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Our activities for January

Between the 5th January and the 5th February

An Exhibition of Colour Photographs by Joseph Camilleri EFIAP, ARPS, AISF

in the Exhibition Rooms of Messina Palace

Joe Camilleri was born in Zurrieq in 1921.  In 1931, his mother bought him his first camera with which he experimented with family snapshots.  During the Second World War, Joe first served as a Protection Officer in charge of the Birzebbugia district and later he joined the Royal Air Force where he came across aerial photography.  But Joe Camilleri decided to take up photography seriously only when he retired from work in 1982.  An ardent member of the Malta Photographic Society, he soon mastered the technical skills and tricks of the art of photography.  Experimentation helped him develop his own style and trend in photography.  Equipped with the best equipment on the market, Joe concentrated most of his efforts to competitions in the international camp.  Since then, he had hundreds of acceptances, a large number of honourable mentions and a considerable number of gold, silver and bronze medals and other trophies which he had won in international competitions all over the world.  Joe Camilleri’s photos have been published in books and magazines of the highest rating in international photography.  Joe died in 2008 leaving his vast collection of photographs to Heritage Malta.

Come along and visit this collection of 45 award-winning photographs –
all “non-digital” works of art - by Joe Camilleri. 
Opening hours between 8.30a.m. and 12.30p.m. and between 4.30p.m. and 8.30p.m. 
Saturdays – mornings only.  Sundays closed.  Entrance is free.

(Special thanks to the photographer’s works curator Mr George Glanville)

German Film Evening:  "Ferien" directed by Thomas Arslan (2007)
Friday, 9th January at 6.30p.m. (92 mins)

Synopsis: It's summertime at a remote country house in the Uckermark nestling in the midst of protective woods. The inhabitants of this refuge far away from the rest of the world are Anna, her husband Robert and their son, Max. During the course of the summer, several generations of this sprawling family will come here. Laura, Anna's daughter from her first marriage, arrives from Berlin with her partner Paul and their children to spend their holidays here. Things get off to a promising start with a pleasant round of long walks, swimming in the nearby lake, and family meals in the garden.

What looked like an idyllic sojourn is cut short when Anna's mother falls seriously ill and has to be brought to the house and cared for. Before long, the cracks in Paul's and Laura's relationship begin to become increasingly apparent. Even more confusion is caused by the appearance of Laura's sister Sophie, who lives abroad. All summer long, a group of people circumnavigate each other. A group of people who are so close and yet so alienated from one another. Their isolated holiday home is the site for a resurgence of smouldering conflicts and lifelong illusions that threaten to wreck the family's fragile unity forever.

The film has German dialogue with English subtitles. Students of German and other members are welcome to attend.  Entrance is free.  An introduction to the film and a discussion after the film are led by Sirka Facklam.

Forthcoming Gesprächsrunden:

Wednesday, 21st January - "Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod. Ein Wegweiser….. Autor Sebastian Sick". 
Diskussionsleiterin:  Sirka Facklam

Wednesday, 4th February - "Malta in der deutschen Literatur"
Diskussionsleiter:  Bernhard Baron 

Meetings with Dr Gunter Jacobs – Wednesday, 7^th and Friday, 23^rd January.

For members with a good command of the German language who wish to engage in discussion and conversation
All sessions start at 6.30p.m.

Language Courses Noticeboard

  Attention all Members!!  -  Ex
Second Term: Students are reminded that the lessons for the second term of the 2008-2009 Language Courses will recommence after the Christmas and New Year holidays as from Monday, 5th January.  

Certificates: Members who are eligible for a German language Certificate or a Certificate of Attendance relating to the 2007-2008 German Language Courses and have not yet collected it, are reminded that they are to do so from the office as soon as possible. 

Examinations’ Time Table:  This can be seen on the Circle’s Notice Board or online.  The examination dates cannot be changed.  Students are reminded that they may not be allowed to sit for an examination unless a minimum overall attendance of 70% of the total number of lessons held during the year is reached.  

