Karl May might be the best-selling German novelist that most Americans never heard of. May’s stories of the American West have brought frontiersmen and Native Americans to life in Germany since 1893. For Germans of a certain age, Old Shatterhand and Winnetou are as familiar as Harry Potter, Ron, and Hermione are to my kids. The number of books sold…
Author: karenanne
Frau Holle- Grimm Fairy Tale, Legend, and Goddess
, Frau Holle Cover Image- Nickge4, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons When it snows in Hessen, people say Frau Holle shakes out her feather beds. Thanks to Grimm’s Fairy Tales, we all have a mental image of an old woman airing her bedding out the window. But the story of Frau Holle goes further back in German history; she…
Chocolate and Pear Cake Recipe Schoko-Birnen Kuchen
One of the things I love about German baking is how they mix fruit and cake so easily. (Maybe it’s to lessen the ‘guilt’ of eating cake? You can honestly say you are getting your daily allotment of fruits too.) The first time I saw this Chocolate and Pear cake I thought… hmmm, it looks like a version of a…
The Gäubodenmuseum- 7000 years of History in Straubing, Germany
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…
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…