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SIGN UP IMMERSION DAY MARCH 16

HIER    
METRO WEST IMMERSION DAY 
Sign-Up- T-Shirt- and Workshop- 
Reservation Form
Lincoln-Sudbury, Massachusetts 9-3:30

Wir kommen etwa um 9 Uhr an, durch die Aula-Tuer (nicht Admin), und treffen uns in der Direktor-Halle.

10:15  die Workshops beginnen.
12:00  die Mittagspause
12:45  TRIVIASPIEL
13:00  Nachmittagsprogramm  (Schuhplatteln?  Fussball?  Kinderspiele?)
15:00  Auffuehrungen (Workshops)
15:30  ABSCHIED

Rte 95-128- EXIT 20, Richtung Waltham  Nach 20 West, Richtung Marlboro
                Weiter bis zum Middle - Weston.
                Da kommen die 20- 126 - und die 27 zusammen.
                Folge die 27 nach Norden bis Sudbury
                und das Stadtzentrum.
                Folge Concord Rd  1 Meile. Auf der rechten Seite ist Lincoln Road.
                Dort findet man die Schule.

Dr Schultz -- aus Düsseldorf, mit Ü!

   „Die Stadt hat Raum, sie atmet“  ..  über Düsseldorf

Warum nicht Köln?  München?  -- Sie haben doch auch Umlaute!  Aber sie haben auch Englische Namen  (Cologne; Munich), und gerade das hat Düsseldorf nicht

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: FAZ  von Reiner Burger

Hollywood am Rhein Düsseldorf Unchained

25.02.2013 ·  Christoph Waltz hat seinen zweiten Oscar - und die Stadt kann sich mitgeehrt fühlen. Denn die Filmfigur Dr. Schultz ist ein ehemaliger Zahnarzt aus Düsseldorf. Doch warum ausgerechnet Düsseldorf?  (So, what is it with Düsseldorf and Hollywood?)

 

© dpa Gestatten: Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz, li.), ein Zahnarzt aus Düsseldorf

Bernd Desinger geht dienstlich ins Kino. Als Leiter des Düsseldorfer Filmmuseums muss er schließlich wissen, was auf den Leinwänden der Welt so läuft. 

Also schaute sich Desinger schon vor einigen Wochen den amerikanischen Western „Django Unchained“ an - und war schwer angetan. Das hat vor allem damit zu tun, dass Waltz die Rolle des Kopfgeldjägers Dr. King Schultz „ganz einfach sagenhaft gut spielt“, sagt Desinger. „Ich habe gleich gewusst, dass Waltz seinen zweiten Oscar bekommen würde.“ Doch die Begeisterung Desingers hat einen zweiten Anlass: die Biografie, die sich Regisseur und Drehbuchautor Quentin Tarantino für seine Filmfigur Dr. Schultz ausgedacht hat. 

Dr. Schultz ist ein ehemaliger Zahnarzt aus Düsseldorf. Aber warum ausgerechnet aus Düsseldorf?

© Stadt Gengenbach

Statt Düsseldorf: Tim Burton drehte „Charlie und die Schokoladenfabrik“ zwar in Gengenbach im Schwarzwald. Im Film wurde aber Düsseldorf daraus.

In Hollywood gibt es schon seit einiger Zeit eine immer wieder einmal durchschimmernde Düsseldorf-Faszination. „Düsseldorf, das klingt für viele Amerikaner einfach herrlich deutsch“, sagt Desinger.

Ein früher Beleg für Desingers These vom gezielt eingesetzten Klischee ist der Streifen „Agenten sterben langsam“ aus dem Jahr 1968. Darin sagt ein aus Düsseldorf stammender SS-Mann zu einer Agentin: „Da sitzen wir hier und reden über so etwas Unwichtiges wie Düsseldorf.“ -- Das war natürlich keine Werbung für die Stadt.

„Django Unchained“ dagegen (on the other hand) hat nun zumindest im Subtext eine nette Düsseldorf-Botschaft. Dr. Schultz ist zwar ein ziemlich schießwütiger Mann. Aber er hat definitiv das Zeug zum Helden. Und vor allem (above all) : Waltz spielt wirklich umwerfend (dazzling; staggering -ly). „Viele Leute werden sich fragen: Was ist das eigentlich dieses Düsseldorf, aus dem dieser bemerkenswerte Kerl kommt?“, so Desinger.

Der Leiter des Filmmuseums glaubt, dass der für Amerikaner so exotische Umlaut „Ü“ ein wichtiger Grund dafür ist, dass es Düsseldorf immer wieder in Hollywood-Produktionen schafft.  Anders als für die anderen großen deutschen Umlaut-Städte München und Köln, die im Englischen Munich und Cologne heißen, gibt es für Düsseldorf keine Übersetzung. „Hinzu kommt, dass Düsseldorf für Fremde nicht nur schwer auszusprechen, sondern auch schwer zu fassen ist, weil kaum jemand etwas über die Stadt weiß.“ Für Düsseldorf ist das mehr Vor- als Nachteil. Düsseldorf wird von Filmschaffenden offensichtlich als ein Ort wahrgenommen, der noch aufgeladen werden kann.

Amerikanische Drehbuchautoren lieben das „Ü“

Häufig kommen Filmschaffende freilich ins gänzlich freie Assoziieren, wenn sie an Düsseldorf denken.

• In der aus dem Jahr 2005 stammenden Filmversion des Kinderbuchklassikers „Charlie und die Schokoladenfabrik“ gewinnt der süßigkeitensüchtige Junge Augustus Glupsch eine Reise in eine Schokoladenfabrik. Kurz ist in dem Film auch Glupschs Heimatstadt Düsseldorf zu sehen - die allerdings mit Düsseldorf nicht die geringste Ähnlichkeit hat. Vielmehr handelt es sich um Gengenbach im Schwarzwald. „Charlie und die Schokoladenfabrik“ wiederum inspirierte die Macher der Zeichentrick-Serie „Simpsons“. Sie schufen einen fortwährend Schokolade futternden kugelrunden Austauschschüler - der natürlich auch aus Düsseldorf stammt. 
• Dass die „Simpson“-Leute ihre neue Figur „Üter Zörker“ nannten, ist ein weiteres Beispiel dafür, wie amerikanische Drehbuchautoren Umlaute zur klanglichen Klischee-Bildung einsetzen.
• In Düsseldorf ist zwar schon mancher großer Film entstanden - Wim Wenders drehte „The Palermo Shooting“ in seiner Geburtsstadt, 
• ..(und) Dominik Graf seinen Klassiker „Die Katze“. 

