This afternoon I took my daughter to a reading of “Kiki Kufenflitzer – Der Eiskristall” by the author, former German figure skating champion and actress Tanja Szewczenko in Heddesheim.

Arriving in good time, we were somewhat surprised to find out that we should have arranged tickets in advance, as there had been no mention of this on the website where we had read about it, but luckily we were still able to get in at the last minute.

Apart from this small hiccup, everything was well organised, with a warm area at the front for the children to sit on, and chairs further back for the parents. (more…)

It is now 18 years since I first applied for a job in Germany.  In the autumn of 1992 I returned to University armed with a collection of addresses of companies in Germany that I wanted to apply to.  Many of them I had found in newspaper advertisements whilst on holiday, others came from a directory of British companies with German offices.

In the end, I wrote to 75 of them.  I sent a cover letter explaining that I was looking for a 12 month placement as part of my degree course and included a my CV (that’s the resumé for my American readers!)

A few never responded.  Others wrote back thanking me for my interest, but saying they could not offer me a placement in their company.  However one did invite me to an interview at Gatwick airport, and the following year I started work at the German branch of Psion. (more…)

If you publish a book in Germany, then you are required to provide two copies – the so-called “Pflichtexemplare” – to the national library.

The system is similar to law in the UK requiring copies of new books to be sent to the British Library, and for certain others, eg. the Bodleian Library in Oxford, to be able to request free copies if they wish to do so.

As a result, the Deutsche Nationalbilbiothek is able to provide a complete database of anything published in Germany.

Recently, there has been some discussion as to whether digital publishers are required to provide free copies to the library as well, even to the extent of whether bloggers would have to provide copies of every post!

Luckily the library appears to have seen sense and just scans and stores any articles on blogs that they choose to archive.  But what about e-books?

With my e-book coming out at the beginning of October – tomorrow in fact – I contacted the library and asked them what I had to do.  Did they really want two digital copies, and in which format? (more…)