Google Search/AI fails to provide correct and useful information on specialized German law firms

This was my recent experience!

Caution when using Google AI for legal advice or finding the right attorney!

The History of the Bloomberg Terminal

Recommendable!

I remember well that when I started working as an economist several decades ago for an economic forecasting and consulting firm, the headquarters also had a Bloomberg terminal. I needed the terminal then to catch up with the latest news and economic data of some of the countries I was covering then as an economist.

The History of the Bloomberg Terminal - IEEE Spectrum "Wall Street traders and analysts an unprecedented window on global markets"

The Case for Talking to Strangers

I try to do this every day myself and as often as possible or when an occasion happens! One of benefits of a an open and free society!

You never know who you run into or what fascinating things you might learn from a stranger.

And do not discriminate or dismiss anyone immediately because of looks etc. unless there is e.g. a clear and present danger or a genuine lack of time on your part.

With the spread of smartphones, the incentives for talking to strangers has become more diminished in our society. What a tragedy!

Caveat: This is not an endorsement of this book.

"A Little More Social, University of Chicago professor Nicholas Epley’s book that can help repair our frayed civic fabric, opens with a hat story.

Riding a commuter train, Epley watches a woman in an elegant red hat take the last open seat beside him. Around them, passengers sit with “heads bowed in silence on the hunt for their own isolated acreage of solitude.” Then Epley says, “I love your hat.” She lights up. Thirty minutes of conversation follow — about families, jobs, and “how often we choose to ignore each other” in situations like this. ..."

"There is a paradox at the core of human life. We are a highly social species uniquely equipped to connect with other people and doing so is better for us. Yet we so often choose to be unsocial.

We avoid talking to the stranger who sits next to us. We struggle to move beyond small talk with an acquaintance. We are reluctant to express our gratitude to people we appreciate.

Every day, we avoid opportunities to connect with strangers, neighbors, colleagues, friends, and family. By missing those moments, we miss out on all the benefits of a more social life—one that is happier and healthier for everyone. ..."

The Case for Talking to Strangers | The Daily Economy "Nicholas Epley’s new book argues that small acts of connection build the trust and goodwill on which a free society depends."

Source

German Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) to Buy Concord in Deal That Creates a New Major $14 billion Music Giant

This is big news!

Many years ago I was an intern at the headquarters of Bertelsmann in Gütersloh (thanks to my late father Horst Bingel)!

"German media giant Bertelsmann SE agreed to buy Nashville-based independent music group Concord and merge it with its BMG Rights Management business in a deal that will create one of the largest music companies in the world."

BMG to Buy Concord in Deal That Creates a New Major Music Giant - Bloomberg (behind paywall)

Credits: Musik kommt ganz groß raus bei Bertelsmann

The company and all its divisions

Born in Germany only 16 years after World War II ended

My whole life I wondered what was World War II, the Spanish Civil War and Caudillo Francisco Franco, fascist Italy and Benito Mussolini, the supremacist and warmongering Japanese Empire all about?

The leftist poet Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) coined the phrase "An die Nachgeborenen" (To Those Born After) in 1939, which became "Die Last der Nachgeborenen" (The burden of those born after WWII) and the motto "Nie wieder" (never again). I sure can relate to this. It was probably my late father, a poet himself, who introduced me to Bertolt Brecht.

One of my late father's favorite poems, which he introduced me to and which I still remember, was written by the Romanian poet Paul Celan (1920-70, a Holocaust survivor) titled Todesfuge (published in 1948). The language of this poem is strange and amazing "„Schwarze Milch der Frühe wir trinken sie abends/wir trinken sie mittags und morgens wir trinken sie nachts/wir trinken und trinken/wir schaufeln ein Grab in den Lüften da liegt man nicht eng“ (the opening verses of this poem).

Why the Holocaust? Why the antisemitism? Therefore, I support Israel and Jews whenever I can! I strongly oppose Antisemitism all the time and in all its forms. All my life I made it my habit to learn more about the modern Israel and Ancient Judea and the intervening time period, the relationship between Arabs and Jews, the Levant and so on. Modern Israel (since 1948) is probably one of the most diverse and exciting countries in the world except perhaps for India. The history of Jews and Judaism is so fascinating (David & Goliath, Masada, Maccabee, King Solomon, Samson and Delilah and so much more). One of my late parents e.g. would teach me at a young age the meaning of the Judgement of King Solomon.

I was born in Frankfurt am Main and I grew up in the Westend district of the city.

From my late mother and my late father I was told a number of horrible stories about their and other children's war time experiences. My mother was about 6 years old when WWII ended, my father was about 12 years old. One of the stories, I remember was that my late father as a young boy once found a soldier's boot with a torn off leg still showing. What do e.g. the Ukrainian children go through since the Russo-Ukrainian War started in 2022?

