State elections

Currently there are four parties in the State Parliament of North-Rhine Westfalia. Two of these parties, the SPD (102 seats) and the Grüne (17 seats) form a coalition and therefore build the State government. Together they have a majority of 119 seats (out of 231 seats).

The two opposition parties are the CDU (88 seats) and the FDP (24 seats).

The 16 Federal States in Germany all have their respective election laws. It is the right of the particular State government to choose the date of the State election within a margin. The election turnus varies from 4 to 5 years depending on the State.

A 5%-hurdle is applied within all of the 16 State Elections and also with elections for the Federal Parliament.

In the following days I'd like to give you a little survey over each of the four parties represented in the State Parliament of North-Rhine Westfalia.

Cirque du Soleil with the Pope

On November 10th, 2004, members of the Canadian Cirque du Soleil took part in a so called General Audience with Pope John Paul II.

The clowns and artists of the Cirque du Soleil encorporate and stand for a kind of purity which is very similar to something usually described as real love. Would you agree ?

Burial of Pope John Paul II

Today Pope John Paul II (18.5.1920 - 02.04.2005) was buried in
Vatican City,
located within the City of Rome,
Country: Italy,
Continent: Europe,
Planet: Earth,
Solar System: Solar System,
Galaxy: Milky Way,
Universe.

More interesting information about the life and work of the deceased Pope John Paul II. can be found on his Vatican Homepage.

With the enumeration I'd just like to express:

• A human being seems miniscule and atomic in regard to the size of the universe.
• And god must be very occupied (if compared to a human) if he is truly in control of the universe.

From a scientific point of view, the human kind is most probably not the only intelligent being in the universe. From the macroscopic point of view, matter tends to self organize. And in regard to the interplay (or better symbiosis) between chaos and order, this results sooner or later in the evolution of some sort of intelligent life form such as the human being.

Therefore, other intelligent forms of life are imaginable and probable somewhere else in the universe. The love of god certainly also extends to these beings in the same way as it extends to the human race - in all areas.

However, does this diminish the meaning of the Pope on planet Earth ?

I think not ! The truth he believes in and enunciates remains a truth, no matter how big the universe might be and no matter how many other Popes there might be in other Solar Systems.

My Tropical Island

My Tropical Island is an artificial South Seas resort located some 40 km south of the German capital Berlin.

The dimensions of the dome are pretty impressing:
Length: 360 m
Width: 110 m
Heights: 107 m

Inside there's a tropical landscape with oceans, sceneries, beaches, slides and original houses. Actual natives built the houses who'd been out of their country on this occasion for the very first time.

You might wonder why the dome is that big ?
Well that's another story...

City Magazine NA DANN

The city I live in is called Münster and is located in North-Rhine-Westphalia, Germany (this link's function is non-functional). It's one of the big student cities in Germany as I described earlier.

When you want to...
* greet someone,
* send some longing messages publicly
* sell stuff
* look for a room
* look for a vacation or mini job
* and much more
...Münster's city magazine Na Dann is the address for you.

Na dann can be translated as Well then!

People arriving in Münster for studying or due to other jobs usually have some problems recognizing the utmost importance of the Na Dann. However, sooner or later, everyone gets it.

Certainly one reason for not grasping its meaning at first, is based in its name Well then!
Just imagine some senior student talking to a newbie and mentioning the Well then!:

I read today in the Well then! that someone was looking for a canary.

As you'll realize, most newbies fail to understand this somewhat cryptic sentence.

At best they understand something like...
I read today in the well, then that someone was looking for a canary ?!


...to be completed

Münster Movie Brochure Art

In Münster, the city I live in, they publish a pretty artful movie news brochure each week. It's called Kino aktuell.

It contains lot's of belittled movie posters. So actually it's kind of an art brochure. Besides the nice poster printings there are lots of infos in there, too, about the upcoming and already running movies.



...to be completed

A lottery ticket - Part 1

The most popular German lottery is called 6 out of 49. You simply have to choose 6 numbers out of 49. Pretty easy, ain't it ?! Well, you have a chance of 1:14,000,000 to do it properly. (To win the jackpot you have a chance of 1:140,000,000).

At first, there's the need for finding the right numbers. No easy job.
Secondly, you have to fill in the blank lottery ticket: Above is a picture of the online formular, taken from www.westlotto.de.

Westlotto belongs to the German lottery block and is responsible for the Federal State of North-Rhine Westfalia. That's the German State I live in.

