Germans

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A nation of poets, scholars, and composers? Or a nation of uptight strutting martinets, dull engineers, manipulative bankers and evil bureaucrats? And is the German language sublimely expressive or, as Mark Twain would have it, "awful"?

Pace the "Russians" thread, they're another bunch of folks against whom Polacks bear a historical grudge.

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

All the German investors that call my office all sound so happy and pleased with their lives. I mean, they have no reason not to be, they're hella wealthy bastards, but still they seem so damned pleasant and happy and perky and pleased and wonderful, Germans are classic.

― Ally, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ich bin ein Berliner!

― nathalie, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The few Germans I've met in real life are not merely quite polite but downright engaging and enthusiastic about things -- usually exchange students at UCI working at the radio station, we've had everything from gay talk show hosts to alt-country enthusiasts and more, bless 'em all.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Did you keep'em, Ned? Of course not. YOU ALWAYS GIVE'EM BACK TO US! Bastards!

;-)

― nathalie, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Do all martinets strut? The intimacy of the words "strutting" and "martinets" reminds me of how Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman was always described as a "blind cleric" (never just a "cleric" or a "blind religious leader"). And inevitably he was described as having "masterminded," not "planned," the World Trade Center bombing.

― Benjamin, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Some Germans are nice, some Germans are not so nice.

― jel, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Jurgen Klinsmann is my favourite German.

― jel, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Christiane F was sorta nice.

― nathalie, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

If Germans only had better food, they'd be way better than Italians, but Italians have way better food so they end up winning in the end. I like the German language, one night I went up to the roof drunk and started ranting out German names for no reason, that was pretty good. I used to speak German but I forgot most of it, I can still do the inflection though and read words I'm given. I just don't know what I'm saying. It's sad. I would like to go to Germany some day.

Do I sound stressed with these short choppy sentences? I have a splitting migrane.

― Ally, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ich finde Deutschland toll. Die Deutsche sind klasse und die Sprache ist einfaecher als Englisch. (Wenn ich ein Umlaut schreiben koennte, waere ich der Uebermensch.)

Ich habe viel Deutsch vergessen, aber nicht soviel wie ich gedacht habe.

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

No, Ally. You sound reasonable.

Germany is a wierd country. Much of it is still, strangely or not, in ruin, what with the eastern v. western stuff. But the woods and mountains and craggy countryside is sweeping and lovely and, after watching Nosferatu one too many times, evil.

― JM, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I plan on moving to Germany, probably next year.

― Ally, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I haven't gone there yet. I'd like to. I have a feeling it would be distinctly different from the US.

― Lyra, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Germany is a vastly alien place from the US until you start to enderstand the language, at which point you realize that, despite the pretty pretty architecture, the cities and towns are shockingly similar to the cities and towns in the US. The only place I've been that really felt "alien" to me was Japan, and that wore off after four days.

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Germans come from the land of chocolate.

― JM, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Auch habe ich die deutsche Sprache gern. I fell in love with it back in grade school (when we were given a choice between learning German, Spanish or French). I've never been one of those who thinks it sounds "harsh" or "ugly" (if people want to hear harsh- or ugly- sounding languages, try Polish or Arabic, but I digress). I always liked the way that it was so precise and expressive.

German food is hit-or-miss. Love bratwurst, leberwurst, knockwurst, and all the other wursts, all that cabbage, and as someone said above Germany (and Austria and Switzerland) are the Lands of Chocolate. On the other hand, all that pork and those bland boiled potatoes ... I think I'll pass on that.

It's also a shame that so many German cities look so bland and, well, American. I mean, Munich looks like a German Los Angeles (all ugly urban/suburban sprawl), Frankfurt-am-Main looks like a truly heartless Manhattan, and then there's the Soviet/Stalinoid monstrosities in the former East Germany. That said, I loved Berlin in no small part because (aside from Glasgow) it was the European city that reminded me most of New York. (I would have loved to see Kreuzberg just before the wall fell, but it was still fun when I went.) Stuttgart was also a really beautiful town -- lots of green, lots of forest for such a big town. Needless to say, the more traditional-looking German towns (i.e., the ones that didn't get bombed to shit during WWI) like Freiburg and all the villages along the Romantische Strasse are breathtakingly cute.

