Archives for September 2009
Truly German – Episode 04 – 18th September 2009
Truly German is a new podcast that talks about the news in Germany. Sometimes this will by national news, maybe political, but we will also be covering some local topics.
We want to have some fun at the same time, so part of the podcast is our Länderquiz – in which our contestant has to guess in which Bundesland three different news stories took place in.
This week we talk to Cathy Dobson – a British ex-pat living in Germany and author of the book “Planet Germany”.
The topics are:
- Elections in Germany
- Millions for Meerbusch
- Traffic laws during Oktoberfest
The quiz covers the following stories:
- Parking for football players
- Stag night mistaken for terrorist attack
- No refund after cat eats 500 Euro note
Listen to the episode and tell us what you think about the stories covered:
(Press the “play” button to listen to the podcast)
Klappenschrank
A Klappenschrank was a piece of equipment in the early days of the telephone, that was used to connect two subscribers with each other.
It was operated by a Fräulein vom Amt and was effectively a board made up of holes – one hole per line, covered with a small cap. The caps would flap to show that someone wanted to make a phone call, and often a light bulb would show that a line was still in use. Two holes would be connected by a wire to establish the call between the two parties.
They stopped being used on the telephone network in the western German states in 1966, and in the GDR in 1987.
To hear a simple explanation and a short discussion in German, listen to the podcast:
(Press the “play” button to listen to the podcast)
