Final Blog Post

PART A

Blog #1

1. URL: http://ge110alexmc.blogspot.com/
2. Q: Why did the blog draw your interest as you started reviewing it, why not?
   A:  The pictures were just about the only thing that drew my attention in. Other than that many of his posts were too wordy for me to want to read and the blog itself rather bland.
3. Q: How much care did the blog author show for her or his blog? How can you tell?
   A: He obviously cared enough to make sure he had every blog post. Each post seemed to cover the topic at hand well. No real effort was made to make the blog look very appealing, though.
4. Q: How would you rate the overall informative quality on a scale of 1-5 (five is high)
   A: A solid 4 or 5 for sure.
5. Q: How would you rate the readability of the blog on a scale of 1-5 (five is high)
   A: I would say a 3 because of the, at times, very long posts and lack of color. It seemed too dry for me to give the readability of the blog a 4 or 5. Wording and material made sense, however. The blog itself was just to boring looking to keep me concentrated of reading it.
6. Q: Compared to your own blog, is the reviewed blog better, the same, or worse?
   A: I would say it was any worse than my blog but some effort towards making the blog look a little better would not have hurt. The blog still covered all of the material thoroughly.

Blog #2

1. URL: http://ge110mariamu.blogspot.com/
2. Q: Why did the blog draw your interest as you started reviewing it, why not?
   A:  At first glance the blog makes you want to read it. It looked like effort was made to make the blog look appealing. However, as you continued to read, some of the text was very hard to read because it blended in with the background.
3. Q: How much care did the blog author show for her or his blog? How can you tell?
   A: It seemed like she wanted to make sure that here blog looked presentable which always helps the reader actually want to read the blog. It was hard at some points to read the text though because she neglected to change the font color (which I know from experience is not always that easy to do). I also could not tell if all of the blogs posts were there. maybe because some posts did not have titles.
4. Q: How would you rate the overall informative quality on a scale of 1-5 (five is high)
   A: From what I could see, the posts that she had covered the topics well. I would give the information quality a 3 because I don't think all of the posts were there.
5. Q: How would you rate the readability of the blog on a scale of 1-5 (five is high)
   A: I would rate the readability as a 3 also because there were three or so paragraphs that I could read due to the font color blending in with the background.
6. Q: Compared to your own blog, is the reviewed blog better, the same, or worse?
   A: I don't really want to say mine was better, however, it would have been nice to be able to read everything (assuming she did post all of the blogs). She did take the time to make the blog look halfway decent which shows that she cared more than a lot of the people that just threw everything up.

Blog #3

1. URL: http://ge110mikere.blogspot.com/
2. Q: Why did the blog draw your interest as you started reviewing it, why not?
   A:  The blog was very organized and informative. The effort made to make the blog stand out drew my attention. Many of the posts were very long and wordy though. this led to me just wanting to skim over the text as opposed to actually reading it.
3. Q: How much care did the blog author show for her or his blog? How can you tell?
   A: I feel like that he definitely cared about this blog. The length of the posts and the amount of effort made to make the blog look good shows this.
4. Q: How would you rate the overall informative quality on a scale of 1-5 (five is high)
   A: I would rate the informative quality as a 5.
5. Q: How would you rate the readability of the blog on a scale of 1-5 (five is high)
   A: I would rate the readability as a 4 or 5 only because of the length of some of the blogs.
6. Q: Compared to your own blog, is the reviewed blog better, the same, or worse?
   A: I would have to say that on the 'informative quality' scale, his blog was better. He definitely covered the topics well where as I may have been too short with a couple of my posts.

 

PART B

 

During my time in this class I saw that there was much more to the German culture than I had previously thought. I learned not just about the culture today, but how the present German culture came to be. Before the class I was unaware that there was ever a split within the country (East and West Germany). I was also unaware that the Germans had played such a large role in the progression of technology during the 19th century.

Overall I felt that the way that the class was set up allowed for a fun and simple way to make the best out of a nearly three hour class. the presentations were enjoyable and I feel like the grading was always fair.

I did like the fact that attendance was always taken. It seemed to keep the students who cared about their grade honest. Plus, most of the assignments required attendance anyways.

