I just want to point out, that at 3:02, to get that shot, Simon would have gone into the room, placed the camera, gone back out, gone in again, and then acted as if it was the first time he saw the room XD. I see through your liiiiiies, Simon. :) Great vid. as always
yeah kinda like casey neistat, I can clearly see the work put into the vlog btw your vlogs in my opinion are better than casey in a sense that yours follow a real life story of a genuinely hardworking person getting his phD while balancing stuff you really love buts your phD has came to a end and I am not sure whether the vlogs will be as interesting anymore. well a new chapter in life might open up and you might decide to do go on a month long hike and record it !! that be awesome
Hey Simon, I'm an american student. I love watching your vlogs; they've cemented my desire to do my grad studies in Europe. I just wanted to say thanks because your attitude and approach to studying as well as life overall have inspired me so much as a person and as a student. Your videos are amazing, and wikicast is the best! Keep up the great work!
The group of bikers are called "critical mass" I believe. Germany has a law which grants a certain number (and upwards) of cyclists to pass red lights etc.
Simon, please keep up these videos. They absolutely make my week. You are by far my favorite vlogger, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who appreciates these longer videos.
This vlog has made me realise that filming really is the best way to capture travel! I got such a good feel for where you were. The cathedral looked uh-mazing.
The Dungeon Franchaise is actually pretty fun. Basically it's a way of getting people to interact with the macabre and gory parts of a city's history but in a theatrical lively manner (as opposed to just going to a museum and reading/looking at artefacts kinda thing). I really enjoy them in the same sense I really enjoyed Horrible Histories as a kid or how one might like TV shows like Ripper Street or Whitechapel. Hope that kinda makes sense! (:
The slogan @ 14:02 says 'I could also be working in a cosmetic studio, but I don't have to. Freedom of occupation, German constitutaion, article 12 paragraph 1'.
Hey Simon, these are probably some of the best places to visit if you want to think about rememberance: 1. The Holocaust memorial - controversial but important. 2. The Hitler bunker - very close to the Holocaust memorial. It has been filled in and had a car park built on top with little more than a sign to mark it. 3. The Wall - both where it has been preserved, and destroyed and the graffiti. 4. Reichstag - redesigned and built to suit a modern government and the architecture focuses on openness. Soviet graffiti from 1945 on some walls has been left exposed. 5. Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Very interesting place. Get a guided tour for best information and understanding. 6. Shopping areas - KaDeWe, the overpriced shopping mall, for instance was once owned by Jews, then taken from them by the Nazis. Hope you enjoy Berlin when you get the chance to return
Just the title makes me want to go back to Berlin not been in a couple years, also P.S Simon, I sent my application away for Oxford today ( For St. Peters) and it was all thanks to you. Thank you soo much for your videos.
OMG, I visited Berlin/Potsdam on the exact same weekend! A shame I didn't stumble into you... You were the major inspiration for me to start a vlog about my experiences beginning a PhD abroad this summer. Hopefully, in 5 years I'll be in a similar position as you are now!
The remaining/reconstructed synagogues (shuls is the term most British Jews would use) in central Europe are really beautiful yet saddening. The reason being that whilst they are architecturally amazing and have rich history, for Jewish visitors it's like seeing your own culture in the natural history museum, an exhibit of the past - this is because most of these shuls or areas have basically no local Jews to form a community or a service. In Prague they are nearly exclusively tourist attractions, and in Poland some are now public buildings. It was indescribably odd when, on a school trip to Poland, we visited a shul where my friends' great grandparents would have prayed before being deported to camps, only to find that the shul was now a childrens' library - they thought we were foreign intruders, and to an extent they seemed like intruders to us. But given the lack of jews, it makes sense. The scale of loss of community and home was immense in the holocaust, and the shuls stand as hollow shells of their former selves as proof. Sorry for the somber reflections Simon, your vlog was top notch as usual :)
I know that this is an older video, but you could watch a German miniseries called Generation War on that topic (Unsere Mütter, Unsere Väter). It was on Netflix and on Google Play last time I checked, at least in Germany. ZDF made this miniseries along with a documentary (with the same name, I think) showing the interviews with people from that time they based their series on.
Hey Simon, just a little remark from a German Klugscheißer, Potsdam is not a part of Berlin ;-) it's an independent city West of Berlin in the former "East" part of Germany (DDR) and I pretty sure a lot of Berlinians (Berliner) would be pretty adamant about that :-)
Hey, loved the video and also all of the other ones on your Chanel. I was wondering about a few things in your video. Firstly because you were away I presume you had a chill and did not do any work? If so how important is this for your PhD regarding work/life balance. Secondly what is your plan after you get your PhD. Will you go into the field of atmospheric physics and get a job doing that whilst keeping vloging a side thing or the other way around? I hope you do well in your PhD and I look forward to your next video.
If you look down in front of older buildings you can see the names of the people that lived there before they got deported by the Gestapo. Those metal stones with the names are all over the place
Tech question: your camera can only record for 29 minutes and I am certain the interview, setup time took longer than that so how were you able to record enough footage for a fast forward montage?
Wonder if Simon confessed his most used phrase during his PhD was, "For some reason the code doesn't seem to be working". One week later, "It appears I ran the code upside down".
I spend a week in Berlin and still didn't see half the sights. It's by far one of the most interesting cities in the world but you need alot of time to look round
I just started my first ever physics class- mechanics for engineers- and im so bad at it. Any tips for physics beginners? (I'm not trying to be an engineer so i really just need to get through this class)
Lani Dubois I'm a first year student so maybe I'm not qualified lol, but try to make friends in your class who will motivate you to study and will help you with homework from time to time. Other than that, as long as you find physics interesting, you'll have the motivation to understand it at an intuitive level. And that's your drive to get better and keep studying(hopefully)
Fantastic Vlog. I will say, that although they did a good job on their video, I was looking for that extra leap of difference between your production and theirs, and I'll be honest, it wasn't there. I feel the production of their video was on par with a good vlogger (like yourself), even with the added cameras and sound equipment and directing. Overall, the interview was great, but the production value was pretty subpar considering the equipment and money they had.
There aren't many memorials to German dead, of either world wars, in Europe let alone Germany. One of the the most touching though is the one at Bendlerblock, in Berlin naturally, which is where many of the German officers of the resistance were headquartered.
Oh man, i feel so happy watching your vlogs, happy when i see you are having fun (this is so gay). Wish you the best of the best of luck, thank you for making my day a little bit happier. #NoHomo #wellMaybeAlittle #justKidding #loveYou
I"m an American and I enjoy watching vlogs from a British person more than other Americans. Probably cuz I am bored of my own country Anyways, Simon is very attractive and smart! I love his videos !! And is he single ??!?
His representation of Nazi Germany is entirely untrue. Nazis were sworn into power by overwhelming majority in fair election in 1938. And ideas of Holocaust were hatched not in the backwaters of Pomerania, but in the leafiest boroughs of Munich.
You mentioned commemorating soldiers... I know that is a big topic in Great Britain. Commemorative culture is taken very seriously there, especially when it comes to WWI. In Germany, a right wing politician recently said we should commemorate and honor the soldiers of both World Wars more than we do (=not at all)... his reputation was smeared for it, even more than it already was, they called him a Nazi and what not. That should demonstrate quite clearly how much Germany gives about commemorative culture. A flying f*ck.
It's a really interesting debate, at least from the outside. In the UK I guess we have the whole 'history is written by the victors' thing going on, which makes it acceptable to commemorate the actions of those who fought (and committed atrocities). Like I said in the video, not everyone who was fighting on the war (on either side) was fighting because they deeply, passionately believed in the ideology of their respective government. I'd venture that most were fighting simply because they were ordered to, and while they have had ideological convictions of their own their main goal was simply surviving rather than seeing their worldview victorious. As such it's kind of a surprise to see a lack of commemoration of the bravery of the everyday soldier, but at the same time given how the nazi party came into being in the first place it's completely understandable. In light of the elections this week it will be really interesting to see how the balance between those two factors plays out. What's the mood like in Germany with the rise of the CfD?