The hardware style paper formular looks very similar. You usually fill in your paper ticket with your local kiosk. The filled ticket can be discarded after having been fed into the lottery computer.

The numbers are fed into the computer by inserting the filled in ticket into the slot of the machine. You'll get your receipt. Don't loose it as your name is not written down on it. So, in case your ticket wins, it's the only way to claim your gains.


A lottery receipt for the first prize usually looks like this:









As you can see, the ticket is still valid.

Google Art

I very much enjoy the little pieces of art that are being published by the search engine www.google.com on certain occasions such as Vincent van Gogh's (1853-1890) birthday. Vincent was born on 30th March, 1853, in Zundert (Southern Netherlands).

The Netherlands are located at the North Sea, west of Germany and seperated from Great Britain by the English Channel. The English Channel actually connects the Atlantic Ocean in the West with the North Sea in the East.

Logo of 30th March, 2005
For comparison: Normal Logo
Vincent Van Gogh dies on 29th July, 1890, after having shot down himself two days before.

Art of Tomorrow

The first exhibition of the Guggenheim Museum in 1939 was called Art of Tomorrow.

On Wednesday, May 31st, 1939, the museum opened under the programmatic name Museum of Non-Objective Art, belonging to and being financed by the Guggenheim Foundation. It was located at 24 East 54th Street, Manhattan, New York.

The exhibition was organized by its director and curator Hilla Rebay (1890-1967).

There was a catalog of the show being entitled Art of Tomorrow, too.

...to be completed

Birthplaces of Expressionism

Munich (State Capital), Murnau (see photo) and the area of Kochel (all located in the Federal State of Bavaria) were important focal points of expressionism in Southern Germany.

Franz Marc and others came to Murnau in 1908. The creative atmosphere there and the blue skies inspired all artists to a high degree.

Other focal points of expressionism in Germany were Berlin and Dresden (both being located in Eastern Germany with Berlin being the German capital). Die Brücke, another important artists association was founded in Dresden.

On The Spiritual In Art

In December of 1911 Wassily Kandinsky also published the important work Über das Geistige in der Kunst in German language.

In 1946 an English translation was edited by Hilla Rebay (director and curator of the Guggenheim Museum, N.Y.) under the title On the Spiritual in Art.

Expectation: I haven't read the book so far but from the hints I've gathered I expect it to explain no less than why it is more important to feel rather than to see. So, I think I've got to do some research. The results will be published below some time later.

Results: (...)

...to be filled

Der blaue Reiter

In 1909 an artists association called the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (New Artists Association Munich) was established in Southern Germany. Munich is - as you know - the State Capital of Bavaria, one of the most southern situated German Federal States. Members of the Association were - among others - Paul Klee (1879-1940), August Macke (1887-1914) and Franz Marc (1880-1916).

In December of 1911, Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Gabriele Muenter (1877-1962), Franz Marc (1880-1916), Alexej Javlensky (1864-1941) and Alfred Kubin (1877-1959) presented their own works under the name of Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) in an exhibition at the Moderne Galerie Heinrich Thannhauser (Modern Gallery Heinrich Thannhauser) in Munich. The gallery belonged to the Munich art dealer Heinrich Thannhauser.

In 1912 Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc published an almanac also entitled Der Blaue Reiter.

Also in 1912 Der Blaue Reiter had their second exhibition at the Galerie Hans Goltz, Munich (see that catalog from the homepage of Michael Golz).

The group name Der Blaue Reiter was possibly chosen from W. Kandinsky's and F. Marc's love for horses and the color blue.

(Another important Munich art dealer was Franz-Josef Brakl (1854-1935), who opened his art gallery Brakl's Kunsthaus in 1913.)

Until the year 1914 the artists of Der Blaue Reiter developed the kind of painting we now call expressionism.

In 1914 World War I appeared on stage, grinning sneeringly from its ugly face and hitting these creative creatures with its iron fist, demanding the highest and most superfluous prey.

Cirque du Soleil

What do the Cirque du Soleil and the Guggenheim Museum have in common?

The Cirque du Soleil wants to reinvent the circus genre on a higher more spiritual and fabulous level. Guy Laliberté, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, from Montreal, Canada, started the Cirque du Soleil in 1984. He currently heads a team of about 10 creatives. The Cirque du Soleil is an international company with talents from all over the world and performances in Europe, America and Asia.


