body without a soul.

just a literature, theatre and film nerd passing by

[tender8-deactivated20230104]

Rachel Held Evans

[jimimon-deactivated20220412]

And it’s new, the shape of your body. It’s blue, this feeling I’ve got.

[midnineties]

the crowd at newport folk festival, 1965: ah we can’t wait to see a nice acoustic performance :)

bob dylan: i’m gonna do what’s called a pro gamer move

[kabaks]

i love and deeply appreciate bong joon ho’s commitment to calling out americans every chance he got this awards season like first he told them to read subtitles and stop being self centred then he said the concept of “foreign films” is stupid as fuck just say international and THEN he took all their fucking oscars. when asked what he was looking forward to in the future he said “going home.” he is and i cant stress this enough. a legend 

[kabaks]

HOW COULD I FORGET HE CALLED THE OSCARS LOCAL. just shot after shot after shot. he is right every single time 

[inklingofagirl]

broke: little women didn’t win :(

woke: parasite won four oscars, taika waititi won best adapted screenplay, and natalie portman’s cape had all of the women directors who were not nominated; 2020 is the year of breaking hollywood’s outdated norm and i am here for it

[secifosseluce]

and Hildur Guðnadóttir was the first woman to win Best Original Score in a whopping twenty two years!

[steeleyespan-deactivated2026072]

tea!

[jimimon-deactivated20220412]

People started talking, putting us through our paces. I knew there was no one in the world who could take it. I had a bad feeling, but we were dancing.

[valerieandherweekofwonderz]

Helena Růžičková as iconic Droběna / Kleinröschen in Tři oříšky pro Popelku (1973) dir. by Václav Vorlíček.

[korusalka]

hallo! im studying german and i was wondering.. you got any podcast/music/movie/youtuber/comic/book recs? anything will do but i understand if your too busy to give any! danke und schönen tag

Hallooo, mein/e liebe/r Anon! :) Of course I can give you some recs! Not for learning German necessarily because I have no clue which level you’re on, but I’ll gladly link you some stuff I personally like. Beware, long post.

Tumblr

First and foremost, some of us hang around on here and speak German and fight each other over Aldi Nord and Pfannkuchen. A lot of German tumblr users follow @official-mutti @official-deutschtuerke @official-deutschebahn @official-bremen @germanshitposting @official-deutschland and so on and so on and so on lmao

Podcasts/Audiobooks

Das Kalenderblatt - Bayerischer Rundfunk (short ~5 min anecdotes that go like “what happened on this day 76 years ago though”, very soothing, love to use them as introduction snippets in German class :))

Eine Stunde History - Deutschlandfunk Nova (30-40 minute episodes about (inter)national history, you can for example choose topics you already know about and focus on the explanation in German)

Deutschlandfunk.de (that radio channel’s official website! Click on Mediathek or Podcasts to choose between really short audioclips or longer ones, depending on whatever topic tickles your fancy)

Music

Alligatoah - German singer/rapper who writes genius songs, genius puns, and his very own genius videos. Many of his songs are sarcastic, undermine clichés, or poke fun at mentalities. Due to the sheer amount of puns the songs are rarely translateable, but if you want to see some of the best lyrics in recent German music, this is definitely a household name.

Seeed - Longtime favourite. Famous for “they arrived, they got a bunch of awards, they fucked off”. But no, they’re still active. Wrote absolute bangers, I linked you a classic that EVERY German knows. There’s a new album. Pretty much every song includes an English verse. Also famous for their very specific mix of genres, which stems from their highly international roots. Big upside: They upload complete concerts. One of their lead singers, Peter Fox, had an also super famous solo career.

Moop Mama - urban brass band, upbeat, perfect for mornings

Faber - Swiss-German band, usually sung in standard German though. Sarcastic like this one! A little provocative like this one!