Max Mustermann is obfuscating the facts here a bit, It's not just "a right wing politician" it was one of the top candidates of the alt-right/far-right AfD (Alternative for Germany) which has recently gotten 13% in the election. This party has a considerable amount of nazi sympathisers and conspiracy theorists (it's basically a german version of donald trump's ideology). And he actually said we should be proud over the achievemnets of german soldiers during WWII (his actual words translated) and that we should also stop to commemorate the victims of the holocaust ("we have to take back our history").
I agree Simon. A little anecdote: My great grandfather did not like the Nazis at all. He wanted the war to end quickly and secretly listened to the BBC, which was very dangerous since his children could spill the beans in school and it would be off to the concentration camp with him (tragically, this happened to many people). His eldest son, my great uncle, was drafted in 1943 when he was 17, went through a quick military training, and fell shortly after at the Western front. And in the Germany of today, I am simply not allowed to be proud of him. I am expected to feel shame and pity for him, because he did not rebel against the regime. Most of us, wherever we may come from, would be silent sheep in the 3rd Reich. That's just what humans are like, we have a strong will to survive and protect our family. Of course, he fought for a bad regime but soldiers don't pick their side. He did not fight for Hitler, he fought for his homeland because he had to.
CfD... I assume you mean AfD (Alternative für Deutschland)? It is very interesting how this party has developed over time. In the beginning, they were just an anti-EU party, similar to UKIP. Then they got rid of their leader Bernd Lucke, who was very moderate and was falsely accused of being far right. There is a famous quote by a conservative Politician from the time of the cold war, Franz Joseph Strauss: There must be no legitimate party right from the CDU/CSU (our conservative parties that are just called the Union). What he meant back then, was that the Union is as conservative as it gets before you enter the far right wing (back then the criticism was directed to the German Republican Party). The AfD was always criticised for being potentially such a party; a party that is too far right and therefore illegitimate. The next leading figure of the AfD was Frauke Petry. She was further to the right and Lucke split from the party. The AfD missed the 5% hurdle in the 2013 parliament elections by 0.2 percent points. The FDP, our liberal party (which, in Germany, does not mean left but rather center/center-right), also missed it for the first time ever! And I believe this was one reason why the AfD could gain much more voters. In 2009, the FDP got about 15%. In 2013 only about 4.8%. The AfD got 13% in the 2017 election yesterday; and of course the journalists are wondering: where did the votes come from? Most of them came from former non-voters, and then from the CDU. Only less than 1% from the FDP. However, there is a fallacy in there since the FDP lost these voters already in the 2013 election, when the CDU got a very high percentage in return. So here's what I'm getting at, bare with me: The absence of a liberal party in the parliament that makes constructive opposition against the two main parties, the conservative CDU and the social democrats (SPD), has lead to the huge increase of AfD voters, since most of them are thinking: I have had it with Merkel and her "I did it my way"-politics and no one is really opposing her in the parliament, I am conservative/center right, I cannot vote for a leftist party, the Green party is on the left, too... who am I gonna vote for? The FDP? No, they are ridiculous, they didn't even make the parliament, they're laughing stock (they really were back then; the media, the comedians, the politicians... they were all trashing the FDP). And then this kind of frustrated voter thinks: "Oh well, I guess the AfD is my last option." I voted for the liberals but honestly, I understand why conservative and center-right voters are flocking to the AfD. But most people in Germany do not recognize this. I guess they think that there are about 7% of Germans who are crazy Nazis and the other 6% just vote for the AfD because they are so frustrated, fear-struck, and angry (there's the term "Wutbürger"="angry citizen"). I say, this is a stupid over-simplification. If you want to do something against right-wing populism, you have to take them seriously. And they still don't do that and that is scary to me. It will lead to only further polarization and one day, we will have a similar situation as in the time between the world wars: the parties around the center are weakened and either the socialists or the right-wing extremists seize their opportunity.
