People all around the world are mourning the loss of Robin Williams and the tragedy of his death. Here are 3 articles for German learners to honor the late, great actor and comedian.

Easier:  From the Deutsche Welle:  http://dw.de/p/1Csji

Medium:  From Focus.de:  http://www.focus.de/kultur/kino_tv/polizei-berichtet-hollywoodstar-robin-williams-ist-tot_id_4053766.html

Advanced:  From Spiegel.de:  http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/kino/robin-williams-nachruf-auf-den-us-schauspieler-a-985686.html

The German Settlement Heritage Society of Hudson, Wisconsin is hosting a bread bake at the restored brick oven on June 1, 2014 from 4-6 p.m.

The restored brick oven is at 837 County Rd. N, Hudson, WI 54016 (5 miles east of Hudson, WI) and is on the site of the first German settlement in the area, the Nicholas Schwalen farm.

Nutrition and Outreach Specialist Ross Safford will be conducting the demonstration with his humor, dough-tossing techniques, and stories of baking bread.

Here are a few photos of last year's bread bake, which was as much a fascinating history lesson as it was a delicious, bread-eating experience.

Be sure to sign up for the RSS feed for this blog, as next week there will be a special post on the German Settlement Cemetery, which you can also visit when you head out to the bread bake. In fact, you can see the cemetery from the site of the brick oven!

Ross Safford preparing to bake, entertain, and feed the folks!

This Guardian article reports that the German justice ministry has determined that Germany's state institutions must make their language gender-neutral. That's right--no more der, die, das.

Wer, wie, was?!

So perhaps everything will become 'das,' so "das Baum," "das Auto," and "das Flasche." Or maybe it will all become 'die,' so 'die Baum,' 'die Auto,' and 'die Flasche.'

Woah!

Certainly the cases would become easier, and so would learning vocabulary, but wouldn't that take some of the fun out of it? Nothing is more exciting to an advanced intermediate student who guesses at an article and guesses correctly. It's a great feeling of accomplishment.

So here are my two questions for you, please comment below:

1. Do you think this is a good idea?

2. Do you think all languages should drop the gender of nouns?

The White Rose Exhibit is free to school classes, university classes, and the general public. All information is in English and German, and special events will be held at each location. For scheduling and special events information, please contact the organizer at a location that is convenient for you.

This exhibition displays the individuals and activities of the White Rose, a student resistance group that opposed the dictatorship of Nazi Germany. This group actively fought against the oppression of civil liberties and the persecution of Jews, and demanded an end to the war. The White Rose produced and distributed a total of six leaflets calling for resistance against the regime. After being discovered, the core members (six young students and one professor) were executed by the Nazi terror regime. Other members were sentenced to lengthy prison terms.

Also note the Wisconsin connection to Nazi-Resistance and the White Rose: Mildred Fish-Harnack.  She was from WI, the only American woman, and was executed on Hitler's orders.

Thanks to Siggi Pivek at the Milwaukee German Immersion School for this information!

A very thoughtful Wisconsin woman found German-language documents belonging to other Wisconsin residents whose family escaped the Holocaust. For 14 years she tried to find the family and now she has finally found them and returned their documents. Read the article and see the pictures at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Here are two more resources for understanding the extent of the flooding in Germany.

Hochwasser Zentralen - All the centers dealing with floods. A color-coded map thtat shows the extent of the flooding all over Germany.

Video:  Luftaufnahmen vom Hochwasser in Deggendorf und Umgebung - Aerial shots of the flooding in Debbendorf and the surrounding area.

This video blends in the name of each location as they show it, so you can grab a map and search for each village simultaneously.