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“Don’t change so people will like you. Be yourself & the right people will love the real you.”
— Unknown
For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on the home page of http://www.walled-in-berlin.com. Walled-In is a story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War.
Did you know that our Christmas tree tradition is German? The pagan custom dates back to the days before Christianity. As early as in the 16th century, people in Germany are said to have brought decorated trees into their homes. The Protestant reformer, Martin Luther, is credited with having added lighted candles. German immigrants eventually brought their tradition to the U.S. where the first recorded Christmas tree was displayed in Pennsylvania in the 1830s. But because of its pagan origin, most Americans did not adopt the tradition until the 20th century.
Long before Christianity, plants and trees that stayed green all year had special meaning Europeans. People believed that the sun was a god and that winter came every year because the sun god had become sick. When plants greened again in spring and summer, they thought the sun god had recovered. To keep him healthy though out the year, people hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows. Others built pyramids of wood and decorated them with evergreens.
New England’s Puritans tried hard to eradicate the old pagan tradition of decorating trees. Throughout the 18th century, they forbade any Christmas tradition that wasn’t a church service. But by the 19th century, the influx of German and Irish immigrants had weakened their efforts.
In 1846, Queen Victoria of England, her German Prince, Albert, and their family were sketched in a London journal standing around a Christmas tree. Since the queen was immensely popular, Britain’s subjects as well as America’s East Coast Society imitated the custom.
Our Christmas Tree Tradition came from Germany
In the early 20th century, German-Americans continued to use apples, nuts, and marzipan cookies to decorate their trees. Americans used homemade ornaments. Soon popcorn, interlaced with berries and nuts, became fashionable. And after then arrival of electricity, lit Christmas trees appeared in town squares across the country. Today, the German Christmas Tree tradition has become an American tradition as well.
For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic or current events, people, places or food.
Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.
As we grow in maturity and wisdom, we learn that although we cannot choose what life will deliver to us we can choose how we will respond. As we begin to live our lives more consciously, going back and sifting through the events that helped shape our lives, examining how and why different emotions are triggered in our hearts, we can begin to build an entirely new framework for who we want to be, instead of simply accepting who we ended up being. Through this deep understanding of the events that have influenced our lives, of the values we hold most dear, and of the things we need to be happy, we can begin the exciting process of taking control of our lives. From that solid foundation, we can act freely and fearlessly, knowing that our actions will reflect our being out in the world.
— From the editors of Random Acts of Kindness
For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on the home page of http://www.walled-in-berlin.com. Walled-In is a story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War.
“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
–George Bernard Shaw
For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic or current events, people, places or food.
Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.
“Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.”
–Dali Lama
For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on the home page of http://www.walled-in-berlin.com. Walled-In is a story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War.
Whom to tip and how much. Who decided the who and the how much? Why are some service providers considered tip-worthy while others in similar industries are not? Gratuities are generally given for services provided in restaurants, golf courses, casinos, hotels, cruise ships, food delivery, taxicabs, and salons. Then why is a taxicab driver deserving of a tip, but a bus driver is not? Both drove us to our destination. Why do we customarily tip the waiter and the parking valet, but rarely the store clerk who helped us find an obscure item? All three provide a service. And why doesn’t anyone slip the helpful income tax volunteer an extra bill? Wouldn’t he appreciate the kindness?
to tip or not to tip
According to Kerry Segrave, author of An American Social History of Gratitudes, tipping originated among the European aristocracy. Giving a tip signified power; accepting one was a sign of servility. Wealthy Americans, who traveled to Europe in the late 19th century, copied the practice. Then middle-class Americans imitated it. When the Great Depression hit in the US, the practice went into decline but soon bounced back.
1. Tipping based on price makes little sense. Why should a waiter receive a larger gratuity for serving a filet mignon than for a hamburger? The effort is the same.
2. Some employers pay workers with the expectation that gratuities will supplement their wages. If the customer is paying part of the wages, he no longer rewards exemplary service.
3. The practice of tipping is inconsistent between similar services. Just who decided the who and the how much anyway?
For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: Historical or current events, people, places or food.
Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall, and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.
J. Elke Ertle was a Berlin teenager when John F. Kennedy’s death plunged West Berlin into depression and despair. From the end of World War II in 1945 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Berlin was physically divided. In 1961, the East German government, with Soviet backing, surrounded West Berlin with a 12-foot wall. In June 1963, Kennedy gave a historic speech in which he expressed admiration for those who had remained in the tiny capitalist island despite being surrounded by a communist sea.