@kaesebrot649: I am sure he said "both World Wars", not just WWII which would have a different connotation. It is also difficult to translate since he said "[Wenn Franzosen und Briten stolz auf ihren Kaiser oder den Kriegspremier Winston Churchill seien], „haben wir das Recht, stolz zu sein auf Leistungen deutscher Soldaten in zwei Weltkriegen“ The world Leistungen is difficult to translate, since you can't say achievements. He does not mean what they achieved, he rather means their service. I would translate it like this: "If the French and the British are proud of their Emperor or the War-Prime Minister Churchill, we have the right to be proud of the service of German soldiers in two World Wars." I did not hear about him saying we should stop to commemorate the victims of the holocaust. I think now you are obfuscating the facts a bit. What I think the AfD's intention is, is that they want us to look at our history without the wide-spread "Deutscher Sonderweg"-paradigm. And there is truth to this. The school curriculum consinsts mainly of "What was the situation after WWI? How did this lead to the rise of the Nazis? The NS-regime, WWII, The holocaust and the aftermath of the war. These are all very important topics, however, there is a lot more to German history. Only in my time as a history student I realized how fascinating German history of the 18th century is, for example. And the Enlightenment is also very relevant for us today (although history lessons should not begin by asking what is relevant for today).
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
I just want to point out, that at 3:02, to get that shot, Simon would have gone into the room, placed the camera, gone back out, gone in again, and then acted as if it was the first time he saw the room XD. I see through your liiiiiies, Simon. :) Great vid. as always
L I E S
D E C E P T I O N
yeah kinda like casey neistat, I can clearly see the work put into the vlog
btw your vlogs in my opinion are better than casey in a sense that yours follow a real life story of a genuinely hardworking person getting his phD while balancing stuff you really love
buts your phD has came to a end and I am not sure whether the vlogs will be as interesting anymore.
well a new chapter in life might open up and you might decide to do go on a month long hike and record it !! that be awesome
Exactly what I thought too. Reminded me of arpee park
Hey Simon,
I'm an american student. I love watching your vlogs; they've cemented my desire to do my grad studies in Europe. I just wanted to say thanks because your attitude and approach to studying as well as life overall have inspired me so much as a person and as a student. Your videos are amazing, and wikicast is the best! Keep up the great work!
The group of bikers are called "critical mass" I believe. Germany has a law which grants a certain number (and upwards) of cyclists to pass red lights etc.
you should be right - they meet every last friday of the month and cycle around Berlin to protest for better conditions for bikers
I am late to commenting but I was going to suggest the same answer : Critical Mass.
Traveling Simon is the best Vlog Simon! (not that the other Vlogs aren't delightful). Hope you get to travel even more!
Simon, please keep up these videos. They absolutely make my week. You are by far my favorite vlogger, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who appreciates these longer videos.
Honestly love watching your videos Simon, haven't even watched one second and know i am going to enjoy this one!
Saw the interview & it was great especially the part where Simon talks about equations & how you can do new things with them...so much passion!!!!
I bloody love to watch these vlogs.
This vlog has made me realise that filming really is the best way to capture travel! I got such a good feel for where you were. The cathedral looked uh-mazing.
The Dungeon Franchaise is actually pretty fun. Basically it's a way of getting people to interact with the macabre and gory parts of a city's history but in a theatrical lively manner (as opposed to just going to a museum and reading/looking at artefacts kinda thing). I really enjoy them in the same sense I really enjoyed Horrible Histories as a kid or how one might like TV shows like Ripper Street or Whitechapel. Hope that kinda makes sense! (:
I love the fact that your vlogs are 30 minutes or so. I just that's unique of you!!
The slogan @ 14:02 says 'I could also be working in a cosmetic studio, but I don't have to. Freedom of occupation, German constitutaion, article 12 paragraph 1'.
Thank you for the translation!
Loving the recent vlogs Simon! Keep up the great work mate! :D
Hey Simon, these are probably some of the best places to visit if you want to think about rememberance:
1. The Holocaust memorial - controversial but important.
2. The Hitler bunker - very close to the Holocaust memorial. It has been filled in and had a car park built on top with little more than a sign to mark it.
