Umschalten - Switching

Today is February 29th - Leap Day.  This is an occurrence that happens every 4 years.

In Germany, it is called Schalttag.  The Schalttag happens in a Schaltjahr.

Schalt means switch.  Schalten is the infinitive verb form (to switch).

Schalt + tag (day) = Leap Day
Schalt + jahr (year) = Leap Year

Another word that comes to mind for me is Lichtschalter

Licht + schalter = light switch!

A typical German light switch as I remember looks like this:

But I also remember in the Keller (cellar) of my German grandparents' apartment building, there was a very old light switch that looked like this:

In any case, I hope you enjoyed your extra day this year - your Schalttag!  

By the way, I read today that in true German fashion there is actually a law pertaining to any person born on February 29th.  Of course!  It is that on non-leap years, you turn your next full age on March 1st (never on February 28).  So, for example, when you turn 18 and become volljährig (an adult, "of age"), you are not considered an adult until March 1st if your 18th birthday falls on a leap year.  

And that is just a little "tidbit" - a small bite - of German. 

German Adventures: Lessons Learned, Part 3

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this travel journal of my October 2019 trip to Germany, I have shared about the incidents that occurred on this trip so far - and we are only a few days in!  More lessons were to come!

In Part 2, I shared that my aunt, who we were staying with in Frankfurt during this trip ended up in a stroke unit at a hospital due to a mini stroke.  She was fine - thankfully - but had to be kept under observation and thoroughly examined.  Unfortunately, there were not beds available in the closer hospitals so she ended up in Höchst, on the outskirts of Frankfurt.  It was a quite a trek to get to her, but on Tuesday morning, October 8th, we were determined to make the trip!   We wanted to take her a suitcase of personal items, toiletries and other such things she had requested.

We would have to take public transportation, but thankfully, with the Internet, you can find all the routes and modes of transportation easily.  Or so I thought.  The trip to Hoechst Klinikum involved first walking about 15 minutes to the U-bahn (subway) station, then going to the Hauptwache station.  There we 'd transfer to the S-bahn (faster regional-type train) to Höchst train station.  Then there were 2 buses that went the less than 1 km to the hospital.

We knew enough to buy a day-card for the Frankfurt area public transportation as the least expensive way to go.  We could use those tickets on all modes of transportation in Frankfurt all day.

Anyway, as we got to the Höchst train station, we were in a hurry to get to the hospital, so we grabbed a taxi for the quick 5 or 10 minute ride.  It cost 10 Euros (including the tip) but was worth the convenience of not having to figure out which bus to take.  We found my aunt's room and were able to speak with her a few minutes before she was wheeled off for some kind of brain scan or another ...

Coming out of the hospital, we saw a bus station.  We saw the numbers for the buses that I had previously researched to get us back to the Höchst train station.  We even asked some of the other people, also waiting, but they were as uncertain as we were about the schedule.  One bus came by, and I asked the driver if he was going to the train station.  Unfortunately, he didn't speak German well, and I had no idea what he said but assumed he meant he did NOT go to the train station.  We didn't get on his bus.

We did eventually get on a bus that was the same number as the bus indicated on the signage at the station.  After a few minutes, 3 bus "conductors" got on the bus and asked for every one's tickets.  This isn't unusual, and we showed them our Frankfurt day ticket.  They came back to us later and asked to see our identification.  We both had our passports with us, and that is what we showed them.  They then asked us to get off the bus at the next station ...

Not knowing what was going on, we anxiously got off as the one agent-guy was holding our passports.  He vaguely explained to us that not only were we going the opposite direction of the train station, the day pass tickets we had ended its territory at the train station, and we should have gotten an additional bus ticket to ride this particular bus.  WHO KNEW??!!  Höchst is a city district of Frankfurt, but apparently there is some border there as it pertains to public transportation!

We tried to explain why we were even in Höchst - visiting the sick relative, who was supposed to be our travel guide while we were visiting Germany!  However, we were met with zero mercy.  AND we were given a 60 Euro (each!) fine for riding schwarz*.  AND they held our passport until we had forked over the money!!

In retrospect, I am pretty upset about the way we were treated and the total disregard for our situation.  They could have just as easily let us go with a warning ... And just this week, I sent a letter to the bus-public transportation customer service department with my complaint.  Not sure it will get us far, as one of the bus conductors told us that day, "Gesetz ist Gesetz."  (Rules are rules.)

