful at remembering people's faces and PIN codes.

Still, around 72% of all Germans say they suffer from memory loss, and many approach their fears of shrinking brain power proactively.

Activities Germans do to retain their mental fitness include reading (78%), calculation (63%), and logic puzzles (more than half). Only 0.6% reported doing absolutely nothing to retain mental fitness.

The study, sponsored by Nintendo and conducted by the Hamburg-based marketing firm Ipsos, precedes the launch of "Brain Jogging," a new game that promises to help people boost their memory power.

Links:

Germans and Dutch called brainiest Europeans (Germany Info)

Society fights for accurate beer pours as "Starkbierzeit" winds down

Source: The Week in Germany

Anyone who has been to a beer garden in Germany knows that the people who idle there for hours take the accuracy of their pours seriously. But that thick line on the mug meant to standardize the amount of beer a patron gets hasn't made the "Society Against Dishonest Pouring" any less popular — or necessary.

"Badly poured beers are among the largest problems in beer gardens, restaurants, and at the Oktoberfest," the society notes on its website.

The accuracy of German engineering spills over into the beer world. dpa photo

The SADP estimates that beer maids who pour just a finger's width less of beer cheat patrons out of 4.2 million Eur worth of beer at Munich's annual Oktoberfest alone.

But the group isn't just looking out for beer drinkers at the world's largest beer festival. At any single beer event in Bavaria, the society has as many as 20 pouring experts making the rounds to assure drinkers of nothing less than a perfect pour.

With 4,000 members, the group includes major beer brewers as well as Munich Mayor Christian Ude and Bavarian governor Edmund Stoiber. It was initiated in 1899 to assure beer drinkers the right amount of drink for their money, but its current incarnation was created in 1970.

The society has also launched a campaign against the steadily rising price of beer and a now defunct EU plan to harmonize beer taxes across the 25-member bloc, calling the brew a "diet staple" that is excluded from unwarranted price hikes.

"If these price increases go through, there will be an uproar," said Jan-Ulrich Bittlinger, a Society Against Dishonest Pouring representative.

Members also gather every first and third Tuesday in the Munich's most famous center-city beer hall, the Hofbraeuhaus.

Starkbierfest winding down

Members from the Munich-based organization have been on call in recent weeks as festivals throughout Bavaria celebrate "Starkbierzeit," or "strong beer time." The last two weeks of March and the end of Lent finds swillers in beer gardens and cellar bars delighting in Bock beer that has alcohol content of 7.6%.

Originally brewed during the end of Lent by Bavarian monks in the 17th century, "Starkbier" is now celebrated by nearly all of Munich's major breweries in a festival kicked off by keg-tapping ceremonies.

The barely-publicized two week event, centered around the Paulaner brewery, is a much-loved local tradition and the end to what Bavarians call the "fifth season." It may be slower-paced and less touristy than the Oktoberfest, but that doesn't make the beer maids working there any more intent on a perfect pour, society members say.

Links:

Verein Gegen Betruegerisches Einschenken

Essen wins title European cultural capital 2010

Source: The Week in Germany

The northern German city of Essen was Tuesday named European cultural capital for 2010, beating out the eastern German city Goerlitz in a race that pitted industrial chic against historical small-town charm.

Fireworks illuminate the "Zollverein," one of the former mines that has been turned into a cultural center in Essen. Image courtesy of city of Essen.

"We have found that Essen's proposal was a hair's breadth better than that of Goerlitz and that it went to the interests of all of Europe," said media mogul Sir Jeremy Isaacs, head of a seven-member jury.

Essen joins the two German cities that have already had the honor, capital Berlin (1988) and "cradle of classical German civilization" Weimar (1999), which has seen an increase of 12.7% in tourism since it was honored.

People in Essen were jubilant on the day of the announcement, citing the recognition of their city's culture and the tourism windfall and as the source of their joy.

"We are all happy to have taken this huge step," said Essen Mayor Wolfgang Reiniger, adding that the decision "confirmed that we are a region that has done great things."

Essen launched its campaign in the name of the entire Ruhr River Valley, focusing on its transformation from a gritty industrial behemoth to a center of arts and culture.

The city is perhaps best known in the cultural sector for its world-renowned philharmonic orchestra, but in recent years has made a name for itself in the contemporary art world by transforming its languishing steel and coal mines into art museums and culture centers.

The "Long Night of Industrial Culture" at the Zollverein. Image courtesy of city of Essen

Essen will need an estimated 48 million Eur ($58 million) for the cultural programs it plans for 2010, far more than the 500,000 Eur ($606,000) the European Union allots to each of the three host cities that will hold the honor cultural capital in 2010.

