QUOTE (LeeGoldberg @ Jul 1 2008, 06:18 PM)
I would be glad to email better scans of the article to anybody who wants to take a crack at translating it. I ran the text through Google Language tools, so I have a rough idea of what was said...it was all very positive.
QUOTE (metacomet @ Jul 1 2008, 07:57 PM)
I downloaded this article as an PDF document. You can watch and read the 2 pages here as big as necessary:
Page 1 - PDFPage 2 - PDFIt is very interesting to read, but unfortunately my English is to bad, to translate the whole text for you. A friend of mine, will do this for you, but it will take a day or two.
My friend send me the translated text tonight. She don´t want to post it here, because she is not familiar with the functions on this board and asked me, to do this. It´s a very long text. She did not translate the underlines and the short passage about "Monk´s" fourth birthday in German TV (if anyone is interested in this too, please let me know).
She send the text as a doc.file. You can also watch it
here, if you have Word on your PC or
here, with the "Adobe Acrobat reader".
Here is the complete text:
QUOTE
COURTESY TRANSLATION
WEEKEND MAGAZIN
Two Murder Cases and a Psychiatrist in Lohr
“Mr. Monk goes Germany”: The new private investigator novel is an homage to Berlin and the town in the Spessart
written by Monika Büdel
Monk, the main character of a very popular and topical crime series, comes to Lohr. It has never happened before, that the whole story of a book plays primarily in the small town in the Spessart region – apart from the autobiographic story “In My Father’s Castle In The Air written by Katrine von Hutten.
“Mr. Monk goes to Germany” is the title of Lee Goldberg’s new episode of mystery books to be published on Wednesday which are named after the main character. The private investigator is even better known from the TV series than from the books. The idol of the public has been watched by a million audience on TV for the past 6 years, and in Germany it will be 4 years this coming Sunday.
What makes a private investigator with his paranoia of people, bacteria, flying on airplanes, go from San Francisco to Germany? He cannot handle it all by himself without his shrink Dr. Kroger. The psychiatrist has excused himself from the next session with a remark that he will be attending a congress in Lohr.
Adrian Monk feels left alone, is barely able to manage his everyday life. Natalie Teeger, his assistant, is at her wits’ end. She agrees to search for Dr. Kroger in Germany. After finding the shrink in Lohr in the Hotel Franziskushöhe, Monk believes that the psychiatrist is double-crossing him. Monk is desperate, struggles as a tourist through the town with all his phobias, and suddenly on a crowded place he sees a man with six fingers. He follows him but then loses his trace.
Since Monk’ wife Trudy Anne was killed during an assault, he searches for the killer: the man with the six-finger hand. And where there is Monk, there are dead bodies. This is an experience which Natalie has made over and over again. “Where there Monk, you can be assured that sooner or later a dead body will show up.” In Lohr, it is actually two bodies in the vicinity of the Fransziskushöhe. The local police very quickly has some harmless explanations for both death cases. Monk, however, contradicts their theory. He scents murder and starts investigating. His research takes him to Berlin and then back to Lohr.
Why, of all towns, did the American author pick the town of Lohr? In that region, everybody knows the city of Lohr because of its psychiatric clinic. But in Los Angeles? Indeed, the reputation of Lohr did not go that far and the last murder cases dates back many years. The American author Lee Golddberg came to Germany through the MediaXchange company which brings scriptwriters from Europe and the United States together. Film producer Hermann Joha cooperates with MediaXchange in order to bring new ideas to German TV productions.
In his hotel Franziskushöhe in his hometown of Lohr, he held two seminars for authors, so-called Writers’ Rooms in 2007.. One of the instructors was Lee Goldberg from Los Angeles. This job brought him Germany for the very first time.
“I was thrilled of Lohr”, Goldberg responded still enthusiastically on the phone even a year after his last stay in the Spessart region. “That’s why I wanted to write about Lohr and immediately thought of Monk. Because of the TV series, he is very popular in Germany. Therefore, a lot of people will hopefully read the book “Monk goes to Germany.”
You can be assured that sooner or later a dead body will show up
In the book, Lohr presents some challenges for the mentally knocked-down private investigator. The humpy pavements, the tilted houses, a true horror. Monk needs order, straight lines, symmetry. All the nature with muddy grounds in the woods and various little animals: even disinfecting paper towels would not help.
Lee Goldberg describes Lohr and its vicinity with the eyes of a tourist: the castle, the Bayers tower, the little alleys, the hiking paths. He tells his readers about the burning of the witches on the market place and Snow-white and the seven dwarfs, and the half-timbered houses.
“Those villages are so well preserved and so enchanting, that they rather look like Hollywood-sets or theme parks than real true locations which have been existing without a lot of changes for centuries. Those of you who know Lohr, will smirk about the details which he noticed, and those who do not know it, will be curious about “the houses which are so low that only dwarfs can live in it”, and they may almost be able to do without a guidebook. That’s how all-inclusive Goldberg’s information is: from the former health clinic for lung diseases to the town’s local church, he does not omit a single peculiarity of the small town.
