09 accents

The English Language Journal

for Baden-Württemberg
www.accents-magazine.de
March/April/May 2006
magazine

Made in
Baden-Württemberg

The challenge of selling B-W to the world

It’s no joke! British ‘cuisine’ in Germany
Bathing in Baden-Baden
Smoking in a work-free environment
 Cover photo: Hubert Herr Uhrenfabrik, Triberg, www.hubertherr.de
5
Contents
10 14 16
Feature Children’s Corner Arts and Culture Labyrinth
10 Where ideas work 13 Kids in cinema 16 Lively and creative 26 Getting a job
Selling Baden-Württemberg 13 Adventure books Stuttgart’s visual arts scene 26 Office work: not for me!
internationally 17 Book reviews
11 Sales pitch B-W accent on… 18 Artists in solitude Regulars
Advertising guru
Sebastian Turner 14 Baden-Baden Good to Know 4 Letters
Bathed and cultured 4 My Two Cents
News and Events 25 Money Matters Handicapped language
Online-banking security 19 accents choice
5 UK Honorary Consulate 25 Stuttgart Tips What’s on listings
opens 22 accents guide
6 British foods importer Clubs and contacts
wins medal 24 Classifieds
8 Security concerns at
US consulate

Editorial

Nowadays, Baden-Württem-
berg is not only known across
Germany as the land of pret-
zels, the Black Forest and ex-
pensive cars, it’s also a place
with a sense of humour.
Wir können alles. Außer
Hochdeutsch. (We can do
everything. Except speak high-
German) is the slogan of the
phenomenally successful advert-
ising campaign, still running in
various forms, which has esta-
blished excellent ‘brand recog-
nition’ across Germany for
the south-west German state.
However, much of Baden-
Württemberg’s future depends
on selling itself not to the rest
of Germany but to the rest of
the world.
Baden-Württemberg is Ger-
many’s biggest exporting state.
It’s heavily dependent on over-
seas markets, in particular the
US market, for its economic
well-being. But how is Baden-
Württemberg seen by the out-
side world? How is this state
‘marketed’ overseas? We set
out to investigate Baden-Würt-
temberg’s international signifi-
cance and discovered there is
a slogan, in English, with which
the state is selling itself as
an attractive place to live and
invest in. See our Feature story
on page 10.
You may have noticed that
this edition of accents is a
three-month edition, running
through March, April and May.
The next edition will also
stretch across three months.
We’re not running out of
steam! In fact, we’re broaden-
ing our offering: we plan to
produce a special edition of
accents for the football World
Cup, so we’ve changed our
production schedule slightly.
Actually, the upcoming World
Cup was one of the reasons we
sent our travel writer, Steve
Trevallion, to Baden-Baden for
this edition. The English football
squad has chosen to base itself
near Baden-Baden for the dura-
tion of the tournament. Steve
reports on the bathing and cul-
tural highlights on offer in B-B,
should David Beckham and co.
decide to wander into town.
In our Arts pages we survey
the visual arts scene and report
on a unique international arts
academy at the edge of Stutt-
gart. In Children’s Corner we
invite our younger readers
to write in and tell us what’s
appealing about going to the
cinema. We’ve got free movie
tickets to give away for the
best entries. Also in this edi-
tion: a medal from the Queen
for an importer of British foods;
advice for doing business at the
US consulate in Frankfurt; and
working in a German office – Liz
Gaiser gets a real job and quits
smoking. Sort of. See Labyrinth,
page 26.
Enjoy the spring and happy
reading!
accents magazine
editorial team

accents magazine Published by accents media GbR (Bryan Groenjes, Maki Kuwayama, Geoff Rodoreda) Libanonstraße 58, 70184 Stuttgart.
Tel 0711 3102160, Fax 0711 3102161, info@accents-magazine.de Editor Geoff Rodoreda, editor@accents-magazine.de Arts Editor Stuart Marlow
Copy Editor Katharine Schmidt Photographer Chrys Rynearson Contributors Toni Astle, Krysia Diver, Margaret Farmer, Dagmar Fritz, Liz Gaiser,
Jonathan Graham, Rebecca Perrin, Steve Trevallion Advertising Enquiries Bryan Groenjes, ads@accents-magazine.de. Webmaster Andrew
Golledge, webmaster@accents-magazine.de Website www.accents-magazine.de Graphic Design Brucklacher Visuelle Kommunikation Reutlingen,
www.brucklacher.de Prepress CGS Möhrle, Vesoulerstraße 4, 70839 Gerlingen Cost free Published every two months Circulation 10,000
Distribution everywhere English is spoken: subscribing firms, cultural institutions, shops, pubs, clubs, theatres, hotels and selected tourist
centres Advertisers and Corporate Subscribers Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG, Biddy Early’s Irish Pub, Brucklacher Visuelle Kommunikation, Corso
Cinema International, Martin Crellin Copywriting and Translation, Derpart Reisebüro, Deutsch-Amerikanisches Zentrum/James-F.-Byrnes Institut e.V.,
Ernst & Young AG, Open University, Open University Business School, Piccadilly English Shops, Robert Bosch GmbH, Schiller International
University, SEB AG Stuttgart ISSN 1862-345 X

accents magazine 3
 Letters accents magazine
Libanonstraße 58
70184 Stuttgart

to the Editor editor@accents-magazine.de

Testing English Education woes

Dear Editor,
As a business-English trainer and the Chairperson of the
English Language Teachers’ Association Stuttgart e.V. (ELTAS),
I found the results posted in the article “Testing Stuttgart’s
English” (accents 08, p.8) really interesting. Having taught in
the greater Stuttgart area for a number of years I would like
to point out that I am always impressed by the keenness of
Germans of all ages to learn or improve their English. The test
was well designed and revealed some interesting deficiencies.
So it’s good to hear that various service providers have taken
the findings seriously and are investing in English-language
training to revamp their staff’s English skills, especially in view
of the upcoming World Cup.
Cornelia Kreis-Meyer, Leonberg
Dear Editor,
As your feature story “Testing Stuttgart’s English” (accents 08,
p.8) showed, the staff at Stuttgart’s Tourist Information Office
in Königsstraße speak good English. However, friends of mine
who visited me last summer were very disappointed with the
service they got there. I was sure they would get maps and
information about sights in and around Stuttgart. They were
given a map but no other information whatsoever. They related
that the employees were more interested in finding accommo-
dation for other tourists who were in the office at that time.
I was able to take the next day off work and we were able to
go to the Mercedes-Benz museum and the Residenzschloss in
Ludwigsburg. These are both tourist attractions they could have
visited with public transportation if they had been given the
right information. We can only hope for improvements in time
for the World Cup this summer.
Jane Drexler, Esslingen
Dear Editor,
As a teacher with nearly 30 years experience, I found the
whole of your “Life Long Learning” edition (accents 07) most
interesting. In my view, the German education system is in a
state of crisis. More teachers and more resources are needed,
but the system is too inflexible and resistant to change. For
example, my London University diploma is not recognised by
the Education Department so I teach at the Volkshochschule
instead of in a school. There are many teachers from abroad
who could bring benefits to the German school system. High
school specialisation at ten years of age is far too early – some
children develop and blossom just a few years after that, but
for many it comes too late. And it’s a rare thing for a child from
a ‘lower’ high school to progress through to the Abitur, or
university entrance level. Maybe this is why Germany “doesn’t
have a great track record when it comes to numbers of people”
entering university. (Money Matters column, p.25) Thanks for
your coverage of education issues.
Svetlana Tomic, Pforzheim
A kindergarten no-no
Dear Editor,
I was introduced to your publication last summer and look for-
ward to reading every issue. I couldn’t help but smile when I
read the article about starting kindergarten in Germany (accents
07, p.26.) I would have made similar mistakes myself, but I
now know not to send my daughter off for the day with peanut-
butter-and-jelly sandwiches and frilly slippers! I find the articles
in accents both informative and extremely helpful. Keep up the
good work.
Lisa Willers, Ditzingen

My Two Cents “handicapped” in favor of “disabled” as an

By Katharine A. Schmidt
When you see a wheelchair symbol painted
over a parking space at a shopping center,
what words do you use to tell your kids why
you can’t park there? Some people would
say, “It’s parking for the disabled.” Back in
the United States, however, if I drive some-
where with a brother who has a disability,
we talk about taking along the “handicap-
per” parking decal.
As with descriptions of race and ethnicity,
there has been considerable discussion in
recent decades over the terms used to talk
about people who have, well, disabilities or
handicaps which make it difficult or impos-
sible for them to perform everyday tasks.
Many people in English-speaking count-
ries have all but dropped the older term
adjective. Personally, I’ve never understood
the attraction of “disabled,” which suggests
a person who is unable to do just about any-
thing, or a machine from which one has re-
moved an essential cable, so that it no long-
er runs. I recall highway signs instructing
motorists to “Park disabled vehicles on the
shoulder.” Then there’s “differently-abled,”
which is technically more accurate than
“disabled,” but sounds forced or artificial.
Sometimes, I think, “handicapped” is the
best choice of adjective, for instance in the
phrase, “mentally handicapped adults.”
A translator I know, a native speaker of
British English who has a child with Down’s
syndrome, points out that babies or young
children who might broadly be called “handi-
capped” or “disabled” may actually be
“developmentally delayed,” with the poten-
tial to reach or get close to norms of physi-
cal and mental ability. And she recalls two
terms used in the UK which also sound
familiar to my American ears: “special-needs
children” and “wheelchair-users.” So I’ve
come to the conclusion that when talking
about a person or a group of people with
disabilities, it’s best to be specific about a
special circumstance or limitation. “Wheel-
chair users,” for example, is much better
than the more generalized handicapped or
disabled.
As for those special parking spaces, I
think “disabled parking” is inaccurate, (recall
the highway signs) and “parking for people
with disabilities” is a bit of a mouthful for a
shopper hunting for a space. Instead take
the time on the way into the store to explain
to your kids why a person without a decal
shouldn’t park in the “handicapped” space!
Comments, questions, and suggestions to
mytwocents@accents-magazine.de
or accents magazine, Libanonstraße 58,
70184 Stuttgart

4 Letters accents magazine


New Honorary Consul sets priorities
Celesio boss takes on UK post
The new British honorary consul for Baden-
Württemberg, Fritz Oesterle, has named
the strengthening of economic relations,
collegial education and cultural ties bet-
ween Baden-Württemberg and the UK as
the top priorities in his new role. He’s pro-
mised to represent the more than 10,000
British citizens living in south-west Ger-
many with “commitment.“
Dr. Oesterle, chairman and chief exe-
cutive officer of the Stuttgart-based firm
Celesio AG, takes over responsibility for
consular affairs following the British govern-
ment’s decision to shut down its consulate
in Stuttgart as part of the reorganization of
its worldwide diplomatic network. Celesio
AG is Europe’s leading pharmaceutical
distribution company, operating in 15 count-
ries. The company has an especially strong
presence in the UK market – more than half
of its total of 34,000 employees are British.
New UK honorary
consul for Baden-
Württemberg,
Fritz Oesterle (left)
with B-W premier
Günther Oettinger
(middle) and British
Ambassador to
Germany, Sir Peter
Torry.
accents magazine
News and Events
At the ceremony marking his official
appointment as honorary consul in Stuttgart UK Honorary Consulate
in January, Oesterle pledged, among other for Baden-Württemberg
things, to work towards strengthening
post-secondary-school educational ties bet- Address
ween Britain and Baden-Württemberg. He Celesio AG, Neckartalstraße 155
pointed to Baden-Württemberg’s internatio- 70376 Stuttgart, Tel 0711 5006342,
nal reputation for top-quality universities, Fax 0711 5006344
as well as technical, teaching, music and
art colleges. “Every year, a large number of Opening times
British students come here to further their Monday-Wednesday:
studies,” said Oesterle. “I am committed 9 am - 12 noon and 2 pm - 4 pm
to building up and strengthening these Thursday and Friday:
exchanges.” 9 am - 12 noon
Oesterle praised the work of the former
UK representative to Baden-Württemberg, Repsonsible for
Consul General Mark Twigg, who, beyond General consular affairs. UK passport
his normal diplomatic duties helped esta- and visa affairs are not dealt with in
blish or develop a number of English-speak- Stuttgart but handled centrally by the
ing community initiatives, including the British Consulate-General, Düsseldorf.
International Entrepreneurs Forum, the (Visa enquiries: Tel 09001700611;
Children’s English Library, the 70173: Passport: Tel 09001700661)
English Spoken Stammtisch, and accents
magazine.
“Mark Twigg set the bar quite high,”
said Oesterle, before an audience of digni-
taries at Celesio’s Stuttgart headquarters.
In recognition of his work and service to
Baden-Württemberg, Twigg was presented
with a special award, the Staufenmedaille,
by state premier Günther Oettinger.
Photo: courtesy of Celisio AG
News and Events 5
 British cuisine
your business It’s no oxymoron!
accent on

A Baden-Württemberg businessman, res- receive the award. The youngest of three

ponsible for introducing British delicacies
to Germany, has been awarded a special
medal by the Queen. Krysia Diver reports.
British food generally connotes fish and
chips, baked beans, Sunday roasts and the
odd curry. It’s usually nothing to write home
about. But there is a classier element of
the British cuisine that includes impressive
hamper-fillers like Oxfordshire marmalade,
Scottish shortbread and Duchy Originals
biscuits. And it is these non-perishable pro-
ducts which Heilbronn-based businessman
Gerd Ahlers decided to import into Ger-
many in the 1970s.
www.brucklacher.de
siblings, born in Lower Saxony, Ahlers has
been fascinated with Britain for as long as
he can remember. His love affair began
shortly after the war, when an English
soldier threw him a bar of chocolate. It was
the first time the six-year-old boy had ever
set his eyes on chocolate, and from the
moment he broke off a chunk and let it
melt in his mouth, Ahlers was besotted
with British food.
Ahlers’s daughter, Caren Krötz, is also a
self-confessed Anglophile. The 35-year-old,
who is a driving force at Top Food, spent
her childhood summer holidays at Gordons-
toun public school (which was attended by

Ahlers called his company Top Food, and the Queen’s three sons.) She’s also worked
tel 07121 25860
fax 07121 25870

one of his first contracts was with Walkers
Shortbread. But in Germany there is a
common saying: “What the farmer doesn’t
know, he won’t eat.” It was virtually impos-
sible to convince retailers to try the chunky,
buttery biscuits.
“Retailers were always so sceptical.
I would put a box of 24 mini packets of
shortbread on the counter of a shop and
when I returned a fortnight later the short-
bread had been sold – fortunately,” says
Ahlers. But it was an uphill battle to turn
a profit.
Ahlers’s lucky break came when a
visuelle kommunikation
at Harrods Food Hall in London where she
made invaluable contacts in the premium
food industry.
But surely British food isn’t exactly
reputed for its quality; was it really worth
investing so much time and energy in?
“Definitely,” said Krötz. “There is amazing
food in England – and, after all, you’ve got
the best chef in the world!” I must have
looked perplexed, so she added: “The
Naked Chef (Jamie Oliver) of course.”

colleague working in a department store

agreed to stock a trial batch of Walkers
Shortbread. Ahlers’s brother cunningly
72762 reutlingen
büro brucklacher

bought the whole lot and stored it in his

kammweg 46

garage. The department store promptly

ordered another batch. “And it basically
went from there”, says Ahlers with child-
like glee. Today, products imported by Top
Food – which also include Elsenham jams
informational systems

and Bendicks mints – can be found in

7,000 shops across Germany.
corporate design

Germans are becoming more experi-

mental in their eating habits, says Ahlers,
webdesign

but he still comes across stumbling blocks.

