06The English Language Journal

for Baden-Württemberg

www.accents-magazine.de

September/October 2005

The phenomenon of trivia in pubs

Selling screws to the world

Buying Potter in English

Telephoning in boxer shorts

accentsmagazine

The quiz business

3accents magazine

There were sniggers of laugh-

ter and derisive comments at

an accents editorial meeting

when someone suggested

that the phenomenon of pub

quizzes in Baden-Württemberg

might make a good feature

story.

Some people thought – perhapswith some justification – thatlooking into pub quizzes mightyield nothing more than a light-weight story report about boringdrunks and trivial trivia. The editor himself was sceptical asto whether chasing this storywould produce anything morethan a few sorry hangovers. But what started out as a vagueidea to write something aboutthe quaintness of trivia turnedinto a more serious story about

a unique cultural and economicphenomenon. Pub quizzes areserious business. In short, theyare pumping more than four million euros a year – accordingto our calculations – into theEnglish-language pub scene insouthwest Germany, and helpingpubs to survive in tough eco-nomic times. They also providean important social network fornative English speakers, andhighly valued, informal Englishpractise for many Germans.Turn to page 8 for our featurestory on the quiz business.

If you’re in the business of parenting, you know how difficult it is in Germany to getuseful information, in English,about having a baby. We reporton an initiative by a Canadianwoman (page 5) that offers

advice for mothers-to-be, andhelps parents to cope withthose tiny, delicate bundles ofhumanity once they arrive.

Are theatre audiences inBaden-Württemberg moreappreciative of experimental,avant-garde theatre than aud-iences in New York? They are,according to Lee Breuer, one of the giants of avant-gardetheatre in the United States,who was in Stuttgart recently.Our Arts Editor caught up withBreuer and other theatre direct-ors to discuss, among otherthings, how German audiencescope with English languageplays.

In this edition we also travelto the east of Baden-Württem-berg to show you around thecity of Ulm; find out whether

German teenagers really do en-joy reading the English versionof Harry Potter VI; provide youwith tips on telephoning inGermany; and warn you aboutasking for a “rubber” in theUSA – you won’t be given aneraser!

With this edition of accents,we’ve turned one year old. Wethank you, our readers, as wellas our sponsors and advertisers– large and small – for yourfeedback and support over thelast year. We hope for your con-tinued support in the comingyears.

accents magazine editorial team

Editorial

accents is sponsored by

86 12 14

8 The quiz business

An English recipe for pub success

9 Impressions of

pub quizzes

5 A new baby-advice

website

6 Reinhold Würth:

English speaker

7 Readership Survey

findings

11 The Harry Potter spectacle

11 Books for kids

12 Critical voices in theatre

The future of politics in the arts

13 Book reviews

14 Ulm

Straddling the Danube

21 Money Matters

A loan for a home21 Stuttgart Tips

22 Telephoning

23 My Two Cents

Unintentional cheek

4 Letters

16 accents choice

What’s on listings18 accents guide

Clubs and contacts20 Classifieds

Contents

Feature

Arts and Culture

accent on…

Good to Know

Labyrinth

RegularsNews and Events

Children’s Corner

Cover photo by C

hrys Rynearson of Trivial P

ursuit pieces (Horn A

bbot International Ltd)

Letters

to the Editor

Dear editor,

Regarding your article on foreigners marrying in Germany(accents 05, p.22), I have some simple advice for those intend-ing to do so: don’t do it! The article does your readers a bit of a disservice as it only lightly breezes over the bureaucracyproblems. Our main problem centred on getting a translated,original copy of my birth certificate. In Canada, in order to get aduplicate birth certificate, you have to sign an affidavit sayingyour previous one was lost or stolen. In other words, you haveto lie to Canadian officials in order to get what German officialswant. German officials wouldn’t converse with us over thephone – we had to make appointments each time we wantedto ask something. And the list of problems went on and on.The whole process is neither cheap nor the “organizational relief” mentioned in your article. While going through the ordeal,I saw a story on German television about couples eloping toDenmark to bypass the headaches of getting married in Ger-many. If only I had seen that before I started the process!Michelle Bester, Holzgerlingen

Hello accents,

My experience, as a British woman, of a registry office wed-ding in Germany was a very positive one. There are alternativesto a ceremony in a local government office building, at least in Stuttgart. One of them is the impressive Damaszener Hall at the Wilhelma Zoo. It did cost us a bit more, but it was worthit. There was space enough for all of our families and friends,lovely flower arrangements and a catering service outside after-wards, overlooking the lake and pelicans. Simone Louis, Stuttgart-Vaihingen

Dear editor,

I read the letter from Sheila Steeb (accents 05, p.4) andKatharine Schmidt’s “My Two Cents” column (p. 23) with greatinterest. As an Asian-American I have been confronted by negative labeling in Germany, not only directed at me but also

at my German/Asian-American children – though I believeGermans are sometimes oblivious to the negative connotationsof the ethnic labels they use. I also feel that Germans, amongthemselves, are less sensitive to name-calling than those of us raised in melting-pot nations. I remember my shock at a partyin my first year in Germany when people stood up to make fun– and make fools – of others in the group. Nobody seemed to take offense! Thank you for drawing attention to this topic.Marion Park-Pfoertsch, Stuttgart

Hello accents,

As an American who has lived in Germany for over 30 years, I thoroughly enjoyed your article on customer service (accents04). I quoted from it in my classes on Intercultural ManagementCommunication and it sparked off a lively discussion among the students. The negative examples did make me laugh. But Iparticularly appreciated the fact that you also included positiveexamples of good customer service.Ingrid Rose-Neiger, Director, Foreign Language Institute,Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences

Dear editors,

I picked up accents at the SEB bank in Schwenningen and I justwanted to let you know that I used it to prepare for my Abitur –my final school exams. I enjoyed your “English at Work” article(accents 04, page 15) and agree with the comment that “Englishis part of everyday banking life”. But I would go even furtherand say English is now a part of our everyday lives in general.Philipp Packmohr, Schwenningen

Dear editors,

I recently visited Stuttgart, and picked up a copy of your magazine at the tourist information office at the airport. It wasby far the most useful (English) information I found. There was a nice mixture of topics, giving a first-time visitor like me agreat overall picture of the local culture and experiences ofEnglish-speaking people in Baden-Württemberg.Santiago Serebrinsky, Pasadena, USA

accents magazine4 Letters

accents magazine Libanonstraße 58 70184 Stuttgarteditor@accents-magazine.de

Accents reader Renata Pocrnic of Birken-feld, is the lucky winner of the main prizein our readership survey draw. She wins around-trip flight to London with German-wings. Renata works at LA BIOSTHETIQUE,a manufacturer of haircare, skincare andmake-up products in Pforzheim, where shetakes in-company English lessons. One day,Renata’s English teacher wandered into

class with copies of accents magazine,picked up at the Piccadilly English Shop inPforzheim. The class enjoyed the magazineso much, according to Renata, that the teacher began integrating accents into herlessons. “Our teacher now always brings ineach new edition,” says Renata. “Every-body takes the magazine home and reads itand we discuss what we like or what we

find interesting in the following lesson. Weparticularly enjoyed reading the featurestory on dual citizenship (accents 03.) Wenearly talked the whole lesson about it!”Renata was one of hundreds of readerswho took part in our readership survey con-ducted in April and May, 2005. For a sum-mary of the survey’s results, see page 7.

And the winner is…

accents used in English lessons

Knot-tying

Ethnic labels

Other feedback

Stars and Stripes in decline: a ninepercent drop in US citizens living in B-W.

News and Events 5accents magazine

News and Events

Having a baby can be a daunting enoughexperience. But if you’re a foreigner andnew to Baden-Württemberg, a long wayaway from familiar surroundings and sup-port networks, there’s even more to worryabout. Where do I enrol in pregnancy exercise classes? Can I have a home birth?What benefits am I entitled to? Where do I find ‘baby’ advice in a language I under-stand?

A Canadian woman living in Baden-Württemberg, Michelle Bester, has decidedto set up a Website (www.eurobabies.net)to provide support and advice in English, as well as links for mums and dads, abouthaving a baby. There’s also information onhow to care for the baby once it’s born.

“There are a lot of resources out thereand a lot of advice. But if you’re a foreignerhere, you find most of the advice is inGerman,” says Bester. “My daughter wasborn in April of this year, and I spent a lotof time talking with American women –

networking – about what to do and how to prepare for the birth. And later we allthought that it would be good to set up anetwork to share what we’d learnt, and tolearn from others. And so we decided toset up the Eurobabies Website.”

The Website comprises two main sections. A ‘forum’ allows people to com-municate with each other – to chat, link up,provide ‘word of mouth’ advice, and tolearn from other people’s experiences. An‘articles’ section will feature more detailedinformation and professional advice aboutspecific topics.

“We want to look at regulations forchildbirth in Germany, medical check-upsduring pregnancy, where the best hospitalsare, the immunisations your baby needs,how to make your own baby food, whatgovernment payments you’re entitled to,registering in a kindergarten or school, find-ing a playgroup, buying certain productslike receiving blankets, diapers (or nappies),

prams and strollers. And that’s just for starters!” says Bester.

The site was only registered in July,2005, and “may still have some teethingproblems,” warns Bester. “But I knowthere are a lot of women or parents outthere like me, going through the samethings I went through. Hopefully, our Web-site will make life easier for a lot of them –and for their babies.”

All about babies

New support and advice network

The number of native English speakersliving in Baden-Württemberg stands atmore than fifty thousand, according to figu-res released by the State Statistics Office.*However, there’s been a seven percentdrop in the number of native English-speak-ing residents over the past two years.Altogether, 55,913 people from English-speaking countries called Baden-Württem-berg home in 2004. This was 4,266 fewerpeople than in the previous year.

By far the biggest grouping of native-English speakers remains US citizens. Last year, 15,470 people from the USA (notincluding those on US military bases) wereliving in Baden-Württemberg. This was 9.4% down on the previous year’s number.There was also a similar reduction in thenumber of British citizens, the second biggest English-speaking group: 10,222 – a 9.5% drop on the previous year.

People from Asian countries make upthe next largest groupings of English speak-ers living in Baden-Württemberg, includingpeople from India (5602), Sri Lanka (5359),Pakistan (4425), and the Philippines (3050).African speakers of English included peoplefrom Nigeria (2077) and Ghana (1750).

Among other native English-speakinggroups, there were 2360 Canadians,1269 Irish, 1208 Australians and 249 New Zealanders resident in Baden-Württemberglast year.

* Not every citizen from each countrywhere English is an official language learnsEnglish, making it difficult to calculateexact numbers. But for our sample, 19countries were selected where English iseither an official or a widely used language.

Calling Baden-Württemberg home

50,000 Native English speakers

accents magazine6 News and Events

One of Baden-Württemberg’s most forward-thinking and successful entrepreneurs,Reinhold Würth (pictured above) saw theimportance of learning to speak English fluently long before it became the linguafranca of international business. The WürthGroup, based in Künzelsau, is the world’sleading manufacturer of screws and othersmall parts for fixing, fastening and fortify-ing just about anything. The company em-ploys 47,000 people in 80 countries aroundthe world. Reinhold Würth, who celebratedhis 70th birthday this year, is a businessmaverick whose views often run againstthe grain of business opinion in general. Hespoke to accents magazine about learningEnglish, supporting the arts – and aboutgold that doesn’t glitter.

accents: You’re a fluent speaker of

English. How did you learn to speak the

language so well?

Reinhold Würth: I first learnt English inschool, of course. But afterwards I learnt to fly and for the major aeronautical radio-service certificate you need to be able tospeak English fluently. I’ve also set upnumerous Würth subsidiaries in manyEnglish-speaking countries, for which I hadto learn to speak the language well. Now-adays, I’m able to give complete lectures in English without referring to notes.

How important is English in today’s

business environment?

Every single day I correspond with at leastone person in English. It’s now my secondlanguage, and speaking English at work is part of my daily routine.

