Spaßbremse

We're moving on from trains to talk about what is by far the most dominant mode of transport in Germany: the car. What is it about Germany's history that paved the way for such a pervasive car culture, and what's up with the Autobahn?? Luckily, we have a great guest who recently published a book on exactly these questions. Dr. Conrad Kunze is a researcher at the Research Centre for Sustainability at FU Berlin and author of Deutschland als Autobahn: Eine Kulturgeschichte von Männlichkeit, Moderne und Nationalismus (English translation: Germany as Autobahn: A Cultural History of Masculinity, Modernity and Nationalism).  You can read Conrad's book here: https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-5943-6/deutschland-als-autobahn/ Conrad is also part of an anti-Autobahn climate camp that's taking place **right now** in the village of Gimritz. You can learn more about that initiative here: http://klimacamp-saaletal.de/en/ Co-hosted by Ted (@ted_knudsen) and Michelle (@shhellgames). Produced by Isaac (@wuermann). -- Thank so much to everyone who has already started supporting us on Patreon! We'll still be publishing full-length episodes on our main podcast feed, but Patreon supporters will also get access to bonus episodes. It's a tough time out there so we totally understand if you don't have the capacity to support right now, but if you're able we'd really appreciate you becoming a subscriber. All the details here: www.patreon.com/spassbremse Follow Spaßbremse on Twitter (@spassbremse_pod). Music by Lee Rosevere. Art by Franziska Schneider.

We return from our Sommerpause to talk about one of the things dominating conversations in Germany over the past few months: trains! From inter-Europe rail travel to Deutsche Bahn woes to the 9-Euro-Ticket, Ted goes through it all with Jon Worth, a Berlin-based writer and communications consultant who has been documenting his experience crossing every possible internal European border by train this summer. Follow Jon on Twitter: @jonworth. To learn more about Jon’s cross-border rail experience: https://www.capital.de/wirtschaft-politik/jon-worth--vom-brexit-kritiker-zum-bahn-enthusiast-31978856.html To learn more about the end and potential future of the 9-Euro-Ticket: https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/9-euro-ticket-bundesregierung-streitet-ueber-preis-fuer-nachfolger-a-74230b3c-9492-4bf8-9bb1-818d87a96bf8 To learn more about Bavaria’s reluctance to pay for a successor to the 9-Euro-Ticket: https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/nachfolger-fuer-9-euro-ticket-bayern-will-nicht-zahlen,TGYi8I0 Co-hosted by Ted (@ted_knudsen) and Michelle (@shhellgames). Produced by Isaac (@wuermann). -- Thank so much to everyone who has already started supporting us on Patreon! We'll still be publishing full-length episodes on our main podcast feed, but Patreon supporters will also get access to bonus episodes. It's a tough time out there so we totally understand if you don't have the capacity to support right now, but if you're able we'd really appreciate you becoming a subscriber. All the details here: www.patreon.com/spassbremse Follow Spaßbremse on Twitter (@spassbremse_pod). Music by Lee Rosevere. Art by Franziska Schneider.

First, thanks to our listeners who have been so patient with us as we have been taking a little Sommerpause. Some of us have been travelling, some of us have have COVID, and it's been taking a little longer than usual to put a new episode out. That's why we're unlocking one of our premium episodes that was published on our Patreon back in April. The episode is part two of our series we've been doing on Patreon about Germany's border regions; on this episode we talk about the modern German-Polish border, aka the Oder-Neiße Line.  For some more reading on this topic, here are some of the sources we cited on this episode: Gott behüte from Der Spiegel on May 3, 1970 Kohl riskierte seine Kanzlerschaft für deutsch-polnische Grenzfrage by Klaus Wiegrefe for Der Spiegel on July 23, 2021 Kohl Retreats, Says He Accepts Polish Borders : Europe: Warsaw cautiously welcomes the news. West Germany will propose a formal treaty Thursday. by William Tuohy for the LA Times on March 7, 1990 Waigel: Oder-Neiße- Grenze bitterer Preis from TAZ on June 25, 1990 Die Ziele der NPD? Österreich, Polen, Tschechien, Russland, Litauen from Die Zeit on December 17, 2007 And here's a link to Ted's Twitter thread from February that was mentioned several times, featuring some pretty astounding CDU election posters: https://twitter.com/ted_knudsen/status/1496103102537252865 To hear the rest of the Spaßbremse Grenzen series, subscribe to us on Patreon! We have other episodes discussing the histories of the German-Czech border, the German-Danish border, and the German-French border.  -- Co-hosted by Michelle and Ted. Produced by Isaac. Music by Lee Rosevere. Art by Franziska Schneider. Follow Spaßbremse on Twitter: @spassbremse_pod.

