Announcement
Germany
March 5, 2014
About three years ago – in the middle of March - my friend Barbara who already had many journeys to English-speaking countries like Scotland, Ireland and Australia since she's from a wealthy family told me the following story when she returned from her trip to Ireland. She told me that there the newspapers reported back then about a retired taxi-driver from Dublin who protested against the unfair treatment of 4983 Irish soldiers from World War II and in favor of a recompensation for the few still remaining ex-members of the Irish military.
Anyway she told me that after the protest of this taxi-driver on 5th of March of that year – and I remember this date as 6th of March was the birthday of my bunny Hanno that already passed away about eight years ago, but whose birthday I still remember for some bizarre reasons – the story of the 4983 soldiers he fought for also got mentioned in some newspapers: After hearing about the horrible deeds the Germans did in World War II these men were fed up with the rather passive role Ireland played in this war and they decided to desert their army to fight the Germans – in which they succeeded as we all know from history lessons. Not only did they succeed, but they also freed and thus saved the lives of 21.000 survivors of the concentration camp Buchenwald. Furthermore - contrary to many other members of the Allied Forces and contrary to the Germans along with their allied nations – they didn't commit any act of violence towards female citizens of the nations they fought as it seems. To keep a long letter short you could say that they were true heroes. Yet, when they returned home to Ireland people didn't even want to hear their stories. They lost their jobs in the military, weren't allowed to get any high-ranking position in whatever job they got next for the following few years and even now they neither receive any memorial nor any form of recompensation. Considering the fact that without their help the war probably would have taken longer and thus would have claimed a higher death toll, the little number of Germans who knows about them of course is grateful, but that is all. So all they ever received for saving the lives of thousands was the subjective gratefulness of a rather low number of people, while as a comparison even some breeding horses and dogs already received a memorial simply for looking pretty.
I checked the story Barbara told me by doing some online researches and – except for the date which I did not find anything about – I found the whole story to be true. It's just that that year I saw no need in posting subjects like these here and during the last two years there always was something keeping me from posting this on memorial day - and for sure I wanted to post this just on a commemoration day as anything else would have seemed out of place from my point of view.
Considering that we all know the name of the head of state of Ireland – namely President Michael D. Higgins - we could either send him complaint letters to make him change something about this situation or we could start a petition – each of us in the region where he or she lives – in order to receive as many signatures as possible from people who are in favor of giving the remaining few of these 4983 brave soldiers either a recompensation or the memorial they would deserve - or both. Then we could still send the results of this petition to this particular head of state.
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03:04 PM May 04 2015 |
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Dorothee
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01:51 PM Jan 27 2015 |
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Dorothee
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12:43 PM Jan 19 2015 |
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Dorothee
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03:19 PM Apr 19 2014 |
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Dorothee
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02:14 AM Mar 14 2014 |
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Dorothee
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04:25 AM Mar 07 2014 |
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roman.lotarewicz
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July 3, 2013
My Israeli friend who is studying in Germany right now recently told me that he liked dogs. He said that he would like to take one from a German pet shelter and take it to his home in Israel when he would leave. When he asked me if I would mind asking some pet shelters whether or not they would give their dogs away to foreigners like him, I accepted. His German actually is very well, but since I am a native speaker he just thought it would be a better idea if I asked them in his place.
