In Germany Gluehwein and Christmas are a timeless festive combination, but a traditional warming winter drink is a major ingredient throughout Germany's cold weather season, not only during the Weihnachten celebrations. From Gluehwein to Pharisaeer, rum, cream and coffee, there are many to try.

A first symbol of spring in Germany is 'Spargelzeit', the white asparagus season. Known as the 'Royal Vegetable', the much loved white stalks are harvested and savored from around the middle of April until June 24th, the feast day of St. John the Baptist.

Neither a German St. Martins Day, Martinstag, nor a Sankt Nikolaus, St. Nicholas, celebration would be complete without having bought or baked the traditional sweet yeast dough Bread Man, known as a Weckmann, Nikolaus, Klausenmann or Stutenkerl.

The foundations for a 'New Germany' were laid by 'Truemmerfrauen', Rubble Women, who, aged from 15 to 50 and often half starved, were the heroines of post war Germany. With bare hands, and sheer hard work, they cleared the rubble from the streets and buildings of their war torn cities.

Baking Weihnachts Plaetzchen is just one of Germany’s centuries old traditional Christmas customs. Holiday cookie recipes vary from region to region and family to family, but during advent, even amongst those who do not follow the Christian faith, few homes will be without their Weihnachtskekse.

Twelfth Night on January 5 is followed in Germany by 'Dreikoenigstag', The Day of the Three Kings, Epiphany. The final hours of the Advent and Weihnachten season and the end of the Christmas celebrations, marked by a mixture of Tradition, Charity and Religious customs.

For five days, during spring, summer and autumn, a unique annual 'Fire, Water, Light and Culture Festival', Rhein in Flammen, takes place along a beautiful, and historic, stretch of Germany's Rhine River. And each display celebrates a different theme.

Perhaps because German Americans stem from a mixed community that settled in the USA over a wide span of time, they assimilated quickly into their new homeland, and using their skills, discipline and different talents, household names or unknown, they had an enormous influence on American society.

It has been there since the 18th Century, and on the eastern side of Germany far away from the Netherlands-German border. A little piece of Holland, 'The Dutch Quarter', 134 Dutch styled homes for artisans from Holland, set amongst the palaces and parks of Potsdam.

Once upon a time there were two very dissimilar brothers, whose combined talents produced European folk and fairy tales which were anything but sweet and gentle bedtime stories. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm