A primary vote, a secondary, vote, and the five-percent hurdle: The German election is much more than two Xs on a ballot. In this video on the ABCs of Bundestag elections, you’ll learn all about these terms and the election process overall. Copyright: Deutsche Presse Agentur [The German Press Agency]

This is the story of St. Martin of Tours, a man who gave his time, energy, and belongings to the poor and needy. In Germany, St. Martin’s Day is celebrated in mid-November with a feast, bonfires, and processions of children carrying lanterns through the streets.

Eighteen-year-old Piet Mundry made the feature film Entropia together with amateur actors, and directed it himself. The plot: Charles returns to his childhood home town and encounters old friends and enemies who will change his future. With entropy as an alibi for his revenge, Charles begins to create chaos in Lüdinghausen.

How do people celebrate Christmas in Germany? Paula and Alina compare their family traditions.

It's time to play the Christmas ABCs! Paula and Alina take turns guessing Christmas-related words and share what they particularly like about this time of year.

It's just before Christmas, a busy time of year for delivery man Wolfgang Paschke.

Wolfgang Paschke stops by the house to say hi to his wife and finds his son in the middle of a snowball fight. Unfortunately, he has to go back out again.

Paschke has some trouble at the bank and we get the impression that he is experiencing some financial problems.

Diane interviews passersby at the Christmas market in Karlsruhe to learn about their Christmas traditions.

Paula interviews people at Karlsruhe's Christmas market. She wants to know what presents they have bought and how they like the market.

“Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht” (known as “Silent Night” in English) is one of the best-known Christmas carols on the planet, and the definitive Christmas song in the German-speaking world. It was first performed on December 24, 1818 in a Roman Catholic church in Oberndorf, a village near Salzburg, with a melody by Franz Xaver Gruber and lyrics by Joseph Mohr. Since then, the original German text has been adapted into 320 languages and dialects worldwide.

In this Christmas comedy, Academy Award-winning actor Christoph Waltz plays a pet shop owner who generally prefers animals to people. Recently divorced, he is still very attached to his ex-wife – who lives right across the hall from him.

Konstantin, the new temp worker at the pet store, wonders why he's even needed considering how little money the store is making. Meanwhile, owner Johannes uses the store's problems to try to bring his ex-wife Marion – who also happens to be his neighbor – back into his life.

Johannes asks his new employee, a psychology student, about love and relationships – but doesn't particularly like the answer he gets in return.

When Marion comes by to help Johannes with his taxes, he finds out she's met someone else – news he doesn't deal with particularly well.