Durch die Strassen auf und nieder, leuchten die Laternen wieder... ***Herbstunterhaltung im Deutschem Eck***

[MmeLindt]

Durch die Strassen auf und nieder
leuchten die Laternen wieder:
rote, gelbe, grüne, blaue,
Lieber Martin, komm und schaue!

Wie die Blumen in dem Garten
blühn Laternen aller Arten:
rote, gelbe, grüne, blaue,
Lieber Martin, komm und schaue!

Und wir gehen lange Strecken
mit Laternen an den Stecken
rote, gelbe, grüne, blaue,
Lieber Martin, komm und schaue!

*

It is that time of the year again. Check your lanterns, get enough batteries, start the Bastelaktion.

its such a german thing to take a kitchen out a rented house - seems so strange to me! they didnt take the kitchen out this house (although it is so badly decorated and laid out i wish they had!!) but they took the bathroom sink!!!!! left the bath, toilet and bidet but took the sink!! WTF!! thankfully there are 2 bathrooms! but our new bathroom cabinet and sink finally came yesterday! will be strange to actually be able to wash our hands in the sink after all this time and not in the bidet!!!!

off out to do battle at the Rathaus in a bit - they are confused about what to do with our kids about their nationalities - they've all got British passports. But i spoke to a man at the British Embassy (who spoke the Queens english much to my amusement!!) who said there is no problem - they can just have dual nationalities! dont know why they couldnt just have told us that here! so now need to go and explain all this in german at the Rathaus!! that'll be a test of my poor german!!!!

My 2 dc were born in Germany and dh is German so they have both. I registered them at the British consulate in Düsseldorf and they did have passports at one point but when they expired they got German ones.It was so much less hassle, just popped down to Rathaus, filled in form and handed over photos, week later they were ready. The embassy takes ages and costs a fortune.

Are you getting your dc a Kinderausweis?

I'm not sure what we should do - they've all got british passports with at least 2 years left. But the man in the British Embassy said there are 2 seperate things - citizenship and having a passport. I'm grudged to pay out for 3 new German passports for the kids when they dont need them at the moment but I think they need to somehow be registered as being German citizens - would that be the Kinderausweis?

Canella - my local Rathaus got really sniffy when we enquired about dual nationality for DS, so in the end, we pretended we didn't have a British one and they gave us an Ausweis without the attitude. I don't get it; there's no law against dual nationality. But the Rathaus seemed incredulous that we'd want to dilute his German eligibility with anything "British". Oh, the shock, the horror....

Not sure, but if you go with the birth certificate (international ones are they?) and proof that their father is German, you should be able to apply for a Kinderausweis, they weer ereally cheap when we got them, even the passports were quite cheap.

I often write Britisch/Deutsch when filling forms in, but at Gymnasium they said if you don't mind we'll just write German because we only have room for one nationality!

frosch - i think thats what mine will be like - we live in the sticks so they're just not used to foreigners! but they are getting sniffy that we have been living here with our 3 british kids and daring to claim Kindergeld!!!! but my dh is german! thats what i want to shout at them if there is any trouble today!

got british birth certificates but they've all got an apostile on the back which certifies them! will let you know how i get on!

Godd luck, but take dh's German passport along too and marriage certificates and anything else you can think of so they can photo copy it all and you might save yourself a trip!

took both our passports but they only wanted to copy the kids birth certificates. The woman in the Rathaus was absolutley no use!! she just has to send these copies to the Auslanderamt in the next biggest town - if i'd have known that i'd have gone there myself - i go there tomorrow for my food shopping!

She must have asked me in 3 different ways what did we want to do about the kids nationalities - think she couldnt believe we werent just letting them be german! its not so fecking difficult - just let them have dual nationality!!!! so we'll wait to see what the Auslanderamt do - shouldnt have to wait so long - there are so few Auslander round here!

You could have just said yes want them to be German! The Germans don't know what goes on at the British consulate so they don't know if my 2 have or have had British passports and in UK no one ever asked to see German documents. Bit like leading a double life eh!

Does sound like a typical case of Beamte who doesn't really know what the rules are - there are too many to keep track of!

I'm having trouble with my Kindergeld - well not the German one really, that's up and running again but they still need proof that I am not getting UK child benefit and how much i did get when back in UK. Trouble is I didn't get any and they really bugged me with their crazy phone lines - either you get an Indian who doesn't understand my accent or an Irish woman who I don't understand and the southerners don't understand me at all...by post, no response, online their server is down or whatever excuse they are using, I am still waiting to hear from them in UK. German beaurocracy works atleast!

I'm suprised they're making such a fuss about the dual citizenship thing. It does sound like they don't have a clue. If you're a British citizen and your husband is German, Canella, then the kids are automatically dual citizens. A passport is just a travel document but you need proof of citizenship to get one. They changed the Kinderausweis to a Kinderreisepass a couple of years ago but it's still really fast and easy to get one and it's only EUR 13. But they really don't need one unless you'll be traveling abroad. Registering them here as German citizens should be enough.

Dd and ds have both got dual nationality, although I must admit that I´ve never told the Germans that they have British passports. I think there used to be a rule that as children they were allowed dual nationality, but at 18 they are meant to choose one or the other. I don´t know if this rule still exists and if the authorities don´t know about the dual nationality I´m not sure how they go about enforcing it. It does mean that ds will be expected to do national service because of his German citizenship.

