Intelligence Corps: GERMANY's facts, figures, stories & secrets

[Hellenstone]

Hello Raiders,

I start a new topic here based on a freaking and perhaps a bit wierd idea.

Cause we have many different countries servbing in this unit I thought about starting a thread (or hopefully many more) in which we can share news, secrets and all kind of interesting astuff about a specific country.

In my case: GERMANY

 

I'll give you some examples:

# Have some of you ever been to Germany and want to share your impressions and stories 

# Is any one interesetd in visiting germany and needs advice, tips and info?

# Are there any questions some of you would like to ask about Germany?

# A place to share news from the specific country.

# Are there interetsing stories to tell about thwe part of the country you live in?

 

I hope you get the idea...?

 

What di you guys think? Would this make sense or would be interesing for you?

Let me know your thoughts .

 

Greetings from Southern Germany

Pfc. Markus Asal

[J. Miller 1st MRB]

ARGENTINA here  

[Hellenstone]

I will start posting first fun and facts here tomorrow evening (just to tired now...).

[Hellenstone]

So Raiders,

let's give this ago and we'll start with...

 

PART 1 - BASIC FACTS

 

Flag = Black - Red - Gold

 

Coat of Arms = the Eagle ("Bundesadler")

 

Capital = Berlin

 

Time zone = UTC+1 (CET) / UTC+2 (CEST)

 

Area = ~357.000 km2

Highest point: the "Zugspitze" at 2.963 meters

 

Population = ~83.000.000

Density = 232/km2

 

Government style = Federal parliamentary republic

Legislature: Upper house = "Bundesrat"   /   Lower house = "Bundestag"

Constituent states = 16 (called "Bundesländer")

Constitution = "Grundgesetz (basic law)

 

Head of state:

Hightest = The President is the head of state and invested primarily with representative responsibilities and powers ("Bundespräsident")

The second-highest = the President of the "Bundestag" ("Bundestagspräsident")

Third-highest =the Chancellor is the head of government ("Bundeskanzler")

 

Healthcare = world's oldest universal health care system, dating from Bismarck's social legislation of the 1880s

 

Sports = Football is the most popular sport in Germany, the German Football Association ("Deutscher Fußball-Bund") is the largest single-sport organization worldwide

 

Army = the "Bundeswehr" (strength of ~184.000 active soldiers and 81.000 civilians)

 

 

So these are the key figures and facts about the country I live in.

Next we will take a look at 10 funny or strange facts about Germany...

 

Please let me know what you think and if its worth to continue this thread!?!?

Edited August 14, 2020 by Asal 1st MRB

[Fielding 1st MRB]

Very cool Asal! Lots of information always great to learn something new. Now very important question is what is the best beer in all of Germany? I know thats a bit selective depending on the person but what would you say is the oldest brewery and or most popular beer?

[Marsden 1st MRB]

Everyone knows best German brew is Jaegermeister

[Hellenstone]

So we will continue straight away with...

 

PART 2 - 10 INTERESTING FACTS

 

1. Germany bakes 300 varieties of bread:

Bread is a vital part of our cuisine and it’s virtually impossible to walk a few hundred meters without finding a tempting bakery. These baeries bake a staggering 300 kinds of breads (not including regional variations) and almost 1.200 kinds of bread rolls and baked goods.

 

2. Germany boasts almost 1.000 varieties of sausages:

The most popular sausage-based dish in Germany is Currywurst, sausages smothered in spicy curry. An estimated 800 million Currywursts are consumed in Germany every year.

 

3. Germany is credited with several important inventions:

Several things inextricably linked with our daily lives were invented in Germany, including of course the automobile, the x-ray machine, the pocket watch, clarinet, gummy bears, the diesel engine, paraffin, automated calculator, aspirin, fluorescent lamp, telephone, Fanta, LCD screen and the pregnancy test. Also, the globally reputed Adidas and Puma are German brands too.

 

4. Germans drink more mineral water than beer:

 

5. The number of breweries in Germany is huge:

In total, there are approximately 1.300 breweries in Germany producing over 5,000 brands of beer. The highest density of breweries in the world is found near the city of Bamberg, in the Franconia region of Bavaria with four breweries and only 1,352 citizens.