When I did that I immediately remembered the newspaper article "Berlin's Forgotten Fighting Dogs" that appeared in the newspaper "Spiegel" just three months ago. The author of this article said that Germany's pet shelters are overcrowded with all kinds of dogs - not only fighting dogs. The sad thing is that actually most of these dogs maybe would have a home if it wasn't for the German law. In every federal state you have to pay taxes if you own a dog and depending on the breed and on where you live this can become more or less expensive after a while. Also landlords have the right to forbid their lodgers to own a dog, meaning that some dogs end up in shelters after their owner has to move. Also some dogs end up in shelters, because they are hybrids. If you buy a hybrid-puppy it is unpredictable how big this animal will grow and in some cases you are going to have a nasty surprise if the owner of this puppy's mother lied to you and it later turns out that some of this puppy's ancestors were aggressive - and aggressivity is inheritable. Also the state would take away a fighting dog if you don't pay the higher taxes that every federal state requires for fighting dogs, if your fighting dog becomes pregnant - even if it isn't your fault -, if your fighting dog hasn't been through an expensive character test and still doesn't wear a muzzle, etc. I heard rumours that in Lower Saxony things are more relaxed, but the rest of Germany is very strict. One of the dogs the author told about was a female pitbull terrier that was taken away from its owner when a male stray dog attacked them. She became pregnant and the owner didn't prevent the birth of her puppies, Another case was a very kind and peaceful stiffordshire terrier whose owner refused to pay the taxes and didn't make that dog wear a muzzle. However I think that the staff from an animal shelter knows what it's talking about and if they say that this or that dog is friendly, I think I should believe them instead of being afraid of this dog just because of its breed.
To keep a long letter short: I feel sorry for all these homeless dogs and I want to limit the stress the staff of these shelters has at the moment. The following animal shelters said they would give their dogs away to anybody who knows how to deal with dogs. Of course back then we were talking about my Israeli friend, but in this context this doesn't really matter:
If you bring along your pass, your certificate of residency and - in case you live in a rented apartment - also the written permission of your landlord, you should be allowed to take a dog from a German shelter as well. They care a great deal about the animals they give away, so be sure to have enough time for long open assembly times and a detailed talk with someone from the animal shelter.
For further questions please contact:
info@tierheim-gunzenhausen.de (pet shelter Gunzenhausen)
Tierheim.Worms@gmx.de (pet shelter Worms)
Matthias.Zauche@stadtweimar.de (pet shelter Weimar)
info@tsv-frankfurt.de (pet shelter Frankfurt)
heike.iben@tierschutz-berlin.de (pet shelter Berlin)
Judith.Brettmeister@tierschutzverein-muenchen.de (pet shelter Munich)
tierheim@tierheim-hd.de (pet shelter Heidelberg)
"What I am doing here is only a drop in the ocean, but the ocean would be less without this drop." (Mother Theresa)
I'm well aware that this blog won't inspire too many people to buy a dog from a shelter.
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11:34 PM Aug 10 2017 |
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Dorothee
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April 10, 2013
After taking the permission from this fund-raising project called "Reutlinger Bücher Börse" (Book Market of Reutlingen) I was allowed to create some placards as a form of advertisement for this project and to spread them on blackboards all over my universitty, since at "my" university students are allowed to use these blackboards. Anyway I also told them about some friends of mine who live too far away from Reutlingen to get there personally to donate their books and according to the gentleman I spoke to it would also be okay to send them by post.
Well, I think that if I just translate the message I wrote on these placards which I created, that should explain everything, but since Englishbaby is an international website, I should add that they only take books in English, French and German...
The original German text, since I know some users here who just like reading things in German:
Title: Reutlinger Bücher Börse
Text: Das ehrenamtliche Bücher-Börsen-Team fördert mit dem Erlös seines Kaufstandes soziale Caritas-Projekte.
Neue Annahmestelle für Ihre Bücher:
Kolpinghaus Reutlingen
Liststrasse 26
72764
Jeden ersten Freitag im Monat: von 14:30 - 16:30 Uhr.
Translation - with information I thought I should add for foreigners:
Title: Book Market of Reutlingen
Text: The voluntary Book Market of Reutlingen-team supports social Caritas-Projects (Caritas is an aid-organisation) with the sales revenue of its sales booth.
New receiving office of your books, ladies and gentlemen:
Kolpinghaus Reutlingen
Liststrasse 26
72764
(If you my friends from Englishbaby send them some books by post, you may add "Stichwort: Bücherspende" which means "Keyword: Book Donation" to the address.)
Every first Friday of the month between: half past 2 PM and half past 4 PM.
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05:39 AM Jun 26 2013 |
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Dorothee
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02:18 PM Jun 25 2013 |
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Dorothee
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02:05 PM Jun 25 2013 |
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Dorothee
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01:56 PM Jun 25 2013 |
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Dorothee
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