When I was a child some of my German neighbors may have been Nazis and were possibly involved in atrocities against Jews. My late father pointed out several times that he suspected some of our German neighbors and other Germans were possibly perpetrators.

It was an open secret that some of the German perpetrators got away and were living among us. My paternal uncle had a typical German soldier tattoo (Waffen SS? I forgot where on the body (arm?) and what kind of tattoo it exactly was), which he was always hiding. Also, I do not remember whether and how he served in the German military etc. However, neither my late father nor I suspected he was involved in atrocities given e.g. what he told my father about his service in World War II and given his generally friendly and kind personality.

The Westend  Synagogue (see photo below) was located very near where I grew up. It was kind of sad to see that this large synagogue appeared to be in constant lockdown and it was always  fortified. This synagogue was not easily accessible to the public for security reasons.

While in high school, I had a Jewish high school buddy. We spent a lot of time together. He was not very athletic and looked perhaps a little bookish with his glasses, but he was a great guy. I also visited him several times at home and got to know his Jewish mother and father. They both were very nice! This family was not orthodox Jewish, but typical Jewish symbols were displayed in their home. If I remember correctly, his father was in the philately business, which is perhaps not so unusual for a Jew. In my youth, I was also a collector of stamps and coins from all over the world.

Then there was the Jewish leader Ignatz Bubis. He was often decried as a real estate speculator in Frankfurt (antisemitism?). However, he was also an active member of the Freie Demokratische Partei (FDP) in Frankfurt. My late father and I were active members as well of the FDP that is how I got to know Mr. Bubis.

As an older teenager I had the great opportunity to travel to Vienna in Austria for a summer vacation with a Jewish youth organisation from Frankfurt. It was a great experience and I had a great time. Here I was together with a group very nice people, mostly young Jews. I think, I had a crush on one of the very young Jewish women. It was there in the Viennese area that I discovered my lifelong love for real hazelnut spread. Unfortunately, I do not remember anymore how I was able to join this group and what the name of this group was. I believe, I have to thank my late father for this great experience.

The city of Frankfurt was heavily bombed during World War II due to the location of e.g. important companies of the chemical industry. Much of the city was in rubble. E.g. the opera house (die Alte Oper) in the center of Frankfurt was hallowed out, basically only the outer walls and some lower level structures in the interior were still standing. Many times I passed by these ruins, one day I even climbed into the ruins out of curiosity. The ruins of the opera house were left as a war memorial and reminder until it was rebuilt beginning in 1976  and reopened in 1981. The reconstruction was quite controversial at the time.

During my youth, there were numerous reports of unexploded ordnance, mostly WWII bombs discovered in the inner city of Frankfurt. Even at my neighborhood high school, which I had attended, there was a large bomb discovered in the corner of the school yard during some construction work. Me and a buddy of mine climbed on a close by, one story high car garage roof to watch the disposal team to take care of this bomb. Dangerous adventures.

The headquarters of the US Army V Corps was located until 1995 in the former IG Farben Hochhaus in the largest inner city park (Grüneburgpark) not far from where I grew up. Thus, I encountered many US soldiers during my childhood and beyond. It never crossed my mind that the American soldiers were an occupation force (as suggested by some Germans). Actually by frequently visiting two US military gyms (one was the V Corps main gym, the other was the 97th General Hospital gym) for several years, I learnt how to play basketball from black American soldiers. It was a very friendly, older black American gym attendant, who allowed/tolerated me to play basketball at the V corps gym. In the beginning, he jokingly reminded me not to wear those typical German skimpy shorts, but instead more American like trunks so his white American supervisor (an Irish guy who peeped on topless, sunbathing young German women while jogging in the Grüneburgpark during lunch break) would not complain. I have spent many weekends and evenings there to play ball. I enjoyed the contemporary soul, rap & funk music blasted across the gym or inside the barracks. Plus, I learnt some cool dance moves and I became a big fan of Soul Train hosted by Don Cornelius. I had a lot of fun with the mostly black American soldiers some of whom I came to know quite well. Sometimes we would also go out to discos together on Saturday evenings, I sometimes visited them in their barracks, or I joined barbecue parties with them etc. One of the older black American soldiers and basketball player also invited me over to his home for dinner with his wife and two children. I had a very good time. A few black American soldiers pointed out to me that I was naturally high, which I understood to be a compliment (no one had ever before told me that or ever since). I am not a churchgoer (other than as a tourist), but during this time I was somehow invited to attend a black American church service at a US military church near the small town of Hanau (not far from my home town Frankfurt). For me, the journey started from Frankfurt on a bus filled with black American churchgoers heading for this church. The church service with all the Gospel singing, expressions of joy and faith and so on was an incredible, mind blowing experience. Last, but not least, I have also witnessed a few cases of open, reverse racism of some black Americans against white Americans. Sometimes black Americans would call each other nigger, but a white American better not dare to say it.