 

6. Germany has an unbelievable number of castles:

The German landscape is dotted with over 20,000 castles. Many of these date back centuries and the vast majority are open to the public. Some of the castles house restaurants, hotels, cafes, museums, while a few are even up for sale.

 

7. Almost everything is closed on Sundays:

Except church and gas stations. But don’t expect to get shopping done on "Ruhetag", or “quiet day.” In fact, even loud noises like drilling on Sundays are also illegal.

 

8. Germany has worlds highest church tower:

The Ulm Minster in Ulm is today the world's tallest church, at 161.5 meters. People can take the church's 768 steps to 141 meters above the ground.

 

 

9. Worlds third hightest number of Nobel laureates:

Overall 108 Germans have been awarded the Nobel prize in their field, including Albert Einstein, who was born in Ulm.

 

10: You can hear a lot of local languages:

There are around thirty-five dialects of the German language.

 

Edited August 14, 2020 by Asal 1st MRB

[Hellenstone]

@Fielding 1st MRB and @Marsden 1st MRB:

That really is one of the trickiest questions you can ask a German...

Because in the and it like asking "whats the best car"...

 

I'm a huge fan of wheat beer.

So my first advice would be one of my favorite wheat beers, because you don't get this kind of beer anywhere else in the same taste:

 

1. Erdinger Weißbier

Even the alcoholfree version tastes great and it's a superb isotonic drink after sport:

 

And as a second advice I would say "always try to drink local"

So of course our local brewery:

 

2. Nattheimer

[Fielding 1st MRB]

Very cool

[Hellenstone]

@Fielding 1st MRB:

But now back to your 2 others questions:

 

1) Oldest brewery:

"Weihenstephan" near Munich is the oldest still working brewery in the world:

Almost a thousand years ago the Bavarian State Brewery Weihenstephan was the monastery brewery of the Benedictine monks. Then, the Royal Bavarian State Brewery, it is now operating as a state directed enterprise under the control of the Bavarian Government. As the oldest still existing brewery in the world it stands upon the Weihenstephan hill, surrounded by the comparatively very young Weihenstephan science center of the Technical University of Munich.

 

2) Most sold beer in Germany atm is "Beck's":

Brauerei Beck & Co. located in the northern German city of Bremen. In 2001.

As far as I know there is or was an US version of Becks available, but I don't know anything about its availability or existence.

 

[Marsden 1st MRB]

A Jaeger a day keeps the doctor away though

[Hellenstone]

@Marsden 1st MRB: You are right sir!

Due to the facts that they put 56 herbs in there and that it takes one year until bottling it must be something healthy in there ;-).

And you can keep it longer in your bar fridge than an apple in the world...

 

 

Edited August 14, 2020 by Asal 1st MRB

[Marsden 1st MRB]

Holy shit you knew the song I was quoting!

 

 

This is the other song that has that line:

 

 

[Crafton 1st MRB]

My favorite beer in the world is Weihenstephaner vitus and dunkel. That brewery has been making beer since 1040.

Edited August 15, 2020 by Crafton 1st MRB

[Marsden 1st MRB]

That's a lot of beer making experience in those books.... just one peak at the batch logs could probably teach someone more than they would learn in 5 years of home brewing T.T

[Hellenstone]

So let*s continue out virtual tour around Germany.

Now I want to tell some facts about the area I live and it's inhabitants.

 

PART 3 - LOCAL KNOWLEDGE: SWABIA

 

Have you heard of the Swabians? Most people think the Germans are the ones with Dirndls, Lederhosen and the Oktoberfest. No. These are the Bavarians.

But forget about the Bavarians: I want to talk about Swabia. What? The Swabians?

So here we go:

 

5 Things You Need To Know About The Swabians

1.   There are 8 million Swabians living in Germany. Most of them in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg in the South, some even in Bavaria.

      We call the area we’re living in “Ländle” (dialect form for small land). The capital of the “Ländle” is Stuttgart.

