9/28/2011

Stanislaus Katczinsky

Over the course of time, Paul becomes best friends with Stanislaus Katczinsky (Kat).  Before the army, he was a shoemaker, with a family back home.  Kat is a commander, a leader, a wise old man, and a friend to the recruits.  He is the most experienced and the most positive influence on his comrades on the battlefield.  As a leader, he can always find food and identify trouble, which the young men admire.  He is generous, realistic, and a father-like figure.  Generosity occurs, because Kat is always sharing his food, whether it is given out or he has killed and cooked it himself.  He is always thinking of others before himself, always helping the younger men, like when there was gas in the trench and he warns Paul to put his mask on and to pass the news down the line.  When Kat sees a wounded soldier, he asks if they should just shoot him and put him out of his misery, this shows realism.  He also shows it when he is arguing with the cook about making too much food, saying they should be able to eat it since everyone else is dead or in the dressing station.  Kat is father-like by always looking after the young men by providing food, by providing help, and for always being there.  He is also a positive influence to the younger men, showing leadership.  In the end, Kat died ironically by a shrapnel wound to the head after a bullet had hit his shin, in Paul’s arms as Paul hurries to get him to camp.  It is though a great hero has died.

9/28/2011

Chapter 8 Overview

Characters: Paul, Russian soldiers, Paul’s father, Paul’s sister

       In Chapter 8, Paul is at the training camp, the one where Himmelstoss trained Tjaden, after his leave.  Throughout the chapter, he has cut out his emotions for all people around him knowing that he will not be around for long.  Training is boring for Paul, and he frequently spaces out, even to the extent of missing some of his commands.  Next to the barracks is a Russian POW camp.  Seeing the Russian soldiers up close, Paul starts to realize they look very much like him and is sad to watch them begging for food.  Paul often has guard duties over the Russians, whose lives are anonymous and blameless.  Paul goes on to say that, any schoolmaster is more of an enemy to his students than the Russians are to him, yet if they were freed, he would shoot at the Russians and the Russians would shoot right back.  The Sunday before Paul is to leave for the front; his father and sister come to visit.  He learns his mother is in a public hospital with cancer, and Paul and his father worry that they will not have enough money to pay for the operation.  Before leaving, they give Paul potato cakes and jam his mother has made for him, and then they go to the train station.  He decides after eating a couple to give the rest to the Russians, but after realizing how much pain his mother must have gone through to make them, he puts them back in his pack.

9/21/2011

In All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque writes about the inner thoughts of a young man, named Paul.  After being encouraged by a teacher, Paul and his friends sign up for the army.  At first, all of them are excited and patriotic about being big bad soldiers, but after they have spent time on the front, they start to change their minds about war.  As time goes on Paul is starting to have emotional problems with the thought of war, what war is really about, and about his old life.  He starts to see his enemy as people just like him having identities, no longer as enemies.  He realizes that they want to be at war just as much as him, not at all.  He also does not understand how war comes about and why countries go to war.  Although, Paul had dreams before going to war, but after the terrible encounters he is accustomed to, he does not know what he will do after war, because he cannot image life without war.  Paul sees his friends die off one by one, and it starts eating at him.  In the end, he shuts off his emotions to pull through.  I think the point of writing this book was to show what goes through the mind of a soldier, and how it affects them.       

9/14/11

Hamburg, Germany

            Hamburg, Germany, a city-state in Germany, is an impressive economic and cultural center.  Hamburg’s location, size, economy, history, and culture are a starting point to understanding.

Hamburg is located between the German states of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, and is along the Elbe River, where the Alster River and Bille River meet.  Approximately 1.8 million people live in the city, which makes it the second largest city in Germany, right behind Berlin.  Although the state of Hamburg has only 1.8 million people, the metro area, which spreads into other states, consists of roughly 4.3 million people.  The city-state is about 469 square miles.  Hamburg also consists of three small islands: Neuwerk, Scharhorn, and Nigehorn.  

With the third largest port in Europe, Hamburg is a major industrial center.  It is one of the wealthier cities in Europe and is a large hub in Germany.  The nominal income per capita is $66,315.  Clip: While the total GDP of Hamburg is $116 billion, of which the service sector contributes around 82.2%, industry 17.61%, and agriculture 0.19% End Clip (1).  Airbus, Blohm + Voss, and Aurubis all have facilities in Hamburg.  Clip: The Port of Hamburg is the most important European seaport for Chinese foreign trade…The major product groups reaching Hamburg from China for distribution to the German and European markets include electrical equipment, textiles, machinery, food-stuffs, computers, televisions and other consumer electronics and office equipment.  Exports to China from Germany and neighboring European countries include machinery and components, automotive parts, electrical equipment, chemical products, paper, steel and other metals to China via Hamburg…Asia, led by China, is by far the most significant market partner for the Port of Hamburg in the container-handling segment.  One out of three containers handled in Hamburg comes from or goes to China End Clip (2).

