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We are a group of students at the University of Freiburg translating German Wikipedia articles that do not exist in English so far. Articles we have been working on:

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In-class Translation[edit]

Background And General Data

The „Skulpturenboulevard“(Sculpture Boulevard) was a central aspect of an initiative in Germany, the land of good ideas. Under the patronage of Federal President Horst Köhler, this collective drive– represented by the Federal Association of German Industry (BDI) – to renovate the image and position of Germany’s federal government and economy is supposed to spread a positive model of Germany inside and outside the country.

Scholz & Friends Identify, a designer agency in Berlin, designed and produced the campaign’s corporate design and the arrangement of the sculptures. In the course of this campaign the company was internationally honored several times and awarded with decorations such as the treasured EVA Award in 2006. The sculptures were positioned centrally in downtown Berlin in places like the “Bebelplatz” or “Gendarmenmarkt”. Politicians, members of the initiative or representatives of involved companies delivered opening speeches in small celebrations that came along with the revealments. The first sculpture, labeled with “the modern soccer shoe”, was announced in the “Spreebogenpark” in March 10, 2006; the last figure, containing the theory of relativity, in the “Lustgarten” in May 19, 2006. All of the figures have been removed in the autumn of the same year. One sculpture, “The Automobile”, was sent to Munich, but it is unclear in what way the others are being used.

The overall costs from planning to performing were between 300.000 and 350.000 euros per figure. They all were fit together with the modern plastic Neopor, the coating was made with a blazing white special lacquer. It took around two months for each figure to be produced and approximately three days to install them into the ground.

On each object on the trail through the forest of scientific knowledge boards give detailed information on its meanings in both German and English.

In-class Translation 2[edit]

Free City of Frankfurt

In the German pre-March era, Frankfurt was one of the centers of the revolutionary movement. With the publication of his satirical works, Ludwig Börne, a journalist who was born in Jew Lane in 1786, became an outstanding figure of Young Germany. Although both the government and the high society - fearing for its reputation - tried to prohibit political clubs and the spreading of liberal works, oppositional forces within the city became filled with revolutionary spirit, inspired by the July Revolution of 1830.

But the step from idealistic thinking to actually doing something failed miserably. Nonetheless, this turn of events, for the most part without consequences, indirectly affected the elite of Frankfurt as, from this time on, a garrison of 2,500 Austrian and Prussian soldiers challenged the city’s sovereignty and royal diplomats of the Bundestag denigrated the Free City as a liberal nest.

At the beginning of March 1848, the revolutionary atmosphere in France spilled over to Germany. In Frankfurt, as well as everywhere else, people demanded freedom for press and freedom for public meetings, civil equality of the citizens, amnesty for polotical prisoners and the right for the people to take up arms. On March 3 the senate approved all of the requests except the complete emancipation of the Jews. In their Monday clubs the reformists demanded a new constitution for Frankfurt, too. All of the citizens elected a National Constituent Assembly which was supposed to work out a new constitution to replace the complementary one.

On March 9 the black-red-gold flag was waving above the Bundespalais. On March 31 the temporary parliament called a meeting in the hastily redecorated Paul’s church. Walls and windows of the church were decorated with black-red-golden flags, the pulpit was covered with a blanket and the organ conceiled behind a curtain showing a fresco by Philipp Veit: Germania with flag and sword, to her right and left a wreath of laurels with verses praising the Fatherland. The presidential desk replaced the altar.