What do you think of the ‘Anglo’ way

of doing business? Could Germany learn

from American or British businesses?

I’m rather doubtful we can learn much from the “American Way of Life,” withregards to business. My experience isthere is much less worker and companyloyalty among English-speaking peoplecompared with, for example, workers incontinental Europe. Job-hopping in English-speaking regions is more common than in Germany. On the other hand, workersare more geographically mobile there.

A Pioneering English Speaker

A conversation with Reinhold Würth

We’ve reported on the issue of customer

service. How do you view the approach

of German companies – compared with

U.S. companies – in terms of understan-

ding what customer service is all about?

Customer service in the United States isclearly better than in Germany. Althoughyou have to keep in mind that in the USA,all that glitters is not gold. Customer ser-vice in the U.S. is often very mechanical or automated. With toll-free telephone ser-vice numbers, for example, you can often be left hanging for ages on the line, andthen be put through and re-connected another five times – as I said: in the USA,as elsewhere, all that glitters is not gold.

And what do you think ‘Anglo’ compa-

nies could learn from Germany’s business

culture and practices?

Our social-market economy, in the sense of how Ludwig Erhard (former chancellorand economics minister) understood it –where the reign of free-market capitalism is tempered by social and welfare concerns –this is something that might help bringabout some moderation of social problemsin English-speaking countries.

You are a civic-minded employer. How

important is it for companies to be in-

volved in their communities and society

at large?

I can only speak for my own company. Fordecades we’ve promoted the arts in ourregion, by supporting events at the WürthAcademy: cabaret, book readings, jazz andchamber orchestra concerts. We are alsoan integral part of the cultural life of Fran-conian Württemberg, with our company-sponsored art galleries in Künzelsau andSchwäbisch Hall. Experience shows thatour employees gain something in socialprestige from these activities, and that thecompany itself enjoys a great deal of favourin the eyes of the public. This partnershipbetween the company and the employeesis enriching for everyone. Indirectly, thisinvolvement in society benefits the overalldevelopment of the Würth Group.

One of the many projects you support

is accents magazine. Why?

I am very much interested in the furtherdevelopment of the state of Baden-Würt-temberg – it’s the biggest foreign exporterof all the German states. And it’s clear, that the more the citizens of this statemaster the English language, the easier itbecomes to communicate with businesspartners all over the world. So it goes with-out saying that I wish accents all the best.

It’s not unusual to like sailing. But it is unusual for a wheelchair-boundGerman-based English woman, who is close to 50, to become a sailingenthusiast. Annette Abraminko, fromPlochingen (pictured above), has setup a project called Dare the Dream,aimed at breaking down barriers between physically disabled and able-bodied people. She encourages peopleto get involved in the Tall Ships pro-gram of the Jubilee Sailing Trust, anorganization offering the disabled andable-bodied the adventure of sailingtogether.

In the summer of 2004, Abraminkocrossed the Atlantic – from Halifax,Canada to Southampton, England – onthe Tenacious, a three-masted, square-rigged sailing ship. She was at sea fornearly five weeks. “Sailing involvesteamwork and everybody is neededno matter what their personal back-ground or physical disability,” saysAbraminko.

Abraminko also holds motivationaltalks for businesses, charities, groupsand individuals. Visit her website(www.dare-the-dream.de) to readmore about her Atlantic crossing andother voyages. Also, find out how toget involved in sailing yourself, orhelp someone else to take part in aTall Ships adventure.

Dare to Dream

Tenacious woman

Photo: A

dolf Würth G

mbH

& C

o. KG

News and Events 7accents magazine

Accents readers

Employed, well-educated, communicative, multilingual

Deutsch-Amerikanisches Zentrum

James-F.-Byrnes-Institut e.V.

Charlottenplatz 17 (Inner courtyard, entrance 3) 70173 Stuttgart Telephone 0711 228180 www.daz.org

Germans44%

31-4033%

18-3029%

41-5526%

>5611%

<181%

USA17%

UK/GB23%

Other nations5%

Ireland 3%Other

native speakers4%

Canada2% Australia

2%

Nationality Age

The accents magazine readership

survey, conducted in April and May of

this year, has revealed two major core

groups of readers: British and U.S.

citizens living in Baden-Württemberg

(40%) and Germans (44%) with an

excellent knowledge of English.

In general, accents readers are verywell-educated, multilingual and earnabove-average incomes. They are in theprime of their working and family lives,with 59% of readers aged 31-55. Almostall readers use English regularly at workor with friends and acquaintances. Theyare communicative and modern, with ahigh frequency of mobile-phone and Inter-net use; they are interested in English-language news and culture, the arts andtravel. The majority of readers are female(59%). A large proportion of expatriatereaders are self-employed but the majorityare working for German or internationalcompanies and are – compared with thegeneral population – very well paid. Ofthe German readers, a good number arestudents, but the majority work full-time,and are also well-paid. One in fiveaccents readers are managers or seniormanagers.

“Accents clearly has a more mature,intelligent, modern-thinking and sophisti-cated readership than other similar niche magazines,“ says Alex Woodruff,managing director of the Stuttgart-basedadvertising agency englishtalk: The nativespeaker agency*, which prepared the survey and analysed the results. “Theprofiles show readers are actively enjoy-ing life, they’re communicative, they haverelatively high incomes, and they feel‘settled’ in Baden-Württemberg. Whetherthey are expatriates or Germans, 65% ofreaders see themselves as being integra-ted into the community.”

The high proportion of Germans read-

ing an English-language magazine is nobig surprise, according to Woodruff. “Allthe research indicates that Germans witha good command of English are cryingout for challenging, interesting English-languages material that’s relevant to theirdaily lives. Accents is being read – andenjoyed – by Germans in schools and universities, by office workers and bymanagers.”

For love and money

Native English speaking readers ofaccents have mostly come to Baden-Württemberg for work (53%) or becauseof their partners (21%). Sixty percent ofexpat readers have been here for longerthan five years, and have a good com-mand of German. Seventy-five percent of all accents readers are university educated – a third of all readers havepost-graduate degrees.

Other findings about accents readersinclude that they: • comprise 18 different nationalities,

among them Irish, Canadians, Australians, Nigerians, Poles and Croatians.

• enjoy travelling (41% of expatriates are frequent flyers)

• support the consumption of local products (45%)

• are mostly interested in reading news about English-language events and culture, feature stories, the arts, travel tips and newcomers’ advice, and the history and culture of Baden-Württem-berg.

Overall, accents magazine is highlyvalued by a loyal readership. Its layoutand ‘look’ and its journalistic style wererated “good to outstanding“ by most readers. It scored an average of 8.5 outof 10 for “overall quality”.

accents magazine is also widely usedby English teachers to help their studentslearn or improve their English, especiallywithin German firms, but also within pri-vate language schools and conversationcourses.

* englishtalk is a Stuttgart-based advertising agency providing Germancompanies with English-language market-ing materials. It involves only native speakers in the creation or adaptation ofadvertising.

Feature

accents magazine8 Feature

Trading in trivia

The popularity of the pub quiz

The ‘pub quiz’ is a British-Irish import in

Germany – an open, general-knowledge

quiz, usually held once a week in a bar

or pub. But it’s no longer just a quaint,

off-beat, ‘English’ pastime attended by a

few homesick expatriates on a dull night

of the week. Accents has sampled the

atmosphere of pub quizzes across Baden-

Württemberg, and discovered that inter-

est in the phenomenon is booming.

Most weeknights, the old town area ofBöblingen is dead. Except for Tuesdays. As you walk down Breite Gasse, away from the train station, you hear the soundof talking and laughter emerging from oneplace in an otherwise deserted street:O’Donovan’s Irish Pub. It’s full to overflow-ing, mainly with Americans from a nearbymilitary base. Publican Sinead O’Leary isworking flat out behind the bar to keep upwith orders. “Unfortunately, our microphoneisn’t working tonight so we’re having toshout out the quiz questions above this

noise. It’s a bit hectic,” she says, dashingoff to serve another customer. Tuesday hasbecome one of the busiest nights of theweek at O’Donovan’s for one reason: it’squiz night.

Quiz culture writers in the United King-dom claim the pub quiz fails to thrive out-side of Britain. They’re wrong. What occursat O’Donovan’s every Tuesday night isbeing replicated at at least 150 pubs acrossBaden-Württemberg on different nights ofthe week. Pub quizzes are consistentlybringing standing-room-only crowds intopubs across the state, and have becomecrucial to the economic survival of many ofthese small businesses in tough economictimes. “The original idea of the pub quizwas to drum up a little bit of business onan otherwise quiet night of the week,”says Mark Dilloway, an English beverageswholesaler who’s been delivering beer toBaden-Württemberg pubs for 20 years.“Now, a ‘little bit of business’ has turnedinto quite a lot.”

What’s surprising, given the growingpopularity of pub quizzes in Germany ingeneral, is the lack of academic or industryresearch into the social, cultural and, particularly, the economic phenomenon ofthe pub quiz. A team of five researchersfrom accents has therefore surveyed morethan 20 different English, Irish and Germanpubs in Baden-Württemberg to examinethe phenomenon more closely. What we’vediscovered has surprised industry analysts:pub quizzes, it turns out, are not trivialaffairs; they are big business. Our main findings are as follows:• The number of people attending a pub

quiz each week ranges from 30 to 120 depending on the size of the pub. The average number of quiz participants across all pubs is around 60.

• According to figures supplied by whole-saler Dilloway, Diageo corporation (the makers of Guinness) and internet research, an estimated minimum of 150 pubs across Baden-Württemberg run pub quizzes. (Although there may be as many as 250.)

• Taking this information into account, an estimated 9,000 people across Baden-Württemberg take part in a pub quiz every week.

• These 9,000 people contribute an average of more than 90,000 euros every week – at a very modest estimate – to the state’s hotel and hospitality industry. Looked at over the course of a year, the pub quiz is a multi-million-dollar industry.

• Pub quiz questions have traditionally been set in English, but our research shows that the majority of pub quiz participants in Baden-Württemberg are now German – not expatriate English-speakers. Questions are now often written or called out in German – even in Irish pubs. And, slowly, German pubs or Kneipen are starting to discover the drawing power of the pub quiz.

The conclusion: an English-Irish culturalimport has now found a firm foothold – and is thriving – in southwest Germany.

“I wasn’t aware that German Kneipenare introducing pub quizzes. I thought it was only Irish pubs,” says Daniel Ohlfrom the Baden-Württemberg branch ofDEHOGA, the German Hotel and Gastro-nomy Association. “But it’s clearly an ideawhich could work. Gastronomy today isabout more than just offering someone aplace to eat or drink. It’s about offering thecustomer something extra. In a pub, thismight include live music, live sport on a big screen, or a trivia quiz. The gastronomyindustry survives on such ideas.”

Trivial Pursuit and TV quiz shows

Pub quizzes have been popular in Britainand Ireland for decades, but the idea reallycaught on in the mid-1980s with the popu-larity of the board game Trivial Pursuit. Inthe 1990s, the pub quiz reached the peakof its popularity in the UK and Ireland. Itbecame better known in Germany, throughthe expansion of the Irish pub scene. Thehuge popularity of ‘quiz shows’ on Germantelevision has heightened interest in ‘quiz-zing’. But as Kevin Pedersen, manager ofthe George & Dragon English pub in Stutt-gart points out: “Whereas not everyonecan take part in a TV quiz show, anyone can wander into a pub on quiz night.”

Individuals can take part in a pub quiz,but participants usually play in regularteams of at least three or four people.

Drawing at least9000 people into B-W pubs everyweek: pub quizzesare big business.

Photos: C

hrys Rynearson

Feature 9accents magazine

Englishman Steve Trevallion – who

lives between Tübingen and Reut-

lingen – visits two of his local pubs on

consecutive Tuesdays to sample the

atmosphere of quiz night.

In England you need three things to be considered a real pub: smoke, lowceilings and a weekly quiz. In my experi-ence, the quizmaster usually holds amicrophone and reads out the questions.But more often than not he also acts asa ringmaster, trying to ‘tame’ the locals,as they shout out funny answers andlaugh, and move about to copy answersfrom tables next to them. There’s alwaysan answer for everything. It doesn’t matter if it’s totally wrong – it mightraise a smile. In Reutlingen and Tübin-gen pub quizzes are more reservedaffairs.

Richie Cooney’s is a wonderful Irishpub facing onto the cobbled-stone mar-ket square of Reutlingen. But if I hadn’tbeen clutching the address in my hand I might have mistaken it for a secretmeeting house, given the soft light and low murmur of earnest discussionemanating from inside. There is nomicrophone, no loud banter and theteam names are, well, sensible. (There’sno ‘Skipsleepers’ or ‘AA is for Quitters’

Down at the local

among them.) Question sheets – inEnglish and German – are stacked at theend of the bar. Anyone is free to pickone up but most people play in teams.By my reckoning, the quiz is quite hard.

Over at Saints & Scholars Irish pub inTübingen the questions are only in Ger-man. In fact, the overwhelming majorityof pub quiz participants in both pubs areGerman. “It’s a great atmosphere here,”says one S&S customer. “German barsare always full of old men so it is nice torelax in a friendly Irish pub.” At RichieCooney’s, the winning team is awardeda bottle of whiskey and a ‘free bar’ for atwo hour timeslot at the next quiz. Thewinners are also responsible for writingthe next quiz, which is quite cleverbecause it means the pub’s owner, MarkHayden, doesn’t have to do it! “If wedidn’t have a pub quiz it would put a realdent in our earnings,” says Hayden,who’s also a part owner of the S&S pub.“On a good day it can be our biggestnight of the week.”

There might be very little English-language practise at my two local Irishpubs but so long at the beer is flowingand the quiz remains challenging, theyare always going to draw a good crowdon Tuesday nights.

The quiz might test the participants’ know-ledge of current affairs, history, science,geography, the arts, sports or music. Thepublican hands out question sheets to eachparticipant or team and after an hour or twoanswers are handed back to the marker.Alternatively, participants might only begiven sheets of paper for answers – thequestions are read out from the bar foreveryone to write down answers simultan-eously. “We go for this sort of formatbecause it tends to limit the chances ofpeople cheating with mobile phones,” saysmanager Peter Miltz, from the pub Ireland’sOwn in Sindelfingen. But whatever thedegree of seriousness of the pub quiz –and that can vary greatly from pub to pub –the emphasis is always on having fun.

For many native-English speakers livingin Baden-Württemberg, the pub quiz hasbecome what Germans call a Stammtisch –a regular, organised meeting. As such, thepub quiz provides an important social net-work for many foreigners. Teachers fromthe International School in Stuttgart, forexample, meet to relax at the O’Reilly’sIrish pub quiz in Stuttgart-west on a Tues-day night. American and English mothersfrom an English play group meet occasion-

ally for a “Girls Night Out” at the George & Dragon quiz on a Wednesday night. For many Germans, a traditional Englishpub quiz has become something of aninformal language school. “My English has really improved a lot since I’ve beencoming regularly to the George & Dragonquiz,” says Susanne Albrecht. “It’s a relax-ed atmosphere so it’s not like having tolearn English in the stress of a classroomor at work.” Going to a pub quiz to practiseEnglish conversation was “highly recom-mended” when Hilmar Pfister, now a journalist, was studying English at StuttgartUniversity. “In fact our professor used to advise us to go every week just to gainmore exposure to English in a casualatmosphere. It provided invaluable prac-tise,” says Pfister.

But if more and more Germans attendpub quizzes and more and more quizzes are being held in German rather than inEnglish, why haven’t more German pubslatched onto the idea? Well, some have.

Linsen und Spätzle

Traditional Swabian meals like Linsen undSpätzle (lentils and pasta) might be difficult

Now that Lucy Woodford-Lewis is 16,

she no longer has to stay at home on

a Tuesday night while her parents

head off to O’Reilly’s Irish pub in Stutt-

gart-west for the pub quiz. The Inter-

national School of Stuttgart student

went along too, for accents.

A few rounds at the bar, a packet of crisps, and a chat with other regulars isthe way many people start their eveningat O’Reilly’s before the quiz kicks off.“Mac’s Quiz”, as it’s called, involves current affairs, general knowledge,music questions and a few Irish jokes.The quiz is passed out to participatingteams, who’ll not only argue and discussanswers, but send off a few sneaky text messages via mobile phone foranswers they’re not sure about.

The atmosphere is very relaxed withthe occasional glance at other answersheets, and live football playing on TVscreens in the background. At 9.45 pmthere are three music questions andsoon after the answer sheets are collect-ed and corrected. Points are given for

I’m coming too!

correct answers as well as humorousones. The answers are then read out(though not if the football is still on!) andpeople shout out answers of their owncausing the pub to erupt with laughter.The winning team is awarded a bottle ofwhiskey which is traditionally shared outwith others in the pub. The only hardand fast rule is that the quiz master,Dave Carroll, (pictured below) is alwaysright – even when he’s wrong! So whenthe last of the whiskey has been drainedand the last pint of Guinness has beendrunk, it’s time to take the last trainhome. Come on mum, dad!

to come by at many a pub quiz night inBaden-Württemberg, but not at the Ritter-stüble pub in Stuttgart. This is a Germanpub with mostly German customers. “Weintroduced a quiz here about three yearsago, and now we hold it every Tuesdaynight,” says Lisa Abel, joint-manager of thepub. “We knew it was an Irish or Englishtradition but we just decided to try it inGerman, and it’s gradually become moreand more popular.”

The tables at the Ritterstüble are packedwith customers, mostly young people, by the time Abel begins handing out the“Ritterquiz” at nine o’clock. There are 20 questions demanding a knowledge ofgeography, literature, sport, pop music, and German fairy tales. “The quiz is a real crowd puller. We get 60 to 70 people showing up every Tuesday. It’s become our busiest night of the week,” says PeterBölling, who joined Abel in managing thepub in March of this year.

Industry experts, like Daniel Ohl fromDEHOGA, say German pubs have been”doing it a lot tougher” than other busin-esses in the entertainment industry, in thecurrent economic climate. “Pubs have hadto come up with inventive ideas to maintainbusiness,” says Ohl. ”And it seems like the pub quiz – so long as it remains an authentic experience for customers – isemerging as a new idea, no longer some-thing just for Irish pubs.”

Children’s Corner

It’s an amazing phenomenon repeatedevery few years over the last decade inGermany: The “Harry Potter” books areread in English. It’s otherwise unheard offor so many German children and adults to choose to buy an English-language novelbefore the German translation appears. J.K. Rowling’s sixth Harry Potter book,Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was released on July 16 this year. The Germantranslation is due out on October 1.

The printing industry worldwide wasalmost single-mindedly focussed on HarryPotter in June and July. There were somany millions of Potter books printed thatpaper supplies ran short. This caused a risein the price of paper and printing schedulesfor other books were held up until after theend of July. Within the first week of therelease of the English version of the sixthPotter book in Germany, the Internet book-seller amazon.de had received orders formore than 150,000 copies.

But to what extent do Germans who areonly learning English as a foreign languagein schools understand what they’re read-

ing? Many, such as 16-year-old Stuttgartschool student Matthias Noebels, say theyuse dictionaries and other reading aides toplough slowly through Potter 6. Matthias isone of the people behind a Germany-wideHarry Potter website, www.harrypotter-xperts.de. “Many people I know are wait-ing for the German version. But some die-hard fans can’t wait that long. I’ll read theGerman version as well, when it comesout,” says Matthias. “Reading the Englishversion is not too hard if you use a diction-ary. It’s manageable.”

The “xperts” Website offers a German-English vocabulary list to help readersthrough the English version. Matthias andhis colleagues also conducted a survey tofind out whether or not the site’s usersplanned to buy the English book or wait forthe German version. Of more than 11,400respondents, 23% said they would buy theEnglish version first, and then the Germanversion in October. Another 8%, in total,said they would either read the English version after the German or only buy theEnglish book. However, 61% of respond-

ents said they would only buy the Germanversion. The conclusion: a good majority ofdie-hard Potter fans in Germany are able toignore the marketing hype over the Englishedition and wait until October to buy theGerman translation.

The publisher of the German version ofPotter 6, Carlsen Verlag, is printing 2 millioncopies for October – the same number asfor Potter 5. The author, J.K. Rowling, is not planning to visit Germany for a grandlaunch of the German edition. But book-shops will be organising their own eventsand parties.

German kids reading English

The Harry Potter spectacle

Although these three books are written

for children, late at night one or two

adults might also be caught reading

them with a torch under a blanket.

At the Sign of the Sugared Plum,

by Mary Hooper

Bloomsbury 172 pages

London, 1665, a sweltering summer. TheBlack Death starts to creep into the city.When Hannah, a teenager, moves from thecountryside to help her sister run a sweetsshop in London, the adventures sheencounters are nothing like those she ima-gined. Written from Hannah’s perspective,this book is aimed at young readers but it’sa compelling read for adults as well. Seven-teenth century England is brought vividly to life with quotes from Samuel Pepys, adiarist of the time; recipes of the sweetsHannah makes; and a glossary. (Don’t letthis put you off. The book is lucidly written– the glossary is a bonus.) There is asequel to this book, and the promise of yeta third book to continue the tale.

Holes, by Louis Sachar

Bloomsbury 233 pages

Found guilty of a crime he did not commit,Stanley is sent to a camp for delinquentboys. Located in the middle of a desert, thecamp is surrounded by holes. In the blister-ing heat, the ‘prisoners’ have to dig a newhole each day, the depth and width of ashovel. It’s said to be “character building.”Water is rationed and each child must learnto fend for himself. It mightn’t sound like afantastic story plot, but this book is fabu-lous. The story is told in a subtle, magicalway. The ending is surprising but satisfy-ing, rounding off a modern-day classic thatbrims with old-fashioned charm. If you onlyread one book this autumn, read this one.

Across the Nightingale Floor,

by Lian Hearn

Macmillan 294 pages

Set in a fictitious medieval land (based onsamurai Japan) this is the tale of Takeo,who must come to terms with an inherit-

ance that changes his destiny. He’s grownup in the peaceful community of the“Hidden” but is violently uprooted whenthe warlord Sadamu discovers that Takeohas the mysterious talents of the Tribe, a secret group whose members can dis-appear at will, be in two places at once,and hear things that others cannot. Takeobecomes embroiled in political and familialintrigue as he comes to understand themeaning of his destiny. This is a coming-of-age tale, the first of a trilogy which issure to find a devoted audience.

Time Traveling

Children’s books

Children’s Corner 11accents magazine

accents magazine12 Arts and Culture

Arts and Culture

Sometimes you need a foreigner –

someone from outside – to tell you how

good you’ve got it. Arts Editor Stuart

Marlow talks to two giants of avant-

garde theatre in the USA, who were in

Baden-Württemberg recently, and who

speak of Stuttgart with high praise: it’s

a place where experimental theatre is

appreciated “even more so than in New

York.”

Stuttgart is basking in the success ofTheater der Welt festival. This internationalshowcase of world-class theatre, held inJune-July this year, proved even more successful than the last time it was stagedin Baden-Württemberg’s capital, in 1987.Around 50,000 people attended the festi-val’s plays in 2005 with over 100,000 attend-ing fringe events related to the festival.English-language productions rankedamong the festival’s highlights at both thebox office and in the eyes of the critics.This augers well for the future of English-language theatre in Stuttgart, and for thecity’s international reputation in the perform-ing arts.