3. The Wall - both where it has been preserved, and destroyed and the graffiti.
4. Reichstag - redesigned and built to suit a modern government and the architecture focuses on openness. Soviet graffiti from 1945 on some walls has been left exposed.
5. Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Very interesting place. Get a guided tour for best information and understanding.
6. Shopping areas - KaDeWe, the overpriced shopping mall, for instance was once owned by Jews, then taken from them by the Nazis.
Hope you enjoy Berlin when you get the chance to return
So many things I could comment but Imma pick this one:
"C'mon camera you're expensive. Focus!" lol I loved that.
Just the title makes me want to go back to Berlin not been in a couple years, also
P.S Simon, I sent my application away for Oxford today ( For St. Peters) and it was all thanks to you. Thank you soo much for your videos.
Wahey! Best of luck with your application, I'll keep some fingers crossed for you :)
Did you hear back from Oxford?
I can't tell you enough how you inspire me to put in more effort into my work!
OMG, I visited Berlin/Potsdam on the exact same weekend! A shame I didn't stumble into you... You were the major inspiration for me to start a vlog about my experiences beginning a PhD abroad this summer. Hopefully, in 5 years I'll be in a similar position as you are now!
The remaining/reconstructed synagogues (shuls is the term most British Jews would use) in central Europe are really beautiful yet saddening. The reason being that whilst they are architecturally amazing and have rich history, for Jewish visitors it's like seeing your own culture in the natural history museum, an exhibit of the past - this is because most of these shuls or areas have basically no local Jews to form a community or a service. In Prague they are nearly exclusively tourist attractions, and in Poland some are now public buildings. It was indescribably odd when, on a school trip to Poland, we visited a shul where my friends' great grandparents would have prayed before being deported to camps, only to find that the shul was now a childrens' library - they thought we were foreign intruders, and to an extent they seemed like intruders to us. But given the lack of jews, it makes sense. The scale of loss of community and home was immense in the holocaust, and the shuls stand as hollow shells of their former selves as proof.
Sorry for the somber reflections Simon, your vlog was top notch as usual :)
Simon’s $210.00 Airplane Seat vlog > Casey’s $21,000 Airplane Seat vlog
Nobody told you life was going to be this way ... 😂 Do you sing that as well when cursing on writing down your PhD? (I certainly do😁)
Great vlog Simon! 👍
This addresses my life as a grad student in physics, thank you simon!
Loved the little Britain reference
Yeahhh Simon in Germany 😍😍can't wait to see the rest of the video hahaha
I know that this is an older video, but you could watch a German miniseries called Generation War on that topic (Unsere Mütter, Unsere Väter). It was on Netflix and on Google Play last time I checked, at least in Germany. ZDF made this miniseries along with a documentary (with the same name, I think) showing the interviews with people from that time they based their series on.
5:26 I don't live in Berlin, but this happend in Dortmund too
Hey Simon, just a little remark from a German Klugscheißer, Potsdam is not a part of Berlin ;-) it's an independent city West of Berlin in the former "East" part of Germany (DDR) and I pretty sure a lot of Berlinians (Berliner) would be pretty adamant about that :-)
AHAHAHA THE ICARUS PART HAD ME WHEEZING!
love your humour
Simon, I'm applying to do an Undergraduate Physics masters - what are the facilities like at Exeter?
lol I first heard Pokemon museum at 15:39. I was surprised!
Hey, loved the video and also all of the other ones on your Chanel.
I was wondering about a few things in your video. Firstly because you were away I presume you had a chill and did not do any work? If so how important is this for your PhD regarding work/life balance.
Secondly what is your plan after you get your PhD. Will you go into the field of atmospheric physics and get a job doing that whilst keeping vloging a side thing or the other way around?
I hope you do well in your PhD and I look forward to your next video.
If you look down in front of older buildings you can see the names of the people that lived there before they got deported by the Gestapo. Those metal stones with the names are all over the place
That time-lapse of a time-lapse at 9:36 :p
I nicked the slippers (they nicked my shower cap) and they broke too!!