Following a policy set to begin with the dual hosts Austria and Lithuania in 2009, Essen will share the role of cultural capital with the Hungarian city of Pécs, which will represent the 10 new member states that joined the union in May, 2005.

In a separate contest, Istanbul triumphed over the Ukrainian city of Kiev in the race for European cultural capital located outside of the geographic confines of the European Union.

Goerlitz's campaign with its neighbor city Zgorzelec, located in Poland, focused on its role symbolizing the European Union's embrace of its newest members and the large-scale restoration of formerly communist cities.

Graciously offering Essen the support of his city, Goerlitz Mayor Joachim Paulick and Zgorzelec Mayor Miroslaw Fiedrowicz didn't exclude a future shared candidacy for their two cities. Poland, after all, gets to pick its cultural capital in 2016.

Goerlitz officials later in the week called their city the "moral champion" of the race, saying that the friendship between the two cities would continue to grow far beyond the contest for cultural capital.

Links:

City Profile: Essen (from Germany Info)

Essen and Goerlitz finalists in European Cultural Capital race (from Germany Info)

Munich woman wins Germany's first-ever podcast award

The first-ever award for a German podcast went to "Sleepless in Munich," an audio diary distributed by a 29-year-old German woman whose musings on life have a cult following of several thousand listeners.

Larissa Vassilian, whose nom d'podcast is Annik Rubens, received a special distinction at the first annual congress of Germany's largest podcast club honoring her as a pioneer in the field and recognizing the independent — and unpaid — broadcasting that she does with "Sleepless."

The award was one of several podcasting prizes bestowed at a ceremony held at the Munich State Opera last weekend.

Vassilian's work in podcasting — the distribution of audio or video files over the internet — has given her a reputation in the field as an expert eager to share her knowledge.

"I want people to stuff their mp3 players full of podcasts, talk about them, even make their own," she said in an interview with the Munich daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

Although she works fulltime as a journalist and runs "Sleepless in Munich" as a hobby, she is confident that the future of podcasting is bright, thanks in part to the differences between podcasting and "real journalism."

"I think people are looking for authenticity," Vassilian told the SZ. "My cat can purr into the microphone, I can misspeak without having to cut it out."

Vassilian won the top prize at an awards ceremony that also recognized the best podcasts in field such as culture, books, music and travel.

Other German-language podcasts to win awards were Wolfgang Tischer's "Literature Café," a literary podcast, Alwxander Wunschel's podcast on surveys, the music podcast "Chillerstadt" by Markus Kaes, and the travel podcast "Chicks on Tour" by Rickie Kinnen and Tina Frank.

Links:

Schlaflos in Muenchen

Wolfgang Tischer mit dem "Literatur-Café"

Alexander Wunschel Podcast-Umfrage

Music podcast - Markus Kaes "Chillerstadt"

Rickie Kinnen and Tina Frank, "Chicks on Tour"

German roads 56 times safer

SOURCE: The Week in Germany

Germany this week marked the 100th anniversary of national statistics on road traffic with new figures demonstrating that — despite a massive increase in traffic — driving today is much safer than it was a century ago.

Driving is safer today than in 1906, experts have concluded. bpa photo

In fact, drivers were 56 times more likely to be killed on the roads 100 years ago than in 2005, according experts at the Wiesbaden-based Federal Statistics Office who dusted off the country's inaugural road safety figures for the long-awaited centennial celebrations.

In 1906 — 20 years after the automobile was patented by German engineer Karl Benz — the number of vehicles registered in Germany stood at just 27,026.

Yet in the same year, officials recorded 4,864 traffic accidents in which 145 people were killed and 2,419 injured.

Since then, the number of vehicles registered in Germany has grown to over 56.3 million, a 2,083-fold increase, but road deaths have risen only 37-fold, the office said.

"This is a positive development to which official data, through its ongoing reporting and analysis of accidents, has made a contribution," the office said in a press release.

Last year, 5,362 people were killed on Germany's roads, down sharply from a peak of 21,332 in 1970.

Links:

Federal Statistics Office

Bust of German-American war hero newest Embassy attraction

SOURCE: The Week in Germany

A marble bust of Prussian-born Revolutionary War general Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben has found a new home on the grounds of the German Embassy in northwest Washington, DC.

Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, aka Baron von Steuben. Embassy photo

The German Orphan Home Foundation of the District of Columbia donated the statue to the Embassy, which found a place for the handsome bust adjacent to the former ambassadorial residence where receptions and other events are held throughout the year.

Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, known in this country as Baron von Steuben, became a leader of the American Revolution.

Born in Magdeburg, Prussia, on November 15, 1730, he was a soldier by profession.