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm sure German cities would look nicer if they hadn't been bombed into the ground, but that's another thread entirely.
I know two Germans: a doctor, who is the friendliest man in the world, and my friend JV, who is cool. Neither are stereotypes, predictably, so as usual I'll take my line of generalisation = stupid blah blah blah...

― DG, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

germans are classic. my only lament is that i'm not more german. there is a town named after me (yes, after ME, in particular!), salingen, which is the original spelling of our surname, pre-ellis island.

the german language, however, is awful. my college roommate took german and he tormented us with it everyday, mentally and physically. delillo gets at it well in white noise. so, in closing, germany is classic.

― fred solinger, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Kreuzberg before the Wall fell = weird and timeless, crustie world capital, locked into a nostalgia of itself there-and-then, as if everyone already knew what no one ever dared imagine, that it wasn't forever (cf Dave Rimmer's Once Upon a Time in the East). In East Berlin I put in my mouth — for a few seconds — the worst street-vendor meat product I have ever encountered, or will. I was VERY hungry before; afterwards just as hungry, yet somehow also not.

― mark s, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

das land of chocolate! mmmmmmmm I want to eat it ... das ist meiner arme. What does that mean?

― maryann, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I find the German language prim.

― Bill, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I got an A in German GCSE but can now remember nothing at all of the language except for one poem I wrote when we had to write a poem. It went like this:

Ich habe eine Schlange
Meine Schlange hast viel Durst
Er geht in zum Kafe
Er hat Getranke und eine Wurst

I may not have remembered the proper grammar.

― Tom, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

German is fucking hot, but not as hot as Hebrew or Japanese.

― Ally, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You have a thirsty snake that liked to eat sausages, Tom? I'd give that poem an A, too. I bet Herr Freud would have done so, too :-)

Not to get too high-falutin', but I was also kind of hoping that this thread would talk about German culture and history (sorta like the "Russians" thread seemed to be moving). We've had ILE discussions about Marx, Adorno, Freud (OK, he was an Austrian, but y'all get the drift) as well as an interesting ILM discussion on Krautrock. They've also produced so many great writers (like Goethe, Schiller, Rilke, Mann), philosophers (Hegel, Kant, Heidegger, the Frankfurt School), artists and musicians. It was also such great fun as an undergrad to read not only the foregoing, but also folks like Herder and Hamann. That, and such an interesting history.

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Wednesday, 22 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ich habe keine arme

― maryann, Wednesday, 22 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The jolly Germans, always game for a nosh-up, ideally washed down with a foaming tankard of ale and accompanied by an oompah band. No wonder everyone loves them.

― The Dirty Vicar, Wednesday, 22 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Thanks to vagaries of German slang, I was ROTFL after the first two lines of Tom's poem. I'd've given that an 'A', too.

― Dan Perry, Wednesday, 22 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

to beat ethan to the punch(line):

ich bin ein springfielder.

there.

― fred solinger, Wednesday, 22 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Does no one care that I think German is fucking hot (but not as hot as Hebrew)? Obviously not, not even Mike and this bothers me.

Tadeusz: You need to realize something. Intelligent discussion here is hard to come by, particularly with Tom's thirsty Brat-eatin' snake running around. You should make a big long post dissecting German history and see if anyone bites. I might. WWI: how stupid was it to pin the blame on the Germans?

― Ally, Wednesday, 22 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have only been away from ILE a day and there's a thread for every bloody nationality. What's going on?

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 22 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

six months pass...

Germany is still waiting for Ally.

― N., Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

discussion here is hard to come by, particularly with Tom's thirsty Brat-eatin' snake running around.

This has to be one of the BEST THINGS EVER WRITTEN.

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one year passes...

Does anyone here read German?