2.  We speak Swabian, a German dialect mostly not understood by other Germans. Example? Jam in standard German is “Marmelade”, in Swabian we call it “Gsälz”. And we love that no one understands us.

     We even have an advertising campaign with the slogan “Wir können alles. Außer Hochdeutsch” which means: “We can do anything. Except (speak) Standard German.”

3.  We can do anything. We invented the car, the newspaper, bras. Albert Einstein was Swabian, we have Mercedes, Porsche and we have the Swabian “Kehrwoche”, a house cleaning tradition which ruins

     every Saturday. But our houses and sidewalks are really pretty clean.

4.  They say the Swabians are the ‘German Scots’. Well, we’re not stingy but one of our leading life mottos is “schaffe, schaffe, Häusle baue” which means: “work, work, build a house”.

     So yes, we are the thrifty and hardworking Germans.

5.  But we also know how to party. Twice a year there’s a big funfair at Cannstatter Wasen in Stuttgart and the one in autumn is the second largest beer festival in the world after the Oktoberfest in Munich.

 

And I haven’t even started talking about the tasty food, the “Spätzle”, the “Maultaschen” or the “Butterbrezeln”…

 

One last thing you have to know about the Swabians: “Net bruddelt ischt gnug globt” which means: Not complaining it’s the biggest compliment you’ll ever likely to get.

[Fielding 1st MRB]

Very great read, I very much enjoy reading and learning a little bit about Germany from these posts keep em coming!

[Hellenstone]

So I think today I'm gonna cover one of the most important issue when traveling or visiting other countries: Food!

 

PART 4 - WHAT TO EAT?

 

This question is really hard to answer because I recommend it the same way with food as with beer_ Eat local! Means the food differs much depending on the area your in Germany.

The Southern area of Germany, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, have what we call a “Deftige Küche”. This means it is very rich food with a lot of taste, meat and is usually quite heavy (= forget your diet).

In Hamburg however you will find a lot of dishes with fish. Hamburg and the Northern parts of Germany are around the coast of the Baltic Sea and Northern Sea, which makes it the perfect place for freshly caught fish. But I think we can state some typical food you can find all over the country and probably you have heard or even tried some of them before:

 

1. Spätzle – Traditional Swabian Egg Noodles:

Spätzle are a kind of pasta, but the dough only consists of eggs, flour, salt and a hint of sparkling water. Instead of sparkling water you can also use beer.

Spätzle are original to the area of South-Western Germany, Baden-Württemberg, but can usually be found on the menu in any German restaurant. Be careful, Swabians are very proud of their Spätzle, so better not call them German pasta. The most famous way of preparing Spätzle as a main meal is to top it with a huge amount of cheese (mountain cheese for the taste and some Limburger for the consistency) which is called "Käsespätzle".

 

2. Schnitzel

The most famous version of Schnitzel is definitely the Wiener Schnitzel. A Wiener Schnitzel is a thinly sliced piece of veal-meat, covered with flour, egg and bread crumbs and then deep fried in oil or a lot of butter. Another tasty version of this dish is the Schnitzel Wiener Art, which is basically the same but with pork meat. So be aware about the difference between a Wiener Schnitzel (veal) and a Schnitzel Wiener Art (pork).

As the name intends originally the Wiener Schnitzel is an Austrian dish (Wien = Vienna).

 

3. Bratwurst

Bratwürste are part of every German barbeque and also differ from area to area. The most famous Bratwürste are for sure the short and thin ones coming from Nürnberg.

 

4. Sauerbraten

To prepare a Sauerbraten you will need some high quality piece of beef and a lot of time. The meat is put in the oven and cooked slowly in its juices for hours and hours.

But the slow cooking in low heat will make the meat incredibly soft and tender.

 

5. Maultaschen

Rumour has it that back in the days some monks, who were not allowed to eat any meat during feasting, covered some meat in a kind of a pasta dough so that God could not see that they are eating meat. This way the German Maultaschen were invented by some monks trying to sneak in some meat without getting caught by their god. No matter if that story is true or not, but believe us when we say that this Swabian dish is another fantastic thing to try while in Germany. Maultaschen are either boiled or fried and come with all kinds of stuffing like pork, beef or even a veggie option.

 

6. Leberkäse

Of course another dish made of pork meat is Leberkäse. Leberkäse is usually rather served as a snack during the day rather than a real meal. Leberkäse like agiant sausage that is put in the oven for a long time, then sliced and served with white bread and sweet moustard.

 

7. Rouladen

If you want to prepare them the traditional way you need some thinly sliced beef, put some moustard, onions, ham and a pickle inside, roll them up and put them in the oven to cook in a sauce for some hours.

 

8. Bratkartoffeln

Slice up some boiled potatoes, slice them thinly, put them in a frying pan with a lot of oil, bacon and onions and fry them until they turn dark and crispy.

 

 

Guten Appetit!

Edited August 16, 2020 by Asal 1st MRB

[Fielding 1st MRB]

Looks fantastic! I have had the Sauerbraten before as well as the bratwurst and now I see many other things I very much want to try. 

[Konig 1st MRB]

As a proud German-Canadian, it's really fun to read through this.

Fun fact, my real last name is the second most common surname in Germany with .69% of the population having the same.

The first being Müller with .95%.

 

On the topic of beers, my favourite is Krombacher Pils:

 

A couple of my other favourites include:

 

Wernesgrüner Pils Legende

 

Radeberger Pilsner

 

Bitburger

 

 

 

My family originally comes from a small town called Forchheim which is in the administrative region of Upper Franconia found in the north of the state of Bavaria (Bayern).

 

 

Although it's found just north of Nürnberg (Nuremberg), we've always been a fan of Bayern Munich (not just 'cause they're really good).

 

Unfortunately, I've never visited our home country but when travel resumes, we hope to spend a couple of weeks touring the major cities.

Edited August 16, 2020 by Konig 1st MRB

[Hellenstone]

@Konig 1st MRB: I wondered about your last name since my BCT, but just was unsure if I should ask you about.

Forchheim is around 175km away from where I live.

Interesting that you have no Bavarian beers on your favorite list though.

 

So if you're in the south I would recommend visiting

1. Ulm

2. Stuttgart

3. Nuremberg

4. Munich

 

[MacArthur]

The food looks delicious!

[Hellenstone]

So guys, after having some food, I think it's time having a drink.

 

PART 5 - LET'S GRAB A BEER

 

I don't want to get into brands or anything lik that, because it's a matter of taste.

But probably some basics which could help you when choosing on a german menu or bar card.

 

"Reinheitsgebot"

German beer is brewed according to the "Reinheitsgebot" (let's translate it like German beer law), which permits only water, hops, and malt as ingredients and stipulates that beers not exclusively using barley-malt such as wheat beer must be top-fermented. You probably will see this text on any german beer bottle.

 

There are 4 main beer types you can get in Germany and probably in other parts of the world too:

 

1. Wheat beers => my favorite:

"Weizenbier" and "Weißbier" are the standard German names for wheat beer – "Weizen" is German for "wheat", and "weiß" is German for "white".

You can get them unfiltered called "Hefeweizen"  ("Hefe" is German for yeast) and filtered called "Kristallweizen" ("Kristall" means crystal clear).

Normally wheat beers are much more famous in the South (Bavaria & Baden-Württemberg) than in the North.

 

2. Pale beers

"Pilsener" = a pale lager with a light body and a more prominent hop character, it's the most popular style with around two-thirds market share.

"Export" = a pale lager brewed around Dortmund that is fuller, maltier and less hoppy than Pilsner.

"Helles" = a malty pale lager from Bavaria

"Kölsch" = pale, light bodied, top fermented, beer which, when brewed in Germany, can only legally be brewed in the Cologne region.

"Märzen" = medium body, malty lagers that come in pale, amber and dark varieties, traditionally served at the Munich Oktoberfest, served in the traditional 1-litre "Maß" mug.

"Spezial" = a pale, full, bitter-sweet and delicately hopped lager.