“We tried importing mincemeat last Christ-
mas, but retailers thought it was some sort
of peppermint-flavoured beef,” he says
with a giggle.
Gerd Ahlers’s determination to whet
Germany’s appetite for British products
recently earned him an honorary OBE
(Officer of the British Empire.) The award,
approved by Queen Elizabeth II, is officially
British foods fan:
for “services to British-German economic Gerd Ahlers, right,
relations.“ It’s an award, established in wearing his OBE
1917, normally only given to British citizens medal, with his
but it can also be given to non-British citi- daughter, Caren
Krötz.
zens as an ‘honorary’ OBE. Ahlers award
ceremony took place at a food and sweets
trade fair in Cologne where he first made
contact with a Walkers Shortbread repre-
sentative nearly 30 years ago. Although
Ahlers readily confesses he didn’t at first
know what an OBE was, he is proud to

6 News and Events accents magazine

Advert
Picadilly
Security a priority
The new US Consulate in Frankfurt
Complain all you like about over-exaggerated
safety checks, the post-9/11-environment
is marked by increased security concerns,
especially at airports and border check-
points. Nail scissors were never considered
a potential weapon on a passenger plane
before; now they are. So don’t expect to
waltz unchecked into the new US Consul-
ate in Frankfurt if you’re there on business.
Security is paramount.
In October, 2005, the Frankfurt consul-
ate, which provides service to US citizens
in Baden-Württemberg, moved to a new
address: Gießener Straße 30 in Frankfurt-
Eckenheim. “The Frankfurt mission has
grown considerably in recent years,“
explains US Public Affairs Officer Scott
Rauland. “We had something like seven
different buildings in the end. The move
into one main building is better for us, bet-
ter for security arrangements – putting up
street barriers, for instance – and therefore
better for local residents.”
The head of consular affairs in Frankfurt,
Andrew Parker, acknowledges that getting
into a US government building is not as
simple as it once was. “Difficult times
require stringent security measures,” says
Parker. “But we apply security checks to
For travel arrangements
worldwide contact
DERPART
Reisebüro H. von Wirth
Königstrasse 1
70173 Stuttgart
Caterina Steuer
direct number 0711 2289327
caterina.steuer@derpart.de
Fax 0711 2289310
8 News and Events
all visitors equally and it helps ensure that
everyone who visits us can count on a safe
environment.”
Still, US citizens have variously com-
plained to accents magazine about “overly
paranoid” security checks, long waiting
queues and “impersonal service” at both
the old and new premises of the consulate.
A particular cause of frustration is the
enforcement of rules about what you are
not allowed to bring into the building. Cell
phones, laptops, cameras or any other elect-
ronic devices, as well as umbrellas, suit-
cases and backpacks – no matter what’s
inside them – are not allowed inside. There
is very limited storage space at the con-
sulate. One US citizen reports she was not
allowed to bring her baby’s diaper bag into
the consulate because the glass jars of
baby food it contained were judged to be a
security risk.
“Only take to Frankfurt what is absolute-
ly necessary to conduct business,” advises
US citizen Jonathan Graham, who visited
the new consulate building recently. “Store
your keys, cell phones and bags in a locker
at Frankfurt’s main train station.” There is
also a commercial locker service at the
kiosk adjacent to the #5 U-Bahn stop at
Words of advice
Jonathan Graham offers his personal
views on how his fellow Americans
might make a trip to the US Consulate
in Frankfurt run smoothly.
1 to feed the baby etc., given you might
Try to avoid going to the US Consulate in
the first place by finding out whether
your business can be conducted by mail.
2 Passport Services section opens at 7:30
Check out the website http://frankfurt.
usconsulate.gov/frankfurt/citizen_
services.html before planning your visit.
3 minutes, but by expecting to wait, you
Do not bring anyone with you unless the
person is directly involved in your busin-
ess (divorce, marriage, notarization).
4 with the bureaucracy could lengthen the
Do not drive. From Frankfurt’s main train
station take the U5 heading for Preun-
gesheim. Get off at Gießener Straße.
5 60435 Frankfurt am Main
Do not carry anything that is not absolut-
ely necessary to conduct the business at
Marbachweg and Gießener Straße. For US
citizens in Baden-Württemberg, a trip to
the Frankfurt consulate can eat up an entire
day. However, in some cases the journey
is unnecessary. Those adults seeking to
renew a ten-year passport issued within
the last fifteen years, for instance, can do
so by mail.
Many US citizens living in south-west
Germany may not know that the Frankfurt
consulate is the largest US consulate in the
world; a massive diplomatic mission em-
ploying 457 Americans and 309 local staff
members at last count. Its consular section
of 22 officers and more than 70 local staff
serves a community of approximately
250,000 Americans, including members of
the Armed Forces and their families. It
issues up to 60,000 visas per year, proces-
ses 32,000 passport applications, issues
around 5000 immigrant visas, and assists
thousands of Social Security beneficiaries
every month.
“Assisting American citizens is the num-
ber-one obligation of the US ambassador
and all consular personnel,” says Parker.
“Our objective is to provide efficient,
reliable service to the public.”
hand – no electronic items or food.
Store your keys, cell phones, bags, etc.
in a Frankfurt train station locker. If you
are bringing a baby call ahead to check
what you are allowed to bring with you
have to wait a while.
6
Go early. The good news is that the
am, but it closes at 11:30 am. Forget
about arriving after 10:00 am. In any
case, be prepared for a stay of four
or five hours. You might get out in 10
will be less stressed and irritable.
7
Remain calm and cool. Getting upset
time it takes to process your request.
U.S. Consulate General Frankfurt
Gießener Straße 30
Tel 069 7535-0
accents magazine

New Consulate boss
The US consulate in Frankfurt is
under new leadership. Former Consul
General Peter W. Bodde left his
posting in Frankfurt on February 5,
2006, to become the new Deputy
Chief of Mission at the US Embassy
in Islamabad, Pakistan. Geeta Pasi,
a senior official in the US Foreign
Service, is serving as principal officer
in Frankfurt until a new consul gen-
eral is appointed in the summer. The
change is part of the normal, contin-
uous rotation of personnel which takes
place at all US diplomatic missions
worldwide.
Global thinking
The English-speaking pastor
By now, most long-time residents of
Photo: Lutheran Church in Württemberg
Baden-Wuerttemberg know that the state’s
medium-sized or Mittelstand companies are
well integrated into the global economy.
But they may not know that the Protestant
church, which is financed by church taxes
and provides for religious education in
public schools, is equally keen on maintain-
ing two-way ties with the rest of the world.
Developing links with English-speaking
Christians, particularly Anglicans in Baden-
Württemberg, is just one of Rev. Leslie
Ministering to
Nathaniel’s jobs. Nathaniel’s accent reflects English speaking
both his upbringing in India and years of Christians in B-W:
working for the Church of England in the Rev. Leslie Nathaniel
Diocese of Suffolk. He’s part of a four-
member team of international clergy mem-
bers working at the Lutheran Church in
Württemberg. The other members are from to schoolchildren, and works on programs
Brazil, Ghana, and Romania. They each play that send young European Christians to
a role in keeping the Church of Württem- meet with their counterparts in South Asia.
berg in touch with the rest of the world. “We do have excellent people from
“Our job is to bring in our experience Baden-Württemberg who have spent years
and knowledge of the world church and abroad,” says Jürgen Quack, secretary for
present it in the local context,” says mission and ecumenical relations with the
Nathaniel. Apart from visiting churches and Lutheran Church. “But we find it’s impor-
meeting with English-speaking Christians, tant to have members of the worldwide
Nathaniel organizes a yearly conference of church speak to our congregations in their
international clergy based in Europe, talks own voices.”
Feature
The place where ideas work
Selling Baden-Württemberg internationally
The product: Baden-Württemberg. The
market: the world. Of all of Germany’s
states, Baden-Württemberg is the most
dependent on the outside world. It’s eco-
nomy would collapse if exports dried up.
Given the importance of the international
arena for its well-being just how well is
Baden-Württemberg known by the out-
side world? Accents reports on brand-
name Baden-Württemberg: its internatio-
nal significance.
It’s a horrible word – correction, double-
word – to get right if you’re a native-
English speaker and can’t speak German.
The first part instinctively mispronounced
Bay-den instead of Bar-den. The German
“W” you have to remember to pronounce
as a “V”. That strange double-dotted “ü”
is in there. And then that horror trap for
English speakers, the German “r” which
you somehow have to gargle out of the
back of your throat. Baden-Württemberg.
10 Feature
Sorry, but it doesn’t exactly roll off the
tongue!
Other German places are kinder to
English speakers: Nordrhein-Westfalen
becomes North Rhine-Westphalia, the Pfalz
becomes the Palatinate, Köln becomes
Cologne, Bayern becomes Bavaria. Maybe
the locals weren’t thinking internationally
when they invented a name for this corner
of Germany. Nowadays they do need to
think internationally. Their livelihood de-
pends on it.
Baden-Württemberg companies are
leading manufacturers of cars, electronic
equipment, machines and tools, as well as
machine building, tool making and software
technology. This is nothing new. What is
new is that south-west German firms are
increasingly looking beyond Germany to
sell their products. Baden-Württemberg is
now Germany’s number one exporting
state. In the last 20 years the state’s for-
eign exports have increased by 180 per-
cent. Since the year 2000, the value of
these exports has remained beyond 100
billion euros annually. And it’s not merely
the big corporations strutting the world
stage; the so-called Mittelstand – small and
medium sized companies, the backbone of
Baden-Württemberg’s economy, are also
exporting a sizable proportion of their pro-
ducts overseas.
A recent study by the German Chamber
of Commerce and Industry showed that 37
percent of all firms in Baden-Württemberg
already invest overseas. “And the majority
of these companies, 55 percent, plan to
increase the volume of their investments
in the coming years,” say Tassilo Zywietz
from the Chamber of Commerce, Stuttgart
Region. In short, Baden-Württemberg’s
companies need overseas markets to
survive. And Baden-Württemberg’s future
depends on it developing a good image
overseas.
accents magazine
 Image problems?
Despite strongly worded protests by the
Chamber of Commerce in Stuttgart, the
British Chamber of Commerce in Germany
and the Baden-Württemberg state govern-
ment, the British Consulate and UK trade
office in Stuttgart was closed down at the
end of last year. Other UK posts in Ger-
many were shut down as well as part of
worldwide cost cutting measures imposed
by London. But could this closure be a sign
that Baden-Württemberg’s international
importance is waning? Economists warn
that Baden-Württemberg has become too
dependent on exports of manufactured
goods, that it urgently needs to develop
industries with a more secure economic
future – biotechnology, for instance, or the
service sector. Baden-Württemberg is not
short of ideas or lacking the infrastructure
to cultivate new ideas – it’s the state with
the highest number of registered patents
each year and it has the largest network
of universities and research institutes. But
even industry bosses sometimes voice
Photo: Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG
concerns about the state’s ability to let the
world know of its treasures. Porsche boss
Wendelin Wiedeking was recently quoted
as saying that Baden-Württemberg lacks
the ability to project itself positively, to
‘shine’ to the outside world.
The name Baden-Württemberg is a
factor of history, resulting from the merger
of two important regions in south-west
Germany into one federal state more than
50 years ago, and it’s not going to be
changed now. But the difficulty for non-
Germans in saying the name Baden-Würt-
temberg correctly does play a role in
making Baden-Württemberg better known,
as a state, outside of Germany.
“Bavaria, our economic ‘rival’ in the
quest to lure foreign investors to Germany,
is better recognised overseas,” admits a
Baden-Württemberg government official.
“Bavaria is in the position of freely being
able to associate itself with well-known
images like beer, Lederhosen, and brass
bands, which are, simultaneously, images
associated with Germany as a whole. If
people overseas think of popular images of
Germany they think of Bavaria.” Whether
one wants to be associated with such
stereotypical imagery is beside the point:
Bavaria, as a region, is a well-known ‘brand
name’ internationally. Baden-Württemberg
is not. But that doesn’t mean Baden-Würt-
temberg isn’t able to market the best of
what it has to offer.
The sales pitch
“Baden-Württemberg is best known inter-
nationally through its big-name firms,”
says Herbert Bossinger, who’s in charge of
marketing Baden-Württemberg as an invest-
ment location with Baden-Württemberg
International. “Certain cities and regions
in Baden-Württemberg are also quite well
known. So, all in all, you’ve got companies
accents magazine
Selling Baden-Württemberg
Tips from an expert
Sebastian Turner, pictured below, is an
advertising guru. A board member of the
Berlin-based agency Scholz & Friends,
he’s the brains behind the slogan Wir
können alles. Außer Hochdeutsch –
We can do everything. Except speak
high-German – one of Germany’s most
successful advertising campaigns. It
raised the profile and recognition of
Baden-Württemberg across Germany,
showing off not only the quality of life
and the inventiveness of its people
but also their sense of humour. Since
the year 2000, the campaign has won
a string of national and international
advertising awards. Accents spoke to
Sebastian Turner about marketing
Baden-Württemberg internationally.
accents: You studied in the United
States; your company is international.
From your experience, what do people
outside of Germany know about
Baden-Württemberg?
Sebastian Turner: What do Germans
know about an American federal state?
What do they know about, say, North
Carolina? Or a particular French province?
Or a district in Poland? It varies largely
depending on a person’s education.
You shouldn’t expect people to have
too much knowledge of any particular
German state.
But using an advertising term for a
moment, what sort of ‘brand recogni-
tion’ do you think this state has inter-
nationally?
In general, a Bundesland or state first
of all reflects an image of Germany as
a whole, rather than a particular region.
And this is not such a bad thing for Baden-
Württemberg, since it almost ideally
projects many of the virtues associated
with Germany in general: ingenuity,
precision and industriousness, as well as
romantic tourism sites. By highlighting
its best-known jewels such as the Black
Forest, Mercedes, Porsche, Heidelberg
University and SAP, just to name a few,
Baden-Württemberg can portray itself as
the most attractive piece of the cake.
The Wir können alles campaign you
developed was a major success within
Germany. Would it be feasible to run
a similar campaign internationally for
Baden-Württemberg?
A similar campaign with a broad target
group on a world-wide basis is simply
unaffordable. Therefore, Baden-Würt-
temberg acts internationally with a very
tight focus on groups such as tourism
decision makers and investors. A humor-
ous, tongue-in-check approach is applied
as well, which helps gain both interest
and recognition for the things Baden-
Württemberg has to offer.
If you had to design a ‘charm offen-
sive’ for an international audience,
particularly for the United States or
the UK, what would you focus on?
How would you sell Baden-Württem-
berg internationally?
If I were a born-Baden-Württemberger, I
could probably answer your question off
the cuff. Since I am an outsider it takes
a little longer to think about a good com-
munications strategy. Given that a broad
campaign is just not affordable – it
would cost many millions of euros for
each targeted market – it seems to me
it would be wise to pinpoint important
target groups and address them with
messages most relevant to them. For
the tourism market, for example, you
could say: Baden-Württemberg is one
of the most attractive regions in Europe.
No German state, and few regions on
the continent, offer such a variety of
landscapes, recreational opportunities
and top-notch hospitality – just think of
the cuisine of Baiersbronn. For inves-
tors, it might be more attractive to high-
light the example of those countless
hidden champions of the Mittelstand
(medium-sized enterprises.) Baden-Würt-
tembergers know how to turn ideas into
products that succeed around the world.
Photo: Scholz & Friends
Feature 11

