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 Germanys 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, Prussias 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.
Harald Schumacher is more loathed in France than even Adolf Hitler.
Amusingly, French was Frederick the Great’s native tongue. His German was apparently never truly fluent.
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.
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.)
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?
White flag territory.
Shady trees.
“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.
French women are fair game whores to Germans, on par with Thai so to speak.
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.....
“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
When you day “bikers” do mean the ‘Ells Anshells variety or the spandex pants kind?
Thanks for posting.
I sing the first stanza quite often whilst listening to the radio world news!
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.
“I remember every detail. The Germans wore grey, you wore blue.”
You must have encountered them before they got to the Morbio Inferiore on their Journey to the East.
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