The GW Expat Blog

All Posts

The Father of Sliced Bread Was a German Iowan

by | Jul 15, 2024 | | 0 Comments


We take pre-sliced bread for granted. It has even become part of the language: “It’s the best/greatest thing since sliced bread.” But Iowa-born Otto Frederick Rohwedder did not begin selling his pioneering bread-slicing machine until 1928. It could automatically slice a thousand loaves of bread per hour.

At first bakers were not enthusiastic about Rohwedder’s invention. They claimed that a full, unsliced loaf helped keep the bread fresh and flavorful, the way it had for over 30,000 years of bread baking. But another food-prep invention two years earlier would helped promote sales of his new bread slicer.

Pre-sliced bread loaf

A pre-sliced loaf of bread like this one was unknown before 1928, when the German American inventor Otto Rohwedder perfected his revolutionary bread slicing machine. PHOTO: Fran Hogan, CC-BY-SA-4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

A fellow Iowan had developed the first practical pop-up toaster. Charles Perkins Strite’s new toaster was designed for restaurants and produced four evenly toasted slices. Previous toasters could only toast one side at a time, and it was difficult to consistently cut toast bread into equally thick slices by hand. Variations of Strite’s 1926 commercial toaster would soon become common in home kitchens around the globe, and help encourage the sale of pre-sliced bread for toast and sandwiches.

Today, even in Germany, pre-sliced Toastbrot is popular, and pre-sliced bread can be found all around the globe, even if the thickness of the uniform slices varies by country and region from 10 to 18 mm (0.39-0.71 in), or in some cases as thick as 24 mm, or just under an inch (“Texas toast”).

Who was Otto Frederick Rohwedder?
Otto Rohwedder (1880-1960) was born in Des Moines, Iowa to Claus Rohwedder (1845-1922) and his wife Margeretha née Jannssen (1848-1920), as one of the couples’ five children (four boys and a girl). Claus had come to Davenport, Iowa from his homeland in the district of Dithmarschen in what is now Schleswig-Holstein in 1866. He met and married his wife in Iowa in 1869. read more…

Day Trip to Wittenberg, Germany

by | Jul 1, 2024 | , , | 1 Comment

Coming out of the pandemic, my family limited our long-distance travel and started exploring places closer to home. These day trips from Berlin are some of my favorite places and we have re-visited often. But I am always looking for somewhere new.

Enter the Deutschlandticket! For a similar price to the monthly city transportation ticket, you can travel all over Germany – albeit on regional rail, no ICE. We used this to visit Rostock and Warnemunde, as well as having access to local transport in Dresden and Hamburg. It has been a real motivator for us to explore the areas around Berlin and led us to a day trip to Wittenberg on May 1st, a holiday. Known as the site where Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the door of the church in 1517, effectively launching the Protestant Reformation, it also makes a nice little day trip.

Wittenau Germany

Wittenberg PHOTO: Erin Porter

read more…

CATAN: Klaus Teuber’s Pioneering Board Game

by | Jun 21, 2024 | , | 0 Comments

New Energies: German Game Designer Klaus Teuber

When you hear the term “board games” you may think of typical tabletop games such as chess or checkers/draughts, Go, Monopoly, Pictionary, Risk, Scrabble, Sorry!, and many others. But we’re going to talk about a special kind of board game known as German-style games or “Eurogames”.

CATAN red box

The current box for Klaus Teuber’s game of CATAN® (TRADE • BUILD • SETTLE). The original 1995 board game was named “The Settlers of Catan” and commonly called “Settlers” or “Catan”. Shortly before his death, Klaus and his son Benjamin created the New Energies version released in June 2024. Learn more below. PHOTO: Catan GmbH

Board games have a very long history going back to ancient times, including the Ancient Greek game called petteia, which later evolved into the Roman two-player strategy board game named latrones (“game of soldiers”). From written records, we know that the Ancient Egyptians had similar board games that preceded those found in the Greek and Roman worlds. The Aztecs and Maya, in what is now Mexico, had similar board games. The many cultures in Asia were no exception as well, such as pacheesi (aka “parcheesi”) in India.

Modern board games come in many varieties and are still popular today all around the globe. They can be classified in many categories, including these:

  • Abstract strategy games – chess, checkers, Go
  • Auction games – Hoity Toity/By Hook or Crook (Adel Verpflichtet), Power Grid (German-style games)
  • Count and capture games – bean/stone games, mancala games (Muslim world)
  • Cross and circle games – Yut, Ludo, Aggravation
  • Deduction games – Mastermind, Black Box
  • German-style board games or Eurogames – Catan, Carcassonne, Decatur, Carson City, Puerto Rico

There are in fact many more varieties of board games beyond what we have space to list here.