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Open University
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www.open.ac.uk
12 Feature
and places like Heidelberg, Daimler, Por-
sche, Boss, SAP, Stuttgart, the Black
Forest and Lake Constance that are recog-
nised internationally.”
Baden-Württemberg International (BWI)
is the state government’s economic develop-
ment agency tasked with marketing Baden-
Württemberg as a centre for business,
research and education. It also advises
local businesses on entering foreign mar-
kets. Up until 2004, this agency was known
as the Gesellschaft für internationale wirt-
schaftliche Zusammenarbeit or GWZ, a
name which, in either German or English,
made it sound like an aid agency for develop-
ing nations. The new name doesn’t need
any translation and it shows that the govern-
ment has recognised the need to market
the name of the state better overseas.
Part of the better marketing drive
involves the adoption of a new advertising
campaign, prepared in English, aimed at
enticing overseas companies and economic
agencies – particularly in the United States
– to invest in Baden-Württemberg. Under
the slogan “Baden-Württemberg – Where
ideas work,” the south-west German state
is presented as a can-do place for turning
mechanical, electrical and high-technology
innovation into saleable products. Similar in
style and look to the successful Germany-
based campaign Wir können alles. Außer
Hochdeutsch – We can do everything.
Except speak high-German – the advertise-
ments attract attention with headings
like: “What we’ll have patented next? The
future,” or “You tell us what you need.
We’ll go ahead and invent it.”
Quality of Life
Having a good economic infrastructure,
however, is not the only factor which entices
companies to consider investing in a region
overseas. Economists have begun to
speak more seriously about the increasing
importance of so-called ‘soft’ factors –
Attracting American
investors to Baden-
Württemberg: an
advertisement from
the series “Where
ideas work.”
as opposed to ‘hard’ economic realities –
which influence investment decisions: the
quality of life in a new location, the level
of crime, the local cuisine, leisure time
possibilities, the attractiveness of the
natural landscape. In these ‘soft’ areas,
Baden-Württemberg also has a lot to offer.
“Depending on the market, you can
entice people in other countries to find out
more about Baden-Württemberg by high-
lighting these ‘soft’ attractions as well as
the economic statistics,” says a govern-
ment official involved in marketing Baden-
Württemberg overseas. “Americans and
Japanese people have heard of the attrac-
tions of Heidelberg, for example. Potential
Russian investors, as well as Arab invest-
ors, are all ears when you talk about
Baden-Baden and the state’s network of
hot-spring baths. For others, it’s the attract-
ion of the Black Forest and cuckoo clocks
or world-class gastronomy offered in a
place like Baiersbronn.”
The Wir können alles campaign, which
has helped create awareness about the
attractiveness of Baden-Württemberg with-
in Germany, was based on the recognition
that hard economic facts and serious argu-
ments alone aren’t enough to raise the
profile of a region. Showing that Baden-
Württembergers can laugh at themselves
and have a sense of humour helped to win
‘brand recognition’‚ as advertisers say. In
an age of globalisation and ever-increasing
competition among different economic
regions for foreign investment, quality-of-
life factors from humour to romantic land-
scapes to a thriving cultural scene are
playing a growing role in the marketing of
regions like Baden-Württemberg to foreign
business leaders.
accents magazine

