** German Chat ** Alle sind willkommen. ** Frühling läßt sein blaues Band ...

[MmeLindt]

...
Wieder flattern durch die Lüfte
Süße, wohlbekannte Düfte
Streifen ahnungsvoll das Land
Veilchen träumen schon,
Wollen balde kommen
Horch, von fern ein leiser Harfenton!
Frühling, ja du bist's!
Dich hab ich vernommen!

*

Für Deutsche und nicht-Deutsche, Goethe-fans und Gottschalk-fans, für Herzschmerz, Heimweh und Heimatgefühle.

Alle sind willkommen.

We were walking along the main street the other day and dd had her coat off and mine wasn't fastened, no hats or gloves or scarves and a German girl about dd's age walked past us with the full 'uniform' on - woolly hat tied under chin, thick winter coat, gloves woolly tights and boots and I thought how does that girl go out in mid winter if that's for a sunny spring day?

good grief ML. That's awful. No, I hadn't heard about that. Will see if I can find more about it on a German website. Didn't understand the connection between the Stuttgart shootings and the shoot-out in Alabama in the bottom paragraph

That´s awful. The poor parents ot those children, it´s just unimaginable what they must be going through.

How awful. The parents of the täter apparetnly owned the weapons legally.

I remember the shootings in Erfurt, it was the night that DD was born and we heard the news every hour about the killings. 26th April 2002 it was.

Last time I looked on the Ntv website they were still searching for the gunman. Hope they find him soon, imagine if you have to go out , collect your dc and he's still on the run.

Just read, on Bild.de, that he kidnapped a guy in a VW Sharan and got past the police roadblocks. He let the guy go near the Autobahn.

God, I feel sick thinking about it.

I'm watching the news, it's on CNN and BBC too. Makes me feel sick too mmelindt, just thinking of the parents trying to find out if their dc are safe makes me want to cry.

Just read about this. How awful .
Apparently the gunmen has now been shot dead by police.

I cannot put the news on as the DC are home on Wednesdays. Not something that I want them to see. What on earth posseses someone to do this?

It is hard to imagine, as I sit here (in the garden!) in my idyllic little world, what the poor parents are going through.

Ahh, a new thread! That's nice. I'll try to post here more in the future. I had surgery 6 weeks ago (girl stuff) and it looks like it's going to be a long recovery with one little hiccup after the other.

I've live here for so long (since 1990) that I always think it would be great to pick up and move to a new place every few years but I suppose the reality of that is quite different. My German husband keeps saying how much he wants to move to Canada, but I know he's not really serious because he's got it too good here and we'd have to start at rock bottom. Oh well.

That's just so terrible about the shootings near Stuttgart - I've been watching CNN all day to get the news and it's so heartbreaking.

Isn't it awful. They are saying on Bild that he shot 3 more people while on the run. I bet there are going to be questions asked. How could he get his hands on so many weapons (I read he had a machine gun) and could the police have nabbed him quicker.

His parents owned guns. Why they needed to own a machine gun I don't know.

I suppose the parents could have been hunters - there are lots of forests round there for hunting, very rural on the edge of Stuttgart. I just don't get why so many though? I wonder if they'll be in trouble - I mean how did he get hold of the gun - they are supposed to be locked away I think.

Hi again Westvan, saw your mail too thanks. Hope you feel better soon. It'll be nicer weather after Easter so we could maybe meet up.

Even if they were hunters, what the hell were they doing with a machine gun? And yes, they should have been locked up. Although, they could not have known that their son was so crazy, noone would think that of their own son.

Last night h said he could imagine the 17 year old had been driven to it the way they treat dc in school here - surprised he ever noticed that but anyway - which is similar to what Nighbynight said on the other thread last night. Seems that the boy was an OK pupil though.

I think alot of teenagers are left alone nowadays and then turn to computer games to keep them company. I just don't understand those games where they play shoot to kill , some are really life like pictures too.

Hi everyone, it's been ages. Head in the sand sort of feeling but am cheering up whenever the sun shines. BTW it's me, thequietone. I changed my name because I was talking about MN too much to my husband and hoped he wouldn't find me!!

What is Abendbrot? No warm meal then? Does this explain the obsession with daily lumps of bread bought from the Backerei?

Like the name, exactly how many of us feel on a daily basis!

Abendbrot was a surprise, but even more it was the Schwarzbrot that surprised me. The first evening I arrived to be an aupair in a German family and I was starving. The table was set and the only bread on offer was Schwarzbrot, there was salami (very strong, greasy etc) and some really strong smelly cheese (and I love cheese but I'd never seen that sort before) so I went to bed quite hungry. The breakfast was better the next morning, crispy rolls from the bakery!

hi westvan, hope you're recovering well from the surgery.
Hi aam. Yes, Abendbrot is a simple uncooked evening meal. I don't know if it is always just bread with quark/cheese/meat, might be a bit of salad or soup too sometimes. Seems very widespread. Maybe it's the healthier alternative. I grew up having cooked meals though so I find it natural to cook for my family too.

I know each human life is equally valuable somehow but it seems particularly hard when children die. I don't understand why this kind of thing keeps happening - children shooting children. He was only 17 after all himself and from what I gathered his life was not derailed, he came from a wealthy family, was successful at table tennis and finished his Realschule, had his diploma and had started learning a trade. Shouldn't have happened, should it?

Abroadandmisunderstood
I wondered who you were on the other thread.

Just checked the German press. According to the Bild (always reliable reporting!) he was a "waffennarr" who liked to play computer games, particularly violent ones.

They also reported about his family being wealthy and that he had got his Realschulabschluss. I wondered if perhaps that was not good enough for him/his parents, if he had been pressured to go to Gymnasium. You knwo that the pressure to get your Abi is so huge here, more so in the higher classes.

Don't want to blame the parents, I am sure that they are doing that themselves. Particularly the father, for not making sure the weapon was locked away.

I see, haven't been watching it on the news etc, don't want dd to pick up on this type of thing.

No, I have not had the news on either. Only last night when teh DC were in bed.

The weather is gorgeous again today. Makes me most unwilling to do some housework.

It's pouring down here, has been all morning. Typical when dd is out and about with her photography group, visiting a professional photographer in town.

Feel guilty now that my 2 dc heard about the Amoklauf from the news last night. H came in early and put the TV on. It was on the radio this morning too so I talked about it abit with them and they seemed OK.

Your dc are a little bit older admylin and will no doubt hear about it at school anyway.

Wonder what the answer is. How to stop this kind of thing happening again.

Yes, I think that older children will hear about it and discuss it at school. Mine are still to young to understand.

I don't understand it either.

I really don't either ML because any dc shooting other people at school must know they will end up dead themselves.

(And that quite apart from how they manage to overcome the moral boundaries we all have that prevent us killing anyone). I suppose those games where you are forever killing some thing/person and then start afresh as if they come back to life when the game is over might somehow be eroding those barriers and teaching a disrepect for life.

Dunno really