Stuttgart became a place of internationalrenown in the 1960s with key appoint-ments in the state funded arts arena, suchas Klaus Peimann in the theatre, JohnCranko in the ballet, and Dennis Russell-Davis on the orchestral scene. If the statetheatre, opera and ballet were Stuttgart’s‘Broadway’ then venues like Theaterhaus,

Theater-der-Altstadt, Tri-Bühne, Theater-der-Rampe and Theater im Depot soon becamethe city’s ‘Off-Broadway.’ And over the last 35 years a whole range of specializedvenues such as Fits-Puppet Theatre, Kultur-werk, KKT, Studiotheater and many othershave helped to make Stuttgart a key loca-tion for the performing arts.

Many outsiders see the city as conserva-tive, as a stifling place for an open-minded,liberal arts scene but the evidence contra-dicts this stereotype. The fact remains thatlarge numbers of people in Stuttgart arewilling to watch politically controversial,experimental, avant-garde theatre. Many ofthe theatre groups who came to Stuttgartfor the Theater der Welt festival were amazed at the amount of innovative workbeing supported in the city and at the sub-stantial audiences this work attracted.

The view from ‘across the pond’

Adrian Shaplin is a leading light of politically-charged, avant-garde theatre in the USA.He brought his San Francisco based RiotGroup to Stuttgart to stage a play he wrotecalled Pugilist Specialist, a fast-moving,chilling and accurate portrait of the Ameri-can military mindset. (So accurate, in fact,that two American servicemen in the audi-ence mistakenly thought that the playershad been in the Marines.) Shaplin com-plains that a mixture of conservatism, fearand economic cutbacks in the U.S., makesthe staging of his kind of theatre increas-ingly difficult in his home country.

“Nowadays, Americans who are writingand producing critical theatre are findingmuch more support in Europe – in placeslike Stuttgart – than they are beyond thebig liberal cities in the U.S.,” says Shaplin.“The audience response in Stuttgart wasjust great.”

On the east coast of the United States,Lee Breuer is revered as a cult figure of avant-garde theatre. He’s even more pointed in his criticism of the political climate for theatre in the U.S.: “There is nodoubt in my mind that the drastic cuts inthe subsidies to the arts is a political move.President Bush has cut off all the fundingto the kind of the theatres that stage leftist,

liberal, or controversial plays. Almost ninetenths of these venues have gone bank-rupt. Their income has been decimated.”

Breuer brought his New York basedtheatre group Mabou Mines to Stuttgart to perform the classic Henrik Ibsen play A Doll’s House as a melodrama. Ibsen, a19th century Norwegian dramatist, was one of the first major playwrights to write a tragedy about ordinary people. Later on, hebecame a pioneer of psychological realismand his plays were much admired by Sig-mund Freud. “Bertolt Brecht saw Ibsen asbeing naturalistic,” says Breuer, “But forme his work has a manic-depressive, melo-dramatic quality to it. It is basically melo-drama.”

Breuer radically adapted A Doll’s Houseand thrilled his Stuttgart audience withspectacular stage-effects and powerfulnudity. Some scenes would not have pass-ed the censors in parts of the USA. SaysBreuer: “Ibsen’s A Doll’s House reflects his wife’s problems as an oppressed earlyfeminist, rather than his own beliefs. It’s driven by the trauma of the patriarchybeginning to break up and I think Ibsen wasalarmed by the cause he was promotingthrough his main character, Nora. She reallybreaks all taboos by leaving her husbandand children to seek independence. Bring-ing out the melodramatic in A Doll’s Houseby using dwarfs to represent the men andtall women for the female parts is my wayof dramatizing the fundamental questionsof changing sexuality.”

Breuer’s play was performed in Englishat the Stuttgart festival, and yet was hugelypopular with audiences.

“A German audience is not really goingto pick up on all the humour, the accents,the dialects,” says Breuer. “But on theother hand audiences pick up basic mean-ings very well and give visiting groups agreat response. People here in Stuttgartare amazingly appreciative – even more sothan in New York. Evidently, we are com-municating.”

Coping with cutbacks

Enraged citizens in many western countrieshave often railed against subsidizing avant-

Enter, stage left

Avant-garde and English theatre in Stuttgart

A cult figure ofNew York theatre,Lee Breuer, whowas recently inStuttgart.

Photo: w

ww

.leebreuer.com

Arts and Culture 13accents magazine

garde art forms and have often supportedcensorship. However, in contrast to Britain,Ireland and the USA, Germany has neverbeen unduly troubled by puritan attitudes,although this has not necessarily madeavant-garde work appeal to mainstreamGerman audiences. Rather, due to a postWorld War II tradition of official respect forartistic culture, grants to less popular formsof artistic expression have been relativelygenerous. Today, therefore, the main prob-lems in Germany are those of financial cutsrather than moral censorship. One of thekey developments in the arts in Stuttgartwhich reflects this shift is the current sit-uation of Stuttgart’s popular venue for theliberal arts, Theaterhaus.

Theaterhaus operated in the easternsuburb of Wangen with a reasonablygenerous level of subsidies for almost 20years. It had to generate 50 per cent of itsown income from box-office revenue. Themove to the prestigious new location inPragsattel was a quantum leap, accordingto Artistic Director Werner Schretzmeier:“In Wangen we had three stages with atotal of 1000 seats. Here, we have an areatwelve times that size featuring four stageswith a total audience capacity of 2000.”

The move to the larger venue in Prag-sattel coincided with the City of Stuttgart’sown financial headaches. Now, Schretz-meier has to generate 70 percent of incomethrough the box-office.

“This influences the content of the

material we stage, as we must be carefulto maintain an artistic and commercialbalance,” he says. “At the moment weplace more emphasis on mainstream per-formances we know will prove popular. Butin the next phase of our development wewill include more avant-garde, more overtlypolitical and experimental material fromunknown authors.”

Schretzmeier was encouraged by thelarge number of Stuttgarters who turnedout to see English language plays duringthe Theater der Welt festival. His ownensemble of eleven actors includes peopleof seven different nationalities. “I believethat English language theatre will grow inimportance in the future. English is still the number one foreign language here andpeople will continue to want to see Englishlanguage performances for educational and professional as well as for cultural rea-sons,” he says.

Schretzmeier’s views about the increas-ing interest in English language theatre are reflected in the recent experiences ofthe locally-based English theatre groupsNEAT and ACTS. Both have staged avant-garde plays over the last year in Stuttgartand both have enjoyed good audience figures. NEAT took something of a risk instaging Edward Albee’s The Goat, with it’sradically unconventional approach to sexual-ity, but it was a very successful production.It followed this up with Sophie Chaumette’sskilfully directed Old Times, a Harold Pinter

play. The performance won the secondprize at the 2005 Festival of EuropeanAnglophone Theatre in Hamburg. The theatre group ACTS also took a risk on ananti-war production Fallujan Women thatput the 2004 destruction of Falluja in thedramatic context of the ancient Greek classic Trojan Women. It was staged in theTheaterhaus and attracted a good audience.It received wholehearted praise from mosttheatre critics, though one journalist wasoutraged that an anti-war play, focussing onIraq, should be staged in Stuttgart. Anothercritic attacked the play for its lack ofhumour; others praised it for its humour.That’s theatre.

The Lessons of History

Book reviews

What we can learn from the past and

how it can influence our present be-

havior and our understanding of the

world – those are the issues dealt with

in these three books.

Dark Fire, by C.J. Sansom

Macmillan, 503 pages

London is rife with religious strife. There’san unstable peace and, somewhere, a secret weapon. Matthew Shardlake, a lawyer, is asked by a top governmentofficial to investigate a matter of possiblehigh treason. This is no modern-day story– it’s a novel set in 17th century Refor-mation England. The atmosphere is realistically presented without the use of archaic language or overly scholarly references. The book is well-paced andthe characters are colorful. Shardlake isan insecure hunchback using his brilliantmind to overcome physical disability.Thomas Cromwell, a statesman under therule of King Henry VIII, is depicted as acalculating idealist who uses his accessto power and the screen of religious fana-ticism to ruthlessly maintain authority.

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded,

by Simon Winchester

Penguin, 432 pages

This is a non-fiction masterwork of research and enthralling story telling.Although it deals with the catastrophiceruption of the Indonesian volcano,Krakatoa, in 1883, this remarkable bookcovers a range of topics: the beginningsof the science of geology; the history ofDutch colonialism; the first example ofglobal news reporting using Morse code;and Alfred Wegener, a contemporary ofCharles Darwin who probably should havebeen credited with the theory of evolu-tion. Finally, it’s a book about imperialarrogance and the oppression of the indi-genous inhabitants of Indonesia. SimonWinchester, a journalist who studied geo-logy, stirs this historical stew to bring tolight the roots of a contemporary conflictbetween Muslims and the Westernworld. His geological insights providesome understanding about the earth-quake that triggered the recent tsunamiin southeast Asia.

When We Were Young,

by John Burningham (editor)

Bloomsbury, 312 pages

This is a collection of personal storiesabout childhood, compiled by renownedchildren’s author John Burningham. Thestories explore an array of emotions andstates of mind as remembered by prize-winning authors, fictional characters likePeter Rabbit, and UN Secretary-GeneralKofi Annan. Burningham’s wonderful inkillustrations serve as a link between thestories in the book. It’s a unique collect-ion, for which the authors have donatedtheir royalties to UNICEF.

Stuttgart’s premier‘Off Broadway’theatre venue,Theaterhaus.

Photo: A

ndreas Feucht

accent on…

In Ulm, around Ulm and round about Ulm*

Our intrepid explorer Thomas Ravel tries

to unravel Ulm.

“A river runs through it,” said our editor asI was ushered out of the door. Hmm, I betit’s that place in America featured in RobertRedford movies: wide-open spaces and fly-fishing. Brilliant! Hang on a minute, it saysUlm on this bit of paper.

Ah well, since I couldn’t pinpoint whereand when celebrations like the Schützen-fest, Schörmfest and the Schäferlauf takeplace in Baden-Württemberg I guess I needto get out and discover more of the Ländle– the countryside of this state.

Awaiting me in Ulm was indeed a river.Three in fact. The famous River Danubedivides the twin cities of Ulm and New-Ulm, providing a beautifully picturesquesetting and forming a border with Bavaria.(It also allows Baden-Württembergers to bewhere they enjoy being most: within spit-ting distance of Bavaria!)

Ulm lays claim or part claim to a long listof pioneering doctors, mathematicians andscientists, including one of the greatest of them all, Albert Einstein. Born in Ulm in March 1879, Einstein spent the first 15months of his life in the city before the

family moved to Munich. There are nowseveral monuments to him throughout thecity, and Ulm draws attention to its scien-tific heritage under the rubric “InnovationRegion of Ulm – The Top of the South.”So does all this E=mc2 mean that Ulm islacking in cultural attractions? Not at all.

An absolute must is Ulm’s cathedral,boasting the world’s highest church steepleat 161.5 metres. The cathedral’s historygoes back to 1377 when the first stone waslaid. Work continued through the centuries until 1890. This architectural wonder dominates the Münsterplatz. Adjacent tothe cathedral is the tourist information office where you’ll be able to arm yourselfwith lots of useful information about thecity – although the English versions of bro-chures could do with considerable tidyingup. (A business opportunity for someone?)

Ulm chose an interesting mix of archi-tecture for its post-war reconstruction. Two thirds of the city – and 85% of the oldcity area – were destroyed by air raids inDecember 1944 and during the liberation of the city by US troops in April 1945. This reconstruction now sees the old citybisected by the busy Neue Straße, on oneside of which is the beautifully ornate old

town hall. Built in 1370 it has served asUlm’s town hall since 1419. The astrologicalclock on the eastern side of the buildingdates from 1520.

I am guilty of frequently overlookingmuseums but only a few steps away fromthe town hall is Ulm’s main museum.Check out the “Lion Man” – an ivory sculp-ture which claims to be the world’s oldest“human-animal plastic art” exhibit. Thenyou could head off to the aptly namedGerman Bread Museum displaying objectsfrom 40 different countries to demonstratethe cultural and socio-historical importanceof bread. If you need something more wholesome than water to go with yourbread, try the Drei Kannen. It’s an oldbrewery which provides a selection of alesand good Swabian cuisine.

