Anyone who reads messages currently in Germany sees or hears, the more frequently encountered an issue: the financial crisis. Is most affected in Germany is currently the automotive industry. Victor from Mexico has asked me to talk about it.

In Germany, around 800,000 people working in the automotive industry. They make cars. There are many well-known car brands that are from Germany. If you look at the cars in Germany once, which provides for all Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz (Daimler so), Opel, BMW and Audi. Well, of course, there are a couple of Porsches too, and many other car brands that do not come from Germany. The most successful are Daimler and Volkswagen. In Germany there are about 41 million cars, which stands for passenger cars, so normal cars. The larger trucks are called truck to truck. This means that approximately every second German has a car.

The automotive industry has a long tradition in Germany, and no wonder. Because the car was invented in 1885 - Carl Benz, a German.

There are many terms that you might not know yet. You know, for example, what we call an open car? That's a convertible. A car in which two people have space, we call a two-seater. The best-known German car sitting in the only two people can probably be smart, a great little car!

A very popular car of the Germans is the VW Golf. If you want to buy a car, you can either buy a new car or a used one. When selling you get the papers - the vehicle registration and ownership documents. Who are these two papers has officially owns the car.

A car should not immediately on the Street: First, it must be admitted. This one goes to a special authority, the approval body. Where do you register the car, and then you get marks, ie license plates. These are two elongated metal plates that are mounted front and rear of the car. Because it can be recognized. In Germany, the mark begins always with one, two or three letters. These letters stand for a city or a region. The fewer the letters, the greater the city. M stands for Munich, Berlin, B, S for Stuttgart, Cologne K.

On the license plate under this subsection is a small bar - and above and below are two colorful labels to see so-called plaques. These badges you get from TUV. The TÜV is an institution that controls whether the car is fine. Whether it is safe and works. Every two years you have to bring the car to control and gets a new badge.

The car is then finally approved, you can ride it. There are two types of cars: cars with automatic transmissions and cars with manual gearbox. When I was a kid, all the cars in Germany had a manual transmission. Today this has changed: more and more German cars automatic buy. I can well understand, it is more convenient. My little car but still a manual transmission.

Before you can sit behind the wheel of a car, you have to make a driver's license. This one goes to the driving school. Here you pay money for it, so that a driving instructor teaches you to drive a car. You learn how the gear works, where is the flasher how to einparkt and so on. And of course one must remember the road rules. Therefore, instruction in the driving school in a theoretical and a practical part is divided. At the end you have a theoretical and a practical test to make. If they are both there, get a driver's license, which looks like a plastic card.

By the way, cars must be insured in Germany! This is mandatory. If one has an accident in which one is not to blame, you can rest assured that you will be supported.

Especially if you have an old car, it can happen that you have a car breakdown. The car is broken and does not drive anymore. Then I call the ADAC, which is a club where you can become a member. There are of course other clubs such as ADAC, I take it only as an example. In any case, the ADAC is then one of his yellow cars to me and tried to repair my car on the spot if it's just a small thing. If it's worse, the car must be towed. Then it takes a tow to the nearest garage. I am the last year happened, it was very exciting!

I notice you I could tell a lot about cars - it is a very important issue in Germany! Currently there are for example a so-called scrappage scheme - who scrapped his old car, so to make garbage that gets money from the state, if he choose to buy a new car. So shall the automotive industry are boosted, boosted in this case, they should be supported.

Now even more music, from Jack- "And we thought."

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Anyone who reads messages currently in Germany sees or hears, the more frequently encountered an issue: the financial crisis. Hardest hit in Germany is currently the automotive industry. Victor from Mexico has asked me to talk about it. In Germany, around 800,000 people working in the automotive industry. They make cars. There are many well-known car brands from ...

Ralph is in the first generation Canadians, that is, his parents came from Germany to Canada and he grew up there. He is interested in how this works in Germany with the driving school and with the highways.

We begin with the German autobahn, which is well known worldwide. The first official highway was inaugurated 1932nd Most Americans are disappointed when they see for the first time a freeway. Because compared to the freeways or the big, ten-lane roads in Los Angeles freeways are rather tiny.

A highway is a road in both directions. Each has at least two tracks. In the middle of the two directions are separated by either concrete walls or steel guardrails. If a car will still on the wrong side in the wrong direction moves, usually this happens on purpose as a test of courage, or a suicide attempt, but sometimes there are simply confused people, then these drivers are called ghost rider. Highways are usually constructed so that it neither has nor tight corners great differences in height, unless allowed to do that. If too much is going on, especially during the holiday season, then jam on the highway. Then the cars they drive are more than that.

On a motorway there is a minimum speed. So you have to have at least one car, 60 kilometers per hour or faster can go. Cyclists must not of course on the highway, little Vespa scooters or similar not so. Originally, the highway was barely a speed limit. So you could drive as fast as you wanted. In the meantime this has changed in many places, the speed is set there and we can not travel faster than for example 120 km / h. Reason for this limitation is security - if a car drives 210 and the other 100, then it can easily cause an accident than if both are about the same speed - driving - or slow. A third of German traffic passes over the highway. Here too, most trucks are on the road. You have to pay to drive on the highway must. Rarely has a highway for more than three lanes.

Since the highway is also much used for long distance service, so for people who have to travel long distances, there are rest stops. You drive next to the highway shortly to eat something or to refuel. There are even motorway churches. And you know what it cost to build a highway? € 26.8 million per kilometer. The most expensive is the planning that usually lasts for about 20 years. Then you need engineers who advise and assist, and the building itself will cost 6.7 million euros. If your time in Germany and are you looking for a highway, look for blue signs with white letters.

Finally, as always, some music, this time the song of the Gema Reeperboys .

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Ralph is in the first generation Canadians, that is, his parents came from Germany to Canada and he grew up there. He is interested in how this works in Germany with the driving school and with the highways. We begin with the German autobahn, which is well known worldwide. The first official highway was inaugurated 1932nd The ...