He offered his services to the Continental Congress, saying he wanted to "serve a nation engaged in the noble work of defending its rights and liberties," and by 1778 joined General George Washington at Valley Forge.

At the Continental Army's winter camp, Steuben taught the American soldiers the value of discipline, with his methods and principles credited with helping to shape the military system.

As the first inspector general of the army, Steuben held the rank of major general. He was granted U.S. citizenship after the war. He died in Steubenville, New York, on November 22, 1794.

Today, numerous German-American communities celebrate Steuben Day in September with festivals and parades, with the largest held every year in New York City.

The 8-foot 6-inches 3,000-pound marble bust and pedestal were created in 1868-70 by Jacques Jouvenal (1829-1905), a native of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, who came to America in the early 1850s.

Several of Jouvenal's sculpted works are now located in the United States Capitol.

Links:

Third International Conference on Early Warning

Kids win in sale of pope's Volkswagen

SOURCE: The Week in Germany

The German man who last year gained a heavenly fortune through the sale of a Volkswagen hatchback once owned by Pope Benedict XVI has used part of his unexpected financial windfall to benefit sick children.

Halbe purchased a four-door hatchback with 46,600 miles on the clock from his local VW dealer for just under $13,000 before discovering that the car once belonged to the man who now leads the world's 1bn Roman Catholics. dpa photo

Benjamin Halbe of the western German city of Olpe donated about $18,000 to help start the Hoffnungsschimmer (Glimmer of Hope) foundation which works to brighten the lives of terminally and seriously ill kids, the Hanover daily Neue Presse reported this week.

Halbe, 22, told the paper he was looking to provide "long-term help" to the less fortunate.

Last year, Halbe turned a profit of nearly $220,000 on the sale of a six-year-old grey Golf with registration papers showing its last-known owner as "Josef [sic] Cardinal Ratzinger."

Halbe had purchased the four-door hatchback with 75,000 km (46,600 miles) on the clock from his local VW dealer for just under $13,000 before discovering that the car once belonged to the man who now leads the world's 1bn Roman Catholics when its registration papers arrived.

The student's discrete VW dealer had divulged few details about the vehicle's history, noting only the car — which went under the hammer for a quarter of a million dollars in a sale that attracted more than eight million hits on eBay — had proven "blessedly" reliable.

The car was thought to have been imported from Germany to Rome and back again by the Pope's private secretary, who hails from Siegen, the same North Rhine Westphalia town where the VW dealer is located.

Today, Halbe, who has transitioned from student life to a position in industrial management, still drives a used Golf, but is in the dark about any previous owners. "I told the dealer: I don't even want to know," he said.

Links:

Hoffnungsschimmer Foundation

In unusual auction, it's snowing, snowing — gone!

Source: The Week in Germany

An enterprising German village walloped by blizzards this winter found a silver lining in the unusual weather by putting some of its snow on the auction block to benefit cancer-stricken children.

Steinach Mayor Maria Greiner shows off the town's snow: "Impeccably white, soft, without any signs of use, fresh from above." dpa photo

Steinach, a picturesque tourist town of 4,800 in the eastern German state of Thuringia just north of the Bavarian border, saw a truckload of its snow go under the hammer this week for 1,420 euros ($1,700) amid brisk Internet bidding.

The mastermind behind the auction, jovial Mayor Maria Greiner, announced the winning bid, which came from a mail order clothes company in Frankfurt, before a crowd of hundreds of residents gathered for an auction-themed party in the village's handsome main square.

With snow piled high around the village, Greiner had decided to place an advertisement on eBay's German site calling for bids on "snow, impeccably white, soft, without any signs of use, fresh from above."

The idea, she said, was to do something good for charity by appealing to people's sense of humor. And by all accounts, the stunt has paid off in spades, raising a total of more than 4,000 Eur ($4,800) for child cancer charities.

The auction has also focused the world's attention on Steinach, the self-proclaimed "town of wells" nestled in the rolling hills of the lush Thuringia Forest.

"It was completely by chance, like so much in life," Mayer Griener said of her idea, "But it was worth its weight in gold."

Links:

Steinach

German women urged to date a dozen on quest for "the one"

Source: The Week in Germany

The 13th time could be the charm for German women looking for long-term relationships, according to a study by the Humboldt University of Berlin for the women's magazine Brigitte.

dpa photo

"Our calculations show that women who have tested the waters with twelve potential life partners have a really good idea of what they are looking for in a person," said psychologist Lars Penke, who worked on the study.

The study gathered the responses of women who have dated a dozen or more men on their path to the right partner, and asked them to judge their previous dates on the basis of criteria such as humor, appearance, intelligence and social status.

