Please help me understand Germany through the ages

[carlos marighela]

Excellent suggestions for the Prof's range of Post Apocalyptic survivors. I'd buy some.

[Doomhippie]

however, the question arises: is the mullet represented in miniature sculpting in the authentic way it should be?

because otherwise, how is one to represent a germani army? mabe someone should start a mullet sculpting competiton....

Well, the mullet has gone out of fashion in Germany. I can't say I have seen anyone wearing hair that way lately.
So in order to appease our cruel masters of the forum I'd say the mullet is a cultural phenomenon of the 80's and maybe early 90's so they should really only be sculptured to represent civilians from that time. But since the 80's sucked anyway who would want to have models like that?

[former user]

seriously?  

if this is not iconic 80ies then I don't know what is...

http://www.studiominiatures.com/shop/survivors.html

over the top OT, I know, sorry
but every second bloody blockbuster movie they are torturing us with nowadays is over and over recycled 80ies material...
Star Wars, Alien, Terminator, You name it....

[Doomhippie]

ok, you beat me...
Somehow when I think of the 80's I just see the terrible pop music world in my mind's eye.

That model, however, is really cool. What company is it?

[former user]

Somehow when I think of the 80's I just see the terrible pop music world in my mind's eye.

this is why You have a picture of Leslie Mandoky from Dschinghis Khan as Your Avatar then? 

That model, however, is really cool. What company is it?

follow the yello brick road

äh... link under the snake

[ErikB]

While the bad-hair theme is pretty funny, can we return to a discussion of wargame minis and what would represent the various cultures during different ages, especially around Vienna and Vilna?

Danke, Burschen.

[FramFramson]

this is why You have a picture of Leslie Mandoky from Dschinghis Khan as Your Avatar then? 

follow the yello brick road

äh... link under the snake

I actually thought of Dschinghis Khan when he mentioned terrible 80's pop music... without even realizing his avatar was exactly that! 

[Hammers]

seriously?  

if this is not iconic 80ies then I don't know what is...

http://www.studiominiatures.com/shop/survivors.html

over the top OT, I know, sorry
but every second bloody blockbuster movie they are torturing us with nowadays is over and over recycled 80ies material...
Star Wars, Alien, Terminator, You name it....

That's not a true mullet. *This* is a mullet...

[former user]

Danke, Burschen.

this address is even more outdated than mullets....

Anyway, @EricB, in terms of miniatures I would rather look in the direction Novgorod with a bit scandinavian influence, and alright, Gepids closer to Vienna, if any kind of difference is to be spotted in the material culture at all. from my brief memory of respective courses, the "identity" thing during the migration period runs along differences in the jewelry - in terms of weapons it is spatha and sax all along, with reflex bows where they prefer a horse under their bottoms and some axe variation here and there; later on, You would have to research the influence of the High Medieval european culture creeping eastwards (with the Danube waterway clearly favoured - oh damn, I forgot the Hungarian Kingdom) and also the Mongol invasion from the east.

It would be interesting to know why You want to span from Vilnius to Vienna, with all the mountains inbetween that are a clear cultural divide. Anyway, during the period You asked about, not a lot of german anything around there apart from the later slice (Livonian Crusade). I recommend a map of the languages spoken in Europe after WW1 in order to visualise the problem of "nations", especially in that area.

[ErikB]

Thanks, former user.

Vilnus - Mom's side of the family (and, at times, Parts of Poland).

Vienna - Dad's side of the family (a few from somewhere in Brandenburg, but I can research that myself).

The two sides didn't meet until being in the USA for a few generations.  Funny, they don't speak German anymore but I studied abroad a few times and picked it up.  They hate that I speak Bavarian/Salzburgisch most of the time instead of Hochdeutsch.  Go figure.   

Thanks for introducing me to the Gepids.  I had never heard of them.

[former user]

Gepids - cousin branch of Goths, allied to huns
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gepids

Austro-Hungaria was a melting pot at the time of emigration to US, the mix with Brandenburg is funny... So Your Father's side could be anything.
I imagine the Lithuanian side must have emigrated late 19th C with the others, by which time the baltic states had undergone a wave of russification and prussification, what You want. If Your mother's family is german, then they would have been in the upper echelon of society. However, even if they were german rooted and autochthon by the 19th C, where the families originally came from 1000 years earlier would have been somewhere else. Try some genetic haplotype testing  

or go Crusader - either an austrian knight participating in the Livonian Crusade or the other way round a meeting in palestine during a german crusade - this would be the medieval melting pot

[ErikB]

The Lithuanian side were not especially rich.  My great-grandmother was something of a school-skipping delinquent and came to the US after the mayor of Vilnius paid some cossacks to kill certain communities in a big massacre.  Apparently, most of the 18 kids in her family were run down in the city center, killed with everyone else.  Her brother who survived was serving in the Princess Olga regiment in Moscow.  She was too irresponsible to show up for the protest or town meeting or whatever the gathering was so she lived.  Go figure.

My great-great grandparents sent her to the US immediately.  This was ca. 1895-1905.

Dad's side, Grandpa's parents from Koebelenz and Vienna came to the US around 1903, Grandma's from Brandenburg, came to the US some time in the 1860s-1880s.

All German speakers though nobody got along.  Something about class divisions that no longer matter in the US, how thin to cut an onion to put on a cracker with caviar... stuff that *really* does not matter to Americans.

Anyway, I was trying to get a sense of what was going on in the various regions between Rome and Muskets.  I paint a lot of minis but I do it for fun and historical research as opposed to war games. 

Thanks for the information, folks!  Uand jo, freilich, i red Bayrisch zua Zeit, moine liebe Burschen!

[former user]

oh, now I understand, these were the hardest of times when the Romanovs tried to claw to their throne..

but Brandenburg, Koblenz and Wien is really a strange combination, and no reason for bavarian accent at all 

[ErikB]

Ich bin Werkstudent in Muenchen und Austauschstudent in Salzburg gewesen.

Originally, I applied to study in Berlin, but there weren't enough qualified applicants so they sent me (and the only two others who qualified) to the other program in Salzburg.  I worked in a bar so I got really good at speaking and understanding a special drunken southern dialect. 

So strange, when I returned to the USA, I needed a weekend job while I returned to university, so I worked as a Tuersteher next door to a German restaurant in Palo Alto (1 km from Stanford Uni).  First night I had to deal with three big, very drunk Bavarian guys.  Their N. German colleagues could not understand them once they were drunk. 

It just so happened that I spoke pretty good Drunken Bavarian... I got the job. 

As for German/Austrian/Swiss melting pot... the regionalism of Germany and Europe no longer matters here in the US.  Most people just think, "yeah, I'm kind of German, I think...."  Suddenly, Brandenburg, Bavaria, and Vienna all become intimate neighbors.

[Westfalia Chris]

*cough cough* gaming/modelling angle, please *cough cough*