Germany « More shameless remarks by Larko

Personal dispute to stop trains in Germany

Wednesday, August 8, 2007 at 6:40 | Posted in Germany, railways, traffic | Leave a comment
Tags: labor

I wrote last month about chaos in German railways caused by industrial action. The trains were stopped in early July by two trade unions, Transnet and GDBA, demanding pay rises of seven percent for their members. As I noted back then, engine drivers represented by GDL were not participating in the bargaining because they wanted a separate wage agreement with a pay hike of up to 31 percent.

Today, a good month later, that conflict is exactly at the same point. A strike is very likely to kick off tomorrow. Oddly enough, Spiegel Online International suggests that the parties have made no progress in their negotiations to a large part because of a personal grudge between the two main actors, Deutsche Bahn chief executive Hartmut Mehdorn and GDL chairman Manfred Schell. Spiegel reports about exhange of less than polite statements between the gentlemen.

German engine drivers are worse paid than their colleagues elsewhere in Europe. According to Spiegel, there is public sympathy to the drivers in spite of the expected chaos right in the middle of the vacation season. As Mein Parteibuch puts it, it is bad for Germany’s reputation that the pay for a full time job is insufficient for providing a decent existence.

You owe the copyright lobby

Wednesday, August 8, 2007 at 3:09 | Posted in Bureaucracy, computer, copyright, Germany | 3 Comments
Tags: crazy

If you are reading this blog post, you probably possess a computer with a hard drive. There are, of course, also other ways to connect to the Internet but most of us still use a regular computer. Did you know that your computer is a device which is typically intended for recording copyrighted films and you should accordingly pay the copyright owners for the privilege of having a computer?

That seems to be the reasoning behind a ruling of the German patent officials. The story, as reported by Golem.de (via Farliblog) has it that computer manufacturers should retroactively as from 2002 pay a compensation of 15 € for each computer with a hard drive they sold.

I for one have had about half a dozen computers since 2002 but I have never used any of them as a substitute of a DVD recorder. There are typically other purposes I use my computers for. Or as Farlion puts it, you could just as well argue that the most logical purpose of a piece of paper would be writing down the contents of copyrighted books.

Culture of transparency

Tuesday, August 7, 2007 at 0:43 | Posted in Germany, great britain, internet, transparency, video, youtube | 5 Comments
Tags: military

A month ago I uploaded to YouTube a funny video featuring German soldiers in Uzbekistan having some off duty fun. I wanted to contribute to the popular footage being accessible in the Internet after receiving information that the German Bundeswehr were anxious to get it down from the web and had apparently succeeded in persuading everybody who had uploaded it before me to take it down.

Shortly after uploading the video I received some anonymous correspondence. The first letter had a somewhat harsh tone. I was outright threatened with legal action with implications to criminal charges.

As soon as the language of those messages was changed from German to English, the tone also shifted to more appealing and conciliatory. The person writing to me implyed to be one of the persons appearing on the video and said it would be “helpful” to get it down. When I promised anonymity in exchange of information on the Bundeswehr activity in the matter I was promptly told that the army had not approached them to get it down.

Had I been convinced that there were real soldiers out there getting in trouble because of the video, I would have been likely to take it down. Since I had information from several sources that the Bundeswehr were indeed making an effort to get the footage out of the web and only one anonymous source saying the opposite I felt I needed some sort of confirmation to do anything. I pointed out that any information passed to me would be priviliged under confidentiality of sources of a journalist.

The correspondence promptly stopped as soon as I wrote back a message saying this. For all I know the person writing to me may have been somebody from the Bundeswehr staff trying to fool me into complying so I decided to leave things as they are. I have not heard anything about it in more that three weeks other than occasional comments added in YouTube, all of which are positive.

In contrast to the German military officials, the British Army seems to be very supportive of their service men’s off duty activities of this sort. This home coming video posted by British soldiers in Iraq is a proof of it: the end titles even appreciate that the local commander was encouraging the project.

I do not know if there is a difference between the British and German senses of humor or in the culture of transparency. Maybe the German forces just feel embarrassed to recognize that soldiers have an off duty life. What I do know, however, is that there is no way to actually pull back something which has been spread allover the Internet.

Edit: There is more to the topic in RA-Blog and StoiBär Blog.

Starving diet imposed on Knut

Wednesday, August 1, 2007 at 4:09 | Posted in Germany | Leave a comment

I wrote yesterday about Germans and their relationship with bears. I thereby mentioned Knut the polar bear who used to be an outright media star as a baby. It now turns out that the eight month old polar bear has grown to be fat, according to zoo vets and faces a strict diet.

Spiegel Online International reports:

“Knut has become noticeably round,” zoo vet Andreas Ochs said. “So we shall be feeding him restrictively.”

That means no more croissants and extra portions of fish and meat for the shaggy youngster, who turns eight months on August 5.

Knut himself has not so far commented the strict food regime in his blog.

Edit: Knut’s response has appeared in the blog. He says he is not at all fat and keeps excercising.

Shooting arrows at a bear?

Tuesday, July 31, 2007 at 3:33 | Posted in Germany | 1 Comment
Tags: nature

Germans seem to have a sensitive relationship with bears. Last summer there was a public outcry because a bear nicknamed as Bruno was shot on orders of the Bavarian government. This spring most of Germany adored a baby polar bear called Knut who is allegedly blogging from the Berlin Zoo. In the most recent entry, Knut complains about having to bathe every day in summer time.

A summer would not have been a summer at all without another bear story reported from Germany. The police in the south western German town of Titisee-Neustadt were alerted by a hiker who reported having seen a wild bear in a forest. However, the bear turned out to be fake, according to Spiegel Online International. Spiegel quotes Titisee-Neustadt police department spokesman Dieter Klipfel as saying:

The bear turned out to be a lifesize replica positioned in a field as a target for the local archery club, which had received special permission to place him there, Klipfel said.

“Thank God we didn’t shoot him,” said Klipfel.

That is funny. I did not know that the German police are armed with bows and arrows.

Wash your socks and feet

Tuesday, July 10, 2007 at 1:28 | Posted in Germany, Not serious, odd | Leave a comment

According to Ananova, the police in Kaiserslautern, Germany broke in to the home of a man reported as missing for a week by his neighbors. The neighbors were afraid the man would be dead because of the heavy smell of a rotten body coming from his flat.

The police found the man fully alive, sleeping in the flat. They said the odor was originating from his dirty feet and a pile of unwashed socks.

What can we learn about this incident, if anything? I guess it would be a good idea to wash your feet and socks if you are going to avoid being seen by your neighbors.

via Vesa

Making a point

Sunday, July 8, 2007 at 22:13 | Posted in Blogosphere, Germany, Politics | 3 Comments

Farlion makes a point with the image above saying that this uncomfortable feeling is shared by every German with a critical view on German politics.

Thanks, Farli, for allowing non commercial use of the image. But please no hot linking to Farlion’s server and neither to mine. If you want to display the picture, you should host it yourself. And let us give the credit to Farlion, folks.

The mission of truth

Thursday, July 5, 2007 at 4:44 | Posted in Blogosphere, Freedom of speech, Germany, internet | 2 Comments

Schott’s Blog, which I have enjoyed reading as one of the critical voices from Germany, is about to close. The reasons to this decision are connected to the German Impressumspflicht, an obligation imposed on owners of web sites, bloggers included, to publish their contact credentials in the web, the home address included (see my earlier posts here and here. The rules make it possible to intimidate a critical blogger by legal means and also makes it easier for stalkers of all sorts to get a physical access to a blogger.

Farlion comments Schott’s Blog’s decision by admitting that he has considered to do the same but decided to go on with his critical blog(s). Farlion notes that the main stream media in Germany is toothless and does not publish critical coverage of the actions taken by elected politicians. According to Farlion, the media has accepted that it is more comfortable to cover politics without criticism.