Wanda - Austrian band. You can hear that they’re Austrian, but it’s still understandable. This is an absolute banger everyone below 30 knows, they’ve got a few of these. Nostalgic, on endless loop on endlessly hot summer nights when you drape yourself on a window sill and yearn.

Clueso - I’ve loved this man since elementary school. Easy pop, easy lyrics (beware of his occasional tic to ignore grammar lmao), aged well, which is to say he didn’t. He’s a cryptid. He’s our soft pop princess cryptid.

Cro - Now that’s one of our mainstream rap/pop princesses. He doesn’t ever take his panda bear mask off. Has a large following among teens & (young) adults. If you like his style, his name is going to link to many other household names!

Sophie Hunger - Swiss diplomat’s daughter, she makes music in English, German, French, & Swiss German. This is my favourite German one of hers, she makes very upbeat ones too though.

AnnenMayKantereit - BIG among teens and young adults. BIG. Your typical college student band, except they fill huge arenas at this point. Famous for the frontman’s super recognizable voice. Soft, nostalgic, about friends, about love, about yearning to belong to someone, somewhere, or anywhere at all. This song makes me cry.

this also looks like a solid playlist that will give you all the German bangers from every genre there is, even and especially Schlager, which is a tragedy but #german culture

Movies I’ve actually watched, The Lives of Others is supposed to be very good but I haven’t watched it yet RIP

Sad Useless Millennials: Oh Boy (2012),  Was nützt die Liebe in Gedanken (2004)

Hi We’re German We Only Know One Topic: Der Untergang (2004), Comedian Harmonists (1997), Sophie Scholl - Die letzten Tage (2005) , Er ist wieder da (2015, definitely on Netflix, read the book first if possible)

smart movies: Die Welle (2008), Who Am I - Kein System ist sicher (2015), Der Medicus (2013)

Iconic and Fairytaley: Krabat (2008), Das Parfum - Die Geschichte eines Mörders (2006), Drei Nüsse für Aschenbrödel (1973) (binational movie)

classic bangers that swept the streets: Good Bye, Lenin! (2003),  Vincent Will Meer (2010), Der Schuh des Manitu (2001), (T)Raumschiff Surprise - Periode 1 (2004)

TV shows which should all be on Netflix for example

BABYLON BERLIN (2017 - ), so damn great, third season is airing

Dark (2017 -)

Parfum (2018 -), haunting but creepy as fuck, also massive trigger warnings

Charité (2017 -)

Youtube/public TV we’re watching on YouTube anyway

#MeetTheGermans - this playlist is hosted by a woman who speaks great German and teaches you a lot of insider culture. Funny & entertaining. The comment section is crawling with Germans who feel very called out, but in a good way. The main channel is the Deutsche Welle, a news channel well-suited for people who are learning about Germany.

Jan Böhmermann’s stuff - basically our John Oliver, but mean. Got famous because the Turkish president wanted to kneecap him. Teaches you a lot about German culture that regular courses will not. His longrunning show Neo Magazin Royale ended last year, the new one is called Prism Is A Dancer. JB does lots of stuff mostly related to satire, just fall down YouTube, there’s lots of songs and clips and whatnot.

Loriot, a famous German comedian, very specific German humour, some of these have subs

EDEKA ads because they’re iconic [x] [y] [z]

Berlin’s public transport wants to become world heritage

German books

Florian Illies: 1913 (definitely available in German, but I think this goes for many of these books)

Patrick Süskind - Das Parfum

Bernhard Schlink - Der Vorleser

Franz Kafka - Der Prozess

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Die Leiden des jungen Werthers

Thomas Mann - Der Tod in Venedig

Erich Maria Remarque - Im Westen nichts Neues

Wolfgang Herrndorf - Tschick

Gebrüder Grimm: Märchen

Friedrich Dürrenmatt - Der Besuch der alten Dame

Jurek Becker - Jakob der Lügner

basically everything by Walter Moers for fantasy nuts, I love him

German poets

Rainer Maria Rilke

Joachim Ringelnatz

Joseph von Eichendorff

Heinz Erhardt

Erich Kästner

Hit me up if you need any details! Ich wünsche dir auch einen schönen Tag :D

[vonmoors]

Adding some stuff to this already amazing post!