Hamburg was Clip: founded by Charlemagne in the early ninth century, the city quickly grew in commercial importance and in 1241 formed an alliance with Lübeck that became the basis for the Hanseatic League…In 1558, the first German stock exchange was founded there…The city was occupied by the French in 1806 and in 1815 joined the German Confederation End Clip (3).  Clip: In 1860, the state of Hamburg adopted a republican constitution.  Hamburg became a city-state within the North German Confederation, 1866-1871, the German Empire, 1871-1918, and during the period of the Weimar Republic, 1919-1933 End Clip (4).  Clip: During World War II, especially in 1943, Hamburg was severely damaged by aerial bombardment, and some 55,000 persons were killed End Clip (3).  Clip: After World War II, Hamburg was in the British Zone of Occupation and became a state of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949.  On February 16, 1962, the North Sea flooded that year which caused the Elbe to rise to an all-time high, inundating one-fifth of Hamburg and killing more than 300 people End Clip (4).           

The American hamburger most likely was developed from a Hamburg cuisine consisting of a pan-fried patty made from a mixture of ground beef, soaked stale bread, egg, chopped onion, salt, and pepper.  Clip: The Oxford Dictionary defined a Hamburger steak in 1802: a sometimes-smoked and -salted piece of meat, that, according to some sources, came from Hamburg to America End Clip (4).

Hagenbeck Zoo in Hamburg was officially opened in 1907 by Carl Hagenbeck Jr.  Hagenbeck Zoo’s Clip: panoramic views and open-air enclosures are world-famous.  The Zoo is home to 1,850 animals from all over the world and we have bred many species threatened with extinction with great success. Orangutans, Asian Elephants and Giant Otters from South America have all found sanctuary at Hagenbeck End Clip (5).  It was the first zoo to use open-air enclosures using invisible ditches, rather than barred cages.

The Beatles spent most of their early years performing in clubs along the streets in Hamburg's infamous red-light district.  Over the course of their time spent in Germany, they went from playing at smaller nightclubs and moved to the larger nightclubs. Clip: George Harrison was kicked out of Germany because he was underage, 17, and in violation of German child protection laws. Paul McCartney and Pete Best were deported after being charged with arson…It was during this second engagement in Hamburg that the Beatles made their first professional recordings. End Clip (6).

Overall, I chose to write about Hamburg, Germany, because it is a thriving destination.  The people and economy will change over time, but the culture will last forever.     

(1)   http://www.mapzones.org/Hamburg.html  9/13/11

(2)   http://www.hafen-hamburg.de/en/news/port-hamburg-show-transport-logistic-china-trade-fair-shanghai-shared-exhibition-booth-hall-e2-  9/1/11

(3)   http://www.answers.com/topic/hamburg  9/13/11

(4)   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburg  9/13/11

(5)   http://www.hagenbeck.de/index.php?id=752  9/13/11

(6) http://german.about.com/cs/music/a/beatleger_2.htm  9/13/11

9/7/2011

Niedersachsen
In Northwest Germany surrounded by the North Sea, The Netherlands, and German states Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Hesse, and North Rhine-Westphalia

2^nd in area-47,624 km2

4^th in population-7,918,293

Capitol-Hanover

Governor-David McAllister

The northern half is mostly plains or flat lands except for few rolling hills

In the southern half there are two mountain ranges, Weserbergland and Harz mountains

Major cities and economic centers are located in the central and southern parts of the state

Four large rivers running northward: Ems, Weser, Aller, Elbe

Almost 20% of the land area is designated toward nature parks

Divided into 38 rural districts along with 10 urban districts

In economically prosperous times, the jobless totals are constantly higher than the national average

Agriculture always been an important economic factor: wheat, potatoes, rye, oats, sugar beets, beef, pork, poultry

Mining: silver, iron, salt, lignite, crude oil 

Manufacturing: another large part to the regional economy: Volkswagen, aviation, shipbuilding, biotechnology, steel are large manufacturing sectors of the economy

2 political parties: Christian Democratic Union and Social Democratic Party

Large Cites: Brunswick, Hanover, Luneburg, Gottingen, Oldenburg,  

Sachsen-Anhalt

Landlocked by Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia

8^th in area-20,447 km2

10^th in population-2,335,006

Capitol-Magdeburg

Governor-Reiner Haseloff

In the northern region, the land is mostly flat plains

Southwest you have the Harz mountains

In the south is the winegrowing area

Divided into 11 rural districts and 3 urban districts

German reunification in 1990 caused severe economic and social problems

In 2000, highest unemployment rate of all German states at 20.2%

Over the last 11 years, with the building of infrastructure, the unemployment rate has gone down to 11.3%, as of June

The chemical industry is important, along with winds farms, producing wind-turbine energy, along with awesome fertile soil

Large Cites: Halle, Magdeburg, Dessau

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niedersachen
http://enwikipedia.org/wiki/Sachsen-Anhalt