Leisure time Germans are very committed to social and cultural development and this starts early: kindergarten, or nursery school, was a concept taken to the US by German immigrants. Germany is also the world's third biggest producer of books: 60,000 new German-language books are published every year, and one in every ten books published in the world is in German. Germans take exercising the body and the mind very seriously. Every town in Germany has a swimming pool, athletics track and leisure complex, and every major city has its own operatic company and at least one philharmonic orchestra. Indeed, many of the world's most famous classical composers are German: Bach, Beethoven and Handel, amongst others, are part of this rich cultural tradition. One well-known development of the musical has its spiritual home in modern Germany - das Kabarett, cabaret. This erotic and musical show was born in the early 20th century, and remains an important and popular form of entertainment to this day. Early Kabarett was the experimental battlefield of café poets and writers, and developed into bitterly mocking satire. Some of the outstanding authors of the 1920s included Kurt Tucholsky and Walter Mehring, who penned lyrical and satirical texts to entertain their audiences. Today Kabarett still combines political satire with original song, and provides an interesting and unconventional insight into German life. Links German culture - an outline from a US perspective. German cultural highlights - listings of cultural events, in English. Leisure time - an overview of leisure time for students. These links are included for educational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement by the BBC of the products or services featured. |