Ask Ecthy anything - about Germany!

[Barnabas]

I think it is

like the "ee" in "see" + a more guttural "h" as in hatred, or if you know spanish "j", then like that.


Volga germans were invited into Russia by Catherine the great, who was a german herself

[BeBMan]

The "ch" is similar to "sh" - though only *similar*, it's actually slightly different. But difficult to describe.

If that didn't help

[Nostromo]

Now to the important question. Where's the best place to meet hot Frauleins?

[Ecthy]

Originally posted by Heresson
Ecthy, the map You posted is horrible and completely wrong when it comes to Germans in Poland... If it was true, Poland would have 30-40% german minority, and regions such as Wolyn would be halfly german
Not to mention that it shows Bukowina region as polish, while it was romanian.

1. As far as I can tell the map does not imply a 30-40% minority of Germans in Poland. Way to misread a map.

2. The point was to show the accent regions in today's Germany, to HELP YOU

3. You may be right about the Bukowina and Volga points.

I understand Wycoff is a harder nut to crack than I thought. But here comes...

[Ecthy]

Originally posted by Wycoff
Style doesn't answer this riddle. Bavarian beer is good from across the board-from pils to bocks to hefeweizens to märzens to helles etc. There are many great Bavarian breweries-Weihenstephaner, Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr, Paulaner, Hoffbräu München, Spaten, Klosterbrauerei Weltenburg, etc.

I enjoy pilsners. Jever is my favorite (it comes from extreme Northwest Germany-Friesland). Bremen, though, makes terrible beer that is mass produced and shipped to the U.S. Becks and St. Pauli Girl are the two most common German beers to be found in the U.S., and they're terrible examples for their style. They're terrible examples of Pilsner, and can't compare to good German Pilsners like Jever, Paulaner, Weltenburg, and others. (As a side note, I can't believe that you've never heard of St. Pauli. It's in practically every store in the U.S. Maybe it's brewed especially for us and isn't shipped to the rest of Germany. I don't know-I never looked for it when I was in Germany)

By the way, Hefeweizen isn't very popular in the U.S. Most people have never had it. I really like it (though having it fresh in Bavaria ruined it for me... the bottles that we get in the U.S. are old and don't taste nearly as good )

I have another question- What is the most popular beer in East Germany? What is the best beer brewed in East Germany?

Spaten sucks, I had it in Spain. Also, you should try Augustiner some time - it comes as white, pils, as well as "Edelstoff" (fine stuff) whatever this means. Considered the best beer on the world - by its fans. I like it too

As for Bavarian dominance, it is nonexistant in Germany in the fields you mentioned. Maybe they're jzst more prolific at export, but apart from the obvious Augustiner a German wouldn't prefer a Pils from Bavaria to his own regional one. East Germany had some sh!t beer because there were many breweries that worked without a lot of expertise as well as bad quality ingredients. Among those that remain, Radeberger is probably the most spread. Several more brands from the south of East Germany (Hasseröder, Freiberger). Something we do well is black beer, such as Köstritzer or Neuzeller (the Schwarzer Abt style). This one is definitely the most special from East Germany that you can find outside of its own region. It does however not play to the rules ingredients-wise.

Two more questions-Which is your favorite German state? Which is your favorite German landmark?

1. I like the one I've grown up in, which is that of Brandenburg. I have some attitude toward the people here but liked them more since I moved to the capital region, so add Berlin as a favourite state (more so than Brb). Beyond this I can't say that I have a particular favourite. I like Saxony and Hamburg

2. In natural landmarks I've always enjoyed hanging out in the "Elbe Sandstone Mountains", of which the German part is also referred to as "Saxon Switzerland", a rolling and foresty region southeast of Dresden. Lovely place, and they have this nice castle Königstein. If only people there hadn't voted 30% NPD last reginal eelction Apart from that, as for buildings it's also the Berlin TV tower that receives my attention as something strangely beautiful. Partly for kindergarten indoctrination (a GDR landmark!), partly typical new-Berliner attitude: if you don't know the city in its depth there's always the TV tower to like!

What about Düsseldorf? I've heard good things about it.
How about Bremen, Aachen, Schwerin, Augsburg, and Würzburg? These are all on my list for my next tour of Germany.