Music

Rio Reiser: The last and only valid King Of Germany. Very recognizable voice and great lyrics (the first song that I linked is one of the best love songs ever written, in my opinion). His band Ton Steine Scherben was a big part of the squatting movement and is quintessential political 80s rock. Sadly, Rio Reiser passed away in the mid-90s.

Die Prinzen: A group of former boys’ choir members who decided to use their classical training and combine it with pop music. They don’t take themselves too seriously. The closest thing to Queen german music has to offer, but it is Queen if they were founded in the 90s and on crack.

Von Wegen Lisbeth: Indie pop band from Berlin. Their signature is using strange instruments and their lyrics are filled with a good amount of pop-culture references. The videos are very aesthetically pleasing.

Movies

The Lives Of Others (2006): I’ve seen it and it is pretty good. GDR spy movie, will make you say: “I’m glad I wasn’t a writer in the GDR”. Interesting character development and a bittersweet ending.

Wings Of Desire (1987): One of those movies that never really leave you once you’ve seen it. There is not much of a plot as you follow two invisible angels, who can hear the thoughts of the people around them, around west Berlin, a city still recovering from WW2 and taken up by the looming presence of the wall. The actual plot only starts when one of the angels decides to become human after falling in love. But the story doesn’t matter much in “Wings Of Desire”. It’s a slow, melancholic love letter to life and to being human. Roger Ebert said it best when he said: “It creates a mood of sadness and isolation, of yearning, of the transience of earthly things. If the human being is the only animal that knows it lives in time, the movie is about that knowledge.”

Tschick (2016): The book got already named, but the film is top notch, too. It’s about two teenage boys stealing a car and going on a roadtrip (just boys being boys). It is a fun and heartwarming story accompanied by an amazing soundtrack.

Metropolis (1927): Silent Sci-Fi movie. Classic. Amazing. Groundbreaking. What can I add to the conversation here.

Die Wilden Hühner und die Liebe (2007): Second movie from a trilogy following a gang of young girls navigating friendship, love and growing up. Listing the second movie here because it has an amazing storyline about one of the girls being gay, which was the first time I have ever seen a lesbian character. It is handled very well. Bonus points for the production of “Midsummer Night’s Dream” that they stage (iconic) and 2000s teenage fashion galore. And the writing is so so good.

Knocking On Heaven’s Door (1997): Two cancer patients steal a car (common theme in german film, apparently) and decide to drive to the sea in order to see it one last time. Problem is: The car trunk is full of money from a gang and quickly, the two main characters find themselves being chased by gangsters and the police. Will probably make you laugh and cry a lot. 

Shows

Nils Holgersson (1980 - 1981): This one is actually from Japan, but it is very popular in germany, so I’ll cheat and put it in this list. It is targeted at children and therefore pretty easy to understand when you are just starting to learn german. The story is based off of a book from Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf and follows the titular character who has been shrinked as punishment for being cruel to animals. He and his friend, a goose, join a flock of wild geese and travel through Sweden. This show is so pure, teaches valuable life lessons and it is beautiful to look at. (The only way to watch it appears to be this sketchy Streaming side I linked, if you are willing to make that sacrifice.)

Books

Michael Ende – Die Unendliche Geschichte: Bullied boy Bastian Balthasar Bux (alliteration!) steals a book called “The Neverending Story” and reading it turns into an adventure where ultimately, Bastian finds himself. It is a pretty well-known book, but the movie adaption didn’t do the deep themes justice.