In all honesty I can't say I did not like anything about the class. It was enjoyable for the most part and the professor knew what he was talking about.



Baaden-Mienhof Group

The Baaden-Mienhof Group (or Red Amy Faction) was a communist guerrilla group formed by Ulrike Meinhof in 1970 that created a resistance against the Germanic "fascist state". Over a course of nearly thirty years over thirty people were killed in a numerous amount of terrorist attacks on German political leaders, police officers and other government officials/facilities.

One reason for their success was the way they operated. Many of the RAF members operated by means of single contact or only knew their members by their codenames. This helped to limit the potential effect of a member being captured by law enforcement. All RAF actions were carried out by active units called 'commandos'. The trained members of the commando were then supplied by a quartermaster in order to proceed with their mission.

Stammheim Prison was erected to specifically house members of the RAF in 1975 and was considered to be one of the most secure institutions in the world. The entire complex was covered with steel mesh. Over fifty spotlights lit up the grounds at night. Snipers and other specialized military forces constantly guarded the rooftops. In addition some 400 officers continuously patrolled the building on foot and by means of the helicopters located on the premises.

In 1977 , Hanns Schleyer, a former officer of the SS and one of the most powerful industrialists in West Germany was abducted in a violent kidnapping. RAF members demanded the  release of eleven their detained members, including those from Stammheim. Ultimately, the demanded were never met and Schleyer was executed on the 18th of October 1977. The course of events that took place during this time became known at the German Autumn.

On 20 April 1998 the RAF finally disbanded and ended all terrorist act on the German government.

Relations to German's Immediate Neighbors in the 20th and 21st Centuries: Austria ralations of the 20th century

Germany-Austria Relations during 20th Century



• 1810's: Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1914) sparks World War I
• Germany joins the war as Austria's ally due to the Duel Alliance of 1879
• Following lass of WWI both Germany and Austria became republics
• Were both greatly affected by Treaty of Versailles (1919) and Treaty of St. Germain (1919)
• Both countries sought to unify Germany and Austria into a Greater German nation (denied by Treaty of Versailles)
• They suffered together after the war.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria%E2%80%93Germany_relations

• Austria-born Adolf Hitler annexes Austria into Nazi Germany (1938)
• Austria became Ostmark (Eastern Region) under Hitler.
• 1945: Austria is removed from the Third German Reich
• late 1940's: Austria creates own government under Karl Renner and Germany is split into the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).
• Austria's split from Germany helps Austrians to regain their national identity
• Cold War Era: both countries continued to co-operate closely in both economy and culture.



Source: http://www.easyvectors.com/assets/images/vectors/afbig/german-austrian-flag-hybrid-clip-art.jpg

Group Members:

Simpson, Slade

Sufficool, David

Vistad, Brandi

Porter, Jonathan

German Inventions and Industries of the 18th/19th Century

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen

• A German physicist who discovered electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength rage that is known today as X-rays (formerly known as Röntgen rays). this took place on 8 November 1895 and since then his findings have earned him a Nobel Prize (1901) and his own element (roentgenium). The discovery of the electromagnetic radiation within the X-ray wavelengths has also allowed people in the medical field to manipulate the wavelengths in order to see into the human body without having to perform surgery (like when you get an X-ray at the doctors office).

Image from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Roentgen2.jpg

Image from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/X-Ray_Scan_van_een_baviaan.jpg

Image from: http://www.rickmadison.com/assets/images/galleries/106/xray1.jpg

Full Presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15k5j28d-Q3xIaj4UA4DxlPoO4jWYY10G6Dz0xvkpIRo/edit

Group Members:

Simpson, Slade

Sufficool, David

Vistad, Brandi

Witthuhn, Tristen

Berlin Calling

Questions

 