A L E G R I A
Directed and written: Franco Dragone
Costumes: Dominique Lemieux
Set: Michel Crete
Choreography: Debra Brown
Music composer: René Dupéré
Lighting: Luc Lafortune
Sound design: Guy Desrochers

I watched Alegría lately for the first time on German TV. The show actually came out in 1995.

The artists in the arena are highly professional body artists and also choreographed into detail. They seem to be neither man nor woman. And that's what makes their art so similar to the abstract art of the Guggenheim Museum, so sort of "non-objective".

They embody pure and strong feelings just as the Guggenheim paintings do. The respective human creator is pushed back.

One aspect though: For both acts, be it paintings or artists performances, you still need the human element. You can never come off very far from or deny your human roots.

Guggenheim Museum, N.Y.

Non-objective painting: If you shouldn't know what that means it's allright. I just learned it, too. If you don't wonna keep the expression in mind, that'll be allright, too. Just watch a picture of its kind and you'll understand what's it about.

Non-Objective was meant to be a translation for the German word gegenstandlos. In fact, it indicates art that doesn't show pictures of real people or objects of the real world such as machines, flowers.

Instead, it assumes that an artist uses all his creative and physical senses - but his visual sense - to create some emotional subjective piece of art, giving emotional statements without using his mouth so to say.

German painter Hilla Rebay (1890-1967) came to the US in 1927. Soon she got aquainted and close with Solomon R. Guggenheim and became his art advisor. She was convinced that the above defined gegenstandslose art was the way art should express itself. Therefore she inspired Guggenheim to collect it. (Some of her own pictures can be found with Artnet)

She supervised Solomon Guggenheim's collecting activities and in 1937 led the establishement of the Guggenheim foundation. She succeeded in opening up the Museum of Non-Objective Art on Wednesday, May 31, 1939 in a prior automobile showroom on 24 East 54th Street, Manhattan, New York. The gallery space was rented and Hilla Rebay was in fact the curator and director of the museum. The architect for the conversion into a museum was William Muschenheim (1902-1990).

In 1943, she contacted architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) from Wisconsion to design a new museum for the collection. In 1947 the collection moved to a townhouse on 1071 Fifth Avenue (at 89th street) not far from the Central Park. William Muschenheim was again the architect for the conversion into a gallery. It is said that he was also asked to take part in the design of the new Guggenheim museum but he declined.

In 1949 Guggenheim died. In 1951 Hilla Rebay resigned as director of the museum but stayed connected to the museum as trustee. It is said that her resignation was pursued by Guggenheims's son, Harry Guggenheim (1890-1970).

WW II, Guggenheim’s death, and discussions with the building commission further delayed the construction of the new Guggenheim Museum. Finally, in 1956 the townhouse on 1071 Fifth Avenue was demolished and in 1957 construction of the new museum began. Its architect Frank Lloyd Wright died in April of 1959.

A few month later, in Oktober of 1959, the now (re)named Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, opened its doors.

Coming up Full Moon

On Friday, March 25th, 2005 (GMT) there'll be a Full Moon above our heads in Germany. There'll be a Full Moon above everyone's head worldwide actually.

Like always,
we all share the same Full Moon.

It's been like this since the beginning of our Solar System and it will be like this until its end.

Isn't it simple and beautiful ?

Is there anybody out there not wanting to give him a visit ?

Domestic Robots

I've been to the movies: Naturally, just for reasons of scientific research. Allright... j/k. Watched this animated picture named Robots.

It's a computer animated Sci-Fi movie. Kind of a Sci-Fi fairy tale actually.

Storyline: Young roboter boy goes to town, finds a girl and makes his fortune.

Solid movie if you know what I mean.

In fact, it reminded me of the development of real domestic robots. Robots that somehow look similar to the human body and do all sorts of useful things for their respective owners.

The research and development on such robots is obviously mainly pushed in Asia in these days, mostly by Japanese companies such as Toyota, Honda, Sony and Fujitsu.

If it came to the German public that a German company was working on that matter, I'm not sure what happened. But I can imagine the voices: They'll kill even the last workingplaces.

And what about German (maybe European ?) managers: Domestic robots ? What's that ? A rediculous new nonsense toy ? Only those Japanese guys can think of such a playful stuff. What a waste of money !

However, last time when their honorable manager fathers were that clever, they decided liquid cristal displays were a nice but useless development. Shortly after, Japanese digital watches made their glorious entrance into the German market.

So, of course, I think different: What a big help would these domestic robots mean to elder people in our society ! Less babies are being born and our society is aging. Even if the domestic robots were just capable of simple actions, there'd be a market. And these robots could be on duty almost 24/7. This also in regard to the fact that a 24 hr social worker is more expensive than a robot.