A short preview of our latest premium episode, in which Ted and Michelle round out our Spaßbremse Grenzen series by discussing the Alsace-Lorraine region on the France-German border. To listen to the full episode, support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/spassbremse If you're not able to support us monetarily right now, we totally get it! We'll be back soon with another full-length episode.

The far-right Alternative für Deutschland could soon have its own state-funded political foundation called the Desiderius Erasmus Stiftung (DES). We speak with freelance journalist Ruairi Casey about why this matters, and ask him what the deal is with all these political Stiftungen anyway.  Read Ruairi's recent article in Foreign Policy on the subject: Germany May Soon Pay Millions to Far-Right Operatives  And follow Ruairi on Twitter for more from him! @Ruairi_Casey Co-hosted by Ted (@ted_knudsen) and Michelle (@shhellgames). Produced by Isaac (@wuermann). -- Thank so much to everyone who has already started supporting us on Patreon! We'll still be publishing full-length episodes twice monthly available on our main podcast feed, but Patreon supporters will also get access to a couple bonus episodes per month. It's a tough time out there so we totally understand if you don't have the capacity to support right now, but if you're able we'd really appreciate you becoming a subscriber. All the details here: www.patreon.com/spassbremse Follow Spaßbremse on Twitter (@spassbremse_pod). Music by Lee Rosevere. Art by Franziska Schneider.

Pride Month in North America may have just ended, but here in Germany the local Pride festivals — or "Christopher Street Days" — are just beginning. To talk about the complicated history of Germany's queer movements, we're joined on this episode by writer and historian Ben Miller, co-host of the podcast Bad Gays and co-author of the book Bad Gays: A Homosexual History, which just came out last month.  To learn more about Ben's podcast and book, check out www.badgayspod.com. If you’re in Berlin, you can join Ben and Bad Gays co-author Huw Lemmey at Prinz Eisenherz on Tuesday, July 5th at 8:30 p.m.! For more from Ben, check out his Twitter: @benwritesthings. You can also learn more about the Schwules Museum, the Gay Museum in Berlin where Ben is on the board, at www.schwulesmuseum.de. Co-hosted by Ted (@ted_knudsen) and Michelle (@shhellgames). Produced by Isaac (@wuermann). -- Thank so much to everyone who has already started supporting us on Patreon! We'll still be publishing full-length episodes twice monthly available on our main podcast feed, but Patreon supporters will also get access to a couple bonus episodes per month. It's a tough time out there so we totally understand if you don't have the capacity to support right now, but if you're able we'd really appreciate you becoming a subscriber. All the details here: www.patreon.com/spassbremse Follow Spaßbremse on Twitter (@spassbremse_pod). Music by Lee Rosevere. Art by Franziska Schneider.