Catan - Teuber book

German game designer Klaus Teuber on the cover of the German version of his memoir: “My Journey to CATAN”. PHOTO: Catan GmbH

The Latest Version of Catan
The reason I’m posting this blog is because I recently learned that a new special edition of CATAN was being released this summer, in June 2024. I knew that CATAN was designed by a German, but I didn’t know a lot about the game or its designer. Catan: New Energies introduces a new element into this popular community-building game: climate change.

Unlike Klaus Teuber’s original The Settlers of Catan game, which is set in agrarian, Viking times on the island of Catan, Catan: New Energies is also set on the island, but in the present day, with contemporary environmental issues. Co-designed with his son Benjamin Teuber, among other things, players must make choices related to green energy or fossil-fueled energy. There are energy tokens and other elements related to environmental concerns. (The key word mentioned in the New Energies rules is “pollution”.)

But New Energies doesn’t preach about climate change. The energy options are merged into the game along with other elements. Players can win using a variety of solutions, even opting for less green alternatives, as long as the end result is enough points to come out on top. But if the players in a game pollute too much, too soon, the game ends, and the player with the most points wins, as sort of a consolation prize.

Faithful to German-Game Principles
But New Energies remains faithful to the basic principles of Eurogames How are “German games” different from typical non-Eurogames? Catan: New Energies and all of Klaus Teuber’s games share a few important baseline rules that you won’t find in Monopoly, Risk, and similar simulation board games.

As a general rule, German games similar to Catan share these criteria:

  • Social cooperation: In contrast to Monopoly’s cutthroat approach, Catan and similar games encourage cooperation and negotiation. Auctions and negotiating are part of the game.
  • No elimination: At the end of the game, all players are still in the game. Yes, there’s a winner (based on points), but no one is left sitting alone watching others finish the game.
  • Low randomness/luck: The element of chance or luck is reduced in German games. Luck is not completely eliminated, but chance is far less a factor than in a typical dice-throwing or card-drawing games. Chance or randomness arises more through not knowing what strategy other players are using, as in real life.
  • Game designer names: Most German games bear the imprint of their creator(s). German-game designers such as Teuber have a reputation that carries over to new games they design.
  • Time limits: Anyone who has played Monopoly knows how a game can go on forever. Catan and other German games set a time limit (one hour or 90 minutes; no more than two hours) and use a point system that determines the winner. Whoever has the most points (not cash or hotels) when the clock runs out is the winner.
  • Themes: German games have a theme that shapes the play and course of the game. Catan and its many variations all have a basic premise or theme. Other game examples include: Puerto Rico (develop plantations in 18th century Puerto Rico); Carcassonne (build a medieval landscape with walled cities, monasteries, roads, and fields); Power Grid (expand a power company’s network and buy power plants)

In a 2022 Nikkei Asia magazine interview (quoted in Teuber’s NYT obituary), Klaus Teuber said this about why he thinks Catan has become so popular: “There may have been a good balance between strategy and luck. For example, roulette is only about luck, and chess is all about strategies. However, if you win in Catan, you think, ‘My strategy was good,’ and when you lose, you might think, ‘I was just out of luck.’ This is the same as life.”

Klaus Teuber’s Story
Klaus Teuber (TOY-bear) was born on 25 June 1952 in the village of Rai-Breitenbach, West Germany, now a district of the southern Hessian city of Breuberg. The city lies below the historic hilltop Breuberg Castle (Burg Breuberg) that dates from the 13th century. It is one of Germany’s best preserved castles.

As a child, Klaus enjoyed playing with toy soldiers. In school he liked geography and was fond of making maps. He also enjoyed history and chemistry. He later studied chemistry and became a dental technician (Zahntechnikermeister). He had his own firm (Teuber Dental-Labor) near Darmstadt. Not particularly happy in his dental work, Teuber began to dabble in game design in the 1980s.