Westend Synagogue in Frankfurt am Main (Source)

An ode to my late mother Irma Bingel

She passed away early November 2025 in Munich, Germany at age 86. May her soul R.I.P. I am now a single child full orphan. I will always fondly remember her. I hope her soul will be with me for the rest of my life. When I die, I am convinced our souls will meet again.

I regret very much for the rest of my life that I have seriously neglected and ignored my beloved mother over the past 20-25 years or so. There were reasons, but they were not very convincing in hindsight.

I have always been a mostly forward looking and very optimistic individual all my life. Not too often I have looked in the rear mirror and reflected on my past. However, this changed with the death of my mother. I am now in the process of reviewing my past life a little bit more.

With her death, I am painfully reminded what a great mother she was. Despite the divorce of my parents when I was about 15 years old and despite that I chose to live with my father instead of her after the divorce, she was always at and on my side afterwards. The divorce was a very traumatic experience for me. It took me a long time to overcome why my father and mother separated.

I actually owe her a lot. She was always supportive of me. I learnt many things  from her, e.g. women's rights (feminism), history of art, to cherish museums and travel, be familiar with social issues, to learn about other cultures and ethnicities and so much more. I am afraid I may have never thanked her enough for her unwavering support of and her love for me.

Apparently, as a child I had some serious issues with e.g. German grammar, learning the English language and math in high school, but my mother kept practicing with me as much and as long as was necessary to improve my skills.

Did my mother know or suspect that I was perhaps afflicted with autism and/or ADHD? Back then, when I was a child/teenager these two developmental disorders were barely known nor familiar in Germany. She never told me and I have never asked or had it diagnosed by a doctor to this day. Maybe she just wanted me to live a normal life. However, I am sure I gave both of my parents often a hard time to deal with me. I was never in my life really able to focus on one or only a few things. My mind is more like a floating butterfly or a zipping hummingbird.

My mother herself probably suffered from some form of neurosis all her life. She never liked to have photos taken of herself etc. I may have inherited her dislike of having taken photos of myself.

Both of my parents pledged to give up smoking and alcohol drinking after I was born so I was told. I don't quite remember whether my mother was a smoker before or whether she was inclined to drink immodestly. I believe she was a smoker.  However, my father was a heavy smoker and he may have occasionally had also some drinks too many, but he was never an alcoholic or even close.  She never smoked again and her alcohol consumption remained very moderate throughout her life. However, the example of my parents giving up on tobacco and alcohol consumption always stayed with me.

My mother occasionally mentioned that she was too young when I was born as if she tried to blame herself and as if she indirectly asked me for forgiveness for any mistakes she may have made. She was only 22 years old when I was born. From my late father I would much later, after the divorce, learn that my parents had a serious discussion about an abortion. My late father always kept loving my mother to the end of his life (he later remarried) and he expressed to me more than once his deep gratitude that I was born. His faith in the sanctity and dignity of any human life born and unborn was very strong. Who defends the life of fetuses or children when not the parents or other adults?

Both of my parents allowed me to have a dog when I was about 11 years old under  the condition that I was to be solely responsible for the dog and I needed to take care of the dog. I had discovered this lovely, funny puppy dog at a major art exhibition, which my parents and I visited together and I begged to have this dog. I am very sure that it was my mother who convinced my father for this to happen. Neither my parents ever had any pets after I was born. I think it helped me greatly to grow up with my dog. Me and my dog were inseparable and close companions! 

My mother invited me as a teenager or very young adult to accompany her on two international summer vacations. The two of us visited the Algarve in Portugal and Agadir in Morocco. Unfortunately, I do not remember much anymore, but it was very beautiful.

One day many years ago, my mother and I visited an art museum in Munich and my mother stopped at a famous painting. It depicted Thomas the Doubter. She turned around towards me and said this was me. I have no doubt she meant it. She knew and I immediately understood what she was expressing about my character.

My parents also taught me very early on the meaning of the last words of Jesus on the Cross "God forgive them for they do not know what they are doing!". God is my interpretation of Father, but it is inspired by my parents, most likely by my mother. However, both of my late parents were not very religious outward, e.g. they did not visit any church on a regular basis nor did they observe religious rituals very closely, but I believe they both were deeply religious on the inside.

My mother was very smart in so many respects. Her humor was sometimes subtle or self-deprecating, but very contagious. I had some good laughs with her.

I believe, my mother regretted all her life that she did not complete a higher education at an university. She wanted to become a PhD. This left her with some feelings of inferiority. After the divorce, she would complete some kind of an education program for working adults to earn a degree in pedagogy.