On our thirtieth episode on the main feed (!!) we have an interview that Ted did with historian Jan Tattenberg about the "clean Wehrmacht" myth, or the idea that members of the German Wehrmacht were not complicit in the crimes and atrocities of the Holocaust. Ted and Jan go into quite a bit of detail about why this myth doesn't hold water, so we have abut 45 minutes of their conversation on this episode, and you can listen to the rest over on our Patreon (www.patreon.com/spassbremse).   For more from Jan, you can read his piece in 1/200 about German rearmament: https://www.1of200.nz/articles/germany-rearms You can (and should!) also follow him on Twitter: @jantattenberg  Co-hosted by Ted (@ted_knudsen) and Michelle (@shhellgames). Produced by Isaac (@wuermann). -- Thank so much to everyone who has already started supporting us on Patreon! We'll still be publishing full-length episodes twice monthly available on our main podcast feed, but Patreon supporters will also get access to a couple bonus episodes per month. It's a tough time out there so we totally understand if you don't have the capacity to support right now, but if you're able we'd really appreciate you becoming a subscriber. All the details here: www.patreon.com/spassbremse Follow Spaßbremse on Twitter (@spassbremse_pod). Music by Lee Rosevere. Art by Franziska Schneider.

Ted and Michelle sit down with journalist David de Jong to talk about his new book, Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany's Wealthiest Dynasties.  Longtime listeners will know that this is a recurring subject on Spaßbremse. You can listen to our three-part series about the history of some specific Nazi businesses on Patreon: Pt. 1: Nazi Pizzas, Pt. 2: Nazi Soda, Pt. 3: Nazi Washing Machines For more on this subject, you can of course read David's book, which you can order from the publisher here.   You can also read his guest essay in the New York Times, called "They Are the Heirs of Nazi Fortunes, and They Aren't Apologizing," and you can find David on Twitter: @davidthejong.  Co-hosted by Ted (@ted_knudsen) and Michelle (@shhellgames). Produced by Isaac (@wuermann). -- Thank so much to everyone who has already started supporting us on Patreon! We'll still be publishing full-length episodes twice monthly available on our main podcast feed, but Patreon supporters will also get access to a couple bonus episodes per month. It's a tough time out there so we totally understand if you don't have the capacity to support right now, but if you're able we'd really appreciate you becoming a subscriber. All the details here: www.patreon.com/spassbremse Follow Spaßbremse on Twitter (@spassbremse_pod). Music by Lee Rosevere. Art by Franziska Schneider.

A short preview of our latest premium episode, in which we discuss the beloved German "Mittelstand" and why your favourite family-owned screw company might not be as cool and relatable as you think.  To listen to the full episode, support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/spassbremse If you're not able to support us monetarily right now, we totally get it! We'll be back in a few days with another full-length episode. 

It's Spargelzeit! For those of you lucky enough to be unfamiliar, that's the time of year when Germany's most prized vegetable — the white asparagus — is in season. On this episode, we try to get in the mind of the Germans to understand their obsession with this mediocre dish by sitting down with some Spargel and Schnitzel. We give a bit of background to the German Spargelkult before speaking with Benjamin Luig, the branch coordinator for agriculture at IG Bau's Initiative for Fair Work in Agriculture as well as at Fair Mobility, to talk about the labour conditions for the seasonal workers who pick our asparagus and other fruits and vegetables.  For further reading on this subject:  Der Spargelkult muss enden by Margarete Stokowski in Der Spiegel (Keen listeners will recognize this phrase from the intro to our podcast, which features Christian Lindner reacting to this column)  Keine Dumpinglöhne für Geflüchtete by Szabolcs Sepsi in Jacobin Ernten ohne Versicherung by Nelli Tügel in Der Freitag  Corona-Ausbruch: Über 100 Covid-19-Fälle auf Spargelbetrieb by Katharina Krenn in agrarheute  The Queens of Asparagus by Ben Miller for Arts of the Working Class You can also follow the work of Fair Mobility on Facebook and Twitter.  Co-hosted by Ted (@ted_knudsen) and Michelle (@shhellgames). Produced by Isaac (@wuermann). -- Thank so much to everyone who has already started supporting us on Patreon! We'll still be publishing full-length episodes twice monthly available on our main podcast feed, but Patreon supporters will also get access to a couple bonus episodes per month. It's a tough time out there so we totally understand if you don't have the capacity to support right now, but if you're able we'd really appreciate you becoming a subscriber. All the details here: www.patreon.com/spassbremse Follow Spaßbremse on Twitter (@spassbremse_pod). Music by Lee Rosevere. Art by Franziska Schneider.