Domestic robots could perform simple actions like opening or closing a window, picking up the newspaper downstairs, preparing a coffee or tea or just carrying all sorts of things like shopping bags into the car or kitchen or bring out the trash can.

Well, let's just wait another five years.

Jump with Paul Anka

On Saturday (March 19th 2005, 8:15 PM) I watched Die Hit Giganten (The Hit Giants) on SAT1 (a German Private TV channel), a show about songs from the 1960s.

Paul Anka was performing a swing version of Van Halen's Jump.

When Van Halen sang: GO AHEAD, JUMP !
Paul Anka sang: Go ahead, jump ?!?
It was so funny !!

Van Halen jumped from a plane.
Paul Anka jumped from a stool.

Paul Anka: Rock Swings

That's called understatement !

Or in other words: Swing rocks.

Sparkassen Arcade

Sparkassen Arcade - Shopping Mall, Münster

German Public TV and a trailer

Once upon a time, before Private TV started, there were just two TV stations in Germany. Nowadays, they still exist alongside Private TV.

The two public TV stations are called:
ARD (First German public TV station) and its affiliated radio stations.
ZDF (Second German public TV station)

The ARD actually consists of statewide residing TV stations (often referred to as 'third channels') which are affiliated by a kind of holding structure. Each statewide transmitting station also contributes to the Federal wide transmitting ARD channel.
- NDR (North German TV and radio station)
- RB (Bremen German TV and radio station)
- HR (Hesse German TV and radio station)
- SR (Saarland German TV and radio station)
- MDR (Middle German TV and radio station)
- WDR (West German TV and radio station)
- RBB (Berlin and Brandenburg TV and radio station)
- SWR (South Western TV and radio station)
- BR (Bavarian TV and radio station)

This evening I watched a nice trailer on WDR.

It showed selected sights of North Rhine-Westfalia at night. Some highways got lightened by the front lights of the approaching cars, Dortmund soccer stadium came into view and Centro Oberhausen Shopping Mall with its center glass hall.

You could see the people in the glass hall of Centro Oberhausen from above. I assume that the camera was located below one of those Blimps (little airships).

It was a very thoughtful, silent and touching scenery.

Accompanied by the moving pictures there was a relaxing music, just consisting in soothing chord music and very few notes. It seemed to me that the author of the little intermezzo movie intended to show his feelings and solidarity to his State.

...to be completed

Germany and its Federal States

"Germania est omnis divisa in partes XVI., quarum unam incolunt Hesse, aliam..."

Germany altogether consists in 16 Federal States. Each State owns a Parliament and State Government. State Governments are settled in their respective State Capitals. Cognizances are devided between the Federal Government and the States. Education matters, e.g., mainly belong to the cognizance of each State.

Germany has a Federal Parliament (about 603 seats), a Federal Council (representing the 16 States) and a Federal Government. All of these three institutions are located in the German capital Berlin.

The German Chancellor presides the Federal Cabinet. His political and military power can be compared to that of the American President. The Federal Cabinet is synonymous with the Federal Government.

Germany also has a Federal President but his duties are mainly representative. His residence is loacted in Berlin, too. The representative location is called Castle Belle-Vue (Schloss Belle-Vue).

The 16 Federal States are:
01. Schleswig-Holstein (Schleswig-Holstein) - State capital: Kiel
02. Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen) - State capital: Hannover
03. Bremen (Bremen) - State capital: Bremen
04. Hamburg (Hamburg) - State Capital: Hamburg
05. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)*
06. North Rhine-Westfalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen) - SC: Duesseldorf
07. Brandenburg (Brandenburg) - State Capital: Potsdam
08. Berlin (Berlin) - State Capital/Federal Capital: Berlin
09. Hesse (Hessen) - State Capital: Wiesbaden
10. Saarland (Saarland) - State Capital: Saarbruecken
11. Thuringia (Thueringen) - State Capital: Erfurt
12. Saxony-Anhalt (Sachsen-Anhalt) - State Capital: Magdeburg
13. Saxonia (Sachsen) - State Capital: Dresden
14. Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland Pfalz) - State Capital: Mainz
15. Baden-Wuerttemberg (Baden Wuerttemberg) - SC: Stuttgart
16. Bavaria (Bayern) - State Capital: Munich

*this State is very poor. That's because all money was spent on a long State name. It has a State capital though called: Schwerin

I'm living in that green State.