10 Best Ads - 2013 (Deutschland)

Which one stands out for you?



10.  Hornbach Home Improvement:  "No One Feels it Like You Do"  (Englischer Werbespruch?)
  9.  Deutsche Bahn Sparkarte 25% sparen
  8.  Herbaria Herbal Tea  (!)
  7.  Hornbach "Es gibt immer was zu tun...Keiner spürt es so wie du."
  6.  RaboDirekt "So direkt kann Banking sein"
  5.  VW (safety spot)
  4.  Hornbach SuperStores (Englisch  Yippi-yai-yai-yippi-yea)
  3.  SMART Fortwo  "So gut im Gelände, wie ein Geländewagen in der Stadt"  Open your mind
  2.  SMART Fortwo (Musik: The perfect look) "Ein Facelift,das jeder gerne hätte"  Open your mind
  1.  SMART Fortwo  "Fast so vernünftig (affordable), wie die Öffentlichen (public means), 
                                                               Nur ohne die Öffentlichkeit (just without the public)"





 

Little Bee, Maja, do tell us about yourself!

Hier ist das Lied.  Schoen, nicht wahr?
Der Saenger, Karel Gott, kommt aus der Tschechische Republik.



Warum weint die kleine Biene Maja am Ende?
Why do you suppose Biene Maja is crying near the end?

Moechtest du die Sendung weiter sehen,?  Es geht um einen Frosch.
Are you interested in seeing what the episode with the frog will be about?

Danke, Jubies!  Uebrigens, hast du das Lied gesungen von der schoenen Helene Fischer gehoert?



Leider sehe ich keine Zeichentrickfilme, nur diese zwei Lieder.
(Unfortunately, I can't find any of the actual 10-11 minute long episodes to post, just these 2 songs.)

Hier ist Helene Fischer schon wieder:

http://deutsch-heute.blogspot.com/2014/09/helene-fischer-fur-vw-es-gibt-einen.html

,,Wir VW Fahrer haben es gut.   Volkswagen.  Das Auto."

W er hat die neue Maja gern?  Es schein nur wenige..
Who seems to prefer the newer, thinner version?  It seems only a few...

FluentU Free Account -- I just joined. Join me?

HERE IS A VERSION OF WISE GUYS SONG "LAUTER, LAUTER!"

with the FluentY treatment -- Line-by-line lyrics, under the screen, and it mice type, the English translation.  I've selected all levels of learning, not just "beginners". 

I'll probably show their version of O Tannenbaum soon in class.

This is another example of a FluentY clip --
FROM A COMEDY SHOW IN GERMANY:  Let us know if you think this is funny!

I also JUST HAVE TO POST THE MALEFICENT TRAILER FROM FLUENTY (since Rupert suggested I bring my little granddaughters to see this version of Dornröschen)!

How about THIS CLASSIC AD FOR VOLKSWAGEN?  ITS BEGINNING GERMAN IS EASY TO LEARN FROM!
The screen I copied the URL from isn't directly the film, but rather FluentY's introductory screen.  Select WATCH after reading the blurb.  (I think the Vocab building choice involves a paid subscription.)

So now I'm wondering why I didn't think of starting something like this on Deutsch-heute!?  Isn't this great?!?    Anyway, I set up 2 free accounts under mine in case you'd like to try it out before signing up (for free):  FrauBaker209 ...
  1.  AdiAdler
  2.  WilliWau

Viel Spaß beim Lernen!

Helene Fischer, für VW -- Es gibt einen Helene Fischer Sportsvan

 (mindestens in Österreich = at least in Austria one can purchase this car)

VW Apprenticeships in Tennesee

Marketplace  by Blake Farmer Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - 16:19

Volkswagen brings German-style vocational training to the US

Courtesy of VW

• Story

Courtesy of VW

Courtesy of VW

 

One of the world’s largest automakers has stepped into the fringe of American education. Volkswagen has imported its German-style apprenticeship program to the U.S., and American labor officials hope it might become a model.

“It’s a totally different mindset. It’s a totally different culture,” says Ilker Subasi, who heads the Volkswagen Academy on site at the company’s Chattanooga plant.

