Articles about Good to Know

German Edcution System

The German eduction system is highly differentiated with regards to the 16 Länder—at least on school level. University level is country-wide the same and thus not so difficult, even though there are several institutions for tertiary education.

School System: Primary and Secondary Education

German students begin going to elementary school at an age of 6 or 7 having spent about 3 years at an optional kindergarten before. They will learn according to study plans which have been made by the government of each Land. However, there often are mandatory topics and optional topics which the teacher can choose from.

This is very the complicated aspects begin. Each Land has its own rules on how school will go on and how students will learn further. While there are some Länder where students learn together six years other already separate them after four years. Furthermore, in some Länder the teacher’s opinion on which school a student will be allowed to visit is mandatory, in some it is only an advice.

When you are attending a new school after fourth or sixth grade, there are three different possibilites:

• Hauptschule (9 years)
• Realschule (10 years)
• Gymnasium (12 / 13 years)

Thus, the students are highly separated according to their knowledge and behaviour which in my opinion leads to an amplification of effects, meaning that the bad students will become worse for they have no contact to good students and the good students will lose sight for the not so intelligent people’s views.

Hauptschule is the lowest level of German school system and often considered very poor. Especially in cities the people there are pretty underbred not knowing German values, because already their parents—and of course also their other class mates in school—do not care about them. Different people already wanted to abolish Hauptschule in order to send all these students to Realschule, but at least in Baden-Württemberg (where I live) these attempts have been stopped by the government. After having finished Hauptschule you can go to a Werkrealschule to get the same degree you would get at Realschule.

In the past Realschule has been seen as the normal way of eduction, but I guess with increasing education and the need for university degree it has changed a bit towards people wanting their children to go to Gymnasium. However, even if you have only been on Realschule, you can always attend a non-general-education Gymnasium afterwards for three years. Moreover, there are other schools you can attend which will give you an advanced technical college entrance qualification (you cannot enter universites with this) or a general qualification for university entrance.

Gymnasium is the highest level of these three school systems and it always lasted 13 years altogether, but for younger it’s only 12 years. Of course, they have more lessons per week instead. In 10th class you will get the same degree you would get with Realschule and you might change to a non-general-education Gymnasium (e.g. an economy-specialized Gymnasium). After 12/13 years students will get the general qualification for university entrance.

Advanced Technical College (Fachhochschule) / University: Tertiary Education

Once you got the approriate degree of either advanced technical college entrance qualification or general qualification for university entrance you can enter a Fachhochschule or university. However, we do not only have normal university education here, but also academdia (I think especially in arts), so called Berufsakademie or combined studies (Duales Studium).

In Berufsakademie and combined studies you learn at university and go to a company together. Of course not at exactly the same time, but combined studies can switch between both forms of education within one week or even one day. Berufsakademie usually uses intervals of several months of theory followed by several months of internships in a company.

With regard to the distinction between Fachhochschule and university I can only say that Fachhochschule is said to be more practical while university is said to be more theoretical. Therefore, some people told me that at university you rather focus on how something works (e.g. algorithms) while Fachhochschule focuses more on how you can use it. Actually, you  can not distringuish it so easily, because of course everything is part of each of the systems. Yet, I think that universities really do not have mandatory internships as often as Fachhochschule, which supports the argument that Fachhochschule is more oriented on practice.

And now everything in Graphics

Since the whole system is not really easy to understand, I will show you a good figure found on bildungsserver.de.

PS: Excuse-me for not having written so long, but being part of the German education system I had to participate in some exams on July 15th–21st.

Bundeswehr and Grundgesetz

Since a document from the CIA giving information on how to convince the German people of the mission in Afghanistan has been leaked I want to dive further into the German consitution, called Grundgesetz and its effects on the German army.

We will read several articles concerning the Bundeswehr and its rights and duties.

Bundeswehr as Defense Army

The German army is defined as a defense army in the Grundgesetz. The beginning of article 87a says:

(1) The Federation shall establish Armed Forces for purposes of defense. Their numerical strength and general organizational structure must be shown in the budget.

(2) Apart from defense, the Armed Forces may be employed only to the extent expressly permitted by this Basic Law.

We will have a closer look on these exceptions later, but at first let’s concentrate on the defensive aspects.

