More Changes in Munich

We've attended a couple of really fun public events at the Siemens world headquarters.  From watching Germany destroy Argentina in the 2010 World Cup to sledding down the slope last winter, we've had some fun at Wittelsbacherplatz! Annual events include the Hamburg Fish Market and a Christmas market, as well as special events.

Over the next four year, both Siemens and Wittelsbacherplatz will be getting a major makeover.

A jury including the Siemens CEO and Munich's Mayor have awarded the commission to Danish firm HenningLarsen Architects.  Given the significance of the location and Siemens place as a local leader of industry,  this is a project that will receive great scrutiny.

Architecturally speaking, it will be a headquarters comprised of 6 buildings, linked together to foster communication and creating 6 courtyards which will encourage interaction - both among employees and between Siemens and the city. The 3rd pillar of the plan (after Communication and Interaction) is Innovation, which will utilize Siemens innovations (and I'm sure, others') to construct a building that surpasses most current sustainable building standards. In fact, it's targeted to get a LEED Platinum rating - the highest "green building" rating -, which is rather impressive given that it's a refurbishment and not new construction.  If you're not familiar with the LEED Ratings, you can check out info from the US Green Building Council. (Those look a lot like solar panels on the roof...)

Rendering by HenningLarson Architects

According the architects' site,

The top floor is well-suited for public events such as art exhibitions and allows the visitors to enjoy the skyline of the city while exploring the exhibitions. The public access to Siemens’ new headquarters creates a continuous flow of guests and passers-by and signals that corporate architecture of the 21st century should be open and inviting.

They've done a good job of holding public festivals and events in the plaza, so I'm excited to see what will really be open to the public in the building. I'm sure the courtyards will be open and will have a few nice cafes. But we'll have to see how the public events work with the tight security of most headquarters.

Rendering by HenningLarson Architects

We hope they keep this in the plans:

For more pictures and detailed plans, check out the architects' site.

via ArchDaily

Crazy Projects

I have a new project. It's one part excitement over Oktoberfest and one part looking for a creative outlet.

I'm going to make a dirndl. Or at least to try.

After much debate, I settled on a purple dress with dots, and a bright striped fabric for apron and trim. The brighter purple is just for a fun lining, so it shouldn't show. Luckily, the stores here have a big table or two full of trachten fabrics!

We'll see how it goes...I'll definitely take pictures along the way.  

A Little Friday Fun

A couple of videos about the "trials and tribulations" of life on LA's West Side....

First the original

And the response, Revenge of the Black Prius

I admit that sometimes I do miss Central Market, but I do NOT miss trying to find a parking spot.  Trying to navigate central Munich sidewalks with bags of food on a Saturday can be trying, but it's so much better than crowded parking lots at megastores!

Multiculturalism

The subject of multiculturalism has been a major topic of discussion in Europe over the past year, since the leaders of three of the most powerful Western European states stated publicly that state multiculturalism has failed. 

Angela Merkel kicked off the debate last fall when she gave a speech stating that Germany's approach to multiculturalism had completely failed, largely because it had failed to bring about enough integration (in German).  For David Cameron, Britain's efforts have been a failure because they have not stopped extremism.  Nicolas Sarkozy quickly followed suit, declaring that integration has been a failure and that France has been "too concerned about the identity of the person who was arriving and not enough about the identity of the country" to which they came.

There are too many issues wrapped up in here to really discuss it - immigration, unemployment, deficits, religion, the effect of declining working-age population on the welfare state, party politics, and so on.  And this isn't a blog about politics. But it is a blog about our observations while living in Germany, and particulary one where we like to share observations that break stereotypes.

The official policy here, as elaborated by Chancellor Merkel, is that

[Germany is] an integration country, [where] all people of foreign origin are welcome who are prepared to live according to the laws and values of society, or even become German citizens.