Farlion also points out that the political blogs are the only media in Germany to deliver critical views and without blogs there would not be a real public opposition. He goes on to note that the German people were widely criticized after World War II for failing to stop Hitler:

Ich will mir später einfach nicht nachsagen lassen, dass ich ja alles kritiklos hingenommen hätte. Nach dem zweiten Weltkrieg wurde den Deutschen immer wieder eine Frage gestellt: “Warum habt ihr nichts dagegen unternommen?”

Diese Frage möchte ich mir irgendwann in der Zukunft einfach nicht stellen müssen. Und darum bleibe ich auch beim politischen Bloggen, auch wenn es mir zeitweise zugegeben etwas schwer fällt.

So Farlion goes on to blog, in spite of occasional motivational difficulties but Schott is going to let a part of his contents be visible for an undefined period before eventually closing for good. I am sorry to learn about this since there are not too many good blogs around that would speak up and let the truth be told. Critical bloggers have a mission, the mission of truth.

Chaos in German rails expected to continue

Tuesday, July 3, 2007 at 23:13 | Posted in Germany, railways, traffic | 1 Comment
Tags: labor

According to AFP, delays due to industrial action on German rails are expected to continue tomorrow. This morning could be as best described as a chaos on rails:

Commuters in cities and towns throughout the country faced delays during the morning rush hour, one day after warning strikes wrought havoc on regional and local rail lines.

Trade union GDL, representing train drivers, said Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt were hardest hit by the work stoppages, which ran from 5:00 to 9:00 am (0300 to 0700 GMT), although delays continued well into the day.

Peter writes that he was driving his son to school this morning. As they approached the school yard, it was announced that the first lesson of the morning was canceled due to the strike. Apparently, teachers in Heidelberg region heavily depend on trains.

Meanwhile in Hamburg, Andre had another sort of trouble. A lot of commuters seem to have driven to work in absence of the local S trains. Alas, Andre was unable to find a legal parking space for his car.

The rail workers are seeking to get their share of the generous profits of the rail service. Deutsche Bahn filed a profit of 1,7 billion euros last year, three times as much as the year before.

AFP accounts for what the unions are actually seeking:

The Transnet and GDBA unions are calling for wage increases of seven percent over a period of 12 months for 134,000 employees, while management has proposed a one-off payment of 300 euros and two-percent pay rises in 2008 and 2009.

Train drivers, however, did not participate in the talks and were seeking a separate wage agreement with a pay hike of up to 31 percent.

The latter demand has also been rejected by the management, describing it as “absurd”.

What is a browser?

Saturday, June 30, 2007 at 17:09 | Posted in computer, Germany, internet | Leave a comment

The German public television ARD had a video in their breakfast show the other day with children interviewing politicians about their use of computer and the Internet. It turned out that the politicians have less than satisfying knowledge in the IT area. One of the child reporters is captured in a moment of frustration wispering to her fellow reporter that they had better skip the rest of their questions since the politician does not seem to be at home using his computer.

Another politician was asked by the kids to name a couple of browsers. She did not manage the task. She returned a question: “What is a browser?”

Medienrauschen blog writes (via Schott’s Blog) that when you are dealing with legislation about such topics as governmental trojans, software patents and hacker statutes, it would obviously be unreasonable to demand politicians to have such expert knowledge as knowing what a browser is. I absolutely agree. Politicians are better off not understanding the issues they are asked to decide. Otherwise they might rebel against the party whip.

Polish German breast relations

Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 17:24 | Posted in Germany, Media, Not serious, odd | Leave a comment
Tags: poland

Is this an accurate description of the current relations between Poland and Germany? The Polish magazine Wprost seems to think so as this is their latest front page image.

