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| December 2003 Newsletter |
| Recent Events at Messina Palace & Other News |
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The Junger Brahms Chor from the University of Applied Sciences of Bremen was welcomed at Messina Palace last month. Mr Victor Sammut, the Circle’s General-Secretary addressed the group and spoke to them about the work of the Circle. The German Choir was participating in the 14th International Choir Festival of Malta.
The artist went to Germany in 1985 where she got married and settled in the town of Bad Essen in Lower Saxony. A self-taught artist, Josanne has exhibited her works in Germany and this is her first solo exhibition in Malta. She is now living in Ghaxaq. The exhibition will remain open during the normal opening hours of the Circle until the 20th December 2003. Two German students, Thomas Kampf and Katharina Dorn, who hail from Mecklenburg-Western Pommerania and who are undergoing a period of training in Malta, presented their Bundesland to a numerous, very attentive and predominantly young audience at the German-Maltese Circle on Wednesday, 26th November. (see page 2) Heinz-Josef Kaspar, a well-known “Recitator” entertained members of the German community in Malta, teachers of German and German-speaking members of the Circle to a Goethe Abend at the Circle’s Main Hall last Wednesday, 3rd December. The annual Certificate Giving Ceremony which will bring to an official end our scholastic year 2002-2003 will be held at our premises on Wednesday, 10th December. Due to limited space only those who will be awarded a certificate and their guests can attend. Courses: The last day of this scholastic term will be Saturday, 20th December 2003. Students are informed that lessons will then recommence after the Christmas and New Year holidays on Monday, 5th January 2004. The Circle’s Library will also be closed between the 22nd December and the 6th January – both days inclusive. The office will be open only in the mornings during the period 22nd December – 2nd January. The Circle’s Bar & Coffee Shop will remain open for lunches and snacks until 5.00p.m. A
new German language course for Beginners will be organised
starting on the 7th January 2004. Lessons of two-hours each
will be held every Wednesday and Friday. Enrolment is now open. |
Fr
Marius Zerafa O.P., former curator of the National Fine Arts Museum,
opened an exhibition of paintings by “new” artist Josanne
Mifsud Pikutzki at Messina Palace on Friday, 28th November
in front of a sizeable audience led by German Ambassador, Mr Georg
Merten. |
An evening about Mecklenburg-Vorpommern |
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Two German students, Thomas Kampf and Katharina Dorn, who hail from this northeastern part of Germany and who are undergoing a period of training in Malta, recently presented their Bundesland to a numerous, very attentive and predominantly young audience at the German-Maltese Circle. They gave information about the geography and history of their state. They spoke about the unique geographical features, the unspoiled nature, the exceedingly varied coastline and the variegated inland landscapes with their gently rolling hills, broad fields and the extensive forests that characterize this region of Germany. Thomas and Katharina spoke about their own backgrounds, about their university (Greifswald) and the way of life of the people living in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. They also referred to their own experiences growing up in the region. Having been in Malta for some weeks, they could comment on the differences between living in Malta and living in northeastern Germany. For example, they spoke about the importance given to travelling by bicycle in the small towns, in countryside areas and on the islands of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Thomas commented that he was struck by the fact that one doesn’t see many people using bicycles in Malta where the situation is obviously very different. The two students also spoke about the problems and burdens on the environment caused by mass summer tourism on the shores and islands of their home state.
Dr. Gunter Jacobs, one of our teachers who were among the audience, thanked the two students for their excellent presentation. He pointed out that the Low German language spoken in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern had many things in common with English, and he pointed out some concrete examples from the text which Katharina had read from a flipchart. He also referred to the two different histories of the two states that make up the Bundesland of Mecklenburg - Vorpommern, revealing to the audience that originally he also came from the region – from the border area between the two states. Frau
Waltraud Wolff, another teacher present, also thanked the two students
for a wonderful evening and for the masterly way in which they conducted
their presentation. She encouraged those present to visit this beautiful
region of Germany, … also disclosing to us that this was also
her original native land. (af) |
PROSIT
NEUJAHR! |
Ist der Wunsch nach Frieden Illusion? Vielleicht, schon immer gingen sich die Menschen an den Kragen, sie können oder wollen sich einfach nicht vertragen? Das ist die Frage, die ohne Antwort bleibt. Es bleibt aber ein Bedürfnis nach Harmonie, zumindest bei den meiste Menschen. Sind Wunsch oder die Vorstellung von Frieden danach unrealistisch? Nein, mit Vernunft, die richtigen Worten und Taten ließe sich viel erreichen, also Frieden schaffen ohne Waffen? - Wir brauchen klare Ziele, Mitstreiter mit Visionen, mehrheitlicher Einsatz für die gute Sache wird sich am Ende als gute Chance für alle lohnen! Freuen
wir uns jetzt auf das Morgen, auf jeden neuen Tag, heben wir unser
Glas auf die Gesundheit, und wie viel uns das Jahr davon bringen
mag. Zum Jahreswechsel sind wir voll neuen Mutes, wir heben die
Gläser und rufen “Prosit Neujahr”, “Cheers
to the New Year!” Es möge Gutes und Frieden bringen,
wo immer man darauf wartet. (Günter Schlichte) |
| Die Sütterlinschrift – Eine deutsche Schreibschrift |
  Diese
Schrift wurde von Ludwig Sütterlin (1865 – 1917) als Normal-Alphabet
mit dem Ziel entworfen, die deutsche und lateinische Schreibschrift
zu vereinheitlichen. Im Laufe der Jahrhunderte bzw. Jahrtausende vor
Sütterlin gab es viele verschiedene Arten, das gesprochene Wort
auf Stein, Holz, Papier etc. sichtbar und damit lesbar zu machen.
