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

Very German. Tiny pieces of paper.

When I was a student, my stipend was given to me in the form of a tiny piece of paper - about two centimeters by one centimeter - that I had to carry about a quarter of a mile to the cashier's.

Our driver's licences are now so important a document that they are counterfeit-proofed and laminated.

Elektra even has what we call a 'walking licence' - which is the same ID for a non-driver.

You see, we couldn't POSSIBLY institute a national ID. Such an idea would be HORRIBLE...why, it's, it's like...

Communism.

On the other hand, there is Homeland Security to worry about...

Now you mention it, I think the new driving licences are laminated, too. Mine was quite modern at the time, in pink, and smaller than the original grey, large one.

My son's got one like this

http://www.bs-und-p.de/services/images/eu-fe-3.jpg

The other two look like these:

http://www.fahrschule-voss-dresden.de/bilder/infos/fuehrerschein-alte-klein.gif

I like the old-fashioned ones.

Ours look like the first picture, more or less.

The first ones are a dying species, and it won't take long until the second ones are extinct, too.

Ah, what a shame.

I have always enjoyed German official documents...and Aktenordner...

I used to trance out in stationery shops...

The fact that people had little round carousels for holding all their rubber stamps...

Did you know that the American civil service was invented by a German?

No, I had no idea. Was he from Philadelphia? I think that's where many Germans settled.

Carl Schurz was born in Cologen. He was a student radical in 1848, and had to leave. So he went to the US.

At that time, a lot of Germans settled in Wisconsin. When the Civil War broke out, Schurz and Siegel organised German regiments to fight for the Union. The government promised the soldiers citizenship in return.

I don't know what military experience General Schurz claimed he had, but from organising demos to fighting a war...well...

Anyway, after the war he became a Cabinet member. He even called out the troops to put down civil unrest in the early 1870s.

Which was a switch.

And he invented the civil service, to keep public services above politics.

Nice idea, but led to a glut of rubber stamps...

When I was in high school in Pennsylvania, I even got a book as a prize from the Carl-Schurz-Gesellschaft. (Competitive German exam.)

I learned about famous Germans in Pennsylvania.

Oh, I may well have mixed it all up. Don't know where I've left the book I was thinking of anyway.

No, lots of Germans in Philadelphia. Germantown, after all.

In fact, Elektra's grandmother was German. The family had been in America for 300 years, mind, but her grandmother spoke German as her first language...

Very *old* German.

There are also lots of Germans in Texas, and Missouri. We even have them in North Carolina, and Mennonites in Tennessee.

Around the time of the Second World War, one out of five Americans had German ancestors.

Oh, thanks for that. It's too late for me to actually get my thoughts together.

I never knew there were so many Germans in America, I thought most immigrants were Irish.

And here I am spamming factoids. Apologies. It's only late afternoon over here, and I'm babysitting Mala and Elektra, who are rpging something about a rubber duck in outer space...

In the 18th Century, most of the original colonists came from Britain and Africa (or the Caribbean).

In the 19th Century, there were three huge immigrant groups: the Irish, the Germans (mostly from 1848), and the Scandinavians.

Towards the end of the century, southern and eastern Europeans got into the act.

Of course, they had passed a law, called the Chinese Exclusion Act, to keep the Asians out at this point...

Sorry. I write US history for schoolchildren on a freelance basis, I have too much information here.

But most people don't know how important the Germans were to early America. The groups that came as early as the 17th Century, like the Mennonites and Amish.

And that German almost became the national language. Lost by one vote.

The voting for language rings a bell, albeit a distant one.
The school son #1 went to was named after a man who was member of the National Assembly in Frankfurt in 1848

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_von_Gagern (here's the link for the English version: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_von_Gagern)

Have you ever been to Frankfurt, or read one of my entries about it?
They're not very historical entries, but then I'm not really a history buff.

Sounds like a hard-working fellow, that gentleman. Thanks for the link.

I've only been in Frankfurt a couple of times, mostly to do with the airport, I'm afraid. I'll have to read your entries on it.

I mostly know that Frankfurt is such a large city, it is divided into Frankfurt an der Oder and Frankfurt am Main...

Followed by 'ho-la-di-hee...'

I only ever go to the airport when I'm about to leave the country.

Never made it to Frankfurt an der Oder, but have been told it's not a nice place to be anyway.

I've never been there, either. Why isn't it nice? Just run-down?

I grew up near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which is sort of like the Ruhr with mountains (and a lot more countryside). It's a coal and steel area.

Is it like that?

I think there's a lot if industry there, and having been in the GDR for so long, it's probably all black (them not having had any filters) and so on. However, if you look at the photos here

http://images.google.de/images?hl=de&q=frankfurt%20oder&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

it doesn't look to bad.

The Ruhrpott is lovely, a friend of mine lived in Düsseldorf for a while, and we made some sight-seeing tours when I visited her a few years ago.

Yes, it looks rather nice from the photos. But being exposed to all that industrial grime takes its toll. Many 100-year-old buildings in Pittsburgh look ancient.

We have a lot of Gothic revival, which adds to the ancient effect:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2111/2247578300_e492d67c8c.jpg?v=0

Düsseldorf is nice. When I lived in Bonn, we would all run over there to Schneider Wibbel's.

I love the whole Rhein area, as well.

That looks nice. If you love the Rhein area, I've even written an entry about a part of that, and Mala was so sweet to create a blob for it when I asked her. You'll find it on my PS (you'll know which one I mean when you see the blob).

I'm off to bed now, it's really very late.

Have a good evening.

Thanks, I will check that out.

And thanks for the chat. Sleep well!

It seems I can't get enough sleep these days, although I spend a lot of time sleeping.

Btw, I had a look at your entries. I was surprised to find so many edited ones, I always thought you were an UG person.