Dresden is a cool tourist stop for a day trip. The city is pretty run down outside of the rebuilt historical/tourist area. The funny thing is that-despite all that has happened to Dresden-it is still in better shape than many American cities that I've been to (like Morgantown, West Virginia for example)

I thought that Nuremberg was an interesting city. It's definately worth a visit.

Düsseldorf is near Cologne, plus I don't know much about it. Most other places you counted are smaller in size, he asked for big cities. Of course Augsburg and Nuremberg and Aachen are nice places, as are Trier, Magdeburg, Heidelberg. But they're not big places

[Ecthy]

Originally posted by Barnabas
I think it is

like the "ee" in "see" + a more guttural "h" as in hatred, or if you know spanish "j", then like that.


Volga germans were invited into Russia by Catherine the great, who was a german herself

Way to confuse things. The "Spanish" j isn'tpronounced likethe "ch" in "ich". You of course are from South America so you're thinking of "j" as in "ji" or "je", where it may be the same sound. Most Spanish "j" however are pronounced like the other German "ch" that's not in "ich" however, but in "doch".

Also, maybe your way of pronouncing the "h" in "hatred" comes close to the "ch" in "ich", but not mine

[Ecthy]

Heresson, on this map the Bukowina region looks the same. I think you're mistaken and the map is OK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Rzeczpospolita_1920.png

[Lancer]

My German step mother mentioned the other day that the trend of German men marrying Filipinas has made some news in Germany recently. What does the German populace in general think of this trend? What is the bias of the reporting? Are there any english language translations that you know of?

Have you personally noticed alot of Filipinas in Germany?

In the Philippines one sees alot of europeans of whom most are Germans. More than all other europeans nationalities combined, why? Is this addressed in the German media?

[VetLegion]

You didn't answer Asmodean's question.

[LordShiva]

Nor Heresson's frog question.

[Ecthy]

Frogs suck.

Originally posted by Asmodean
What is the general feeling in the West about the East? I.e. are people in the west pissed off about having to donate large sums of money to the East - and the fact that those large sums of money don't seem to actually help, which would mean that further large sums of money will have to be paid for quite a number of years to come?

Asmodean

I can't comment on the general feeling because I'm not a part of the west. I can talk about what goes on in the media and about what west Germans admit to in presence of east Germans.

As far as "large sums of money" are concerned, there's some half-truth about this. The payment consists of several components - partly paid by the taxpayer, partly by municipalities. The private part is paid by every taxpayer, also those in the east. Not sure about the communal part. In the end, it all goes into the federal budget. From the federal budget is then paid structural support for the east. German fiscal law does not even allow direct payment. Nor do west German taxpayers pay any more of this so called "contribution of solidarity" than east German taxpayers. What is true is that there is a certain national economic component of money flowing from the national public funding into the east. There it is spent on lots of different things, but too much has been spent for welfare, IE spent on the market. Since most companies selling goods are west-basd, this part of the sum has flown back into the west German private economy. Other parts have been spent on the infrastructure, some in economic subsidies. All in all, it is said that several % of total German GDP have been invested in the east every year.

What do west Germans feel? Some feel frauded by all the solidarity, especially since nowadays there are towns in the west that are more run-down in publci infrastructure than in the east. Obviously, spending should be focused not by geography but by needing.
Furthermore they feel that east Germans complain too much (Jammerossis) and have too high expectations toward the state, and that this sentiment be without respect to the already paid sums of money.

Some part of them would like to see the partition re-established.

Then on the other hand there's also intra-state balancing, so a poor community in the west might as well be helped by a rich community in the same state, while most states in the east have no such internal gradient.

Also, in my opinion, the monetary feedback is not considered enough in most of these "equations".

[Provost Harrison]

Mmmm, German beer

[Ramo]

Why is Germany's fascism index* so high?

*fascism index being the complement of the percentage of people who would jaywalk in situations with no traffic.

[LotC]

What's with all of the scat and animal pr0n?

[Ecthy]

I do jaywalk even when there is traffic, so don't ask me. I do think many social researchers would prefer a slightly more elaborate definition of that index though.