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| May 2008 Newsletter |
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I WANT TO BE INFORMED OF THE NEXT NEWSLETTER AS SOON AS IT IS ONLINE |
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Attention all Members!! - Exciting Events for May at Messina Palace
Wednesday, 7th May
- Members with a good knowledge of German
are welcome.
Monday, 19th May at 7.00p.m.
This promises to be a very entertaining and varied evening! The Ensemble is formed by singers Rainer Gauß, Jürgen Gauß, Michael Faller, Karl Heinz Hofer, Christian Feichtmair, Rochus Hack and pianist Bernhard Ladenburger. From foundation times they chose amongst others the “King Singers” and the “Comedian Harmonists” as their idols. According to the German Press this group is presently the “Geheimtip in the a-capella scene”. Some of their songs are even reconstructed after old recordings. Tickets against a donation of Euros 2.00 (two Euros) can be collected from the Circle’s office.
Wednesday, 21st May -
Members with a good knowledge of German are welcome.
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Language Courses & Examination News
The
German-Maltese Circle reminds interested persons that the
following Goethe Institute Examinations are due in
May/June 2008:
FIT
in Deutsch 1 The Grundstufe 1 examination will also take place in the last week of June. Only those members whose attendance in the German language courses organised for them during the scholastic year 2007-2008 has been 70% or more, will be allowed to sit for examinations. The last lesson for this scholastic year will be on Tuesday, 17th June 2008. The Examinations’ timetable can be viewed on the Circle’s Noticeboard or on our webpage: www.germanmaltesecircle.org/courses/examtimetable.htm Contact the Circle’s office for further information.Flashback The official opening of Messina Palace as premises of the German-Maltese Circle took place on the 23rd May 1975 in the presence of many high dignitaries among them the President of Malta, the Archbishop, Ambassadors and Ministers. A week long series of events marked this occasion. Messina Palace became the property of the German-Maltese Circle in 1989. Eingesandt von Günter Schlichte Nicht alles, was sorgfältig geplant ist, wird gut. Nicht alles was gut wird, war sorfältig geplant. Der Zufall spielt immer mit. News . . . . . of this and that . . . .
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Friday,
9th May
- Members and students are welcome.
Entrance is free.
Wednesday,
14th May - Everyone
is welcome to
attend
Their
repertoire will include songs like:
Thursday,
22nd May 
The Goethe Institute in Rome has donated forty-two hardbound
books, mostly novels to our Dorothea von Wendland Library.
These novels will be placed on our shelves immediately they are
catalogued. | Attention all Members!! - Exciting Events for May at Messina Palace | |
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Herbert Conrad M.A. |
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Herbert Conrad was born in 1941 in Saarbrücken, capital of the Saarland, which was still German at that time and people would proudly sing: “Deutsch ist die Saar – Deutsch immerdar” (German is the River Saar – German for ever). Yet, that wish ended abruptly with the lost war when the area became French for a number of years, as had already happened after WWl. In 1949 this highly industrial province – due to abundant coal deposits - was declared an autonomous state with French currency. Only by a referendum held in 1957 did Saarland join the Bundesrepublik Deutschland as a Federal State. This political turmoil was part of the youth of Herbert Conrad. Naturally he grew up bilingual, namely German and French, to which he added English when he began his studies at the University of Saabrücken in 1960. In 1961 he carried on with his academic training in Munich, where he read German and English Language and Literature, Philosophy and Education. He spent the academic year 1963/64 as Assistant Master for German at Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, an exclusive public school in Northern Ireland, where writers Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett had been pupils, though before his time Fate played a special role for him when he attended a British Council Christmas holiday course in the Scottish Highlands. Travelling on a bus to Lock Fyne in Argyllshire he sat next to a pretty lady by the name of Eileen who originated from Malta. She was a pianist, had won a scholarship in Yorkshire, and attended this Christmas course as well. Seeing he knew next to nothing about the Mediterranean Island, she kindly undertook to further this young gentleman’s knowledge – until they married in Malta in 1965. However, before getting thus serious, he travelled extensively through Spain, Greece and Italy. He returned to Munich in 1964 to continue his postgraduate studies, whilst working at the same time as librarian at the University. During the years the couple spent in Munich following their marriage, the two “German Sons” were born. When Eileen Conrad started to long seriously for her home country, the family moved to Malta in 1968 where two more boys followed – nicknamed the “Malta Sons”. In Malta, Herbert Conrad was asked by the Department of Education to introduce the subject of German language in Maltese schools. Consequently he taught German (and some French) at several schools, as well as at the German-Maltese Circle and held the teaching and examination commission by the Goethe Institute. During this period he served also as a member of the Executive Committee of the German-Maltese Circle. Apart from these duties he was co-ordinator for German for all Maltese schools, examiner for Oxford and London Universities, and also compiled the syllabus for the Advanced Level Examinations in German. The German State promoted this new endeavour with substantial means in form of teaching materials. Eventually a Department for German was to be instituted at the University of Malta, financed largely by the German Government. Those were the plans. However, the Maltese Government of the time decided to give preference to Arabic Language Studies, and the German project fell by the wayside. A very disappointed Herbert Conrad, his wife and the four boys returned to Germany in 1977, where he took up the position of Director of Studies and Vice-Principal of the Carl-Duisberg-Centrum in Saarbrücken. This institution operates a number of colleges all over Germany for German language studies and vocational and professional training programmes for technical experts from all over the world. This time they lived in Saarbrücken for eight years, and the couple had two more children – the so-called “German-Girls”. They were happy at the beginning, and an important jointly carried out pastime was house music. His wife being a music teacher, the children apparently had inherited her talents; each played at least two instruments, and father too played the violin – a real chamber orchestra. Then times changed also in Germany, and with a very serious face Herr Conrad remembered: “My wife as a foreigner was not very welcome anymore. “Ausländer raus!” (Foreigners get out!) was a slogan heard too often for her liking. And we did not want the children to be subjected to this type of influence at school. Although he liked his academical and professional surroundings he eventually agreed - rather reluctantly - to re-settle in Malta in 1985. He taught at the then G.F. Abela Upper Lyceum (which in 1995 became the University Junior College), where he was Assistant Head of the Department for German and coordinator for the subject again, whilst working at the same time first, as part-time lecturer and since 1995 as Assistant Lecturer for German Language and Literature at the University of Malta. His wife ran the Zentrum für Deutsch als Fremdsprache – German Resource Centre, until she accepted a position at the Johann Strauss School of Music in Valletta. In 1997 Herbert Conrad was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande (Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany) for promoting the German language and culture.
Herbert Conrad retired in 2002. Since then he has
been indulging fulltime in his hobbies of reading, writing and music
– and enjoying his nine grandchildren. He still works as freelance
translator, as well as interpreter for international conferences.
His motto is the Horatian “carpe diem”, but well understood in the
Senecan sense of “ars vivendi” - Make the
best of every day given to you! |
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Ein Kreuzworträtsel |
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Insert the equivalent in German |
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Courtesy of F. McAree Alcester Grammar |
ACROSS
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