***********A VOCAB TIDBIT**************
To ride without a valid ticket on public transportation in Germany is called *Schwarzfahren (to ride "black" = schwarz).   This term has its origins in the days of smuggling and illegal activities (think black market).  Also, it may be related to the verb schwärzen which means to blacken.   Criminals and smugglers often blackened their faces in order to not be seen while they went about their illegal activities at night.
***********************************************

Yep, my mother and I are criminals...or at least, we were made to feel like it!

Thankfully, for the most part, my mother and I didn't have any more MISadventures during our time in Germany!  We did cancel our travel plans to Hannover to visit some friends there and had to cancel a rental car we'd reserved for the next 3 days (actually another lesson learned:  there may be a FINE for cancelling your car in less then 24 hours from the time of pick-up!).   Much of our hard-saved vacation money was spent on fees and fines ...

Lesson learned:  Expect the unexpected! 

The Easter - Ostern Connection

If you study the origins of the English word Easter and the German word Oster(n), you will find that the roots are the same.  I have an interest in linguistics, so this concept fascinates me, and I have found that there are several theories of the origin of these words:

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In 7th-Century England, a monk named Bede (the Venerable) was a scholar who studied and wrote about many subjects to include science, literature and astrology; he also wrote about the topic of celebrating Easter.  He suggested that an Anglo-Saxon goddess named Eostre, who represented spring and fertility, was who Easter represented.  Her celebrated month was Eosturmonath, which corresponds to what we now call April.

Another theory is that the word Easter derives from an older German word meaning east, which comes from an older Latin word meaning dawn.

As Merriam-Webster Editor-at-Large Peter Sokolowski sums it up..., “The basic logic seems to have been: ‘Spring > sun > dawn > east.'”
(source)

There is no doubt that Ester and oster, the early English and German words, both have their root in aus, which means east, shine, and dawn in various forms, according to An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 2nd ed., s.v. “Easter.” (Walter W. Skeat, 1893).  So, East - sun rising, brighter days, longer days, earlier dawns ... Ester, oster, Spring-time!  Makes sense.

And lastly, some suggest that Easter has its roots in the German word for resurrection Auferstehung.  The older Teutonic version of the German word is a combination of 2 words:  Ester (which meant first) and stehen, the verb that means to stand.  These words combined into erstehen, which in modern German is now auferstehen = to resurrect.

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When Martin Luther translated the Bible into German in 1522, he chose to use the word Oster to refer to the Passover as it was celebrated before and after Jesus' resurrection.    English Bible translator William Tyndale used the word ester to refer to the Passover in 1525.  The "a" was added to ester later to make it Easter.

In translations of I Corinthians 5:7, Luther & Tyndale refer to Jesus as the "Easter Lamb":

Luther— . . . Denn wir haben auch ein Osterlamm, das ist Christus, für uns geopfert.

Tyndale— . . . For Christ oure esterlambe is offered up for us

(source)

And that, my friends, is a short (?) study of the connection between Easter & Ostern... You're welcome!  :) 

Projekt: Von A bis Z (X, Y, Z)

Yes, I am cheating to get this project FINISHED!  3 letters at once...

X, Y, Z - today on the blog.

It all started a long time ago (June 2017) with BUCHSTABE A.

If you want to check out A through W, follow the links on the side bar. >>>

Animals:  die Ziege (goat), das Zebra (zebra), der Zugvogel (a migratory bird), das Zugtier (a draft animal), der Yak (yak)

Food:  Zwiebel (onion), Zwiebelkuchen (onion tart), Ziegenkäse (goat cheese), Zander (a type of fish), *Zigeunerschnitzel (schnitzel, gypsy-style), Zimt (cinnamon), Zitrone (lemon)

source - Nadia Hassani

A wonderful web-site called Spoonfuls of German gives a fun narrative about the political incorrectness of the above pictured *Zigeunerschnitzel (pic from that web-site also), which has been on restaurant menus since the Nazis coined the term "Zigeuner"/gypsy for the Balkan population, specifically the Sinti and Roma poeple group.  I guess now we can call it "Schnitzel with pepper sauce and mushrooms."

Names:  Xavier, Xander, Yvette, Yvonne

Cities:  Xanten, Zeil, Zell, Zweibrücken, Zwickau

Christmas Market in Zwickau

Verbs:  zuhören (to listen), zuhauen (to dig in), zünden (to ignite), zappeln (to fidget), zittern (to shiver, to shake)

Words you may recogize:  Xylofon/xylophone (xylophone) - also called Glockenspiel (although a xylophone has wooden bars and a Glockenspiel has metal tubes or bars).  

Ypsilon - the pronunciation of the German letter Y.  

Zugzwang - a chess term; also means "a tight spot"

Zeitgeist - literally "time spirit" - means spirit of the age

**VOCAB TIDBIT**:  

X-malig is sort of a word  that starts with X --- it literally means "x-times".  This word is used when you have done something infinity times, over and over, umpteen times ... same goes for the term x-fach.

A BONUS CATEGORY - ONE OF MY FAVORITE CANDY BARS:  Yogurette

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And now this project is zu Ende!  (through, brought to a close, Finished!)

A German Childhood: My Oma's Story

My Oma was born in 1918 in Gross Lattana, East Prussia, located along the southeastern Baltic coast.  Her village/town was called Peitschendorf, and now it is called Piecki as this area is part of Poland today.  It was in the Masurian lake district - known for its 2,000 lakes.  

map source

A QUICK HISTORY LESSON:

Prussia's history is complicated - it was a providence of the German Empire after 1871; after 1918, at the end of World War I, the territory became an enclave (separated from the mainland) of the new German Republic.  Between the end of 1944 and 1945, East Prussia was part of air assaults and offensives by the British army as well as invasion and siege (and atrocities) by the Russian Red Army.  Many ethnic German Prussians fled - to include my Oma (at this point, married with a child, my uncle who was born in 1943) and her family, which included many of her younger siblings.  

Refugees who tried to return to East Prussia were prevented, and many of those remaining were expelled by its new Communist regime.  Labor camps were established; orphans from the who were left behind in this Communist zone were called "Wolf Children" and are a whole sad story unto themselves.  My Oma eventually made it to Frankfurt, where my Opa's family was from, and her family eventually also came over to the West after living in Eastern Germany for a short time.

The East Prussia my Oma lived in 1923 -1939

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Following Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II in 1945, East Prussia was partitioned between Poland and the Soviet Union according to the Potsdam Conference. Southern East Prussia was placed under Polish administration, while northern East Prussia was divided between the Soviet republics of Russia (the Kaliningrad Oblast) and Lithuania (the constituent counties of the Klaipėda Region). The city of Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946. Most of the German population of the province had left during the evacuation at the end of the war, but several hundreds of thousands died during the years 1944–46 and the remainder were subsequently expelled.  (source)

But back to my Oma's childhood:  from her stories, it was pleasant in that the area she grew up in was beautiful, wooded land with lush forests and fertile farms.  Her father was a stern man, a constable of the town.  Her mother, sadly, died when my Oma was almost 7 years old of tuberculosis despite efforts to send her to a sanatorium for treatment.  

This picture below is interesting - it was taken in 1921 or 1922:

The little girl in the picture ^ is my Oma:  Hildegard Anna; she was born in 1918.

Her father is beside her (Gustav, 1881 - 1968).   Seated is my great-grandmother (Ur-Grossmutter); her name was Anna (my daughter is named after her and my Oma); she lived from 1896 until 1925.  Anna's sister Wilhelmine stands behind her - and she became my Oma's step-mother later.  

ANYWAY ... back to my childhood:

My mother and I moved to the United States (Maryland - then Virginia) with my dad (an Army soldier) in 1974, right before I turned 4 years old.  My Oma and Opa came to visit in 1975.  Airplane travel was quite an adventure back in those days, and it was a brave endeavor for them to come with their limited English with the additional challenge of getting stuck overnight at the airport in New York City.  The above 2 pictures are from this visit.  

Starting in 1977, I traveled to Germany yearly, each summer after school was out, to spend about 2 1/2 months with my grandparents and other German relatives.  Because my grandparents lived in the city of Frankfurt in an apartment, they rented a small garden, as many city dwellers did, to grow a few plants, enjoy some green space, and in my grandparents' case have a little hut for parties and family to hang out.  This is where we came almost daily during the summers because our garden also had rabbits to feed and cages to clean.  (click on the link to see an aerial view of the gardens now - ours was the plot closest to the railroad tracks.  Today it has no grass, as the owner uses it for chickens; however, when we rented it, the surface was grass.)

VOCAB TIDBIT:

Our garden was part of a rabbit breeding club - a Kanninchenzuchtverein.  How's that for a nice, long word!!?  Let's break it down:  Kanninchen = rabbit, Zucht = breeding, Verein = club

We showed our rabbits each year, and they were judged, kind of like the Kennel Club's dog show you might be familiar with.  

Kanninchen = rabbit; schau = show

So it was at this little garden that I spent many happy hours playing - on my swing, in my playhouse, in the hut, and with other children whose families were a part of the club.

Me & my Oma - ca. 1977 or '78.

Is it crazy that I remember those flip flops that I have on?  They straps were made of velvet and the foot bed was straw, kind of like these:  

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But better than the memory of my awesome shoes is the memory of having fun with my Oma!

You can also ready my Opa's Story:  here

Der Putz & Der Meister

Recently, while driving to work, I came to a stop behind this vehicle at a traffic light:

A vehicle's trailer doesn't get more German than when it states it is the Putzmeister.  

So, what exactly, does this attachment do?  Let's break it down:

Putz in this incidence is not a Yiddish slang term.  It means "plaster"; and this trailer is a concrete pump.  Putzmeister is a German company, founded in 1958 with at least 500 employees working for Putzmeister America.  

Meister is the term used for a skilled master.  This term can be used for a foreman or a boss or a champion.  For example, the winners of the soccer World Cup are the Weltmeister (the world masters).  The leader of an orchestra or choir is the Kapellmeister.  Der Meisterbäcker is the "master" baker; and der Meisterschreiner is the "master" carpenter.  A craftsman apprentice works for and strives to be a Meister.  

Germans also call "the old Masters" die alte Meister.  These are the European painters, such as Rembrandt, who worked prior to 1800.

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Meister can also be a title - showing respect to the wise Master.  German fables introduce us to the characters of Meister Lampe (a rabbit), Meister Grimbart (a badger), Meister Petz (a bear), and Meister Graubein (a wolf) who all have lessons to teach us.  

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And now that we've had a thorough description of MEISTER, let's go back to PUTZ.   There is another aspect:  putzen - a verb.  It means to clean, to scrub, to brush, to polish, or to wipe.  

Schuhputz is shoe polish ... Putzmittel is a cleaning agent ... a Putzlappen is a cleaning cloth.  

Many a Hausfrau feels like a Putzfrau (cleaning lady) ... and often might wish for a Putzfee (a cleaning fairy)!

Confused?  Don't worry!  There is a German saying:  Übung macht den Meister!  

This means:  Practice makes the master.  

Projekt: Von A bis Z (S)

I am still determined to blog all the way through the alphabet AUF DEUTSCH - Just a few letters to go, and today it is "S" - an easy one!  :)   Can you think of any other words to add?



Animals:  die Schlange (the snake), das Schaf (the sheep), die Schnecke (the snail), die Schildkröte (the turtle), das Schwein (the pig), *Stachelschwein (porcupine)

VOCAB TIDBIT:
*Stachel+schwein - literally means "thorn" or quilled pig

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Food:  Schnitzel (veal or pork cutlet), Schinken (ham), Suppe (soup), Spätzle (German noodles), Spargel (asparagus), Sauerbraten (roast),  **Stachelbeere (gooseberry)

VOCAB TIDBIT:
*Stachel+beere - literally means "thorn" berry

source

Common Names:  Stephanie, Stefanie, Stefan, Susanne, Sabine, Sascha, Simone, Simon, Siegfried, Siegrid, Sieglinde, Sebastian, Seppl or Seppel (nickname for Joseph)

Cities:  Siegen, Selingenstadt, Stuttgart, Saarbrücken

Verbs:  singen (to sing), suchen (to seek), studieren (to study), schenken (to give - a gift)

Words you might recognize:  Sieg!  (Victory!), Schule (school), Sohn (son), Samstag & Sontag (Saturday & Sunday), Sauerkraut

German companies/brands:  Siemens (electronics), SIG Sauer (firearms), Schwarzkopf (cosmetics, hair products), Stihl (tools), Storck (candy), Spiegel (media)

Projekt: Von A bis Z (R)

Finally!  An easier letter to blog about!!  I am continuing my posts to blog through the alphabet "auf Deutsch".

Today I am brainstorming through all things "R":




Foods:  Rotkohl (red cabbage), Rosenkohl (brussel sprouts - literally rose cabbage), Radieschen (radishes), Rindfleisch (beef)

VOCAB TIDBIT:
Blumenkohl (literally flower cabbage) is cauliflower.   Kohlrabi is the same in German and English.  Just some cabbage trivia!