1. To Ickarus, drugs are his way of dealing with the physical and mental stresses associated with his work and his constant partying.
2. Ickarus' fans take drugs at his performances because it helps them "enjoy" the atmosphere in a way that is not achievable while sober. their drug choice varies, but the most prominent are the synthetic drugs such as ecstasy, acid and other psychedelics.
3. The subculture Ickarus focuses on drugs because that is the scene of his profession. With the fame comes the parties and with the parties comes the drugs.
4. In the American culture, the people depicted in this movie would have been accepted in much the same way (at least by the supporters of this type of electric music-party based lifestyle). The one difference that I do feel is worth noting, is the way the legal system deals with substance abusers here in the U.S. Ickarus would not have simply been stuck in a mental hospital. he would have been charged with criminal drug possession, fined and forced to go to a rehab if not imprisoned
5. The youth culture depicted in this movie, judging by their heavy drug use, do not seem as though they would be able work to keep Germany an international industrial powerhouse.
6. "Cheech and Chong: Up in Smoke"

 

 

           

            The film, so far, has been surprisingly similar to the American “raver’s” lifestyle. This is because most of the electronic music artists tour around the world and, with that, they form a cult culture that embodies all of the most pleasurable aspects of the party scenes from different cultures.

            One difference that I did notice is the way the legal system deals with substance abusers here in the U.S. as opposed to the way they are dealt with in the film. Ickarus would not have simply been stuck in a mental hospital. He would have been charged with criminal drug possession, fined and forced to go to a rehabilitation institute if not imprisoned. Honestly, the method of dealing with addicts shown in the film seems to be much more useful than the method used in the U.S. Addiction can be seen is a form of mental disability and should be treated as such. If Ickarus would have taken the treatment seriously he would probably realize how wrong the path he is traveling down really is.

            The film is also quite graphic, not just in the nature of drug use and sex, but in what is really happening in the lives of famous artist who succumb to the party lifestyle. Berlin Calling shows that although the lives of the famous artists may seem desirable, they are, in reality, falling apart.  

 

German Music Scene of the 21st Century

The german culture includes much of the same music as in the United States (although the artists are much different). thier music includes various forms of rock and metal, punk, electornic, techno, reggae, and even hip-hop and R&B.

ROCK/METAL

Source: http://cannibalviking.deviantart.com/art/Rammstein-Feuer-Frei-246017470
Video: http://youtu.be/8eM2W56tv2o

• considered by many to be one of Europe's heaviest contributors to the scene
• Neue Deutsche Härte (New German Hardness): a form of Industrial Metal
• Rammstien, Oomph!, Megaherz (very popular bands)
• Goth: notable artists for example are Lacrimosa, Lacrimas Profundere, Sieben Siegel, Xmal Deutschland, Das Ich, Deine Lakaien, Illuminate, Untoten
• Neue Deutsche Todeskunst (New German Death Art): a German death-obsessed style of music
• restricted to Germany where it emerged in the early 1990s
•  Das Ich, Lacrimosa, Relatives Menschsein (populat bands)

ELECTRONIC/TECHNO

Sensation White, a Dance/Trance Event in Germany
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Germany#Popular_music_from_reunified_Germany

• Germany has the largest electronic music scene in the world.
• Kraftwerk: poineer of electronic music in Germany
• Monika Kruse, Marusha, Blümchen and MIA (popular mainstream artists)

REGGAE

• Some popular reggae artists of Germany
• Adé Bantu
• Boundzound
• Culcha Candela
• Dr. Ring-Ding
• Gentleman
• Hans Söllner
• Jan Delay

HIP-HOP/R&B

Source: http://196096.homepagemodules.de/t7f2-Neues-Album.html

• arrived in the early 1980s
• peak of success in the early first decade of the 21st century
• Rödelheim Hartreim Projekt: a rap group from Rödelheim who tried to establish the USA-like rap sound in Germany

Chapter 12 Group Presentation

Baumer is now the only surviving soldier of his seven classmates. He has experienced loss in a way most men his age will never experience. It is because of his experiences in the war that Baumer fears of what would happen if he were to return home now. He believes that there is no way he will fit in with the other men his age as all of the young soldiers, such as Baumer, never had the chance to live a normal, adult civilian life. He feels that "the generation that has grown up after them will be strange to them and push them aside."

Baumer feels quite hopeless and feels that he has nothing left to lose. This causes him to be more careless with his actions on the battle field.

Baumer is killed in action in October 1918.


Sufficool, David
Madsen, Brian