h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Do you know the joke by Harald Schmidt?

Eigentlich braucht man ja nur zwei Bundesländer: Aldi Nord und Aldi Süd.

(You only need 2 Bundesländer: Aldi North and Aldi South)

Wow you have done a lot of alterations! On reading again from the top, one word could be added Baden-Württemberg - not only is the food good and well-reknowned, but the wines are also not to be forgotten. So, just adding "and wines" somewhere where you mention food would be a good idea.

There are a few tweaks needed to make it sound more English, but I won't mention them if they don't change the meaning.




In the Bremen section, "it had mercantile connections to Scandinavia and the Baltic states since the 12th century" means that they don't have these connections any more. If they do still have the connections, you should change it to: "it has had mercantile connections to Scandinavia and the Baltic states since the 12th century."



Hamburg:

You write:
"And of course there's the world's most famous red-light district, the Reeperbahn. It lost much of its grubbiness in the last few years and it is indeed fashionable for respectable citizens to invite visitors to a midnight stroll and a visit to a raunchy nightclub."

The second sentence should start with "This has lost .." to specify that you are writing about the Reeperbahn and not the whole of Hamburg. How do you measure fame? Although I think it's a great idea and I'm not asking you to change it, I'm not sure if there aren't any other red light districts in the world which aren't equally famous?



HESSEN

"Frankfurt us Germany's financial capital has its biggest airport"

You must mean "Frankfurt, as Germany's financial capital, has the country's largest airport"




NRW

"the truth is, however, that the biggest part of this federal state is rural and hilly."

not quite correct grammar.

It reads more comfortably if you say:

"the truth is, however, that the greater part of this federal state is rural and hilly.



RLP

Oh Gosh! you've included my entry on the Pfalz! Thank you thank you.

Picturesque scenery is not only to be found along the Rhine, but also along the Moselle - this, I think is a name familiar to many anglophhile or other readers, and it is useful if they can sort out in their minds where it is in relation to the rest of Germany (and Europe, e.g. Luxembourg etc). Worth a mention.



Schleswig-Holstein:

"especially the North Sea island Sylt"

either:

"especially the North Sea island of Sylt"
or
"especially the North Sea island of Sylt"


Good luck now!




Do you think there will be the chance of a link to a map?

Nice entry! I didn't spot anything that needs changing!

Thanks very much everybody, your help is much appreciated! The entry is now updated...

Some comments on your comments -
* Jack - what a load of suggestions, exactly what I was looking for, to get rid of my Germanisms...
* TC - no offense taken, you were right about the intro - thanks for reminding me, I had some wine info planned from the very beginning but forgot somehow
* susanne - thanks for the link - great joke, perhaps I'll tweak the intro a bit to take it aboard
* azara - your suggestions were (mostly) taken aboard, just a thought -surely there isn't a title 'King of the UK'? The full title would be King of England and Scotland, Defender of the Faith etc, and as this is too unwieldy I left that part as it is...
* Sho - that's a great idea for an entry, I'm going to have a look at the PR thread soon


SchrEck Inc.

The full title is King/Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland ... yadda yadda yadda.

Changed.

for all the changes!

An editing error crept into the last line about Mecklenberg-Pomerania:
"After WWII, it was occupied by the Soviets and became a part of the German Democratic Republic in Germany's reunification in 1990."

I still think "King of the United Kingdom" sounds more exact than "King of England", but since it's not my country I don't actually mind very much!

Azara

- and England is already changed to UK

Hi SchrEck! This is an interesting and well written entry. I haven't read through every single word of it, but one thing that struck me is that in the Bavaria section you talk about the rivalry between Bavarian and Prussia. This is the first time you mention Prussia, and there doesn't seem to be a Federal State called Prussia. Is it a historical region? Could you explain it in a footnote or is more needed than that?

Prussia is actually alluded to in the Berlin section and in the Brandenburg section. It is not a region, more a mentality, but the area around Berlin - I think out to the Polish border - is more or less where it used to be.

I remember singing a song about Bonaparte at Junior School "Boney beat the Roossians, way-yay-ya, Boney beat the Proossians, John Franswa." I always wondered what the Prussians were. I expect they had blue uniforms. And prussic acid? (German: Blausäure)

Yes, but since it is in alphabetical order, Bavaria comes before Berlin or Brandenburg.

Ho Gnomon, good idea with the footnote. Stay tuned, it may take a day or two...

Ah yes. Whooops. You can link to a word in the entry using Guide ML for that SchrEck, using the tag. Or you can put simply "see "Berlin" and "Brandenburg" below" in brackets after mentioning the Prussians in the Bavaria section.

Footnote added - with some info that is not covered in the Berlin and Brandenburg sections, and thus I'm not referring to them. BTW, I'm not particularly fond of using name tags in the EG...

Just wanted to say how impressed I am with this entry - it reminded me of huge amounts of information I learned in school some 20 years ago, and had pretty much forgotten!

Paully

Thanks Paully!

Oh gosh - praise from an Italic: Congratulations SchrEck.

*Bookmarks this one for later inspection*

By which time it might have been recommended, nein?

Ja

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