I do not think much of the Kaczynski brothers but this looks like a bit too much even for them.

via 3-Bein Peter

No cookie for Hubertus Albers

Wednesday, June 27, 2007 at 20:27 | Posted in Germany, Legal | 3 Comments

I wrote about a month ago that Hubertus Albers, who is better known as Atze Schröder, sued the CEO of Wikimedia Deutschland e.V Arne Klempers for legal costs of a withdrawn lawsuite against Mr Klempers. As Heise on line reports, the court (LG Hamburg) has ruled against Hubertus Albers. The court says that ~~mentioning the real name of a public figure like Atze Schröder does not violate his personal rights for privacy and there is a public interest against the comedian who regularly appears in public~~ Hubertus Albers failed to argue why his interest in secrecy should value higher than the public interest in knowing his name. Without an explanation how his privacy was violated by merely telling his name the court has no reason to assume a privacy violation.

Arne Klempers writes in his blog that he is not surprised by the ruling. He does, however, point out that mentioning the name in German blogs may still not be safe as there is another case still pending in Berlin.

Since I am not bound by German courts, it is safe for me to say that LG Hamburg gave no cookie for Hubertus Albers. Whatever the ruling in Berlin may be, it has no effect whatsoever in what I write in this blog.

via Farlion and RA-Blog

Meinungsfreiheit

Sunday, June 3, 2007 at 13:19 | Posted in civil rights, Germany | Leave a comment

Christian in Vienna writes about an anti G8 demonstration in Rostock which was stopped by the police. Apparently, a couple of bastards acting violently managed to provoke the ~~Gestapo~~ police to intervene.

Christian points out that every little bastard can spoil a good cause. While I do not understand the importance of objecting G8 and every form of globalisation which seem to attract professional trouble making demonstrators, I would die for their right to express their opinion. The German keyword here is “Meinungsfreiheit”.

I am not a pimp

Wednesday, May 23, 2007 at 4:12 | Posted in Germany, google, Not serious | Leave a comment
Tags: prostitution

Somebody just googled their way here with this search argument:

Rostock, Germany prostitutes

Since I am not a pimp, I must ask you to search elsewhere.

Hubertus Albers again

Monday, May 21, 2007 at 5:17 | Posted in absurd, Freedom of speech, Germany, Legal | 3 Comments

There was an all time high in my blog statistics a couple of weeks ago. As my web connection was broken at the time and I therefore had a very limited access to the Internet, I had absolutely no idea why my two month old post about Atze Schröder a.k.a. Hubertus Albers was suddenly receiving loads of hits. While Atze Schröder is a very popular TV character in Germany, I thought that attempts of Hubertus Albers to get his name off the web were not such a big deal.

What I did not know is that the CEO of Wikimedia Deutschland e.V Arne Klempert had published a long post in his blog about legal actions taken by Mr. Hubertus Albers against him. Mr. Klempert appears as the admin-C of Wikipedia.de. The well known fact that the real name of Atze Schröder is Hubertus Albers was momentarily to be read in an article in the German Wikipedia.

In December 2006, Arne Klempert received a cease and desist letter from a lawyer representing Hubertus Albers. On advice of his counsel, Mr. Klempert refused to comply and was subsequently sued by Hubertus Albers. The case was scheduled for a first hearing in Hamburg in early May but just before the trial, Mr. Albers withdrew the lawsuit.

One would think that this would be a closed case as far as Arne Klempers is concerned. But what do you know, now Hubertus Albers is seeking his legal costs from Arne Klempert. As Mr Klempert writes, Mr. Albers was barking at the wrong tree in the first place and had a case with very questionable merits, to put it mildly. His legal team must have realized that they were wrong but they still want Mr. Klempert to pay for their own mistake.

As I wrote in March, there is a public record readily available in the web saying that Atze Schröder is a registered brand belonging to one Hubertus Albers in Emsdetten. Practically all Germany and anybody else who may be interested knows who the guy is. So suing everybody who may or may not have published his real name is a bad art of comedy.

via RA-Blog

« Previous Page — Next Page »