Doch dass Düsseldorf fortwährend im Fokus der internationalen Filmbranche steht, lässt sich nicht behaupten. Immerhin werden in Düsseldorf, wo es viele PR-Agenturen gibt, häufig Werbestreifen gedreht. Auch Fernsehserien entstehen regelmäßig in Düsseldorf. Und weil Hollywood ständig auf der Suche nach unverbrauchten „Locations“ ist, die nicht schon x-mal im Kino zu sehen waren, schaffen es markante Teile der Stadt immer wieder auf die Leinwände der Welt.

„Dreischeibenhaus“ Kulisse in „Cloud-Atlas“

Allerdings erfährt der Kinobesucher dann meist nichts von Düsseldorf.

• Im aktuellen Film „Cloud Atlas“ mit Halle Berry ist der Düsseldorfer Wolkenkratzer „Dreischeibenhaus“ zu sehen - allerdings dank raffinierter Kopiertechnik als Teil von San Francisco der siebziger Jahre. 
• Für „Terminal“ ließ Steven Spielberg den Flughafen von Düsseldorf nachbauen, der allerdings als New Yorker Flughafen JFK ausgegeben wurde.

Am Samstag war Dominik Graf zu Gast im Düsseldorfer Filmmuseum, um sich zu seiner Arbeit befragen zu lassen. „Düsseldorf hätte eine große Filmstadt werden können“, sagte Graf ironisch. Mit dem nun begonnen Abriss des Tausendfüßlers sei die Chance vertan. Der Tausendfüßler, eine Hochstraße für Autos mitten im Zentrum, war eine der markantesten „Locations“ in Grafs Film „Die Sieger“.

Versöhnlich attestierte Graf Düsseldorf dann aber doch eine große Filmkulissenqualität. „Die Stadt hat Raum, sie atmet“, findet auch Desinger.

LIANG: Ich bin morgens immer müde

HIER IST EINE NEUE VERSION DIESES LIEDES von Stepintogerman



Welche Version findest du besser


Songtext:
Morgens immer müde

Ich bin morgens immer müde,
Aber abends werd‘ ich wach.
Morgens bin ich so solide,
Doch am Abend werd‘ ich schwach.
Wenn der Wecker morgens rasselt
Und der Tag nimmt seinen Lauf,
Ist die Stimmung mir vermasselt,
Denn ich steh‘ so ungern auf.
Doch wenn tausend Lichter glühen,
Bin ich jede Nacht ganz groß,
Und wenn dann noch Musik erklingt,
Oh, dann geht es los.
Ich bin morgens immer müde,
Aber abends werd‘ ich wach.
Morgens bin ich so solide,
Doch am Abend werd‘ ich schwach,
So schwach,  so schwach.
In der Bar: "Zum flotten Penner"
Bin ich außer Rand und Band
Und ich tanze dutzend Männer
Ohne Mühe an die Wand.
Cha Cha, Swing und Boogie Woogie
Tanz‘ ich ohne Unterlass.
Schon schreit der ganze Saal:
Wow, die ist ja krass!
Denn ich bin morgens immer müde,
Aber abends werd‘ ich wach.
Morgens bin ich so solide,
Doch am Abend werd‘ ich schwach,
So schwach. Zwo, drei, vier,
Morgens, morgens,  Müde, müde,
Morgens, morgens,  Müde, müde,
Abends, abends,  Wach, wach,
Abends, abends,  Wach, wach,
Morgens, morgens,  Müde, müde,
Morgens, morgens,  Müde, müde,
Abends, abends,  Schwach, schwach,
Abends, abends, Schwach.
Ich bin morgens immer müde,
Aber abends werd‘ ich wach.
Morgens bin ich so solide,
Doch am Abend werd‘ ich schwach,
So schwach, So schwach.
Kein Grund zu gehen, es ist erst 0:30 Uhr.
Kein Grund zu gehen, es ist erst 1:30 Uhr.
Kein Grund zu gehen, es ist erst 2:30 Uhr.
Kein Grund zu gehen, es ist erst 3:30 Uhr.
Kein Grund zu gehen, es ist erst 4:30 Uhr.
Kein Grund zu gehen, es ist erst 5:30 Uhr.
Kein Grund zu gehen, es ist erst 6:30 Uhr.
Kein Grund zu gehen …
Ich fange gerade erst an! 

Hier die Inspiration: 

Ha-ha!  Gefunden Trude Herr...

Die Komikerin aus Köln:  Hier mit einem Hula-TWIST -- aus 1960+. 

Follow the NFL? Berliner in Draft

TOP DRAFT PICK FROM GERMANY

BJORN WERNER from Berlin

Dan Rather: Jobs in Germany

Im Fernsehen, Febr. 26 2013  . . .

MEHR von Dan Rather HIER

Topic:   The educational model used in Finland has gotten results, without those high-stakes tests....  ...

Einkaufen -- im Supermarkt mit Bill (Tokio Hotel)

Was will Bill essen?
Nicht essen?

Weiter zum Einkaufen:  Hier ein Sprachkurs auf Deutsch.... "Easy German" Episode 6



Etwas gelernt?

Tropical Islands Resort, Germany

An Artificial Paradise in an Airplane Hangar

Aug 20, 2009 16:17 - By: Susannah Murdock

 

When I was little I used to imagine that my street was a cool watery canal. On hot summer days I would pretend to swim home, and then once home, my house became a rain forest, my bedroom a lagoon.

It seems that I am not the only one with such imaginings of tropical paradise where none such exist. Meet the Tropical Islands Resort, an artificial paradise in the middle of Germany of all places. The numbers alone astound. Housed under an enormous dome originally commissioned for cargo lifters, the roof stands 350 feet tall and encloses 194 million cubic feet of space. The waterpark is 710,000 square feet; the pool can accommodate up to 8,000 visitors a day.

There are restaurants, shopping, tanning, stage entertainment, daycare facilities, bars and overnight camping on Paradise beach. Admission is 18.50 Euro on weekdays, and 23.50 Euro on weekends. The resort is open around the clock, all year round.

The illusion of ideal. 

The resort also includes a rain forest, beaches, artificial sunlight, palm trees, tropical flowers and foliage complete with a backdrop of birdsong. There is also a “Balinese lagoon” with whirlpools and a waterfall, a “south sea” with an impressively large white sand beach, a tropical village, and a rainforest section with winding walkways.