Elke writes, “My eighteenth birthday fell on a Thursday. I didn’t celebrate until the following afternoon, November 22. Three girlfriends came for a Kaffeeklatsch and had barely left when the phone rang. It was my American friend. I assumed he wanted to wish me a happy birthday. Instead he asked, “Have you heard the news?”
“What news?”
“President Kennedy has been shot!”
A long silence. I tried to comprehend.
“President Kennedy? When?”
“Less than half hour ago.”
“Shot at? Or shot dead?”
My friend shared what he knew. “Go and turn on the TV,” he said. We quickly said good-bye, and I flicked on the set. In disbelief, I watched as the tragedy in Dallas unfolded. Although the shooting had occurred shortly after noon Texas-time, it was already evening in Berlin. Within hours, thousands of Berliners gathered in the Rudolph-Wilde-Platz in front of city hall where John F. Kennedy had spoken only five months earlier. In a broadcast, the Mayor of West Berlin, Willy Brandt, read,
“Eine Flamme ist erloschen. Erloschen fuer alle Menschen, die auf einen gerechten Frieden hoffen und auf ein besseres Leben. Die Welt ist an diesem Abend sehr viel aermer geworden. (A flame has gone out. Gone out for all people who hope for a just peace and a better life. The world has grown considerably poorer this evening.)”
The following afternoon, my friends and I joined the 15,000 students who walked in silence from the Airlift Memorial to the Schoeneberger Rathaus. We marched behind a banner that read Wir haben einen Freund verloren — We have lost a friend.
On the day of Kennedy’s state funeral at Arlington National Cemetery, 250,000 of us gathered in front of Berlin’s city hall. The Rudolph-Wilde-Platz was renamed John-F.-Kennedy Platz. In West Berlin, where the East-West confrontation could be felt more than anywhere else in the world, the grief for Kennedy was particularly deep. John F. Kennedy had been our hero. Our loss was personal.
For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic or current events, people, places or food.
Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.
“No tango,” said Kaiser Wilhelm II, the last German emperor, one hundred years ago today. On November 20, 2013, he issued a degree that forbade his uniformed officers to participate in the new and sensuous dance. Here is why:
In Latin, tango means “I touch.” The dance originated toward the end of the 19th century. It suddenly sprung up in the working-class port neighborhoods of Buenos Aires in Argentina. The tango’s distinctive voice is attributable to a small musical instrument, the Bandoneon. Heinrich Band, a German immigrant, had brought it to Argentina. The tango quickly moved from the modest port tenements and seedy bordellos into the palaces of the wealthy. Its movements required close body contact. Phonographs, a new invention at the time, transported the dance to the Old World where London, Paris, and Berlin enthusiastically embraced it.
Because poor immigrants from many different countries were thrown together in Buenos Aires, the tango expressed their longing for the land they had left behind. Unable to identify with these immigrants’ plights, Kaiser Wilhelm II called the dance “a gutter child.” He preferred different rhythms. His keenly religious wife, Auguste Victoria, hated to dance altogether. But the tango became popular despite the emperor’s preferences. Even within his own circle, the Countess of Schwerin-Loewitz, wife of the president of the Prussian Parliament, could not be dissuaded from hosting a tango party. At the soiree, diplomats and high ranking officers tangoed tightly knotted with their partners. To stop the craze, Kaiser Wilhelm II forbade all uniformed Prussian Army officers to tango. For additional information, please visit www.kalenderblatt.de
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Last German emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II. He forbade the tango
(taken in 1905 – archival photo)
Originally a low-class dance form, the tango became wildly popular with upper and middle classes around the world. In 1916, Roberto Firpo, bandleader of the period, introduced the standard tango sextet: two bandoneons, two violins, piano and double bass.
For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic and current events, people, places and food.
Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.
Life is a juggling game according to Brian Dyson, CEO of the Coca Cola Enterprises. It requires five balls. He calls them: work, family, health, friends, and spirit. In order to be successful in life, you must keep all five balls in the air. You will find that work is a rubber ball. If you accidentally drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls–family, health, friends, and spirit–are made of glass. If you drop one of them, it will instantly get scuffed, nicked, or even shattered. Become a skilled juggler, and you will lead a happy, balanced, and successful life.
For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic and current events, people, places and food.
Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.
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