Have you ever been to Geneva, Simon? I went with my college's Physics department last Summer and it's such a beautiful city
Tech question: your camera can only record for 29 minutes and I am certain the interview, setup time took longer than that so how were you able to record enough footage for a fast forward montage?
Wonder if Simon confessed his most used phrase during his PhD was, "For some reason the code doesn't seem to be working". One week later, "It appears I ran the code upside down".
Liket den Kommentar ,damit die denken , dass ich einen lustigen Witz geschrieben habe.😂
weil ja niemand auf die idee kommt google translator zu benutzen xD
AquaFX ~ Leon Wenn die das machen, sind die echt hobbylos :d
Terrorists win
Like the comment to make them think I wrote a funny joke
is what this person wrote my friends, he is a scammer.
Aaa I want to meet Simon, I just started at the University of Exeter!
fun fact, merck usa used to be part of the german merck, but it was nationalized during World War I.
not being rude or anything, but why are you videos posted nearly 2 months after they are filmed?
I spend a week in Berlin and still didn't see half the sights. It's by far one of the most interesting cities in the world but you need alot of time to look round
6:21 Potsdam is on the west of Berlin. Southwest to be more accurate.
13:57 That roast scared me.
Voice crack when you said dildo, guessed you chocked on the 'd' hahahahahahahahah
Funny
Unrelated picture of your parents is cute x
Also did I hear a The history of the world I guess quote? 'Which is pretty nifty I guess'
Very clever Mr Clark, very clever indeed....
*Hebrew is actually read from right to left
I just started my first ever physics class- mechanics for engineers- and im so bad at it. Any tips for physics beginners? (I'm not trying to be an engineer so i really just need to get through this class)
Lani Dubois I'm a first year student so maybe I'm not qualified lol, but try to make friends in your class who will motivate you to study and will help you with homework from time to time. Other than that, as long as you find physics interesting, you'll have the motivation to understand it at an intuitive level. And that's your drive to get better and keep studying(hopefully)
Fantastic Vlog.
I will say, that although they did a good job on their video, I was looking for that extra leap of difference between your production and theirs, and I'll be honest, it wasn't there. I feel the production of their video was on par with a good vlogger (like yourself), even with the added cameras and sound equipment and directing. Overall, the interview was great, but the production value was pretty subpar considering the equipment and money they had.
"You know, what kind of plebian only has one"
Should have paid for the Pergamon museum. It is worth every cent ;)
blackdahliamurder100 Yeah but he had just one hour... That's not enough for a museum.
Sir what do u like most?
Subscribers i.e viewers
OR
your writing theses
Aditya Sagar Fun fact of the day: I thought the plural of thesis is thesi, but it's actually theses.
O sorry..sorry
Actually i was unaware of it
Thank you
Mila Zemyarska .Mam I want to ask you something. .... may I?
Hi, Simon! You should make study with me videos (better w/o music) so we can feel like we have a study buddy! You're very inspiring!
No dungeon in Budapest! (BUT we have a nuclear bunker museum.)
8:25 'Hello..."
I love your shit man, keep making it
How many hours do u study in a day ? Just curious ... :)
There aren't many memorials to German dead, of either world wars, in Europe let alone Germany. One of the the most touching though is the one at Bendlerblock, in Berlin naturally, which is where many of the German officers of the resistance were headquartered.
Your edits kill me!! 😂😂😂
19:55 lmao
“Some things are universal like *voicecrack* DilLDoS” 😂😂
i like the fact that you pointed out that it was the word dildo like no one got the joke xD
The strange observed bike migration is called criticalmass, its an international demonstration series raising awareness for bike riders.
Was it just me who noticed 12:42?
Oh man, i feel so happy watching your vlogs, happy when i see you are having fun (this is so gay). Wish you the best of the best of luck, thank you for making my day a little bit happier. #NoHomo #wellMaybeAlittle #justKidding #loveYou
How is the PhD coming along Simon? Have u done your defence yet? Or is that a story for another video😂. Wishing u good luck and positive vibes
Nice parents
The R.I.P. Icarus got me. What happened to Icarus? :(
ripped
damn
The only human i know who says 48h
Dude
How's the PhD going?