I´m taking the dc to a friend´s this afternoon to bake plätzchen. It´s the perfect solution for me - she gets all the mess and we get to take the plätzchen home .

thanks for all the advice about the dual citizenship - i also dont know what all the fuss is about but i think it really stems to us living in the sticks!

so about these plaetzchen - am i supposed to be making them? what are they? are they just biscuits people make at Christmas?
any recipies would be gratefully appreciated!

Canella - this is the perfect opportunity to get into your mil´s good books by asking her to recommend her favourite plätzchen recipes .

I think with children it´s easiest to make a simple Mürbeteig and let the dc use different shape Chrismas cutters and then decorate with chocolate, icing, sprinkles etc. If you want to be more adventurous you could try vanillekipferl, zimtsterne or anyone of these Dr.Oetker recipes. I must admit that I usually rely on dh being given lots as presents and when all else fails I buy them.

thanks hupa - thats a good idea about my MIL - i need to phone her this afernoon anyway so will ask her!

Our DC have dual nationalities, registered their births at the consulate in Germany and at the Rathaus as normal. We have not let on to the Germans about them having British passports.

I think that, as Hupa said, it is ok to have dual nationality but they have to chose at age 18 which nationality they wish to keep. There was a big thing a about 10 years ago where they considered changing the law but they backed down at the last minute after a well run campaign by the Bild Zeitung against it.

The people who would mainly benefit would have been the descendants of the Turkish immigrants, the kids who were born in Germany but still had Turkish passports. It is ridiculous, many of them don't even speak Turkish but if there was to be any conflict between German and Turkey, they could all be sent 'home' to Istanbul.

I find it discriminating and undemocratic. These people have lived in Germany all their lives, have paid their taxes and lived along side German citizens but they still are not allowed to have German citizenship and with that the right to vote in Germany. They can only do that if they give up their original nationality, but that is for many the only surviving connection to their home country.

I would never give up my British passport.

Sorry, rant over. It is one of the things that really annoy me.

havent really thought so far ahead about what will happen when the dc are 18 but at least they will have the choice. who knows where we'll be living!

i presume the children of Turkish immigrants would have to decide at 18 what they want to do - if they've lived here all their lives then i imagine they would feel german but i understand they might feel family pressure to retain their turkish roots.

It doesnt seem that easy to get german citizenship - my friend here is south african but trying to get german citizenship (nightmare to travel with a s african passport) - she's having to jump through lots of hoops - language tests, Einburgerin test, millions of forms! but she's happily relinquishing her passport for ease of travel!

i'll not be giving up my british passport either!

A lot of people think that but if your child has one German parent and one parent of another nationality they DON'T have to decide when they are 18. The rule about deciding actually apply to families where neither parent is German but at least one of them has lived in Germany for 8 years or longer. If they have a child, the child automatically has dual German/nationality of parents' citizenship. This child WILL have to decide between the ages of 18 and 23 which citizenship he/she wants to keep. Many Turkish families have this problem.

Also, Germany allows dual German/UK (or any other EU country) citizenship anyway so there shouldn't be a problem.

My kids have dual Canadian/German citizenship for life because they were born here to a Canadian mother and a German father, BUT if I wanted to get German citizenship, I'd have to give up my Canadian passport. Same thing applies to Turkish citizens.

Popular German Christmas cookies (biscuits) are Zimtsterne (which I despise) and Vanillekipferl which are delicious. Lots of recipes online. I don't think there's any obligation to bake. I know lots of people who buy their cookies and no one cares.

WestVan
Thanks for clearing that up, was never very sure if our DC were allowed to have the dual nationality.

I do plain old mürbeteig plätzchen, nothing fancy. Although I fancy doing Zimtsterne, I love Zimtsterne.

Canella
Thanks for your support on the baby name thread, I completely missed the whole thing. Bloody hell, some folk are incredibly rude aren't they?

think it was probably better that you missed the whole thing - not sure why i clicked on it (not having any more babies!) but then realised people were being shockingly rude! not the best side of MN!!! didnt go back once i posted so i'm sure someone thought i was thick too!!!

been up far too early with these boys this morning - nothing exciting planned for most of the day except pumping out the fecking pond before the cold weather comes!
the Nikolaus walk thing isnt till 5pm - dont think i'll mention it to the boys or they'll be going on about it all day - "is it time yet??"

hope you all have a nice weekend!

We're going to a muslim festival today, last weekend was Eid (Opferfest where they usually sacrifice a goat, sheep or cow) but everyone was busy with work and other things so a group of Bengalis have arranged a meal today. Dh doesn't practise any religion but he was brought up as a muslim so the Eid is like his Christmas. Anyway, we'Äre invited!

I will look extremely plain and underdressed as all their women turn out in amazing saris and gold and jewelry galore. I just think they look silly on white blonde women though, but it does make you feel very badly dressed.

I always used to make 3 kinds of Plätzchen - one with Mandelsplitter was dead easy and tasty so if you still need recipes I can give you that one canella.

Didn't check post again...but we'Äre sounds as if I'm trying to talk posh!!

Sounds lovely, Admylin. I agree that a sari on a white woman tends to look a bit daft. Like a white person with dreadlocks. Or a German in a kilt.

Although DH did look good this summer in a kilt, he would not normally have chosen to wear one.

I am still baking, cookies to decorate for the company Xmas party tomorrow. Anyone want the recipe? It is a great one for doing with the DC as the pastry is not too crumbly. And it is a bung in the food processor one.

Also making miniquiches for the party, but I only have one miniquiche tray so it is taking ages.