Enjoyment and celebrations, travel and living – everyday
culture and way of life
By Constanze Kleis
“Favorable” – this was the opinion of Germany revealed in the summer of 2005 by the 17,000 people in 16 countrieswho were polled in an inernational study by the US PewResearch Center. It revealed that along with France, Ger-many is one of the countries with the best image abroad.And there is no lack of reasons for this positive appeal: thecountry’s modern approach, its openness, the quality of life,the multi-national diversity and the creativity with whichGermany both renews and preserves its cultural identity.Nowadays a relaxed laissez-faire attitude and a liberal senseof curiosity are evident in almost all aspects of life.
For example in nutrition. Of course you can still enjoy
heavy regional cuisine, the hearty characteristics of the dif-ferent landscapes: Roast pork with dumplings from Bavariaor ribs and sauerkraut from Hesse. Yet several new influ-ences have also made their mark on German cuisine. It hasbecome far more varied and health conscious, light andimaginative. In the 2005 edition of Gault Millau, ChristianScharrer from the restaurant Imperial in Schlosshotel “Büh-lerhöhe” near Baden-Baden was voted “Cook of the Year”.His fortes include “Lobster on piquant Mango Chutney”.Nowadays, that too is typically German cuisine – because thecountry is developing more and more into a “World TasteCenter”.
In fact, the Germans are among those with the most
international range of food in Europe. According to a surveyconducted by the Allensbach Institute more than fifty per-
German cuisine
There is no such thing as stan-dard “German cuisine“, ratherseveral regional specialties
ranging from smoked sprats fromKiel to white sausage with sweetmustard from Munich. Regionalcuisine is also very important forGermany’s top chefs. In 2006Michelin Guide awarded almost200 German restaurants one or more of its coveted stars. Thehighest concentration of Michelinstars is in the Black forest com-munity of Baiersbronn. The com-petitor guide Gault Millau award-ed “chef’s hats” to 904 restau-rants. Among Germany’s top
chefs are Heinz Winkler (Aschau),Harald Wohlfahrt (Baiersbronn)and Dieter Müller (Bergisch Glad-bach).
Organic food
Organic agriculture is becomingever more popular among Ger-man farmers. Between 1996 and2004, the number of farms work-ing according to organic criteria
soared from 7,353 to 16,603.Almost 30,000 products on salein German supermarkets andhealth food shops bear the stateorganic seal for goods produced
organically. There are strict criteria governing the classifica-tion “organic”: Foodstuffs maynot be treated with chemical pes-ticides or be genetically modi-fied and may only be producedfrom animals that have beenkept in an appropriate manner.
A healthy trend drink: Mineral water gushes from
239 German sources
cent of all Germans chose foreign cuisine when eating out,primarily Italian, Chinese or Greek.
Another trend is towards healthy eating: In 2004,
sales of organic foodtotaled some 3.5 billion Euro. Organicsupermarkets are opening up in large cities all over thecountry, offering a blend of what is becoming increasinglyimportant to Germans: Enjoyment and responsibility,lifestyle and a clear conscience. As such, in 2004 organicsupermarkets were able to post a clear rise in earnings byabout 11 percent.
Less beer, more water
The European Parliament recognizes beer from Germany asbeing a “traditional foodstuff”, a label only awarded to a veryfew forms of nourishment. This is thanks to the famous “Puri-ty Law” that only allows the use of certain natural ingredi-ents in beer. This means that even today the basics of all Ger-man beers are hops, malt, water and yeast. In addition tolarge breweries, smaller traditional regional breweries havea place in the hearts of beer drinkers. These make up 80 per-cent of the adult population in Germany. They can chosebetween 5,000 different brands produced by 1,270 brew-eries: a world record.
Nonetheless, beer consumption in Germany is dwindling allWines from Germany
the time, from 133 liters a year in 1994 to just 114 liters perGerman wines are produced in person today.