If so, can you tell me what " durch hohe Schnittfolge fragmentiert erscheint" means? The context is movies.

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 13:57 (twenty-two years ago)

"you're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off"?

― gareth (gareth), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 13:59 (twenty-two years ago)

haha yes but seriously.

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 14:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Schnittfolge???

― Ally (mlescaut), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 14:03 (twenty-two years ago)

"Schnittfolge" probably means editing. Is that the whole sentence? It looks like you're missing something after "erscheint". (From what you have, it looks like the person is saying that a lot of editing fragmented the movie.)

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 14:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, that's what I was getting out of it, "fragmented the results" but I've never heard of Schnittfolge before?

― Ally (mlescaut), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 14:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, I think scnittfolge means "editing." THe whole sentence: "Dabei steht die Entwicklung einer Raumdarstellung im Zentrum, bei der die Handlung parallel zur Bildebene inszeniert ist und durch hohe Schnittfolge fragmentiert erscheint."

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 14:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Thanks, BTW...

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 14:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Dan OTM. durch hohe Schnittfolge fragmentiert erscheint = (the plot) appears fragmented by rapid editing.

I would translate the rest as well but I suck at translating German compounds. Bildebene = picture plane? image level? visual narration? Jesus.

― Sommermute (Wintermute), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 18:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I went to Germany this summer for a week and only met one german dude that was nice to me. Im not that offensive looking, i dont think. I dont know what that was all about. Cant argue with the beer though.

― Spinktor the Unmerciful (mawill5), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 18:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah the compounds get me too, Sommermute. I know they aren't meant to be entirely wholly literal translations but I sit there like, "Image level"? what the fuck.

― Ally (mlescaut), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 19:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I think I can clarify that one. I don't read a word of German but I understand the context from whence that sentence came. It means "image plane," i.e. the plane of the camera's lens as represented on screen. The writer is talking about compositions in which the subject of the image is parallel to the image plane, as in a portrait sitting.

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 19:10 (twenty-two years ago)

:-)

― Katja (blue), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 13:42 (twenty-two years ago)

The Buyers Agent just came in here to let me know about a home inspection for one of our clients. The inspector's name is VERY german, so we were both imagining a Hitler stache and salutes and the inspector saying, "We vill make dem pay for dis!"

― Sarah McLUsky (coco), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 13:45 (twenty-two years ago)

sounds like you know my boss?

― Katja (blue), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 13:53 (twenty-two years ago)

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, saurkraut.

― Emilymv (Emilymv), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 13:56 (twenty-two years ago)

only if it's done by my mum.

― Katja (blue), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 13:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Erdinger!

― Fabrice (Fabfunk), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 14:02 (twenty-two years ago)

holsten!

― Katja (blue), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 14:04 (twenty-two years ago)

DB rent-a-bikes!

― Fabrice (Fabfunk), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 14:06 (twenty-two years ago)

???

― Katja (blue), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 14:07 (twenty-two years ago)

those Deutsche Bahn bikes you can pick up and leave any place

― Fabrice (Fabfunk), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 14:08 (twenty-two years ago)

never heard of that before. but you can buy body bags in the supermarket!

― Katja (blue), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 14:15 (twenty-two years ago)

maybe it's just a pilot thing in Berlin then..

― Fabrice (Fabfunk), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 14:16 (twenty-two years ago)

but you can buy body bags in the supermarket!

I can't think of any reasonable explanation for this. Someone please help me.

― Dale the Titled (cprek), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 14:18 (twenty-two years ago)

no, just found out that they have it in munich as well.

― Katja (blue), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 14:19 (twenty-two years ago)

they offer "body bags" but they mean backpacks.

― Katja (blue), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 14:23 (twenty-two years ago)

i was hoping they were body bags for David Hasslehoff fans. who seem disturbingly prolific in germany!

― Emilymv (Emilymv), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 14:29 (twenty-two years ago)

true.

― Katja (blue), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 14:30 (twenty-two years ago)

eight months pass...

Ok, I've made my mind up, I'm dropping everything in July and I'm going to Berlin for a two months intensive German course.