English-language cinema
A hit with kids
The vast majority of people who go to see
an original English-language version of a
film in Baden-Württemberg are native Eng-
lish speakers. Right? Not any more. This
used to be the case up until around ten
years ago, according to cinema owners.
But now the majority of English-language
cinema-goers are non-native speakers –
mostly Germans – who simply want to see
a film in the original language. And this
trend in cinema does not hold true only for
adults; more and more children in Baden-
Württemberg are using English-language
cinema to gain exposure to the world’s
lingua franca.
“We are currently in the process of ex-
panding our film offerings for kids,” says
Christiane Niewald, manager of the Corso
cinema in Stuttgart-Vaihingen. The Corso
has featured English-language films in its
program since 1986. “I’m happy to put on
as many kids’ films as possible to keep up
with demand.” In general, however, it is an
uphill battle attracting cinema-goers of any
age to English-language films. Niewald
reports a 16% drop in customer numbers
over the last year. All the more reason
Adventure well packaged
Book reviews
Why is it that children’s books are
often more inventive and packaged
with more creative care than books for
adults? These two books are beautifully
presented and, of course, exciting
stories.
Operation Red Jericho,
by Joshua Mowll
Walker, 273 pages
An adventure story, breathtaking in scale,
presented in a form that makes for
wonderful reading. It’s the tale of Joshua
Mowll’s uncle and aunt, Douglas and
Rebecca MacKenzie, who find them-
selves orphaned in Shanghai in the spring
of 1920. They are inducted into a society
called “The Honorable Guild of Special-
ists,” founded in medieval Florence.
A mysterious uncle, who lives on a ship
with a pet tiger, adopts the two orphans.
The book is constructed like a logbook,
filled with ‘original’ letters, newspaper
accents magazine
Children’s Corner
then, says Niewald, to “try out new things
in the cinema.”
Suburban cinemas aren’t usually open
during morning school hours. But Niewald
is now offering special morning and week-
end screenings of films for groups of
fifteen or more kids at discounted rates.
“Schools, or any groups for that matter,
simply have to get in touch with the Corso
to arrange a booking. We’re even open to
the idea of staging events. One group has
booked one of our cinemas to perform live
music from ‘Peter and the Wolf,’ before they
all see the film.” (www.corso-kino.com)
Accents decided to ask some young
cinema-goers what they think of viewing
films in the original language, and here is
what they said:
Sam 8, native English speaker
“I didn’t know they could change it into
another language. Can they?”
Heidi aged 16, native German speaker
“I go to the cinema quite often now –
about two or three times a month – and
I think that as long as I understand the
language used, it’s important to see a film
in the original language. There should be
clippings, confidential files, impromptu
sketches, maps and photographs; every-
thing to help document the story. And it’s
a great story, involving secret weapons,
pirates, exotic locations, Chinese triads,
disappearing scientists, fencing skirmishes
and an ancient secret going back to
Alexander the Great. With this book
planned as the first in a trilogy, one can
hardly wait for the next two.
Chasing Vermeer, by Blue Balliet,
illustrations: Brett Helquist
Chicken House, 256 pages
A stimulating adventure-mystery story set
in present-day Chicago. The book starts
with the disappearance of a valuable
painting. Letters begin to appear relating
to the disappearance. Meanwhile, two
children, Petra and Calder, are given a
school assignment to investigate the
importance of letter-writing; are letters
that change the course of one’s life still
being written today? Their investigation
Free cinema tickets!
Accents is staging a competition for
kids (under 18) who will tell us, in
around 250 words or less, what’s
special about viewing English-langauge
films at the cinema, as opposed to
watch-ing them at home or seeing a
dubbed film in German. Send your
entries to editor@accents-magazine.de
or accents magazine, Libanonstraße
58, 70184, Stuttgart, by April 28, 2006.
The best three entries will receive
free tickets to the Corso Cinema
International in Stuttgart-Vaihingen!
more cinema houses showing films in the
original language.”
Philip 11, native English speaker
“I think it’s dumb to change the voices.
They always get it wrong when they
change it.”
David 10, native German speaker
“I go to original-language films – well, not
Chinese ones.”
becomes dangerous. There is no one
they can trust, not even their own par-
ents. Using their own wits and ingenuity,
they must solve a mystery that has con-
founded the FBI. This is an intellectually
stimulating book, filled with visual, verbal
and mathematical puzzles. The Chicken
House edition comes with its own
bookmark, which doubles as a decoder.
The author, Blue Balliet, a former school-
teacher, draws on the natural curiosity
and eagerness of children to learn.
Children’s Corner 13
accent on…
Baden-Baden
Bathed and pampered
“It’s so good they named it twice,” says
the travel brochure. If it was good
enough for Victor Hugo, Fyodor Dostoy-
evsky and Marlene Dietrich, there was
no reason for our travel writer not to
take to it. Steve Trevallion luxuriates in
the thermal waters and cultural assets
of Germany’s premier health-spa town.
A luxurious palace-hotel just outside of
Baden-Baden is where the English World
Cup football squad has decided to base
itself for its assault on the world’s most
coveted sporting trophy this summer. Per-
sonally, as I want them to win, I think they
should avoid Baden-Baden. If they partake
of the pleasures the town has to offer –
wandering along its tree-lined streets and
wallowing in the soothing calm of its hot
spring waters – they’ll be far too relaxed
to play decent football.
Baden-Baden is one of Germany’s – nay,
one of Europe’s – most famous and ritziest
spa towns. Come here if you want to be
pampered from head to foot, and if you
14 accent on…
want to see wonderful buildings and gar-
dens, high arts and culture and a magnifi-
cent casino. Nestled on the edge of the
Black Forest, overlooking the Rhine River
valley, Baden-Baden’s small iron balconies
and tree-split boulevards remind you that
you’re not far from France. But it was the
ancient Romans who turned Baden-Baden
into a famous spa town.
Before heading for the spas however,
it’s best to do some sightseeing around the
town’s most famous buildings. First stop
for me, the Festspielhaus, Europe’s second-
largest opera and concert hall. It’s an
admirable architectural mix of neo-classical
strength and belle-epoque grandeur. Inside
the classically-styled Trinkhalle, with its
Corinthian pillars and beautifully painted
murals, you’ll find the tourist information
office and be treated to a healthy drop of
water from the 17,000-year-old local spring.
The Festspielhaus sits at the western end
of one long thoroughfare lined with all of
Baden-Baden’s art and cultural treasures,
including Germany’s oldest casino. Marlene
Dietrich described it as “the most beautiful
casino in the world.” For two and a half
centuries it has been a meeting point for
nobles and socialites from all over Europe.
Nowadays, even English football fans are
welcome – if they dress up a bit.
Baden-Baden is blessed with plenty of
parks and quiet, open spaces. In the sum-
mer months, its orange and lemon groves
and a wonderful rose garden are among
the sensual highlights. The 40-metre-high
waterfall in the Paradise Garden, built
in the 1920s and fed by an underground
spring, is a pleasure to behold all year
round. Walking along another tree-lined
thoroughfare, Lichtentaler Allee, with its
ornate bridges over the River Oos, is a
peaceful way to spend the afternoon.
Finding myself outside the Staatliche
Kunsthalle, the State Art Gallery, I popped
inside to warm my toes. The Kunsthalle
specialises in exhibitions of contemporary
art from all around the world. The entry
price of four euros is not bad value. (Take
a look at the rather modern toilets too!) In
accents magazine
 October, 2004, New York architect Richard
Meier added a new jewel to the crown of
Baden-Baden’s cultural assets, with the
opening of the Frieder Burda Museum. The
art gallery is a wonderful, naturally-lit cube.
Inside are 500 paintings, sketches, sculp-
tures and other objects, tracing the history
of art over the past 100 years.
Among Baden-Baden’s many famous
residents (Dostoyevsky gambled here,
Victor Hugo bathed here) was the composer
Johannes Brahms. He spent his summer
months working in Baden-Baden between
1865-74. You can step inside the Blue
Room, his original living room, and soak up
Photo Friedrichsbad, courtesy of Baden-Baden Kur & Tourismus GmbH
its special atmosphere.
Baden-Baden has its own mountain, the
660-metre-high Merkur. You can walk up it
along clearly marked pathways – passing a
wild animal reserve on your way to the top
– but you don’t have to. Instead, you can
ride to the summit via Europe’s steepest,
most technically advanced funicular railway.
It runs every fifteen minutes between
10am and 10pm. In a little over five minu-
tes you’re at the top, and the views are
truly splendid.
At the foot of another hill, the Floren-
tinerberg, are the remains of the 2000-year-
old Roman baths – an architectural and
cultural wonder which costs two euros per
adult or one euro per child, audio guides
included. You have now reached Friedrichs-
bad, the city’s most wonderfully preserved
thermal spring baths. The water rises from
a depth of 2000 metres, reaching the sur-
face at temperatures of up to 68°C.
Soon after it was opened in 1877, Fried-
richsbad’s ‘Roman-Irish Bath’ began attract-
ing the sick and the lame, the lazy and the
rich from all over Europe. Men and women
still bathe separately on Mondays and
Thursdays, respectively, but on all other
days both men and women are admitted.
Children are not permitted to enter. The
entrance fee is steep for those on a tight
budget (29 euros, if you include a soap and
brush massage), but it is truly the bathing
experience of a lifetime. You are led
through a course of saunas, hot and cold
baths and showers, lasting three and a half
hours. After sweating it through an Irish
hot-air bath with only a towel to hide my
blushes (swimsuits are not allowed) I
stepped quickly beneath a shower of pure
thermal water. After that came the soap
and brush massage. Exhilarating. Five more
types of hot-steam and warm whirlpool
baths followed, after which I looked like a
wrinkly old man who’d fallen asleep in a
pool. A cold water bath soon woke me up,
but the warm towels that followed were
a delight. The whole experience was cer-
tainly memorable. The Caracalla Spa, an
alternative to the Friedrichsbad, is a com-
plex of turquoise blue pools, indoors and
outdoors, hot and cold. This is the place for
those too shy to bathe naked – you wear
a bathing suit and bring your own towel.
Later I got to thinking more ponderously
Little-known secrets
Baden-Baden is one of Germany’s
horse-racing capitals. The calendar
starts at the end of May and ends
in October.
Baden-Baden has an international
airport. Ryanair offers daily flights
between London and Baden-Baden.
about Baden-Baden. I did get the feeling
that the town can’t quite make up its mind
what it wants to be. Modern or pretty?
French or German? For the rich or access-
ible to all? Perhaps this is part of its charm.
Baden-Baden wins bonus points for its
cleanliness and its informative signage.
It’s also a pleasant surprise, for once, not
to find a large, busy shopping street in a
decent-sized town. Although for me, it
could do with a few nice pubs. I saw lots
of fur coats and conspicuous wealth in the
town, and I got to wondering what the
youngsters get up to. I certainly didn’t see
any kids kicking a football around.
After a day of being pampered I realised
it wasn’t such a bad idea after all for
England to base itself near Baden-Baden
for the World Cup. They have chosen one
of the best places in the world to relax
and bathe away those aches and pains –
after they win the final in Berlin.
Arts and Culture
Paint me a picture
The visual arts
Stuttgart’s visual arts scene is not limited
to three main galleries in the city centre.
Margaret Farmer reports on the character
and the characteristics of a lively, well-
organised arts community.
A state capital decides to build a new gal-
lery to house its art collection. A modest
building hidden away in the city’s ‘cultural
quarter,’ where it belongs? Not in Stuttgart.
This is a place that successfully manages
to integrate its cultural institutions into the
everyday life of the city. The Kunstmuseum,
Stuttgart’s new glass-cube art gallery, was
built in the middle of the main shopping
and commercial district. Together with the
Staatsgalerie and the Württembergischer
Kunstverein, it forms a triumvirate of
must-see visual arts institutions in the city
centre. Hans D. Christ, co-director of the
Württembergischer Kunstverein, says that
in Germany the placement of a major art
gallery in such a location “would only be
Claude Monet’s
Fields of Spring .
Bought 100 years
ago for Stuttgart’s
Staatsgalerie by the
gallery’s art club.
16 Arts and Culture
possible in Stuttgart.“ It’s reflective of
community support for the visual arts.
So what is meant by the “visual arts” in
Stuttgart? Compared to other German and
European cities, there are relatively few
painters in Stuttgart and relatively few exhib-
itions of contemporary painting – and this
at a time when German painting is so hot
that United States collectors are barely let-
ting the paint dry. Instead, Stuttgart has a
strong conceptual arts scene; in conceptual
art, the idea for an artistic work is consider-
ed more important than the finished pro-
duct. Art becomes less an object for collec-
tion and more a display, an installation, a
provocation. Stuttgart artists work with a
wide range of media to express their ideas.
According to the Kunstverein’s Christ, the
focus on conceptual art is possibly due to
Stuttgart’s strength and international influ-
ence in the fields of design, building and
engineering, as well as the influence of its
highly educated and international population
– twenty five percent of Stuttgarters are
foreigners. Little wonder then, that local
exhibitions in 2006 will focus on issues
such as globalisation and migration, and
will explore the boundaries of art in the
fields of design and city planning.
Artist initiatives
Distinguishing characteristics of the visual
arts scene in Stuttgart, according to art
luminary Benno Löning, are the diversity
of venues for seeing art and the strength
of artist-run initiatives – all of which receive
significant funding from the city.
The oldest of these institutions is the
Württembergisher Kunstverein (WKV),
which was founded 178 years ago. Kunst-
vereine or art clubs are a German pheno-
menon and reflect a particularly democratic
approach to art. At the core of an art club
are its members; the WKV has 3,600, of
whom 1,000 are artists. The members
elect a board and the board appoints the
director, who has curatorial independence.
Co-director Christ explains that the WKV’s
artistic focus is determined by what the
Staatsgalerie and the Kunstmuseum do not
offer. Both of these institutions have collect-
ions which shape their program: the Staats-
galerie’s strength is middle European and
American art while the Kunstmuseum takes
its cues from its collections of 19th and
20th century Baden-Württemberg art.
The WKV’s constitution does not allow it
to develop a collection. “As a result,” says
Christ, “the WKV’s position must be radical-
contemporary and extreme-international.”
A current exhibition at the WKV, On
Difference#2, which runs until April 30,
2006, includes over one hundred curators,
artists and other participants from Europe,
the Middle East, the USA and Asia. At
the same time, the WKV focuses on local
artists. The annual Members’ Exhibition,
for example, provides a platform for Baden-
Württemberg artists to display their work.
Another artist-run initiative is the Künst-
lerhaus. It’s managed by Benno Löning.
It was set up in 1978 by a group of artists
who asked themselves: “Why should we
all, individually, incur the expenses of a stu-
dio when we can share the costs?” Today,
the Künstlerhaus is a unique Stuttgart insti-
tution comprising 10 workshops, including
a children’s workshop, with specialist
equipment that artists can use for the price
of membership and minimal user fees.
It has four studios available to Stuttgart-
based artists; a multi-purpose area for
accents magazine
events; an exhibition space with a program
that brings international artists and curators
to Stuttgart; and a library that houses mat-
erial related to Künstlerhaus projects. The
library is extraordinary, providing a record
of concerns raised by an artists’ collective
over a period of 28 years.
Smaller initiatives include the Wagen-
halle, established two years ago in an
abandoned train shed at the Nordbahnhof;
Fluctuating Images, focussing on contem-
porary media art; and Oberwelt, a small
exhibition space run by 30-40 active mem-
bers who work together via E-mail. Löning
praises the work of Oberwelt. “It brings
new ideas into the city. Because it is a
small institution, there is less pressure for
every show to be a ‘success.’ Artists can
be truly experimental.” Löning’s comments
are reflective of the regard many of these
initiatives have for each other, and the way
they collaborate and co-operate, contribu-
ting to the success of each.
Financial support
A crucial characteristic of the Stuttgart arts
scene is the high level of financial and in-
kind support. Says Löning: “This a rich city,
and it does a very good job on the arts.”
Hans Christ says that while Germany does
not have a strong tradition of privately
funded support for the visual arts, the
situation is different in Stuttgart. He puts
this down to Stuttgart’s tradition of liberal
Conspiracy thrills
Book reviews
Since the success of Dan Brown’s Da
Vinci Code, the market for books with
secret societies, centuries-old conspira-
cies and a hint of Vatican misdoings has
been flourishing. Both of the following
books are being marketed with covers
that present enticingly familiar images –
a shadowy priest, ecclesiastical arch-
ways. How do they measure up?
The Confessor by Daniel Silva
Penguin, 397 pages
Gabriel Allon appears at first glance to
be a silently tortured character, a self-
absorbed art restorer not interested in
the world around him. When an old friend connected alumnus, and the athletic pre-
is murdered in Munich, however, a diffe-
rent Allon emerges. He doesn’t believe
what the police say: that right-wing extrem- gether in a quest to unravel the meaning
ists committed the crime. He begins to
investigate. Nothing is as it appears when script – a quest which leads to revelations
national security agencies are involved,
nor when Vatican secrets are threatened
with exposure. This is a first-class thriller. closely to the Da Vinci Code formula,
A la Dan Brown, secret societies do sur-
face in the book and the secrets do reach to keep Western civilization on the right
back centuries but the crimes are real
accents magazine
conservatism. A number of companies in
Baden-Württemberg, as well as individual
business leaders, have built up their own
art collections. One such business leader
is Peter W. Klein. His collection of works of
contemporary art by Australian Aboriginal
painters can currently be seen at the
Linden Museum in Stuttgart. The paintings
are integrated, in a stunning exhibition,
with objects from the museum’s existing
collection of Aboriginal material culture.
Private financial support has also been
important for the Staatsgalerie. Its very
own Galerieverein (gallery club) was esta-
blished exactly 100 years ago to make
acquisitions for the Staatsgalerie. It has
over 12,000 members and significant pur-
chasing power. It has just bought a work
titled Jungle (2005), by the American
superstar artist Jeff Koons. From May to
September, a major Staatsgalerie exhibition
on Claude Monet, comprising works from
30 world-famous collections, will be
centred on the Galerieverein’s very first
purchase, Monet’s Fields of Spring (1887).
It used to be hard to find out about the
Stuttgart art scene, according to the Künst-
lerhaus’s Löning. Nowadays, however,
there are a number of local publications that
list galleries and new exhibitions, including
Sonnendeck, Artinfo (for Baden-Württem-
berg) and Kunst (for Stuttgart and surround-
ings.) The options for art-lovers and support-
ers of the visual arts in and around Stutt-
gart are greater than ever before.
and contemporary, not revelations meant
to rock the foundations of Western cul-
ture. Days after this book has been read
you’re left with the wistful hope that
good will somehow outweigh evil in the
end.
The Rule of Four
by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason
Arrow Books, 521 pages
The setting is Princeton University. The
leading characters are representative of
four classic types of American student:
the son of an academic, a poor yet bril-
liant scholarship holder, the son of a well-
medical student. The four are in their last
year of study and are brought closer to-
behind an obscure Renaissance manu-
of murder. Written by two Princeton Uni-
versity graduates, this story sticks more
with Renaissance secrets and a struggle
course. It’s a well-paced tale that also
The British Consulate General
in Stuttgart closed for business
permanently on 30 December 2005.
British representation in Baden-
Württemberg will continue through
an Honorary Consul who will take
care of Consular issues.
The remaining work of the Consulate
will be divided as follows:
Consular Protection and Planning,
Press and Public Affairs
British Consulate Munich
Tel 089 2110090
Trade, Investment, Passport, Visa
British Consulate Düsseldorf
Tel (Passport) 0190 700661
(Visa) 0190 700611
(Trade / Investment) 0211 94480
Bilateral Affairs, Public Diplomacy
British Embassy Berlin
Tel 030 204570
reflects the competitive academic pres-
sures within an elite university. Here,
students are forced to cope with an ever-
increasing work load and to respond to
the demands of professors to come up
with original research material, somehow,
on centuries-old subjects that have al-
ready been researched by better minds.
Despite the enjoyment this book affords
one is left with the suspicion that it’s
simply a product of over-worked students
looking for deeper meaning in the final
year of their studies.
Arts and Culture 17
Solitude
A unique academy in profile
As disputes rage over arts funding, amid
demands for accountability and commer-
cial viability and accusations of cultural
elitism, one of Baden-Württemberg’s
most impressive monuments acts as a
port of tranquility within the stormy seas
of this debate. The Akademie Solitude
sees itself as a bastion of artistic freedom
and excellence creating an innovative
environment for independently-minded
artists. Stuart Marlow reports.
In 1987, Stuttgart’s baroque icon Schloß
Solitude was in a rather dilapidated state.
What to do with one of the city’s most
important historical buildings was a key
question for the municipal government at
the time. After much deliberation, it was
decided to house an international residen-
tial arts academy at Solitude. Renovation
work began and by 1990 the Akademie
Solitude boasted 29 studio apartments
offering living and working space for young
resident artists from all over the world.
Founder and director Jean Baptiste Joly
has been careful to create a climate in
which young artists feel they are part of a
creative ensemble without being subjected
to any kind of institutional pressure or
claustrophobia-inducing conditions. On the
whole this delicate balance has been well
maintained. There are few complaints of
‘castle fever’ from the artists who spend
between six and eighteen months in the
relative isolation of Schloß Solitude.
18 Arts and Culture
Up to two thousand applications per
year are processed from promising, mostly
young artists from all corners of the globe.
Fields of artistic expertise range from the
graphic arts to design, music, literature,
theatre, and video. Under the heading “Art,
Science and Business” the Academy has
also been widening its scope of activities
since 2003. Exhibitions, performances, and
concerts are held regularly at the academy.
“Promoting and maintaining high artistic
standards at an international level is the
Jean Baptiste Joly,
most vital element of our work here,” says founder and director
Jean Baptiste Joly. “It’s about creating of the Akademie
a climate for creativity and intercultural Solitude. Below:
artistic exchange. To do this we constantly Solitude in glorious
sunshine.
adapt to the needs of our residential en-
semble. When they leave, these artists
become part of a global network spread contrast between the peace of Schloß
across eighty nations worldwide.” Solitude and the turbulence of what had
The language used most often at the happened in New Orleans. I soon discover-
Akademie Solitude is English. There is a ed how important peace and quiet is, to
minimum set of social requirements the take a step back and reflect on what you
resident artists are expected to observe, are doing. I’ve got to know artists working
but respect for private space and relaxation in so many other areas. Through mixing
are two key elements involved in main- with designers here, I lost my ‘anti-designer’
taining a creative atmosphere to work in. prejudice, for example. You share skills
Conversations with two resident artists, through being part of a working ensemble
one American and one British, attest to the and you move on as an artist. It makes a
benefits of the Solitude model. great contribution to your development.”
Avant-garde New York artist Jackie Electronic interaction designer Ben
Sumell arrived in November 2005 with Hooker is a resident artist in Schloss Soli-
memories of the horrors of the New Orleans tude, though he occasionally has to fly back
floods still present in her mind. “My first to London from Stuttgart to fulfill work obli-
few weeks here were influenced by the gations. He enjoys the contrast between
the stresses of the English metropolis and
the peace of Solitude.
“There is a lot of social and financial
pressure in my field, which is very demand-
ing. In London you can’t avoid it. The peace
here is an important luxury that many
artists don’t get. Here, I don’t have to meet
production targets all the time – I am free
to experiment. You have to experiment to
move forward as an artist.”
Talking to both members of staff and
resident artists at Akademie Solitude, you
are left with the impression of a uniquely
Photos: courtesy of Akademie Solitude
‘laid back’ working climate. Solitude
appears to be far less elitist than many
other resident art academies, which can
sometimes be seen as exclusive enclaves
for a select few. The achievements of the
last decade can be measured by both the
international network of fellows that’s been
built up and the high number of regular
visitors to Schloß Solitude. Check out the
Academy’s website for exhibitions and
events: www.akademie-solitude.de
accents magazine
accents
choice
Events
Karlsruhe
Event
Harlem Globetrotters
Apr 2, 8 pm, Europahalle
Europa-Tag
with a DEF stall, English tea and
music by the “Pitchbenders”
May 6, 10 am - 6 pm, Karlsruhe
Market Square. Helpers please
call 0721 7569503, Deutsch-
Englischer Freundeskreis (DEF),
www.def-Karlsruhe.de
Bike Tour with the DEF
May 1, 12 pm, meeting point Alb-
talbahnhof, sign up 0721 7569503
Stuttgart
Soccer Match: Germany vs. USA
Watch the friendship game on the
big screen, prizes, hot dogs and
American beer! Mar 22, 8 pm,
Deutsch-Amerikanisches Zentrum
(DAZ), Charlottenplatz 17,
www.daz.org, register at
info@daz.org or 0711 228180,
Tübingen
Shabbat Dinner
Marty Potrop invites you to join in
a traditional Shabbat ceremony and
meal, imbuing the hall of the d.a.i.
with the haimish and joyous
atmosphere of a Jewish home cele-
bration. Mar 24, 5 pm, Deutsch-
Amerikanisches Institut (d.a.i.),
Karlstraße 3, 07071 795260,
www.dai-tuebingen.de, sign up by
Mar 17, cost 5 euros.
Harlem Globetrotters
Mar 24, 8 pm, TÜ-Arena
Exhibits
Exhibits
Heidelberg
Janet Sternburg –
The Behavior of Light
Photo exhibit until Mar 17, Deutsch-
Amerikanisches Institut (d.a.i.),
Galerie Upstairs, Sofienstraße 12,
06221 60730,
www.dai-heidelberg.de
Tübingen
We Are Here to Stay
Photo exhibit on Afro-American
culture in New Orleans. Mar 24 -
Jun 16, Tue-Fri 9 am - 6 pm,
Opening night Mar 23, 7:30 pm,
d.a.i. see address above
Stage
Stage
Freiburg
Brian D. Barnes: The best of Brian
A special performance for his 75 th
birthday. Mar 5, 8 pm,
Wallgraben Theater, 0761 25656,
www.wallgraben-theater.com
accents magazine
Theater Workshop:
An English Theatre Weekend
on Shakespeare’s contemporaries:
The Other Elizabethans, with Brian
D. Barnes, “One-Man-Theatre”,
Burwash / Sussex, and Dr. Karl K.
Schäfer, Freiburg.
From Mar 11, 5 pm to Mar 12, 4
pm, Waldhof e.V., 0761 67134
The Passion Story
Reading by Brian D. Barnes
Apr 10, 8 pm, Wallgraben Theater,
see address above
Heidelberg
Hay Fever
by Noel Coward
Mar 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25, 30
and Apr 1 at 7:30 pm;
Mar 19 and 26 at 3 pm.
Roadside Theater,
Patton Barracks, 06221 175020,
www.roadsidetheater.com
Educating Rita
American Drama Group
May 4, 7:30 pm Schloss Heidelberg
Hello Dolly!
Michael Stewart
Music and Lyrics by Jerry Herman
May 19, 20, 26, 27 and
June 2, 3, 9, 10, 16, 17 at 7:30 pm;
May 28 and Jun 4 and 11 Family
Matinee at 3 pm, Roadside Theater,
see address above
Pforzheim
Lord of the Flies
American Drama Group
Mar 17, 8 pm, Theater Pforzheim
Stuttgart
Urinetown
Mar 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12 at 7:30 pm,
Stuttgart Theatre Center –
Kelley Theatre, Kelley Barracks,
Vaihingen, general public welcome,
tickets 0711 7292825,
www.kelleytheatre.de
10th International Solo Dance
Theatre Festival
Competition for contemporary
choreographers and young dancers.
Mar 6-19, Treffpunkt Rotebühlplatz,
www.treffpunkt-rotebuehlplatz.de
Brian D. Barnes: The best of Brian
A special performance for his 75 th
birthday. Mar 7, 8 pm, Theater der
Altstadt, tickets 0711 61553464,
www.theater-der-altstadt.de
Walking in Two Worlds
Cherokee culture and history
presentation with dancing and
story-telling by James Bo Taylor,
Emra Arkansas and Davy Arch,
USA. Mar 17, 10:30 am - 1 pm,
Jahnhalle, Hasenbergstraße,
Gerlingen, Sign up at info@daz.org
or 0711 228180
At Swim, Two Boys
Earthfall Dance Company
Mar 31 and Apr 1, Treffpunkt
Rotebühlplatz, see address above
The Passion Story
Reading by Brian Douglas Barnes,
MBE. Apr 9, 8 pm, Theater der
Altstadt, see address above
O’Flaherty V.C.
a one-act play by George Bernard
Shaw to be performed in
May/June 2006 NEAT – New
English American Theatre,
www.neat-theater.de for details
Irish Ceílí
Irish Dancing taught every 3rd
Saturday of the month from 4 pm
- 7 pm. Saal, Bürgerhaus Botnang,
Stuttgart, www.danceirish.de
Tübingen
Walking in Two Worlds
Cherokee culture and history
presentation with dancing and
story-telling by James Bo Taylor,
Globetrotters Quellenangabe: Moderne Welt
4th International Bluegrass Festival
with Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike
(USA), Chris Jones & The Night
Drivers (USA). Apr 29, 2 pm,
Bürgerhaus Neuer Markt,
www.bluegrass-buehl.de,
tickets 07223 931616
The Moonlighters (USA)
Hawaiian Steel Guitar Swing.
May 18, 8 pm, Schüttlekeller,
see address above
Freiburg
Blues Caravan 2006
“The New Generation”
with Aynsley Lister, Erja Lyytinen,
Ian Parker. May 10, 8 pm, Jazzhaus,
see address above
Heidelberg
NATO Jazz
SHAPE Jazz Orchestra.
16 professional musicians of the
US-Military. Mar 3, 8 pm, dai,
The Harlem Globetrotters see address above
dribble through the region Leonberg
again with their usual games Marc Terenzi
and fun for the whole family. Mar 21, 8 pm, Stadthalle
Mar 24, 8 pm Tübingen Arena; Ludwigsburg
Apr 2, 8:30 pm Europahalle Midge Ure
Karlsruhe Apr 20, Scala,
www.scala-ludwigsburg.de
Reichenbach
Vdelli (AUS)
Austrailian blues and rock. Mar 25,
9 pm, die halle, www.diehalle.de
Emra Arkansas and Davy Arch, Robert Trower
USA. Mar 16, 8:15 pm, d.a.i., Apr 5, 8 pm, die halle,
see address above www.diehalle.de
Ulm Shermann Robertson
Frankenstein & Blues Move (USA)
American Drama Group. May 13, 9 pm, die halle,
May 11, 8 pm, Ulmertheater www.diehalle.de
On tour in the region Schorndorf
Fire of Dance Henry Rollins (USA)
Mar 8, 8 pm, 25 Years of Bullshit – Spoken Word
Konzerthaus Heidenheim; Tour. Mar 18, 8:30 pm, Manufaktur,
Mar 14, 8 pm, Liederhalle Stuttgart; www.club-manufaktur.de
Mar 15, 8 pm, Stadthalle Balingen; Youngblood Brass Band (USA)
Mar 28, 8 pm, Neckar Forum Apr 2, 9 pm, Manufaktur,
Esslingen see address above
In the Ghetto No-Neck Blues Band (USA)
South African Musical Group, May 3, 9 pm, Manufaktur,
Johannesburg. see address above
Mar 6, 8 pm, Gang Gang Dance (USA)
Stadthalle Sindelfingen; May 7, 9 pm, Manufaktur,
Mar 12, 8 pm, see address above
Filharmonie Filderstadt; Xiu Xiu (USA)
Mar 13 and 14, 8 pm, May 16, 9 pm, Manufaktur,
Schwabenlandhalle Fellbach see address above
Moon Palace Stuttgart
TNT Theatre Britain & American Dana Kurtz
Drama Group.
Mar 6, 3 and 7 pm,
Bürgerhaus Seepark Freiburg;
Mar 5, Theaterhaus,
see address above
dEUS
Mar 7, 3 and 6 pm, Mar 7, 8:30 pm, LKA Longhorn,
Bürgerhaus Seepark Freiburg; www.lka-longhorn.de
Mar 8-10, 11 am and 3 pm, Jerry Lee Lewis & his Killer Band
Altesschauspielhaus Stuttgart;
Mar 13, 4 and 7:30 pm,
Theater Heilbronn; accents forum
Mar 14, 8 pm,
Stadttheater Konstanz; Our informal get-together
Mar 17, 8 pm, for readers and contributors.
Konzerthaus Ravensburg;
Mar 20, 4 and 8 pm, LTT Tübingen; Friday, March 10 th, 7 pm
Mar 21, 11 am, LTT Tübingen; at George and Dragon English
Mar 22, 11 am, Ulmertheater; Pub, Willy-Brandt-Straße 30,
Mar 23, 4 and 8 pm, Stuttgart (take the stairs next
Theater Baden-Baden to Hotel LeMéridien)
Friday, June 2 nd, 7 pm
Music
location to be announced
Music
Bühl
accents
Norfolk & Goode (UK)
British blues and British humour.
Mar 24, 8 pm, Schüttlekeller, 07223
magazine
250076, www.schuettlekeller.de
accents choice 19
 Mar 14, 8 pm, T1 Theaterhaus,
see address above
The Darkness (UK)
and Doomfoxx (AUS)
Mar 15, 8 pm, LKA Longhorn,
see address above
Big Boss Man
Mar 20, Schocken
Live Soccer game Junior Watson & Band
Germany vs. USA Mar 22, 8:30 pm, Laboratorium,
Come get in the mood see address above
for the World Cup with Joan Baez
hot dogs and American Mar 30, 8 pm, Schleyerhalle,
beer at the DAZ! Mar 22, see address above
8 pm, please sign up Holly Golightly
Apr 2, Schocken
Earth Day 2006: Deerhoof
Environment & Health Apr 3, Schocken
Lecture on air pollution Alfred Brendel
and diabetes: a correla- Haydn, Schubert, Mozart. Apr 3,
tion? Prof Alan Lockwood, 8 pm, Liederhalle Beethovensaal,
PhD, Apr 26, 10-12 am, see address above
Institut Dr. Flad, Johnny Lee Hooker Jr.
Breitscheidstraße 127 Apr 4, Laboratorium,
see address above
The Marshallplan – Monster Magnet
Foundation of the Apr 5, Laboratorium,
Wirtschaftswunder? see address above
Panel discussion with Infadels
American, British, French, Apr 6, Schocken
and German participants Hugo Race & The True Spirit
May 12, 5 pm, ifa Galerie, Apr 9, Laboratorium
Charlottenplatz Ugly Duckling
Apr 12, Schocken
Deutsch- Jim Kahr & Band (USA)
Amerikanisches Zentrum Apr 17, 8:30 pm, Kulturcafe Merlin,
James-F.-Byrnes-Institut www.kulturcafe-merlin.de
e.V. Charlottenplatz 17 Dropkick Murphys/Less Than
70173 Stuttgart Jake/Far From Finished
0711-228180 Apr 24, LKA Longhorn,
www.daz.org see address above
Paul Weller (UK)
Apr 26, 8 pm, Theaterhaus,
see address above
Subscribe
Sisters of Mercy
Apr 27, 8 pm, LKA Longhorn,
see address above
Jimmy D. Lane (USA)
May 12, 8:30 pm, Kulturcafe Merlin,
see address above
Keith Caputo (USA)
May 16, 8 pm, Röhre
One-year subscription (6 issues): City of Birmingham
20 euros. Payment preferred by Symphony Orchestra
direct debit or deposit check. Brahms, Beethoven, Strawinsky.
May 19, 8 pm, Liederhalle
Name Beethovensaal, see address above
Tübingen
Street Irish Spring -
Festival of Irish Folk Music
Postal code/City Mar 9, 8 pm, Sudhaus, Hechinger
Straße 203, 07071 74696
State/Country Beatles Buffet
American artist Paul Oertel, singer,
Telephone dancer and actor. Accompanied
on the piano by himself! Mar 31,
E-mail 8:15 pm, d.a.i., see address above
Blues Festival at the Sudhaus
Account holder Apr 29, 8 pm, Candye Kane (USA)
and Vdelli (AUS);
Account no. May 4, 8 pm, Randy Hansen (USA)
and Dannemann & Friends;
Bank Code (BLZ) May 5, 8 pm, Ten Years After (UK)
Sudhaus, see address above
Name of Bank On Tour in the Region
British Hot Jazz Night Tour
Evenings of Jazz.
I hereby give accents media GbR Mar 28 and 29, 8 pm,
permission to debit the sub- Sparda-Bank Stuttgart;
scription fee of 20 euros from Mar 30, 8 pm,
my account. Sparda Event Center Karlsruhe;
Mar 31, 8 pm, Bad Säckingen;
Date Eric Burdon & The Animals
Mar 28, Substage Karlsruhe;
Signature account holder Mar 29, 8 pm, Burghof Lörrach
Nigel Kennedy Quintett
Apr 23, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden;
May 7, Graf Zeppelin Saal
Friedrichshafen;
20 accents choice
May 29, 8 pm,
Theaterhaus Stuttgart
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
Mar 3, 8 pm, Festhalle
Mergelstetten Heidenheim;
Mar 5, 8 pm,
LKA Longhorn Stuttgart;
St. Patrick’s Day
Celebration Festival
with Last Night’s Fun,
MacGeachy & Dave Gossage,
and Tannahill Weavers.
Mar 17, Bürgerhaus Möglingen;
Mar 20, Festhalle Aalen;
Mar 21, Reithalle Offenburg
Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike
Bluegrass from Nashville,
Tennessee.
Apr 29, 2 pm,
Bürgerhaus Neuer Markt Bühl;
Apr 30, 7 pm,
Kulturhaus Sachsenheim;
May 1, Schloss Fachsenfeld Aalen
Holly Williams
Mar 17, 8 pm, Jazzhaus Freiburg;
Mar 30, 8:30 pm,
Laboratorium Stuttgart
Kieran Halpin
Irish songwriter and band.
Mar 9, 8:30 pm,
Alte Muhle Filderstadt;
Apr 5, 8:30 pm,
The Phoenix Lauffen a. Neckar;
Apr 7, 8 pm,
Kinzig Haus Lossburg/Freudenstadt;
Apr 8, 8:30 pm, PopuLahr Lahr
Tickets: Easy-ticket service 0711
2555555, www.easyticket.de or
SWR 1 ticket service 0180 5929211
Lectures/Discussions
Freiburg
Lecture
Open dialog
every other Wed, 6:30-8 pm.
Mar 8, Religious Fundamentalism;
Mar 22, City Mouse, Country
Mouse. Carl-Schurz-Haus library,
Eisenbahnstraße 58-62,
www.carl-schurz-haus.de
Death Penalty
in the United States
Lecture by Prof. Rick Halperin,
USA and Gernot Erler MdB.
Mar 17, 8 pm, Schloßbergsaal,
SWR, Kartäuserstraße 45
Starlite Terrace
Reading by Patrick Roth, Los
Angeles, Apr 25, 8 pm, Bookstore
Herder, Kaiser-Joseph-Straße 180
Year 6 of President Bush: Should
We Have Hope or Despair?
Lecture by David DeKok,
US journalist, Apr 26, 8 pm,
Hörsaal 3042, KG III, University
The Falling Soldier: Robert Capa
and the Spanish Civil War
Lecture by Richard Whelan, New
York, May 9, 8 pm, for the location
check www.carl-schurz-haus.de
Reading by Bernard MacLaverty
The Glasgow author reads his
recent fiction May 11, 8 pm,
for the location check
www.carl-schurz-haus.de
Translating Memory, Performing
Jewishness, Diasporizing Gender
Lecture by Prof. Dr. Leslie C.
Morris, Minneapolis, followed by a
lecture and panel discussion with
Prof. Dr. Sigrid Jacobeit, Berlin
and Dr. Isabel Heinemann, Freiburg.
May 19, 4 - 9 pm, for the location
check www.carl-schurz-haus.de
Reshaping the Nuclear
Proliferation Regime
Lecture by Dr. Karel Koster, Amster-
dam, May 22, 8 pm, Hörsaal 1199,
KG I, University
Heidelberg
Discussion group
with Dr. Steven Bloom
Mar 7, In multi-ethnic society, what
is the meaning of integration?
Mar 14, In a democratic society,
what are the limits of tolerance?
Mar 21, How much control does a
person have over his or her life?
Mar 28, Can people learn to co-
operate rather than compete?
Wednesdays, 6 pm,
d.a.i., library, Sofienstraße 12,
www.dai-heidelberg.de
English-Language Video
Discussion Group
Mar 1, Broadway - part 2;
Mar 8, Broadway - part 3;
Mar 15, Broadway - part 4;
Mar 22, Broadway - part 5;
Mar 29, Broadway - part 6.
Tuesdays, 6 pm, d.a.i. library,
see address above
Jazztime
Reading by Roddy Doyle.
Mar 9, 8 pm, d.a.i., Großer Saal
Karlsruhe
DEF English Conversation Circle
Mar 21, Integration of people with
disabilities into higher education,
Joachim Klaus; no April session;
May 16, The DEF,
talk with Christa Fuß;
3rd Tuesday of each month,
7:30 pm, Moltkestraße 20, Room 4
LitNight in English
reading and discussing literature
1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month,
7:30 pm, American Library,
www.american-library.de
Poetry Please
Poems read and discussed in
English. 4th Tuesday of the month,
7:30 - 9 pm, American Library,
Tom 0721 3540477
Stuttgart
The Empire Study Group
A popular study group by Laurence
Stallings and Scott Stelle.
View topics on www.daz.org.
Mar 10, Apr 7, May 5, 5 pm, DAZ,
Photo: Adam Taylor courtesy of Kent Records
Johnny Lee Hooker Jr.
proves he can play the blues
as well as his legendary father
on his current tour
Blues with a Vengance .
Apr 4, Laboratorium Stuttgart,
www.laboratorium-stuttgart.de
accents magazine

