• Conversation meetings in the German language will be held once weekly at our premises during the summer months until the last week in September. No pre-booking is necessary for these meetings which are free of charge and open only to members of the Circle.

All sessions are of two hours and commence at 6.00p.m.
The following timetable applies:

Members having completed the first or second years – Grundstufe I & IB:
Every Tuesday (first meeting 13th July)

Members having completed the third year (Grundstufe II) or ZD course:
Every Thursday (first meeting 15th July)

• Members with a more advanced level in German are welcome to attend the conversation meetings which are currently being conducted by Dr Jacobs every Wednesday from 6.30p.m.

• The German-Maltese Circle is again offering German language Summer Revision Courses for students who are in Forms 1 to 4. These courses consist of 20 lessons of one and a half hours each and will start on Monday, 5th July. We are glad to note that this summer a record number of 220 students from different state, private and church schools around Malta applied for these revision classes. For more information visit our internet site www.germanmaltesecircle.org or kindly contact the office immediately.

• Another course being offered for the Summer months is German is Easy & Fun – an introductory course in the German language for children in Years 5 and 6 in Primary Schools. No more applications can be accepted for this course which is fully booked. Over a hundred schoolchildren have enrolled to follow these classes.

• As from this year, in view of the provisions of the Data Protection Act, the results of the Grundstufe examinations which were held end of June will be mailed individually to all candidates who sat for these examinations. The results of the Goethe Institute central examinations (ZD/ZMP) will also be mailed to all candidates during the month of July.

• Applications for the 2004-2005 German language courses are expected to open during August. More information will be given in the next Newsletter. In the meantime, Government employees who wish to benefit from sponsorship for their courses are to contact the Staff Development Organisation at the Office of the Prime Minister.

The Zeppelin is back!!

The maiden flight of the New Technology Zeppelin – a unique semi-rigid airship was undertaken on the 18th September 1997. This modern multi-mission airship from Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH combines practical experience with modern high technology.

In 1884, in France, the two officers Charles Renard and Arthur C. Krebs managed for the first time to drive their electrical airship back to the point where they ascended. After overcoming the problem of controlability the next hurdle was to develop motors which could be used over long distances and which had to have a low weight.
Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin (1838-1917), a cavalry general and diplomat, began the development of rigid airships in 1890. A total of 119 zeppelins were built between 1900 and 1938. The first flight of a Zeppelin, the LZ 1 took to the air on 2nd July 1900 at about 8 pm. The airship was pulled out of its floating hangar on Lake Constance on pontoons. This clever idea facilitated entry into and exit from the hangar as it could be turned into the direction of the wind.
The LZ 127 ‘Graf Zeppelin’ undertook an around-the-world flight in October 1929. The journey began in Friedrichshafen and continued to New York, Tokyo and Los Angeles before returning to Friedrichshafen. The ‘Graf Zeppelin’ was the most successful of the Zeppelin airships, with a total of 590 flights covering a distance of about 1,7 million miles.

The disaster of the ‘Hindenburg’ airship in 1937 meant the end of these giants of the air – at least for that time. The aeroplane quickly took over the control of the skies.

But then in 1993 the Company Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik was founded with the aim of reviving the Zeppelin. This new Company started to develop, build and operate safer new technology airships. In 1997, the first flight of the Zeppelin NT (New Technology) took place. A unique semi-rigid airship 14-seater, with a length of 75m, a height of 17.4m, width 19.5m, a total volume of 8.225 cubic metres, cruising at a maximum speed of 125 km/h and capable of travelling up to 900 km and with a maximum flight duration of 24 hours is nowadays available for you to enjoy if not actually for travelling!

The field of applications for the new Zeppelin is wide and varied. Tourism is an obvious case. Tourists can enjoy the fantastic views beneath them via large panoramic windows. Noise and vibrations are low and the airship can actually be stopped in mid-air wherever and whenever one decides to do so! Advertising using the fantastically large area of the airship is another practical use. And then not to mention large rescue operations, filming and photography! The airship can lift and land on the spot like a helicopter. Under normal weather conditions only a ground crew of three persons is needed. More information is available on the website www.zeppelin-nt.com

Neue Bücher in unserer Bibliothek

• Interessieren Sie sich für Goethe? Dann kommen Sie zur Bibliothek. In der umfangreichen Bücherspende von Familie Dohm sind eine Reihe von Büchern von Goethe, über Goethe und die Goethezeit enthalten. Diese sind ab sofort ausleihbar.

•  In ‘Die Söhne der Wölfin’ behauptet eine junge Priesterin, das Kind eines Gottes zu erwarten. Eine dramatische Entwicklung beginnt, die mit der Geburt des römischen Reiches endet. Ein Buch von Tanja Kinkel, dem ‘neuen Star der Unterhaltungsliteratur’ (Die Zeit). Dies ist eines der Bücher, die uns dankenswerterweise von Frau Kidder gespendet wurden.

