The Gäubodenmuseum is an absolute treasure trove of early German, Celtic, Roman, and Bavarian artifacts. You’ll find the museum in a rebuilt patrician’s house on Frauenhoferstraße, off the main pedestrian zone in Straubing. The museum was recommended to me by our tour bus driver, Bene. (And here’s a travel tip- when the bus driver recommends something, GO!). Now, I’ve always…
Author: karenanne
The Katzenjammer Kids- A German-American Comic for over 100 Years
On Dec.12, 1897, a comic strip featuring a German-American family with a distinctly Denglish accent appeared in a Sunday Supplement of the New York Journal. The Katzenjammer Kids featured twins Hans and Fritz, two boys who were always up to mischief and pranks. The word Katzenjammer basically means “Cat Wailing” or caterwauling, and that loud yowling is a perfect name…
The Candy Bomber – The Berlin Airlift & Operation Little Vittles
Cover Image-C-54 dropping candy during Berlin Airlift c1949 – Public Domain In a 2021 newsletter, I mentioned that I would be writing about the Candy Bomber who dropped handkerchief parachutes with chocolate payloads for the children of Berlin during the Airlift. One of my readers, Dorothea Thunig Smith, reached out to me with a lovely memory. “I lived in Berlin…
Sternsinger in Germany – Children helping Children with Song
Cover image Thomas Guffler, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Sternsinger der Katholischen Propsteigemeinde “St. Peter und Paul” Dessau mit dem Oberbürgermeister von Dessau-Roßlau, Klemens Koschig, vor dem Rathaus In the days leading up to January 6th, the Feast of the Epiphany, you might see groups of children dressed in robes and wearing crowns going house to house. One…
Rauhnächte- In Germany, it’s the Time Between the Years
My mother’s Oma refused to do laundry during the Twelve Days of Christmas. To me, this makes perfect sense. The Christmas Season is just so busy; who wants to do laundry? But the reason goes deeper, to the legends of the Rauhnacht. The Rauhnächte is the time between the years when old memories carry out traditions from pagan times in…
Weihnachts Kinderpunsch Recipe- Warm Christmas Drink for Kids
At Christmas Markets and in homes, you find Glühwein for the adults at Christmastime. (My mother always left a pot on the stove Christmas Eve, and we would enjoy it during the Bescherung, or gift exchange) With warm wine and aromatic spices, it’s such a cozy feeling to hold the mug and breathe in the delicious steam while sipping. But…
A German Feather Christmas Tree- Christmas Nostalgia
My friend Dale recently asked me if we ever set up a Federbaum or German Feather Christmas Tree in our home while I was growing up. No, my father was a nurseryman, and it was a point of pride to have a real Noble Fir standing in the corner of the living room (never a Douglas Fir; the ornaments don’t…
Easy German Cookbook: 80 Classic Recipes Made Simple
Easy German Cookbook was a labor of love. However, sharing German culture and food is what I do online, so this book is the next logical step. Between the covers, you’ll find 80 pages of food memories. These are the foods we ate at home, the foods we ate at festivals, and the foods we reserved for special occasions. Foods…
Simple German Bratapfel Recipe with different Variations
In my old German recipe book, there’s a Bratäpfel or Baked Apple Recipe. The ingredients are apples, nuts, raisins, cinnamon, and honey (and rum). The instructions are to carve the core out of the apple, fill it with the desired filling, and bake. That’s it. No details, no actual amounts. Even the bake time is vague… Bake until soft. I…