Lifestyle

Parks

Parks are found around everywhere and oftentimes offer insight into society. But how do we use them? How do they differ from one place to another, from the United States to Germany? We invite you to join us on a multimedia journey through parks!

City contours
Groovy, individualist and friendly is what Hamburg is all about

Rumour has it that the residents of this former Hanseatic League city between the Alster and the Elbe rivers listen to sea shanties, eat “Labskaus”, and are fairly taciturn. And there’s some truth to that, of course. But people from Hamburg are also musical polyglots, march to the beat of their very own drums, and have an unvarnished view of their history. Author Ingo Scheel takes us on a tour of the “Tor zur Welt” (gateway to the world). 

Frankly ... integrated
Of seasons and contrasting cultures

Coping with the stress and challenges of Covid-19 and responding to seasonal changes bring out the starkest contrasts in human behavioural patterns and cultural practices. An observation by the Kenyan writer Dominic Otiang'a.

City contours
“Dit is Berlin”

Berlin has a reputation for being loud, non-conformist and just a bit rude. Our author Nele Jensch looks into what the German capital is really like as she takes readers on a tour of the city where you can see more in one go around the block than elsewhere over the course of year. 

Frankly … social
Language, science, art – and me

Observations in the library: people sitting everywhere – working or studying. One student glances over noticeably often. Why’s she doing that?

Frankly … social
Little Gestures

Speaking from behind a mask – you often can’t understand much. So people find new ways of communicating. Maximilian Buddenbohm has been watching them.

Frankly … social
The complication paradox

New rules and procedures are making everything more complicated – for instance when you want to buy an ice cream. On the other hand: couldn’t it just be really straightforward?

Frankly … integrated
Of changing times and gender roles

On the occasion of the 45th International Women`s Day, Dominic Otiang’a critically examines the emergence of gender roles in different societies and poses the question “What is freedom, and who defines it?”

Frankly … social
Cake and Corona

The world’s gone crazy, there’s barely anyone on the street. Is it this situation that led a businessman and a homeless woman to share an unusual experience?

City contours
“Dit is Berlin”

Berlin has a reputation for being loud, non-conformist and just a bit rude. Our author Nele Jensch looks into what the German capital is really like as she takes readers on a tour of the city where you can see more in one go around the block than elsewhere over the course of year. 

Frankly ... Posthuman
What do we know about the Coronavirus?

The Coronavirus, or more accurately, Covid-19, is sweeping across China and causing global alarm. What do scientists know about the virus so far?

City Contours
Bremen isn’t Hamburg – but so what?!

No more than a traditional Hanseatic city with a hotly disputed beer? This port city has many more surprises in store than just four musical animals and the Weser River. Our author Hinnerk Köhn thinks Hamburg, Cologne and Berlin would do well to take a page out of Bremen’s book.

City contours
Eco-city with a bath for ladies

Freiburg is known throughout Germany as a green city. Our author Gina Kutkat explores the sunny town in the Breisgau Region to see what this means. Along the way she uncovers spots with a unique flair and open-minded inhabitants, while underscoring contours not visible at a first glance.
 

Frankly … integrated
The pestilence, the myths and realities

Almost six months have passed since COVID-19 was first noticed as a novel, unknown disease. Half a year later, the virus has caused a global pandemic. Thousands have died. Dominic Otiang’a takes a closer look at how Germany reacted - individually, and as a society.

City Contours
Munich is conservative? Traditional? Boozy?

Well, which is it then? Come and explore the Bavarian capital with us – also against the grain. We give you an outline of the classic places, communities and events that are an intrinsic part of the city profile – and we redraw the contours by challenging a few clichés.

Frankly … social
Memory, disgust and habits – observations during lockdown

How can a stair rail provoke revulsion? What’s remarkable about a traffic jam? Why is something that until recently would have been a comedy gag considered normal these days? – Day-to-day differences in corona times.

Children’s birthday parties in Germany
Classics like the sack race and marble cake

In Germany, a traditional children’s birthday party includes Topfschlagen, literally ‘hitting the pot’, and egg-and-spoon and sack races. Jonas is looking forward to playing the classic games and a delicious birthday feast to celebrate turning four. 

Vlog
On the road with Rahel in … Cologne

What are the people of Cologne doing to make their city a better place to live? Rahel was out and about for you to find out – and answer your questions!

Frankly ... Berlin
Among dogs

There are 100,000 dogs living in Berlin – our columnist Gerasimos Bekas knows them all. Today he grants you exclusive insights into the world of the disturbed residents.

Martha Dalton
Understanding Germany: Why do you have free tuition?

Martha Dalton, a reporter at “The Big Pond” partner station WABE in Atlanta and a participant in the Close-Up 2019 journalist exchange, finds out more about how the German education system works.

#MyJob
“Motivating young people to keep going”

Amine El Aryf came to Germany in 2011 because of love. A Moroccan national, he has been involved in the organisation of entry qualifications for refugees and young people in Berlin since 2017. The fact that he took up a training role is partly to do with the weather in Germany.

#MyJob
“Empathy is important”

Administering medication, measuring blood pressure and continually asking patients how they’re feeling: nurse Samed Qoshja has plenty to keep him busy in his job. Originally from Albania, he has been working at the Berliner Charité since 2017 – and Germany already feels almost like home to him.

On the road with Rahel in Bochum
On one and four wheels

How to drive without harming the environment? Where to get a drill, waffle iron or unicycle without constantly consuming? Rahel was on the road in Bochum – and found answers. With people who identify with their city’s past, but also turn their attention to the future.

