Plätzchen

Plätzchen are German christmas cookies. Most people bake these at home, although you can buy them in the store. Many people spend a whole weekend making these cookies and they are generally fairly small. Throughout the years many different kinds of Plätzchen come out a few remain classic.
The classics  include the Vanillekipferln (vanilla crescents) which are german shortbread formed into the shape of a crescent with powder sugar on top.  Another favorite is the Spitzbuben (Swiss sandwich cookies) which have jam in between two cookies (pictured on the right with hearts) . Lebkuchen which is like a soft gingerbread (pictured right next to the heart cookies). I personally can not stand Lebkuchen.  Last but not least comes Zimtsterne (cinnamon stars).

Baking Plätzchen is the biggest sign that it is almost christmas time in Germany. That and Weihnachtsmärkte

RAF

After watching this movie I can’t really say that I am really very shocked. How the extremists were treated is indeed awful but at the same time it’s not really anything new. It is unfortunate to see how the police handled things. In my opinion the police should be trying to stop the violence. In the beginning they just stood aside and let the protesters get beaten up. However, as the movie progressed the group seemed to kind of feed of the police action; as the police got stronger, so did they. As the rules tightened they just thought of more ways to prove their point and get around the laws; even when put in jail they still created a hunger strike to show that being in jail did not stop them. I do, however, think that they jail sentences and special cells were too much. I don’t believe this to be a group of criminals. They have a purpose. They know why they are doing what they are doing. They believe in something greater. In my mind I feel it is wrong to punish those people that are just standing up for what they believe in.

The RAF (Red Army Faction) was a very prominent left-wing group. It was founded in the 1970’s as a communist extremist group. The RAF was responsible for many deaths during its time, using “urban gorilla” warfare to show that they were unhappy about how they, and many others, were being treated.  This group consisted of three generations; the second one starting in the late 70’s and the third took power in the 80’s, finally dissolving around 1988. An eight page letter was sent from the RAF to a news agency showing a red star with a machine gun and stating that the group had officially ended.

Berlin Calling

1. For Ickarus drugs are his way of "getting away" and forgetting about any other issues he is having in his life. He feels he needs them everyday; drugs have become part of his life.

2. His fans take drugs from dealers. In the club where Ickarus works there are many drugs being pushed around. Drugs seem to be a very popular thing to do in this movie, so his fans probably started doing drugs if they saw their friends do it, or even if they saw Ickarus doing drugs they may have started just to copy him. Many different kinds of drugs are taken by many different people in this movie. The main one seems to be cocaine. The fans hide in bathroom stalls just to take this drug.

3. They focus on drugs because it seems to be the cool thing to do. He probably feels like he needs the drugs, the high, to be a DJ in the first place. The people who are at night clubs are the people that sleep all day and stay out all night. Drug deals seem to thrive at night, especially in a dance club where people are getting drunk and being reckless. Soon the drugs become a habit and people keep coming back and keep taking drugs.

4. This scene is very different than my hometown. My hometown is very suburban, and very small. The only night life that goes on is at Applebee's for 1/2 priced apps. However, if you were to go about 15 minutes down the road you would run in to the cities. The nightlife there is much more..crazy. There are a few night clubs and many many bars; with that comes drunks and drug dealers, making the scene look more like the one in the movie, but on a smaller scale.

5. I think this culture could change that. In this movie everyone is so focused on partying and on drugs that there is no possible way they have a good job, or that they are even moving up in the world. Ickarus and Alice are very focused on getting the work done to get his record released but they didnt seem to put much time and effort into it, or even try to do anything after. They just wanted to get this one record released so they could have money and that was it.

6. I haven't really seen any "cult movies" that are similar to this one.

I don't want to say that I was shocked, necessarily. I guess I was only surprised because I had no idea what this movie was about. I am surprised by how much nudity and sex German movies are allowed to show compared to the US. This movie, at first, kind of tried to show the good side of drugs. It showed that everyone did it, and that it was really no big deal to take some. That is until Ickarus has his bad trip and ends up the psych ward.

18th Century Medicine

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1I565MgMODXoZ5BMcgcMt-YhcF4a2KTmJmxEbc7nEkI0/edit#slide=id.p

1. Four Humors are important
2. Lack of knowledge on how our bodies work
3. Treatment methods
4. Blood circulation
5. How the diseases have decreased over the years

5 Points

1. How it affects the family when a soldier goes to war.
2. The relationship between the soldiers.
3. The loss of soldiers/friends.
4. How the boys weren't told about the horrors of war, only the good points about serving their country.
5. How we adapt to our surroundings/How tragic events affect how well we adapt.

Stanislaus Katczinsky - Kat

Kat is the oldest member of the group forty years of age at the start of the novel, he is also the most experienced member of the group.  A Cobbler in civilian life (Shoe maker), and the primary mentor of the group. He shows his charisma by persuading the cook to allow his small squad to eat the food that was rationed for the hundred some men when only forty had arrived to eat.  He has a sixth sense for finding food that the other boys very much appreciate him for. In one incident he finds four boxes of lobster and another time he finds some geese for the Men to cook and eat.

 Kat is the most positive member of the group, and the boys generally look up to him. He leads his men by example and gets angry with them when they have a negative outlook on their disposition. Kat is a survivor.

Kat is practical and humane, in one incident he finds a man who had his thighs blown off, he was in intense pain and Kat was the one that suggested that they do a mercy killing by putting the man out of his misery rather than sit in the hospital bed for three days dyeing from a slow grueling death.  He is forced to stop from the mercy killing by the return of the other soldiers from the front.

 His death is exceptionally traumatic to Paul as it is that point in the novel where Paul gives up on life. Shrapnel from a mortar explodes wrecking Kats shin. Paul realizing that Kat is hurt tries to carry him back to camp. On the way back to camp Kat makes a small moan to which Paul urges him to hang on only to discover upon his arrival back at camp that Kat had died on the way. A piece of shrapnel that had hit him in the head. Kat had been the last member of his original group to die. After this Paul is seen as the old man as many of the new recruits are under seventeen.

All Quiet On The Western Front: Chapter 9

Paul has just returned from leave and is curious as to the fates of his entourage, especially Kat.  Being as no one is aware whether or not other men in his group have survived Paul heads to the orderlies to see the fate of his men.  Paul finds out his friends are still on the front and instead of joining them waits three days and they return.

Upon return from the front they are forced into doing heavy drills and are put through heavy inspection as the Kaiser is coming to the front to personally inspect the troops. Paul explains that these drills are more humiliating than being on the front and that the front is preferable to the drills. The Kaiser eventually comes and delivers a few medals before leaving. Upon the Kaisers departure the fancy uniforms are quickly confiscated back.

Paul and the troops are disappointed by the appearance of the Kaiser. They imagined him larger, more powerful and to have a thundering voice. 

Instead of going to Russia, Paul and his men are sent back to the front. There they see a totally decimated line. Men laying naked having been blown out of their clothes and body parts scattered.  The soldiers become aware of how strong their enemy is shortly before a long burst of machine gun fire, a bomb lands close to Paul but narrowly misses him. Paul jumps into a trench and starts navigating the trench but has forgotten the way back to camp.  Paul ends up in no mans land where he comes face to face with a French soldier. The two engage in hand to hand combat and Paul stabs him 3 times. The French soldier falls and starts gurgling, Paul realizing that he’s not dead starts trying to take care of him. Offering him water and patches up his wounds. He finds a photo of a woman and a little girl in the French Soldiers pocket book and offers to write to them and send money. He later says that everything he promised he would do for this man he suggests he probably would not do.

Paul waits until nightfall and crawls out of the hole to find Kat and Albert went out searching for him. The next morning Paul tells his comrades what he had done to the French soldier and was consoled.