His first success came with a game inspired by Patricia A. McKillip’s fantasy trilogy The Riddle-Master. After refining “Barbarossa” (German title: Barbarossa und die Rätselmeister) for seven years, he found a publisher, and the game won Germany’s prestigious Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) award in 1988. Teuber would win that award three more times, for the games Adel Verpflichtet (Hoity Toity) in 1990, Drunter und Drüber (Wacky Wacky West) in 1991, and Die Siedler von Catan (The Settlers of Catan) in 1995. That game, now known simply as Catan, became Teuber’s biggest success, and long before his death in 2023, his wife Claudia and two sons, Guido and Benjamin, were helping run the family business, Catan GmbH.

Klaus Teuber had also won another German game award, the German Games Prize (Deutscher Spielepreis, DSP), established in 1990. The DSP honors German-language board and card games marketed in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Unlike the Spiel des Jahres, the DSP awards are determined by industry insiders, retailers, and interested game players. The award is sponsored by the Friedhelm Merz Verlag, a publishing house in Bonn. The annual award ceremony takes place in the city of Essen, one day before the opening of the International Game Days (Internationale Spieltage) event. Teuber won the DSP in 1990, 1992, 1995, and 1997.

He also won the second-place DSP award for the card-game version of Catan in 1997. In addition to his first place wins, Teuber placed in the Top 10 of the annual DSP awards for his other games: Timberland (1990), Drunter & Drüber (1991), Vernissage (1993), Galopp Royal (1995), Entdecker (1996), Löwenherz (2003), and Elasund (2006).

The Pioneering Game of Catan
Teuber’s original board game, The Settlers of Catan, with its theme of Viking settlers in Iceland, is credited with launching a greater “social” era for board games, introducing cooperation with bargaining and bartering among three to six players as part of the winning strategy. Another one of Teuber’s brilliant strokes was the use of “hexes”, hexagonal tiles to represent the resources of wood, ore, brick, wool, and wheat. With the huge success of Catan, Teuber was able to become a full-time game designer in 1998. As is common with most Eurogames, Catan now has many variations and so-called “expansions”, add-ons with new themes or options for the stand-alone games, including the latest CATAN®: New Energies variation.

Before New Energies, other standalone variations of Catan were introduced over the years, including: A Game of Thrones CATAN®, CATAN®: Dawn of Humankind, CATAN®: Starfarers, CATAN® Histories: Settlers of America – Trails to Rails, and CATAN® Junior (for younger players).

Catan online: Catan Universe offers an online community and digital versions of the Catan games for use on smartphones, tablets, Mac computers, and Windows PCs. The website is in English, French, German or Spanish. You can download the Catan app (Android/iOS) for free (with in-app purchases). With a web browser you can even play a sample game for free without registering.

CATAN: New Energies layout (box)

The German-style board game CATAN was invented in 1995 by the noted German game designer Klaus Teuber (1952-2023). To date CATAN has sold over 40 million copies in 40 languages. This latest version (2024), CATAN: New Energies, introduces environmental elements that affect the outcome of the game. PHOTO: Catan GmbH

Amazon.com also sells the original Catan board game for 3 to 4 players. (A 5-to-6 player extension is also available.) Amazon.com: “Set sail to the uncharted island of Catan and compete with other settlers to establish supremacy. Strategically gather and trade resources like ore, brick, lumber, grain, and wool to expand your settlements.” Note: Amazon.com offers many other Catan game variations, but “New Energies” is not one of them so far. However, you can preorder Catan: New Energies directly from the Catan Shop.

Two Companion Books and a Memoir
With Teuber’s collaboration, the Catan story also became available as a novel written by the German historical fiction author Rebecca Gablé (the pen name of Ingrid Krane-Müschen). The Settlers of Catan book was published in English in 2011.

Klaus Teuber later wrote his own Catan novel in German. CATAN – Der Roman, in three volumes, was published in 2022 by Kosmos-Verlag, only a year before Teuber’s death in 2023. (The English version, Catan: The Novel (1) was published in October 2024 by Blackstone Publishing. A Spanish version is also available.) Before that, in 2020, Teuber also wrote a memoir titled Mein Weg nach CATAN (“My Path to CATAN”), his personal story about how he came to create the world of Catan in a game format, back in 1995. The 2021 English version, My Journey to CATAN, translated by Geraldine Klumb and published by Aconyte Books as a special limited edition (1,000 signed copies) is unfortunately no longer available, either from Amazon or the CATAN Shop.

But the official CATAN cookbook is available! CATAN®: The Official Cookbook (Board Game Cookbooks) came out in hardcover format in September 2023. “Recipes inspired by the best-selling board game” declares the book’s cover. With this book, Amazon says, “…fans of Klaus Teuber’s iconic game can now fuel up while road building and negotiating trades. From snack-worthy appetizers to feast-level entrees.”