By no means are things here perfect - I'm not sure there's one country in the world that has figured out how to deal with these complex and emotional issues adequately.  And the sad truth is that certain groups have it a lot harder than others.  Coming here as an American with a couple of university degrees and a good job afforded me a pretty simple visa process. I realize it isn't always the case.

But one of the things that most surprised me upon moving here was the diversity.  Part of it is because I live in Munich, a decent-sized city and one that attracts many students and young people looking for education and careers.  Still, the variety of restaurants was shocking, as well as the number of ethnic groceries in the area (Asian, Turkish, and African are the most popular). 

As I lived here longer and started to follow the news, I realized that it went deeper than food and readily available Bollywood DVD rentals.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that immigrants and children of immigrants are becoming accepted here in very prominent positions.  And of course it's hard to forget the 2010 World Cup, where half of Germany's team were immigrants or children of immigrants. Its stars came from Poland, Turkey, Brazil, Bosnia, Ghana, and other lands and was a team of which Germans could be proud.

Even in the US - where we pride ourselves on being a melting pot and somewhere than anyone has the possibility to achieve his or her dreams - it's rare to see national-level politicians who are first or second generation American citizens.  Yet in Germany, which has a much shorter history of mass immigration, the last ten years have seen the election of a number of prominent politicians of Turkish and other descent, including Cem Özdemir who co-heads the Green Party. And this year, we saw Dr. Phillip Rösler (adopted from Vietnam as a child) appointed as both Economics Minister and Vice Chancellor.

This week, something even more surprising happened when Deutsche Bank nominated London-based Indian national Anshu Jain as co-CEO to follow Josef Ackermann. Though widely respected as one of the best in the business, he's neither German nor (yet) a fluent German speaker. (I'd imagine he'll be getting the best language training Deutshe Bank's billions can buy!).  In the context of a US or other global investment bank, this wouldn't be too significant, but the CEO of Deutsche Bank traditionally plays a more informal role as advisor to the government and sometimes as a representative of German industry. Therefore, there has been wide speculation worldwide whether or not a deserving but non-German(speaking) candidate could get the nod.  However, after weeks of succession struggles, the board has appointed the man Bild refers to as "Der Cricket-Spieler mit George-Clooney-Charme" to co-head the bank, along with a German counterpart to handle the political and relationships side of things for at least the first few years. )On a random side note, I know he can't write one from that position, but I would LOVE to read his blog as he moves from the London banking world to run a company in Frankfurt!)

I know it has its problems, the same as almost every large country these days, but I have a hard time saying that multiculturalism has completely failed here.  If Germany is a place where you can come and your children could run a top company or hold a Cabinet-level position, something must be working. 

51 Days til Oktoberfest!!!

We have our trachten ready and the Oktoberfest beers are now in stores.

We learned late last year that Hofbrau Oktoberfestbier was our favorite, when it made it the furthest of any Oktoberfestbier in the Schnitzelbahn Beer Tournament. I say "late" because we realized it after the stores had sold all of their stocks.  This year, we'll be sure to stock up on the good stuff!

Munich Day Trip - Augsburg

Thanks to FIFA holding some of the Women's World Cup matches so near to Munich, we recently made a couple of day trips over to Augsburg.

The first thing to know is that going to Augsburg from central Munich takes almost exactly as long as going to the airport. And up to 5 people can travel there (including public transportation within Munich and Augsburg) for €29 on Deutsche Bahn's Bayern Ticket. 

If you're planning to travel within a region in Germany, these regional tickets are a great, cheap way to get around and good any day of the week. They have them for most regions, though we're familiar with the one for Bavaria. They are not so good for long-distances, however, as they are not valid on the higher speed ICE trains. But to go to Garmisch or Augsburg from Munich (or Lübeck from Hamburg), it's a deal that can't be beat. More info is available on these Länder Tickets (here in English) on DB website. There's a similar Schönes Wochenende Ticket ("Happy Weekend Ticket") that is €39 for up to 5 people on a Saturday or Sunday. It's valid on any local trains (not the ICE) and even includes some lines to Poland.

So, it's quite an easy and inexpensive day trip.

We didn't have time to explore much beyond the Alstadt (Old City Center), but we liked what we saw and we found a wonderful cake shop!

Augsburg is the third oldest city in Germany, founded in 15 BC as a Roman garrison camp under the orders of Emporer Augustus (from whose name the city's is derived).  As it sits at the confluence of two rivers and has access to a passage through the Alps, it retained its significance through the ages for both trade and military reasons.   The wealth brought by the banking and trade in turn attracted artists and musicians, making it a major center in the 15th and 16th centuries.  Today, Augsburg is a bit in the shadow of Munich, but is a regional center for hi-tech industries (naturally, since it costs much less but is very close to large customers in Munich) and for education.

It's a perfect size for a day's walking tour and displays a wide variety of architectural styles.  This brightly painted building was one of my favorites.

The Perlach Tower (a 10th century watchtower) and the Rathaus (17th century).  As with many German cities, there's a nice square in front of the town hall and often many festivals and public events.

We also noticed that many buildings in Augsburg employed painted textures and ornaments, whereas often Munich uses actual sculptures.  There were some really impressive examples of 3D painting, but I found the facade of the Maximilian Museum to be one of the most pleasing.  

For food, we highly recommend stopping at least for cake and coffee at the Kaffeehaus Dichtl on Maximilianstraße.  I'm a little ashamed to say we ate there 3 times on our two visits to Augsburg....but their cakes really are great. So were the ice cream sundaes.  The food menu looked good, though we ended up having the Sunday brunch buffet. I definitely would recommend it - it's a wide variety of items and includes something for everyone. Unfortunately we were too excited about eating our cake to remember to take a photo...

Herr J got a video of one of the street musicians playing the German World Cup song. (it's originally called "'54, '74, '90, 2006" but they update it each year, replacing 2006 with 2010 last year, and even with 2011 for the women's team this year. you can watch the music video...it's catchy)

And finally we took a quick walk through the farmers' market before heading to the stadium.

 

A couple of fun facts about Augsburg: It was occuped by Sweden for a couple of years during the Thirty Years War and has more official holidays than any other German city. (It has its own holiday Hohes Friedensfest, plus all the Bavarian and federal holidays).

I don't know enough about Augsburg to know the story behind this guy. He looks like one of those city mascots that are painted by various sponsors, but we didn't see any other rhinos on the street.  

 

LEGO at the Zoo

I love animals and I love creative LEGO works. The Bronx Zoo in New York has made the ultimate combination - with its Great Summer Zoofari: A LEGO® Wildlife Expedition.

Julie Larsen Maher ©WCSThe zoo has scattered LEGO sculptures of some of their animals throughout the grounds. For the kids, each one has a stamp that they can collect on their LEGO animal passport (kind of like the little checklist they give you on safari!)

Here's the tiger stalking through some grass.

You can see some of the other pictures at Geekosystem, including flamingoes, a bear, octopus, gorilla, frogs, and others.

In addition to the sculptures, the zoo also has days where you can work with the "LEGO Master Builders" to build sculptures with visitors,a nd little stations for kids to build small animal sculptures.

It's on through 30 September.

For those of us here in Germany, the site has a couple sets of instructions on the Zoo's site showing how to build frogs and fish:

Or we can visit the larger than life giraffe (and other things) at the LEGOLAND Discovery Center in Berlin (at Postdamer Platz). We didn't go inside, but did stop to pose with the giraffe. She's huge!! I'm deciding it's a she based on the lovely eyelashes...

 

Or, even better, LEGOLand Deutschland in Günzburg (90 minutes from Munich or Stuttgart). Wow, I had NO idea this existed! And they run shuttles from the train station, making it incredibly easy for a day trip. From MINILAND (a 1:20 scale model of major European cities) to recreations of scenes from StarWars to roller coasters and shopping....Herr J, when are we going???