I'm SO excited!! Berlin, hoerst du mich? Jetzt, ist es zwischen dich und mich, HAHA!!!

― Baaderoni (Fabfunk), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 13:04 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

Can we put Tom's poem on an ILE t-shirt?

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 10 June 2005 11:17 (twenty years ago)

*sigh* I'd forgotten about this plan... never happened obviously.

― The Emancipation of Baaderonixx (KERERU 4 LIFE!) (Fabfunk), Friday, 10 June 2005 11:29 (twenty years ago)

Hey, you've got 20 days to do it this year!

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 10 June 2005 11:49 (twenty years ago)

I actually did sign up to the university course but bailed out when I realized the student dorms were pretty far out of the center.
I'm going there for a long w-e in 20 days, so who knows, maybe it will rekindle the flame...

― The Emancipation of Baaderonixx (KERERU 4 LIFE!) (Fabfunk), Friday, 10 June 2005 11:54 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?collectionId=1955&galleryName=All%20Collections#a=1?rpc=28

― Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Saturday, 21 June 2008 05:16 (seventeen years ago)

Ich habe eine Schlange
Meine Schlange hast viel Durst
Er geht in zum Kafe
Er hat Getranke und eine Wurst

― Eisbaer, Saturday, 21 June 2008 06:13 (seventeen years ago)

two months pass...

schade -- es gibt hier nicht so viele Leute, dass Toms ausgesprochenes Schlangegedicht so gern hatten!

― Eisbaer, Saturday, 13 September 2008 16:14 (seventeen years ago)

ICH SAMMLE BRIEFMARKEN

― 1982 World Cup wall chart (Roberto Spiralli), Saturday, 13 September 2008 16:45 (seventeen years ago)

ZWEI KATZEN

― 1982 World Cup wall chart (Roberto Spiralli), Saturday, 13 September 2008 16:45 (seventeen years ago)

RATHAUS

― 1982 World Cup wall chart (Roberto Spiralli), Saturday, 13 September 2008 16:45 (seventeen years ago)

MEINE FRAU IST DEUTSCH

― 1982 World Cup wall chart (Roberto Spiralli), Saturday, 13 September 2008 16:46 (seventeen years ago)

see, we can all speak German. you're not so clever.

― 1982 World Cup wall chart (Roberto Spiralli), Saturday, 13 September 2008 16:47 (seventeen years ago)

Well, millions of people can speak German. But I'd like to thank each and every one of them for Rammstein!

― Soukesian, Saturday, 13 September 2008 17:03 (seventeen years ago)

Google claims to speak German, but this claim is overly enthusiastic.

― Aimless, Saturday, 13 September 2008 17:07 (seventeen years ago)

Can we put Tom's poem on an ILE t-shirt?

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, June 10, 2005 7:17 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

OTM

― Eisbaer, Saturday, 13 September 2008 18:07 (seventeen years ago)

two years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOAzuqngOYo

― I-95 Phuck Phace (Eisbaer), Tuesday, 17 May 2011 08:04 (fifteen years ago)

Yeah that video is all time imo.

― \(^o\) (/o^)/ (ENBB), Tuesday, 17 May 2011 14:53 (fifteen years ago)

It makes me unbelievably happy that this happened.

― \(^o\) (/o^)/ (ENBB), Tuesday, 17 May 2011 14:54 (fifteen years ago)

six years pass...

https://www.flightradar24.com/AIB232E/fd1fd63

― infinity (∞), Wednesday, 13 December 2017 16:46 (eight years ago)

http://www.spiegel.de/reise/aktuell/airbus-testflug-ueber-deutschland-a380-fliegt-einen-weihnachtsbaum-a-1183167.html

"Oh, Tannenbaum!": Ein neuer Airbus A380 ist auf einem Testflug eine Route in Form eines riesigen Weihnachtsbaums quer über Deutschland geflogen.

― infinity (∞), Wednesday, 13 December 2017 16:48 (eight years ago)

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