On the radio, they remembered a moving event which has its 42th anniversary today. I wanted to share it with you.
On December 7th 1970, social democrat Willy Brandt - West Germany’s Federal Chancellor from 1969-1974 - visited the holocaust memorial in Warsaw, Poland. He put down a floral wreath to remember the Jewish resistance in the ghetto in Warsaw in 1943 (Warsaw Ghetto Uprising). All of a sudden, he fell on his knees onto the dirty and wet asphalt and remained there in silence for a few minutes. Later he said, that he was kneeing there for Germany and that he was asking for forgiveness.
This went down in history as “Der Kniefall von Warschau” (lit: the genuflection of Warsaw). On the same day, Brandt signed the Treaty of Warsaw (Warschauer Vertrag). A year later, he received the Nobel Peace Prize.
(pic via vorwaerts.de)
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This is the Baroque castle Schloss Moritzburg near Dresden (Saxony), Germany. It was built in the 16th century.
(pic via wallpaperweb.org)
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“Schloss Sanssouci” near Potsdam was built by the Prussian king Friedrich der Große (Frederic the Great) in the 18th century. It’s one of the most famous and biggest palaces built in the style of rococo and was used as a summer residence. Sans souci is French, the most popular language among the German nobility at that time, and means “ohne Sorge” (without worries). Schloss Sanssouci is part of the World Cultural Heritage and is worth a visit when you’re in the area.
(pic via wikimedia)
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Happy 20th birthday, reunited Germany! 20 Jahre Deutsche Einheit! :)
die Wiedervereinigung = reunification
der Nationalfeiertag = national holiday
(pic via aerzteblatt.de)
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Another castle you may wanna visit one day is “Burg Rheinstein”. Rheinstein Castle was built in the early 14th century and is located at the shores of the Rhine River in the West of Germany.
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This famous statue of the German authors Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (left) and Friedrich Schiller (right) can be found in Weimar [ˈvaɪmaʁ], which is a small town in the Federal State Thuringia (Bundesland Thüringen). Weimar is famous for its rich cultural heritage and worth a visit :)
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Germany’s national flag is officially black, red and gold - schwarz, rot und gold. What do the colors actually mean? Well, in the war of liberation against Napolean, the uniforms where black, had golden buttons and red lapels.
“Aus der Schwärze (schwarz) der Knechtschaft durch blutige (rot) Schlachten ans goldene (gold) Licht der Freiheit.” (From the blackness of slavery through bloody battles to the golden light of freedom)
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