On average, German women didn't have a firm idea of the relative importance of each of these criteria to them until after dating well over a dozen people.

The lesson to be gleaned from all these dates? "It's worth spending a lot of time looking for the right partner," says Dr. Peter Todd, a researcher in evolutionary psychology at the Max-Planck Institute who was also involved in the study.

Links:

Would-be German parents wait for right partner, better economy (from Germany Info)

German-made gadgets at CeBIT

Source: The Week in Germany

From a carpet that knows when it should be vacuumed to a car radio that talks back to drivers, German-made innovations made a splash this week at CeBIT, the world's largest high-tech trade fair.

With "SmartWeb" technology, tomorrow's car radios will talk with drivers. Photo courtesy bundesregierung.de

Over 40 of the most promising German-made breakthroughs were on display at "Mensch, Technik, Interaktion" ("Man, Technology, Interaction") — an exhibition mounted by the German government to highlight the success of its grant programs.

They included "SmartWeb," a voice-controlled system that allows people on the go to access information on the Internet quickly and easily without as much as a keyboard.

With the system, which was developed by Siemens in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute research laboratories, tomorrow's drivers can ask their cars for all sorts of information — the location of a cheap gas stations or nearby restaurant, for example.

"SmartWeb" automatically searches the Internet for the information and then announces it findings over the radio.

While it may seem simple, the technology is supported by advanced software that is capable of breaking down spoken sentences into semantic units that can be understood by a computer.

"SmartWeb" is expected to go to market in about ten years' time

If the "SmartWeb"-equipped car of the future ever breaks down, another German-made innovation promises to show mechanics how to fix it.

"Augmented reality" glasses promise to make even the most complicated repair dilemma a cinch. Photo courtesy bundesregierung.de

"Augmented reality" glasses developed by Siemens and BMW provide information and instructions on fitting and removing parts in increasingly complex automotive systems — even providing remote visual support from an off-site expert for the toughest of repair dilemmas.

Foreign visitors to the Olympic Games in Beijing can meanwhile expect to benefit from another new gadget.

The "Compass 2008" system developed by the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence and the Fraunhofer Institute helps visitors navigate the Chinese metropolis and pick out the right dish in its restaurants.

It includes a "taxi dialog" module that finds street or place names in the visitor's language and then says them in Chinese, while a "smart dining" module helps visitors make sense of Chinese-language menus.

CeBIT wouldn't be complete without a German-made robot. Photo courtesy bundesregierung.de

Robots, too, were on hand at the show, including models capable of recognizing and responding to natural language, movements and even human faces.

Yet while experts at the University of Karlsruhe and the Fraunhofer Institute reckon that interactive service robots will become commonplace in a few years, less complicated robotic systems could find their way into households even sooner.

One example is a vacuum cleaning robot developed by Vorwerk for a "smart floor" equipped with sensors that guide the device straight to dirty spots.

Links:

Gadgets galore at CeBIT high-tech fair (from Germany Info)

CeBIT

Germans and Dutch called brainiest Europeans

A controversial British psychologist this week claimed that the Germans and the Dutch are the smartest Europeans.

Albert Einstein was estimated to have an IQ of 160, far above average in any nation.

Dr. Richard Lynn of the University of Ulster said the two nations top the intelligence league table with an average IQ of 107, followed by Poles (106), Swedish (104), and Italians (102).

IQ, or intelligence quotient, tests are designed to measure the general intelligence of an individual compared to other people with the same age.

They have always sparked controversy, particularly among psychologists who point to cultural biases built into the tests that favor Western test-takers.

Just last year, Lynn made headlines when he claimed that the average male IQ is five points higher than the average female IQ. His colleagues in the field, however, saw inconsistencies in the studies used to compile the data.

Lynn believes his most recent study could provide evidence of a link between climate differences and brain size.

"The early human beings in northerly areas had to survive during cold winters when there were no plant foods and they were forced to hunt big game," Lynn told the Times of London.

"The main environmental influence on IQ is diet, and people in southeast Europe would have had less of the proteins, minerals and vitamins provided by meat which are essential for brain development," he added.

German intelligence researchers refused to endorse the study's findings, though, with most citing longer periods of mandatory schooling, not diet, as a main reason for the IQ differences.

Source: The Week In Germany

JS Online:'Idol' means good news for Fox 6

JS Online:'Idol' means good news for Fox 6: ". . . . The 'Stimmung Stunde' German music show airs the first part of an interview with Klaus Gurschler, leader of Die Psayrer, one of Germany's top folk music groups, on its next show at 10 a.m. Saturday on WJYI-AM (1340)."