Fun Facts and Phrases
Wiesn Vocabulary

Sound like a true Münchener while you’re Prost-ing with your friends! Our vocabulary list contains the most important words and unique Bavarian expressions you’re likely to encounter while stumbling around the Oktoberfest. Enjoy, Gaudi!

#nurinmeinersprache
UNIQUE WORDS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

What does the Greek word "filotimo" mean? Or the Dutch "uitwaaien"? Each language has unique words that have no direct translation. They express special feelings, describe typical situations or stand for personal qualities.

Granny Trude
Our daily bread

Granny Trude bakes her own bread – and she can give you some tips on how to make bread last longer and all the cool things you can do with leftover crusts.

Everyday life
“Let’s talk about food!”

How has eating culture in Germany changed? In this conversation grandfather and granddaughter explore what separates and what connects the generations.

Shara Tibken
Nine things Americans don’t know about Germany

Germany is not all lederhosen and pretzels, but that’s what many of us picture before our first visit. Shara Tibken can confirm this, because she thought so, too. 

City traffic
The Modern A to Z

Getting around the city could be so easy if it weren’t for everyone else on the road. Here is an A to Z of the most important drivers and riders you’re likely to encounter in the average urban environment.

Working in summer: juggler
“What remains after the show is exhilaration”

The Berlin juggler DJuggledy has been touring the world for more than fifteen years – and has become a big success. On the road, he says, it’s all about one thing: performance.

Frankly ... integrated
Join me in the beer tent

Dominic Otiang'a persuades us to go to a German beer tent with him. No Bavarian beer tent, but one with African guests in Bavarian costume.

On the road with Rahel in Berlin
Gardens and Heroes of the Capital

Community gardens in the urban jungle and wheelchair-accessible cafés: Rahel was out and about in the capital for you – and found out how sustainable Berliners are.

Frankly … social
How people introduce themselves in Germany

People in Germany tend to give their first name when introducing themselves – and then immediately say what they do for a living. This is far from straightforward for our columnist Maximilian Buddenbohm.

Tourism
Undiscovered Germany

As a holiday destination, Germany attracts visitors from all over the world because of its rich cultural and natural heritage. But what does Germany have to offer besides Cologne Cathedral, the Semper Opera House and Schloss Neuschwanstein? Check here to discover sights that you may not have been aware of. 

Life as a digital nomad
When the world is the better office

Working on a train in India, video conferencing on Skype from a beach in Thailand, enjoying an after-work apéritif in a new city every week – digital nomads make the most of the new technologies to see the world, earning their daily bread as they go.

Urban planning
After the Wall: Berlin’s Urban Planning Dilemma

Modern-day development projects vs. trailer parks and teepees: where the Wall once divided Berlin in half, the city's housing culture is now torn between memory and modernity, nostalgia and progress.

Carnival in Germany
The fifth season – jesters, music and dancing

Germans are reputed to be a serious and disciplined people. But at least once a year, large parts of the country really let loose. Here is all you need to know about the wildest of all wild German festivals. 

Atelier and Ausbau buildings
How Leipzig Is Reinventing Housing

To keep Leipzig affordable for its own residents, the city promotes alternative living and working spaces. It has now become a sort of urban laboratory experimenting with new and unusual models of collective, cooperative and solidarity-based housing.

Celebrating the currywurst
The curried sausage, an icon of German cuisine

In addition to roast pork with dumplings, a pork joint with sauerkraut, and potato salad, no list of German national dishes would be complete without the humble currywurst or curried sausage. The spicy snack was invented 70 years ago.

Cycling in Berlin
Between lifestyle and life-threatening

Cycling – for many Berliners, that means a lifestyle choice, the ideal form of transport and a steadfast belief that even 200 years after its invention, the future belongs to the bicycle.

Explanatory video
Germany – Nation of tenants

Germans prefer to rent rather than buy a flat. Our video explains why.

Muslims in Germany
“I am a German potato”

Ramadan, prayer breaks and no alcohol: young Muslims in Germany are living their faith in many different ways. Our young interviewees talk about integrating religion into their daily lives and how the outside world responds.

City and country life
Town mouse or country mouse?

Everyone has their own idea of the best place to live. Goethe.de/kultur asked four people why they have chosen to live in the countryside or in the city.

Kafenio
In the morning a café, at noon a barber

Coffee houses – you think of Vienna, of hours buried in thought in the midst of great minds. But in Greece, the coffee house, there called “kafenio”, was a place for not only intellectual encounters but also a hairdressing salon, post office and greengrocer.

Squatters
Civil unrest in Germany

Affordable housing has become scarce in many German cities, where skyrocketing rents are displacing low-income residents to the outskirts. The problem is by no means new though: In the 1970s and 1980s, people in Germany waged fierce battles against investors, building by contested building.

Cultural heritage
Heritage Parkour

Imagine climbing to the top of the Acropolis, running along the flanks of the sphinx or balancing on the gable of Cologne Cathedral. Parkour as cultural mediation is the focus of a pilot project. 

Generation Z on the silver screen
The universal magic of youth

Who are they and how do they live? The advertising and media world has discovered a new target group: Generation Z, fully digitalized since birth, is coming of age. But on screen they are (still) representing the lives of Millennials.

Public space
“Cycling is a seismograph of urbanity”

What will the city traffic of the future look like? In the exhibition Ride a Bike! Reclaim the City, the German Architecture Museum in Frankfurt shows why there is no way around the bicycle.

Literature

Society

Art

Media and Technology