 

3. Dark beers

"Altbier" = a top fermented, lagered beer. It is brewed only in Düsseldorf and in the Lower Rhine region. The translation of this means "Old Beer".

"Bock/Doppelbock" = a very strong, very full bodied lagers that uses dark coloured malts.

"Dunkel" = dark lager.

"Schwarzbier " = a bottom fermented, dark lager beer.

 

4. Unfiltered beers

"Kellerbiers" are unfiltered lagers which are conditioned in a similar manner to cask ales. Always worth a try because they are kind of "handmade", often by small breweries.

 

Prost!

 

Edited August 17, 2020 by Asal 1st MRB

[Hellenstone]

Now that we're had a good meal and a fine glass of beer we can continue our sightseeing tour.

 

Today I want to show you a rather medium sized city.

You guys already know I live in Baden-Württemberg, near the border to Bavaria.

And the city I'm talking about lied exactly on this border and consists of 2 independent cities which are grown together and live and breath like one:

 

PART 6 - THE CITY I LIKE: ULM (& NEU-ULM)

 

Ulm has a special place in my heart because of different private and job reasons.

And I think it's one of the nicest and most beautiful citys in Southern Germany.

 

So some basic facts:

                          ULM                          NEU-ULM

Inhabitants:        ~126.000                  ~59.000

Area:                  118km²                      81km²

Height:               478m                         471m                    

Density:             1.064 / km²                 729 / km²

 

 

So here ar ethe placed to visit if you are in Ulm:

 

1. The "Ulmer Münster"

As said before, Ulm has the worlds highest church tower with 161,53m.

The construction was started 1377 and was finally finished in 1890.

2. The Fisherman's Quarter

The are of the old town that lies directly at the Donau where all fishermen and tanners lived.

Beautiful little streets with plenty of historic houses and restaurants can be seen. A must stop.

 

3. Das "Schiefe Haus" (the crooked house)

The original half-timbered house from the 14th century got its current appearance of a five-storey house after several additions and renovations in 1443.

It was used by the ship   masters from Ulm. Today a beautiful hotel is hosted in there. The front has a slope of 9 to 10 ° which gave the house it's name.

 

4. Stadtmauer (city wall)

Built in 1480, 72 meter long city wall with promenade and original elements from the 11th century.

 A walk on the city wall allows new views of the historic buildings on the city wall and is highly recommended.

 

5. "Nabada"

This unique event is hard to describe,,,

The word "Nabada" ia a swabian expression can can be translated with "swimming the river down".

Once a year when the city annual city festival takes place the Donau is used by thousand s of people than bring their rubber boats ar even special constructed swimming objects to swim down the river.... You have to see it by yourself to believe!

 

6. Bundesfestung (the city fortress)

The federal fortress Ulm in Ulm was - next to Landau, Luxemburg, Mainz and Rastatt - one of five federal fortresses and Europe's largest fortress. These fortresses were financed by the German Confederation (hence the name) and, in addition to numerous state fortresses, were expanded or rebuilt in the 19th century and completed in 1859. With a polygonal main wall of around 9 km, Ulm had the largest fortification of the 19th century.

 

7. Ratiopharm Arena

Home of the local basketball team the Ratiopharm Arena hosts many sport and other events throughout the year.

Visiting a home game of the basketball team is highly recommended, the atmosphere is absolutely crazy at every game cause both cities love their common team.

 

8. Magirus

Magirus was a company from Ulm that manufactured equipment for fire brigades and commercial vehicles.

Conrad Dietrich Magirus was the founder and first in command of the Ulm Volunteer Fire Brigade and was involved in the construction of fire fighting equipment. He is considered the inventor of the mobile fire escape. Magirus then founded his own company in 1864, which he called the C. D. Magirus Fire Brigade Props Factory.

Today Magirus is world leader in manufacturing of turntable ladders and builds the world highest turntable ladder with a cage floor height of 68m.

Although the grounds are closed to the public it is possible to book a visiting to the plant and the Oldtimer Club museum.

 

 

 

Hope to see you one day in Ulm.

Edited August 21, 2020 by Asal 1st MRB