Learn German the Fun & Fast Way:  Short courses of 12 lessons (each x 2 hours) recommended for those who want to start communicating in German in simple day-to-day situations when travelling or at work.  Emphasis on spoken German - No emphasis on grammar - No textbooks - No examinations.  Choice of morning and evening sessions.  Starting: Part 1 (Complete Beginners) & Part 2 (With basic knowledge). 
Application & full information from the office or click HERE:

RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP for 2009 NOW.  For €11,65 for one whole year! Mail  a cheque (payable German-Maltese Circle) or come personally to the office!  You will continue receiving the Newsletter, join our activities,  use the Library services, and much more!  Those who are attending our courses have had their membership renewed already.
ing Events for May at Messina Palace

Annual General Meeting & Election of Executive Committee

Members of the German-Maltese Circle are herewith notified that the Annual General Meeting will be convened at the Circle's premises on WEDNESDAY, 28th January 2008 at 6.30p.m. in accordance with Article 29 of our Articles of Association.  The Meeting will commence half-an-hour later with the members present in the absence of a quorum. 

AGENDA:         
(a)  Reading of minutes of the previous Annual General Meeting;
(b)  Address by the President;
(c)  General Secretary's Annual Administrative Report;
(d)  Treasurer's Statement of Accounts;
(e)  Election of Committee;
(f)   Motions;
(g)  Election of Corporate Members’ representative. 

Nominations - on the prescribed form available from the Circle’s office - of eligible members willing to contest the election for the posts of President, Secretary, Treasurer, Member or Corporate Members’ Representative are to reach the Secretary by not later than 6.30p.m. of Wednesday, 21st January.   

Motions for discussion during the AGM, duly signed by the proposer and a seconder are also to reach the Secretary by the above-mentioned date and time.  All motions received will be displayed on the Circle’s Noticeboard.

A Dramatic Discovery of Archaeology and History by German Archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann

Before 1870 a Greek historian would have stated that Homer in the Iliad wrote of a heroic war fought at Troy by Greek states under the command of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, on behalf of his brother Menelaus whose wife Helen had been abducted by Paris, a Trojan prince.    However, Homer would not have been able to say whether the Trojan War ever took place.   Iliad could not be taken as record of historical fact because there was no evidence, written or archaeological, to support it.   

Heinrich Schliemann, born in Neubukow (a small town in the north of Germany) in 1822, did not accept the scholarly view.  Heinrich, though a linguist - fluent in 13 languages, was not a scholar. A self-made millionaire he developed an overriding passion for Homer. As a young grocer’s apprentice in Furstenburg he used to listen entranced to a drunken vagabond standing outside his master’s shop reciting Homer’s verses and he became increasingly steeped in the Iliad and Odyssey   He strongly believed that Iliad was a factual account of a real war fought by historical people.  In 1852 he married a Russian wealthy lady Ekaterina Lyschin from whom he had three children.  He divorced from Ekaterina in 1868 in which year he first set off to Greece and Turkey to verify his beliefs.  By that time he had amassed a large fortune for himself dealing in gold, indigo, saltpetre and other minerals mostly in the United States and in Russia.  In 1869, Schliemann married seventeenth-year old Sophia Engastromenos who bore him two children, Andromache and Agamemnon 

Arriving in Turkey, Schliemann picked a prospective site for Troy at a place on the Asian Coast of the Dardanelles, called the mound of Hissarlik, which was in fact the site of Troy.  He discovered beneath the top layer of the mound the remains of not one town, but seven, each built on the ruins of the other.  On the second layer from the bottom, he found a town whose walls were made of huge Cyclopean stones and which showed traces of having been burnt.  This town he maintained was Priam’s Troy.  It was in the walls of this town that he made the most dramatic discovery.   Hidden in a niche in the wall was a hoard of golden jewellery, necklaces, brooches and clasps.   Schliemann had found not only Priam’s town but Priam’s treasure, which had been worn as a dowry by Helen herself. 

Later archaeologists showed that the town and treasure which Schliemann attributed to Priam, were in fact considerably older.  The discovery of Troy was a triumph both for Schliemann, and more important, for Homer.  His poetry was now raised from the rank of myth to that of history, Agamemnon and his companions had existed; their palaces and treasures waiting to be excavated. 

