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The Team Behind Schau ins Land Audio Magazine
Axel Fitzke
A native of Hamburg, Axel established himself as a popular radio and television personality on RTL+, one of Germany's largest commercial networks.
Tim Obojski
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Tim Obojski studied at the Freie Universität Berlin and worked for the English service of the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) in Hamburg, St. Petersburg and Moscow. His articles, written in both English and German, have appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines.
Eva Vennebusch
A native of Bottrop, Germany. Eva Vennebusch is a graduate of translation (German, English and French). She has worked for many years as a lexicographer on German dictionaries.
Can't wait a month for your next fix of Schau ins Land? The Schau ins Land Blog, written by Schau ins Land Notes editor Tim Obojski, will appeal to anyone who loves our monthly German Audio Magazines and wants more of the inside track on all things to do with Germany, Austria and Switzerland and Germanic culture.
Recent highlights from the Schau ins Land Blog:
Something like this was waiting to happen.
Here’s the background: Smoking in Hamburg’s public buildings has been banned since January 1. But Hamburg’s most famous citizen, ex-chancellor Helmut Schmidt, is also his country’s best-known Qualmender (heavy smoker). The leader of West Germany from 1974 to 1982, Schmidt puffs away on menthol ciggies wherever he goes — no-smoking signs be damned — except in church and, earlier, in the Bundestag, where he switched to snuff. Hamburg’s prestigious weekly newspaper Die Zeit, which Schmidt has co-published since 1983, even launched an interview series with him last year called Auf eine Zigarette mit Helmut Schmidt (“A Cigarette With Helmut Schmidt”).
Here’s what happened: At a New Year’s reception in a Hamburg theater, guests of honor Schmidt and his wife, Loki, also a chain smoker, did what they always do: They lit up. The popular Bild tabloid published pictures of the puffers, prompting a non-smokers group in faraway Wiesbaden to report them to the police for violating the no-smoking ban and “causing bodily harm.”
The online edition of the newsmagazine Der Spiegel quoted Hamburg’s chief prosecutor as saying late Friday that while smoking was unhealthy, “it is not to be assumed” that the Schmidts caused bodily harm — certainly not to the people who’ve accused them. Loki and Smoky, as the Schmidts are fondly known, may yet get nicked for flouting the ban, though.
Loki, by the way, is 88. Smoky, who’s had four heart bypass operations and wears a pacemaker, is 89.
Posted by Tim Obojski
Click here to read more
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Axel Fitzke
A native of Hamburg, Axel established himself as a popular radio and television personality on RTL+, one of Germany's largest commercial networks. |
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Franziska Unger
A native of Plauen, Germany, Franziska Unger is a graduate of European Languages (French, German, English and Russian) from the European Schools for Administration and Management of Vienna. |
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Tim Obojski
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Tim Obojski studied at the Freie Universität Berlin and worked for the English servoce of the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) in Hamburg, St. Petersburg and Moscow. His articles, written in both English and German, have appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines. |
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