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What do Germans Think of the French?
The Local ^ | 03 Jul 2014

Posted on 07/06/2014 10:42:25 AM PDT by nickcarraway

Germany and France will battle for a place in the semi-finals of the football World Cup in Brazil on Friday. The Local looks to Germans past and present to find out what they make of their neighbours across the Rhine.

At the annual German-French Festival, taking place in Berlin's Reinickendorf district, one part of France dominated the view of Germans who The Local spoke to on Wednesday.

"When I think of France, I think of Paris," said Peter Wegert, 43, who was enjoying a cold beverage while waiting for his family.

Student Gamze Yildiz, 19, who was meeting with friends to attend the fair, agreed: "Paris. And fashion," she told The Local.

Martin Schumann, 46, and his daughter Maria, 11, also thought of the French capital. In addition, said Martin, he remembered his family's visit to Disneyland Paris last year.

Only Ute Heringhausen, a woman in her mid-50s who was at the festival with a friend, had different associations: "Culture and good food," she said without missing a beat.

The association of France with the good life has also made it into the German language. “Leben wie Gott in Frankreich” (Living like God in France), is sometimes used by German-speakers to described a life of luxury.

‘Amusing clowns’

But German writers and philosophers have traditionally been less kind to the French.

One of Germany’s leading 19th Century philosophers Arthur Schopenhauer wrote: “One should not forget that the French will always remain French - lazy, frivolous, superficial."

Schopenhauer clearly had little time for the country. He also once said: “The world has apes. Europe has the French.”

Meanwhile, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, associated the French language with the faults of its people. “The French language is a most excellent language for caveats, half-truths, lies. It is a perfidious language,” he wrote.

And one of the most famous German military leaders found humour in the country's ineptitude. “The French are amusing clowns,” Prussia’s king Frederick the Great wrote. “One is pleased to have enemies about which one can laugh.”

Berlin-based 20th century writer Kurt Tucholsky, meanwhile, summed up the differences between the French and German character in one line. “One must understand the Germans to love them, one must love the French to understand them,” he wrote.


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: france; germany; worldcup
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1 posted on 07/06/2014 10:42:25 AM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Harald Schumacher is more loathed in France than even Adolf Hitler.


2 posted on 07/06/2014 10:44:47 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: nickcarraway

Amusingly, French was Frederick the Great’s native tongue. His German was apparently never truly fluent.


3 posted on 07/06/2014 10:50:19 AM PDT by wideawake
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To: nickcarraway

Well, they’re probably thinking that they’ve batted the French around pretty well, in nearly everything, essentially forever, and dammit those guys just aren’t very orderly.


4 posted on 07/06/2014 10:52:16 AM PDT by Wyrd bið ful aræd (Asperges me, Domine, hyssopo et mundabor, Lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor.)
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To: nickcarraway
Al Bundy on the French [video link]
5 posted on 07/06/2014 10:57:29 AM PDT by FlJoePa ("Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger, but it won't taste good")
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To: nickcarraway
Johann Wolfgang Goethe

When Faust and Mephistopheles go to Auerbach's Keller in Leipzig, one of the patrons says, "A true German man can't stand the French, but their wine he gladly drinks."

(This is when Mephistopheles makes wine flow from the holes drilled in the table.)

6 posted on 07/06/2014 10:57:31 AM PDT by MUDDOG
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To: nickcarraway

Hey! What a great game.

What Do The Germans Think About __________?

What do the Germans think about asparagus?
What do the Germans think about buying silver?
What do the Germans think about what Germans think about?


7 posted on 07/06/2014 10:58:48 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: nickcarraway

White flag territory.


8 posted on 07/06/2014 11:00:20 AM PDT by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed & water the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS NOW & FOREVER!)
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To: nickcarraway
Considering the match was played Friday, I would say the opinion today is- Lösers!
9 posted on 07/06/2014 11:00:38 AM PDT by mikrofon (Ich bin ein Tagliner)
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To: nickcarraway
if i had to guess, i'd say they think they are pretty much, well, you know frenchified...
10 posted on 07/06/2014 11:00:53 AM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -vvv- NO Pity for the LAZY - 86-44)
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To: nickcarraway

Shady trees.


11 posted on 07/06/2014 11:01:11 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: wideawake

“Frederick was brought up by Huguenot governesses and tutors and learned French and German simultaneously.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_the_Great#Youth

His father, Frederick William said that German was only suited to speaking to horses.


12 posted on 07/06/2014 11:03:05 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (This is known as "bad luck". - Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: nickcarraway

French women are fair game whores to Germans, on par with Thai so to speak.


13 posted on 07/06/2014 11:13:15 AM PDT by lavaroise (A well regulated gun being necessary to the state, the rights of the militia shall not be infringed)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

IIRC, it was Charles V the Holy Roman emperor who said he spoke French to his cook, Italian to his mistress, Spanish to the Lord, and German to his horse.

Years ago I was hiking in northern Bavaria when a group of about twenty hikers heading eastbound asked me for directions and they were all speaking French!

Thinking of Compiegne in July 1940, I asked in amazement, “What are you doing here in Germany!!?”

They replied, “We always vacation in Germany. Here, at least everything works!”

C’est la vie.....


14 posted on 07/06/2014 11:22:31 AM PDT by elcid1970 ("In the modern world, Muslims are living fossils.")
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To: nickcarraway

“Merry Minuet” was written by Sheldon Harnick.

They’re rioting in Africa
They’re starving in Spain
There’s hurricanes in Florida and Texas needs rain

The whole world is festering with unhappy souls
The French hate the Germans
The Germans hate the Poles

Italians hate Yugoslavs
South Africans hate the Dutch
And I don’t like anybody very much

But we can be tranquil and thankful
And proud for man’s been endowed
With a mushroom shaped cloud

And we know for certain that
Some lovely day someone will set the spark off
And we will all be blown away

They’re rioting in Africa
There’s strife in Iran
What nature doesn’t do to us will be done by our fellow man


15 posted on 07/06/2014 11:24:52 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Sometimes you need more than seven rounds, Much more.)
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To: elcid1970

When you day “bikers” do mean the ‘Ells Anshells variety or the spandex pants kind?


16 posted on 07/06/2014 11:27:36 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (This is known as "bad luck". - Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

Thanks for posting.

I sing the first stanza quite often whilst listening to the radio world news!


17 posted on 07/06/2014 11:30:49 AM PDT by headsonpikes (Mass murder and cannibalism are the twin sacraments of socialism - "Who-whom?"-Lenin)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

I said I was hiking in Germany & I met some hikers from France. Bitte lesen Sie das wieder!

Men & women in normal garb with hiking shoes.


18 posted on 07/06/2014 11:38:51 AM PDT by elcid1970 ("In the modern world, Muslims are living fossils.")
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To: nickcarraway

“I remember every detail. The Germans wore grey, you wore blue.”


19 posted on 07/06/2014 11:39:56 AM PDT by bravo whiskey (we shouldn't fear the government. the government should fear us.)
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To: elcid1970
twenty hikers heading eastbound

You must have encountered them before they got to the Morbio Inferiore on their Journey to the East.

20 posted on 07/06/2014 11:48:14 AM PDT by MUDDOG
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