Few days ago I witnessed an event on Kurfurstendamm where the crowd of bikers with their bikes participated. From one point of view, it was really great because all of them produced specific driving noise thus created cool atmosphere. On the other hand, it was completely impossible to cross the street as the flow of bikers was endless! This led me to the thoughts about European concerns about pollutions and to the contradiction connected with bikers-event.

Biker-event on the 28th of May

So, I have decided to investigate this issue in the context of the German ‘green’ behavior and found out several interesting ‘green’ logistics tools which are used in Germany nowadays.

In the context of urban passenger transport ‚green‘ tools are: city cycling, mobility stations, business mobility through ridesharing and, what was the most surprising for me, wirelessly-charged E-bus line! BVG runs electric buses since August 2015 and transports about two-thirds of a billion passengers per year by electric traction. The buses charge wirelessly and contactless exclusively with green electricity; they are not only absolutely emission-free but also produce low vibration at the time! Within one year, the four buses run approximately 200.000 kilometers at total, saving 260 tons of CO2 emissions.

As for the cargo delivery, there also some ‘green’ logistics solutions for decreasing CO2 emissions, they are: smartPORT strategy for managing all available modes of transport, transport planning with microscopic emission modeling via software instruments, cargo bikes and unusual eHighway trucks. eHighway system combines the efficiency of railway with the flexibility of road transport without losing necessary flexibility in the way of using active pantograph: the truck may be connected (run by electricity) or disconnected (run by fuel) to the contact lines at all speeds – and this system looks like trolley-truck.

These ‘green’ approaches are really innovative and promising today; to my mind, in the nearest future they will become a part of everyday life in Germany and, hopefully, will contribute to the environmental sustainability!

Once I had an experience of intercultural negotiations with Americans and Germans at Potsdam University, and at the very beginning of our negotiations we had an interesting and rather funny task to come up with stereotypes about other nationalities which participated in negotiations.

Frankly speaking, I expected to hear that all Russians play balalaika every evening, have bears as domestic animals and atomic reactors to heat houses but it was truly surprising indeed.

The first one was about too serious Russians. Honestly, I had never noticed that my nation representatives are really serious (you can see it especially in public transport) until I started living in Berlin. Now I compared people and can see this great difference between people in Moscow and people in Berlin: Germans seem really happy, kind and open (even in the morning) in comparison with gloomy, serious and sometimes angry Russians. It may look like life in Russia is too severe and makes people so, but it is not the real reason for that! In fact, outside the home Russians think too much about work and how to manage all the important things and only at home or with friends they have an opportunity to relax with family and become happier!

This leads to the second stereotype: Russians always drink vodka. Well, I should say that Russians may also drink wine, beer, vermouth, etc. In addition, they do not necessarily drink all the time: the majority prefers to drink on special days and holidays only :) Moreover, there are example of other nations drinking too much (English, Irish, German, etc.)

The last one was about endless Russian winter. Firstly, it depends on the specific part of our country. And secondly, despite winter can last more than half of the year, we do always have very nice and warm summer!

Patriarch Ponds in Moscow in summertime

To conclude, now I know few stereotypes which are not actually stereotypes, they are real facts: Americans always speak very loud and Germans sneeze even louder! :)

Do you know about the opportunity to buy the Museum pass Berlin which allows you to visit and explore around 50 museums during three days and which costs only 24 euros (12 euros for schoolchildren and students)?  If not, just visit Museum portal and find more (the list of museums and exhibitions, useful offers, Berlin Welcome Card, etc.)!

I have already tried this museum-experience and found it really awesome! This three-day ticket provides you with open doors of numerous exciting museums in Berlin! First of all you can visit traditional museums, such as:

View from the National Gallery

• Old National Gallery with 19^th century art
• Old Museum with its permanent exhibition ‘Ancient Worlds’
• Bode Museum which houses an impressive collection of sculpture
• New Museum housing antique masterpieces and sculptures (incl. famous bust of Nefertiti)
• Pergamonmuseum with classic antiquities
• Museum of Natural History which has ‘Evolution in Action’ exhibition
• German Museum of Technology representing the history of transport, communication, production, etc.

Of course, all of them offer you to admire incredible unique historical exhibit items but Berlin also has lots of other museums which present, for example, contemporary art, computer game history, East and West Germany history, war between Germany and the Soviet Union, German-Jewish history, etc. As for me, I have chosen two museums to explore and, undoubtedly, it was unusual experience.

The first was Berlin Museum of Medical History which exhibits different medical instruments and equipment, valuable books, microscopes and about 900 exceptionally rare pathological and anatomical specimens of human organs, healthy and diseased. So, it’s not a sight for the faint-hearted!

Berlin Museum of Medical History

The second was Gay Museum* which is one of the largest and most important institutions on the history and culture of the LGBTIQ communities in the world for now. Apart from history and culture, there is also an exhibition with astonishing gay comics that I liked most due I have never even heard about such a thing!

In conclusion, three days are not enough to visit all of them, unfortunately; so that you should thoroughly plan your route and then have a nice museum-trip in Berlin!

Liebe Teilnehmer,
vielen Dank, dass ihr gestern Abend den DeutschAkademie Stammtisch im Café Berio mit uns verbracht habt. Wir hatten viel Spaß und freuen und auf das nächste Treffen am 9. Juni. Viel Spaß mit den Fotos!
Euer DeutschAkademie-Team

How often do you travel with planes? How are they constructed? And what is inside of them?