Due to the deeds of Germany in the past, we have an article forbidding each attempt to start an attack on another state. Each attempt to plan a war of aggression is unconstitutional and illegal. This is stated in article 26:

(1) Acts tending to and undertaken with intent to disturb the peaceful relations between nations, especially to prepare for a war of aggression, shall be unconstitutional. They shall be made a criminal offense.

(2) Weapons designed for warfare may be manufactured, transported, or marketed only with the permission of the Federal Government. Details shall be regulated by a federal law.

Thus, Germany army is not allowed to attack at first, but these statements seeming so easy are complicated and can be eroded easily. The German army takes part in international interventions if specific regions are said to be a danger for world peace and the missions are considered to have positive influence on peace.

Germany as Part of International Organizations

Article 24 deals with international organizations and contains the following sentence:

(2) With a view to maintaining peace, the Federation may enter into a system of mutual collective security; in doing so it shall consent to such limitations upon its sovereign powers as will bring about and secure a lasting peace in Europe and among the nations of the world.

This means Germany’s army will not act only upon the German will, but also as part of international organizations like NATO. An example for such an incident was the terrorist attack on the USA. As soon as the UN Security Council confirmed the collapse of the US twin towers as being an attack on a member state, Germany was supposed to support the NATO.

Germany does not necessarily have to send troops, but it should help in a way the state finds suitable. Not helping could lead to the problem that, if there is an attack on Germany, other states will not act, either.

Since the UN Security Council claimed there was danger for world peace, the Bundeswehr was able to act based upon a state of defense (even though the whole mission is an out of area operation).

However, Germany is not only part of the NATO, but also—as member of the European Union—member of Europe’s Common Defense and Security Policy (CDSP). Even though it works closely together with the NATO, there still are distinctions and separated work groups. The CDSP is mainly focused on war prevention and peace keeping operations.

The German army also supports the so called UN standby-arrangment-system (UNSAS): a list with states deploying soldiers who can be sent to operational areas within 30 to 90 days.

Usage of Army within Germany

Article 35 and article 87a allow the state to use the army within Germany, but only very rarely. You can usually say that army is only allowed to become active within Germany if all other groups have failed.

Article 35 deals with natural catastrophes and allows the army to help if wider regions are influenced and non-military institutions (like police and fire brigade) cannot solve it on their own.

(3) If the natural disaster or accident endangers the territory of more than one Land, the Federal Government, insofar as is necessary to combat the danger, may instruct the Land governments to place police forces at the disposal of other Länder, and may deploy units of the Federal Border Police or the Armed Forces to support the police. Measures taken by the Federal Government pursuant to the first sentence of this paragraph shall be rescinded at any time at the demand of the Bundesrat, and in any event as soon as the danger is removed.

In Germany, such catastrophes usually mean floods. I have a picture in mind where Bundeswehr piled up sandbags to stop the water, but I cannot remember which flood that was.

Article 87a allows the usage of army in states of defense and danger for democracy. However, all these operations are only allowed as long as both Bundestag and Bundesrat tolerate them and if police and Federal Border Police were not able to solve the problem on their own:

(3) During a state of defense or a state of tension the Armed Forces shall have the power to protect civilian property and to perform traffic control functions to the extent necessary to accomplish their defense mission. Moreover, during a state of defense or a state of tension, the Armed Forces may also be authorized to support police measures for the protection of civilian property; in this event the Armed Forces shall cooperate with the competent authorities.

(4) In order to avert an imminent danger to the existence or free democratic basic order of the Federation or of a Land, the Federal Government, if the conditions referred to in paragraph (2) of Article 91 obtain and the police forces and the Federal Border Police prove inadequate, may employ the Armed Forces to support the police and the Federal Border Police in protecting civilian property and in combating organized armed insurgents. Any such employment of the Armed Forces shall be discontinued if the Bundestag or the Bundesrat so demands.

In 2008 or 2009, there have been plans of our former Minister of the Interior, Wolfgang Schäuble to extend the rights of the army within the state, but these have been stopped by demonstrants and probably also oppositional politicians.

Development of Marriage and Divorces

Development of Marriages in Germany

As in most other industrialized countries, the number of marriages in Germany has been decresing for many years. The peak was reached in 1950 with 11 of 1000 citizens getting married per year (about 750,000 on the whole), nowadays there are only 4.6 of 1000 left (equals ca. 377,000).