13 wine-growing areas in whicharound 65,000 vineyards pro-On the other hand, the wellness boom has triggered
duce a wide variety of typicala bubble in, among other things, mineral water. Over theregional wines. Apart from Sax-last 30 years the Germans have increased the amount ofony and Saale-Unstrut in the East, the German wine-growingmineral water they drink by a factor of ten to 130 liters each,areas are concentrated in theputting them in the top group worldwide. More than 500southwest and south of the coun-types of mineral water gush from 239 sources.
try. Although almost 140 types of vine are planted, only twodozen, primarily the white winesRiesling and Müller-Thurgau, haveThe Riesling miracle
any real market significance. Of the wine produced in GermanySince the beginning of the new millennium German Ries-65 percent is white and 35 per-ling wine has been enjoying a Renaissance – on the inter-cent red. About a quarter of thenational stage as well. The world over, it is now a standardnine million hectoliters pro-duced annually is exported, initem in many top restaurants. In just four years the USA hasparticular to the USA, Greatdoubled the amount it imports. Riesling has earned theBritain, Japan and Scandinavia.
enthusiasm of wine experts for the “German wine miracle”thanks to its lightness and sparkling character, characteris-tics that are the result of the particular climatic conditions
German wine-growing regionsand soil: because the German wine-growing regions are• Ahr among the most northerly in the world.
• Baden The long period of vegetation and moderate tem-• Franconia
• Hessische Bergstrasse peratures in summer make wines from Germanyfiligree and• Mittelrhein
keep their alcohol content low. Different soil types and• Mosel-Saar-Ruwer vines such as Müller-Thurgau and Silvaner also play their• Nahe • Pfalz
part in giving German wines a reputation for being• Rheingau remarkably varied.
• Rheinhessen However, the new generation of vintners in the
• Saale-Unstrut • Saxony
13 German wine-growing regionshas also played its part in• Württemberg
the success story, concentrating as it has done on qual-ity rather than quantity. Germany, traditionally a whitewine country – of the wine produced in Germany 65 per-cent is white and 35 percent red –, is increasingly dis-covering red wine. The acreage used for cultivation, pri-marily for Spätburgunder, has already more thantripled. Could this be the next wine miracle?
National parks
To a large extent the 15 nationalparks in Germany are located in the north of the country. Theyare all noteworthy for their
unique nature and landscape andserve to preserve the naturaldiversity of rare plants and ani-mals. The largest is the
Schleswig-Holstein Mud FlatsNational Park Wattenmeer, with a surface area of 441,000
hectares. The smallest, JasmundNational Park on the Isle ofRügen, with its famous whitecliffs, is only 3,003 hectareslarge.
New creations by the
star designer: Wolfgang Joop is causing a stir with his “Wunderkind“ label
1972
Richard Sapper was born in 1932 in Munich.
centers such as London and Paris. The “bread and butter”fashion show has found a worthy location in Berlin, the epi-center of creativity.
Insiders have long been familiar with the new
German fashion avant-garde, which include Thatchers,Coration, Sabotage, Kostas Murkudis and Eisdieler fromBerlin, as well as Blutsgeschwister from Stuttgart, Anja Gock-el from Mainz, and Susanne Bommer from Munich. YoungGerman fashion designers such Markus Lupfer, BernhardBauhaus
Willhelm and Dirk Schönberger have conquered even Lon-Bauhaus (1919–1933) is consid-ered to be the most famous art,don, Paris and the fashion-conscious city of Antwerp. Thatdesign and architecture collegesaid, the most famous German couturier abroad is undoubt-of Classic Modernism. Foundededly Karl Lagerfeld, who was born in Hamburg and is by Walter Gropius it was locatedin Weimar and later in Dessau.Creative Director of Chanel, the legendary French haute cou-Bauhaus artists and architectsture company.
created a new, clear, contempo-German product design has a reputation for creat-rary formal language, much of which still exerts an influenceing carefully devised, straightforward functional products.today. The most famous repre-Design made in Germany – from Bulthaup kitchens to Braunsentatives of Bauhaus includerazors – is held in high regard in the international arena.Ludwig Mies van der Rohe,Lyonel Feininger, Oskar Schlem-Companies such as furniture manufacturers Wilkhahn andmer and Sophie Taeuber-Arp.
Vitra still lead the way in terms of style, as do Lamy for writ-ing implements and Erco for luminaires. The traditions ofBauhaus in the 1920s and the Ulm College in the 1950s arestill highly regarded, but in the meantime a new generationhas made a name for itself. It includes Konstantin Grcic, whowas born in 1965 and is one of the most innovative youngdesigners. Born in Munich, he accords totally banal everyday
objects an unfamiliar touch of poetry. The newcomers from
“Studio Vertijet” in Halle, Steffen Kroll and Kirsten Hoppert,also blend playful and analytical design elements in theirwork.
Architecture
The architectural scene in Germany has several regionalcenters, but since reunification it has also certainly focusedon Berlin. In the capital, world-class architecture can beexperienced at close quarters: Whether Lord Norman Foster,who converted the former Reichstag building into the newGerman parliament, Renzo Piano, Daniel Libeskind, I. M. Peior Rem Koolhaas – the list of international architects whohave made their mark on the new face of Berlin is long. How-ever, the elite among German master builders such as Hel-mut Jahn, von Gerkan Marg und Partner, Hans Kollhoff andJosef Paul Kleihues have likewise made a firm contributionto the new capital. In the old harbors of Hamburg and Düs-seldorf experiments are being conducted with new formalideas. And in many cities striking museum buildings havebeen created by German architects – such as Stephan Braun-fels’ Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, Frank Gehry’sMuseum MARTa in Herford, Tadao Ando’s Langen Founda-tion near Neuss and the Leipzig Museum of Fine Arts byBerlin architects Hufnagel Pütz Rafaelian.•
Living pink: An ensemble by Austrian FriedensreichHundertwasser in Magdeburg
Constanze Kleis
The authoress of several lifestylebooks works as a freelance journalist for various Germanmagazines and newspapers.
Enjoyment and celebrations, travel and living – everyday
culture and way of life
By Constanze Kleis
“Favorable” – this was the opinion of Germany revealed in the summer of 2005 by the 17,000 people in 16 countrieswho were polled in an inernational study by the US PewResearch Center. It revealed that along with France, Ger-many is one of the countries with the best image abroad.And there is no lack of reasons for this positive appeal: thecountry’s modern approach, its openness, the quality of life,the multi-national diversity and the creativity with whichGermany both renews and preserves its cultural identity.Nowadays a relaxed laissez-faire attitude and a liberal senseof curiosity are evident in almost all aspects of life.
For example in nutrition. Of course you can still enjoy
heavy regional cuisine, the hearty characteristics of the dif-ferent landscapes: Roast pork with dumplings from Bavariaor ribs and sauerkraut from Hesse. Yet several new influ-ences have also made their mark on German cuisine. It hasbecome far more varied and health conscious, light andimaginative. In the 2005 edition of Gault Millau, ChristianScharrer from the restaurant Imperial in Schlosshotel “Büh-lerhöhe” near Baden-Baden was voted “Cook of the Year”.His fortes include “Lobster on piquant Mango Chutney”.Nowadays, that too is typically German cuisine – because thecountry is developing more and more into a “World TasteCenter”.
In fact, the Germans are among those with the most
international range of food in Europe. According to a surveyconducted by the Allensbach Institute more than fifty per-
German cuisine
There is no such thing as stan-dard “German cuisine“, ratherseveral regional specialties
ranging from smoked sprats fromKiel to white sausage with sweetmustard from Munich. Regionalcuisine is also very important forGermany’s top chefs. In 2006Michelin Guide awarded almost200 German restaurants one or more of its coveted stars. Thehighest concentration of Michelinstars is in the Black forest com-munity of Baiersbronn. The com-petitor guide Gault Millau award-ed “chef’s hats” to 904 restau-rants. Among Germany’s top
chefs are Heinz Winkler (Aschau),Harald Wohlfahrt (Baiersbronn)and Dieter Müller (Bergisch Glad-bach).
Organic food
Organic agriculture is becomingever more popular among Ger-man farmers. Between 1996 and2004, the number of farms work-ing according to organic criteria
soared from 7,353 to 16,603.Almost 30,000 products on salein German supermarkets andhealth food shops bear the stateorganic seal for goods produced
organically. There are strict criteria governing the classifica-tion “organic”: Foodstuffs maynot be treated with chemical pes-ticides or be genetically modi-fied and may only be producedfrom animals that have beenkept in an appropriate manner.
A healthy trend drink: Mineral water gushes from
239 German sources
cent of all Germans chose foreign cuisine when eating out,primarily Italian, Chinese or Greek.
Another trend is towards healthy eating: In 2004,
sales of organic foodtotaled some 3.5 billion Euro. Organicsupermarkets are opening up in large cities all over thecountry, offering a blend of what is becoming increasinglyimportant to Germans: Enjoyment and responsibility,lifestyle and a clear conscience. As such, in 2004 organicsupermarkets were able to post a clear rise in earnings byabout 11 percent.
Less beer, more water
The European Parliament recognizes beer from Germany asbeing a “traditional foodstuff”, a label only awarded to a veryfew forms of nourishment. This is thanks to the famous “Puri-ty Law” that only allows the use of certain natural ingredi-ents in beer. This means that even today the basics of all Ger-man beers are hops, malt, water and yeast. In addition tolarge breweries, smaller traditional regional breweries havea place in the hearts of beer drinkers. These make up 80 per-cent of the adult population in Germany. They can chosebetween 5,000 different brands produced by 1,270 brew-eries: a world record.
Nonetheless, beer consumption in Germany is dwindling allWines from Germany
the time, from 133 liters a year in 1994 to just 114 liters perGerman wines are produced in person today.
13 wine-growing areas in whicharound 65,000 vineyards pro-On the other hand, the wellness boom has triggered
duce a wide variety of typicala bubble in, among other things, mineral water. Over theregional wines. Apart from Sax-last 30 years the Germans have increased the amount ofony and Saale-Unstrut in the East, the German wine-growingmineral water they drink by a factor of ten to 130 liters each,areas are concentrated in theputting them in the top group worldwide. More than 500southwest and south of the coun-types of mineral water gush from 239 sources.
try. Although almost 140 types of vine are planted, only twodozen, primarily the white winesRiesling and Müller-Thurgau, haveThe Riesling miracle
any real market significance. Of the wine produced in GermanySince the beginning of the new millennium German Ries-65 percent is white and 35 per-ling wine has been enjoying a Renaissance – on the inter-cent red. About a quarter of thenational stage as well. The world over, it is now a standardnine million hectoliters pro-duced annually is exported, initem in many top restaurants. In just four years the USA hasparticular to the USA, Greatdoubled the amount it imports. Riesling has earned theBritain, Japan and Scandinavia.
enthusiasm of wine experts for the “German wine miracle”thanks to its lightness and sparkling character, characteris-tics that are the result of the particular climatic conditions
German wine-growing regionsand soil: because the German wine-growing regions are• Ahr among the most northerly in the world.
• Baden The long period of vegetation and moderate tem-• Franconia
• Hessische Bergstrasse peratures in summer make wines from Germanyfiligree and• Mittelrhein
keep their alcohol content low. Different soil types and• Mosel-Saar-Ruwer vines such as Müller-Thurgau and Silvaner also play their• Nahe • Pfalz
part in giving German wines a reputation for being• Rheingau remarkably varied.
• Rheinhessen However, the new generation of vintners in the
• Saale-Unstrut • Saxony
13 German wine-growing regionshas also played its part in• Württemberg
the success story, concentrating as it has done on qual-ity rather than quantity. Germany, traditionally a whitewine country – of the wine produced in Germany 65 per-cent is white and 35 percent red –, is increasingly dis-covering red wine. The acreage used for cultivation, pri-marily for Spätburgunder, has already more thantripled. Could this be the next wine miracle?
National parks
To a large extent the 15 nationalparks in Germany are located in the north of the country. Theyare all noteworthy for their
unique nature and landscape andserve to preserve the naturaldiversity of rare plants and ani-mals. The largest is the
Schleswig-Holstein Mud FlatsNational Park Wattenmeer, with a surface area of 441,000
hectares. The smallest, JasmundNational Park on the Isle ofRügen, with its famous whitecliffs, is only 3,003 hectareslarge.
New creations by the
star designer: Wolfgang Joop is causing a stir with his “Wunderkind“ label
1972
Richard Sapper was born in 1932 in Munich.
centers such as London and Paris. The “bread and butter”fashion show has found a worthy location in Berlin, the epi-center of creativity.
Insiders have long been familiar with the new
German fashion avant-garde, which include Thatchers,Coration, Sabotage, Kostas Murkudis and Eisdieler fromBerlin, as well as Blutsgeschwister from Stuttgart, Anja Gock-el from Mainz, and Susanne Bommer from Munich. YoungGerman fashion designers such Markus Lupfer, BernhardBauhaus
Willhelm and Dirk Schönberger have conquered even Lon-Bauhaus (1919–1933) is consid-ered to be the most famous art,don, Paris and the fashion-conscious city of Antwerp. Thatdesign and architecture collegesaid, the most famous German couturier abroad is undoubt-of Classic Modernism. Foundededly Karl Lagerfeld, who was born in Hamburg and is by Walter Gropius it was locatedin Weimar and later in Dessau.Creative Director of Chanel, the legendary French haute cou-Bauhaus artists and architectsture company.
created a new, clear, contempo-German product design has a reputation for creat-rary formal language, much of which still exerts an influenceing carefully devised, straightforward functional products.today. The most famous repre-Design made in Germany – from Bulthaup kitchens to Braunsentatives of Bauhaus includerazors – is held in high regard in the international arena.Ludwig Mies van der Rohe,Lyonel Feininger, Oskar Schlem-Companies such as furniture manufacturers Wilkhahn andmer and Sophie Taeuber-Arp.
Vitra still lead the way in terms of style, as do Lamy for writ-ing implements and Erco for luminaires. The traditions ofBauhaus in the 1920s and the Ulm College in the 1950s arestill highly regarded, but in the meantime a new generationhas made a name for itself. It includes Konstantin Grcic, whowas born in 1965 and is one of the most innovative youngdesigners. Born in Munich, he accords totally banal everyday
objects an unfamiliar touch of poetry. The newcomers from
“Studio Vertijet” in Halle, Steffen Kroll and Kirsten Hoppert,also blend playful and analytical design elements in theirwork.
Architecture
The architectural scene in Germany has several regionalcenters, but since reunification it has also certainly focusedon Berlin. In the capital, world-class architecture can beexperienced at close quarters: Whether Lord Norman Foster,who converted the former Reichstag building into the newGerman parliament, Renzo Piano, Daniel Libeskind, I. M. Peior Rem Koolhaas – the list of international architects whohave made their mark on the new face of Berlin is long. How-ever, the elite among German master builders such as Hel-mut Jahn, von Gerkan Marg und Partner, Hans Kollhoff andJosef Paul Kleihues have likewise made a firm contributionto the new capital. In the old harbors of Hamburg and Düs-seldorf experiments are being conducted with new formalideas. And in many cities striking museum buildings havebeen created by German architects – such as Stephan Braun-fels’ Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, Frank Gehry’sMuseum MARTa in Herford, Tadao Ando’s Langen Founda-tion near Neuss and the Leipzig Museum of Fine Arts byBerlin architects Hufnagel Pütz Rafaelian.•
Living pink: An ensemble by Austrian FriedensreichHundertwasser in Magdeburg
Constanze Kleis
The authoress of several lifestylebooks works as a freelance journalist for various Germanmagazines and newspapers.