I hope this post will inspire you to play CATAN with friends, but in any case I find Klaus Teuber’s life story a very interesting one.

– HF

What and Where to Eat in Vienna

by | Jun 3, 2024 | , , | 0 Comments

In my last post I exulted on the loveliness that is Vienna. The grand architecture, regal attractions like performances at the Spanish Riding School and the palaces (plural). This small city is packed with elegance and charm.

But that is only the half of it as I have yet to talk about the food. Many North Americans lump all “German” food together as some type of amalgamation of heavy meaty dishes. As someone based in Berlin, I can recognize most of the dishes categorized as German like Schweinshaxe, Schäufele and even the humble Bretzel as Bavarian by birth. Germany has distinct food regions, and its German-speaking neighbors to the south have a food culture all their own. One of the most famous “German” dishes is distinctly Austrian, though it is so totally beloved it is served across Europe and around the world, the Schnitzel.

In this post I will offer some of my favorite things to eat in Vienna and where to eat them. It is an essential element of any visit to the Austrian capitol.

Schnitzel in Austria

A proper Schnitzel doesn’t restrict itself to plate borders PHOTO: Erin Porter

read more…

Baby Names in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland

by | May 20, 2024 | , | 0 Comments

Baby Names: In and Out of Fashion

Like many other things in life, baby names go in and out of fashion. It’s an international phenomenon that applies globally, regardless of language. Some first names (Vornamen) are rather timeless, while others fade away. Baby names are also much more international that we might think. On this page we look at and compare recent popular baby names in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the USA. At the end you’ll find a list of old-fashioned German first names.

Vornamen • First Name Facts
Baby names…

  • vary according to language, country, and era.
  • vary within a country by region, state, and ethnicity.
  • in German-speaking Europe tend to be very international, especially in the age of the internet.
  • can in some cases be timeless, without an expiration date. (Florian, William)
  • can drop like a rock after years of high popularity. (Taylor, Kevin)
  • can make a comeback after years of rarity. (Emil)
  • are inspired and gain popularity (or lose it) through the influences of popular culture (books, films, current events, sports, etc.)

Unlike in the United States, German parents can’t simply pick any first name they like. The new baby’s name must be approved by the local Standesamt (registry office). There are rules and requirements for baby names that must be followed. German bureaucracy must get involved. It’s the German way!

Germany’s Lack of a Central Database
Considering the German tendency to gather data, it may be surprising to learn that, unlike most countries, Germany has no official record-keeping agency that maintains a nationwide, annual database of baby names. German-speaking Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein each do have an official national database. In the United States the Social Security Administration (SSA) has maintained a database of baby names dating from 1880 to the present.

GfdS website homepage

The Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache e. V. (GfdS) is a not-for-profit German language association based in Wiesbaden that, among other activities, annually compiles baby name data for Germany (since 1977). PHOTO: GfdS website

For names in Germany, to provide consistency, we have used the data provided by the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache e. V. (GfdS), a nongovernmental association. But there are other private baby name databases and websites for German names, some of which we link to below. When using a different database below, we note that fact. The only problem with the GfdS data is the fact that in order to obtain their full list of 200 baby names, you have to pay a fee. That means for this blog post we are limited to the GfdS’s publicly available Top 10 names. (Yes, we’re too cheap to pay for it, but we provide a link below that readers can use to order the full GfdS names list for 2023.)

Top 10 Baby Names in GERMANY • 2023
Mädchen / Girls Jungen / Boys
1. Sophia/Sofia (2) 1. Noah (1)
2. Emilia (1) 2. Mateo/Matt(h)eo (2)
3. Emma (3) 3. Leon (3)
4. Mia (4) 4. Paul (5)
5. Hanna/Hannah (5) 5. Emil (7)
6. Mila (7) 6. Luca/Luka (8)
7. Lina (6) 7. Henry/Henri (10)
8. Ella (8) 8. Elias (6)
9. Klara/Clara (9) 9. Louis/Luis (9)
10. Lia/Liah (14) 10. Liam (15)
Previous rank (2022) displayed in ( ). Each of the names in the Top 10 comprised about one percent of all first names, ranging from 0.92% to 1.39%. Source: Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache e. V. (GfdS). Other non-government websites also compile annual baby name lists for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Missing Names and New Names
Two male names that were previously in the Top 10 are missing in the 2023 Germany rankings. Both Ben, a No. 1 name in 2019, and Finn, ranked 4th last year, have now fallen out of the Top 10. On the other hand, Liam, in 15th place last year, rose five places for 2023. Liam, an Irish form of William, probably got a boost from two popular film actors: Liam Neeson (Irish) and Liam Hemsworth (Australian). Liam and Noah ranked 1 and 2 in the 2022 US names list. Henry, 7th in Germany, was also 7th in the US 2023 list. Mateo, 7th in Germany was 11th in the US for 2022. Mateo/Matheo/Matteo is a Spanish or Italian form of the biblical name Matthew (Matthäus in German).

