Radio D Series 2 | Learning German | Deutsche Welle

To finish with, German students can test their listening comprehension once again with a little quiz. Eulalia and Compu present four listening exercises that need to be solved. Which words are missing? For the last episode, the team at Radio D have thought up something special. Eulalia presents a quiz where listeners have to guess certain words. Compu can give a few clues, but whoever has been paying close attention in the last 25 episodes will be able to work it out without any help. Correct answers can be sent in by email to [email protected]. And after so much hard work the professor lets listeners off from further grammar exercises.

Now it’s time once again to say goodbye: unfortunately Jan’s internship is coming to an end and Philipp and Paula are thinking about a letter of reference. Today Jan expresses his generosity. There is to be a small farewell party to mark Jan’s last day as an intern at Radio D. He surprises his colleagues with some drinks and snacks. But Paula and Philipp are still busy writing him a letter of reference. For this they need to find the right phrasing, because if Jan gets a good reference then he can maybe attend a journalism school. The professor is taking a look at the conjunctions “falls” and “wenn”, and explains conditional sentences to the listeners.

This time Jan is visiting a school that offers an unusual idea for a German project. He asks the pupils why they are learning German on top of their mother tongue, and what they want to do later in life. Jan comes up with a report from a school that consists 80 percent of immigrants and presents them with an unusual German project. There he meets Vladimir, Yen-Lin and Gülseren who report about their experiences with two different languages and their difficulties in learning German. The professor goes easy on listeners this time and limits himself to a short grammar lesson. He explains temporal phrases with the conjunction “bevor”, which mark an event in the past.

The excursion through Berlin ends for Paula, Philipp, Jan and Josefine with a relaxing and informative meal in the garden of the Tacheles Art House. There Josefine makes an interesting acquaintance. Marching around makes you hungry and the journalists from Radio D would like to eat something. Only after conferring can they eventually decide on a place. In Tacheles Josefine meets an artist who makes sculptures out of rubbish and from him she learns more about the history of Tacheles. The listeners, on the other hand, learn more about relative clauses and syntax from the helpful professor.

This time in the Radio D studio Paula is looking at German reunification. She has invited several guests to discuss this matter together with her. Paula is hosting a discussion on the theme “East and West Germans”. She speaks to an east German car mechanic, a psychologist and an economy expert. Her questions to the guests today: are there still prejudices? And what would be a more positive perspective for East and West Germans? The professor also has some complex questions to tackle: he is shedding light on the subjunctive of “haben” and “sein” and the subjunctive construction with the verb form “würde”.

In Berlin Paula, Philipp, Jan and Josefine visit the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate and the wall path, which shows where the Berlin Wall stood. Radio D presents a radio play about the construction of the wall. On the evening of 13th August, 1961, the GDR national police begins erecting a wall along the border with West Berlin. A married couple whose house lies directly on the border spontaneously decides to flee. In the West the fire brigade is waiting and they catch all the people who jump out of the windows. In today’s grammar lesson we have the indefinite article “ein” and the indefinite pronoun “eins”. The professor draws your attention to several hazards that one must watch out for in these situations.

Paula and Philipp are busying themselves in Berlin with the art project “United Buddy Bears” that is being organized by artists from 120 different countries. An interview should reveal more details about the project. Back in Berlin Paula and Philipp go on an excursion through the capital with Josefine and Jan. Josefine is most fascinated by a very special art project: 120 big plastic bear statues are going on a world tour as a symbol for tolerance. The journalists question the press spokeswoman of the company and learn more about the colorful bears. While the others amuse themselves in Berlin, the professor has work to do: he is explaining adjective endings that come before the substantive. Not an easy business.

At the end of their stay in Jena, the two reporters visit a particularly fascinating museum. In the House of the Romantics they make the acquaintance of several famous German thinkers of the 18th century. The House of the Romantics in Jena is devoted to early Romanticism. Here visitors can learn more about the new ways of thinking of the era and learn about the attempt at an intellectual and poetic revolution. The two journalists from Radio D take the listeners with them on a foray through the museum and introduce them to Fichte, Novalis and the salon of Caroline Schlegel. With so much going on at the same time it stands to reason that the professor should explain the conjunctions “als” and “wenn”, which can be used to describe simultaneous events.

In the 18th century Jena attracted numerous great thinkers from various other towns. Among them was the famous writer Friedrich Schiller. Philipp and Paula present a radio play about his first lecture in Jena. In this episode listeners learn a bit about Schiller and Goethe and can plunge into 18th century Jena. Here Schiller gave his first lecture at the age of 29. Over 500 students came to this event. Due to the huge surge in listeners, a new venue for the lecture had to be found at the last minute. The professor brings listeners back from the past to the future and looks this time at the verb “werden” which indicates a future event.

The mystery of the secret laser beams is almost solved. But Paula and Philipp have little reason to be happy. The whole story is already in the newspaper. Where did their rivals get all the information from? Bad news for Paula and Philipp: there is already a detailed report about the origin of the lasers in the newspaper. That just leaves the question of why the entrance to the optics plant wasn’t better guarded. The two journalists set off on their way there. Once there, they hope to find a press conference and a statement by the press spokesperson. Who was it who actually spoke here? On the occasion of all this confusion, the professor asks this question and looks at direct and indirect speech.