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.