Then you could make your way to theFishermen’s Quarter – in truth, more of an‘eighth’ than a quarter, but its concentratedcollection of small alleys, bridges, plazas,half-timbered houses and cafes have beenwell and sensitively restored. This formercraft makers’ area was turned into a fashionable corner of Ulm in the 1970’s andhas a pleasant old world charm about it.The Schiefes Haus (the leaning house)

accents magazine14 accent on…

balancing precariously above the River Blauis a highlight.

Roundabout Ulm

Fortified by offerings of excellent food incosy surroundings at either GasthausZur Forelle or the Zunfthaus der Schiffleuteyou’ll be able to set off to look at Ulm’sfortifications. Ulm’s fortress was raised byFrench forces in 1800, but a subsequentdecision to turn the city into a federal fort-ress saw 41 buildings erected in Ulm bet-ween 1842 and 1859. The main building ofthe complex is the Wilhelmsberg castle. As an aside, you might like to take part in a special tour entitled “Napoleon and Ulm”which seeks to show what life must havebeen like when Napoleon’s armies metthose of the Austrian General Mack nearUlm in 1805. The tour is on offer until earlyDecember and can be booked through thetourist office.

Try to set aside a bit of time for Wib-lingen Abbey, four kilometres south of Ulm.The church of Saint Martin boasts a beauti-ful lateral alter from around 1750 and awonderfully restored interior. A holy crossrelic has been preserved in the churchsince the crusades. The sight of the adjoi-ning library hall and its ceiling is stunning.

There are festivals a-plenty in Ulm, but with consummate timing I’d just missedthe biggest and most significant of these:

Schwörwoche in late July. It’s a festivalwhich starts with a “Serenade of Light“involving fireworks and lanterns on theDanube. The high point of the festivitieskicks off with Schwörmontag (Oath Mon-day) an open-aired renewal of an oath bythe city’s mayor. Then it’s back to theDanube for Nabaden – a carnival processionalong the Danube for both swimmers andboats. Next year’s event starts on July 22,so take a look. Sadly, you’ll have to wait abit longer for the “Fisherman’s Tourna-ment” involving jousting with poles on riverbarges. It’s only held every four years; nextin 2009.

Those keen on shopping may be lessthan wholly captivated by what’s on offer in the Hirchstraße, Ulm’s main shoppingand pedestrian area. But there are plenty ofgreen areas and a zoo for the kids to enjoy.

I feel a bit like a child myself as I’mcovered in chocolate, having munched myway through one of the other traditionalelements of Ulm life, the Ulm sparrow. Iwas going to add a short description takenfrom a brochure on the subject – with a picture of the said birds under the caption“starlings” – but I’ve got to clean up. You’lljust have to go to Ulm and found out whatthey are for yourself!

* A translation of a famous German tongue-twister: In Ulm, um Ulm und umUlm herum.

Photos: U

lm/N

eu-Ulm

Touristik Gm

bH

One of Ulm’s manyattractions: theLeaning House in the Fishermen’sQuarter.

Left: Nabaden, a carnival process-ion on the RiverDanube.

Exhibits

Music

StageEvent

New York City Dance SchoolSep 23, 8 pm, Robert-Bosch-Saal,Treffpunkt Rotebühlplatz,www.treffpunkt-rotebuehlplatz.deThe Odd Coupleby Neil Simon, Sep 30, Oct 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22 and 23 at 7:30 pm,Stuttgart Theatre Center – Kelley Theatre, Kelley Barracks,Vaihingen, general public welcome, tickets 0711 7292825,www.kelleytheatre.deEmma Carlson Dance Company(Wales), Oct 21 and 22, Robert-Bosch-Saal, Treffpunkt RotebühlplatzTübingenRebellion Cabaret, New YorkPenny Arcade und Chris Rael Sep 27, 8:15 pm, d.a.i., see address aboveOn tour in the regionLord of the DanceOct 14, 8 pm, Congress Centrum,Großer Saal, PforzheimOct 20, 8 pm, Stadthalle TuttlingenOct 26, 8 pm, Stadthalle BalingenDavid CopperfieldOct 9 and 10, 8 pm, SAP Arena, MannheimOct 29, 9 pm and Oct 30, 3 pm,Hans-Martin-Schleyer-HalleNov 8, 5 and 8:30 pm, Messe Freiburg

Music

Böblingen2nd JazzFestival BöblingenJazz Prize Winners from Baden-Württemberg, Oct 6-9,www.JazzFestivalBB.de FreiburgIm Rausch der Träume or Moonlight’s WatermelonConcert with Margaretha Bessel,Frankfurt, and Gary Norden, New York, Oct 12, 7 pm, E-WERK, Eschholzstraße 77 Ensemble SurPlusDirector James Avery, USA,

Sep 11-30, Foyer Mineralbad LeuzeEric Carle, a children’s artistOct 12 - Dec 30, opening night Oct 11, Foyer, WürttembergischeLandesbibliothekTübingenSounds of NaturePhotography by Jeff Paxson,Esslingen, opening night with concert Oct 6, 7:15 pmd.a.i, see address above

Stage

HeidelbergPVT Wars by US Army Entertainment “Bravo!”Touring Company production hostedby Roadside Theater, Sep 16 and 17,7:30 pm, Roadside Theater,tickets 06221 175020, www.roadsidetheater.comDeath and the Maiden Preview performance of theHeidelberg entry for the Festival of One Act Plays, Oct 1, 7:30 pm, Roadside Theater, tickets and info see aboveUS Army Festival of One Act PlaysPlays from Germany, Italy andBelgium, theater workshops and guest performances, free tothe public. Oct 7-9, times t.b.a.Roadside Theater, tickets and info see aboveJekyll & Hyde – the ConcertOct 21, 22, 28 and 29 at 7:30 pm, Nov 4 and 5 at 7:30 pm,Oct 30 and Nov 6 at 3 pm,Oct 31 at 7 pm (Special Halloween performance),Roadside Theater, tickets and info see aboveLeonbergThe Rocky Horror Show The authentic London West EndProduction with the London Musical Theatre, the final tour!Oct 23, 7 pm, StadthalleStuttgartTap’n’ Jazz

podium discussion and concert,Oct 18, 7 pm, E-WERK, Eschholzstraße 77HermaringenRockforest Open-Air with Bonnie TylerSep 3, 6 pm, GüssenburgLauffenKieran Halpin, IrelandOct 13, 8:30 pm, The Phoenix, Heilbronner Straße 38, 07133 21434LeonbergLeo Sayer & Band Oct 19, 8 pm, StadthalleLudwigsburgFlying PicketsOct 28, 8 pm, Scala, www.scala-ludwigsburg.deReichenbachDrum Legends & BandJazz, Oct 28, 8 pm, h20 die halle,www.h20-diehalle.deSchorndorfAmerican Analog Set (USA)Sep 18, 9 pm, Manufaktur,Hammerschlag 8,www.club-manufaktur.deJamie Lidell (GB/D)Sep 21, 9 pm, ManufakturStephen Malkmus (USA)Sep 23, 9 pm, ManufakturXiu Xiu (USA)Sep 29, 9 pm, Schorndorf StuttgartEuropean Music Festival Stuttgart Bach in the 21st Century,Aug 27 - Sep 11, www.bachakademie.deJon AndersonSep 22, 8 pm, T1 Theaterhaus,www.theaterhaus.comChris CacavasOct 6, LaboratoriumThe Barrelhouse Jazz Gala 2005 Oct 8, 8 pm, Liederhalle Jazz Nights 2005/2006 David Sanborn & Band,Lizz Wright & Band, Oct 9, 8 pm,Liederhalle Beethoven-SaalThe Irish Folk Festival 05Oct 23, 7:30 pm, Theaterhaus, see address aboveWinterbachGreg Lake & Band (GB)Oct 7, 8 pm, Salierhalle

Events

In the regionEuropean Heritage DayA great opportunity to visit historical sites and monuments in your area, Sep 11, www.tag-des-offenen-denkmals.de (in German)StuttgartStuttgarter Weindorf 2005Aug 31 - Sep 11, Markt- und Schillerplatz29th Porsche Tennis Grand PrixOct 3-9, 1 pm, Tennissporthalle Filderstadtwww.porsche-tennis.de37th Penny Bazaar by the GermanAmerican Women’s ClubThe don’t-miss annual fundraisingevent of the GAWC Stuttgart,Oct 5, 10 am - 7 pm, Oct 6, 9 am - 6 pm, Oct 7, 9 am - 12 pm, Haus derWirtschaft, Willi-Bleicher-Straße 19German-American Day – 10 Jahre DAZConcert by The Soldiers of Swing,USAREUR Band, Oct 6, 7 pm, New Palace, Schlossplatz,tickets & info 0711 228180,www.daz.org Miss Black Germany 2005Oct 15, 6 pm, VersammlungshalleStuttgart-Freiberg, www.missblackgermany.de 4th Stuttgarter KulturnachtArt, music, theatre, and more, witha free shuttle bus to all venues,Oct 22, with LIFT magazine,www.lift-online.deFresh Oil, New WineConference on faith with prominentguest speakers from the USAOct 8 and 9, see advert page 17TübingenUSA FestivalAn all-American weekend at theTübingen Fairgrounds.Sep 3, kid’s stuff 10 am, live musicfrom 1 pm, rodeo 2 pm and 5 pm,Sep 4, kid’s stuff 10 am, live musicfrom 11 am, rodeo 2 pm and 5 pm.Plus lots more! Info d.a.i. 07071795260 or www.usafestival.deLet’s Square Dance and Potluck with the Stoke Boat PromenadersOct 10, 7:30 pm, Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut (d.a.i.),Karlstraße 3, 07071 795260,www.dai-tuebingen.de

Exhibits

StuttgartPicasso: Bathers – Myths at the seaside Jun 18 - Oct 16, StaatsgalerieStuttgart (Stuttgart State Gallery),www.staatsgalerie.deTwin Towers Photo TwinsPhoto Exhibit by Tom Bloch withbefore and after images of the WTC,

USA Festival, TübingenAn all-American weekend at the Tübingen Fairgroundswith Elvis impersonator“Rusty”, rodeo, live countrymusic, a car show, Harleys,American food, and evenStarbucks! Sep 3 and 4,www.usafestival.de

accents

choice

accents magazine16 accents choice

Twin Towers Photo TwinsPhoto Exhibit by Tom Blochwith before and after imagesof the WTC, Sep 11-30, Foyerof the Mineralbad Leuze.

accents forum

Let us hear your accent! This informal meeting is open to anyone who would like add their voice to our magazine. Comments, criticisms, and contributions are all welcome!

Friday, September 9th, 7 pmGeorge and Dragon EnglishPub, Willy-Brandt-Straße 30,Stuttgart (stairs next to HotelLeMéridein.) If the weather’sgood, we’ll meet outside.

Friday, November 11thtime and location to be announced.

accentsmagazine

Kids

Work

Lecture

English Conversation CircleGerman-English Friendship ClubOct 18, 7:30 pm, Anne Frank Haus,Room 4, Moltkestraße 20,www.def-karlsruhe.deStuttgartLatino? Hispanic? What’s in a Name?History, Culture and Characteristicsof the Latino Population in the U.S., with Prof. Suzanne Oboler, Ph.D.,Sep 14, 7:30 pm, Deutsch-Amerikanisches Zentrum (DAZ),Charlottenplatz 17, 0711 228180,www.daz.orgConversation Circle American – EU Relations: How Are They? Sep 23, 6 pm The New Pope: Where Does He Stand? Oct 21, 6 pm,DAZ, see address aboveTown Planning in the U.S. from Adolf Cluss to Todaywith Prof. Dr. Alan Lessoff, Oct 4,7:30 pm, DAZ, see address aboveTübingenThe Social Construction of Empire,or the Creation of RealityStudy Group with LaurenceStallings and Scott Stelle,Sep 30, Nov 25, Dec 16, 6:45 pm,d.a.i., see address aboveAn Evening with a Good BookLiterature with Walter Nilson, Oct 7, 6:30 pm, T.C. Boyle: The Inner Circle Nov 4, 6:30 pm, Just Like Thatd.a.i., see address aboveThe Arab-American Experience TodayLecture by Abdallah Al Zuabi of the Arab-American Institute WashingtonD.C., Oct 12, 8:15 pm, d.a.i., see address aboveWriter’s Club with Carolyn Murphey-Melchers, Oct 21, Nov 18, Jul 22, 2 pm, d.a.i.,see address aboveTalk at Eight Discussion Group on Current Issues,Oct 19, Nov 15, Dec 20 at 8:15 pm,d.a.i., see address aboveReading: Shadowmarchwith Tad Wiliams, Oct 24, 8 pm,Museum, www.dai-tuebingen.de

On Tour in the RegionThe International Swing TimeSpecial All StarsSep 28, 8 pm, Sparda-Bank, StuttgartSep 29, 8 pm, SpardaEventCenter, KarlsruheTap DogsOct 23 and 24, 8 pm, Rosengarten Mozartsaal MannheimOct 31 and Nov 1, 8 pm, Liederhalle Stuttgart

Tickets can be purchased by callingEasy-ticket service 0711 2555555,www.easyticket.de, orSWR 1 ticket service 0180 5929211

Lectures/Discussions

FreiburgDiscussion Group: Open DialogParenting philosophies: raising the next generation with psychology, spanking, or spoiling? Sep 28;Division within our countries: East and West Germany, Oct 12; Food Culture: from home cookingto dining out in style to fast food,Oct 26; all meetings 6:30-8 pm,Carl-Schurz-Haus (library), Kaiser-Joseph-Straße 266, 0761 31647,www.carl-schurz-haus.de The Arab-American ExperienceLecture by Abdallah Al Zuabi of the Arab-American Institute WashingtonD.C., Oct 11, 8 pm, Hörsaal 3042,KG III, UniversityCorresponding to James Dean: The US Female Youth Culture Equivalent – Who, Where, When, What and How?Lecture by Prof. John R. Dean,University of Versailles, Oct 17, 8 pm, Hörsaal 1199, KG I, UniversityPeace in the Middle East?Lecture By Amnon Kapeliuk, correspondent for “Le Monde”, Oct 26, 8 pm, Hörsaal 3042, KG III, UniversitySmile Now Cry Later: Acting Hardcore in a ChicanoEnglish Anti-Language Lecture by Norma Mendoza-Denton, University of Arizona, Oct 28, 6 pm, Hörsaal 3042, KG III, UniversityHeidelbergDiscussion group with Dr. Steven Bloom Tuesdays, 6 pm, Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut (d.a.i.), library, Sofienstraße 12,www.dai-heidelberg.de English-Language Video Discussion Group Wednesdays, 6 pm, d.a.i. libraryKarlsruheLitNight in Englishreading and discussing literatureSep 6 and 20, Oct 4 and 18, 7:30 pm, American Library,Kanalweg 52, 0721 72752,www.american-library.deThe German Money Reading by Lev Raphael,discussion, book-signing, and a Bagel and Brezel brunch,Sep 25, 12 noon, American Library,see address abovePoetry PleaseReading and discussion, Sep 27, Oct 25, 7:30-9 pm,American Library, see address above

Children’s English Library (CEL),Etzelstraße 25-27, 0711 3582215,www.celstuttgart.deListen inStory and activity for kids 3-6 yearswith parents. Every 3rd Saturday of the month, 3:30-4:30 pm, Sep 17 – Bringing in the harvestOct 15 – OwlsCEL, see address aboveRhyme TimeActivity session for toddlers 0-3 years, Mondays, 10:00-10:30Sep 26 – Wheels on the BusOct 17 – Old MacDonald CEL, see address aboveWorkshops Monsters,ages 3-6, Sep 8, 3-5 pmJungle Book,ages 5+, Sep 9, 3-5 pm Clifford the Big Red Dog, ages 2-4, Sep 24, 3:30-5:30 pmfor all workshops sign up withpam.grimes@celstuttgart.de,CEL, see address aboveThe Fish Who could Wish – Willy der ZauberfischA German-English picture bookshow, Sep 27, 10 am, Stadtteil-bücherei Degerloch, Löffelstraße 5, Stuttgart-Degerloch, 0711 2164494Reading the Rainbow Celebration Oct 8, 4 pm, CEL, see address aboveHalloween Party –CEL’s annual fundraiserFrightful fun for the whole family!Oct 22, 2-5 pm,CEL, see address above TübingenEnglish Storytime for Kidswith Anne Crutchfield, Nov 2, 4-5 pm, d.a.i, see address above

Workshops

StuttgartQuilting Bee: The Baltimore Beauties A multilingual, hand sewing quilting group; guests are welcome.Sep 16, Oct 21, 9-12 am, DAZ, see address aboveFilm workshop East of Eden (1955),Sep 28, 7:30 pmRebel Without a Cause (1955),Oct 27, 7:30 pm, DAZ, see address aboveTübingenQuilting Bees: A Forum for Patchwork QuiltersSep 15, Oct 20, 3-5 pm, d.a.i., see address above

Kids

KarlsruheStorytime in English!Children 2-5 years, 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month, 4 pm, American Library, see address under LecturesStories for Kids ages 6 and upSep 30, 4 pm, “Leo the Lightning Bug”, American Library, see address under LecturesStuttgartReading Club, 9 years and older3-4 pm, every 2nd Saturday of the month, contact frances.buttle@celstuttgart.de

accents choice 17accents magazine

CEL Halloween Party,StuttgartThe spooks and goblins will gather again this year at the Children’s English Library’sannual fundraiser. Lots offood, fun, and games for thewhole family! Oct 22, 2-5 pm, www.celstuttgart.de

oolsLibrari

Clubs &

South Africa 030 220730, Friedrichstraße 60,BerlinUnited Kingdom0711 162690, Breite Straße 2,StuttgartUnited States of America069 75350, Siesmayerstraße 21,Frankfurt

Schools & Preschools

International School of Stuttgart e.V. 0711 7696000, Sigmaringer Straße257, Stuttgart, www.international-school-stuttgart.deBotnanger Kinderbetreuung Bilingual Kindergarden 0711 6993404 Gina Kussi,Griegstraße 18, StuttgartInternationaler MontessoriKindergarten e.V. 0711 93150510, Sulzgrieser Straße 114, EsslingenLittle English House Gerlingen English & Art for kids 3 and up 0711 816253, Hauptstraße 18/1 European School Karlsruhe0721 680090, Albert-Schweitzer-Straße 1, KarlsruheLittle English House AalenEnglish & Art for kids 3 and up,07361 610165, Stuttgarter Straße 116English GardenEnglish and music lessons, 07618866181, Hasenweg 34, FreiburgOberlin Kinderuniversität0761 85648,

Stuttgart Singers07159 44991 Kathy Williams,www.stuttgartsingers.deStuttgart German-AmericanCommunity Chorus0711 463463 David A. BecknerEUCOM HarmonizersStuttgart-Vaihingenbarbershop and a cappella, 07146 20677 John GerrishGerman-American Seniors Club0711 2560867 Hildegard GöhrumEnglish Round Table, EsslingenConversation group, 0711 3451344, Claudia Stadelmann, info@bueroservice-jaeschke.deFáinne Irish Dance Group Stuttgart 0711 483901, www.fainne.deIrish Dance Ceili, Stuttgartevery 3rd Saturday of the monthwww.danceirish.deGerman Conversation Group07032 77919 Elena FieresELTAS e.V.English Language Teachers’Association Stuttgart, www.eltas.deInternational Toastmasters Club,Stuttgart, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe,Freiburg, Ulmpresentational skills in English, find links to all chapters atwww.toastmasters-stuttgart.de English-Speaking Stammtisch S-Untertürkheim0711 3041337 Derek EvansDeutsche AustralischeFreundschaft e.V.07031 607521 Jeff Gomes,www.deutsch-australische-freundschaft.deFriends Club International e.V.Böblingen-Sindelfingen07031 806522 Jan W. Boon“Here We Are” International Group Esslingen07163 8580 Alison UnrathEnglish Morning Tea Aidlingen07034 7339 Ellen Zeller, Wed 10 am - 12 pm Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut Tübingen07071 795260, Karlstraße 3, www.dai-tuebingen.deAnglo-German Club Pforzheim07231 472155 Dr Maurice Claypole,www.agc-pforzheim.dePro Country e.V. Deutscher Country & Western Dachverband07150 33212 Ralf Russig, www.pro-country-ev.deEnglish-Speaking Circle Starzachand Landkreise Freundenstadt,Tübingen & Zollernalb07478 8290 Kevin MacInerney-MaySchorndorf English Club07181 64440 Marion RubeDeutsch-Amerikanisches Institut Heidelberg06221 60730, Sofienstraße 12,www.dai-heidelberg.deGerman-British Society, Freiburg, Heidelberg, and Stuttgart0761 4098804 Dr. Susanne Press,06221 864761 Prof. Manfred Liedtke,0711 66721255 Dr. Christoph Selzer,www.debrige.deGerman-English Friendship Club e.V. Karlsruhe0721 7569503 Rose Schrempp,info@def-karlsruhe.de, www.def-karlsruhe.deInternational Women’s Club Karlsruhe e.V.Annemarie Frenzel, Postfach110448, 76054 KarlsruheVerein Deutsch-AmerikanischerFreundschaft Pfullendorf07552 6249 Dr Gary Anderson

Am Mühlbach 13, Freiburg, www.oberlinkinderuniversitaet.deInternational School of Kreuzlingen Konstanz 0041 71 6722727Hauptstraße 27, Kreuzlingen,Switzerland, www.iskk.chEnglish for preschoolers and first graders in Freiburg0761 1378177 Cathy Plog, plogs@t-online.de

Libraries

Children’s English Library e.V.0711 3582215, Etzelstraße 25-27,Stuttgart, Tue 4-6 pm, Fri 3-6 pm,Sat 2-5 pm, www.celstuttgart.deDeutsch-Amerikanisches Zentrum Charlottenplatz 17, Stuttgart, Tue-Thu 2-6 pmDeutsch-Amerikanisches Institut TübingenKarlstraße 3, Tue-Fri 1-6 pm,Thursdays 1-8 pmKarlsruhe American Library0721 72752, Kanalweg 52, Tue-Fri 2-6 pm, Wed 10-12 am, Sat 10 am-2 pm,www.amerikanische-bibliothek.deDeutsch-Amerikanisches Institut HeidelbergSophienstraße 12, Mon-Fri 1-6 pm,Wed 1-8 pm, Sat 10 am-2 pmCarl-Schurz-Haus FreiburgKaiser-Joseph-Straße 266, Mon-Fri 11:30 am - 1:30 pm, 3-6 pm

Clubs & Organizations

Deutsch-Amerikanisches Zentrum/James-F.-Byrnes-Institut e.V.0711 228180, Charlottenplatz 17,Stuttgart, www.daz.org70173: English Spoken Stammtish12:00 pm at Restaurant Plenum inthe B-W Landtag Building, contactAndrea.Krueger@wm.bwl.de fordates. Open participation. Founders:Andrea Krueger & Dr. Peter Mendler(both of the B-W Ministry of Eco-nomic Affairs) and Rainer Wieland(Member of the European Parliament) Metropolitan Club e.V.0711 9980124 Mathew Dorrman,18-35 years, www.metclub.deStuttgart Conversation Club0711 8892252 Ed Wilson, 35 years and up, www.metclub.deBaltimore BeautiesQuilting bee at the DAZ, Stuttgart,every 3rd Fri of the month, 9 -12 am, 0711 243242 Judy Ehmer Stuttgart Book ClubHelen@StuttgartBookClub.deGerman-American Club 19480711 814270 Eberhard SteinGerman-American Women’s Club Stuttgartinfo@gawc-stuttgart.de, www.gawc-stuttgart.deAnglo-Stuttgart Society0711 568113 Günther Jaumann,www.jaumann.de/assBritish Club Stuttgart0711 455464 Alison SeyerleAsia Circle International Club07156 29164, asia-circle@web.de,www.asia-circle.deInternational Choir of Stuttgart 0711 769600912 Carola, int_choir_stuttgart@hotmail.com

ools

Emerg

sulates

Emergency

Police 110Fire Department 112Ambulance & EmergencyMedical 19222Poison Hotline 0761 19240English Speaking PoisonControl 06131 232466Doctor for House Calls 0711 2628012

Consulates/Embassies

Australia030 8800880, Wallstraße 76-79,BerlinCanada 0711 2239678, Lange Straße 51,StuttgartIreland030 220720, Friedrichstraße 200,BerlinNew Zealand 030 206210, Friedrichstraße 60,Berlin

accents magazine18 accents guide

accents

guide

Movie

St Columban’s Mission Karlsruhe (Anglican) 0721 28379 (Fax also)Rev. Dr. Hanns Engelhardt,www.staugustines-wiesbaden.de/karlsruhe.htm, St.Columban@gmx.deCalvary Chapel Freiburg e.V.0761 7071333 David Pham,www.ccfreiburg.deAnglican Church of Freiburg 0761 904693 Minister Rev RobinStockitt, Katharinenstraße 9,www.anglicans-fr.orgEnglish Church HeidelbergErlöserkirche, Plöck/Schießtorstraße06221 804146

Movie Theaters

Corso, Stuttgart-Vaihingen0711 734916, Hauptstraße 6,www.corso-kino.deCinemaxX Bosch-Areal, Stuttgart 0711 22007979, www.cinemaxx.deKommunales Kino Stuttgart0711 221320, Friedrichstraße 23A,www.koki.de / filmhaus Kommunales Kino Esslingen0711 310595, Maille 5, www.koki-es.de Schauburg Filmtheater KarlsruheMarienstraße 16, www.schauburg.deScala Filmhaus Mühlacker 07041 3884, Bahnhofstraße 65 Kino-Center Weil der Stadt07033 2241, Badtorstraße 21 CinemaxX Freiburg0761 20281400, Bertholdstraße 50Friedrichsbau-Lichtspiele0761 36031, Kaiser-Joseph-Straße 268

Theate

ygroups

Political

siness

Reli

Carl-Schurz-Haus Freiburg0761 31647, Kaiser-Joseph-Straße266, www.carl-schurz-haus.deAnglo-German Club e.V. Freiburg07661 1324, Wehrlehof Straße 11,Oberried, peleube@hotmail.comFreiburg English Club0177 6553688 Terrence Barrwww.freiburg-english-club.orgNetwork of English-Speaking Women e.V.07664 962450 Candice Siegenthaler, NesWomen@web.de, www.nesw.deBritish International Villingen-Schwenningen07721 53278 Carol King,www.bivs.gmxhome.deDeutsch-Irischer Freundeskreis (dif) 0711 2361736, www.dif-bw.deRegion Schwaben, Verband der Deutsch-Amerikanischen Clubs e.V.07156 29164 Mi-Kiyoung Wöhler, www.schwaben-vdac.de.vu

Theater Groups

A.C.T.S. Anglophone Collaborative Theatre of Stuttgart0711 6858370 Stuart Marlow, smarlow@hdm-stuttgart.deKelley TheatreKelley Barracks, Stuttgart, 0711 7292825, www.kelleytheatre.deN.E.A.T. New English American Theater 0711 634320, Stuttgart,urban.spy@z.zgs.de, www.neat-theater.deOutcast International0711 634409, Stuttgart,www.outcast-theater.deAnglo-Irish Theatre Group Tübingen07071 67968 David Hegarty,dave@anglo-iren.de, www.anglo-iren.deThe Round Table Players, AalenEva Schumm, schumm@vhs-aalen.deRoadside TheaterPatton Barracks, Heidelberg,06221 175020, www.roadsidetheater.comTheaterhaus TiG 70621 154976, Theater Trennt e.V.G7, 4b, Mannheim, www.tig7.deThe maniACTS FreiburgUniversity English Department,www.maniacts.de

Kids & Playgroups

English Playgroup Stuttgart-West0711 6361169 Bryan Groenjes, EKiZ Ludwigstraße 41-43, 0-6 years, Wed 4-6 pmEnglish Playgroup Stuttgart0-9 years, www.englishplaygroup.deEnglish Playgroup at the DAZStuttgart0711 228180, 4-6 years on Tue 3-4 pm, 6-8 years on Tue 4-5 pmEnglish Playgroup Böblingen07031 287647 Stefanie Spence,0-7 years, Wed 3:30-5 pmEnglish PlaygroupHolzgerlingen/Böblingen area07034 654608 Anita Mayer0-5 years, Wed 9:30-10:30 amEnglish Playgroup Sindelfingen07031 873823 Christine Mitlacher,2-5 years, Tue 3:30 pm,Mitlacher-sifi@t-online.de

St. Georg MKK EnglishPlaygroup in BonlandenTue 3:30-5:30 pm, 0-5 years, Nicki 0711 3270748, 5-10 years, Mhorag Heger 07127 960046English PlaygroupHerrenberg/Nebringen 07032 77452 Erika Laudenbach, 0-5 years, Mon 3-5 pmMeet, Chat and Playgroup Waldenbuch07157 8561 Elaine Rauhöft, Fri from 4 pm onwardsEnglish on a Friday AfternoonTübingen07071 930466 Günter Henke, Fri from 3:30 pm onwardsEnglish Playgroup in Rödersheim-Gronau (postal code 67127)06231 929616 Mrs I. Smith, Fri 10 am, Luise Koch Kindergarten English Reading Group FreiburgMütterzentrum Weingarten,Krozingerstraße 11, 0761 286803 Amanda Lampert or07666 99126 Fredi Trenkle

Political Groups

American Voices Abroad Tübingenfritz.hackert@arcor.de, www.americanvoicesabroad.orgDemocrats AbroadHeidelberg,06221 3780 Charles Keene, Stuttgart, 0162 3640812 Dennis O’Donohue,www.democratsabroad.orgRepublicans AbroadStuttgart,07146 20677 John W. Gerrish, www.republicansabroad.de

Business Organizations

American German Business Clube.V. Stuttgart, Heidelberg,Karlsruhe0711 2486078 Peggy Stinson,President, stuttgart@agbc.de,www.agbc.deAmerican Chamber of Commercein Germany e.V.0711 1667156 Prof Dr Roderich C. Thümmel, Regional Chairperson,www.amcham.de British Chamber of Commerce in Germany e.V.0711 25540460 Ralf Steppart,Regional Chairperson, www.bccg.deUSAforum Tübingen07071 55970 Bernd Zeutschel,www.usaforum.de

Religious Services

St. Catherine’s Church(Anglican) 07151 68973,Katharinenplatz 5, Stuttgart,www.stuttgartanglicans.deCity Chapel e.V. Stuttgart0711 6142956 Roland Krumm,Marienstraße 12, www.citychapel.deInternational Baptist ChurchStuttgart-Vaihingen: 0711 6874365 Pastor Jay McFadden; Heidelberg-Sandhausen:

06224 51516 Pastor Richard Blake;www.ibcstuttgart.deSt. Antonius Church0711 4597152 Odilo Metzler,Catholic Mass in English1st Saturday every month, 6:30 pmParacelsusstraße 87, Stuttgart-HohenheimFirst Church of Christ, Scientist0711 6207921 Heinz Clauss,www.christian-science-stuttgart.deUnited Methodist Church Stuttgart: 0711 251984 Dr Hans-Martin Niethammer;Reutlingen: 07121 78546 Harald Rückert; Karlsruhe: 0721 43721 Peter Vesen;www.emk.deChurch of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Stuttgart: 0711 3419240 Ralf Gierschke;Mannheim: 06223 809040 Dr Frank Heckmann,www.lds.orgChurch of the Nazarene0711 551147 Mary Schaar, Friedenskirche, Bad CannstattEvangelical Students Community Tübingen07071 61928 Heidi AbeEnglish Vesper Service TübingenSun 6 pm, during the universitysemester, 07071 51475, www.institut-urchristentum.orgJewish Observance, Learning & Meditation, Tübingen07071 968590 Martin H. Potrop,SPIRITSHUL@aol.com

accents guide 19accents magazine

Read accents guide onwww.accents-magazine.de

Contact with Others

English-speaking woman andGerman husband are looking for abilingual or English children’s groupin Karlsruhe or nearby for their one and a half year old daughter.Please contact Lucy Jones at Office@the-real-jones.com.

If you’re a young energetic motherwith small children and are lookingfor an enthusiastic English playgroup, please call us. Our playgroupenjoys outings to the swimming-pool, playdates at the paladion,back yard picnics, nature walks,pony rides and an occational mom-mies night out! We are looking for new members. Robin Tel 07034654608

Seeking to Rent

Family of four seeking to renta 3/4 BR apartment in or nearStuttgart-West, long-term. A child-friendly apt. with a yard or a terracewould be ideal. 0711 6361169

accents magazine20 Classifieds

Get involved!accents magazine is a success through your support. If you’rea doer, then get involved!info@accents-magazine.de

Need a Job?accents is seeking anadvertising representativefor advertising sales on acommission basis. ContactBryan Groenjes 0711 3102160

accentsmagazine

Classifieds To place an ad

Please send the text for your classified ad to classifieds@accents-magazine.de or fax it to 0711 3102161. Please include the category and the issue in which it should appear. One line of text con-tains approx. 34 characters,including spaces, full-stopsand commas.

Non-commercial (personal) adsPrice for three lines E 4 Each additional line E 0.90Frame around ad E 5

Commercial text adsPrice for three lines E 15Each additional line E 2Frame around ad E 7

Commercial designed adsYour designed ad in black and white or colour. Column width 45.5 mm or 95 mm for two columns. New pricesPrice for 30 mm E 49 Additional millimeter E 1.35

For 3 placements save 5%for 6 placements save 10%Add 16% VAT to all prices

Classified ads must be paid in advance. For direct debitsend us your bank details and signature or transfer payment to:accents media GbR SEB AG Stuttgart bank code 60010111 account no. 2398600700

The deadline for the Nov/Dec2005 issue is Oct 14th

Classes/Courses

Halpin School of Irish Dance Children and Adult Irish Dance Classes. New Beginners, Primary & Intermediate Classes starts September 2005. Tel 0711 483901Email ainehalpin@aol.comwww.danceirish.de

English courses for kids from theage of 1-12. Helen Doron method –Children learn English with fun and games. Weekly courses areavailable. Stuttgart@helendoron.comTel 07151 2765445 Polly Hasselkusswww.hdee.de

Business Services

U.S. INCOME TAX RETURNSProfessional PreparationTübingen/Stuttgart 07071 968590or ZEELIG@aol.com

Immigration law: We can help you! Anwaltskanzlei Großmann+Kollegen www.grossmann.biz

Need financial advice? Whetheryou require German or internationalsolutions to your insurance andinvestment requirements, we canhelp plan your strategy. You have a wide choice of products from anindependent advisor who knows themarket. Irys Ehmann, IndependentFinancial Advisor, Eberhardstraße 47,Stuttgart, Phone 0711 6333643info@irys-ehmann.com

Employment

Experienced native speakerEnglish teachers required for free-lance work. Please send your CVand details to us at info@DrLukes.deor phone us on 0711 4780215

Fluent in English & love workingwith Children? Teaching with theHelen Doron Early English method,we offer a first-class training andthe chance to earn good money. Tel 07151 2765445 Polly HasselkussStuttgart@helendoron.comwww.hdee.de

Native speakers wantedwith financial/technical/business experience and excellent inter-personal and language skills.Freelance work. Contact:andrina.rout@fokussprachen.com

Personal

Native speaker wantedto teach English to our son Gabriel,11 years old. Must come to ourhome at Gerlingen. E-mail to silvia@grossmann.biz

Australian Babysitter availablein Stuttgart. Contact Emma by phone 0175 7588343 or e-mail loveday89@hotmail.com

Good to Know

Money Matters

Good living in Germany

Baden-Württemberg measures up well,

within Germany, in terms of quality of

life. In a recent ranking of Germany’s 50

most attractive cities to live in, Stuttgart

was ranked number 3 (behind Munich

and Frankfurt,) Karlsruhe came in at

number 6, Freiburg 9, and Mannheim 11.