I would've spent the whole time in the Berghain.
It's funny, my lecturer looks exactly like you, and has the name of Simon.
I"m an American and I enjoy watching vlogs from a British person more than other Americans. Probably cuz I am bored of my own country
Anyways, Simon is very attractive and smart! I love his videos !! And is he single ??!?
You know what they say about curiosity....apparently it is inimical to feline life.
I cant understand why so much equipment is needed to film that interview like,, why isn't 2 cameras enough?
Looooool Icarus
The guy at 8:25
I would choose your vlogs over Casey neistats any time!
Are you a British
Daddy Big Foot. 13:26
it will be better if you split this video in 2 part, but in general it's a very good vlog, it's awesome.
i am witnessing a natural migration, idky it made me laugh a lot. #thingssimonsays
His representation of Nazi Germany is entirely untrue. Nazis were sworn into power by overwhelming majority in fair election in 1938. And ideas of Holocaust were hatched not in the backwaters of Pomerania, but in the leafiest boroughs of Munich.
man this is like a Casey Neistat vlog, but worse
Twix? Good choice!
you spooked the lady in her dressing gown by filming her window with your massive camera..
Icarus!!!! Nuuuuu!!!!
185th
You mentioned commemorating soldiers... I know that is a big topic in Great Britain. Commemorative culture is taken very seriously there, especially when it comes to WWI. In Germany, a right wing politician recently said we should commemorate and honor the soldiers of both World Wars more than we do (=not at all)... his reputation was smeared for it, even more than it already was, they called him a Nazi and what not. That should demonstrate quite clearly how much Germany gives about commemorative culture. A flying f*ck.
It's a really interesting debate, at least from the outside. In the UK I guess we have the whole 'history is written by the victors' thing going on, which makes it acceptable to commemorate the actions of those who fought (and committed atrocities). Like I said in the video, not everyone who was fighting on the war (on either side) was fighting because they deeply, passionately believed in the ideology of their respective government. I'd venture that most were fighting simply because they were ordered to, and while they have had ideological convictions of their own their main goal was simply surviving rather than seeing their worldview victorious. As such it's kind of a surprise to see a lack of commemoration of the bravery of the everyday soldier, but at the same time given how the nazi party came into being in the first place it's completely understandable. In light of the elections this week it will be really interesting to see how the balance between those two factors plays out. What's the mood like in Germany with the rise of the CfD?
Max Mustermann is obfuscating the facts here a bit, It's not just "a right wing politician" it was one of the top candidates of the alt-right/far-right AfD (Alternative for Germany) which has recently gotten 13% in the election. This party has a considerable amount of nazi sympathisers and conspiracy theorists (it's basically a german version of donald trump's ideology). And he actually said we should be proud over the achievemnets of german soldiers during WWII (his actual words translated) and that we should also stop to commemorate the victims of the holocaust ("we have to take back our history").
I agree Simon. A little anecdote: My great grandfather did not like the Nazis at all. He wanted the war to end quickly and secretly listened to the BBC, which was very dangerous since his children could spill the beans in school and it would be off to the concentration camp with him (tragically, this happened to many people). His eldest son, my great uncle, was drafted in 1943 when he was 17, went through a quick military training, and fell shortly after at the Western front. And in the Germany of today, I am simply not allowed to be proud of him. I am expected to feel shame and pity for him, because he did not rebel against the regime. Most of us, wherever we may come from, would be silent sheep in the 3rd Reich. That's just what humans are like, we have a strong will to survive and protect our family. Of course, he fought for a bad regime but soldiers don't pick their side. He did not fight for Hitler, he fought for his homeland because he had to.
