The Jobmarket. At home.

Maybe you need the distance of three years living abroad. Looking at the German job market now makes you wonder how this economy works. Okay, this is only one example but it is striking nonetheless.

This organisation is looking for a member of staff for the membership department of the umbrella organisation of Berlin child and pupil shops. Reading through the job spec I wasn't able to determine what the job really is about. They don't tell you how much you earn, unless you now what BAT Vc/IVa is.

BAT is short for Bundesangestelltentarif which is the salary scheme for federal state employees. And if you google BAT West (Germany that is) you learn that grade Vc/IVa is between 1,661.70 and 2,286.68 Euros. Per month, so an annual salary from about 20K to 27K. I fyou are between 33 and 35 years old. Less if you are younger, more if you are older.

Just dig a little bit deeper into the German public service salary structure you will soon find that BAT was changed to Tarifvertrag für den öffentlichen Dienst or TVöD in 2005. And if you are lucky to find a calculator you will eventually know your salary. It's group 8,9 or 10. Anyway, the money is the same

Oh, and they are looking for someone to join their team at 20 April 2009. Any more questions?

German Wikipedia up and running again

Lutz Heilmann http://www.lutz-heilmann.info abandoned his lawsuit against Wikimedia Deutschland e.V., the charity that runs the German Wikipedia.de site. In a statement Heilman said that the articles containing false and defamatory details against him were removed and as a result he would refrain from further legal action against Wikimedia. He also said he was sorry for the inconvenience users had experienced because of his actions.

Pressure mounted on the left wing MP after a storm of protest among German Wiki users and bloggers. More than 300 member signed up to a facebook group in 2-3 days which is remarkable given that Germans rather use a different social platform. Furthermore, a protest website http://protest.blog.de was launched.

For Wikimedia the whole action turned out to be a great success story. Daily donations increased

German Politician blocks Wikipedia.de

Wikipedia.de was blocked today after a German politician, Lutz Heilmann, was granted an injunction against the domain owner Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. which is subject to German jurisdiction.

There are a few websites in English who cover the story. And a facebook group has also been launched.

According to tagesschau.de all German Wikipedia articles are available on de.wikipedia.org. So the injunction is useless and Mr Heilmann shot himself in the foot.

Wikipedia's lawyers revealed that Heilmann attacked details with regard to his career and personal life. These details are subject of the injunction so you may get in trouble when quoting them. But I'm sure it's to do with his past in the GDR...
 

Neverthelss, please send protest emails to lutz.heilmann@bundestag.de

His website was down but keep trying http://www.lutz-heilmann.info/


You can also call him if you are brave enough +49 30-227-70788

Always be polite but make your voice heard.