Author: Walter Phippeny
Born and raised in Tacoma, Washington, educated on the Palouse in Walla Walla, refined in France, and living in Berlin since 2012, Walter Phippeny describes himself as “a jack of all and master of none, with his fingers in many pies”.
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Welcome to the Club: How Vereine Can Turn Berlin from a City of Strangers into a Home
In 2000 Robert D. Putnam published a book, “Bowling Alone”, in which he argued that Americans were becoming increasingly isolated and removed from community and social capital. He took the institution of the Bowling League as his prime example. I remember when the book came out – though, admittedly, I never got around to reading […]
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“Darth Vader speaks Amtssprache”: The Chilling Poetry of German Bureaucracy
Every bureaucracy has its language; one might even go further to say that language is bureaucracy’s main tool. The characteristics of bureaucratic speech are well known: thick, complicated sentences, dripping with precision and impersonality. It is intentionally difficult to understand, requiring a certain amount of skill and training in its dark art. Most people will […]
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The Kiez: Where Berlin Becomes Personal
I’ve often said that in France every region has its dish, its wine, and its cheese; in Germany, every region has its dish, beer, sausage…and language. If we learned German before coming here, we learned “High German” (Hochdeutsch) – because it’s spoken in the high country… not because it’s lofty, or something – and then […]
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