Oliviaahopee

I am an English language and German student and have just begun a Translating Wikipedia course at the University of Freiburg.

AnTransit

Our first page - Public opposition

Second page - King of the Netherlands

Third page - Mushroom Kiosk

Current work - User:Oliviaahopee/draft

Translation work

Week	Process	Time	Challenges
1	We were shown how to create a Wikipedia account, edit a page, publish our translations, etc. We then found an article that hadn't been translated into English - 'Gegenöffentlichkeit' - and were given a section of the page to translate. I was paired with David, and translated 'public opposition as an intermediary stage' at home.	90 minutes in class, 30 at home	I had a few problems with specialist terminology, and working my way around Wikipedia - it took me a while to get the hang of it!
2	David and I compared our translations and added them to Alison's draft page, and then picked the next section to translate - Alternative Movement of the 1970s, which I did at home.	90 minutes in class, 45 at home	We struggled to put our translations together - we would have to pick whose translation was better in some places, and things like adding links to other Wikipedia pages and keeping the references the same were difficult at first.
3	We compared our translations and added them again to the page. We then had to pick a new page to translate, and we chose 'König der Niederlande'. We picked which sections we would do at home - and worked on these independently.	90 minutes in class, 45 at home	In class, the biggest problem we had was translating 'Stattzeitungen', which is a play-on-words for alternative newspapers. We couldn't add any links so had to explain the word-play in our translation itself. We also had to add pictures and captions onto the page, which was difficult at first. At home, I had some problems with monarchy-specific terminology.
4	We compared and added our translations to a new draft page for 'King of the Netherlands'. Alison created the English-translated page for 'Public Opposition', and we added links on other articles to our new page. We then picked a few more sections of 'König der Niederlande' to work on at home.	90 minutes in class, 70 at home	We definitely gave ourselves too much homework for this week! I had problems with adding all of the links for the King's titles, as I think a few of the original links were wrong. I also had issues with Dutch words, as I didn't know whether to use the Dutch word in italics or the translation in brackets.
5	David wasn't in class this week, so I began translating the final (big) section by myself, and we met in the library to put our previous sections together, which took a long time. I then finished the last section at home.	90 minutes in class, 120 minutes at home/in the library	We had some problems with a few bits. 'Amtsträger' could either translate to 'official' or 'public official', for instance, and we had issues with the section on the Prince Consort Claus, as we had to reword the translation completely. We also realised that we had to go through and change 'King' to 'king' when not referring to a specific king.
6	In class we went through the final section, 'Succession of the Throne', and then published our translation! We added links from other pages - we had to remove the redirection to 'the Dutch Monarchy'. At home we then picked a new page to translate - mushroom kiosks - and began translating this.	90 minutes in class, 30 minutes at home	We actually first published the page 'the King of the Netherlands', which led to many issues. We then had to find out how to delete a page and published our current, correct page.
7	In class, we ...

Weeks 1-3

Public opposition as an intermediary stage

In the reception of the work, particularly in the university field, the term “public opposition” stuck. It has survived to this day, although Negt and Kluge described public opposition as an “early form of the proletarian public” – an idea that did not survive the change in terminology. A reduction to the opposition or a mere representation of opposing views was not the authors’ intentions, and “proletarian public” should also be more than a course of action to implement the interests of a social class: they were concerned – in the outlook – with a “transformation process” to achieve “the alliance capabilities between the social forces which are capable of carrying out the full scope of the reorganization of the future society”.

Under this premise, since the 1970s public opposition could only have emerged in rudimentary forms and on a comparatively small scale. It is typical, however, that within the framework of the youth and protest movements, and later the new social movements, the development of technical possibilities especially caused a decentralization of the public, which led to a reproduction of “independent spaces” – in particular through the expansion of cultural activities – up to the “virtual spaces” of the internet. However, this process, its effects, and its connection with social developments have not been comprehensively analyzed and presented on a theoretical level since Negt and Kluge.

Alternative movement of the 1970s

Inspired by the protest movement, the generations after 1968 also developed new methods of media production, which was, however, hardly agitational and often initially served to help groups or scenes understand themselves. The technical development created new means of production – such as Super 8 film, which succeeded 16 mm film – and also music equipment for bands, studios and organisers (youth centres) became affordable.

Song group Unistreik in the auditorium of the Technical University of Berlin in 1977

The university strikes in Berlin and Federal Republic of 1976/1977 subsequently led to a start-up boom in projects. Meanwhile, the ‘unorganised’ with their majority and experience in event organisation and public relations were able to break the dominance of the K-Gruppen (Communist Groups). It was the time when people left universities and went to the city districts, to the 'Kiez' (Tunix-congress 1978). First in the university centres and soon in every larger city, so-called 'Stattzeitungen' (German wordplay for 'anti-newspapers') such as the Blatt in Munich, Klenkes in Aachen, or De Schnüss in Bonn were published. They reached print runs of up to 20,000 copies and provided a forum for the different groups that were not given a voice in the local press. An abundance of small and alternative newspapers appeared in the German-speaking world. In 1974 Peter Engel and W. Christian Schmitt were able to identify around 250 new alternative newspapers since 1965. In 1986, the directory of alternative newspapers published by the 'information service for the distribution of omitted news' (ID) listed around 600 more or less regularly published newspapers and magazines.

Poster motif for the film by the Berlin media workshop 1980

The alternative movement achieved success with the six-week-long environment festival at the radio tower in Berlin in the summer of 1978, which was attended by tens of thousands of interested citizens. The film about the event, made by an associated group, the Berlin media workshop, titled If you do not have the courage to dream, you have no strength to fight, was screened in February 1980 at the Forum for Young Films at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Weeks 3-current

King of the Netherlands

King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, 2013

King of The Netherlands (Dutch: Koning der Nederlanden) is the title of the Dutch state organ. The King is considered as the head of state of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and thereby of the four countries the Netherlands, Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten. The King is also a part of the governments of these four countries, as well as the president of the Council of State.

Furthermore, the King is the head of the Royal House. Besides him, it consists of a few direct relatives. Membership is specified by law (Wet lidmaatschap Koninklijk Huis, 2002). This is to be distinguished from the much bigger Royal Family with the rest of the relatives.

Originally the King had a strong position in the State, so that despite the constitution and parliament, he was able to reign first and foremost through decrees. However, during the 19th century his power was severely restricted. In theory, the current Dutch King has many rights, but in political practice has no power.

Function

The Dutch government consists of the King and the Ministers. Since 1848 it has been specified in the constitution that the King is onschendbaar (inviolable) and the Ministers bear responsibility. The position of the King is expressed, among other things, in the signing of laws and royal decrees (of the government), each of which is signed by a Minister or Secretary of State. At the end of the formation of a government, the King signs the decrees appointing the Minister and Secretary of State, who are then sworn in before him.

According to the decree, the King is the president of the Council of State (Raad van State). However, this is a purely ceremonial and symbolic function. The vice-president of the Council of State is responsible for running official business.

Until 2012, after parliamentary elections, the King appointed an informateur or formateur, who formed the government. Since then, this role has been held by the Speaker of the House of Representatives. However, the King is to be informed about the results of these processes and about government work in general.

Once a year, the King reads out the speech from the throne (on Prinsjesdag in September), which is written by the cabinet.

The King also has the same function in the three remaining countries of the Kingdom, so in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. Because the King lives in the Netherlands, he is represented by a governor in each of these three countries. The King appoints this governor, but plays no role in their selection.