No other German state’s cities scored

higher ratings in the survey. There must

be something about living in southwest

Germany that makes you want to stay.

If you get posted to this corner ofGermany for a job, property values are notexactly the first thing you think about.Sure, you need a place to live but to buyyour own property here? After a whilethough, the wonderful landscape and theattraction of the towns and cities can awaken interest among many expats in theidea of buying a house or a flat. And theidea is not a bad one!

Interest rates are currently at an all timelow. Home loans have never been cheaperin Germany. At the same time, property prices are as low as they were at the be-ginning of the 1990s. Whereas the housingmarket in Anglo-Saxon countries is over-

valued, in Germany the real estate marketis weak. It’s something we’ve never hadbefore: falling property prices and, at thesame time, historically low interest rates.

The most important thing to look out forin choosing a property is – as anywhere –location. Getting sound advice from expertsin the field is absolutely necessary. Andwhat do the experts say? Don’t just look atthe interest rates on offer. Purchasing yourown house or flat requires a financial com-mitment of around 15 years, depending onthe circumstances. The decision needs tobe well thought through and based on solidplanning. Watch out for hidden costs, such

as ‘provisional interest’ – interest chargedbetween the time of the signing of theloan agreement and the time of the firstpayment. Some banks, including SEB, arewilling to forego provisional interest for upto six months. It’s also important to securean agreement on out-of-the-ordinary repay-ments of the loan which can help reducethe principal more quickly. Another tip:agree on a long term of low, fixed-interest-rate repayments, and on a two or eventhree-percent rate of repayment on theprincipal of your loan. This will speed upyour debt reduction. Financing whichappears to be the cheapest might notnecessarily be so. Low-interest-rate financ-ing can often be found on the Internet butthese offers apply only to standard build-ing projects and for large up-front capitaloutlays. And you get no personal advice.

Finally, a modest plug for ourselves:SEB was the only supra-regional bank toreceive an overall judgement of “good” forfinancial advice for home buyers from themagazine Finanztest. We may have somegood advice for you too!

SEB Bank is a sponsor of accents

magazine. With over five million cust-

omers and 20,000 employees, SEB is one

of the biggest financial service providers

in northern Europe. www.seb.de

Fascinating events, exciting exhibitionsand enjoyable festivals – Baden-Württem-berg’s capital has something for everyone.The new KUNSTMUSEUM presents Otto

Dix: Hommage à Martha, from Sept 3to Nov 27. There are 70 paintings, water-colours and drawings of Otto Dix’s wife,Martha – in various poses and roles – providing a sketch of life in the 1920s.

The exhibition Weltsprache Fußball

(World language football) can be seen in the Stuttgart town hall from Sept 14 toOct 26. It comprises photos by the re-

nowned photo agency Magnum showingthe phenomenon of football (or soccer)from quite a different perspective.

For 16 days – from Sept 24 to Oct 9 –attention turns to a 24-metre-high columnof fruit: the symbol of the Cannstatter

Volksfest, originally celebrated as athanksgiving festival in 1818. In the big-gest beer tents, catering to up to 5,000visitors, beer flows from the tap almostuninterrupted. Eat, drink and be merry!

In the autumn, (or fall) the Romans arecoming to Stuttgart. The state exhibition Imperium Romanum – Roms Provinzen

an Neckar, Rhein und Donau opens onOct 1 (running through Jan 8, 2006) inthe Kunstgebäude am Schlossplatz. Theexhibition (with English audio guides)

focuses on the heyday of Roman rule inthe area of Baden-Württemberg, from the1st to the 3rd centuries A.D., offering amulti-faceted picture of powerful pompand daily life in a border province of theRoman empire.

On Saturday Oct 22, the 4th Stutt-

garter Kulturnacht takes place – a top-quality program of concerts, films, theatre,book readings and special exhibitions, at selected venues around the city.

Tickets and info

Stuttgart-Marketing GmbH

Tourist Information, ‘i-Punkt’

Königstraße 1A, 70173 Stuttgart

Tel 0711 2228-0, Fax 0711 2228-253

info@stuttgart-tourist.de

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Good to Know 21accents magazine

Photos from

left to right: Kunstm

useum, Im

perium R

omanum

exhibition, Cannstatter V

olksfest

Labyrinth

Everyone knows how to pick up the

phone and dial a number. But telephoning

options have expanded considerably

in Germany over the past seven years,

since the formerly state-owned telephone

company, Deutsche Telekom, lost its

monopoly. Significantly, telephoning has

become a lot cheaper. New arrivals, in

particular, should take note.

One way to reduce your German phone billis to use a call-by-call option instead of dial-ling directly through Telekom. This simplymeans that if you’re in Freiburg and youwant to call accents’ office in Stuttgart, youpick up the phone and dial 01038 or 01015or any one of dozens of similar numbersBEFORE you dial 0711 3102160, every timeyou dial. It results in sorer fingers from the extra dialling, but it’s good for the hippocket. The cheapest call-by-call numbersare always changing for different regionsand for different times of the day. Look up the cheapest options at the (German)internet sites www.teletarif.de or www.billiger-telefonieren.de

A normal analogue phone connection inyour home – with one, simple phone line –might be all you need. But an ISDN con-nection, though more expensive, providesmore alternatives: at least three differentphone lines (one of them could be a faxnumber) as well as Internet access, whichcan all be used simultaneously. If you usethe Internet a lot, a DSL connection is even

better. Telekom and other phone compa-nies (Arcor and Alice, for example) nowcompete in many Baden-Württembergcities and towns, offering great DSL dealson telephoning and Internet use. Be aware,however, that if you make many overseascalls, a standard Telekom connection mightyield cheaper monthly phone bills. The reason is that once you sign up with a non-Telekom provider you can no longer usecall-by-call dialling. (For example, callingAustralia with a non-Telekom provider likeArcor costs around 19 cents per minute. A call-by-call option can cost less than 2cents a minute.)

Many new arrivals talk about how difficult it is to look up business addresses,in particular, in German phone books. Can’thelp you out much here – it just takessome getting used to, learning what to lookup to find certain numbers. The same goesfor Telekom’s Internet-based directory,www.telefonbuch.de. Telekom does providesa special information service, in English, fortelephone numbers within Germany. Youdial 11837. But it’s expensive: 1.19 eurosfor the first minute and 99 cents for eachadditional minute you’re on the phone. Theforeign telephone number service is 11834– all the operators can speak English.

To make calls from a public phone it’sbest to use a phone card, available frommost newsstands, rather than coins. Get-ting your own mobile phone or cell phonein Germany is no problem. Mobile phone

shops have sprung up everywhere in thelast few years. If you’ve just arrived with a cell phone from the United States, takenote: Germany’s mobile-phone systemuses different frequencies so your ‘cell’probably won’t work here. However, youcan buy a multi-frequency phone in Ger-many that can be used on both continents.

One important thing to keep in mind: it is now against the law in Germany to usea mobile phone while driving, if you don’thave some sort of “hands-free” apparatus.Don’t get caught holding your mobile toyour ear. The fine you receive will morethan make up for all the money you savedwith call-by-call dialling.

Just call me

Telephoning in Germany

accents magazine22 Labyrinth

I came across my old diary last week

and thought I would share a bit of it

with you. I’ve come a long way in

Germany in fifteen years, but I have to

admit that about the only number I can

find in the phone book is my own.

July 2nd, 1990Dear Diary,

I locked myself out of the house thismorning. I just wanted to dash out to thetrash can. I was in my pyjama top (nobra), boxer shorts, and barefoot. But whatI did next was even more stupid thanlocking myself out of my own house half

naked: I walked down to the cornerphone booth, thinking I’d call Uwe atwork and ask him to bring me a key. Iactually thought I would be able to lookup Uwe’s phone number in a phone book. I didn’t exactly know where the companywas located. But I was determined! I looked up the company name in everysection of every city and town in everyphone book in that phone booth. It was-n’t there.

Just as I was becoming really frus-trated, I realized that even if I did find thenumber, I was wearing boxer shorts! Ihad no spare change! So I walked homeand waited, and waited. Eight hours later

Uwe arrived home. He patiently explainedto me that I should have looked in theYellow Pages, under the category: Com-paniesThatMakeMachinesBiggerThanaBreadbox. Or something like that, but inGerman of course. I must have looked alittle confused because he’s now promi-sed to buy me a cassette-tape packageentitled: How to use a German phonebook in thirty days or get your moneyback. It comes complete with an illustra-ted manual. I have a feeling he’ll be get-ting his money back, but we’ll see.

By Liz Gaiser

Just look it up

Talking on yourmobile phone inGermany could landyou a hefty fine

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EditorGeoff Rodoredaeditor@accents-magazine.deArts EditorStuart MarlowCopy EditorKatharine SchmidtContributorsToni Astle Dagmar Fritz Liz Gaiser Rebecca Perrin Thomas Ravel Chrys Rynearson Steve Trevallion Lucy Woodford-Lewis

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My Two Cents

Have you ever been in the middle of a conversation, and suddenly heard a ‘dirty’expression that nearly made your jaw drop?Or have you yourself dropped a phrase thatcaused an inexplicable reddening of thecheeks in the person across from you?Now, I’m not aiming to earn an “R” ratingfor this column – I just want to point outthat there are words and expressions thatmay be wholly innocuous for some nativeEnglish-speakers, whose meaning may bequite embarrassing for others.

Take the word rubber, for instance. Aninnocent enough word, right? Not if you’reAmerican. A rubber is not what Americansuse to erase something written in pencil,but rather, a condom. What the British calla rubber, Americans call an eraser. Watchout for strange reactions if you ask to “borrow a rubber” in the USA!

If you buy your soccer-obsessed (or“football-mad”) child the official shirt of hisor her favorite team, don’t tell an Americanfriend how much you paid for the strip yourkid was yearning for. They might think yourfamily is sexually weird. Outside the worldof comics, the word strip is associated inthe American mind with taking one’s clo-thes off in a sexually suggestive manner. InBritish English, I’ve learned, a strip is alsoan official sports outfit.

More Anglo-American confusion couldarise if you refer to a small bag belted around your hips as a fanny-pack. For aBritish speaker the word fanny refers tofemale genitalia. And I have to confess thatI’m one of the many Americans who didn’tknow about that one! Jacky Thomann-Plischke of Böblingen, who got us startedon this topic, wrote that as a Britishwoman she was shocked to read a photocaption in an otherwise unobjectionablemagazine, belonging to an American.Written underneath a picture of a woman in a leotard was: “Exercises to tighten upyour fanny.” What the American magazinemeant – Jacky discovered – was “tightenup your bottom”. A bit of a difference.

Even a person’s first name isn’t safe inan Anglo-American interchange. I was oncetold about an American studying in Britain,who had to put up with people sniggeringwhenever he’d greet them by saying: “Hi,I’m Randy.” For the British, randy meansthe same as the American “horny” or“sexually excited,” according to myWebster’s New World College Dictionary. Our thanks to Jacky, and to everyone elsewho offered examples! Keep your twocents’ worth coming!

Comments, questions, and suggestions to

mytwocents@accents-magazine.de

or accents magazine, Libanonstraße 58,

70184 Stuttgart

By Katharine A. Schmidt