C for Currywurst, E for Exportweltmeister

Twenty-five million apple-cheeked garden gnomes grace our front yards; 95,000 new titles appear every year in our bookstores; 130 professional orchestras perform in our concert halls; and over 300 theaters are open every night for a stage production. Who knew?


You would, if you had stopped in at the small exhibition called "Deutschland für Anfänger" (Germany for Beginnners) at the Forum Willy Brandt on Unter den Linden.  Arranged in a sequence that runs through 26 concepts, each representing a single letter in the alphabet, the exhibition is a romp through German history and culture -- informative (but never dry), imaginative, playful and interactive. Instead of shying away from cliches it presents them tongue-in-cheek. 

Photo: with kind permission of the Goethe Institut

You'll learn the story behind Berlin's favorite fast food, the curry wurst, and discover why German soccer was never the same after the 1966 World Cup game in England's Wembley stadium. You can hear our eight principle dialects and hum along to versions of the Loreley legend in popular music. You can test your knowledge of the ten German winners of the Nobel Prize and watch archived material from the 1960s and 70s on the daily television news show, the Tagesschau.

Photo: with kind permission of bpb | copyright: Jan Konsitzki

Visitors to Berlin will enjoy this exhibition -- it's easily combined with a shopping spree on Unter den Linden, and convenient to reach as the S-Bahn Brandenburger Tor is at its doorstep --  but I guarantee that even long-time residents will be surprised by what they can discover by popping in. I bet they couldn't tell you where the first garden gnomes appeared, for instance (Thüringia, in 1872), and why. Drop in and find out!

Photo: with kind permission of bpb | copyright: Jan Konsitzki

"Deutschland für Anfänger" is at the Forum Willy Brandt, Unter den Linden 62-68, and runs till 27 February 2011. The exhibition is open from Tuesday to Sunday, 10 am to 6 pm, and entrance is free. Getting there: The Forum is located at the S Brandenburger Tor's exit on Unter den Linden. 


The exhibition is organized by the Goethe Institut and the bpb (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung). In addition to the exhibition, there is an excellent documentary film on Willy Brandt, former German Chancellor, for whom the Forum is named.