Couples are also getting married later: In 1970 the average age at marriage (East and West Germany together) was about 25 for men and 22 for women, nowadays it’s 32.7 and 29.8.

The following graphic shows the development of marriages in Germany. There’s a rise in marriages in the 90s, because West and East Germany were united and before 1992 these statistics include only West Germany.

However, you also have to consider that German society is always getting older and therefore there are not so many people left who could still marry.

Statistics by Federal Statistical Office Germany

Development of Divorces in Germany

Divorces meanwhile have nearly doubled from 1950 to 2008.

The graphic shows the development of marriage in Germany, once again taking only numbers of West Germany before 1990, which makes it seem even more extremous. To be able to get the number of whole Germany before 1990 you have to add about 25,000–40,000.

Statistics by Federal Statistical Office Germany

The minimum in 1978 can be explained by a reform of the marriage law which lead to a temporary decline of divorces. However, already between 1980 and 1982 the old level was reached again.

Are Divorces Modern?

Some sociologists say the number of divorces was an indicator for the modernity of society. They claim it showed in how far society has dealt with the rights of women. Probably, in their eyes it’s also about “getting rid of religion”, but I cannot prove it.

The statement itself might be true, but in a positve way? In my opinion the number of divorces just shows our incapability of coping with problems. In modern society everything has to work perfectly, without much struggle; a part of society does not want to put any effort into their actions at all.

However this apathy when one should act stops love from developing at all. Love is something that has to grow and gets stronger with each problem you solve. Current world is spoilt by romantic hollywood movies showing a world through rose-coloured glasses. Movies and series also paint an image of marriage being the worst possibility ever, they pretend that the state of having butterflies in one’s stomach should last forever. Thus, not being able to reach this dream world, some people give up along the way.

Problems for parents and children

Moreover, divorces are in my opinion not good for the children. We have an increasing number of so called Patchwork-Familien (stepfamiles) consisting of one parent and some children of both families. However, the children still meet with their real mother/father often, which shows that there is still a strong relationship which cannot be replaced by the new family.

Some parents decide to raise their children alone, which leads to new problems, because their income is basically smaller and they do not have enough time to care for their children alone. There have been reports that the social help of the state for single mothers and fathers is far too little.

Future?

It will be interesting to see if this decline of marriages and rise of divorces will go on or there will be a return to long-time marriage again. Another interesting question is in how far the development would change if politics changed the fiscal law from having a special status for married couples to having a special status for couples with children—which is being demanded by some groups.

Another Year has Passed and the Apocalypse is yet to Come

Image taken by caruba

Everybody is talking about the past year and what will come next year. In 2009 you could have thought that the apocalypse, which was already missed at the millenium change from 1999 to 2000, would happen slightly delayed. And still we have not been taken by the mighty Lord, seems that we get some more time.

“Super election year”

Due to the mass of elections this year media and politicians—the latter ones probably copying the words of media—spoke of a super election year (lit. translated from Superwahljahr). These many elections must have turned political parties mad or made them confused.

Nowadays, we have a liberal party (FDP) which fought for less value-added-taxes for hotels, even though it said—I know, I know... this was before the elections—that subventions were bad. SPD lost a lot of votes and now they’re turning round and round. You can even follow their change of mind from one day to the other. Only CDU remains successful, which is probably due to their good relationship to the most read German news paper called BILD (their journalists lie even more than politicians).

PC games destroy our youth

Every few years there are school shootings in Germany and each time politicians begin arguing that the most important, if not only, reason for this were PC games. Children would become killing machines by playing ego shooters. Depressions and sadness cannot be exploited for politics, therefore they need another scapegoat.

People are always hysteric after such incidents, when there was another school shooting in Germany some parents did not even want to send their children to school. As if the chances of being killed in school were so high. Instead of giving real information about the reasons, everybody is just talking about the same aspects over and over.

When Bastian B. published a suicide note in 2006, police even censored everything and took down his website. If other people had not copied it before, nobody would have known his criticism of society. Moreover, some news papers have even censored the criticism of media in his letter. While the real reasons are deeply beyond all understanding, both politicians and media are searching for a scapegoat just to attract voters or viewers.

Stop abusing our children, stupid Internet!