Have you ever thought about these questions? Airbus plant in Hamburg offers exciting insights into the final aircraft assembly process! There you may also find answers to all of your numerous questions about aircraft production as well as gain some knowledge about Airbus products and see real-sized Beluga!

Airbus Humburg Production Plant

Now I will just tell you several interesting things about Airbus:

1. Company’s production facilities are mainly located in four European countries, which are: France, Germany, United Kingdom and Spain; the final assembly is located in France, Germany and Spain depending on the aircraft model;
2. Final assembly production is held manually (by peoples’ hands not by robots) to ensure the absence of errors; assembling of the aircraft tail part is the final step in the whole assembling process;
3. The initial color of aircraft fuselage is green; it gets its final color (white, pink or combination of colors) at the painting shop;
4. Airbus A380 is so enormous that Airbus A320 may stand under its wing;

• A380’s price is about $432 mio
• The diameter of A380’s engine is the same as the diameter of A320’s fuselage
• If A380 had only economy class, it would have 853 seats for passengers;
• If you could get all the wiring out of the A380 and put it straight on the road, it will be approximately 1000 km

5. Airbus A300-600ST (Super Transported) is called Beluga

• Beluga is an aircraft for carrying aircraft parts (and even aircraft fuselages);
• Beluga is also used for the transportation of oversized cargo such as large volume loads for NASA’s space program;
• There are only five Beluga aircrafts in the world, so they are exclusive!

Want to try this experience by yourself? Just visit this link and do it!

Liebe Teilnehmer,

wir wünschen euch viel Spaß mit den Fotos der Streetart Tour durch Kreuzberg vom letzten Freitag!
Auf dem Kiezspaziergang haben wir uns innerhalb von 2 Stunden zwar nur vom U-Bahnhof Warschauer Straße bis zum U-Bahnhof Schlesisches Tor (1 Station!) bewegt, aber sehr viel über Streetart und Graffitis gelernt. Wir haben viele Kunstwerke aus verschiedensten Materialien auf Hauswänden, Straßenschildern und unter Brücken entdeckt. Sicherlich habt ihr das ein oder andere Kunstwerk an Orten entdeckt, an denen ihr zuvor schon mehrmals gewesen seid und geht jetzt aufmerksamer durch die Straßen. Die Handschrift einiger Streetartists könnt ihr auch an anderen Orten in Berlin oder in eurer Heimat wiederentdecken :)

Yesterday I arrived from Leipzig which is really great and which is only 160 km away from Berlin – it may take just 2 hours of your time to get there and to see this wonderful city!

Altes Rathaus in Leipzig

Leipzig has been a trade city since it was situated many years ago at the intersection of two important Medieval trade routes (Via Regia and Via Imperii). Despite this fact, the city is not very big – one day was really enough to walk it throughout and to visit all the main city sightseeing points, for example:

Johann Sebastian Bach

1. Zum Arabischen Coffe Baum. This café is probably one of the oldest in Europe – the first mention about it refers to 1556.
2. Bach Museum. The museum dedicated to Johann Sebastian Bach will tell you about composer’s life in Leipzig, about his family and work as well as provide you with the opportunity to listen to his every composition.
3. Panorama Tower. On the top of this building you may have the greatest look at the city and, if the weather is fine, have a nice time at the roof-top bar.
4. Nicholas Church and St. Tomas Church. Johann Sebastian Bach was responsible for these two admirable churches many years ago, and nowadays organ concerts are held also there.

DHL hub

Talking about logistics, the main accent should be made here is DHL hub in Leipzig (this hub is the largest hub in the whole Europe!) with its own fleet of aircrafts and own airport. As the nighttime is the most intense for the hub and the most exciting time for visitors, the excursion takes place after 9 pm and finishes by the midnight time. During these few hours you have an incredible opportunity to watch the process of smart approach of parcels sorting, of very fast containers reloading, and to admire DHL’s aircraft fleet. The company spent around €350.000.000 to create this huge hub, consequently, it improved service and timeliness of DHL deliveries in comparison with its ex-central depot in Brussels. Find more information here and visit Leipzig to see everything in real life!

Our team at DHL hub =)

Liebe DeutschAkademie-Freunde,

es ist Halbzeit – 2 Wochen eures Kurses habt ihr jetzt schon geschafft und sicher viel Neues gelernt.
Wie sich euer Deutsch verbessert hat, könnt ihr uns nächste Woche Mittwoch wieder zeigen :) Wir freuen uns darauf im gemütlichen Café Berio am Nollendorfplatz einen schönen Abend mit euch zu verbringen, viel Deutsch zu sprechen und gut zu essen und zu trinken. Kommt einfach ab 20 Uhr vorbei und bringt gerne eure Freunde mit. Bis dahin: viel Spaß beim Lernen und ein schönes, sonniges Wochenende!

Euer DeutschAkademie-Team

Liebe Teilnehmer,
vielen Dank für euer zahlreiches Erscheinen letzte Woche Donnerstag zu unserem ersten Stammtisch im Mai.
Wir hoffen, dass ihr einen schönen vorsommerlichen Abend mit vielen neuen Bekanntschaften hattet und euch genauso wie wir über das schöne Wetter gefreut habt.
Viel Spaß mit den Fotos und bis ganz bald :)
Euer DeutschAkademie-Team