For the girls, Lia made it into 10th position for 2023. That’s a climb in popularity from 63rd in 2010, 25th in 2020, and 14th in 2022. The German female names have been very stable for several years, with no big name popularity drops as with the boys. Germany’s female names also are very international. The following “German” names for girls also appear in the US Top 10 list for 2022: Emma, Sophia, and Mia. See the USA Top 20 names below.

Regional Naming Variations in Germany
The baby names rankings for Germany above are for the entire nation. However, if we look at each of the 16 Bundesländer (federal states), regional variations become apparent. According to the GfdS, here are the top three boys and girls names in some sample German Länder:

BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG
Girls: 1. Sophia (1), 2. Emma (3), 3. Emilia (5)
Boys: 1. Noah (1), 2. Leon (2), 3. Matteo (3)

BAVARIA
Girls: 1. Sophia (1), 2. Emilia (3), 3. Emma (2)
Boys: 1. Leon (2), 2. Felix (5), 3. Lukas (1)

BERLIN
Girls: 1. Sophia (1), 2. Emilia (2), 3. Charlotte (5)
Boys: 1. Mohammed (1), 2. Noah (2), 3. Adam (3)

HAMBURG
Girls: 1. Emilia (4), 2. Sophia (3), 3. Emma (1)
Boys: 1. Mohammed (5), 2. Henry (3), 3. Liam (9)

HESSE
Girls: 1. Emilia (2), 2. Sophia (1), 3. Emma (6)
Boys: 1. Noah (1), 2. Mohammed (3), 3. Matheo (2)

LOWER SAXONY
Girls: 1. Ella (4), 2. Emilia (1), 3. Emma (5)
Boys: 1. Noah (1), 2. Matheo (2), 3. Finn (3)

SAXONY
Girls: 1. Hanna (1), 2. Emilia (4), 3. Emma (2)
Boys: 1. Emil (1), 2. Matheo (4), 3. Oskar (3)

Problem Names: Karen, Kevin, Chantal, and Others
The Irish given name Kevin was at one time a very popular name for boys in Germany. It became so popular in fact that a negative preconception about the name Kevin developed among teachers and the general public in Germany. There is even a term for this phenomenon: Kevinismus (“Kevinism”).

It was somewhat similar to the later negative attitude about the name Karen that developed in the United States recently. But the name “Karen” became a somewhat random, unfair meme after various white women appeared in cell phone videos doing inappropriate, racist things in reaction to the presence of Black or Asian people.

Unlike Karen, the negative attitude about Kevin had no real basis in fact. It simply reflected a prejudice against trendy, “foreign” names, including the French female name Chantal. The female equivalent of Kevinism was Chantalism.

Kevin first entered the West German Vorname world in the late 1970s when the English football (soccer) player Kevin Keegan played for Hamburg SV between 1977 and 1980. But the name Kevin didn’t spike to extreme popularity until after the 1990 hit movie Home Alone. The German title was Kevin – Allein zu Haus, reflecting the leading character Kevin McCallister (played by Macaulay Culkin). Around the same time, the actor Kevin Costner appeared in several hit films, including Dances With Wolves (1990), which did well in Germany. In 1991 the number one baby name for boys in Germany was Kevin. The name remained very popular into the early 2000s, but by 2010 it had largely disappeared from the top baby names lists in the German-speaking world.

The same thing happened, less dramatically, to earlier trendy given names such as Heini (short for Heinrich), Horst, Detlef, and Uschi (short for Ursula). For a full list of dated German first names see below.

