New Year's Greetings, 2007

Subject: Happy New Year - alles Gute fuer 2007!

Moin-Moin! Gitta and I would love to see you - maybe you join our group visit to Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and southern Denmark from Sept. 15-25, 2007. (Info I & Info II) Vielleicht gibt es Interesse mit uns im Rahmen einer US-Gruppenreise den 125. Geburtstag von Holstein, Iowa zu feiern?! Die Freude waere gross, wenn wir gemeinsam den Mittleren Westen vom 12.-25. Juni 2007 bereisen . With best wishes und Gruessen zum Jahreswechsel joachim (yogi) reppmann ( [001] 507-645-2584 ) PS: Dee and Regina Eicke have started a nice 'relaunch' of our website: www.moin-moin.com

Appendix: “Moin Moin”. This is how people from Schleswig-Holstein greet their visitors. Strangers who come to Schleswig-Holstein receive a warm welcome here and often stay for ever. Life in Schleswig-Holstein and its people are characterised by their position between two seas – the North Sea and the Baltic Sea – which is unique in Germany. The countryside and expanses of sky have inspired writers and thinkers from time immemorial. Now living in the federal state (Land), in which Thomas and Heinrich Mann and Theodor Storm once worked and wrote, is, for example, Günter Grass, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Siegfried Lenz, author of the novel The German Lesson, spends his summers along Kiel Canal. In addition, fine artists – like painter Emil Nolde and sculptor Ernst Barlach – have always been impressed by the colourful splendour of nature, the fascinating clouds, storms and the sea.

Danish-German Friendship

Cultural diversity and different people and ethnic groups working and living together peacefully are written in capital letters in Schleswig-Holstein. It is the only Land in Germany in which two national minorities live: the Danes in southern Schleswig and the Frisians on the west coast. Like the German Sinti and Roma, they are afforded special protection under the Schleswig-Holstein constitution. Around five per cent of the 2.8 million people living in Schleswig-Holstein come from other countries, most of them from Turkey. Other large groups of immigrants come from Poland, Serbia, Montenegro and Denmark.

The people of Schleswig-Holstein are in tune with nature. The Land between the seas has preserved its naturalness in large areas – not least through consistent protection. Schleswig-Holstein is the leader in Germany, with around 9,000 sqm set aside as nature protection areas. The Wadden Sea National Park has the densest bird population in Central Europe.

Take your time and discover nature . Anyone who is not going sailing or surfing, uses Sundays and holidays for cycling, walking or horseback riding along the many coasts or through the lakeland areas and open fields in the fresh, healthy air. The Land is also a paradise for golfers and fishermen. Equipped with hot tea, one can fish in the bays, from any harbour pier, or from ocean-going cutters.

Alongside fish, traditional cuisine in Schleswig-Holstein is founded mainly on potatoes and cabbage, which comes as no surprise, as Schleswig-Holstein is home to the largest area of land used to cultivate cabbage in Europe. A particular winter speciality of the North is curly kale with caramelised potatoes, boiled sausage and smoked pork chop. In the last few years, creative chefs have developed new delicacies from traditional, wholesome food, using regional ingredients and international inspiration. Several gourmet restaurants that often serve Haute Cuisine in rustic settings, and Gourmet festivals, are evidence of this.

Schleswig-Holstein’s position between two seas offers advantages that people here have always known how to exploit – starting from the Vikings, via the whalers on the North Sea Islands and Hanseatic merchants, through to lively trading from the Baltic Sea ports in this day and age. The people in Schleswig-Holstein and Scandinavia have something in common: their composure, openness to the world and solidarity. Nowadays, modern Schleswig-Holstein continues to maintain close contacts with Baltic Sea states. Many companies exploit the enormous growth potential offered especially by European neighbours to the east. Common cultural roots can be experienced at the Nordic Film Festival in Lübeck or at the jam sessions of JazzBaltica. And when the musicians of the orchestral academy of the renowned Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival make music together on warm summer evenings, barriers between people, languages and styles cease to exist.

For further information: http://www.government.schleswig-holstein.de/ Dr. Joachim (Yogi) Reppmann, deus GmbH - International Connections