Philipp Winkler – HOOL: More or less a character study of Heiko Kolbe, a hooligan from Hannover, whose life is kind of a mess and is falling to shambles even more when his friends start to leave the violent hooligan scene and leave Heiko, who doesn’t have anything else in life he could hold on to, alone. This book is a wild ride in all aspects. Will make you say: “Men are trash” yet sympathize with Heiko. There’s also a tiger. Not recommended for people who don’t like reading graphic depictions of violence/reading about violence in general. There’s also mild homophobia. (Tbh, I don’t even know why I love this book so much; it is just very well written and Philipp Winkler is incredibly talented with creating complex characters).

Hermann Hesse – Demian: Coming-Of-Age but make it gritty, dark, religious and homoerotic.

Stefan Zweig – Schachnovelle: A man gets tortured by the Nazis by getting locked away in a Hotel Room without anything to do. He manages to get a book about chess into his possession and spends his days in captivity playing chess with breadcrumbs and his checkered blanket to keep him sane (while also kinda going insane in the process).

Friedrich Schiller – Die Räuber: Everybody in this play has half a braincell and the female charcter is, well, shit, but Friedrich Schiller went ham on the language. Homeboy wasn’t allowed to write and his frustration turned into so much PATHOS!

Goethe – Faust: Guy sells his soul to the devil. Been there, done that. Mephisto is carrying this entire play on his back because he is an icon. Faust however can… choke.

I feel like I forgot a lot of things, but I can always add some stuff later. Hope the anon finds the resources helpful!

[frodo-sam]

His love for Frodo rose above all other thoughts, and forgetting his peril he cried aloud: ‘I’m coming, Mr. Frodo!’ He ran forward to the climbing path, and over it. At once the road lurned left and plunged steeply down. Sam had crossed into Mordor.

[evilestscientist]

What if 😜 we locked eyes 😳 at poste italiane 👅while endlessly waiting 💦 to make a bollettino postale 💘 (and we were both girls)👭

[secifosseluce]

what if we 😜😜 locked eyes 👀 at the train station 🚆🥴 while endlessly waiting 💦 because our train has a 1 h delay 💕 (and we were both girls)👭

[korusalka]

tfw when you're riding home with your bros hungover probably & your king who also happens to be your dad is nagging you from his carriage like "WHEN will you get a JOB and a WIFE look at yourself dude you're 30 and your pretty face won't last forever"😔

[korusalka]

the closeup with the horror music in the background really makes it

[princechae]

The most iconic quote out of a German kids’ movie.

Part 2 to this post.

[c3rvida3]

I think people need to understand that part of living a healthy life is having different people who understand different parts of you, so that you don't overwhelm your friends and expect too much of them, or ignore valuable relationships because they feel "incomplete".

We all want to be fully seen and understood, but it's not shallow or meaningless to just have a pal you talk about TV shows with who isn't also, like, your platonic soulmate. That's still your friend! You still enhance each other's lives with your company. Not everything that matters is profound.

I think a lot of you are lonely because you're waiting around for someone who sees into your soul instead of just plain old lookin' at the people in your life, finding common ground, and planting a little garden there. Even if that garden only grows Star Trek fan theories and memes, it's still good.

It just... makes me real sad that you guys can't imagine a friendship where you don't talk about sex and trauma constantly, or that you think these are prerequisites for "real" friendship. Like, it legitimately breaks my heart.

[marthanielsn]

No! This is not the end of the world. BABYLON BERLIN S01E08

[jessicamiriamdrew]

Today, January 27, is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Please take time to remember and reflect on all the different people murdered in the Holocaust, and those who survived its horrors. Jewish people, Roma people, LGBTQ people, the disabled, political prisoners, and many more groups.

They deserve to be remembered. They need to be.

2020 marks the 75th year since the liberation of Auschwitz. The number of Holocaust survivors decreases each year.

We must study and learn about the Holocaust. We must listen to the testimonies of those who survived.

We owe them that much.

[chemicalheart-deactivated202009]

Why must your art be "good"? Isn't it enough to explore your medium on your own terms, joyfully?