Top 10 Baby Names in AUSTRIA • 2023
Mädchen / Girls Buben / Boys
1. Emma (4) 1. Maximilian (3)
2. Emilia (2) 2. Felix (6)
3. Marie (1) 3. Paul (1)
4. Mia (6) 4. Jakob (2)
5. Anna (3) 5. Noah (10)
6. Sophia 6. Elias (4)
7. Laura (7) 7. David (5)
8. Valentina (8) 8. Jonas (9)
9. Lena (5) 9. Leon (7)
10. Johanna 10. Lukas
Previous rank (2022) displayed in ( ). Source: Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache e. V. (GfdS). Other nongovernmental websites also compile annual baby name lists for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Another source of Austrian baby names is charlies-names.com, sponsors of a name app for Android and iOS, which lists names for 2024. Their Top 50 list for Austria varies somewhat from the official statistik.at list above, and also includes “unisex names”. According to charlies-names.com, the Top 10 names for boys and girls in Austria for 2024 are:

GIRLS: 1. Emilia, 2. Sophie/Sofie, 3. Sophia/Sofia, 4. Emma, 5. Hanna(h), 6. Mia, 7. Luisa, 8. Marie, 9. Ella, 10. Amalie
BOYS: 1. Elias, 2. Felix, 3. Jonas, 4. Mateo/Matteo, 5. Maximilian, 6. Jakob, 7. Paul, 8. Teo/Theo, 9. Finn/Fynn, 10. Emil

Top 10 Baby Names in SWITZERLAND • 2023
Mädchen / Girls Knaben / Boys
1. Emilia (2) 1. Noah (1)
2. Mia (1) 2. Liam (8)
3. Malea (10) 3. Leon (4)
4. Emma (3) 4. Matteo (2)
5. Lina (4) 5. Leano (8)
6. Elena (5) 6. Luca (3)
7. Mila (8) 7. Elias (6)
7. Sofia (19) 8. Lio (5)
9. Lia (9) 9. Lian (12)
10. Alina (6) 10. Nino (7)
Previous rank (2022) displayed in ( ). Source: Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache e. V. (GfdS). Other nongovernmental websites also compile annual baby name lists for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Another source of German Swiss baby names is charlies-names.com, sponsors of a name app, which lists names for 2023. Their Top 50 list for German-speaking Switzerland varies somewhat from the official babynames-stat.ch list above, and also includes “unisex names”. The Top 10 names for boys and girls in German Switzerland are:

GIRLS: 1. Emilia, 2. Sophia/Sofia, 3. Mia, 4. Mila/Myla, 5. Lia(h), 6. Sophie/Sofie, 7. Emma, 8. Lina, 9. Malia, 10. Elea
BOYS: 1. Levi/Levy, 2. Elias, 3. Liam, 4. Finn/Fyn, 5. Mateo/Matteo, 6. Lio, 7. Leon, 8. Mael, 9. Louis/Luis, 10. Elio

Top 10 Baby Names in the USA • 2023
Girls Boys
1. Olivia 1. Liam
2. Emma 2. Noah
3. Oliver 3. Charlotte
4. James 4. Amilia
5. Sophia 5. Elijah
6. Mia 6. Mateo
7. Isabella 7. Theodore
8. Ava 8. Henry
9. Evelyn 9. Lucas
10. Luna 10. William
Source: Social Security Administration (SSA)

Similarities Across Countries and Languages
In 2023 there were many similarities among name lists for the US and Germany, as well as for Australia, Canada, England, and other nations. Several boys’ and girls’ names can be seen on both the American list above and the lists for German-language countries. Charlotte, Henry, Sophia/Sophie, Mateo, Emma, Noah, Mia, and Liam appear on German-language and English-language lists. Some may be pronounced differently, but it’s obvious than many names cross international borders. Some of the names are biblical (Noah), while others are historic (Charlotte, Sophia). In all cases they are now international.

Helmut Schmidt and Ronald Reagan in 1978

German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (left) with Ronald Reagan, the future US president, in Bonn, West Germany in November 1978. PHOTO: Detlef Gräfingholt, Bundesarchiv via Wikipedia Commons

Oldies But Goodies
In the table below you’ll find a lot of names you probably know, but have fallen out of favor and fashion. Germany’s former chancellor, Angela Merkel, has a first name that was once popular, but is no longer found in Top 10 baby name lists. One of my favorite German chancellors (from 1974 to 1982) was Helmut Schmidt (1918-2015). His full name was Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt! There was also an “Uncle Helmut” in my Austrian wife’s family. But that male given name is quite rare today.

I remember the film actress Elke Sommer very well. (She’s still alive and well, by the way, now living in the Los Angeles area.) Sommer appeared in many European and Hollywood films in the 1960s and 1970s. She was born Elke Schletz on 5 November 1940 in Berlin-Spandau. In Germany the female first name Elke peaked in popularity between the 1940s and the 1960s. It began to fade away in the 1970s until the name “Elke” pretty much disappeared in the 1980s.

Below you’ll find a list of German male and female names that are for the most part very rare in the present day. It’s a collection of first names that we have dubbed “oldies but goodies”.

German First Names No Longer in Fashion
The following names, listed alphabetically, were common Vornamen in the past. Today German parents would be reluctant to give their boy or girl such an old-fashioned name. But there are a few exceptions. Names listed below in bold type are old traditional ones that have enjoyed a comeback in recent years.
Mädchennamen / Girls’ Names
Ada, Adelheid, Agnes, Alice, Alina, Altraud, Alma, Alwine, Amalie, Andrea, Anette, Angela, Angelika, Anita, Anke, Anneliese, Astrid, Auguste, Barbara, Bärbel, Beate, Berta/Bertha, Bettina, Birgit, Brigitte, Brunhild(e), Cäcilie, Carmen, Charlotte, Christine, Claudia, Clara/Klara, Cornelia, Dagmar, Dora, Doris, Dorothea, Edith, Elfriede, Elke, Elsa, Elsbeth, Erika, Eva, Franziska, Frauke, Frieda/Frida, Friederike, Gabi/Gabriel(a), Gerda, Gerlinde, Gertraut, Gertrud, Gisela, Grete, Gretchen, Gretel, Gudrun, Hedda, Hedi/Hedy, Hedwig, Heike, Helene, Helga, Helma, Hilda, Hannelore, Hedwig, Heide/Heidi, Heike, Henni, Henriette, Hermine, Herta/Hertha, Hilda/Hilde, Hildegard, Ida, Ilsa, Ina, Inga, Inge, Ingeborg, Ingmar, Ingrid, Irmgard, Irmhild, Irmela, Irene, Isabella/Isabelle, Isolde, Johanna, Josefa, Josefine, Jutta, Karin, Karla, Kerstin, Klara, Krimhilde, Kunigunde, Leni, Liane, Lina, Lisbeth, Liselotte, Magda, Magdalene, Maren, Margot, Maria, Marianne, Margrit, Marion, Marlis, Martha, Mathilde, Meike, Minna, Monika, Nadine, Nora, Olga, Ottilie, Petra, Regina/Regine, Renate, Rita, Roberta, Romy, Rosa, Rosemarie, Roswitha, Rotraut, Ruth, Sabine, Senta, Silke, Silvia, Simone, Stephanie, Susanne, Tamara, Tanja, Thea, Therese, Ulrike, Ursula/Uschi, Ute, Viktoria, Walburga, Walli/Wally (short for Wal- names), Waltraut, Wilhelmine, Wilma
Jungennamen / Boys’ Names
Achim, Adalbert, Adolf/Adolph, Albrecht, Alexander, Alfred, Alwin, Andreas, Anton, Arno, Arnold, August, Axel, Balduin, Baldur, Benno, Bernd, Bernhard, Bertolt, Bodo, Boris, Bruno, Burkhard, Carl/Karl, Carsten, Christian, Clemens, Curd, Dagobert, Detlef, Dieter, Dietmar, Dietrich, Dirk, Eberhard, Eckhard, Edmund, Eduard, Egon, Emmerich, Emil, Erich, Erik, Ernst, Eugen, Fabian, Falko, Ferdinand, Florian, Frank, Franz, Friedrich, Fritz, Gebhard, Georg, Gerhard, Gero, Gerold, Gert, Gottfried, Gregor, Günther, Gustav, Hans, Harald, Harro, Harry, Hartmut, Hartwig, Heiko, Heiner, Heinz, Helmut, Henning, Herbert, Hermann/Herrmann, Herwart, Herwig, Hildebrand, Hinrich, Holger, Horst, Hubert, Hugo, Igor, Immanuel, Ingo, Jacob/Jakob, James, Jan, Jens, Joachim, Jochen, Johannes, Jörg, Joschka, Jürgen, Josef/Joseph, Karl, Karsten, Kaspar, Klaus, Knut, Konrad, Kunibert, Kuno, Kurt, Leopold, Lothar, Ludwig, Luitpold, Lutz, Manfred, Markus, Martin, Matthias, Moritz, Niels, Norbert, Olaf, Ortwin, Oskar, Oswald, Oswin, Otto, Ottokar, Paul, Peter, Poldi (Leopold), Rainer/Reiner, Ralf, Reinhard, Reinhold, Richard, Robert, Roland, Rolf, Rüdiger, Rudi/Rudolf, Rupert, Ruprecht, Sepp, Siegfried, Sigmund, Sigurd, Simon, Stefan, Theobald, Theo/Theodor, Thomas, Tobias, Udo, Uli/Ulrich, Uwe, Veit, Viktor, Volker, Waldemar, Walter/Walther, Werner/Wernher, Wiegand, Wilhelm/Willy, Willibald, Wolf, Wolfgang, Wolfram