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Animals:  die Ratte (rat), der Rabe (the raven)

Common Names:  Renate, Reinhart, Reiner, Ralf, Regina,

Cities:  Regensburg, Ravensburg

Ravensburg

Words you might recognize:  der Ring (the ring), Reis (rice)

Verbs:  riechen (to smell); reichen (to reach), rauchen (to smoke), reiben (to rub)

German brands/companies:  REWE (retail, grocery), Ravensburger (toys, games, puzzles)

From the Ravensburger website:

The perfect fit with Ravensburger Puzzles

Since 1891 we've been making the world's finest puzzles in Ravensburg, Germany. Our attention to detail has made Ravensburger the world's greatest puzzle brand! We use an exclusively developed, extra-thick cardboard combined with our fine, linen-structured paper to create a glare-free puzzle image for a quality you can see and feel. Our steel cutting tools are designed and crafted by hand. This ensures that no two pieces are alike and guarantees a perfect interlocking fit. Enjoy Ravensburger quality with this family-friendly activity today!

Projekt: Von A bis Z (Q)

I have been dreading this one:  blogging all things German with the letter Q.....  It is not a commonly used letter auf Deutsch.

Foods:  Quark (a yogurt/cottage cheese style soft dairy product, which is finally reaching the United States); Quitte (Quince fruit - which is a pear-apple type fruit)

Animals:  Qualle (jellyfish)

Common Names:  NONE that I could find

Cities:  Quackenbrück, Querfurt, Quierscheid

Words you might recognize:  none that I can think of!

Verbs: *quetschen (to squeeze); quietschen (to squeek)

German companies/brands:  Quelle (a catalog retailer)

VOCAB TIDBIT
An accordion is sometimes called a "squeeze box" in English.  In German, it is called a Quetschenkommode  (a Kommode is a piece of furniture like a wardrobe).  It is also called a Akkordeon and a Ziehharmonika (ziehen is the verb "to pull" and harmonika is harmonica.)

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Projekt: Von A bis Z (P)

Blogging through the alphabet - AUF DEUTSCH

Letter of the day:  P

FOODS:  *Pfirsich (peach); *Pfannekuchen (pancake); *Pflaume (plum); Pute (turkey); Plätzchen (cookie)

ANIMALS:  der Pinguin (penguin); das *Pferd (horse)

COMMON NAMES:  Peter, Petra, Paul, Pauline, Phillip

CITIES:  Passau, Pegnitz, Pressath, Potsdam

Schloss (castle) Sanssouci - in Potsdam, a city bordering Berlin

WORDS YOU MIGHT RECOGNIZE:  der Pirat (pirate); die Polizei (police); der Poltergeist

VERBS:  plaudern (to chat); packen (to pack); *pflanzen (to plant); putzen (to clean)

GERMAN BRANDS/COMPANIES:  Porsche (vehicles), Puma (athletic wear)

VOCAB TIDBIT: ***********
The German sound "*PF" is used in a lot of words, as evidenced above - here are some more - Pfund (pound), Pfennig (penny), Pfeil (arrow), as well as IN words such as TroPFen (drop) and KoPF (head).

Although the German 'pf' sound is written as two letters, it should be articulated as one single sound. It is called an affricate, which means that is made up of an quick explosion at the start of the sound's articulation - the 'p' stage -, immediately followed by a slow fricative closure - the 'f' stage.

Projekt: Von A bis Z (N)

I haven't given up ... I am going to finish blogging through the alphabet AUF DEUTSCH!
Can you think of any words to add?

Today's letter is "N".   Follow the links to the other letters from the sidebar >>>.



FOODS:  Nuss (nut), Nudeln (noodles)

ANIMALS:  *Nagetier (rodent), **Nashorn (rhinoceros), ***Nilpferd (hippopotamus)

VOCAB TIDBITS:
*Nagetier literally mean gnawing animal.  A perfect way to describe a rodent who chews its way through wood, cloth, wiring, and just about anything to find material for nesting.

**Nashorn literally means nose-horn, which makes perfect sense for describing a rhino.  (Nas' is short for Nase = nose)

***Nilpferd literally means Nile-horse since this species is known to graze along the banks of Egypt's Nile River.  Another word for hippo in German is "Flusspferd" which means river horse.

COMMON NAMES:  Norbert, Nikolas, Nicola,

CITIES:  Nürnberg (Englsih spelling:  Nuremberg), Neu-Isenburg, Neustadt, Nördlingen

Nürnberg's Imperial Castle

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Words you may recognize:  der Name (the name), die Nase (the nose), das Nest (the nest)

verbs:  nehmen (to take), naschen (to snack)

German brands/companies:  NORMA (discount store)