Along the south side of the dome hang transparent panels, allowing natural sunlight to help brighten the interior during the day. The internal temperature is always kept at a comfortable 77-82 degrees Fahrenheit with 50-60% air humidity year-round, creating a miniature sub-tropical eco-system smack dab in the middle of Germany.

Of course those who built this indoor paradise did not just think of aesthetics. About 80% of the resort’s square footage is used for green space. Water from the pools is reclaimed to water the plant life, which grows in a rich, custom-made soil made up of sand, organic waste, clay, and tree bark. The dome’s transparent panels are also UV permeable, exposing the plants to natural sunlight and allowing the building to operate as a giant greenhouse. At times the high humidity causes water condensation to collect on the inside of the dome before finally falling. This produces light, spontaneous rain showers on occasion, adding to the tropicality of the airplane hangar.

Honestly, this is what I imagined as a child walking home on hot summer days, only my ten year old mind could not fathom the enormity of reclaimed water, waterfalls, artificial birdsong under a Balinese lagoon.

Even more honest: my 36 year old mind has trouble fathoming it, too. I think this is something I will just  have to see for myself, a Utopian paradise housed under a hangar in Krausnik, Germany.

Top photos from Birkenzweig’s photostream; bottom two photos from Cocoate’s photostream.

Read more: http://beaches.uptake.com/blog/an-artificial-paradise-in-an-airplane-hangar-tropical-islands-resort-germany-europe.html#ixzz2LjCmN6qU

Read more: http://beaches.uptake.com/blog/an-artificial-paradise-in-an-airplane-hangar-tropical-islands-resort-germany-europe.html#ixzz2LjCYrhHD

Deine Freunde: Manchmal will ich einfach klein sein

Wie verstsehst du diese Geschichte?

Die Freunde singen: Oma gibt mir was ich mag -- SCHOKOLADE!

--Für dich, Christoff?



die Schublade = the drawer

Welches Obst, und welches Gemüse kennst du?


Songtext so etwa (dank S. Bohr):

Yeah -- Das ist ein Lied über etwas, was ich ganz oft haben möchte,
aber immer nur von einer Person bekomme.

Ich esse jeden Tag Obst, mal weniger, mal mehr.
Bei uns zu hause ist der Obstteller niemals leer.
Und Mama sagt: “Iß die Äpfel und Bananen,
Birnen, Mandarinen und den ganzen anderen Kram.”
Und dann erzählt sie mir: Wie wicht die Termine sind.
‘Komm, iß deinen Teller auf, sei ein liebes Kind.”
Und ich bin lieb und der Liebste den es gibt.
Aber wenn ich aufgegessen hab’, dann sing ich dieses Lied:

REFRAIN:   
Obst und lecker Gemüse, ja, das macht mich groß und stark.
Denn heute möcht’ ich zu Oma fahren,
die gibt mir was ich mag.

Oma gibt mir Schokolade Yeah
Lecker Schokolade
Oma holt mir Naschi aus dem Schrank
Sie hat das in 'ne Schublade, voller Schokolade,
voll, so wie im Schlaraffenland:/       -- Schlaraffenland = land of milk and honey

Ich will Schokolade.
Ich will so gerne Schokolade.
Ich will Schokolade.
Aber wisst ihr, was ich eden Tag ess’?
Ich esse jeden Tag Gemüse, mal weniger, mal mehr.
Bei uns zuhause ist Gemüse wirklich niemals leer.
Pappa sagt: “Iß die Gurken und Tomaten, von mir aus aus’m Supermarkt,
am liebsten aus’m Garten.”
Und dann erzählt er mir:  Wie wichtig sein Termine sind.
“Iß dein Gemüse, komm, sei ein liebes Kind.”
Und ich bin lieb und der Liebste den es gibt.
Und wenn ich aufgegessen hab’, dann sing ich dieses Lied:


REFRAIN

Schoko-Schoko -  lade - lade   Schal - la  la - la   la - la   La,   LA.  (x)
 

Spiegel: Promoting an Economic NATO

The World from Berlin: 'It's Worth Promoting ECONOMIC NATO' - SPIEGEL ONLINE »
By Daryl Lindsey

 Greener pastures from US-EU trade? A container ship enters the North Sea from the Elbe River in Germany.

The European Union and United States say they will soon begin negotiations to create the world's largest free-trade zone. German editorialists argue a deal is necessary if the West wants to help shape global politics and address the challenge of a rising China.

US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel both believe this figure could be increased significantly, adding some much needed economic stimulus in America and Europe.
"An EU-US free-trade agreement would create a new drive for the economy, investments and jobs -- on both sides of the Atlantic," German Economics Minister Philipp Rösler told the German daily Handelsblatt.

In Brussels, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has described the potential deal as "ground-breaking ... a game-changer" -- and it is one that wouldn't cost a cent.

Together, the US and EU want to boost their economies, jobs and present a united front against the growing economic strength of emerging superpower China.

There are many hurdles confronting this "economic NATO," particularly when it comes to food and agriculture -- with European concerns over chlorine-rinsed chicken, hormone-treated beef and genetically modified crops, and American concerns over strict European regulations. But Europe and the United States have agreed to enter into negotiations aimed at eliminating barriers on the flow of goods and services and creating the world's largest free-trade zone.

Talks are expected to begin on the margins of the next G-8 summit in Britain on June 18, German newspapers are reporting on Thursday. Initially, Washington had expressed a lack of interest over a possible deal, but Germany's Merkel has gently nudged two successive administrations since 2007 and it is believed that a personal telephone call prior to Obama's State of the Union address helped remove remaining concerns. Conservative British Prime Minister David Cameron has also pushed for a deal.

The trade agreement aims to go far beyond just trade and services, and negotiations will also strive for common regulations and standards on issues like product safety and intellectual property. A widely cited example are differing automobile safety standards that require a company like Audi to produce different versions of its cars for the American market.

On Thursday, editorialists at leading German newspapers praise the effort, with one financial daily even describing a "United States of the West."

• Center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"The project is extremely ambitious, with some Atlanticists already speaking of an 'economic NATO'. That term isn't totally out of place either. The NATO military alliance was once established to protect against the threat of the Soviet Union. The idea of a new economic alliance also has found so many supporters because the old industrialized nations fear that they are falling behind the emerging economic power of China. The fact that negotiations are even taking place is a success for German Chancellor Merkel, who has been pushing the project for years despite an initial lack of interest in Washington. Obama's economics team also held off for a long time because his advisors felt the initiative would be too complex."

"The fact is, an economic NATO would be a major venture. The EU and the US are already tightly interwoven economically. … Despite this, 1.5 percent annual economic growth could be created if the remaining barriers were removed. The only problem is that eliminating these barriers would trigger protests of myriad interest groups and also require considerable political capital. It could also test European solidarity. In London and Berlin, the political classes tend to be oriented towards the free market, whereas protectionism often lurks in Paris."

"Resistance is already forming. In the future will we (Europeans) be forced to eat chlorine-rinsed American chicken? Will we have to sow the seeds of genetically-modified corn on our fields and accept America's lax data privacy provisions? Or, from the American perspective: Will we have to tolerate the Europeans' obsession with regulations?"

"Regardless what the outcome of the talks is, the fact that they are even taking place is extremely advantageous for the Europeans. The EU is now getting a future-oriented project that will allow it to look away from its own problems as well. A free-trade agreement would further open the Continent and could also foster trust between the Americans and Europeans and set standards for the rest of the world. It's worth using all of our energy to promote an economic NATO."

• Center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"Finally, one wants to call out, the US and EU are willing to turn an idea that has been bandied about in the political realm for some time now into a real project -- and negotiations are expected to begin soon for a 'Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership'. So President Obama isn't just answering the call of Asia -- he's also making the expansion of American-European economic ties a pet issue. Expectations for the mutual advantages of a free-trade agreement -- economically, politically and strategically -- are so great that one must ask why this wasn't already tackled sooner? But the rise of emerging economies and the challenges that presents wasn't a dominant issue until recently. Today, however, a response is needed, and every potential driving force for prosperity and the strengthening of the Atlantic community needs to be used."

• Conservative Die Welt writes:

"It appears that the differences on both sides of the Atlantic are now seen as surmountable. And that's very good news, because a free-trade agreement between the two economic zones would be the cheapest stimulus package one could conceive of. The European Commission expects that the reduction of trade barriers and the harmonization of standards and regulations would lead to annual GDP growth of 0.5 percent. Other estimates are even higher."
"But a common market would also send a powerful political message: Namely that the West wants to pull more tightly together to face the challenges coming from emerging powers in other parts of the world. Given America's current weakness in leadership, it is also necessary. Otherwise, Obama's speech had a clearly isolationist character. …. Only when the country's economic foundations are healthy again can (America) assume a global leadership role (Obama suggested)."

"This means that the trans-Atlantic free-trade zone at the same time has both economic and political significance. It is aimed at helping Europe and the United States recover economically. But it also makes clear that only an en ever-closer West can succeed in decisively helping to determine global policy. Given these considerations of overriding importance, the free-trade zone cannot be allowed to fail over niggling details."

Kinderseite vom Fernsehen

HIER FINDET MAN DIE KINDERSEITE des Südwestrundfunks.

Olis Wilde Welt  HIER, DIE FILME VOM OLIS WELT AM MORGEN
Das Ratenspiel, wo man die Tierpartnerkarten findet, und zwar nach Geräuschen, ist unten Rechts bei "SWR 2012 Impressum".   (Try a quick Matching game involving animal sounds, together with visuals.)

Tigerenten Club oder Motzgurke.  HIER, DIE TIGERENTEBANDE

Tom und das Erdbeermarmeladebrot mit Honig  TOMS FILMS

Schreib bitte, was Du lustig findest. 
 Viel Spass!

Kraftklub singt Kein Liebeslied

 Pass auf!  AUTSCH! 
-- Das Lied (besonders das Refrain) finde ich gut, aber das Video?  Passt es zum Lied?
Was glaubst du?



Lyrics to Kein Liebeslied

Was soll ich sagen, ich mag dich.
So ganz allgemein. Weil ich mag wie du tanzt, und du tanzt ganz allein,
und ich mag wie du dich bewegst, mag wie du redest.
Ich mag wie du gehst, und hasse wenn du gehst.
Ich hoffe du verstehst mich.
Das ich dich mag heißt nur, dass ich nicht weiß, wie man das anders sagt.
Ich bin nicht besonders gut in sowas, ich kann das nicht.
Ich mag dich einfach weil du anders als die Anderen bist.

Refrain:   
Es ist nicht das, wonach es aussieht.
Schon aus Prinzip sing ich kein Liebeslied -- kein Liebeslied.
Denn dieses Lied ist nicht gut genug, und die Geigen klingen schief.
Dieses Lied ist gar kein Liebeslied -- kein Liebeslied.

Und ich mag, dass ich über Witze lache, die ich nicht verstanden hab.
Einfach, weil du damit angefangen hast.
Ich könnte 100 Dinge aufzählen, die ich an dir mag,
Und hätte trotzdem noch überhaupt gar nichts gesagt.
Viel zu viele Adjektive und miese Vergleiche.
Ich liebe Liebeslieder, aber ich kann sie nicht schreiben.
Es liegt nicht am Image, liegt nicht an der Frisur,
ich bin nicht Robert Smith und wir sind nicht The Cure.

Refrain:  

So sitz' ich hier, mit Stift und Papier. Alleine. Nichts funktioniert.
Was ich schreibe ist scheiße. Banaler, austauschbarer Müll.
(Moritz Ze?) hat schon alles gesagt was ich sagen will.
Und er redet Englisch und kennt dich nicht mal.
Und ist 52 Jahre, schlußendlich egal.
Weil eigentlich, auch wenn es peinlich ist,
wollte ich nur ein Liebeslied schreiben für dich.

Es ist nicht das, wonach es aussieht.
Schon aus Prinzip sing ich kein Liebeslied -- kein Liebeslied.
Denn dieses Lied ist nicht gut genug, und die Geigen klingen schief.
Dieses Lied ist gar kein Liebeslied -- kein Liebeslied.
Du kannst mir glauben, sowas wollt ich nie.
Aber irgendwie ist das ein Liebeslied -- ein Liebeslied -- ein Liebeslied.
Dieses Lied ist zwar nicht gut genug, und die Geigen klingen schief.
Doch es ist und bleibt ein Liebeslied -- ein Liebeslied.  

Harvard's Kennedy School of Government; Annual German Conference

Report submitted Febr. 18 by J. Douglas Guy, President, MA-AATG

 

German Conference at Harvard 2013

I really wanted to report on the German Conference held at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard this weekend and this is the perfect avenue to do it. I managed to score a ticket at the last minute and went to this conference, arranged annually by German students attending the Kennedy School.  In this instance, the invited speakers included 

• German Ambassador Peter Ammon, 

• Ministerin für Arbeit und Soziales Ursula van der Leyen, 

• SPD- Parteivorsitzender and ex-Außenminister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, 

• retired Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, 

• editor of Die Zeit Theo Sommer, 

• FDP vice- chair Alexander Graf Lammsdorff, 

• former U.S. ambassador to NATO and Greece and State Dept. spokesman R. Nicholas Burns, and 

• the long-term Supreme Allied Commander of NATO Gen. Wesley Clark.  

•  -- Cem Özdemir from die Grünen and Joschka Fischer were scheduled to speak on Saturday, but called in sick. 

It was decidedly a group of heavy hitters and this was a unique opportunity to hear them share opinions at close quarters.

Friday started out with a policy position paper from Van der Leyen: Who Pays the Bill for Demographic Change?, followed by a blow-to-blow discussion with Papandreou on the horrific situation in Greece.  Papandreou announced that unemployment in Greece is currently 63%, and the country's chronic inability to collect taxes undercuts its ability to provide social services everyone expects.   Under these circumstances, with relatively lower unemployment in Germany, the two leaders agreed it would be to everyone's benefit to create more training programs in Germany for foreigners and get young Greeks, Spaniards, Portuguese etc. to jobs available in the North, but that the key element was indeed language training.  While everyone agreed English is the lingua franca of the EU, that's not going to help unemployed kids find and keep work in Germany. There was agreement between the two that advancement of language training was a key issue in preparing the next generation for the coming workforce. [The Goethe-Institut confirms that, reporting their courses in Spain and Greece are maxed out.]

The actual topic of this year’s German Conference 2013 was: The End of the West as We Know It?--Germany, the U.S. and the Future of the Transatlantic World.  In general there was a lot of agreement that the much-heralded decline of the West is so much journalistic hooey.  Yes, China, India, Brazil etc. are ascendent and taking their rightful place in the world economic order, 

But China in particular lacks more than one major ability: the democracy that forces dialogue and consensus. 

China is working hard to position itself as a superior industrial power but China is

• not building relationships, 
• not doing research and development, 
• not encouraging the creative thought and collaboration  

-- that are essential for a truly dynamic society and economy, but an anathema to a centrally planned economy. 

Yeah, the U.S. is going to have a smaller piece of the pie, but as long as the Transatlantic alliance stays healthy and the U.S. and EU continue their collaboration, the West will remain decades ahead of China and other ascending economies.  Wesley Clark spoke very forcefully that NATO was far less important as a defense alliance than as an agent of international collaboration, that its new mission is more economic in nature and more essential than ever.  The many young adult Germans in attendance were not exactly convinced listening to this figurehead of NATO, but they were certainly challenged, both by Clark and Steinmeier stating it's time to accept the idea of a Germany more ready to lead Europe and the EU than it has so far in the 21st century.   

All in all, an incredible conference---if I can get in again next year, I'm going!   

MfG, J. Douglas Guy

American Scholar, Mildred Fish Harnack

 Op-Ed Contributor to the New York Times

When the Red Orchestra Fell Silent

By SHAREEN BLAIR BRYSAC

Published: February 15, 2013

On Feb. 15, 1943, a green police wagon left Charlottenburg Women’s Prison in Berlin, making its way through streets pockmarked by Allied bombs to the infamous execution center at Plötzensee. The handcuffed prisoner, a 40-year-old American woman, scholar, journalist, lecturer, teacher and translator named Mildred Fish Harnack, was led to a first-floor death cell. She was beheaded the next day.

Then, for many years, Mildred’s reputation — like those of many who resisted Hitler in Germany before and during World War II — became hostage to the Cold War.  In the West she was depicted as a Soviet spy, in the East as a Marxist saint.  But she was neither, and only after the Berlin Wall came down and secret files were declassified was Mildred’s humanity restored, as poignantly defined by her final hours. 

She spent them translating lines of Goethe into English and receiving a welcome visit from Harald Poelchau, the prison pastor who had borne witness to the execution of a thousand resisters — including men and women belonging to the Harnack-Schulze-Boysen group or those caught in the failed July 20 conspiracy to assassinate Hitler. 

They discussed the Bible, then Goethe, and finally Poelchau described her husband’s brave end three days before Christmas. Arvid Harnack’s petition to see Mildred before his execution had been denied. During his final hour, Arvid asked if the chaplain could recite “Prologue in Heaven” from Faust. And as Poelchau prepared to leave, Arvid asked him to join in singing the chorale, “I Pray to the Power of Love.” 

In his last letter to his wife, Arvid wrote that “despite everything,” he looked back on a life in which “the darkness was outweighed by the light” largely because of their marriage. He recalled that their “intense work” meant that their life was never easy. 

After Hitler’s rise to power, the couple had founded an underground group that 

• helped imperiled Jews, 
• assisted forced laborers, 
• documented and archived Nazi acts of violence, especially in occupied areas in the East, 
• and distributed anti-Hitler pamphlets. 

Mildred used her work as an English instructor to 

• recruit resisters to travel abroad to assist potential émigrés.  

Her close friendship with Martha Dodd, the daughter of the American ambassador, William Dodd, enabled her to obtain elusive visas to the United States. 

Mildred had met Arvid, a German student in the United States on a Rockefeller Fellowship, while a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.  Following their marriage, the couple in 1929 settled in Germany, where they gathered a study group of artists, writers, academics and government officials. After 1933, this literary salon became a network of resisters, and in 1940, Arvid Harnack established contacts with Soviet intelligence.  The group, subsequently named “Red Orchestra” by the Gestapo to underscore its ties to Soviets, was led by Arvid, by then an official in the Economics Ministry, and by Lt. Harro Schulze-Boysen, a member of Hermann Goering’s staff. 

For nine months, the group provided vital military information to Moscow in the run-up to the June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union. During the same period, Arvid Harnack met regularly with the first secretary of the American embassy, Donald Heath, for long walks in Berlin’s parks and forests, using their wives as cover. Thus Arvid kept Washington informed on the state of the Third Reich’s economy, its trade agreements, rearmament and war plans. 

On two trips to the United States in 1938 and 1939, Arvid Harnack (with Heath’s help) met with Treasury officials and passed information about German assets in the United States.

After the Germans intercepted a radio communication, 120 persons were arrested by the Gestapo. Mildred and Arvid were arrested on September 7, 1942.  After a secret trial, Arvid was sentenced to death. Mildred received a sentence of six years hard labor for “the preparation of high treason and espionage.” Hitler heard this after the German defeat at Stalingrad and refused to confirm the sentence.  She was retried and sentenced to death. 