4th International
Bluegrass Festival in Bühl
Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike
(pictured above) and Chris Jones
& The Night Drivers (both USA)
will be featured at this year’s
bluegrass gig in Bühl. Apr 29,
2 pm, Bürgerhaus Neuer Markt
www.bluegrass-buehl.de
Tom Wolfe: I am Charlotte
Simmons. Mar 3, 7 pm, d.a.i.,
see address above
Growing up Jewish in New York
Marty Potrop will create an im-
pression what it felt like to grow
up in the greatest city in America
and the largest Jewish city in the
world. Mar 9, 8:15 pm, d.a.i.,
see address above
Writer’s Club
with Carolyn Murphey Melchers.
Mar 17, 2 pm, d.a.i.,
see address above
The Empire Study Group
A popular study group by
Laurence Stallings and Scott Stelle.
View topics and dates on
www.dai-tuebingen.de. Mar 31,
6:45 pm, d.a.i., see address above
The Marshallplan – Foundation
of the Wirtschaftswunder?
Panel discussion with American,
British, French, and German partici-
pants. May 12, 5 pm, ifa Galerie,
Charlottenplatz
Workshops
ages 6-9 with final performance
for friends and family. Mar-Sep,
Fridays 1:45-3:15 pm, Kunstschule
Labyrinth, 07141 9103242
Playing Theatre in English
Learning English by doing, for kids
and teens, ages 8-11 and 12-14 with
final performance for friends and
family. Mar-Sep, Wednesdays 2:30-
4 pm for 8-11 year olds, 4:30-6 pm
for 12-14 year olds, Kunstschule
Labyrinth, 07141 9103242
Stuttgart
Going to school –
Überraschungen aus der Schule
Games and songs for children ages
3-8. Please register 0711 2164903.
Mar 10, 3 pm, Stadtteilbücherei
Plieningen, Neuhauser Straße 1,
Stuttgart-Plieningen
The Little Train that Could
Theater workshop for kids 6 and up
with final performance for friends
and family. Mar 11, 12-4:30pm,
sign-up required, Children’s English
Library (CEL), Etzelstraße 25-27,
www.celstuttgart.de
English Story-Telling
for children ages 4-8. Ticket reser-
vations recommended 0711 563034.
Mar 24, 10 am, Stadtteilbücherei
Degerloch, Löffelstraße 5,
Stuttgart-Degerloch
Cooking is a Game you can Eat
The title speaks for itself!
May 6, 2-4 pm, sign-up required,
CEL, see address above
Rhyme Time
Singing and rhymes for kids 0-3
with parent. Every Monday
morning 9:45-10:45 am, CEL,
see address above
Happy Days
Non-native English speakers ages
3-6. Mon 4:15-5 pm, CEL,
see address above
First Steps in English
Non-native English speakers ages
3-6. Mondays 3:30-4:15 pm and
Tuesdays 3:30-4:15 pm, CEL, see
address above
It’s School Time in English
Non native English speakers ages
6-8. Tuesdays 4:15-5:15 pm, begin-
ning April, CEL, see address above
Let’s Play –
Mommy & Me English Class
Native English speakers ages 2-3.
Mon 10:45-11:30 am and Fri
4-4:45 pm, CEL, see address above