Schliemann then took up the task of locating the royal tombs, a problem that vexed archaeologists.   It had always been supposed that they lay outside the walls of Mycenae.  With his usual disregard, Schliemann decided that the tombs were inside the wall and his first discovery was the agora of Mycenae and beneath a sensational discovery of eighteen tombs – mere shafts sunk into the ground.  Within them lay the bodies of the kings, their wives and children, their faces covered with golden funerary masks and surrounded by swords and daggers, bowls, goblets, diadems and bracelets- all made of gold! 

In his enthusiasm, Schliemann dated these tombs incorrectly, being convinced that they were those of Agamemnon and Atreus.  (Antedated by more than a hundred years.)  His archaeological flair and faith in Homer had shown the way to the discovery of a whole area in Greek history.  He lacked the scientific training to make the correct deductions, but others who followed, consolidated and continued the work he had so brilliantly began. 

(Contributed by Carmelina Grech)

The German Fairytale Road

The German Fairytale Road stretches 600 kms from Hanau (near Frankfurt) in the State of Hesse through the Werra district and north to Bremen in the State of Bremen. The Road was devised by a group of city officials and business people around the sites of well known fairytales such as Sleeping Beauty and Red Riding Hood. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Grimm Brothers - Wilhelm and Jakob went around the region and collected fairytales and stories that people told them. There are over 60 different stop off points on the journey along the Fairy-tale Road. Here is a small selection of them.

The Road begins at the Grimm Brothers Statue in Hanau - birthplace of the Grimm Brothers.  In Schlüchtern approximately 60,000 garden gnomes are produced annually.  Somewhere in this region, Snowwhite (Schneewittchen) was looked after by the seven dwarves after she escaped the clutches of the evil queen. Perhaps the setting for Schneewittchen is Lohr am Rhein.

The surroundings of Fritzlar are considered as the Red Riding Hood Land.  Local costumes are still worn everywhere.  The red caps worn by unmarried girls on their heads were taken by the Brothers Grimm as a model for their Little Red Riding Hood.

Kassel is the halfway point on the Fairy Tale Road and home of the Grimm Museum. Between Kassel and Göttingen one comes across the fairytale mountain home of Frau Holle as well as Sababurg, the castle in which Sleeping Beauty slept for 100 years!  In Ebergötzen near Göttingen is the old mill where Wilhelm Busch's Max und Moritz was played out.

The Marburg district recalls Rapunzel and Rumpelstilzchen, while Hameln is famous for The Pied Piper of Hamelin. The journey ends in Bremen, the smallest state in Germany famous for the fairytale “Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten”.

2009 - Important Anniversaries

The 250th anniversary of the death of the German composer, Georg Friedrich Händel, will be marked by events in his hometown of Halle where he spent most of his adult life. Handel is renowned as a prolific Baroque composer of operas and oratorios, the most famous of which is The Messiah with the rousing Hallelujah chorus.  

The 200^th anniversary of the death of Austrian composer Joseph Haydn. Haydn is known as the father of the classical symphony and the string quartet. Most famously, August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben used the tune of the second movement from Haydn's Emperor Quartet to set the words of Das Lied der Deutschen which later became the German national anthem. Haydn wrote 107 symphonies and 14 Masses and also worked as a musical director and Kapellmeister, or chapel master. 

The 200^th anniversary of the birth of the German composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Mendelssohn who was born in Hamburg, is considered one of the most famous artists of the 19th century and a mediator between religions. Although he died at the age of 38, he wrote some 400 works, including many significant oratorios.  

BAUHAUS (founded 1919): Architect Walter Gropius founded the "Staatliche Bauhaus" (National Building House), a design college, 90 years ago in the Thuringian town of Weimar in central Germany. Each product the Bauhaus designers produced was supposed to fulfill its function while being durable, cheap and beautiful. The concept became the foundation of modern industrial design and architecture. Bauhaus is considered a modern icon.  

The 250^th anniversary of the birth of Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller.  A poet, philosopher, historian and dramatist. During the last few years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang Goethe.  

Other commemorations in 2009 include the ceremonies surrounding the 60th anniversary of the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany (BRD) and the 10th birthday of the euro, which became the accounting currency of 12 European states on Jan. 1, 1999. Euro coins and banknotes were issued three years later on Jan. 1, 2002.

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