And this is indeed Goldberg’s intention: he would like for his country fellows to come and visit Germany. “Germany is barely known as travel destination in the USA. I met may tourists from Spain, France, and Italy, but seldom from the US.” And therefore, the author from the West coast even advertises German food and explains that the Wiener Schnitzel has nothing to do with the fast food chain of the same name in California which sells hot dogs.
Still the cold war in their heads
Goldberg takes advantage of Monk’s and Natalie’s research trip to Berlin to bring into life the capital and its history: they talk about the wall, drive to the Brandburger Tor, look at the expensive stores on Friedrichstrasse, and Checkpoint Charlie.
“I love Berlin”, says the author “It is so exciting. I was very surprised. For many Americans, Berlin does not have a positive image. They still think of the cold war and the wall. It is a shame.”
For Monk, Berlin has other qualities: the buildings made from prefabricated slabs do satisfy his desire for straight lines and harmony.
Lee Goldberg only spent a total of not even two weeks in Lohr, and only a few days in Berlin. In Lohr, he was buy most of the time as an instructor. How did he collect all his information? “I took lots of pictures and talked to many people. I went to the tourist information where I learned a lot about Lohr.” He even devotes a few lines about this tourists and hikers shelter. “It is my job to do research for my stories. I did a lot of hiking in the woods right behind Franziskushöhe and made my observations. Hermann Joha arranged for me to meet someone from the local history club. In Berlin, I was on the road for three consecutive day and asked myself: what would an American cop notice here?”
Germany is barely known as travel destination in the US
In addition to all of that, there’s his fantasy: During the Writers’ Room in early 2007, he realized that one of the participants had a band aid around her finger. “What did you do”? “Cut myself”, the woman responded. “No,” Goldberg said, “today at noon there was a bank robbery in Lohr and a bullet grazed you.”
Are we going to eventually see Lohr in one of the Monk episodes? “I doubt it. That’s probably too expensive. And you cannot really copy it. But I plan to come to Lohr and sign the books, as soon as the German version will be published, since it was such a pleasure for me to be there with the people. It is a great place.”
……“Street cleaners” and “machines”
Lee Goldberg hopes that his book will bring many tourists to Lohr so that they can see what he described, really exists. At least, most of it. In his preface he lets us know that many things are true – but some are not. Visitors will search in vain for the bed-and-breakfast hotel in which Monk and Natalie stayed. But despite of Goldberg’s true experience, he is still amazed about three things: that most Germans are able to speak English, the street cleaners who sweep the streets every morning, and that there are “machines” which sell cigarettes.
And what is going to happen with Adrian Monk? Natalie demands compensation for the exciting and stressful days in Lohr. Since they are already in Europe, she wants to go on a trip to Paris. But Monk wants to return to his more or less organized conditions in San Francisco.
After Natalie makes a clever move, Monk confesses: “You won. We’re going to France.” Whether or not she’ll regret it? The title of the next episode is: “Mr. Monk is Miserable”.
The English version “Mr. Monk Goes to Germany” will be released on 2 July, the German version can be obtained starting 21 November in bookstores.
Personally: Lee Goldberg
Lee Godlberg (45) is a writer and TV author in Los Angeles (USA). He is married to a French and has two children. Before he started writing movie scripts, he worked for newspapers, magazines and special editions of TV-magazines. He is responsible for scripts for TV series such as Diagnosis Murder, Martial Law, and Monk. Goldberg participated in “Fast Track – No limits”, an action story of American style which was shot in Berlin. This movie was produced by Hermann Johan (Action Concept/Hürth) who presented it this year during the European Film Market of the “Berlinale”. Shortly thereafter this story about illegal car races was shown on German Pro7 TV station
Goldberg wrote the Monk-books (translations of the German titles of books already published in Germany)) “Mr. Monk and the Fire Department” (which was also converted into a TV episode), “Mr. Monk visits Hawaii”, Mr. Monk and the Monday flu”, Mr. Monk and his female assistants”, “Mr. Monk and the ones from outer space” (available in books stores on 11 Sep), and “Mr. Monk Goes to Germany”, which will be published on 2 Jul in the US but which can also be ordered through German book stores. The publication of the German translation has been announced for 21 November. In December the episode “Mr. Monk is Miserable” is supposed to be published on the American market. Goldberg wrote his Germany-Monk in Los Angeles, in hotels in Lohr, Cologne, Munich, London and Montreal, in air plans and trains which brought him to these locations.
. I only recognized a fragment: "The man with six fingers....". If some one could read more, please let me know 
.
Thank you so much! I think we should call you eagle-eye4sure now 
Unfortunately only in a book but this is better than nothing^^