see address above
The Art of Intercultural
Communication and Translation
Presentation by Dr. Wolfgang Sturz,
transline Deutschland, hosted by
American-German Business Club.
Mar 1, 6 pm, Rathaus Room 406,
Marktplatz 1, www.agbc.de
Conversation Circle
Mar 17, International Women’s Day:
Have Things Improved?
Apr 21, Drinking Water: Do We
Have Enough?
May 19, Illiteracy and Its
Consequences.
Conference Room, DAZ, Charlotten-
platz 17, www.daz.org
Jewish Jokes and
Jewish Life in the U.S.
Lecture/discussion with Dr. Steven
Bloom. Mar 9, 7:30 pm, DAZ,
see address above
How Does Religion Affect
U.S.-European Relations?
Lecture/discussion with Stanley R.
Sloan. Mar 15, 7:30 pm, DAZ,
see address above
Bret Easton Ellis
Meet-the-author reading. Mar 19,
8 pm, Literaturhaus Stuttgart,
Breitscheidstraße 4 (with the DAZ)
Interpreting Fascism
Lecture/discussion with Professor
Robert O. Paxton, PhD. Apr 3,
6 pm, Landesbibliothek, Konrad-
Adenauer-Straße 8 (with the DAZ)
Difficult Times: The Future of the
American Labor Movement
Lecture/discussion with Professor
Hoyt N. Wheeler, PhD. Apr 10,
7:30 pm, DAZ, see address above
Earth Day 2006
Environment & Health Air Pollution
and Diabetes: A Correlation?
Lecture/Discussion with Professor
Alan Lockwood, PhD. Apr 26,
10-12 am, Institut Dr. Flad,
Breitscheidstraße 127, Stuttgart
(with the DAZ)
The Remains of the Day
Film presented by the DEF. May 9,
8 pm, Landesmedienzentrum,
Moltkestraße 64
Tübingen
Book Talk
Heidelberg
Work Mar 12, 3 pm, kkt kommunales
kontakt theater, Kissinger Straße
66A, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt
Singing and Story time
Native English speakers ages 3-6.
Fri 3-3:45 pm, CEL, see address
Theater workshops Listen in above
with US guest artists. Story and activity for kids Reading & Writing 1
Mar 27, Improvisation; for 3-6 years with parent. Native English speakers ages 6-7
Mar 28, Script Writing. Sat 3:30-4:30 pm. and 8+. Tuesdays 5:15-6:30 pm
both at 7 pm and open to all, Mar 18, World Poetry Day; and Fridays 4:05-5:20 pm, CEL,
registration required, Roadside Apr 15, Monsters; see address above
Theater, see address above May 20, Eeek squeak-Mice, Tübingen
Stuttgart CEL, see address above English Storytime
Quilting Bee: I can fly – what am I? for kids ages 4-6 with Anne Crutch-
The Baltimore Beauties German-English picture book show. field, 1st Wednesday of the month,
A multilingual, hand sewing quilting Please register 0711 2164427. 4-5 pm, d.a.i, see address above
group; guests are welcome.
3rd Friday of the month, 9-12 am,
DAZ, see address above
Tübingen
Quilting Bees: A Forum for
Patchwork Quilters
3rd Thursday of month, 3-5 pm,
d.a.i., see address above
The Discipline of Freedom:
A Workshop on Creativity and
Expression
Paul Oertel und Nancy Spanier,
Boulder, USA. Sign up by Mar 24.
Apr 1, 9:30 am - 5:30 pm, d.a.i.,
see address above
Kids
Heidelberg
Kids
Peter and the Wolf
adapted from Prokofiev.
Special, multi-media production
using both human and life-sized
character puppets.
Apr 14, 15 and 29 at 7:30 pm;
Apr 15, 29 and 30 at 3 pm,
Roadside Theater,
see address under Stage
Karlsruhe
Storytime in English!
Children aged 2-5 years, every
2nd and 4th Wednesday of the
month at 4 pm, American Library,
see address above
Stories for Kids ages 6 and up
Prince Boghole. A special St.
Patrick’s Day story. Mar 17, 4 pm,
American Library, see address
above
Ludwigsburg
Let’s Play Theatre
Kids’ workshop for native speakers

