Articles about 'Germany'
January 31st, 2013
Theresa wrote asking for help with a childhood rhyme that’s possibly of Russian or German origin:
Greetings from WA State.
My grandfather passed away years ago, and when I was a small girl, I remember him sitting little ones on his knee and bouncing them to a familiar sing-song. I DO NOT have any idea what...
January 12th, 2013
Liz wrote asking for help with a German Hand Game. Here’s her email:
Hi,
My name is Liz, & I’ve been searching and searching for an old German hand game my dad has done with us since we were tiny – that was done with him when he was little by my grandmother. I’m sure over the...
December 21st, 2012
Gingerbread Houses are made at Christmastime in Germany, the US and other countries around the world.
Gingerbread Houses are intricately linked to the Grimm fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel. In the story, two children, Hansel and Gretel get lost in the woods. They come upon a house made of gingerbread covered in frosting and candy. ...
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December 17th, 2012
Wandrers Nachtlied is the title of two different poems written by German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The 2nd poem was written in 1780. This is the one we’re featuring here. It’s considered by many to be the most beautiful poem in the German language.
Here you can read the original poem and listen to...
December 12th, 2012
Gumdrop candy is associated with Christmas in many countries.
Gumdrops are used to decorate gingerbread houses.They’re also part of The Nutcracker, a popular ballet that’s performed at Christmastime. In the ballet, sugarplum fairies and gumdrops dance. Visions of dancing candy got me to thinking of making gumdrops for Christmas this year.
Most of the gumdrop candy...
December 9th, 2012
Advent is a poem about Christmas by Austrian poet, Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926). Here you can listen to an mp3 of the original poem in German while reading along with the text. After the poem you’ll find an English translation.
MP3 of Advent
Advent
Es treibt der Wind im Winterwalde die Flockenherde wie ein...
October 17th, 2012
Many cultures have a Peek-a-boo Game that’s played with little kids. First you hide the child’s face behind a cloth, a hand or another object. Then you say "Peek-a-boo!" Next you quickly take the object away from the child’s face and say, "I see you!"
A similar game called "Bo-peep" has been around since at least...
June 27th, 2012
You can now listen to 50 Grimm’s Fairy Tales in the original German on Librivox. Grimm’s Fairy Tales are a collection of German folk tales.
These recordings include the original versions of such stories as The Frog Prince, Hansel and Gretel and Rapunzel.
These tales were originally published under the title, “Kinder- und Hausmärchen” (Children’s and Household...
April 5th, 2012
Janet Barnes sent me a video with a note asking for help with the song lyrics to a Pennsylvania Dutch or German song….
Here’s Janet’s note:
My mother has written down a song her father used to sing to her and I think it might be German. If not German, it would be Dutch. They were definitely...
February 17th, 2012
Open Culture has a page of free language learning links covering 40 languages.
Here are some of the languages you can find links for…
Arabic, English, Chinese, French, Spanish, Bulgarian, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, Gaelic, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Maori, Norwegian, Portuguese, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Swahili,...
January 21st, 2012
This poem comes from the German book Der Struwwelpeter oder lustige Geschichten und drollige Bilder by Heinrich Hoffman. It was first published in German in 1844. It’s a collection of 10 poems that are cautionary tales.
An English version was translated and published 4 years later, in 1848, called, "Struwwelpeter: Merry Tales and Funny Pictures"....
December 6th, 2011
Today is St Nicholas Day!
Many children in Europe receive gifts and treats in the shoes they left out last night for St. Nick.
Read all about the traditions of St. Nick here.
December 5th, 2011
St. Nicholas is very popular in Germany!
There are various traditions of St Nick there, depending on the region. In some places he walks from house to house giving treats. In other places children leave out their polished shoes and boots to be filled with treats and gifts in the middle of the night of December...
December 1st, 2011
Advent Candles are used to mark the days from December 1st until Christmas Eve on December 24th. The candles have the numbers 1 to 24 on them, starting at the top with 1 and ending near the bottom of the candle with 24. Each day you light the candle and let it burn down to...
November 19th, 2011
Deborah wrote to me asking for help with a beloved German kids poem. Here’s her letter:
Hello, my husband’s father (born 1896) and now he, both have used a poem with their children and grandchildren called "Rumpity Bump". Unfortunately I never wrote the words down and recently my husband suffered a stroke which left him with...
November 15th, 2011
Krampus is a nasty demon with horns and a long red tongue. His name comes from the word for "Claw". He accompanies St. Nick on his rounds the night before St. Nick’s Day (December 6th). St. Nick gives all the good little boys and girls gifts. Krampus, on the other hand, gives the kids who...
July 24th, 2011
Recently I wrote about Early Picture Sheets which were one page sheets with images on them that were popular in the 19th century. They were used to teach kids to draw. In Europe, they had similar pictures sheets, though sometimes they were used for different purposes.
In France, these early picture sheets were called, "Les images...
November 29th, 2010
Noche de paz is the Spanish version of Silent Night. This Christmas Carol was originally written in German in 1816 by Joseph Mohr. It was called Stille Nacht.
Below you can listen to Noche de paz, read the Spanish lyrics and then a literal English translation of the Spanish version.
MP3 Recording of...
November 24th, 2010
You can now listen to and read My Very First Little German Book online or download them onto your computer. The book and recording are both in German and English. The book has nice little illustrations.
View the 1st two pages of the book by clicking on the image above.
The book includes a little...
July 30th, 2010
Librivox just released another bunch of recordings of fairy tales in various languages, including Hungarian, Russian, German, English, Italian and Portuguese (with links to the text of each tale). This is the 3rd collection they’ve posted.
Fairy Tale Collection #1 also includes recordings in Latvian, Danish, Romanian, Yiddish and French. You can also...
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