You might be interested in another name tradition that was once popular in Austria and parts of Germany. Today it’s still popular in Sweden and some other European countries. Many Europeans know and celebrate their Name Day (Namenstag). In some countries your name day is more important than your birthday.

– HF

Guide to Vienna

by | Apr 29, 2024 | , , | 0 Comments

When I was last on the job hunt, I had two interesting opportunities. The jobs had some important differences, including different locations. One was in Cologne, the other in Vienna. This caught my attention as both options were remote so I could happily work from my home in Berlin but also included the chance to occasionally visit the office. Cologne is nice, but an office visit to Vienna a few times a year sounded like a bonus. I took the job in Vienna.

And I’m glad I did! Startup life is chaotic, but it takes on an air of elegance when surrounded by such grandeur. I’ve had two trips to office so far, combining one of them with a meander through Munich, Salzburg, and Nuremberg. Combining work and travel is my ideal work environment.

Stephansdom in Vienna, Austria PHOTO: Erin Porter

I am still getting to know the magnificent city known as Wien, but here are my recommendations on where to visit in Vienna, Austria.

read more…

Indiana’s German Place Names and Connections

by | Apr 15, 2024 | , | 0 Comments

Indiana: The Hoosier State

The US state whose name means “land of the Indians” also has a lot of German connections. In fact the largest ancestry reported in Indiana is “German” – with 22.7 percent of the population claiming that ancestry in the 2020 census. In the 1980 census that percentage was even higher: 32 percent German.

The largest immigrant group to settle in Indiana were Germans, followed by the number of immigrants from Ireland and England. Although there was technically no unified “Germany” (Prussia) until 1871, German ancestry refers to people with a German-speaking heritage, including Austrians and German Swiss, many of whom arrived in Indiana and the US before 1871.

Carol Lombard in 'To Be or Not to Be'

Carole Lombard in her last film, TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942). The German American actress Carol Lombard was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She was married to the German American Clark Gable when she died in a plane crash in 1942. Her birth name was Jane Alice Peters. Learn more below. PHOTO: Paramount Studios, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Urban versus Rural
German Swiss and Alsatian farmers settled in the rural areas of Indiana. German beer brewers and other craftspeople preferred more urban locations, settling in Indianapolis, Evansville, Fort Wayne, and other cities, where the German-language press thrived for many years. Indiana counts among those US states where German-language newspapers at one time numbered in the hundreds, not all of them in large cities. (See more about newspapers below.)

In Indianapolis and other cities, the German language and German culture had a significant impact on the development of the city, particularly by the establishment of gymnastics clubs (Turners) in the 1850s, which were as much about social and cultural development as they were physical development. German American groups influenced music, art, education, business, politics, and physical fitness all across Indiana. read more…

Guide to Salzburg

by | Mar 31, 2024 | , | 0 Comments

A perk of my new job is that the headquarters is in Vienna. While I usually work remote from Berlin, there have already been a few opportunities to visit the team in office, as well as combine work and pleasure by taking some days to explore other places in Austria. On my last trip south I took the train and stopped in Munich, Nuremberg, and Salzburg. I had visited all these places before, but none more briefly than Salzburg. This fairytale city deserved a longer visit so we scheduled three days of sightseeing in the land of the von Trapps, mountainous fortresses, and perfect plate-sized schnitzels.

Salzburg Austria at night

Salzburg Austria at night. PHOTO: Erin Porter

Brief History of Salzburg
The Salzburg of today is heavily reminiscent of its history. The city was established all the way back in 696 C.E. by a missionary named St. Rupert. First a Benedictine monastery was built, then a small town grew around it. read more…