In den ältesten Schriftarten, z.B. den ägyptischen Hieroglyphen
– etwa ab 3000 v.Chr. - standen die Zeichen zunächst für
Silben, während die noch früheren Sumerer eher Begriffe
mit ihrer Keilschrift darstellten. Erst die Semiten erfanden im zweiten
Jahrhundert v.Chr. die Buchstabenschrift, wobei ein Zeichen einem
Laut entspricht. Neben anderen Schriftarten entwickelte sich auch
die sogenannte ’deutsche Schrift’, welcher Formen der
spätgotischen (fünfzehntes Jahrhundert) Schreibschrift zugrunde
liegen und die hauptsächlich im damaligen deutschsprachigen Raum,
vielleicht auch angrenzenden Ländern, benutzt wurde.
Diese Schrift durchlief im Zuge des sich bewegenden Zeitgeschmacks viele Veränderungen. Parallel dazu gab es in Europa auch die lateinische Schreibschrift. Es existierten also mehrere Schreibschriften gleichzeitig, und Dokumente und Briefe der vergangenen Jahrhunderte zeigen die verschiedensten Versionen und natürlich auch Ausschmückungen beider Schriftarten. Diese Tatsache veranlasste Ludwig Sütterlin dazu, ein sogenanntes ’Normal-Alphabet für die deutsche und lateinische Schreibschrift’ zu entwickeln, das auch zu Beginn des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts in den deutschen Landen eingeführt wurde und die Bezeichnung ’Sütterlinschrift’ erhielt. Einige Generationen lernten diese Schrift als einzige Schreibschrift in der Schule und konnten nur mit Schwierigkeit oder gar nicht mehr die lateinische Schriftart lesen. So beschloss man in Deutschland noch während der Kriegsjahre - um 1941 - , das Lehren der Sütterlinschrift zu eliminieren und innerhalb der Grenzen des damaligen Deutschlands einheitlich die lateinische Schreibschrift als einzige Schriftart in den Schulen einzuführen. Beispiel: Vergleiche L
und B, a und o : Lage Bogen Dose Vase Ware Werner
(Ingrid B. Kidder) |
| Carmen
Abela Teacher for German (Interviewed by Ingrid B. Kidder) |
 Carmen
Abela is one of our teachers who has seen two decades of learners
at the German-Maltese Circle (GMC) come and go and is looking back
on twenty years of fruitful activities at the Circle. What was the
beginning?
She tells me that as a young girl she fancied teaching, so she studied and graduated as a teacher, following this profession on a fulltime basis at the Junior and at the Senior Schools for Boys at the De La Salle College for many years. Then one fine day a friend of an aunt of hers suggested to her to learn German. And I think not everybody who is confronted with such a suggestion by some third person will in fact go for it. However, Carmen took this seriously, had a closer look at the language and decided to like it, so to say on first glance. She took up lessons at the GMC, developed a real affinity to the language and found it easy to learn. Then she won her first scholarship by the Goethe Institute, in the course of which she spent two months in Bremen. After this initial and most impressive visit to the country she was learning so much about, she went there on numerous holidays for all the years to come. By now she feels much at home in cities like Bremen, Munich, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, where she attended courses or studied privately with the facilities of the Goethe Institute as well as the various Volkshochschulen (Technical Colleges for Adult Education).. “Seminars in Germany are real hard work”, she says, “you are requested to discuss about the teaching of German ALL the time, even at lunchtime”, she added with a somewhat reproachful smile. And then a story came to her mind, recalling an activity at one of the seminars at the Goethe Institute in Munich: the students were instructed that they should in turns teach the others a language nobody knew. This appeared to be easy for her and her friend, obviously they chose Maltese, whereby nobody guessed the correct name nor understood a word. Speaking Maltese, they taught the other students the hassle at an airport with all the appropriate vocabulary, until they mentioned the Maltese word flus = money, which gave rise to great laughter, as everybody recalled the German word Fluss and saw the money flowing down the airport runway. In 1983 she began teaching on a part-time basis at the GMC, first a beginners’ class, then being assigned higher levels up to the Mittelstufe classes. Presently she is also engaged in a booster course preparing Fifth formers for the SEC German examination. One can safely state that most of the former and present students of the GMC have at some stage been in a class of Carmen Abela! Carmen who hails
from Fgura but has for many years now been living in Sliema is married
to Victor, a former teacher, with one daughter and is also a very
proud grandmother of two. Although officially retired, she has not
ceased to teach German. Before I left her, she pointed out with
some emphasis: “Wherever I can, I encourage people to study
German, and I try to convince them of the importance of the language”. |
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It is called
the ‘Land of the Thousand Lakes’ and it is known for
its natural beauty and vast shores: Mecklenburg-Western Pommerania,
the Bundesland (federal state) situated along the Baltic Sea. The
major towns are Schwerin (the Capital), Rostock and Neubrandenburg.
Thomas
Kampf and Katharina Dorn enriched the evening with some very representative
pictures from their homeland, showing, among other things, some
of the beautiful landscapes that Caspar David Friedrich romantically
transfigured in his famous paintings. They also spoke about the
Low German language (Plattdeutsch) spoken in the region, referring
to Fritz Reuter, one of the most famous German authors who wrote
in this language. Katharina also read out a short text in the Low
German language that she learned mainly from her grandmother. The
two students spoke proudly about other famous Germans linked to
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, like the aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal
who conducted many glider flights in the area. Thomas and Katharina
introduced the evening with a well-known German folksong, with Thomas
playing the piano and singing together with Katharina, and they
brought the evening to a lovely conclusion with another German folksong,
this time in Plattdeutsch.