CfD... I assume you mean AfD (Alternative für Deutschland)? It is very interesting how this party has developed over time. In the beginning, they were just an anti-EU party, similar to UKIP. Then they got rid of their leader Bernd Lucke, who was very moderate and was falsely accused of being far right. There is a famous quote by a conservative Politician from the time of the cold war, Franz Joseph Strauss: There must be no legitimate party right from the CDU/CSU (our conservative parties that are just called the Union). What he meant back then, was that the Union is as conservative as it gets before you enter the far right wing (back then the criticism was directed to the German Republican Party). The AfD was always criticised for being potentially such a party; a party that is too far right and therefore illegitimate.
The next leading figure of the AfD was Frauke Petry. She was further to the right and Lucke split from the party. The AfD missed the 5% hurdle in the 2013 parliament elections by 0.2 percent points. The FDP, our liberal party (which, in Germany, does not mean left but rather center/center-right), also missed it for the first time ever! And I believe this was one reason why the AfD could gain much more voters. In 2009, the FDP got about 15%. In 2013 only about 4.8%. The AfD got 13% in the 2017 election yesterday; and of course the journalists are wondering: where did the votes come from? Most of them came from former non-voters, and then from the CDU. Only less than 1% from the FDP. However, there is a fallacy in there since the FDP lost these voters already in the 2013 election, when the CDU got a very high percentage in return.
So here's what I'm getting at, bare with me: The absence of a liberal party in the parliament that makes constructive opposition against the two main parties, the conservative CDU and the social democrats (SPD), has lead to the huge increase of AfD voters, since most of them are thinking: I have had it with Merkel and her "I did it my way"-politics and no one is really opposing her in the parliament, I am conservative/center right, I cannot vote for a leftist party, the Green party is on the left, too... who am I gonna vote for? The FDP? No, they are ridiculous, they didn't even make the parliament, they're laughing stock (they really were back then; the media, the comedians, the politicians... they were all trashing the FDP). And then this kind of frustrated voter thinks: "Oh well, I guess the AfD is my last option." I voted for the liberals but honestly, I understand why conservative and center-right voters are flocking to the AfD.
But most people in Germany do not recognize this. I guess they think that there are about 7% of Germans who are crazy Nazis and the other 6% just vote for the AfD because they are so frustrated, fear-struck, and angry (there's the term "Wutbürger"="angry citizen"). I say, this is a stupid over-simplification. If you want to do something against right-wing populism, you have to take them seriously. And they still don't do that and that is scary to me. It will lead to only further polarization and one day, we will have a similar situation as in the time between the world wars: the parties around the center are weakened and either the socialists or the right-wing extremists seize their opportunity.
@kaesebrot649: I am sure he said "both World Wars", not just WWII which would have a different connotation. It is also difficult to translate since he said "[Wenn Franzosen und Briten stolz auf ihren Kaiser oder den Kriegspremier Winston Churchill seien], „haben wir das Recht, stolz zu sein auf Leistungen deutscher Soldaten in zwei Weltkriegen“ The world Leistungen is difficult to translate, since you can't say achievements. He does not mean what they achieved, he rather means their service. I would translate it like this: "If the French and the British are proud of their Emperor or the War-Prime Minister Churchill, we have the right to be proud of the service of German soldiers in two World Wars."
I did not hear about him saying we should stop to commemorate the victims of the holocaust. I think now you are obfuscating the facts a bit. What I think the AfD's intention is, is that they want us to look at our history without the wide-spread "Deutscher Sonderweg"-paradigm. And there is truth to this. The school curriculum consinsts mainly of "What was the situation after WWI? How did this lead to the rise of the Nazis? The NS-regime, WWII, The holocaust and the aftermath of the war. These are all very important topics, however, there is a lot more to German history. Only in my time as a history student I realized how fascinating German history of the 18th century is, for example. And the Enlightenment is also very relevant for us today (although history lessons should not begin by asking what is relevant for today).
No matter how smart a person is, he would still fail to see the truth. That's a pity.
Oh, a piece of Russia in Germany!
If you didn't clap... don't show your face on this channel ever again
48 hours in Germany? Casey Neistat is obviously copying you
Biology is better than physics.
Just fun and games Obvious troll is obvious.