She certainly has nurtured my lifelong, intense curiosity about so many things that life, history, science and nature have to offer!

I feel sad that my mother never remarried nor seemed to have had any other long term relationship with another man except for one, but it lasted only for a few years or so. She had a few close friends in Frankfurt am Main, but when she moved to Munich, I believe she had fewer friends in Munich and maybe none towards the end of her life. After her death no friend or neighbor ever contacted me. Her legal guardian, who accompanied my mother at the end of her life, did not mention anything like it to me. Very sad!

My mother's parents is a different story! My maternal grandfather had a very visible disfigurement in his face around one of his eyes due to surgery early in his life. He was hard of hearing. He was very kind, but he was not very smart, perhaps he was mentally disabled. I believe he did not have to serve in World War II because of it. He was tall for his generation, kind of awkward moving around, and he had the largest hands of any human being I have ever met in my life. His fingers were long and very wide like typically a thumb. As far as I know, he lived largely in solitude all his life. There were a few friends. He worked all his life almost day and night six days a week as a kitchen helper and a cook in various restaurants. On Sundays, he would attend the catholic church in his neighborhood. His life was very simple and basic. I believe, he never really lived together for an extended period with my maternal grandmother. My grandmother and my grandfather were married, but they separated not very long after marriage for ever. Without my father, who insisted that we, the whole family, visit my grandfather at least once per year during Christmas to have dinner together, I may have never gotten to know my maternal grandfather. It was my grandfather who invited us all to come over to his home to have a Christmas dinner together. As a cook he would always prepare his favorite dish Sauerbraten mit Semmelknödel, which I liked a lot. I believe, he prepared the Sauerbraten for several days to make it extra tasty. My mother always avoided seeing or being with her father. I never quite forgave my mother for that. My maternal grandfather instilled in me a lifelong great respect, appreciation and admiration for people with disabilities and how they cope with life.

My maternal grandmother was a heavy chain smoker and the owner/manager of a hotel cum brothel near the main train station in Frankfurt am Main. She lived and managed the hotel from her hotel room 24/7, it was her home. The hotel was not very elegant nor very exquisite. It looked a little bit run down from the outside and inside. But business was good so I was told by my late father. There were guests from all over the world coming and going not least also thanks to the international airport of Frankfurt am Main. I remember, the face of my grandmother always looked like a hard working woman, but she was very happy every time to see me when I visited her in her hotel room where she lived. She never used any cosmetics or nail polish, she never wore any nice looking or fashionable clothes and her hair style was very basic. I am not even sure she left her hotel very often. I don't remember she ever came to visit our home. She was kind and very generous to me e.g. providing me with some extra pocket money as a teenager. My mother always avoided her. I never quite forgave my mother for that. My father did not visit my maternal grandmother very often either or barely at all.

Otherwise, the family of my mother known to me was very small. She was the only child of her parents. Then there was a grand aunt with whom my mother had a more or less close relationship for many years until the grand aunt passed away. I had some contact with the grand aunt myself.

Yes, I have realized that my mother most likely had a tough childhood not to mention she was born a few months before World War II officially started in September 1939, but I believe that both of her parents loved her in their own ways.

How does a teenage boy or young male adult become homosexual without genetic predisposition?

There is an active public discussion about this subject going on for decades in Western countries. Here are three personal experiences. 

Another question is whether it will become a permanent homosexuality or only a transitory phase or phases in a males life?

I remember faintly as a very young teenager I joined a German boys scouts group. I also travelled and spent a few summer vacations with this group. One of their leaders was most likely a young gay man. He was very kind, amicable, soft spoken and I admired him a lot. However, I also do remember that he occasionally seemed to come  physically to close for my comfort or that he was a bit too touchy-feely, but not at all in an unpleasant or mean way. I don't think or believe he was a pederast or sexually exploited children. I never learnt of any criminal charges against this man. Never in my life I became a homosexual.

Two of my best and close female friends in my late teenage and young adult life were both lesbians. Through their friendship I also met numerous young and older  gay men. Most of these gay men were a lot of fun to be around and we had a good time. Some were good looking. A few were flirtatious with me. Really nice guys, but they were not attractive enough for me to become homosexual.

I also remember that my late father (twice married) at a very young adult age was very impressed with and had a longer, close relationship with a gay older man. They would spend lots of hours together professionally and leisurely. How far this relationship went I do not remember or my father never told me in detail. Definitely, this older gay man was not trying to take advantage of my then young father. It was a deep male friendship that apparently both men were enjoying and benefitting from.

What I was trying to say is that perhaps other boys or young men in similar circumstances (of seduction and attraction) may become permanently or temporarily homosexual at some point in their lives.