Mrs. von der Leyen, a German conservative politician, has established the image of an evil Internet which is only waiting to rape children in the heads of many people. I am sure she never uses the Internet, and still she was really sure that there were markets transfering millions or even billions of dollars (I think she never mentioned a period) with child pornography. She only somehow must have forgotten to give some valid arguments for her thesis... A German lawyer, who already fought for people accused of the possession of child pornography, however made clear that his clients never paid even one cent for their material.

Von der Leyens masterplan against this “cruel” market was internet censorship. She even managed to ignore a petition of 130.000 people against the censorship and an association of abused people against the censorship. According to her it was also a security measure for ourselves, because we could just meet child pornography somewhere in the evil Internet while planning our next journey.

In the end the politicians made a mistake, not passing the law to the European Union fast enough (or some other rule...) and it was not passed in the past legislative period, anymore. Nowadays, since Mrs. von der Leyen has left her position as family minister, nobody wants to have the law anymore, even though the majority of the current coalition voted for it. And guess: the law is not passed yet, I never came across child pornography and we are still alive.

Spoilt for choice

While the financial crisis has already been known for some time, there was a new disaster in 2009: the so called swine flu (also known as H1N1 by a small circle of the more intellectual) arrived. People now had the problem that they did not know which one to worry about: either economic crisis or swine flu.

The decision fell on the swine flu endangering not only our material prosperity, but also our physical condition. TV stations and news papers were reporting about new incidents very deliberately, each death was analysed. Due to the massive information the government felt like having to do something (maybe they also felt like having to do something against the economic crisis by helping pharma industry) and bought millions of vaccination doses. However, when people were able to get the vaccination it already seemed to late: Only few really took one.

Were they already dead? Why did nobody go to the doctor to get the vaccination? I did not hear that cities became smaller, however I also did not hear anything about swine flu anymore. Seems like the interest has sunk and it does not behave noticeable different than a normal flu.

Climate Summit failed

When there was a chance to change the Climate, politicians of countries all over the world could not agree on fixed aims, instead they tried to rescue the whole summit with a document which only mentions that the temperature should not rise more than 1.5°C (or was it 2°C).

Europe and Japan are trying to get a clean record by demanding high CO₂ reduction rates which is obviously a good target, however nobody of them mentions that this is only industry based. Germany and Japan both have very good industry for renewable energy, so that’s why Merkel always fights for a reduction of CO₂ emissions. If we were a developing country as China, Merkel would fight for looser rules.

We will all die in airplanes

“Yet another” terror attack has happened, a terrorist tried to blow up an airplane to America but was stopped by other passengers. Only watching the media you could think that terrorists blow up planes every week, but—regarding the statistics—there have been only 6 attacks on airplanes within the past 10 years, of which only 4 were “successful”.

In Germany hysteria about terrorism is beginning to rise now and the discussion about stricter personal search was started once again. I didn’t even hear one TV station mention that the aim of terrorism is to make us afraid—why otherwise would it be called terror (latin fear). Instead, media spreads the fear that we are all going to die in airplanes if no new security model is established—yeah, even people who never use an airplane could be killed by terrorists in an airplane.

In the end it’s elementary particles which destroy the universe?

The LHC in Switzerland, a physical scienctific station for the analysis of elementary particles (smaller objects than atoms) and research about the big bang, has been started again this year. When it was started for the first time, some people were worried whether the earth could collapse if the tests were continued. The only thing which has collapsed yet, was the technology of LHC itself. It took many months to repair it and now we can be curious what will happen (Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the world yet?).

Will we be able to gather new information about the big bang, will we see a bing bang reverse ourselves when the world collapses? Maybe you know something? I can only say that the apocalypse is yet to come.

Why are School Holidays not at the Same Time throughout Germany?

Some people have asked me why school holidays in Germany were not at the same time everywhere.

The reason for this is the federalism we have in Germany. While nations like France have a centralised system *, Germany is based upon the single member states (like Saarland, North Rhine-Westphalia and 14 others). The member states then pass some fields of authority to the whole nation, in my case the Federal Republic of Germany.

However, school system in Germany is part of the member states' authority. This means each state is able to set holidays on its own. Sometimes the states also negotiate about the holidays to avoid major traffic jams (especially in summer holidays). Yet, there are already traffic jams when holidays start only in some regions at the same time.

* however, they have three zones for different school holidays