Culture calendar

International Highrise Prize 2010

Height is a status symbol, especially when it comes to skyscrapers. Company heads like to reserve the top floor for their offices and the most influential firms rise above the cityscape. For years now, cities have competed for bragging rights when it comes to housing the world's tallest building. Dubai recently topped its competitors with the Burj Khalifa Tower at 828 meters (2,717 feet). But height isn't everything it seems; at least not for the International Highrise Award. Each year, Frankfurt's Architecture Museum honors a building with the prestigious award that includes 50,000 euros ($69,000) for the edifice's owner and a statue for its architect. In selecting a winner, the jury considers the building technique, aesthetics, the structure's connection with its surroundings and cost efficiency. This year's winning construction will be announced on November 5. The finalists include the Aqua Tower in Chicago (USA), the Shanghai World Finance Center (China) and the Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai. The latter houses practically an entire city, including a hotel, various apartments and luxury residences, office space and an open air observatory - the world's highest, needless to mention.

Momentous date in German history

November 9 is bound up with events both wonderful and terrible from modern German history. For one, the date marks the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. A space commemorating the events of November 9, 1989 will be presented to the public this year along a section of the Wall that still stands. But looking back several decades before that turning point, November 9 was also the date of an infamous episode during the Nazi era: the Kristallnacht or Night of Broken Glass. In the night from November 8-9,1938, Nazis burned Jewish institutions throughout the country. Synagogues were destroyed, while Jewish citizens were murdered or sent to concentration camps. Now, the Jewish community in Germany marks this dark chapter in the country's history each year with events like tours through synagogues or a silent march through the city, planned this year by school children in Berlin.

The "Fantastic Four" hit the road

They brought hip hop to Germany and their fans still love them for it: the band "Die Fantastischen Vier" ("The Fantastic Four"). Their songs have been staples in the German music charts for more than 20 years now. When they got their start, hip hop was almost exclusively performed in English, but the school friends Smudo, And. Ypsilon, Michi Beck and Thomas D wanted to rap in German - with nonsensical lyrics that nevertheless raised some weighty themes. After a creative break, the band is going back on tour starting November 9 with a total of 16 concerts in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. And their fans are ready and waiting - not just for the songs on their new album (titled "Fuer Dich Immer Noch Fanta Sie" in German) but also for the group's new stage concept. The band will perform on a round stage in each arena, surrounded on all sides by concert-goers.

Carnival begins

Spring, summer, fall and winter - those are the four official seasons in Germany. But in some parts of the country, there's at least one more. In the Rhineland in western Germany, the Carnival season begins on November 11 (that is, 11/11) at 11:11 a.m. There are any number of theories about why the number 11 plays such a big role in the festivities but the Rhineland revelers don't worry too much about them. The main thing is to party, drink, dance and be crazy. After the one-day opening festival, the party mostly vanishes from public view until the new year begins. After all, the storefronts and city squares are bedecked with holiday decorations and attractions until then. But once January hits, the Carnival clowns and streamers will be out in full force. Behind the scenes, Carnival associations prepare all year round for the event and some loyal fans who have left behind the chill of a German November even listen to Carnival music on the beach.

In memory of a great musician

During mid-month in Berlin, though, things will be a bit more civilized as musicians from across the world meet to take part in the "Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann" cello contest. The event is named after a renowned 20th-century cellist who taught at the Academy of Music Arts in Berlin before being forced out of his position in 1933 for being Jewish. He died in 1942 in New York. The first contest was organized in 2002 by Berlin's University of the Arts and is held every four years to honor Feuermann. During the first session of the contest, Feuermann's youngest sister, then in her mid 90s, was a guest, despite having planned never to return to Germany again after fleeing during the Nazi period. This year's participants will also travel in from all over the world, including competitors from China, Russia, Canada, Korea, France, England, Germany and the Czech Republic. The winner receives not just a prize of 15,000 euros but also support for a CD production and concert appearances and tours.

Ruhr 2010: Trash scavengers from Istanbul on stage

Rimini-Protokoll are three young men from Berlin that present theater works - but not with actors. Instead, they use people they meet on the street - for instance, four trash scavengers from Istanbul. Director Daniel Wetzel met them around a year ago when he was in the Turkish capital looking for ideas. He saw scavengers everywhere in the city: Kurdish men and Roma from villages in Anatolia, who scrounge around for metal, plastic, tin and anything else that's valuable from morning until night. After talking to some of them, the result was "Herr Dagacar und die goldene Tektonik des Muells" ("Mr. Dagacar and the Golden Tectonics of Trash"). The theater piece premiered in Istanbul on October 15 and its German premiere will take place on November 26 as part of the Ruhr region's year as a European Capital of Culture. The four men on stage talk about their lives, villages, families - and their survival strategies. The entire show is in Turkish and Kurdish, but for those who don't understand the language, there's a screen above the stage displaying subtitles. It's an unusual format but one that's already meant success for the young theater makers.

Christmas market season opens

By the end of November, it's already Christmas time in Germany. Cookies and chocolate Santas have already been in the stores since September. But the end of the month marks the official opening for many of Germany's Christmas markets, including the most famous market in Nuremberg on November 26. There, guests will be greeted personally by a figure known in German as the Christkind: a woman with long blond locks wearing a golden crown. She hands out treats, accepts wish lists and reads to children.Young women in Nuremberg between 16 and 19 years old can apply to fill the role each year. Around two million guests visit the market every year and many travel all the way from the US or Japan just for the event. These days, the atmosphere is so international that it's no surprise to hear the sounds of "Silent Night" sung in Japanese wafting from some of the stands.

Author: Petra Lambeck, Anggatira Golmer (gsw)
Editor: Gavin Blackburn