Mildred’s last words, before she was executed on Feb. 16, 1943, were: “And I have loved Germany so much.” 

For many years after the war, resisters remained suspect in West Germany, unwelcome reminders that opposition had been possible.  Members of the Harnack-Schulze-Boysen group were dismissed as Soviet spies. By contrast, East Germans celebrated them as anti-fascist heroes who lent a measure of legitimacy to the Soviet-imposed regime. 

After German reunification in 1990, I was able to obtain intelligence files from the United States, Russia and several East German archives, and to interview relatives and survivors. German scholars and I were able to piece together material that allowed a more nuanced account of the activities of the group. The “Red Orchestra” group came to be known as the “Harnack-Schulze-Boysen” group.

Two streets in Berlin and in Giessen — where Mildred received her doctorate — were named after her; memorial plaques dedicated to both Harnacks have appeared on public buildings in the German capital. 

In 2007, the German artist Franz Rudolf Knubel, with the help of students of the Mildred Harnack High School in Berlin, created a memorial exhibit inspired by Mildred’s translations of Goethe. The exhibit was shown in Berlin and other German cities, as well as at the Hillel Foundation in Madison and at Milwaukee’s Jewish Museum. In 2011, Wisconsin Public Television aired a one-hour documentary film about her. Sept. 16, the date of her birth, has been designated Mildred Harnack Day in Wisconsin. 

Many letters by members of the group have now been published. They include Schulze-Boysen’s final letter to his parents. “It is common in Europe for spiritual seeds to be sown with blood,” he wrote. “Perhaps we were simply a few fools; but when the end is this near, one perhaps has the right to a bit of completely personal historical illusion.” 

Shareen Blair Brysac is the author, among other works, of “Resisting Hitler: Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra.”

European Migration to Germany

Why learn German?  Check out this week's Economist:  

Sprechen Sie Job? More southern Europeans are going where the jobs are.   -- But not enough     

Feb 16th 2013 | BERLIN 

DANIEL GÓMEZ GARCIA, aged 23, is the sort of person Europe’s leaders may have had in mind when, on paper at least, they turned the European Union into a single labour market like America’s. Mr Gómez, from Andalusia in Spain, learned a smattering of German in school -- and passable English, while studying in America. But when he came back to Spain he saw that hardly anybody in his class of 80 had a job. “Nothing to do, so let me go to Germany and get the language,” he recalls thinking. In autumn 2012 he took an unpaid four-month internship at his embassy in Berlin and paid for his tiny flat-share by helping a local holiday-rental firm with its Excel spreadsheets. Last month that turned into a low-paying but permanent job as an accountant.

That is how the single market is supposed to work. Spain has a youth unemployment rate of 56%. In Greece it is 58% (see chart). By contrast, Germany has negligible youth unemployment (8%) and a shortage of qualified workers. Theoretically, people should be willing to move from the “crisis countries” to the boom towns, just as the Okies once flocked to California.

To some extent this migration is indeed happening. New arrivals in Germany in the first half of 2012 grew by 15% over the same period in 2011, and by 35% net of departures. And the numbers of newcomers from the euro crisis countries increased the most—Greek arrivals were up by 78%, Spanish by 53%, for example. But the absolute numbers (6,900 Greeks and 3,900 Spaniards during those six months) are still modest.
It is “astonishing how astonishing it still is that they are coming”, says Holger Kolb, at the Expert Council of German Foundations on Integration and Migration. Some things are beginning to work as intended, such as the elimination of bureaucratic hassles for moving within the EU. Yet it seems that the EU can never become a truly integrated market. That is mainly because of language.  Mr Gómez finds life in Germany challenging— “Germans seem to always nag about recycling, or noise, or whatever,”—but the language is “the hardest part”.

Thus language has replaced work visas as the main barrier to mobility. When the euro crisis began, the branches in southern Europe of the Goethe Institute, the German equivalent of the British Council, were overwhelmed by demand for German courses, says Heike Uhlig, the institute’s director of language programmes. That demand was also different, she adds: less about yearning to read Goethe’s “Faust” than about finding work. So the Institute retooled, offering courses geared (more) to the technical German used by engineers, nurses or doctors.

Language, besides proximity, explains a lot of today’s movements in the EU, says Klaus Bade, another migration expert. For example, the largest group of new arrivals in Germany is still from Poland, which is poorer, though not a crisis, country. But its schools often teach German alongside English.
...
 

COMMENTS:   

Your comments merely patronize those who do not want to learn a second language. It is indeed a disadvantage that should be remedied and not promoted as a plus. 

One needs to understand one's place in the world in order to start speaking foreign languages.  

I am now in Greece and I am absolutely shocked by the almost complete lack of recycling effort  here - apart from the other problems - after spending six years in the Czech Republic - it really is horrible!  Young Greeks don't even understand why they should think about it. Their heads are full of nonsense about international conspiracy - about how it's all someone else's fault - and yet in the small simple ways that they could be making a difference they make none. This is not modern thinking.  PS Czechs are excellent at recycling! 

A great many (if not most) Greek kids live at home until they're older than this study, and therefore may not be actively seeking for employment. 

 

AMAZON International

Here's an amazing 30 minute story detailing Amazon's competitive business strategies, filmed during Christmas season in Germany.  -- Are you ready for it? 

It's been covered by the New York Times; when I find that reference, I'll paste it in below, since by new German law, this video can only stay live - online - until the beginning of March (2013).

HERE'S THE MEDIATHEK VIDEO

A few questions to consider while watching this video:

• How does Amazon recruit for the Christmas season?
• Does Amazon these people hire directly?  (Why, or why not?)
• Where do these people live?
• Where do they eat?
• How do they reach work?
• Are they generally punctual?
• What happens when they're not punctual?
• What happens to the almost-new-hirees, who wait for Amazon to need them?
• What did we learn about health care for these workers?
• What happened to the person caught with an extra piece of bread?
• What happened to the person who hung laundry on a heater to dry?x
• What did we learn about the security firm Amazon uses in Germany?
• Does one get the feeling that Amazon pays the required employer tax per employee?
• What happened to the documentarians working on this film?

Trouble Finding the SUBJECT of the Sentence??

Thanks to Schoolhouse Rock:

-- Let's let Mr. Morton help!