accents magazine accents choice 21


accents
guide
Emergency
Police 110
Emerg
Fire Department 112
Ambulance & Emergency
Medical 19222
Poison Hotline 0761 19240
English Speaking Poison
Control 06131 232466
Doctor for House Calls
0711 2628012
Consulates/Embassies
sulates
Australia
030 8800880, Wallstraße 76-79,
Berlin
Canada
0711 2239678, Lange Straße 51,
Stuttgart
Ireland
030 220720, Friedrichstraße 200,
Berlin
New Zealand
030 206210, Friedrichstraße 60,
Berlin
South Africa
030 220730, Friedrichstraße 60,
Berlin
United Kingdom
0211 94480, Yorckstraße 19,
Düsseldorf
United States of America
069 75350, Gießener Straße 30,
Frankfurt
Schools & Preschools
ools
International School
of Stuttgart e.V.
0711 7696000, Sigmaringer Straße
257, Stuttgart, www.international-
school-stuttgart.de
Botnanger Kinderbetreuung
Bilingual Kindergarden
0711 6993404 Gina Kussi,
Griegstraße 18, Stuttgart
Internationaler Montessori
Kindergarten e.V.
0711 93150510, Sulzgrieser
Straße 114, Esslingen,
www.montessori-esslingen.de
EducCare Bilingual Kindergarden
0711 6581447, Hasenbergstraße
31/2, Stuttgart, www.educcare.de
English for Kids!
0711 6491537 Conny von Scholley,
www.spielendsprachenlernen.de
European School Karlsruhe
0721 680090, Albert-Schweitzer-
Straße 1, Karlsruhe
English Garden
English and music lessons, 0761
8866181, Hasenweg 34, Freiburg
Oberlin Kinderuniversität
0761 85648,
Am Mühlbach 13, Freiburg,
www.oberlinkinderuniversitaet.de
International School
22 accents guide
of Kreuzlingen Konstanz
0041 71 6722727
Hauptstraße 27, Kreuzlingen,
Switzerland, www.iskk.ch
Heidelberg International School
06221 7590600, Villa Heinstein,
Wieblinger Weg 9, Heidelberg,
www.hischool.de
International School Ulm/Neu-Ulm
0731 3793530, Beyerstraße 45, Ulm,
www.is-ulm.de
English for preschoolers
and first graders in Freiburg
0761 1378177 Cathy Plog,
plogs@t-online.de
Little English House
English and art for kids 3 and up
www.littleenglishhouse.de
Helen Doron Early English
Learning English with fun and
gamens, www.hdee.de
Libraries
Librari
Children’s English Library e.V.
0711 3582215, Etzelstraße 25-27,
Stuttgart, Tue 4-6 pm, Fri 3-6 pm,
Sat 2-5 pm, www.celstuttgart.de
Deutsch-Amerikanisches Zentrum
Charlottenplatz 17, Stuttgart,
Tue-Thu 2-6 pm
Deutsch-Amerikanisches
Institut Tübingen
Karlstraße 3, Tue-Fri 1-6 pm,
Thursdays 1- 8 pm
Karlsruhe American Library
0721 72752, Kanalweg 52,
Tue-Fri 2-6 pm, Wed 10-12 am,
Sat 10 am-2 pm,
www.amerikanische-bibliothek.de
Deutsch-Amerikanisches
Institut Heidelberg
Sophienstraße 12, Mon-Fri 1-6 pm,
Wed 1-8 pm, Sat 10 am-2 pm
Carl-Schurz-Haus Freiburg
Kaiser-Joseph-Straße 266,
Mon-Fri 11:30 am - 1:30 pm, 3-6 pm
Clubs & Organizations
Clubs &
Deutsch-Amerikanisches Zentrum /
James-F.-Byrnes-Institut e.V.
0711 228180, Charlottenplatz 17,
Stuttgart, www.daz.org
70173: English Spoken Stammtisch
12:00 pm at Restaurant Plenum in
the B-W Landtag Building, contact
Andrea.Krueger@wm.bwl.de for
dates. Open participation. Founders:
Andrea Krueger & Dr. Peter Mendler
(both of the B-W Ministry of Eco-
nomic Affairs) and Rainer Wieland
(Member of the European Parliament)
Stammtisch TRANSATLANTIK
Once a month at Plenum Restaurant
Stuttgart, info at DAZ 0711 228180
Metropolitan Club e.V.
social, educational & cultural events
for all nationalities, www.metclub.de
Stuttgart Conversation Club
0711 8892252 Ed Wilson,
35 years and up, www.metclub.de
Baltimore Beauties
Quilting bee at the DAZ, Stuttgart,
every 3rd Fri of the month,
9 -12 am, 0711 243242 Judy Ehmer
Stuttgart Book Club
www.StuttgartBookClub.de
German-American Club 1948
0711 814270 Eberhard Stein
German-American
Women’s Club Stuttgart
info@gawc-stuttgart.de,
www.gawc-stuttgart.de
International
Women’s Club Stuttgart
All nationalities and ages, every 1st
Wed of the month, 10 am - 12:30 pm,
Kulturcafe Merlin, Augustenstraße 72,
0711 6566340, www.iwcstuttgart.org
Anglo-Stuttgart Society
0711 568113 Günther Jaumann,
www.jaumann.de/ass
British Club Stuttgart
0711 455464 Alison Seyerle
Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft e.V.
0172 7391495 Peter Alderath,
Gasthaus Hirsch, Bernhausen,
1st Wed of the month
Asia Circle International Club
07156 29164, asia-circle@web.de,
www.asia-circle.de
International Choir of Stuttgart
0711 769600912 Carola,
int_choir_stuttgart@hotmail.com
Stuttgart Singers
07159 44991 Kathy Williams,
www.stuttgartsingers.de
Stuttgart German-American
Community Chorus
0711 463463 David A. Beckner
EUCOM Harmonizers
Stuttgart-Vaihingen
barbershop and a cappella,
07146 20677 John Gerrish
German-American Seniors Club
0711 2560867 Hildegard Göhrum
English Round Table, Esslingen
Conversation group,
0711 3451344, Claudia Stadelmann,
info@bueroservice-jaeschke.de
Fáinne Irish Dance Group Stuttgart
0711 483901, www.fainne.de
Irish Dance Ceili, Stuttgart
every 3rd Saturday of the month
www.danceirish.de
German Conversation Group
07032 77919 Elena Fieres
ELTAS e.V.
English Language Teachers’
Association Stuttgart, www.eltas.de
International Toastmasters Club,
Stuttgart, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe,
Freiburg, Ulm
presentational skills in English,
find links to all chapters at
www.toastmasters-stuttgart.de
English-Speaking Stammtisch
S-Untertürkheim
0711 3041337 Derek Evans
Deutsch Australische
Freundschaft e.V.
07031 607521 Jeff Gomes,
www.deutsch-australische-
freundschaft.de
Friends Club International e.V.
Böblingen-Sindelfingen
07031 806522 Jan W. Boon
“Here We Are”
International Group Esslingen
07163 8580 Alison Unrath
English Morning Tea Aidlingen
07034 7339 Ellen Zeller,
Wed 10 am - 12 pm
Deutsch-Amerikanisches
Institut Tübingen
07071 795260, Karlstraße 3,
www.dai-tuebingen.de
Anglo-German Club Pforzheim
07231 472155 Dr Maurice Claypole,
www.agc-pforzheim.de
Pro Country e.V. Deutscher
Country & Western Dachverband
07150 33212 Ralf Russig,
www.pro-country-ev.de
English-Speaking Circle Starzach
and Landkreise Freundenstadt,
Tübingen & Zollernalb
07478 8290 Kevin MacInerney-May
Schorndorf English Club
07181 64440 Marion Rube
Deutsch-Amerikanisches
Institut Heidelberg
06221 60730, Sofienstraße 12,
www.dai-heidelberg.de
German-British Society,
Freiburg, Heidelberg, and Stuttgart
0761 4098804 Dr. Susanne Press,
06221 864761 Prof. Manfred Liedtke,
0711 66721255 Dr. Christoph Selzer,
www.debrige.de
German-English
Friendship Club e.V. Karlsruhe
0721 7569503 Rose Schrempp,
info@def-karlsruhe.de,
www.def-karlsruhe.de
International Women’s Club
Karlsruhe e.V.
Annemarie Frenzel, Postfach
110448, 76054 Karlsruhe
Verein Deutsch-Amerikanischer
Freundschaft Pfullendorf
07552 6249 Dr Gary Anderson
Carl-Schurz-Haus Freiburg
0761 31647, Eisenbahnstraße 62,
www.carl-schurz-haus.de
Anglo-German Club e.V. Freiburg
07661 1324, Wehrlehof Straße 11,
Oberried, peleube@hotmail.com
Freiburg English Club
0177 6553688 Terrence Barr
www.freiburg-english-club.org
Network of English-Speaking
Women e.V.
07664 962450 Candice Siegenthaler,
NesWomen@web.de, www.nesw.de
British International
Villingen-Schwenningen
07721 53278 Carol King,
www.bivs.gmxhome.de
Deutsch-Irischer Freundeskreis (dif)
0711 2361736, www.dif-bw.de
Region Schwaben, Verband der
Deutsch-Amerikanischen Clubs e.V.
07156 29164 Mi-Kiyoung Wöhler,
www.schwaben-vdac.de.vu
Theater Groups
Theate
A.C.T.S. Anglophone
Collaborative Theatre of Stuttgart
0711 6858370 Stuart Marlow,
smarlow@hdm-stuttgart.de
Kelley Theatre
Kelley Barracks, Stuttgart,
0711 7292825, www.kelleytheatre.de
N.E.A.T.
New English American Theater
0711 634320, Stuttgart,
urban.spy@z.zgs.de,
www.neat-theater.de
Outcast International
0711 634409, Stuttgart,
www.outcast-theater.de
Anglo-Irish
Theatre Group Tübingen
07071 67968 David Hegarty,
dave@anglo-iren.de,
www.anglo-iren.de
The Round Table Players, Aalen
Eva Schumm,
schumm@vhs-aalen.de
Roadside Theater
Patton Barracks, Heidelberg,
06221 175020,
www.roadsidetheater.com
Theaterhaus TiG 7
0621 154976, Theater Trennt e.V.
G7, 4 b, Mannheim, www.tig7.de
The maniACTS Freiburg
University English Department,
www.maniacts.de
Read accents guide on
www.accents-magazine.de
accents magazine

Kids & Playgroups
ygroups
English Playgroup Stuttgart-West
0711 6361169 Bryan Groenjes,
EKiZ Ludwigstraße 41-43,
0-6 years, Wed 4-6 pm
English Playgroup Stuttgart
0-9 years, www.englishplaygroup.de
English Playgroup at the DAZ
Stuttgart
0711 228180, 4-6 years on Tue
3-4 pm, 6-8 years on Tue 4-5 pm
English Playgroup Böblingen
07031 287647 Stefanie Spence,
0-7 years, Wed 3:30-5 pm
English Playgroup
Holzgerlingen/Böblingen area
07034 654608 Anita Mayer
0-5 years, Wed 9:30-10:30 am
English Playgroup Sindelfingen
07031 873823 Christine Mitlacher,
Feb 2001 - Feb 2003, Thue 3 -
4:30 pm, Mitlacher-sifi@t-online.de
St. Georg MKK English
Playgroup in Bonlanden
Tue 3:30-5:30 pm,
0-5 years, Nicki 0711 3270748,
5-10 years, Mhorag Heger
07127 960046
English Playgroup
Herrenberg/Nebringen
07032 77452 Erika Laudenbach,
0-5 years, Mon 3-5 pm
English Playgroup Calw/Nebringen
siness
07051 70712 Susan Rosa, 0 - 5 years,
Fri 3 - 5:30 pm
Meet, Chat and
Playgroup Waldenbuch
07157 8561 Elaine Rauhöft,
Fri from 4 pm onwards
English on a Friday Afternoon
Tübingen
07071 930466 Günter Henke,
Fri from 3:30 pm onwards
English Playgroup in Rödersheim-
Gronau (postal code 67127)
06231 929616 Mrs I. Smith,
Fri 10 am, Luise Koch Kindergarten
English Reading Group Freiburg
Mütterzentrum Weingarten,
Krozingerstraße 11,
0761 286803 Amanda Lampert or
07666 99126 Fredi Trenkle
Political Groups
Political
American Voices Abroad Tübingen
fritz.hackert@arcor.de,
www.americanvoicesabroad.org
Democrats Abroad
Heidelberg,
06221 3780 Charles Keene,
Stuttgart,
0162 9824870 Dennis O’Donohue,
www.democratsabroad.org
Republicans Abroad Stuttgart
07146 20677 John W. Gerrish,
www.republicansabroad.de
Business Organizations
American German Business Club
e.V. Stuttgart, Heidelberg,
Karlsruhe
Stuttgart: 0711 2486078 Peggy
Stinson, stuttgart@agbc.de,
Karlsruhe: 0721 6268760 Raymond
Jordan, karlsruhe @agbc.de,
Heidelberg: 06221 23597 Barry
Swanson, heidelberg@agbc.de
American Chamber of Commerce
in Germany e.V.
0711 1667156 Prof Dr Roderich
C. Thümmel, Regional Chairperson,
www.amcham.de
British Chamber of Commerce
in Germany e.V.
0711 25540460 Ralf Steppart,
Regional Chairperson,
www.bccg.de
USA forum Tübingen
07071 55970 Bernd Zeutschel,
www.usaforum.de
Religious Services
St. Catherine’s Church
Reli
(Anglican) 07151 68973,
Katharinenplatz 5, Stuttgart,
www.stuttgartanglicans.de
City Chapel e.V. Stuttgart
0711 6142956 Roland Krumm,
Marienstraße 12, www.citychapel.de
International Baptist Church
Stuttgart-Vaihingen:
0711 6874365 Pastor Jay McFadden;
Heidelberg-Sandhausen:
06224 51516 Pastor Richard Blake;
www.ibcstuttgart.de
St. Antonius Church
0711 4597152 Odilo Metzler,
Catholic Mass in English
1st Saturday every month, 6:30 pm
Paracelsusstraße 87,
Stuttgart-Hohenheim
First Church of Christ, Scientist
0711 6207921 Heinz Clauss,
www.christian-science-stuttgart.de
United Methodist Church
Stuttgart: 0711 251984
Dr Hans-Martin Niethammer;
Reutlingen:
07121 78546 Harald Rückert;
Karlsruhe: 0721 43721 Peter Vesen;
www.emk.de
Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints
Stuttgart:
0711 3419240 Ralf Gierschke;
Mannheim:
06223 809040 Dr Frank Heckmann,
www.lds.org
Church of the Nazarene
0711 551147 Mary Schaar,
Friedenskirche, Bad Cannstatt
Evangelical Students
Community Tübingen
07071 61928 Heidi Abe
English Vesper Service Tübingen
Sun 6 pm, during the university
semester, 07071 51475,
www.institut-urchristentum.org
Jewish Observance,
Learning & Meditation, Tübingen
07071 968590 Martin H. Potrop,
SPIRITSHUL@aol.com
St Columban’s Mission Karlsruhe
(Anglican) 0721 28379 (Fax also)
Rev. Dr. Hanns Engelhardt,
www.staugustines-wiesbaden.de/
karlsruhe.htm, St.Columban@gmx.de
Calvary Chapel Freiburg e.V.
0761 7071333 David Pham,
www.ccfreiburg.de
Anglican Church of Freiburg
0761 904693 Minister Rev Robin
Stockitt, Katharinenstraße 9,
www.anglicans-fr.org
English Church Heidelberg
Erlöserkirche, Plöck/Schießtorstraße
06221 804146
Classifieds Classes
Halpin School of Irish Dance
Children and Adult Irish Dance
Classes.Beginners, Primary
& Intermediate Levels. New
dancers welcome any time! Tel
0711 483901, www.danceirish.de,
ainehalpin@aol.com
Business Services
U.S. INCOME TAX RETURNS
Professional Preparation
Tübingen/Stuttgart 07071 968590
or ZEELIG@aol.com
English carpenter/joiner available
for all kinds of work large or small.
Call Mark on 0711 4209779 (even-
ings) or 0170 8006046
Medical Writing and Translations
German-English, English-German
Karen Grützner mgruetz@t-online.de
Would you like English Sky
satellite television at home?
If interested, then mail me your
name & address for a price list and
application form free of charge.
mark.robson@t-online.de
Beautiful Celtic music (harp and
vocals) available for special events
MUSIKELTA 07163 534703
English hot & cold snacks
Mobile snack trailer selling English
favourites is looking for a perm./
temp. site for selling in or around
Stuttgart. Also looking for a secure
over-night parking place for the
above trailer. 0170 8006046
English-speaking Homeopath
Sonja McGough, Heilpraktikerin
for Classical Homoeopathy.
Herrenbergerstraße 2, Böblingen,
Tel 07031 265900, www.h-p-a-s.net
Ford Transit van & driver available
for hire at weekends in an around
Stgt. 25 euros per hour + 30 cents
per km, 0170 8006046
Employment
Linguarama Spracheninstitut
is seeking qualified native-
speaker EFL teachers for busin-
ess English courses starting in
March 2006. Especially those
with a technical background are
welcomed. Application materials
by e-mail stuttgart@linguarama.
com or call 0711 997993-30
Experienced English teachers
wanted for assignments in Stutt-
gart and surroundings. Send
your CV to Language Service
Dr. Lukes at info@Drlukes.de
or contact us on 0711 4780215,
or Fax 0711 6498074
24 classifieds
Send ads to
classifieds@accents-magazine.de
or fax 0711 3102161. One line
of text contains approx. 34
characters, including spaces,
full-stops and commas.
Personal ads
Price for three lines E4
Each additional line E 0.90
Frame around ad E5
Commercial text ads
Price for three lines E 15
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Commercial designed ads
Black and white or colour.
Column width 45.5 mm
or 95 mm for two columns.
Price for 30 mm E 49
Additional millimeter E 1.35
For 3 placements save 5%
for 6 placements save 10%
Add 16% VAT to all prices
Classified ads must be paid
in advance by direct debit or
bank transfer:
accents media GbR
SEB AG Stuttgart
bank code 60010111
account no. 2398600700
The deadline for the Jun/Jul/Aug
2006 issue is May 6 th
Native speakers wanted
with financial/technical/business
experience and excellent inter-
personal and language skills.
Freelance work. Contact:
andrina.rout@fokussprachen.com
Business English Trainers
required for in-company courses
in the Stuttgart area on a freelance
and employee basis. If you have a
minimum of one year’s teaching
experience together with a TEFL
or equivalent certificate and can
create a stimulating atmosphere for
learners to discuss business topics,
we would like to hear from you.
Please contact ELBC on 0711
6209932 or send your CV and
details to us at info@ELBC.de
Personal
Seeking Babysitter for German
family (age 18-88). Looking for
native English speakers! 3 children
(7 yrs., 5 yrs., 5 months) in Korn-
westheim (S-Bahn from Stuttgart
Hauptbahnhof 12 minutes). We are
looking for an energetic, caring,
patient and warmhearted babysitter
for our children. Somebody who
loves to read them books, play
games, do arts and crafts and loves
the outdoors. Someone who enjoys
a picnic in the park, a bike tour,
a visit to the zoo and to go swim-
ming. We have had 4 aupairs from
the United States, so our children
are used to the English language,
however they are not fluent. Baby-
sitting 2-3 times/week, daytime
preferred, phone 07154 187360,
e-mail n.schuttenberg@web.de
accents magazine

Money Matters
Online security
As the Internet brings the world ever
closer to home, computer crime becomes
more global. No matter where you work
or live, you can’t avoid the possibility of
being caught out by the latest in Internet
crimes: ‘phishing’.
Any Internet user can become a victim
of such fraud. ‘Phishing’ or ‘fishing’ is the
illegal attempt via the Internet to secure
your banking details and personal data,
mainly through the use of fraudulent
E-mails which ask you to “verify” or “up-
date” your passwords or code numbers.
Internet crime has so far accounted for
tens of billions of dollars worth of fraud
worldwide.
It’s important to know that no German
bank will send you an E-mail asking you to
provide details of your account or credit
card number or your PIN or TAN numbers.
If you receive such an E-mail, it’s most
likely there’s criminal intent behind it.
Within Germany, customers of the big-
gest banks like Deutsche Bank and Post-
bank are most affected. Criminals know
they’ve got the best chance of landing a
Spring in Stuttgart
Spring in Baden-Württemberg’s capital
will be exhilarating to experience, with an
exciting program of events catering to all
tastes! On Saturday, March 18, the ninth
Lange Nacht der Museen (Long Night of
the Museums) will take place between
7 pm and 2 am. More than 80 museums,
galleries and cultural institutions will be
exhibiting in-house works, supplemented
by a program of live performances, live
music and special tours. The Stuttgarter
Frühlingsfest, Germany’s biggest spring
festival, will take place from April 17 -
May 7 on the Cannstatter Wasen. Whe-
ther it’s Ferris wheels or roller coasters
accents magazine
big catch by phishing from banks with a
large customer base. Falsified E-mails
which are made to look like real E-mail let-
ters from the Postbank, for example, ask
customers to “update” their accounts by
sending details of account, PIN and TAN
numbers. In fraudulent E-mails, the links to
bank Websites are difficult to differentiate
from the real thing. If the Internet user pro-
vides these fake Websites with account
information, the thieves can take on the
identity of the victim and make transactions
at will. The best protection against Internet
theft is caution and an instinctive mistrust
of any requests to reveal passwords or
account details, especially via the Internet
or by fax or telephone. If you’re suspicious
of foul play, get in touch with your bank.
The most secure internet banking ser-
vice is provided by a Home Banking Com-
puter Interface or HBCI. A user needs a
password, a special chip card – which con-
tains details of the personal password –
and a special reading machine you plug into
your computer. An electronic code prevents
the falsifying of data. Whoever wants to
access the account needs to use a pass-
word, a chip card and the reading machine
– a three-way security system for Internet
banking. Most online bankers still use a
PIN/TAN process; you access your account
from any computer with a Personal Identi-
that interest you, or fairy floss or a
Göckele (chicken) in the giant beer halls,
there’s something on offer for the entire
family. Stuttgart’s annual Trickfilm-
Festival (animated film) runs from April 27
- May 2, featuring around 500 films from
all over the world, from classic cartoons
and artistic inspirations to 3D computer-
animated films. On May 20, the spectac-
ular new Mercedes-Benz Museum will
finally open its doors: 17,000 m 2, spread
over nine floors for around 180 cars, the
legendary development of the Mercedes
automobile is brought to life. Also not to
be missed is the exhibition at the Staats-
galerie Stuttgart entitled Claude Monet:
Felder im Frühling (Fields of Spring) from
May 20 - Sep 24. Colourful spring fields,
summer walks with a parasol – Claude
Good to Know
fication Number and transfer funds by
entering an individual transaction number.
Clearly, the disadvantage with the HBCI
process is that you need the special read-
ing machine.
SEB, we are proud to say, was the first
bank in Germany to successfully introduce
the HBCI process. As part of a special
offer, “A Safe Start in the New Year”
HBCI-Starter Sets (containing the reading
machine) can be picked up for free at any
SEB branch, while stocks last. You’ll find
further information about safe and secure
Internet banking on our Website.
Written by Günther Spieth, SEB Bank, for
accents magazine. With over five million
customers and 20,000 employees, SEB is
one of the biggest financial service provid-
ers in northern Europe. www.seb.de
Send your
comments and
questions to:
Günther Spieth,
Director,
SEB Bank Stuttgart.
Email:
Guenther.Spieth
@seb.de
Photos, from left to right: Stuttgarter Frühlingsfest, new Mercedes Benz Museum, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
Monet’s landscapes are among the most
impressive paintings in western art.
Kunst lebt! Die Welt mit anderen Augen
sehen is the name of a special exhibition
at the Kunstgebäude am Schlossplatz,
open from May 24 - Sept 24. An adven-
ture for the senses, featuring top works of
art from 11 state galleries and museums.
In the lead-up to the football World Cup,
from May 26-28, the football trade fair
Fair Play takes place at the Messe Killes-
berg – a sales and information fair for
both young and old alike.
Tickets and info
Stuttgart-Marketing GmbH
Tourist Information ‘i-Punkt’
Königstraße 1A, 70173 Stuttgart
Tel 0711 2228-0, Fax 0711 2228-253
info@stuttgart-tourist.de
Good to Know 25
Labyrinth
Getting a job
Permits and finding work
With the national unemployment rate hover-
ing doggedly around 11 percent, Germany
is not exactly the country to arrive in with
hopes of simply walking into your dream
job. Apart from the availability of jobs,
there are other employment hurdles for for-
eigners: competence or fluency in German,
for one. Getting your qualifications recog-
nised in Germany, for another. But if you’re
a native English-speaker there may be
ways of finding paid work you haven’t yet
thought about.
Citizens of long-time European Union
member states, like the UK and Ireland,
have the same rights as Germans with
regards to seeking work. If your spouse is
German or a citizen of an EU member
country, you also have a right to a work
permit. These are now issued by the same
authority which issues residence permits,
the Ausländerbehörde (immigration office)
of your city council. If you possess a
so-called critical skill – in the field of com-
puters or high-tech science, for instance –
you might be eligible for a work permit
even without a spouse from an EU member
country. Your family members are also allow-
ed to work in this case, even if they don’t
Office fog
By a blöde Kuh
After three months of living in Germany,
I had two options to stay here legally.
I had to either get married or get a job.
The getting married option seemed like
something out of a B-grade movie. So
why not get a job? Little did I know that
without a thirty-page CV complete with a
photo and report cards dating back to the
first grade my choice of good jobs would
be limited. But in any case, before I knew
what was happening, I was answering
phones in an office.
Despite my limited German, the task
at hand seemed simple enough. Until
I realized that Germans say their phone
numbers veryfastandverycomplicated.
Something like 46 39 209 becomes six
and forty, nine and thirty, two hundred
nine – which I inevitably wrote out ver-
batim: 6 40 9 30 200 9. It was rather con-
fusing for my co-workers until they lear-
ned to translate what I meant. My boss,
26 Labyrinth
possess a critical skill. Check with the
Federal Labour Office (Bundesanstalt für
Arbeit) for a list of skills in demand. If you
don’t have a critical skill, are not an EU
member citizen and don’t have family con-
nections to one, you may find it difficult
to get a work permit.
English language fluency can often lead
to work you never thought possible. Eng-
lish language teaching is a classic ‘fall back’
job for many newcomers – even if you
have no teaching experience and are not
sure you understand the finer points of
English grammar. A university or college
degree, in any field, is often all that is
required to teach English in many of Baden-
Württemberg’s private language schools.
In some cases, the fact that you’re a native
English speaker is enough to land you
some paid work. Many schools will provide
you with in-house training. Just look under
Sprachschulen in the yellow pages of your
local phone book and ring around. (Or look
in the classifieds section of accents
magazine!)
Are foreigners in possession of a work
permit entitled to unemployment benefits?
Sure! But you will need to have been em-
however, called me a blöde Kuh for the
first few weeks. I would just smile plea-
santly thinking he was engaging in small
talk until I looked up the words in my
dictionary and realized he was calling me
a stupid cow. I was popular with my col-
leagues though. I mastered the art of
flawlessly ordering lunch for everyone at
the corner currywurst stand. Now that’s
raw talent!
What really got to me in the end
was smoking in the office. When I left
America, you could legally smoke in the
privacy of your attic or basement, but
everywhere else was off-limits to smo-
kers. In my German office, everyone
chain smoked. I haven’t seen that much
smoking since the girls’ bathroom in high
school – the abundance of overflowing
ashtrays just screamed grapefruit-size
tumors, and I bet you could have tarred a
driveway with the stuff in my co-workers’
ployed for at least twelve months during
the last three years and have paid social
insurance contributions. The amount and
duration of the unemployment benefit
depends on your previous income and the
length of your previous employment.
Germany does have a large number of
people who are registered as unemployed
– around five million nationwide. However,
you are living in the German state with the
lowest level of unemployment and among
the best employment prospects. Don’t
underestimate your chances of finding a
job in Baden-Württemberg in your specialis-
ed field of training or study.
Photo: photocase.com
lungs. I must confess, I’m being hypo-
critical. You see, I was a smoker at the
time. But walking through all that office
fog every day put me right off – and
saved me an enormous amount of money.
I actually stopped purchasing cigarettes
and became a second-hand smoker. I also
started a lucrative side business. I would
wet small cotton pads and leave them
around the office. Within days, nicotine
patches! The black market demand for
homeopathic nicotine patches is really a
golden opportunity.
After three years I gave up my office
‘career’ and got a real job bringing up my
children. Every time one of them brings
home a bad grade I find myself yelling,
“Do you want to end up working in a
smelly office, and selling nicotine patches
on the black market!? Well, do you?”
By Liz Gaiser
accents magazine