VIENNA IN 1896

 https://x.com/i/status/2051998914908172570

VIENNA IN 1896 Another era, another Austria...

Germany figured something out

 https://x.com/GermanSimply

Germany figured something out that the rest of the world is still pretending it doesn't need to know. 11 things. One thread. Some of these will make you uncomfortable. All of them are true

𝟭. They made university almost free. Not as a charity. As infrastructure. Germany decided that an educated population benefits everyone – so everyone contributes to making it possible.

The result: world-class universities, zero student loan crises, and graduates who enter the workforce without financial trauma as their baseline. The rest of the world calls this radical. Germany calls it common sense.

𝟮. They built a word for work-life balance instead of just talking about it. 𝘍𝘦𝘪𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘦𝘯𝘥.

The sacred end of the working day.

In Germany, when work ends – it ends.

No emails at 9PM.

No "just checking in" on weekends.

No performance of busyness

to prove you're committed.

Your time after Feierabend is yours.

Legally. Culturally. Completely.

The rest of the world is still in meetings about having fewer meetings.

𝟯. They protected bread 3,000+ types UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Not technology Not engineering 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 Because Germany understood something most cultures forgot– the things worth protecting aren't always the loudest They can be things on your table every morning.

𝟰. They built an apprenticeship system that the world keeps trying to copy and never quite manages. 𝘋𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘈𝘶𝘴𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘶𝘯𝘨𝘴𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮. Half classroom. Half workplace. From age 16.

German apprentices graduate with real skills, real experience, and zero condescension from society about not going to university. A plumber in Germany is not looked down upon. A plumber in Germany is someone who knows something you don't.

𝟱. They separated the feeling of being cold from the personality of being cold. 𝘐𝘤𝘩 𝘣𝘪𝘯 𝘬𝘢𝘭𝘵 Literal: I am cold = I am a cold person. Emotionally 𝘔𝘪𝘳 𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘬𝘢𝘭𝘵 Literal: to me it's cold = I feel cold. Physically. Learners will understand this better

Two different sentences. Two completely different meanings. German decided that what you feel in the moment and what you are as a person should never be confused. Most languages never made this distinction. Most people never make it either.

𝟲. They gave workers a seat in the boardroom. 𝘔𝘪𝘵𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘨. Co-determination. In large German companies, workers elect representatives to the supervisory board. Not to advise. To vote. The rest of the world calls this unusual. German workers call it Tuesday.

𝟳. They kept their town centres alive. Walk through a German town on a Saturday morning. Bakeries open. Markets running. People buying bread from the same baker their parents bought bread from.

Germany resisted the full supermarket takeover that hollowed out town centres across most of the developed world. Not perfectly. But meaningfully. Because Germany understood that a community without a centre isn't really a community.

𝟴. They made recycling a social contract Not a suggestion. A system bins, rules, fines, and a bottle deposit (𝘗𝘧𝘢𝘯𝘥)that makes returning bottles feel like collecting money you were always owed Result: one of the highest recycling rates in the world Systems+ incentives

𝟵. Named the feeling of a Sunday before the week begins. 𝘚𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘴𝘣𝘭𝘶𝘦𝘴. Sunday blues. Germany didn't try to fix it or tell you to be more positive. They named it. Acknowledged it & let it be. A language that doesn't dismiss what you feel – respects you.

Germany is not perfect. No country is. But the way it treats workers, protects culture, and names what others ignore – is worth paying attention to. The best way to pay attention? Learn the language. Everything in this thread lands differently in German.

German pronunciation

 German pronunciation has one rule that nobody puts in the title of their lesson.

But it changes everything. 𝗚𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗰. What that means: every letter makes the same sound every single time it appears. No exceptions hiding in plain sight the way English hides them. English: 𝘨𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵, 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩, 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩. Same four letters. Four different sounds. No rule. No logic. No mercy. German: what you see is what you say. Every time. Here are the sounds that trip beginners – solved in one post: 𝟭. 𝗲𝗶 sounds like English 𝘦𝘺𝘦 𝘦𝘪𝘯 (one) — sounds like "ine" 𝘉𝘦𝘪𝘯 (leg) — sounds like "bine" 𝟮. 𝗶𝗲 sounds like English 𝘦𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘦 (she/they) — sounds like "zee" 𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘣 (stayed) — sounds like "bleeb" 𝟯. 𝗮𝘂 sounds like English 𝘰𝘸 𝘒𝘢𝘶𝘧 (purchase) — sounds like "cowf" 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘶𝘯 (brown) — sounds like "brown" 𝟰. 𝗲𝘂 / 𝗮̈𝘂 sounds like English 𝘰𝘺 𝘏𝘦𝘶𝘵𝘦 (today) — sounds like "hoy-teh" 𝘓𝘢̈𝘶𝘧𝘦𝘳 (runner) — sounds like "loy-fer" 𝟱. 𝘀𝗽 / 𝘀𝘁 at the start of a word, pronounced 𝘴𝘩𝘱 / 𝘴𝘩𝘵 𝘚𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦 (language) — "shpra-kheh" 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘥𝘵 (city) — "shtat" Five rules. Hundreds of words now readable. This has nothing to do with talent but purr pattern recognition. And patterns can be taught.

https://x.com/GermanSimply_

Article by Judith Bleich

 https://web.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/bleich_rsrh.pdf

only as instruments for translating the Torah into living reality

 Israel should be one nation, an entire nation that should have no other foundation for its existence, survival, activity and significance other than this Torah. It is to see the realization and devoted observance of this God-given "fiery Law" as its one contribution in world history for the edifice of human salvation. What the Phoenicians sought to bring about with the keels of their ships, what the ancient Greeks sought to achieve with their chisels and what the ancient Romans sought to attain with their swords, Israel is to accomplish with its Torah. Nay more, Israel is a nation that became a nation only through and for the Torah, a nation that once owned a land and existed as a state only through and for the Torah, and which possessed that land and that statehood only as instruments for translating the Torah into living reality. This is why Israel was a people even before it possessed land and statehood; this, too, is why Israel survived as a people even after its land was destroyed and its statehood lost, and this is why it will survive as a nation as long as it does not lose this only מורשה, this sole foundation for its survival and significance. That is the kind of nation that Israel, that all of us, should be. 

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch "The Character of the Jewish Community," Collected Writings, Vol. VI, p. 35