Herr Morton  ist -  ....   ja, er muss etwas tun. 
   spazierte  -  sprach   -  war
   kennte  -   züchtete   -  war
   schrieb  -    war
   klopfte  -  saß  -   war
   lief  -  klettert - steigte  -  reimt  -  war
 

der Bäcker bäckt

Wechselpräpositionen: Dorothea im Oz will nach Hause

 Teil 1



Teil 2

Heidelberg am Neckar und die 3 Mahlzeiten in Deutschland

Mit Annika



Der Rhein ist groesser als der Neckar.
Im Heidelberg gibt es die aelteste Universitaet Deutschlands.

Was sind die 3 Hauptmahlzeiten in Deutschland?

Eigenschaften

Kentucky Education Television



ernst, gluecklich, traurig, skeptisch,
lustig, neugierig, verrueckt, augeglichen,
schuechtern, zornig, gelangweiligt, klug,
doof, geschwaetzig, zurueckhaltend,
aufgeschlossen, aengstlich, mutig

Woher haben Sie die Broetchen?

-- vom Fleischer?  Vom Metzger!

Erik muss umsteigen

Erik ist voll im Stress.  Er muss schnell zum Flughaven.

Using the Participle

Kentucky Educational Television




Finding the Participle in 3 Steps:

Theater: Die Zitrone fehlt

Kentucky Educational  Television

Obama Features German Education

in his State of the Union Address, 2013

Here are two quotes:

•  The CEO of Siemens* America – a company that brought hundreds of new jobs to
North Carolina – has said that if we upgrade our infrastructure, they'll bring even more jobs.


             * Siemens is one of Germany's largest technology companies.

•  Let's also make sure that a high school diploma puts our kids on a path to a good job. Right now, countries like Germany focus on graduating their high school students with the equivalent of a technical degree from one of our community colleges, so that they're ready for a job.  At schools like P-Tech in Brooklyn, a collaboration between New York Public Schools, the City University of New York, and IBM, students will graduate with a high school diploma and an associate degree in computers or engineering.


This isn't to endorse Mr. Obama, but rather to highlight the positives in German education.

You can read the president's address at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/13/state-of-the-union-full-text

Passive Voice

Mit Herrn Schwab    . . . . . . . werden + PPP   

an•auf•hinter•in•neben•über•unter•vor•zwischen

Wechselpräpositionen  mit Cary Academy



(Kürzer; ohne Wiederholung. . .)



vom Kentucky Educations Television -- mit originellem Lied



WEITER:   Hilfe mit DATIV  (Nominative und Akkusative sind auch wiederholt; mit einer guten algemeinen Übung)



Hier ist Herr Schwab mit  [Wechsel-] Präpositionen

Your Brain on Books

10 Things That Happen to Our Minds When We Read 

Wednesday 16th January, 2013  OEDb: Open Education Database     LINK HERE

Any book lover can tell you: diving into a great novel is an immersive experience that can make your brain come alive with imagery and emotions and even turn on your senses. It sounds romantic, but there's real, hard evidence that supports these things happening to your brain when you read books. In reading, we can actually physically change our brain structure, become more empathetic, and even trick our brains into thinking we've experienced what we've only read in novels.

1. We make photos in our minds, even without being prompted:

   Reading books and other materials with vivid imagery is not only fun, it also allows us to create worlds in our own minds. But did you know that this happens even if you don't mean it to? Researchers have found that visual imagery is simply automatic. Participants were able to identify photos of objects faster if they'd just read a sentence that described the object visually, suggesting that when we read a sentence, we automatically bring up pictures of objects in our minds.

2. Spoken word can put your brain to work:

   Critics are quick to dismiss audiobooks as a sub-par reading experience, but research has shown that the act of listening to a story can light up your brain. When we're told a story, not only are language processing parts of our brain activated, experiential parts of our brain come alive, too. Hear about food? Your sensory cortex lights up, while motion activates the motor cortex. And while you may think that this is limited only to audiobooks or reading, experts insist that our brains are exposed to narratives all day long. In fact, researcher Jeremy Hsu shares, "Personal stories and gossip make up 65% of our conversations." So go ahead, listen to your coworker's long and drawn out story about their vacation, tune in to talk radio, or listen to an audiobook in the car: it's good exercise for your brain.

3. Reading about experiences is almost the same as living it:

   Have your ever felt so connected to a story that it's as if you experienced it in real life? There's a good reason why: your brain actually believes that you have experienced it. When we read, the brain does not make a real distinction between reading about an experience and actually living it. Whether reading or experiencing it, the same neurological regions are stimulated. Novels are able to enter into our thoughts and feelings. While you can certainly hop into a VR game at the mall and have a great time, it seems that reading is the original virtual reality experience, at least for your brain.

4. Different styles of reading create different patterns in the brain:

   Any kind of reading provides stimulation for your brain, but different types of reading give different experiences with varying benefits. Stanford University researchers have found that close literary reading in particular gives your brain a workout in multiple complex cognitive functions, while pleasure reading increases blood flow to different areas of the brain. They concluded that reading a novel closely for literary study and thinking about its value is an effective brain exercise, more effective than simple pleasure reading alone.

5. New languages can grow your brain:

   Want to really give your brain a workout? Pick up a foreign language novel. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden tested students from the Swedish Armed Forces Interpreter Academy, where intensive language learning is the norm, and medicine and cognitive science students at Umea University. Both groups underwent brain scans just prior to and right after a three-month period of intensive study. Amazingly, the language students experienced brain growth in both the hippocampus and the cerebral cortex, with different levels of brain growth according to the amount of effort and learning students experienced in that period of time.

6. Your brain adapts to reading e-books in seven days:

   If you're used to reading paper books, picking up an e-reader can feel very awkward at first. But experts insist that your brain can adopt the new technology quickly, no matter your age or how long you've been reading on paper. In fact, the human brain adapts to new technology, including e-reading, within seven days.

7. E-books lack in spatial navigability:

   Although your brain can adapt to e-books quickly, that doesn't mean they offer the same benefits as a paperback. Specifically, they lack what's called "spatial navigability," physical cues like the heft of pages left to read that give us a sense of location. Evolution has shaped our minds to rely on location cues to find our way around, and without them, we can be left feeling a little lost. Some e-books offer little in the way of spatial landmarks, giving a sense of an infinite page. However, with page numbers, percentage read, and other physical cues, e-books can come close to the same physical experience as a paper book.

8. Story structure encourages our brains to think in sequence, expanding our attention spans:

   Stories have a beginning, middle, and end, and that's a good thing for your brain. With this structure, our brains are encouraged to think in sequence, linking cause and effect. The more you read, the more your brain is able to adapt to this line of thinking. Neuroscientists encourage parents to take this knowledge and use it for children, reading to kids as much as possible. In doing so, you'll be instilling story structure in young minds while the brain has more plasticity, and the capacity to expand their attention span.

9. Reading changes your brain structure (in a good way):

   Not everyone is a natural reader. Poor readers may not truly understand the joy of literature, but they can be trained to become better readers. And in this training, their brains actually change. In a six-month daily reading program from Carnegie Mellon, scientists discovered that the volume of white matter in the language area of the brain actually increased. Further, they showed that brain structure can be improved with this training, making it more important than ever to adopt a healthy love of reading.

10. Deep reading makes us more empathetic:

    It feels great to lose yourself in a book, and doing so can even physically change your brain. As we let go of the emotional and mental chatter found in the real world, we enjoy deep reading that allows us to feel what the characters in a story feel. And this in turn makes us more empathetic to people in real life, becoming more aware and alert to the lives of others.

Which Cities are the Most Liveable in the World?

FORBES 

Deborah L. Jacobs, Forbes Staff

PERSONAL FINANCE 

|

 

12/04/2012 @ 9:34AM |10,866 views

The Best Countries For City Living

300

277

23

31

0

Eight German cities appear on Mercer's latest quality of living list, including Frankfurt (shown here).

Living overseas is really glamorous — right? Maybe. As I noted in my recent post, “The Best Foreign Retirement Havens,” spending even several months at a time in a foreign country isn’t for everybody.

While that story was geared to folks who are dialing back, Mercer’s annual quality of living worldwide city rankings is designed for people who are working abroad — and for their employers. The rankings will interest retirees too, of course, but in the employment context they’re used to develop compensation packages for people with international assignments.

To come up with a list of 221 cities, Mercer evaluated local living conditions in more than 460 urban centers worldwide. It analyzed living conditions according to 39 factors, grouped in 10 categories that cover everything from personal freedom, availability of international schools and recreation; to access to consumer goods.

Experienced travelers will not be surprised to find that Europe dominates the top of the list, with 15 cities among the top 25 for quality of living. Vienna ranks highest; in fact the rest of the top 10 for Europe are dominated by German and Swiss cities.

“Factors such as internal stability, law enforcement effectiveness, crime levels and medical facilities are important to consider when deciding on an international assignment, and the impact on daily life that could be encountered by the expatriate in overseas placements,” says Slagin Parakatil, Senior Researcher at Mercer. European cities score high not only because of increased stability and rising living standards, but also based on advanced city infrastructures,

 which Mercer ranked separately this year for the first time. 

...Thinking of moving to a faraway place? Click here or on the slideshow below to see how specific countries stack up for city living. For more about Europe, see my FORBES magazine Investment Guide story, “Everything You Need To Know About Buying A Home In Europe.”

ARTICLE #2...... from CNN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Austria's capital Vienna was rated the best city to live by Mercer
• Eight out of the top 10 cities with highest quality of life are located in Europe

(CNN) -- Vienna, famous for its hundreds of museums, 2000 parks and of course its roasted coffee, is the best place on the planet to live, according to Mercer's 2012 Quality of Living Index. This year's latest accolade makes Vienna number one in the world for the fourth year in a row.

The annual survey by the global human resources consulting firm points not just to Austria's qualities but to much of the region's virtues. Eight of the report's top 10 cities are in Europe. Zurich is the world's second most livable city while three German cities -- Munich, Dusseldorf and Frankfurt -- follow close behind.

"Overall, European cities continue to have high quality of living as a result of a combination of increased stability, rising living standards and advanced city infrastructures," said Slagin Parakatil, Senior Researcher at Mercer. This is despite economic turmoil, political tension and high unemployment in some European countries.

Australian, New Zealand and Canadian metropolises round out the top ten list.

The world's top 30 cities of the Mercer 2012 index

1. Vienna, Austria    (Language:  GERMAN)

2. Zurich, Switzerland   (Language:  Mostly GERMAN; some FRENCH)

3. Auckland, New Zealand 

4. Munich, Germany   (Language:  GERMAN)

5. Vancouver, Canada

6. Düsseldorf, Germany   (Language:  GERMAN)

7. Frankfurt, Germany   (Language:  GERMAN)

8. Geneva, Switzerland   (Languages:  GERMAN; FRENCH)

9. Copenhagen, Denmark

10. Bern, Switzerland   (Languages:  GERMAN; FRENCH)

10. (tie) Sydney, Australia

12. Amsterdam, Netherlands   (One of the Languages:  GERMAN)

13. Wellington, New Zealand

14. Ottawa, Canada

15. Toronto, Canada

16. Berlin, Germany   (Language:  GERMAN)

17. Hamburg, Germany    (Language:  GERMAN)

17. Melbourne, Australia

19. Luxembourg, Luxembourg    (One of the Languages:  GERMAN)

21. Perth, Australia

22. Brussels, Belgium    (One of the Languages:  GERMAN)

23. Montreal, Canada

24. Nuremberg, Germany    (Language:  GERMAN)

25. Singapore, Singapore

26. Canberra, Australia

27. Stuttgart, Germany   (Language:  GERMAN)

28. Honolulu, U.S.

29. Adelaide, Australia

29. (tie) Paris, France

29. (tie) San Francisco, U.S.

Mercer's survey results are based on an analysis of local living conditions comprising 39 factors in 10 categories. Political considerations include government stability and crime rates. Economic factors take into account banking services and currency exchange laws. Health considerations include access to medical care and pollution levels. Transport, housing and recreation are also taken into account.

City scores help multinational companies calculate compensation packages for the employees they dispatch overseas. A lower score often correlates into a better compensation package that includes hardship allowances, according to Mercer.

Countries with unstable governments or undergoing civil strife tend usually have lower scores. Eight African cities dominate the bottom ten in this year's survey.

"The ongoing turmoil in many countries across North Africa and the Middle East has led to serous security issues for locals and expatriates," says Mercer's Parakatil. "Companies need to be able to proactively implement mitigation plans, such as emergency repatriation, or adjust expatriate compensation packages accordingly."

Around the word and on a regional basis, the cities that score the lowest are the following:

64. Belfast, Northern Ireland (Western Europe)

71. Detroit, Michigan, (United States)

207. Dushanbe, Tajikistan (Asia-Pacific)

213. Tbilisi, Georgia (Eastern Europe)

219. Port-au-Prince, Haiti (North Americas)

This year's city with the worst quality of life?

Baghdad, Iraq at #221.