Members and friends of the GMC know very well that Bernd Ritschel has been connected with the Playmobil Group in Malta for nearly three decades, but what they most probably don’t know is, that during this period the company (which gave permission for the release of this information) manufactured in Malta over 1.5 billion – that is 1.500.000.000 - little plastic figures! Although this interview is supposed to portray Bernd and not his employer, I cannot help seeing with my inner eye the massive exodus of these colourful little men, women and other wonderful creatures leaving our island ploughing their way through the sea to reach distant shores – where kids are eagerly waiting for them.

When you spend so much of your life with toys, you cannot help but have a friendly disposition, and this is what Bernd Ritschel radiates: kindness and a sense of humour, coupled with a special gift for details.

Bernd was born in the then German Sudetengau, (Erzgebirge). When fate in the form of World War II reached the area, his father was serving as medical doctor in the army, and his mother had to flee with their three young children in the general direction of West, and eventually settled in the small but famous village of Bad Gögging in Niederbayern (Lower Bavaria). Although the Romans knew and frequented its healthy thermal and sulphur springs already two thousand years earlier, the village had not grown any larger, and even after the war it offered only a one-classroom school. Therefore, father wishing to give his children a better education, sent his boys to boarding schools, which was rather unusual at the time. After schooling Bernd completed an apprenticeship as Chemie-Laborant (Chemical Laboratory Assistant), a pre-condition for studying at a Technische Hochschule (College of Advanced Technology) in Bavaria. He graduated as Diplom Chemie-Ingenieur (M.Sc.Chem.) in 1968.

He took up his first professional employment with the Staedtler Group in Nürnberg, a company producing desk and office items and stationery, where he was in charge of pencil production and the plastic injection-moulding and extrusion Department. Also here I asked Bernd to quantify some of the factory outputs, of which the daily production of six tons of small erasers (rubbers) was the most phenomenal sized quantity for me!

Then one fine day and totally out of the blue, Bernd Ritschel was offered a leading position at Playmobil in Malta – not that he knew either where Malta was situated or what “Playmobil” stood for. Well, he quickly acquainted himself with both, accepted the position as Head of Technical Department and Operations, and in summer 1976 he settled in Malta, helping in the production of the little Playmobil figures to expand – until the company reached its present overwhelming output indicated above. Bernd was active in this leading position until his retirement; and today, due to his vast experience in the company – and in the world where children’s wishes come true – he still serves Playmobil in an advisory capacity.

Some short time after his first arrival in Malta, the then traditional ‘Oktoberfest’ à la Malte was celebrated at Verdala Hotel in Rabat, which, of course, Bernd attended with his colleagues.

It was over a plate of delicious Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (Black Forest cake) that he made the closer acquaintance of one certain Maltese girl, who was not too shy to share the cake with him – and soon after all the years that followed as his charming wife Anna. Bernd and Anna have one daughter, Tara, who has the great advantage of having grown up in a house where three languages are spoken: Maltese, English and German.

Apart from a few more conventional hobbies like tennis and cooking, Bernd indulges in collecting Grappa (a spirit distilled from grapes) – something he really had to explain to me in more detail: “Grappa is a cult”, he underlines, collectors’ items are those in small bottles, old and very old vintage. There is Italian, French, German Grappa, characterised by its region or type of grape. The better the Grappa, the smaller is the bottle: “Den säufst nua ausm klana Glaserl!” (For those not being acquainted with Bernd’s Lower Bavarian dialect, this means: ‘You only drink it from a small glass!’). As a connoisseur he raved about the history of the Grappa, its distinctive features and the very special production methods. According to Bernd, ‘Grappa is the alcoholic beverage with the greatest increase in popularity’. Na, denn Prost!

His visions for the future are travelling more frequently between his two “home countries”, remarking that Malta’s accession to the European Union has certainly brought Malta and Germany closer together and makes him feel even more at home in both countries.

Zur Ausstellung „ Different“
vom 3. - 30. Juli 2004
Künstlerin: Dagmar Jacobs
Messina Palace - Valletta, Malta

Hier führt sie eine einfühlsame Künstlerhand durch eine Stadt, die Ihren mittelalterlichen Charakter bewahrt hat. Machtvoll erhebt sich die Hauptstadt über den "Großen Hafen" des Inselstaates Malta, doch der Schein trügt. Das Auge und die Hand der Künstlerin erfasst die fragile Verwundbarkeit dieser Stadt.

Eine Ausstellung vom 3. Juli bis 30. Juli 2004 wird in den Räumen des Messina Palace in Valletta unter der Schirmherr-schaft des German-Maltese Circle stattfinden.
Lassen Sie sich Zeit beim Betrachten.
Eine webpage zu dieser Ausstellung ist unter www.valletta.bildgalerie.webpage.ms eingerichtet.

Wir danken Ihnen für Ihr Interesse.

Beachten Sie bitte, daß das Copyright der hier veröffentlichten Bilder bei der Künstlerin liegt.

Verantwortlich für diese Veröffentlichung
Johanna Albrecht, Malta
 

Back to Top