Subasi sees a stigma in the U.S. against technical education. But in Germany, more than half of high school graduates go into vocational programs like VW’s. Subasi himself was once a VW apprentice.
Once accepted, the company’s U.S. “mechatronics” students earn a small stipend over the course of three years while learning how to maintain robotics. If they stick with the program, they’re hired with a starting salary of $22 an hour. They also earn an associate’s degree from Chattanooga State Community College and a DIHK certification from the German American Chamber of Commerce, which would allow them to work at German auto plants around the world.

“At first, I was like, ‘Am I going to be pushing around a broom? Am I going to be changing light bulbs?’” recalls Alex Bizzell, a 22-year-old who graduated last week. “It’s been a substantial effort to do it, but now I know exactly what I’m going to do for the rest of my life.”

The VW school is heavily subsidized by the state of Tennessee as part of an incentive package to bring the automaker to the state in 2009. A stadium-sized building beside the plant that builds the Passat houses the classroom space and hands-on learning. 

Inside, a robotic arm two stories tall swings through the air, as a student practices programming machines like the ones used next door. Michael Regan says he tried a year of community college before applying.

“You know, I was never that really into writing and all of that,” he says. “I’m not that big of a writer. I was just always more of a hands-on person. That’s just how I learn better.”  At Regan’s graduation, a top executive told the dozen students he hopes they will ultimately retire with VW.

Some graduates are taking the option to spend a year working at a German plant. Others are deferring their job to finish a four-year degree. Regan starts work immediately – albeit on the night shift.
“Look at the benefits and the future he has with this company,” says Regan’s mom, Sharon. “And that’s why you go to college is to work for a big company – most people – to make a good living and have good benefits. And he’s going to have all that -- at 22.”

Featured in: Marketplace for Tuesday August 19, 2014

Ferdinand Porsche's People's Car: VW "Beetle" (der Käfer)

Designing Cars for Hitler: Porsche and Volkswagen's Nazi Roots

From the Magazine

 By Dietmar Hawranek      21 July 2009

Both Volkswagen and Porsche had close connections with the Third Reich. It was Ferdinand Porsche who designed the "people's car," the legendary VW Beetle, in 1934. Adolf Hitler was so taken with the engineer he declared him "brilliant."

Without Ferdinand Porsche, neither automotive giant Volkswagen nor luxury marque Porsche would exist today. The man who would have a huge influence on German car-making was born in Bohemia in 1875 and completed his apprenticeship in his father's mechanical shop.
 

 While working for the Viennese coach-building firm Lohner, which produced coaches for the court of Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria, Porsche developed an engine that many engineers are once again working on today: the electric motor. A vehicle equipped with the motor was an attraction at the Paris World's Fair in 1900. 

Even at a young age, Porsche enjoyed such a strong reputation that two dictators vied for his favor and service: Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin. But that never seemed to trouble Porsche: He was an inventor and a developer who was interested solely in his designs. In the end, who he worked for was as unimportant to him as the question of whether the projects were of a civilian or military nature. Solving the problem at hand was what mattered to him, not who was paying him.

In World War I, he designed aircraft engines for the army of the Austrian emperor and tractors for heavy artillery. Later on, Porsche developed sports cars for Daimler in Stuttgart, before founding an engineering firm with his son Ferry in Stuttgart, which developed cars for two German car and motorcycle makers, Zündapp and NSU.
In 1932, a delegation from Moscow visited Porsche in his Stuttgart office. Shortly thereafter, Stalin invited him to the Soviet Union for an informational visit. "At first we thought the invitation was so improbable that we had trouble taking it seriously," Ferry Porsche later wrote in his autobiography. "But soon it was made very clear to us that everything was perfectly serious."

Stalin wanted to advance industrial development in the Soviet Union with the help of experts from capitalist countries. He had Porsche taken on tours of aircraft and automobile factories and, in the end, made him an offer to become general director of the development of the Soviet auto industry.  Stalin promised Porsche many privileges and powers. But the German engineer turned down Stalin's offer "after much consideration," Ferry Porsche wrote.
 
'The Brilliant Design Engineer'

It was not the communist dictatorship that had deterred the senior Porsche as much as the language barrier. How could he manage such a gargantuan task, he reasoned, if he couldn't even communicate in his native tongue?

