Christmas Market

A Christmas market, is a street market associated with the celebration of Christmas during the four weeks of Advent. These markets originated in Germany but are now being held in many other countries. The history of Christmas markets goes back to 1434. The Christmas markets of Bautzen, Frankfurt and Munich were even older. The Vienna "December market" was a kind of forerunner of the Christmas market and dates back to 1294

In southern Germany and Austria it is sometimes called a "Christkindlmarkt" (German languaje literally meaning "Christ child market"). Generally held in the town square and adjacent pedestrian zones, the market sells food, drink, and seasonal items from open-air stalls, accompanied by traditional singing and dancing. On opening nights (and in some towns more often) onlookers welcome the ‘Christkind’, or boy Jesus, acted out by a local child.

Popular attractions at the market include the Nativity Scene, Zwetschgenmännle (figures made of decorated dried plums),Nussknacker (carved Nutcrackers), Gebrannte Mandeln (candied, toasted almonds), traditional Christmas cookies such as Lebkuchen and Magenbrot(both forms of soft gingerbread) . Many other handmade items, toys, books, Christmas tree decorations and ornaments (and in recent years less useful gadgets) can be found at a Christmas Market.

         

Hello everyone and welcome to a new information on Germany, this time on its gastronomy is an interesting paragraph which explains how food is German and as they prepare

German cuisine
reminds us of American food in its emphasis on meat and potatoes, but the focus on sweet and sour flavors is strictly German.
Sweet and Savory
A Taste for the Tuber
Meat is Major
Popular sweet and sour dishes like sauerbraten(which combines a sour marinade with a sweet sauce) reveal a taste for flavors that hearken back to medieval cooking, when such combinations were popular across Europe. Vinegars, sugar, and fruits provide popular piquant sauces.
The German love of potatoes--enjoyed in salads, dumplings and pancakes--is rivaled only by the Irish. But it wasn't always so. In the mid-1700s, Frederick the Great of Prussia demanded that dubious peasants plant the curious kartoffel. Fondness followed, but gradually.
Roasted meats (braten), schnitzels, and sausages (there are more than 1,000 varieties) are star players of the German dinner plate. The prominence of meat-eating in German culture goes back to ancient times: Romans derided Germanic tribes for their vigorous meat consumption.

Economy

This is a  news and I found in the New York Times is a text that says or talks about the economy in Germany.

Merkel Raises Turks’ Hope Of European Union Entry

BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany arrived in Turkey on Sunday for talks with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, holding out hope for new impetus in the stalled negotiations for the country to join the European Union

 “In recent times, negotiations stalled somewhat and I am in favor of opening a new chapter in order to move forward,” Ms. Merkel said in her weekly podcast, broadcast on Saturday.

She began her tour on Sunday with a visit to German troops who are deployed along the Turkish border with Syria.

There is significant skepticism within Ms. Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union about Turkish membership in the European Union, but as Turkey has continued to grow and the economies of the bloc have stagnated, the dynamic has begun to change.

Germany and Turkey are bound tightly by the large population of Turkish guest workers who came to work in West German factories in the 1960s and remained. In addition, Turkey is one of Germany’s most important trade partners outside of the European Union, with an annual exchange of goods worth roughly $40 billion.

The Protestant Reform

 Martin Luther

 

 

 Martin Luther publicised The Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 in Wittenberg, challenging the Roman Catholic Church and initiating the Protestant Reformation. A separate Lutheran church became the official religion in many German states after 1530. Religious conflict led to the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), which devastated German lands. The population of the German states was reduced by about 30%. The Peace of Westphalia (1648) ended religious warfare among the German states, but the empire was de facto divided into numerous independent principalities. In the 18th century, the Holy Roman Empire consisted of approximately 1,800 such territories. From 1740 onwards, dualism between the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy and the Kingdom of Prussia dominated German history. In 1806, the Imperium was overrun and dissolved as a result of the Napoleonic Wars.

 

 

Science and technology

Main articles: Science and technology in Germany and List of German inventors and discoverers

Germany's achievements in the sciences have been significant, and research and development efforts form an integral part of the economy The Nobel Prize has been awarded to 103 German laureates. For most of the 20th century, German laureates had more awards than those of any other nation, especially in the sciences (physics, chemistry, and physiology or medicine).

The work of Albert Einstein and Max Planck was crucial to the foundation of modern physics, which Werner Heisenberg and Max Born developed further. They were preceded by such key physicists as Hermann von Helmholtz, Joseph von Fraunhofer and Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit, among others. Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays and was the first winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. Otto Hahn was a pioneer in the fields of radioactivity and radiochemistry and discovered nuclear fission, while Ferdinand Cohn and Robert Koch were founders of microbiology. Numerous mathematicians were born in Germany, including Carl Friedrich Gauss, David Hilbert, Bernhard Riemann, Gottfried Leibniz, Karl Weierstrass, Hermann Weyl and Felix Klein. Research institutions in Germany include the Max Planck Society, the Helmholtz Association and the Fraunhofer Society. The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize is granted to ten scientists and academics every year. With a maximum of 2.5 million € per award it is one of highest endowed research prizes in the world.

Germany has been the home of many famous inventors and engineers, such as Johannes Gutenberg, credited with the invention of movable type printing in Europe; Hans Geiger, the creator of the Geiger counter; and Konrad Zuse, who built the first fully automatic digital computer. German inventors, engineers and industrialists such as Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, Otto Lilienthal, Gottlieb Daimler, Rudolf Diesel, Hugo Junkers and Karl Benz helped shape modern automotive and air transportation technology. Aerospace engineer Wernher von Braun developed the first space rocket and later on was a prominent member of NASA and developed the Saturn V Moon rocket, which paved the way for the success of the US Apollo program. Heinrich Rudolf Hertz's work in the domain of electromagnetic radiation was pivotal to the development of modern telecommunication.

Germany is one of the leading countries in developing and using green technologies. Companies specializing in green technology have an estimated turnover of 200 billion €. Key sectors of Germany's green technology industry are power generation, sustainable mobility, material efficiency, energy efficiency, waste management and recycling, and sustainable water management.