Stalin's offer "could have had a very decisive influence on my subsequent life," Ferry Porsche wrote. His life would not have been the only one affected.

If Porsche had accepted, the VW Beetle might have become the Soviet Union's "people's car." And instead of becoming a symbol of West Germany's post-war "economic miracle," perhaps it would have become an icon of Russian backwardness -- as the Lada did, years later.

When Hitler asked the German automobile industry to develop a "suitable small car" in 1934, Porsche submitted the best design -- and was awarded the contract. At the 1935 German auto show, Hitler was full of praise for Porsche. He said that he was pleased that, thanks to "the abilities of the brilliant design engineer Porsche," it had been possible to "complete the preliminary designs for the German Volkswagen (people's car)."

A new factory had to be built to produce the car, as well as a new town surrounding the factory to house the workers. "Hitler proposed building the factory in central Germany," Ferry Porsche recalled.
The search for the site proceeded from the air. It was to be located near a railway line, canals and autobahn. The site that was eventually chosen was near a medieval castle, the Wolfsburg, after which the city was later named.

Hitler wanted to call the factory the "Porsche Plant," but Ferdinand Porsche was opposed to the idea. Instead, it became the Volkswagen Plant.
 
An Automobile for the Masses
 
Much of the money to build the plant came from trade union assets. To this day, the IG Metall metalworkers' union has a right to an expanded role in the management of the VW Group on the basis of this early use of union money. As a result, VW management cannot move production to a different plant without the consent of labor representatives on its supervisory board.

DER SPIEGEL

 

Keeping it in the family:
The Porsche dynasty.

Berthold Huber, the current head of IG Metall, accused Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking of being "ignorant of history" when Wiedeking planned to acquire Volkswagen and transform the group into what he called a "normal" company.
After 1933, the Nazis occupied and later confiscated union offices and printing presses, turning them over to the German Labor Front (DAF), the Nazis' trade union organization. The DAF was eventually required to provide the original capital of 50 million Reichsmark to establish the company known as the Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagens mbH (Company to Develop the German People's Car).

But a true automobile for the masses was not produced in Wolfsburg during the war. Only 630 Beetles were made there during World War II -- and distributed to the privileged.

Instead, the factories were used in weapons production, to manufacture tank chains, mines and an all-terrain vehicle that came to be known as the Kübelwagen ("bucket-seat car"). Thousands of forced laborers were later used, including Jews from concentration camps and prisoners of war, mostly from the Soviet Union and Poland.

'Cheap Eastern Workers'
 
Porsche's son-in-law, Anton Piëch, began managing the plant in 1941. In his study "The Volkswagen Plant and Its Workers in the Third Reich," the German historian Hans Mommsen writes: "In the summer of 1943, Anton Piëch bluntly declared that he had to use cheap Eastern workers in order to fulfill the Führer's wish that the Volkswagen be produced for 990 Reichsmark."

In the early 1990s, this part of the history of the VW Group caught up with Ferdinand Piëch, the son of the former plant director Anton Piëch. Ferdinand Piëch, the head of Audi, was trying to rise to the top of the Volkswagen Group.

Piëch, who had pushed aside a number of executives along his career path, had his share of enemies. Some of them spread the rumor that Piëch was incapable of being the head of VW, hinting at the headlines it would produce in the important US market if the son of the former Wolfsburg plant director, who had used forced laborers, became the head of the modern-day VW Group.

Ferdinand Porsche himself served Hitler during the war as the head of his tank commission. He supported Hitler's power and profited from the regime. Nevertheless, Mommsen believes that "the question as to the extent to which Porsche understood the criminal character of the regime he served must remain open." 

 

For Mommsen, Ferdinand Porsche is "the prototype of the expert interested solely in technological matters." An Allied investigative commission later declined to file charges against Porsche, although he, his son Ferry and his son-in-law Anton were imprisoned in France for several months.

When Ferdinand Porsche died on Jan. 30, 1951, he left behind an estate distributed across two businesses: the design engineering firm in the Stuttgart suburb of Zuffenhausen, which would later develop into the Porsche sports car company, and the Porsche dealership in Salzburg, Austria, which would become Europe's largest car dealership.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan