essay on german

50 Useful German Essay Words and Phrases

by  fredo21  

January 9, 2019

2  Comments

Essay-writing is in itself already a difficult endeavor. Now writing an essay in a foreign language like German ---that’s on a different plane of difficulty.  

To make it easier for you, here in this article, we’ve compiled the most useful German essay phrases. Feel free to use these to add a dash of pizzazz into your essays. It will add just the right amount of flourish into your writing---enough to impress whoever comes across your work!

You can also download these phrases in PDF format by clicking the button below.

Now here’s your list!

What other German vocabulary list would you like to see featured here? Please feel free to leave a message in the comment section and we’ll try our best to accommodate your requests soon!

Once again, you can download your copy of the PDF by subscribing using the button below!

For an easier way to learn German vocabulary, check out German short stories for beginners!

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German Essay Phrases: 24 Useful Expressions to Write an Essay in German

As we often think in English first, translating our ideas into useful German phrases can be tricky.

This handy blog post includes 24 essential German essay phrases to help make your writing flow more smoothly and sound more natural. Whether you’re preparing for the Goethe exam, a GCSE test, or just want to improve your written German for real-life situations, these chunks and phrases will help you. Easy German has a great video on useful German expression:

From organizing your thoughts with transitions like “ zudem ” and “ außerdem “, to expressing your opinion with phrases like “ meiner Meinung nach ” and “ ich denke, dass… “, this post has you covered.

Write an essay with German essay phrases: learn how to structure your story

Goethe tests love a clear and logical format. They follow the same structure throughout the different levels. The good news is, when you’re learning a language, you can use these German essay phrases with these structures even in your real-life dialogues. Then, gradually, you can shift your focus to a more natural-sounding speaking.

First, begin with an engaging introduction to get the reader’s attention. This intro paragraph should also include a short thesis statement that outlines the central argument you’ll be taking.

In the body of your essay, organize your thoughts into separate paragraphs. Use transitional phrases like “ außerdem ” (furthermore) and “ zudem ” (moreover) to connect your paragraphs and create a flow.

After that, summarize your main points and restate your thesis. But! Avoid introducing new information. Leave the reader with a compelling final thought or even a call to action that makes your central argument stronger.

If you’re not certain enough, check the following list and learn about the must-have go-to German essay phrases now!

1. Erstens – Firstly

This German essay phrase is used to introduce the first point in your essay.

Erstens werden wir die Hauptargumente diskutieren. [Firstly, we will discuss the main arguments.]

2. Zweitens – Secondly

Normally, this phrase is there for you when you want to introduce the second point in a structured manner.

Zweitens betrachten wir einige Gegenbeispiele. [Secondly, we will look at some counterexamples.]

3. Drittens – Thirdly

Used to signal the third point for clarity in your argument.

Drittens ziehen wir eine Schlussfolgerung. [Thirdly, we will draw a conclusion.]

4. Einleitend muss man sagen… – To begin with, one has to say…

Start your essay with this phrase to introduce your key points.

Einleitend muss man sagen, dass dieses Thema komplex ist. [To begin with, one has to say that this topic is complex.]

5. Man muss … in Betracht ziehen – One needs to take … into consideration

When you want to consider a specific aspect in your discussion.

Man muss den historischen Kontext in Betracht ziehen. [One needs to take the historical context into consideration.]

6. Ein wichtiger Aspekt von X ist … – An important aspect of X is …

To highlight an important part…

Ein wichtiger Aspekt von Nachhaltigkeit ist die Ressourcenschonung. [An important aspect of sustainability is resource conservation.]

7. Man muss erwähnen, dass… – One must mention that …

Used to emphasize a point that need acknowledgement.

Man muss erwähnen, dass es verschiedene Ansichten gibt. [One must mention that there are different viewpoints.]

8. Im Vergleich zu – In comparison to…

To compare different elements in your essay.

Im Vergleich zu konventionellen Autos sind Elektrofahrzeuge umweltfreundlicher. [In comparison to conventional cars, electric vehicles are more eco-friendly.]

9. Im Gegensatz zu – In contrast to…

When you want to present an alternative viewpoint or argument.

Im Gegensatz zu optimistischen Prognosen ist die Realität ernüchternd. [In contrast to optimistic forecasts, reality is sobering.]

10. Auf der einen Seite – On the one hand

To add a new perspective.

Auf der einen Seite gibt es finanzielle Vorteile. [On the one hand, there are financial benefits.]

11. Auf der anderen Seite – On the other hand

Present an alternative viewpoint.

Auf der anderen Seite bestehen ethische Bedenken. [On the other hand, ethical concerns exist.]

12. Gleichzeitig – At the same time

When you want to show a simultaneous relationship between ideas.

Gleichzeitig müssen wir Kompromisse eingehen. [At the same time, we must make compromises.]

13. Angeblich – Supposedly

If you want to add information that is claimed but not confirmed.

Angeblich wurde der Konflikt beigelegt. [Supposedly, the conflict was resolved.]

14. Vermutlich – Presumably

Used when discussing something that is presumed but not certain.

Vermutlich wird sich die Situation verbessern. [Presumably, the situation will improve.]

15. In der Tat – In fact

To add a fact or truth in your essay.

In der Tat sind die Herausforderungen groß. [In fact, the challenges are great.]

16. Tatsächlich – Indeed

Emphasize a point or a fact.

Tatsächlich haben wir Fortschritte gemacht. [Indeed, we have made progress.]

17. Im Allgemeinen – In general

When discussing something in a general context.

Im Allgemeinen ist das System reformbedürftig. [In general, the system needs reform.]

18. Möglicherweise – Possibly

Spice your essay with a possibility or potential scenario.

Möglicherweise finden wir einen Konsens. [Possibly, we will find a consensus.]

19. Eventuell – Possibly

To suggest a potential outcome or situation.

Eventuell müssen wir unsere Strategie überdenken. [Possibly, we need to rethink our strategy.]

20. In jedem Fall / Jedenfalls – In any case

Used to emphasize a point regardless of circumstances.

In jedem Fall müssen wir handeln. [In any case, we must take action.]

21. Das Wichtigste ist – The most important thing is

If you want to highlight the most important thing in your saying.

Das Wichtigste ist, dass wir zusammenarbeiten. [The most important thing is that we cooperate.]

22. Ohne Zweifel – Without a doubt

To introduce a statement that is unquestionably trues.

Ohne Zweifel ist Bildung der Schlüssel zum Erfolg. [Without a doubt, education is the key to success.]

23. Zweifellos – Doubtless

Just as the previous one, when you want say something that is, without a doubt, true.

Zweifellos gibt es noch viel zu tun. [Doubtless, there is still a lot to be done.]

24. Verständlicherweise – Understandably

If you want to add a thing that is understandable in the given context.

Verständlicherweise sind einige Menschen besorgt. [Understandably, some people are concerned.]

Practice the most important German essay phrases

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Learn the language and more German essay words and sentences with Conversation Based Chunking

Conversation Based Chunking represents a powerful approach to learning language skills. It’s especially useful for productive purposes like essay writing.

By learning phrases and expressions used in natural discourse, students internalize vocabulary and grammar in context rather than as isolated rules. This method helps you achieve fluency and helps you develop a ‘feel’ for a an authentic patterns.

Chunking common multi-word units accelerates progress by reducing cognitive load compared to consciously constructing each sentence from individual words. Sign up now to get access to your German Conversation Based Chunking Guide.

Lukas is the founder of Effortless Conversations and the creator of the Conversation Based Chunking™ method for learning languages. He's a linguist and wrote a popular book about learning languages through "chunks". He also co-founded the language education company Spring Languages, which creates online language courses and YouTube content.

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Essential German Essay Phrases to Elevate Your Writing

Writing an essay in German can be a daunting task, especially if you’re not familiar with the language’s unique expressions and structures. To help you navigate the intricacies of German essay writing and add sophistication to your compositions, we have compiled a list of 24 essential phrases. These phrases will not only enhance the clarity and coherence of your writing but also showcase your command over the German language .

Einleitende Sätze (Introductory Phrases):

a. Zunächst einmal… – Firstly…

b. Es ist allgemein bekannt, dass… – It is generally known that…

c. In der heutigen Gesellschaft… – In today’s society…

d. Es lässt sich nicht leugnen, dass… – It cannot be denied that…

Beispielgebende Phrasen (Exemplifying Phrases):

a. Ein gutes Beispiel hierfür ist… – A good example of this is…

b. Zum Beispiel… – For example…

c. Dies wird deutlich, wenn man… – This becomes clear when one…

d. Als Veranschaulichung kann man… – As an illustration, one can…

Verbindende Wörter (Connecting Words):

a. Darüber hinaus… – Furthermore…

b. In Bezug auf… – With regard to…

c. Im Vergleich zu… – In comparison to…

d. Einerseits… andererseits… – On the one hand… on the other hand…

Zusammenfassende Phrasen (Summarizing Phrases):

a. Abschließend lässt sich sagen… – In conclusion, it can be said…

b. Alles in allem… – All in all…

c. Zusammenfassend kann man feststellen… – In summary, one can determine…

d. Im Großen und Ganzen… – By and large…

Hervorhebende Phrasen (Emphasizing Phrases):

a. Es ist besonders wichtig zu betonen… – It is particularly important to emphasize…

b. Es steht außer Frage, dass… – There is no question that…

c. Es lässt sich nicht bestreiten… – It cannot be denied…

d. Es ist unerlässlich, dass… – It is essential that…

Kontrastierende Phrasen (Contrasting Phrases):

a. Im Gegensatz dazu… – In contrast to that…

b. Trotzdem… – Nevertheless…

c. Während… – While…

d. Allerdings… – However…

Abschließende Sätze (Concluding Sentences):

a. Zusammenfassend lässt sich festhalten… – To summarize, it can be stated…

b. Abschließend kann man sagen… – In conclusion, one can say…

c. Letztendlich… – Ultimately…

d. Abschließend bleibt zu sagen… – In conclusion, it remains to be said…

Conclusion : By incorporating these 24 essential phrases into your German essays, you will elevate your writing and demonstrate a strong command of the language. Remember to practice using these phrases in context to ensure a natural flow in your compositions. With time and practice, your German essay writing skills will flourish, allowing you to express your ideas with clarity, coherence, and sophistication. Viel Erfolg! (Good luck!)

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German Writing: 5 Tips and 12 Resources To Help You Express Yourself in German

How much time do you actively spend writing in German?

It’s all too common—you might have reading , listening and speaking in German covered, but writing slips through the cracks.

German is the language of some of the most prolific authors and well-known literary works in the world, and it remains an important academic language even in today’s world.

Here are some strategies and tools for incorporating writing practice into your German study routine. 

Strategies for How to Write in German

1. read first, write second, 2. set a schedule, 3. start simple, 4. slowly move up to advanced topics, 5. work on weak spots, online tools for german writing practice, dictionaries, thesauruses, language learning apps, language exchange apps, social media, why you need to invest time in german writing, you can learn at your own tempo, it’s excellent practice ground for more complex grammar, you can practice by yourself, and one more thing....

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Before you can be a producer of prize-winning German prose, you first need to become a consumer. Pretty much all prolific writers out there are also voracious readers.

So, go out and read, read, read. Material for beginners includes:

• Children’s books
• Comic books / Cartoons
• Tabloid papers
• Young fiction novels
• Fairy tales

When attempting to learn a new skill, consistency beats effort every time. You’ve probably heard about the hare and the turtle (which, by the way, are Der Hase und Der Igel —the hare and the hedgehog— in German). Slow and steady wins the race and all that.

Therefore, when trying to learn to write German, make sure you practice every day. Aim for process instead of achievement. It’s better to do less regularly than more occasionally. Five sentences are enough for starters. The topic is up to you. Just make sure you get it done.

In the same vein, don’t be overly ambitious with your material. While ambition is generally a good thing, too much of it can lead to frustration. Develop a tolerance and an acuity for the level you’re at.

If you’ve just learned to string together subject, verb and object, don’t try to jump right into subjunctive II and the pluperfect. Moderation, young Padawan! Get comfortable at your current level first before moving on.

Consistently take it up a notch. Once you’re confident that you’ve mastered a certain grammatical topic, move on to more complex areas.

For example:

1. Learn simple sentence structure :

Ich mache einen Salat. Du kaufst Bier. Er trinkt Kaffee.   (I make a salad. You buy beer. He drinks coffee.) 

2. Then include additional elements such as location, manner and time designation:

Heute mache ich einen Salat. Du kaufst Bier im Supermarkt. Er trinkt gerne Kaffee.   (Today, I’m making a salad. You buy beer at the supermarket. He likes to drink coffee.) 

3. Maybe switch to the past tense : 

Ich habe einen Salat gemacht. Du hast Bier gekauft. Er hat Kaffee getrunken. (I made a salad. You bought bier. He drank coffee.) 

4. And do the same in that tense:

Gestern habe ich einen Salat gemacht. Du hast Bier im Supermarkt gekauft. Er hat gerne Kaffee getrunken.   (Yesterday, I made a salad. You bought beer at the supermarket. He liked to drink coffee.) 

Or instead of learning syntax, you could concentrate on practicing German cases , adjective endings or compound nouns .

By progressing slowly like that, soon you’ll arrive at writing gems like this:

Letztes Wochenende wäre ich mit meinem Mann zu unseren Freunden in Süddeutschland gefahren, wenn es keinen Streik bei der Bahn gegeben hätte. 

Translation:

“Last weekend I would have travelled with my husband to our friends in Southern Germany if there hadn’t been a train strike.”

Take copious notes on what you’d like to say but can’t. Note down where you’re still blocked. Share what you write with a tutor or language partner and go over their corrections to figure out where your strengths and weaknesses lie.

You’ll screw up some stuff over and over while other things will roll from your fingertips like you’re a native.

Make note of the former and compile a “worst of” list detailing the German phrase structures, tenses and other grammatical phenomena that you’re struggling with. This will enable you to address these weak spots in a targeted manner.

Put aside some time only to work on what you find most difficult. You’ll see that it’s possible to turn weakness into strength.

Check out these handy resources:  

There are a lot of free, online German dictionaries, but two of my favorites are Leo and Linguee .

Leo is perfect for looking up words and common phrases, but it also has the added benefit of discussion forums. If you’ve looked up a word but are still slightly confused by its exact translation then you can post a new discussion and other members will happily help you out.

Linguee is useful for intermediate to advanced German learners. When you search for a word, the websites will show you a number of paragraphs in which the word is used. This shows you the various contexts in which the word or phrase may be used.

Beginners may find that they repeat the same words over and over again. This is usually due to a limited vocabulary. Once you learn more words, you’ll have more to use.

It takes time to build up your German vocabulary but while you’re trying to, you’ll probably find online thesauruses really helpful.

One of the best online German thesauruses is Open Thesaurus . If you’re ever sick of repeatedly using schön to describe something or someone as beautiful, pop it in the thesaurus search engine and you’ll be amazed at what comes up. You’ll see in-context usage examples, so you’ll learn the different nuances and meanings of each alternative word.

After a quick search using the word  schön , you’ll know exactly how to use the likes of hübsch (cute), umwerfend (gorgeous) and prächtig (magnificent)!

Many important German documents and letters differ stylistically from those in America. Rather than rushing into it and writing an important letter exactly how you would here, you need to think carefully to ensure that bad form doesn’t give the reader the wrong impression. To ensure you don’t mess up, it’s a good idea to use an online template.

There are loads of letter and email templates online. Depending on what you need one for, you’ll find a lot by simply googling. So if you need a cover letter for a job, just google “German cover letter” or the German equivalent, ein   Anschreiben  or  Bewerbungsschreiben. 

You can connect your Duolingo account to other social media accounts and compete against friends—there’s nothing like some friendly competition to motivate your German learning!

If you don’t fully understand a question or translation, you can check in with other Duolingo members. After each question, you’ll be invited to comment on the answer.

FluentU also offers you the chance to read and write in German with its transcripts and exercises. It’s a unique learning resource that teaches you the language through video clips from authentic German media such as movie trailers, music videos and news segments.

As mentioned earlier, finding a native speaker to correct your writing is an excellent idea. I therefore recommend that you get a tutor or language partner . Places to find the latter are:

• My Language Exchange

To make your relationship a success, find someone who’s just as eager to improve as you are. When correcting their writing, provide detailed feedback and annotations and have them return the favor. That way you can both grow in your proficiency and ramp up your knowledge in the shortest amount of time.

You can also try the Reddit forum r/WriteStreakGerman , where you can post your German writing and native speakers will give corrections.  

If you want to put your German out there and practice with some native speakers, log into Twitter and follow all the excellent German-language accounts . Tweeting with Germans will show you the German they use in everyday life, and you may even pick up some quirky idioms and slang!

You can always flood your existing friends’ Facebook feeds with German language posts as well, or hop over to some German Facebook pages and groups to make new friends and join in some lively discussions.

Even if your primary objective is to speak German fluently, writing is an important step toward that goal. The act of putting words down on paper (or onto a screen) is a whole different deal than talking. Writing is a more deliberate way of processing language and therefore offers you some unique help in acquiring new language.

Here are the benefits:

Talking in a foreign language requires to you interact in real time. That can be stressful and you might miss out on a lot of nuances.

Paper, on the other hand, is patient. You can think about your sentences while writing, go back to revise, correct your errors, get a better feel for grammatical structures and become familiar with overall linguistic rules.

Since we’re talking about grammar: when speaking, it’s easy to go the path of least resistance by using the few phrases you already know over and over. Unless you’re deliberately pushing yourself, you’re probably sticking with your guns and using short and simple sentences.

That’s not a crime, mind you (not even in Germany). However, it might keep you confined in your language skills. Writing, with its slower tempo, allows you to dip your feet into more complex rules and give them a whirl before integrating new grammar structures into your everyday speech.

Speaking inherently requires more than one person. Since you cannot always have a language partner at hand and not everyone gets to live with a German host family , having some form of solo practice is important.

Writing is a solo form. While it’s quite a good idea to have someone available who can look over your literary outpourings and correct them, the act of writing in itself is a one-person job. All you German-studying introverts out there, take advantage of this fact!

Writing in German is a skill like everything else. All it takes is consistent practice, qualified feedback and continuously cranking up the challenge level.

Don’t be afraid to start small. Going through a “caveman phase,” where everything in your new language sounds like coming from a Neanderthal is normal (and fun).

You might not become the next Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, but practicing German writing might get you to the point where you can read him in the original. And that’s worth a lot.

Want to know the key to learning German effectively?

It's using the right content and tools, like FluentU has to offer ! Browse hundreds of videos, take endless quizzes and master the German language faster than you've ever imagine!

Watching a fun video, but having trouble understanding it? FluentU brings native videos within reach with interactive subtitles.

You can tap on any word to look it up instantly. Every definition has examples that have been written to help you understand how the word is used. If you see an interesting word you don't know, you can add it to a vocabulary list.

And FluentU isn't just for watching videos. It's a complete platform for learning. It's designed to effectively teach you all the vocabulary from any video. Swipe left or right to see more examples of the word you're on.

The best part is that FluentU keeps track of the vocabulary that you're learning, and gives you extra practice with difficult words. It'll even remind you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

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Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Race and Ethnicity — German

Essays on German

German essay topics.

Germany, known for its rich history, culture, and contributions to various fields, offers a plethora of intriguing topics for essays. Whether you're interested in exploring the country's literature, history, politics, society, or economy, there's something for everyone. Below is a comprehensive list of German essay topics that cover a wide range of subjects, providing ample opportunities for research, analysis, and discussion.

Writing an essay on German is important for several reasons. Firstly, it allows students to deepen their understanding of the German language and its grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure. Secondly, it provides an opportunity for students to practice their writing skills in German, which is essential for language fluency. Additionally, writing an essay on German can help students explore and express their thoughts and ideas in a different language, thereby broadening their perspective and enhancing their communication skills.

When writing an essay on German, it is important to keep in mind the following tips:

• Start by outlining your essay to organize your thoughts and ideas.
• Use a variety of vocabulary and sentence structures to demonstrate your proficiency in German.
• Be mindful of grammar and punctuation to ensure clarity and accuracy in your writing.
• Support your arguments and ideas with relevant examples and evidence.
• Conclude your essay by summarizing your main points and reiterating your thesis statement.

By following these writing tips and approaching the task with dedication and focus, students can effectively write an essay on German that showcases their language skills and critical thinking abilities.

Literature:

• The Influence of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on German Literature
• Analyzing the Themes of Alienation in Franz Kafka's Works
• The Role of Fairy Tales in German Culture: A Study of the Brothers Grimm
• Hermann Hesse's Exploration of Identity and Self-Discovery in "Siddhartha"
• The Symbolism of the Magic Mountain in Thomas Mann's Novel
• The Representation of War in Erich Maria Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front"
• An Examination of Existentialism in the Plays of Bertolt Brecht
• The Concept of Bildungsroman in German Literature: From Goethe to Hesse
• Gender Roles and Feminism in German Literature: A Comparative Analysis
• Post-War Trauma and Healing in Günter Grass's "The Tin Drum"
• The Unification of Germany in the 19th Century: Bismarck's Role and Legacy
• Hitler's Rise to Power: Factors and Consequences
• Life in East and West Germany during the Cold War
• The Berlin Wall: Construction, Fall, and Aftermath
• The Holocaust: Remembering and Reckoning with Germany's Past
• German Resistance against the Nazi Regime: Heroes and Heroines
• The Economic Miracle of West Germany in the 1950s and 1960s
• The Reunification of Germany: Challenges and Achievements
• The Role of Germany in European Integration: From the EEC to the EU
• Historical Sites in Germany: Preserving the Past for Future Generations
• Angela Merkel's Leadership and Legacy: A Comparative Analysis
• Immigration Policy in Germany: Challenges and Controversies
• The Rise of Populism in German Politics: Causes and Consequences
• Environmental Policies in Germany: A Model for Sustainability?
• Germany's Role in the European Union: Power Dynamics and Diplomacy
• The Refugee Crisis: Germany's Response and Impact on Society
• The Green Party in Germany: Evolution, Ideology, and Influence
• The Role of Social Democracy in Modern German Politics
• Freedom of Speech and Hate Speech Laws in Germany: Balancing Act
• Germany's Energy Transition (Energiewende): Progress and Challenges

Society and Culture:

• German Education System: Structure, Challenges, and Innovations
• Oktoberfest: Tradition, Tourism, and Cultural Identity
• Family Structure and Values in Modern Germany
• Technological Innovation in Germany: Past, Present, and Future
• The Role of Religion in Contemporary German Society
• German Cuisine: From Traditional to Fusion
• German Music: From Classical Composers to Modern Bands
• Sports Culture in Germany: Football, Olympics, and Beyond
• LGBTQ+ Rights and Acceptance in German Society
• Aging Population in Germany: Social and Economic Implications
• The German Model of Social Market Economy: Successes and Limitations
• Mittelstand: Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Driving the Economy
• Industrialization and Economic Growth in Germany
• Germany's Automotive Industry: Challenges and Opportunities
• Green Economy and Sustainable Development in Germany
• The Role of Trade Unions in German Labor Relations
• Start-up Culture in Germany: Entrepreneurship and Innovation
• The Impact of Globalization on the German Economy
• Economic Disparities between East and West Germany: Causes and Solutions
• Germany's Export-Oriented Economy: Strengths and Vulnerabilities

Germany offers a rich tapestry of topics for essays, spanning literature, history, politics, society, and economy. Whether delving into the depths of German literature, unraveling the complexities of its history, analyzing contemporary political issues, exploring cultural nuances, or examining economic trends, there's no shortage of fascinating subjects to explore. With this diverse array of topics, students, scholars, and enthusiasts alike can embark on an engaging journey of discovery and learning about Germany and its multifaceted identity.

The Impact of Germany in The Second World War

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Essays on German Literature and Culture, Part I

• Edited by: Chris Ramon Vanden Bossche
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• Language: English
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Copyright year: 2024
• Main content: 760
• Planned Publication: November 5, 2024
• ISBN: 9780520409903

Mark Twain's essay on German

The Awful German Language

A little learning makes the whole world kin. -- Proverbs xxxii, 7.

I went often to look at the collection of curiosities in Heidelberg Castle, and one day I surprised the keeper of it with my German. I spoke entirely in that language. He was greatly interested; and after I had talked a while he said my German was very rare, possibly a "unique"; and wanted to add it to his museum.

Surely there is not another language that is so slipshod and systemless, and so slippery and elusive to the grasp. One is washed about in it, hither and thither, in the most helpless way; and when at last he thinks he has captured a rule which offers firm ground to take a rest on amid the general rage and turmoil of the ten parts of speech, he turns over the page and reads, "Let the pupil make careful note of the following  exceptions ." He runs his eye down and finds that there are more exceptions to the rule than instances of it. So overboard he goes again, to hunt for another Ararat and find another quicksand. Such has been, and continues to be, my experience. Every time I think I have got one of these four confusing "cases" where I am master of it, a seemingly insignificant preposition intrudes itself into my sentence, clothed with an awful and unsuspected power, and crumbles the ground from under me. For instance, my book inquires after a certain bird -- (it is always inquiring after things which are of no sort of consequence to anybody): "Where is the bird?" Now the answer to this question -- according to the book -- is that the bird is waiting in the blacksmith shop on account of the rain. Of course no bird would do that, but then you must stick to the book. Very well, I begin to cipher out the German for that answer. I begin at the wrong end, necessarily, for that is the German idea. I say to myself, " Regen  (rain) is masculine -- or maybe it is feminine -- or possibly neuter -- it is too much trouble to look now. Therefore, it is either  der  (the) Regen, or  die  (the) Regen, or  das  (the) Regen, according to which gender it may turn out to be when I look. In the interest of science, I will cipher it out on the hypothesis that it is masculine. Very well -- then  the  rain is  der  Regen, if it is simply in the quiescent state of being  mentioned , without enlargement or discussion -- Nominative case; but if this rain is lying around, in a kind of a general way on the ground, it is then definitely located, it is  doing something  -- that is,  resting  (which is one of the German grammar's ideas of doing something), and this throws the rain into the Dative case, and makes it  dem  Regen. However, this rain is not resting, but is doing something  actively , -- it is falling -- to interfere with the bird, likely -- and this indicates  movement , which has the effect of sliding it into the Accusative case and changing  dem  Regen into  den  Regen." Having completed the grammatical horoscope of this matter, I answer up confidently and state in German that the bird is staying in the blacksmith shop "wegen (on account of)  den  Regen." Then the teacher lets me softly down with the remark that whenever the word "wegen" drops into a sentence, it  always  throws that subject into the  Genitive  case, regardless of consequences -- and that therefore this bird stayed in the blacksmith shop "wegen  des  Regens."

N. B. -- I was informed, later, by a higher authority, that there was an "exception" which permits one to say "wegen  den  Regen" in certain peculiar and complex circumstances, but that this exception is not extended to anything  but rain.

There are ten parts of speech, and they are all troublesome. An average sentence, in a German newspaper, is a sublime and impressive curiosity; it occupies a quarter of a column; it contains all the ten parts of speech -- not in regular order, but mixed; it is built mainly of compound words constructed by the writer on the spot, and not to be found in any dictionary -- six or seven words compacted into one, without joint or seam -- that is, without hyphens; it treats of fourteen or fifteen different subjects, each inclosed in a parenthesis of its own, with here and there extra parentheses which reinclose three or four of the minor parentheses, making pens within pens: finally, all the parentheses and reparentheses are massed together between a couple of king-parentheses, one of which is placed in the first line of the majestic sentence and the other in the middle of the last line of it --  after which comes the VERB , and you find out for the first time what the man has been talking about; and after the verb -- merely by way of ornament, as far as I can make out -- the writer shovels in " haben sind gewesen gehabt haben geworden sein ," or words to that effect, and the monument is finished. I suppose that this closing hurrah is in the nature of the flourish to a man's signature -- not necessary, but pretty. German books are easy enough to read when you hold them before the looking-glass or stand on your head -- so as to reverse the construction -- but I think that to learn to read and understand a German newspaper is a thing which must always remain an impossibility to a foreigner.

Yet even the German books are not entirely free from attacks of the Parenthesis distemper -- though they are usually so mild as to cover only a few lines, and therefore when you at last get down to the verb it carries some meaning to your mind because you are able to remember a good deal of what has gone before. Now here is a sentence from a popular and excellent German novel -- which a slight parenthesis in it. I will make a perfectly literal translation, and throw in the parenthesis-marks and some hyphens for the assistance of the reader -- though in the original there are no parenthesis-marks or hyphens, and the reader is left to flounder through to the remote verb the best way he can:

"But when he, upon the street, the (in-satin-and-silk-covered-now-very-unconstrained-after-the-newest-fashioned-dressed) government counselor's wife  met ," etc., etc. [1]

1. Wenn er aber auf der Strasse der in Sammt und Seide gehüllten jetzt sehr ungenirt nach der neusten Mode gekleideten Regierungsräthin begegnet.

That is from The Old Mamselle's Secret, by Mrs. Marlitt. And that sentence is constructed upon the most approved German model. You observe how far that verb is from the reader's base of operations; well, in a German newspaper they put their verb away over on the next page; and I have heard that sometimes after stringing along the exciting preliminaries and parentheses for a column or two, they get in a hurry and have to go to press without getting to the verb at all. Of course, then, the reader is left in a very exhausted and ignorant state.

We have the Parenthesis disease in our literature, too; and one may see cases of it every day in our books and newspapers: but with us it is the mark and sign of an unpracticed writer or a cloudy intellect, whereas with the Germans it is doubtless the mark and sign of a practiced pen and of the presence of that sort of luminous intellectual fog which stands for clearness among these people. For surely it is  not  clearness -- it necessarily can't be clearness. Even a jury would have penetration enough to discover that. A writer's ideas must be a good deal confused, a good deal out of line and sequence, when he starts out to say that a man met a counselor's wife in the street, and then right in the midst of this so simple undertaking halts these approaching people and makes them stand still until he jots down an inventory of the woman's dress. That is manifestly absurd. It reminds a person of those dentists who secure your instant and breathless interest in a tooth by taking a grip on it with the forceps, and then stand there and drawl through a tedious anecdote before they give the dreaded jerk. Parentheses in literature and dentistry are in bad taste.

The Germans have another kind of parenthesis, which they make by splitting a verb in two and putting half of it at the beginning of an exciting chapter and the  other half  at the end of it. Can any one conceive of anything more confusing than that? These things are called "separable verbs." The German grammar is blistered all over with separable verbs; and the wider the two portions of one of them are spread apart, the better the author of the crime is pleased with his performance. A favorite one is  reiste ab  -- which means departed. Here is an example which I culled from a novel and reduced to English:

"The trunks being now ready, he  DE-  after kissing his mother and sisters, and once more pressing to his bosom his adored Gretchen, who, dressed in simple white muslin, with a single tuberose in the ample folds of her rich brown hair, had tottered feebly down the stairs, still pale from the terror and excitement of the past evening, but longing to lay her poor aching head yet once again upon the breast of him whom she loved more dearly than life itself,  PARTED ."

However, it is not well to dwell too much on the separable verbs. One is sure to lose his temper early; and if he sticks to the subject, and will not be warned, it will at last either soften his brain or petrify it. Personal pronouns and adjectives are a fruitful nuisance in this language, and should have been left out. For instance, the same sound,  sie , means  you , and it means  she , and it means  her , and it means  it , and it means  they , and it means  them . Think of the ragged poverty of a language which has to make one word do the work of six -- and a poor little weak thing of only three letters at that. But mainly, think of the exasperation of never knowing which of these meanings the speaker is trying to convey. This explains why, whenever a person says  sie  to me, I generally try to kill him, if a stranger.

Now observe the Adjective. Here was a case where simplicity would have been an advantage; therefore, for no other reason, the inventor of this language complicated it all he could. When we wish to speak of our "good friend or friends," in our enlightened tongue, we stick to the one form and have no trouble or hard feeling about it; but with the German tongue it is different. When a German gets his hands on an adjective, he declines it, and keeps on declining it until the common sense is all declined out of it. It is as bad as Latin. He says, for instance:

• Nominative -- Mein gut er  Freund, my good friend.
• Genitive -- Mein es  gut en  Freund es , of my good friend.
• Dative -- Mein em  gut en  Freund, to my good friend.
• Accusative -- Mein en  gut en  Freund, my good friend.
• N. -- Mein e  gut en  Freund e , my good friends.
• G. -- Mein er  gut en  Freund e , of my good friends.
• D. -- Mein en  gut en  Freund en , to my good friends.
• A. -- Mein e  gut en  Freund e , my good friends.

Now let the candidate for the asylum try to memorize those variations, and see how soon he will be elected. One might better go without friends in Germany than take all this trouble about them. I have shown what a bother it is to decline a good (male) friend; well this is only a third of the work, for there is a variety of new distortions of the adjective to be learned when the object is feminine, and still another when the object is neuter. Now there are more adjectives in this language than there are black cats in Switzerland, and they must all be as elaborately declined as the examples above suggested. Difficult? -- troublesome? -- these words cannot describe it. I heard a Californian student in Heidelberg say, in one of his calmest moods, that he would rather decline two drinks than one German adjective.

The inventor of the language seems to have taken pleasure in complicating it in every way he could think of. For instance, if one is casually referring to a house,  Haus , or a horse,  Pferd , or a dog,  Hund , he spells these words as I have indicated; but if he is referring to them in the Dative case, he sticks on a foolish and unnecessary  e  and spells them  Hause ,  Pferde ,  Hunde . So, as an added  e  often signifies the plural, as the  s  does with us, the new student is likely to go on for a month making twins out of a Dative dog before he discovers his mistake; and on the other hand, many a new student who could ill afford loss, has bought and paid for two dogs and only got one of them, because he ignorantly bought that dog in the Dative singular when he really supposed he was talking plural -- which left the law on the seller's side, of course, by the strict rules of grammar, and therefore a suit for recovery could not lie.

In German, all the Nouns begin with a capital letter. Now that is a good idea; and a good idea, in this language, is necessarily conspicuous from its lonesomeness. I consider this capitalizing of nouns a good idea, because by reason of it you are almost always able to tell a noun the minute you see it. You fall into error occasionally, because you mistake the name of a person for the name of a thing, and waste a good deal of time trying to dig a meaning out of it. German names almost always do mean something, and this helps to deceive the student. I translated a passage one day, which said that "the infuriated tigress broke loose and utterly ate up the unfortunate fir forest" ( Tannenwald ). When I was girding up my loins to doubt this, I found out that Tannenwald in this instance was a man's name.

Every noun has a gender, and there is no sense or system in the distribution; so the gender of each must be learned separately and by heart. There is no other way. To do this one has to have a memory like a memorandum-book. In German, a young lady has no sex, while a turnip has. Think what overwrought reverence that shows for the turnip, and what callous disrespect for the girl. See how it looks in print -- I translate this from a conversation in one of the best of the German Sunday-school books:

To continue with the German genders: a tree is male, its buds are female, its leaves are neuter; horses are sexless, dogs are male, cats are female -- tomcats included, of course; a person's mouth, neck, bosom, elbows, fingers, nails, feet, and body are of the male sex, and his head is male or neuter according to the word selected to signify it, and  not  according to the sex of the individual who wears it -- for in Germany all the women either male heads or sexless ones; a person's nose, lips, shoulders, breast, hands, and toes are of the female sex; and his hair, ears, eyes, chin, legs, knees, heart, and conscience haven't any sex at all. The inventor of the language probably got what he knew about a conscience from hearsay.

Now, by the above dissection, the reader will see that in Germany a man may  think  he is a man, but when he comes to look into the matter closely, he is bound to have his doubts; he finds that in sober truth he is a most ridiculous mixture; and if he ends by trying to comfort himself with the thought that he can at least depend on a third of this mess as being manly and masculine, the humiliating second thought will quickly remind him that in this respect he is no better off than any woman or cow in the land.

In the German it is true that by some oversight of the inventor of the language, a Woman is a female; but a Wife ( Weib ) is not -- which is unfortunate. A Wife, here, has no sex; she is neuter; so, according to the grammar, a fish is he , his scales are  she , but a fishwife is neither. To describe a wife as sexless may be called under-description; that is bad enough, but over-description is surely worse. A German speaks of an Englishman as the  Engländer ; to change the sex, he adds  inn , and that stands for Englishwoman --  Engländerinn . That seems descriptive enough, but still it is not exact enough for a German; so he precedes the word with that article which indicates that the creature to follow is feminine, and writes it down thus: " die  Engländer inn ," -- which means "the  she-Englishwoman ." I consider that that person is over-described.

Well, after the student has learned the sex of a great number of nouns, he is still in a difficulty, because he finds it impossible to persuade his tongue to refer to things as " he " and " she ," and " him " and " her ," which it has been always accustomed to refer to it as " it ." When he even frames a German sentence in his mind, with the hims and hers in the right places, and then works up his courage to the utterance-point, it is no use -- the moment he begins to speak his tongue flies the track and all those labored males and females come out as " it s." And even when he is reading German to himself, he always calls those things " it ," where as he ought to read in this way:

The Tale of the fishwife and its sad fate

2. I capitalize the nouns, in the German (and ancient English) fashion.

It is a bleak Day. Hear the Rain, how he pours, and the Hail, how he rattles; and see the Snow, how he drifts along, and of the Mud, how deep he is! Ah the poor Fishwife, it is stuck fast in the Mire; it has dropped its Basket of Fishes; and its Hands have been cut by the Scales as it seized some of the falling Creatures; and one Scale has even got into its Eye, and it cannot get her out. It opens its Mouth to cry for Help; but if any Sound comes out of him, alas he is drowned by the raging of the Storm. And now a Tomcat has got one of the Fishes and she will surely escape with him. No, she bites off a Fin, she holds her in her Mouth -- will she swallow her? No, the Fishwife's brave Mother-dog deserts his Puppies and rescues the Fin -- which he eats, himself, as his Reward. O, horror, the Lightning has struck the Fish-basket; he sets him on Fire; see the Flame, how she licks the doomed Utensil with her red and angry Tongue; now she attacks the helpless Fishwife's Foot -- she burns him up, all but the big Toe, and even  she  is partly consumed; and still she spreads, still she waves her fiery Tongues; she attacks the Fishwife's Leg and destroys  it ; she attacks its Hand and destroys  her  also; she attacks the Fishwife's Leg and destroys  her  also; she attacks its Body and consumes  him ; she wreathes herself about its Heart and  it  is consumed; next about its Breast, and in a Moment  she  is a Cinder; now she reaches its Neck --  he  goes; now its Chin --  it  goes; now its Nose --  she  goes. In another Moment, except Help come, the Fishwife will be no more. Time presses -- is there none to succor and save? Yes! Joy, joy, with flying Feet the she-Englishwoman comes! But alas, the generous she-Female is too late: where now is the fated Fishwife? It has ceased from its Sufferings, it has gone to a better Land; all that is left of it for its loved Ones to lament over, is this poor smoldering Ash-heap. Ah, woeful, woeful Ash-heap! Let us take him up tenderly, reverently, upon the lowly Shovel, and bear him to his long Rest, with the Prayer that when he rises again it will be a Realm where he will have one good square responsible Sex, and have it all to himself, instead of having a mangy lot of assorted Sexes scattered all over him in Spots.

There, now, the reader can see for himself that this pronoun business is a very awkward thing for the unaccustomed tongue. I suppose that in all languages the similarities of look and sound between words which have no similarity in meaning are a fruitful source of perplexity to the foreigner. It is so in our tongue, and it is notably the case in the German. Now there is that troublesome word  vermählt : to me it has so close a resemblance -- either real or fancied -- to three or four other words, that I never know whether it means despised, painted, suspected, or married; until I look in the dictionary, and then I find it means the latter. There are lots of such words and they are a great torment. To increase the difficulty there are words which  seem  to resemble each other, and yet do not; but they make just as much trouble as if they did. For instance, there is the word  vermiethen  (to let, to lease, to hire); and the word  verheirathen  (another way of saying to marry). I heard of an Englishman who knocked at a man's door in Heidelberg and proposed, in the best German he could command, to "verheirathen" that house. Then there are some words which mean one thing when you emphasize the first syllable, but mean something very different if you throw the emphasis on the last syllable. For instance, there is a word which means a runaway, or the act of glancing through a book, according to the placing of the emphasis; and another word which signifies to  associate  with a man, or to  avoid  him, according to where you put the emphasis -- and you can generally depend on putting it in the wrong place and getting into trouble.

There are some exceedingly useful words in this language.  Schlag , for example; and  Zug . There are three-quarters of a column of  Schlag s in the dictionary, and a column and a half of  Zug s. The word  Schlag  means Blow, Stroke, Dash, Hit, Shock, Clap, Slap, Time, Bar, Coin, Stamp, Kind, Sort, Manner, Way, Apoplexy, Wood-cutting, Enclosure, Field, Forest-clearing. This is its simple and  exact  meaning -- that is to say, its restricted, its fettered meaning; but there are ways by which you can set it free, so that it can soar away, as on the wings of the morning, and never be at rest. You can hang any word you please to its tail, and make it mean anything you want to. You can begin with  Schlag-ader , which means artery, and you can hang on the whole dictionary, word by word, clear through the alphabet to  Schlag-wasser , which means bilge-water -- and including  Schlag-mutter , which means mother-in-law.

Just the same with  Zug . Strictly speaking,  Zug  means Pull, Tug, Draught, Procession, March, Progress, Flight, Direction, Expedition, Train, Caravan, Passage, Stroke, Touch, Line, Flourish, Trait of Character, Feature, Lineament, Chess-move, Organ-stop, Team, Whiff, Bias, Drawer, Propensity, Inhalation, Disposition: but that thing which it does  not  mean -- when all its legitimate pennants have been hung on, has not been discovered yet.

One cannot overestimate the usefulness of  Schlag  and  Zug . Armed just with these two, and the word  also , what cannot the foreigner on German soil accomplish? The German word  also  is the equivalent of the English phrase "You know," and does not mean anything at all -- in  talk , though it sometimes does in print. Every time a German opens his mouth an  also  falls out; and every time he shuts it he bites one in two that was trying to  get  out.

Now, the foreigner, equipped with these three noble words, is master of the situation. Let him talk right along, fearlessly; let him pour his indifferent German forth, and when he lacks for a word, let him heave a  Schlag  into the vacuum; all the chances are that it fits it like a plug, but if it doesn't let him promptly heave a  Zug  after it; the two together can hardly fail to bung the hole; but if, by a miracle, they  should  fail, let him simply say  also ! and this will give him a moment's chance to think of the needful word. In Germany, when you load your conversational gun it is always best to throw in a  Schlag  or two and a  Zug  or two, because it doesn't make any difference how much the rest of the charge may scatter, you are bound to bag something with  them . Then you blandly say  also , and load up again. Nothing gives such an air of grace and elegance and unconstraint to a German or an English conversation as to scatter it full of "Also's" or "You knows."

In my note-book I find this entry:

July 1 . -- In the hospital yesterday, a word of thirteen syllables was successfully removed from a patient -- a North German from near Hamburg; but as most unfortunately the surgeons had opened him in the wrong place, under the impression that he contained a panorama, he died. The sad event has cast a gloom over the whole community.

That paragraph furnishes a text for a few remarks about one of the most curious and notable features of my subject -- the length of German words. Some German words are so long that they have a perspective. Observe these examples:

• Freundschaftsbezeigungen.
• Dilettantenaufdringlichkeiten.
• Stadtverordnetenversammlungen.

These things are not words, they are alphabetical processions. And they are not rare; one can open a German newspaper at any time and see them marching majestically across the page -- and if he has any imagination he can see the banners and hear the music, too. They impart a martial thrill to the meekest subject. I take a great interest in these curiosities. Whenever I come across a good one, I stuff it and put it in my museum. In this way I have made quite a valuable collection. When I get duplicates, I exchange with other collectors, and thus increase the variety of my stock. Here are some specimens which I lately bought at an auction sale of the effects of a bankrupt bric-a-brac hunter:

• Generalstaatsverordnetenversammlungen.
• Alterthumswissenschaften.
• Kinderbewahrungsanstalten.
• Unabhaengigkeitserklaerungen.
• Wiedererstellungbestrebungen.
• Waffenstillstandsunterhandlungen.

Of course when one of these grand mountain ranges goes stretching across the printed page, it adorns and ennobles that literary landscape -- but at the same time it is a great distress to the new student, for it blocks up his way; he cannot crawl under it, or climb over it, or tunnel through it. So he resorts to the dictionary for help, but there is no help there. The dictionary must draw the line somewhere -- so it leaves this sort of words out. And it is right, because these long things are hardly legitimate words, but are rather combinations of words, and the inventor of them ought to have been killed. They are compound words with the hyphens left out. The various words used in building them are in the dictionary, but in a very scattered condition; so you can hunt the materials out, one by one, and get at the meaning at last, but it is a tedious and harassing business. I have tried this process upon some of the above examples. " Freundschaftsbezeigungen " seems to be "Friendship demonstrations," which is only a foolish and clumsy way of saying "demonstrations of friendship." " Unabhaengigkeitserklaerungen " seems to be "Independencedeclarations," which is no improvement upon "Declarations of Independence," so far as I can see. " Generalstaatsverordnetenversammlungen " seems to be "General-statesrepresentativesmeetings," as nearly as I can get at it -- a mere rhythmical, gushy euphuism for "meetings of the legislature," I judge. We used to have a good deal of this sort of crime in our literature, but it has gone out now. We used to speak of a things as a "never-to-be-forgotten" circumstance, instead of cramping it into the simple and sufficient word "memorable" and then going calmly about our business as if nothing had happened. In those days we were not content to embalm the thing and bury it decently, we wanted to build a monument over it.

But in our newspapers the compounding-disease lingers a little to the present day, but with the hyphens left out, in the German fashion. This is the shape it takes: instead of saying "Mr. Simmons, clerk of the county and district courts, was in town yesterday," the new form put it thus: "Clerk of the County and District Courts Simmons was in town yesterday." This saves neither time nor ink, and has an awkward sound besides. One often sees a remark like this in our papers: " Mrs.  Assistant District Attorney Johnson returned to her city residence yesterday for the season." That is a case of really unjustifiable compounding; because it not only saves no time or trouble, but confers a title on Mrs. Johnson which she has no right to. But these little instances are trifles indeed, contrasted with the ponderous and dismal German system of piling jumbled compounds together. I wish to submit the following local item, from a Mannheim journal, by way of illustration:

"In the daybeforeyesterdayshortlyaftereleveno'clock Night, the inthistownstandingtavern called `The Wagoner' was downburnt. When the fire to the onthedownburninghouseresting Stork's Nest reached, flew the parent Storks away. But when the bytheraging, firesurrounded Nest  itself  caught Fire, straightway plunged the quickreturning Mother-stork into the Flames and died, her Wings over her young ones outspread."

Even the cumbersome German construction is not able to take the pathos out of that picture -- indeed, it somehow seems to strengthen it. This item is dated away back yonder months ago. I could have used it sooner, but I was waiting to hear from the Father-stork. I am still waiting.

" Also !" If I had not shown that the German is a difficult language, I have at least intended to do so. I have heard of an American student who was asked how he was getting along with his German, and who answered promptly: "I am not getting along at all. I have worked at it hard for three level months, and all I have got to show for it is one solitary German phrase -- ` Zwei Glas '" (two glasses of beer). He paused for a moment, reflectively; then added with feeling: "But I've got that  solid !"

And if I have not also shown that German is a harassing and infuriating study, my execution has been at fault, and not my intent. I heard lately of a worn and sorely tried American student who used to fly to a certain German word for relief when he could bear up under his aggravations no longer -- the only word whose sound was sweet and precious to his ear and healing to his lacerated spirit. This was the word  Damit . It was only the  sound  that helped him, not the meaning; [3] and so, at last, when he learned that the emphasis was not on the first syllable, his only stay and support was gone, and he faded away and died.

3. It merely means, in its general sense, "herewith."

I think that a description of any loud, stirring, tumultuous episode must be tamer in German than in English. Our descriptive words of this character have such a deep, strong, resonant sound, while their German equivalents do seem so thin and mild and energyless. Boom, burst, crash, roar, storm, bellow, blow, thunder, explosion; howl, cry, shout, yell, groan; battle, hell. These are magnificent words; the have a force and magnitude of sound befitting the things which they describe. But their German equivalents would be ever so nice to sing the children to sleep with, or else my awe-inspiring ears were made for display and not for superior usefulness in analyzing sounds. Would any man want to die in a battle which was called by so tame a term as a  Schlacht ? Or would not a consumptive feel too much bundled up, who was about to go out, in a shirt-collar and a seal-ring, into a storm which the bird-song word Gewitter  was employed to describe? And observe the strongest of the several German equivalents for explosion --  Ausbruch . Our word Toothbrush is more powerful than that. It seems to me that the Germans could do worse than import it into their language to describe particularly tremendous explosions with. The German word for hell -- Hölle -- sounds more like  helly  than anything else; therefore, how necessary chipper, frivolous, and unimpressive it is. If a man were told in German to go there, could he really rise to thee dignity of feeling insulted?

Having pointed out, in detail, the several vices of this language, I now come to the brief and pleasant task of pointing out its virtues. The capitalizing of the nouns I have already mentioned. But far before this virtue stands another -- that of spelling a word according to the sound of it. After one short lesson in the alphabet, the student can tell how any German word is pronounced without having to ask; whereas in our language if a student should inquire of us, "What does B, O, W, spell?" we should be obliged to reply, "Nobody can tell what it spells when you set if off by itself; you can only tell by referring to the context and finding out what it signifies -- whether it is a thing to shoot arrows with, or a nod of one's head, or the forward end of a boat."

There are some German words which are singularly and powerfully effective. For instance, those which describe lowly, peaceful, and affectionate home life; those which deal with love, in any and all forms, from mere kindly feeling and honest good will toward the passing stranger, clear up to courtship; those which deal with outdoor Nature, in its softest and loveliest aspects -- with meadows and forests, and birds and flowers, the fragrance and sunshine of summer, and the moonlight of peaceful winter nights; in a word, those which deal with any and all forms of rest, repose, and peace; those also which deal with the creatures and marvels of fairyland; and lastly and chiefly, in those words which express pathos, is the language surpassingly rich and affective. There are German songs which can make a stranger to the language cry. That shows that the  sound  of the words is correct -- it interprets the meanings with truth and with exactness; and so the ear is informed, and through the ear, the heart.

The Germans do not seem to be afraid to repeat a word when it is the right one. they repeat it several times, if they choose. That is wise. But in English, when we have used a word a couple of times in a paragraph, we imagine we are growing tautological, and so we are weak enough to exchange it for some other word which only approximates exactness, to escape what we wrongly fancy is a greater blemish. Repetition may be bad, but surely inexactness is worse.

There are people in the world who will take a great deal of trouble to point out the faults in a religion or a language, and then go blandly about their business without suggesting any remedy. I am not that kind of person. I have shown that the German language needs reforming. Very well, I am ready to reform it. At least I am ready to make the proper suggestions. Such a course as this might be immodest in another; but I have devoted upward of nine full weeks, first and last, to a careful and critical study of this tongue, and thus have acquired a confidence in my ability to reform it which no mere superficial culture could have conferred upon me.

In the first place, I would leave out the Dative case. It confuses the plurals; and, besides, nobody ever knows when he is in the Dative case, except he discover it by accident -- and then he does not know when or where it was that he got into it, or how long he has been in it, or how he is going to get out of it again. The Dative case is but an ornamental folly -- it is better to discard it.

In the next place, I would move the Verb further up to the front. You may load up with ever so good a Verb, but I notice that you never really bring down a subject with it at the present German range -- you only cripple it. So I insist that this important part of speech should be brought forward to a position where it may be easily seen with the naked eye.

Thirdly, I would import some strong words from the English tongue -- to swear with, and also to use in describing all sorts of vigorous things in a vigorous ways.

4. "Verdammt," and its variations and enlargements, are words which have plenty of meaning, but the  sounds  are so mild and ineffectual that German ladies can use them without sin. German ladies who could not be induced to commit a sin by any persuasion or compulsion, promptly rip out one of these harmless little words when they tear their dresses or don't like the soup. It sounds about as wicked as our "My gracious." German ladies are constantly saying, "Ach! Gott!" "Mein Gott!" "Gott in Himmel!" "Herr Gott" "Der Herr Jesus!" etc. They think our ladies have the same custom, perhaps; for I once heard a gentle and lovely old German lady say to a sweet young American girl: "The two languages are so alike -- how pleasant that is; we say `Ach! Gott!' you say `Goddamn.'"

Fourthly, I would reorganize the sexes, and distribute them accordingly to the will of the creator. This as a tribute of respect, if nothing else.

Fifthly, I would do away with those great long compounded words; or require the speaker to deliver them in sections, with intermissions for refreshments. To wholly do away with them would be best, for ideas are more easily received and digested when they come one at a time than when they come in bulk. Intellectual food is like any other; it is pleasanter and more beneficial to take it with a spoon than with a shovel.

Sixthly, I would require a speaker to stop when he is done, and not hang a string of those useless " haben sind gewesen gehabt haben geworden sein s" to the end of his oration. This sort of gewgaws undignify a speech, instead of adding a grace. They are, therefore, an offense, and should be discarded.

Seventhly, I would discard the Parenthesis. Also the reparenthesis, the re-reparenthesis, and the re-re-re-re-re-reparentheses, and likewise the final wide-reaching all-inclosing king-parenthesis. I would require every individual, be he high or low, to unfold a plain straightforward tale, or else coil it and sit on it and hold his peace. Infractions of this law should be punishable with death.

And eighthly, and last, I would retain  Zug  and  Schlag , with their pendants, and discard the rest of the vocabulary. This would simplify the language.

I have now named what I regard as the most necessary and important changes. These are perhaps all I could be expected to name for nothing; but there are other suggestions which I can and will make in case my proposed application shall result in my being formally employed by the government in the work of reforming the language.

My philological studies have satisfied me that a gifted person ought to learn English (barring spelling and pronouncing) in thirty hours, French in thirty days, and German in thirty years. It seems manifest, then, that the latter tongue ought to be trimmed down and repaired. If it is to remain as it is, it ought to be gently and reverently set aside among the dead languages, for only the dead have time to learn it.

A Fourth of July Oration in the German Tongue, Delivered at a Banquet of the Anglo-American Club of Students by the Author of This Book

Gentlemen: Since I arrived, a month ago, in this old wonderland, this vast garden of Germany, my English tongue has so often proved a useless piece of baggage to me, and so troublesome to carry around, in a country where they haven't the checking system for luggage, that I finally set to work, and learned the German language. Also! Es freut mich dass dies so ist, denn es muss, in ein hauptsächlich degree, höflich sein, dass man auf ein occasion like this, sein Rede in die Sprache des Landes worin he boards, aussprechen soll. Dafür habe ich, aus reinische Verlegenheit -- no, Vergangenheit -- no, I mean Höflichkeit -- aus reinische Höflichkeit habe ich resolved to tackle this business in the German language, um Gottes willen! Also! Sie müssen so freundlich sein, und verzeih mich die interlarding von ein oder zwei Englischer Worte, hie und da, denn ich finde dass die deutsche is not a very copious language, and so when you've really got anything to say, you've got to draw on a language that can stand the strain.

Wenn haber man kann nicht meinem Rede Verstehen, so werde ich ihm später dasselbe übersetz, wenn er solche Dienst verlangen wollen haben werden sollen sein hätte. (I don't know what "wollen haben werden sollen sein hätte" means, but I notice they always put it at the end of a German sentence -- merely for general literary gorgeousness, I suppose.)

This is a great and justly honored day -- a day which is worthy of the veneration in which it is held by the true patriots of all climes and nationalities -- a day which offers a fruitful theme for thought and speech; und meinem Freunde -- no, mein en  Freund en  -- mein es  Freund es  -- well, take your choice, they're all the same price; I don't know which one is right -- also! ich habe gehabt haben worden gewesen sein, as Goethe says in his Paradise Lost -- ich -- ich -- that is to say -- ich -- but let us change cars.

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Learn German Home Vocabulary: Essay Writing on Mein Haus

Learning a new language is always an exciting and rewarding experience. When it comes to German, having a strong vocabulary is essential for effective communication. In this article, we will explore some common German vocabulary words that are used to describe a house. We will also provide you with tips on how to write an essay on “ Mein Haus ” (My House) at different proficiency levels, from beginner to advanced. Whether you are just starting out with German or looking to expand your vocabulary and writing skills, this article will be a valuable resource for you.

In this article, we have provided a list of 50 German vocabulary words related to a house, including their English translations and pronunciation using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). These words cover a range of features, from basic room types and furniture to outdoor structures and utilities. By learning these words, you will be able to describe your home or ask questions about someone else’s.

We have also included five essay titles that cater to different proficiency levels, from beginner to advanced. Whether you are just starting out with German or looking to challenge yourself with more complex sentences and vocabulary, there is an essay title for you. Each essay title comes with a minimum word count requirement, which will help you structure your writing and stay focused.

Table of Contents

50 german vocabulary words related to a house (mein haus), including their english translations and pronunciation using the international phonetic alphabet (ipa).

• Haus (house) [haʊs]
• Zimmer (room) [ˈtsɪmɐ]
• Wohnzimmer (living room) [ˈvoːnzɪmɐ]
• Schlafzimmer (bedroom) [ˈʃlaːfˌtsɪmɐ]
• Küche (kitchen) [ˈkʏçə]
• Badezimmer (bathroom) [ˈbaːdəˌtsɪmɐ]
• Garten (garden) [ˈɡaʁtn̩]
• Balkon (balcony) [ˈbalkɔn]
• Terrasse (terrace) [tɛˈrasə]
• Fenster (window) [ˈfɛnstɐ]
• Tür (door) [tyːɐ̯]
• Boden (floor) [ˈboːdn̩]
• Wand (wall) [vand]
• Dach (roof) [dax]
• Treppenhaus (staircase) [ˈtʁɛpənˌhaʊs]
• Treppe (stairs) [ˈtʁɛpə]
• Teppich (carpet) [ˈtɛpɪç]
• Sofa (sofa) [ˈzoːfa]
• Sessel (armchair) [ˈzɛsl̩]
• Bett (bed) [bɛt]
• Schrank (wardrobe) [ʃʁaŋk]
• Regal (bookshelf) [ʁeˈɡaːl]
• Tisch (table) [tɪʃ]
• Stuhl (chair) [ʃtuːl]
• Lampe (lamp) [ˈlampə]
• Steckdose (power outlet) [ˈʃtɛkdozə]
• Spiegel (mirror) [ˈʃpiːɡl̩]
• Waschmaschine (washing machine) [ˈvaʃmasçiːnə]
• Kühlschrank (refrigerator) [ˈkyːlʃraŋk]
• Herd (stove) [hɛrt]
• Ofen (oven) [ˈoːfən]
• Geschirrspüler (dishwasher) [ɡəˈʃɪʁʁʃplyːɐ̯]
• Heizung (heating) [ˈhaɪtsʊŋ]
• Kamin (fireplace) [kaˈmiːn]
• Dusche (shower) [ˈdʊʃə]
• Badewanne (bathtub) [ˈbaːdəˌvanə]
• Handtuch (towel) [ˈhantʊx]
• Decke (blanket) [ˈdɛkə]
• Kissen (pillow) [ˈkɪsn̩]
• Vorhang (curtain) [ˈfoːʁhaŋ]
• Gardine (curtain) [ɡaʁˈdiːnə]
• Rollladen (roller shutter) [ˈʁɔlaːdən]
• Jalousie (blind) [ʒaluˈziː]
• Sonnenschirm (sun umbrella) [ˈzɔnənʃiʁm]
• Rasen (lawn) [ˈʁaːzn̩]
• Zaun (fence) [zaʊn]
• Türklingel (doorbell) [ˈtyːɐ̯klɪŋl̩]
• Briefkasten (mailbox) [ˈbʁiːfkastn̩]
• Hausnummer (house number) [ˈhaʊsˌnʊmɐ]
• Garagen (garage) [ɡaˈʁaːʒən]

5 German Essays on My House: Meine Haus

Beginner level: mein haus.

Ich lebe in einem kleinen Haus in der Stadt. Es ist zweistöckig und hat einen kleinen Garten. Im Erdgeschoss gibt es ein Wohnzimmer, eine Küche und ein Badezimmer. Im ersten Stock gibt es zwei Schlafzimmer und ein weiteres Badezimmer. Mein Zimmer befindet sich im ersten Stock und ich mag es sehr. Es hat eine schöne Aussicht auf den Garten. Ich fühle mich hier sehr wohl.

I live in a small house in the city. It is two-story and has a small garden. On the ground floor, there is a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom. On the first floor, there are two bedrooms and another bathroom. My room is on the first floor, and I like it very much. It has a beautiful view of the garden. I feel very comfortable here.

Elementary Level: Mein Haus

Essay Two: 

Mein Traumhaus

Mein Traumhaus ist sehr groß und modern. Es hat drei Stockwerke und einen großen Garten mit einem Pool. Im Erdgeschoss gibt es eine geräumige Küche, ein großes Wohnzimmer und ein Esszimmer. Es gibt auch ein Arbeitszimmer und ein Badezimmer. Im ersten Stock gibt es vier Schlafzimmer und drei Badezimmer. Das Hauptschlafzimmer hat ein eigenes Badezimmer und einen begehbaren Kleiderschrank. Im zweiten Stock gibt es einen Fitnessraum und ein Spielzimmer. Es gibt auch eine Dachterrasse mit einem Whirlpool. Das ist mein Traumhaus.

My Dream House

My dream house is very big and modern. It has three floors and a large garden with a pool. On the ground floor, there is a spacious kitchen, a large living room, and a dining room. There is also a study and a bathroom. On the first floor, there are four bedrooms and three bathrooms. The master bedroom has its own bathroom and a walk-in closet. On the second floor, there is a gym and a game room. There is also a roof terrace with a hot tub. That is my dream house.

Intermediate Level: Mein Haus

Essay Three: 

Mein Haus und meine Familie

Ich wohne mit meiner Familie in einem Haus am Stadtrand. Es hat vier Schlafzimmer, drei Badezimmer und ein großes Wohnzimmer. Wir haben auch einen Garten mit vielen Blumen und Bäumen. Im Sommer essen wir oft draußen auf der Terrasse. Meine Eltern haben ihr Schlafzimmer im ersten Stock und meine Geschwister und ich haben unsere Zimmer im zweiten Stock. Mein Zimmer ist groß und hat einen Balkon mit Blick auf den Garten. Ich verbringe viel Zeit in meinem Zimmer und lerne auch dort. Ich liebe mein Haus und meine Familie sehr.

My House and My Family

I live with my family in a house on the outskirts of the city. It has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a large living room. We also have a garden with many flowers and trees. In the summer, we often eat outside on the terrace. My parents have their bedroom on the first floor, and my siblings and I have our rooms on the second floor. My room is spacious and has a balcony with a view of the garden. I spend a lot of time in my room and also study there. I love my house and my family very much.

Advanced Level: Mein Haus

Essay Four: 

Mein Haus und die Umgebung

Mein Haus befindet sich in einer ruhigen Gegend am Rande der Stadt. Es ist ein freistehendes Haus mit einem großen Garten. Wir haben eine Garage und einen Abstellraum für unsere Fahrräder und Werkzeuge. In der Umgebung gibt es viele Grünflächen und Spielplätze für Kinder. Es gibt auch eine Bushaltestelle in der Nähe, von der aus wir bequem in die Stadt fahren können. In der Umgebung gibt es auch viele Einkaufsmöglichkeiten und Restaurants. Wir haben Glück, dass wir in einer so schönen und praktischen Gegend wohnen.

My House and the Surroundings

My house is located in a quiet area on the outskirts of the city. It is a detached house with a large garden. We have a garage and a storage room for our bicycles and tools. In the surroundings, there are many green spaces and playgrounds for children. There is also a bus stop nearby from which we can easily travel to the city. In the area, there are also many shopping and dining options. We are lucky to live in such a beautiful and convenient area.

Essay Five:

Mein Traumhaus ist ein modernes Einfamilienhaus am See. Es hat große Fenster und eine Terrasse, die einen atemberaubenden Blick auf den See bietet. Das Haus ist in einem minimalistischen Stil gestaltet, mit klaren Linien und neutralen Farben.

Im Inneren gibt es eine offene Wohnküche mit einem großen Esstisch und modernen Geräten. Die Möbel sind bequem und stilvoll zugleich. Das Wohnzimmer verfügt über einen Kamin und eine gemütliche Couch, auf der ich mich entspannen und ein Buch lesen kann.

Das Haus hat auch ein Arbeitszimmer mit einem Schreibtisch und einem bequemen Stuhl, wo ich in Ruhe arbeiten kann. Das Schlafzimmer ist geräumig und hat ein großes Fenster, durch das ich den Sonnenaufgang über dem See sehen kann. Das Badezimmer ist modern und luxuriös, mit einer großen Badewanne und einer begehbaren Dusche.

Außerhalb des Hauses gibt es einen Garten mit einem Pool und einem Grillbereich, wo ich Freunde und Familie zu einem Barbecue einladen kann. Der See bietet viele Freizeitmöglichkeiten wie Angeln, Schwimmen und Bootfahren.

Mein Traumhaus ist der perfekte Ort, um zur Ruhe zu kommen und die Schönheit der Natur zu genießen.

My dream house is a modern single-family house by the lake. It has large windows and a terrace that offers a breathtaking view of the lake. The house is designed in a minimalist style, with clean lines and neutral colors.

Inside, there is an open-plan living kitchen with a large dining table and modern appliances. The furniture is comfortable and stylish at the same time. The living room has a fireplace and a cozy couch where I can relax and read a book.

The house also has a study with a desk and a comfortable chair where I can work in peace. The bedroom is spacious and has a large window through which I can see the sunrise over the lake. The bathroom is modern and luxurious, with a large bathtub and a walk-in shower.

Outside the house, there is a garden with a pool and a barbecue area where I can invite friends and family for a barbecue. The lake offers many recreational activities such as fishing, swimming, and boating.

My dream house is the perfect place to unwind and enjoy the beauty of nature.

In conclusion, learning German home vocabulary and writing an essay on “ Mein Haus ” is an effective way to improve your language skills. By expanding your vocabulary and practicing your writing, you will gain confidence in expressing yourself in German. We hope that this article has been a valuable resource for you and has inspired you to continue learning and exploring the German language.

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German Culture: Facts, Customs and Traditions

Known as Deutschland to the locals, Germany is more than just a country – it’s a place of poets, thinkers, and plenty of Gemütlichkeit (‘coziness, friendliness, and good cheer’)! Its cultural heritage is a blend of influences that have evolved over centuries, from its days as a significant part of the Holy Roman Empire to its current status as one of the world’s economic powerhouses.

With a population of 84.6 million, Germany is a melting pot of cultures, where Germans and minorities of other nationalities coexist harmoniously, sharing common values and enjoying lively festivities and cherished traditions.

Below, we will share more about German culture, which dates back to the beginning of the first millennium. Over time, the culture has evolved, influenced by historical events that have shaped not only Germany but the entire European continent.

But before we do so, here are some quick facts about Germany:

Quick Facts

• Known as Deutschland in German, Germany has a population of approximately 84.6 million people.
• Germany is a federal parliamentary republic and comprises 16 federal states, each with its own distinct culture, traditions, and governance.
• The main language is German, and the dominant religion is Christianity.
• Germany’s capital is Berlin, but Hamburg, Munich, and Cologne are also among the biggest cities in Germany.

Some common stereotypes about Germans include their love for beer (which is true), their reputation for being hardworking and punctual (also true), and their affinity for cars (Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Porsche, to name a few, are manufactured here so that’s kind of a given, no?) 😊

In Germany, German is the primary language spoken by about 95% of the population. Additionally, many people in the country speak German as their second language.

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While there are regional dialects like Bavarian and Saxon, the German state officially recognizes four minority languages:

• Upper and Lower Sorbian
• North and Saterland Frisian

Due to a significant immigrant population, you can also hear various other languages, such as Turkish, Kurdish, Ukrainian, Russian, Arabic, Romanian, Albanian, etc., spoken by different communities. This linguistic diversity reflects Germany’s multicultural society.

According to the 2024 IPSOS survey, religion in Germany is diverse. Christianity is the predominant faith, embraced by 47% of the population, while Islam represents 4%.

About 5% adhere to other religions, and 9% prefer not to disclose their affiliation. Notably, 35% identify as having no religion or describe themselves as agnostic.

Despite the decline in traditional religious affiliation, Germany’s cultural landscape remains steeped in religious traditions and practices, observed through holidays like Christmas and Easter.

Cuisine & Food

German food culture is all about hearty and comforting ingredients, with succulent meats like pork and sausages often starring in dishes such as Bratwurst or Schweinshaxe. These are often paired with German side dishes such as potatoes, Sauerkraut (fermented cabbage), or Spaetzle (soft egg noodles).

Cabbage, dairy products, and an array of spices and herbs add depth to flavors, while rich gravies and sauces elevate the dishes. Beer often plays a role in cooking, enhancing the taste of dishes like beer-marinated Sauerbraten.

Let’s not forget of Germany’s love affair with bread and pretzels, with nearly 10,000 master bakeries sprinkled across the country. Just follow the delicious scent of freshly baked rye bread (Roggenbrot), whole wheat rye bread (Vollkornbrot), rolls (Brötchen), or small pastries (Kleingebäck) to find them.

For dessert, Germany offers sweet delights such as the famous Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (Black Forest cake), Apfelstrudel (apple strudel), Lebkuchen (gingerbread-like cookies), and Stollen (Christmas fruit-bread).

German Drinking Culture

In Germany, beer is the undisputed king of beverages, with countless varieties ranging from pilsners to wheat beers. To put it in perspective, a staggering 6.5 million liters were consumed in just 18 days during the Oktoberfest beer festival from September 16 to October 3, 2023.

Germany also boasts a rich tradition of wine production, particularly in regions like the Mosel Valley, known for its Rieslings. If you’re into spirits, you’ve likely heard of Jägermeister, a well-known herbal liqueur.

For those seeking something non-alcoholic, don’t miss the refreshing Apfelschorle, a mix of apple juice and sparkling water, or Germany’s quality coffee culture.

History and Heritage

Germany’s rich history is marked by pivotal moments and events that shaped it. It all begins with the Holy Roman Empire, a medieval powerhouse that laid the foundation for modern Germany. The 16th century witnessed Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation, reshaping religious beliefs across Europe.

The devastating Thirty Years’ War was a destructive period for the nation, while the Enlightenment period fostered intellectual growth, led by luminaries like Immanuel Kant. The 1848 Revolution set the stage for a united Germany. However, World War II cast a dark shadow, leading to division and immense suffering, commemorated today at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin.

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 symbolized reunification and the end of the Cold War, an event celebrated at iconic sites like the Checkpoint Charlie Museum and the East Side Gallery.

With over 64,000 new book titles published in 2022 in Germany, reading is a cherished pastime for many Germans. The country is also home to the Frankfurt Book Fair—the world’s largest trade fair for books, attracting publishers and literary enthusiasts from around the globe.

Plus, did you know the first-ever magazine was printed in German? It was called the Erbauliche Monaths-Unterredungen and was issued from 1663 to 1668.

German authors have given us timeless classics like Goethe’s “Faust” and “The Sorrows of Young Werther,” Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” and “The Trial,” and Mann’s “The Magic Mountain” and “Death in Venice.” Hermann Hesse’s “Siddhartha” and “Steppenwolf” are also celebrated classics.

Germany is a hub for philosophical discourse and exploration, boasting influential thinkers such as Immanuel Kant, who emphasized reason during the Enlightenment.

The country played a vital role in German Idealism with figures like Hegel. Existentialism found expression through Martin Heidegger, while Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels developed Marxism, revolutionizing political philosophy.

The Frankfurt School’s critical theory explored culture and society, while phenomenology, led by Edmund Husserl, examined consciousness.

Music and Dance

Traditional music and dance are deeply rooted in German culture. Lively folk tunes and energetic dances like the Schuhplattler and Ländler have been passed down through generations. The sounds of accordions, clarinets, and tubas fill the air at festivals and gatherings, where locals come together to celebrate their heritage through music and movement.

Classical music and opera have long been esteemed art forms in Germany, with legendary composers like Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Richard Wagner calling the country home. Concert halls and opera houses such as the Berlin Philharmonic and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg provide a stage for these timeless masterpieces.

In Germany, modern music spans various genres, from electronic beats and catchy pop tunes to gritty rock anthems. Berlin, in particular, is known for its techno scene.

Germany has been home to renowned artists throughout history, such as Albrecht Dürer, Caspar David Friedrich, and Gerhard Richter. Some of Dürer’s famous works include “The Knight, Death, and the Devil” and “Self-Portrait at 28.” Friedrich’s iconic painting, “Wanderer above the Sea of Fog,” captured the Romantic movement. Richter, a contemporary artist, is known for his versatility and works like “1024 Colours”.

Germany has also birthed influential art movements like the Bauhaus, Expressionism, and Dadaism, which revolutionized design and challenged artistic norms. These contributions have left a lasting impact on the global art scene.

Architecture

Germany’s diverse architecture reflects its rich history, with landmarks like palaces, castles, and cathedrals serving as reminders of its past. From ancient Roman structures to pre-Romanesque churches like the Abbey Church of Saint Michael, each building tells a story of its era.

During the Romanesque period, impressive cathedrals, including the iconic Cologne Cathedral, were constructed across the country. The Renaissance brought forth majestic castles and palaces like Heidelberg Castle, while the Baroque era left behind remarkable buildings such as the Wurzburg Residence.

Notable landmarks like the Semper Opera in Dresden and the Ulm Cathedral showcase the diversity of architectural styles in Germany. In the modern era, landmarks like the Einstein Tower and Berlin Modernism Housing Estates highlight the country’s architectural advancements.

Fashion and Clothing

Germans generally opt for casual and comfortable attire in their daily lives, favoring jeans, t-shirts, and sneakers. However, they tend to dress more formally on special occasions, leaning towards classic and conservative styles.

Each region in Germany has its unique traditional costumes, such as Bavaria’s Lederhosen for men (leather trousers ending just above the knee) and the Dirndl dress for women (featuring a bodice, blouse, full skirt, and an apron). These traditional outfits are commonly worn during carnivals and festivals.

In cities like Berlin, known for its thriving fashion industry, you’ll discover a vibrant mix of high-end boutiques and trendy street fashion, with Berlin’s fashion scene renowned for its avant-garde and edgy style.

Holidays and Traditions

Holidays in Germany combine religious, cultural, and national observances. There are nine public holidays celebrated nationwide , each with its own significance and traditions:

• New Year’s Day (Neujahrstag). January 1st marks the beginning of the new year, celebrated with fireworks, parties, and family gatherings.
• Good Friday (Karfreitag). Observed on the Friday before Easter Sunday, it commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ with church services and quiet reflection.
• Easter Monday (Ostermontag). The day after Easter Sunday, known for family gatherings, Easter egg hunts, and festive meals.
• Labour Day (Tag der Arbeit). Celebrated on May 1st, it honors workers’ rights with demonstrations, rallies, and public events.
• Ascension Day (Christi Himmelfahrt). 40 days after Easter Sunday, it marks Jesus Christ’s ascension into heaven, observed with church services and family gatherings.
• Whit Monday (Pfingstmontag). The day after Pentecost, known for picnics, outdoor activities, and spending time with family and friends.
• Day of German Unity (Tag der Deutschen Einheit). On October 3rd each year, Germans celebrate the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990. It’s marked with patriotic events nationwide, including a three-day festival in Berlin around Platz der Republik and the Brandenburg Gate.
• Christmas Day (Weihnachtstag). December 25th is a religious holiday celebrated with family gatherings, gift-giving, and festive meals.
• Boxing Day (Zweiter Weihnachtstag). December 26th is a day for relaxation and spending time with loved ones, often marked by leisure activities and outings.

Additionally, there are regional holidays celebrated only in specific states or regions, such as Epiphany (Heilige Drei Könige), Corpus Christi (Fronleichnam), Reformation Day (Reformationstag), and All Saints’ Day (Allerheiligen).

Sports and Leisure

Germany’s sports scene is incredibly diverse, catering to a wide range of interests and passions. Undoubtedly, football (soccer) reigns supreme as the nation’s favorite sport, with the Bundesliga drawing massive crowds and fervent support. However, basketball, handball, volleyball, tennis, ice hockey, and athletics also enjoy significant popularity.

In 2017, Germany had approximately 90,000 sports clubs and 27.4 million club memberships, with 33.2% of the population actively participating in these organizations, according to a DOSB survey .

Beyond organized sports, outdoor activities such as hiking, cycling, and skiing are widely enjoyed, thanks to the country’s beautiful landscapes and well-developed infrastructure. Transportation-wise, as well, Germans are known to appreciate the simple pleasure of walking.

Festivals and Celebrations

Whether it’s a traditional folk festival or a modern cultural event, Germans love to come together to celebrate with music, food, and fun activities. Festivals often feature live music performances, delicious traditional cuisine, colorful parades, and lively street markets.

Here are some of the most popular festivals and events in Germany:

• Beethovenfest – Bonn. An annual celebration of classical music, Beethovenfest in Bonn honors Ludwig van Beethoven’s legacy with around 80 diverse events.
• Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) – Berlin. Berlinale is a major global film festival in Berlin, showcasing international films and attracting industry professionals and film enthusiasts worldwide.
• Cannstatter Volksfest (Stuttgart Beer Festival) – Stuttgart. This traditional beer festival in Stuttgart is one of Germany’s largest, featuring beer tents, rides, and live music, akin to a mini Oktoberfest.
• Carnivals (Karneval/Fasching) – nationwide. Carnivals across Germany offer colorful parades, costumes, and festivities, each region with its unique traditions and celebrations. The largest and most famous carnival takes place in Cologne .
• Christmas Markets (Weihnachtsmärkte) – nationwide. Germany’s Christmas Markets are renowned for their festive ambiance, offering handicrafts, seasonal treats, and mulled wine. Among the most famous are those in Nuremberg, Dresden, and Munich.
• Easter Markets (Ostermärkte) – nationwide. Leading up to Easter, these markets feature handmade crafts and Easter-themed goods, providing a festive atmosphere for visitors. Berlin’s Easter Market at Alexanderplatz and Stuttgart’s Easter Market at Schlossplatz are popular destinations
• Oktoberfest – Munich. The world’s largest beer festival, Oktoberfest in Munich boasts large beer tents, Bavarian cuisine, and carnival rides, drawing millions of visitors annually.
• Reeperbahn Festival – Hamburg. One of Europe’s largest club festivals, the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg showcases diverse music acts alongside conferences and art exhibitions.
• Rhein in Flammen (Rhine in Flames) – multiple locations. This series of fireworks festivals along the Rhine River offers spectacular displays against historic backdrops, attracting crowds to various locations.
• Walpurgis Night (Walpurgisnacht) – Harz Mountains. Celebrated in the Harz Mountains, Walpurgis Night features bonfires and festivities to welcome spring, rooted in German folklore and tradition.

German Social Etiquette

From greetings to dining and gift-giving, it’s important to know the dos and don’ts when in Germany. Let’s explore the basics of how to be courteous in German society.

Greetings and Politeness

Whether you’re entering a shop, office, or someone’s home, offering a friendly “hello” or “Guten Tag” to acknowledge others is customary in Germany. However, initiating a conversation is not necessary in public spaces, as Germans are not big fans of small talk.

When it’s time to bid farewell, saying “Auf Wiedersehen” or “Tschüss” for goodbye is a courteous gesture.

Addressing people correctly is equally important in German social interactions. The language offers two forms of “you”: “du” and “Sie.” “Du” is informal, akin to addressing friends and family, while “Sie” is the formal option, used with strangers or to convey respect.

Using “bitte” (please) when making a request and “danke” (thank you) when expressing gratitude are not just polite; they are expected and appreciated in everyday exchanges.

German Work Culture

Work culture in Germany revolves around being on time, getting things done efficiently, and maintaining a professional demeanor. Quality and precision are highly regarded, especially in jobs where attention to detail matters

On average, people in Germany work around 40.5 hours per week, which is somewhere in the middle compared to other European countries. Germans treasure their personal time, making use of generous vacation days. All employees in Germany working a 5-day week are entitled to a minimum of 20 vacation days per year.

Gift-Giving

People in Germany exchange gifts on occasions like birthdays, Christmas, and special events. Wrapping and presentation matter, so a nicely wrapped gift is appreciated. However, when it comes to the actual gift, Germans would rather receive something modest and thoughtful rather than extravagant.

Flowers are a popular and well-received gift, especially when visiting someone’s home. In group settings, such as for birthdays, recipients often open gifts in front of others, so expressing gratitude is customary.

Dining Etiquette & Tipping

At home, dining in Germany is cozy and relaxed. The meal kicks off with a friendly “Guten Appetit” (enjoy your meal), and dishes are served family-style. It’s polite to wait for the host to start eating before you do. Afterward, a simple “Danke” (thank you) shows your appreciation.

As for dining out, you might wait to be seated in fancier places, but in casual spots, feel free to choose your table. When you’re ready to order, a raised hand or “Entschuldigung” (excuse me) gets the server’s attention. Payment? Both cash and cards work, but cash is more widely accepted. Tipping is appreciated but not mandatory; rounding up or leaving an extra 5-10% is common for good service.

If you’re invited to a German wedding, be sure to RSVP promptly when you get the invite – it’s a big help for the couple’s planning.  When it comes to dressing up, Germans lean towards formal attire. Ladies often go for dresses (just not in white), and men typically wear suits. If you’ve been to U.S. weddings, the style is quite similar.

It’s common to bring a thoughtful gift, often in the form of cash, to support the newlyweds as they start their lives together. During the festivities, embrace the lively atmosphere by raising your glass with a cheerful “Prost!” for toasts. And don’t be shy to hit the dance floor – Germans love to dance at weddings. When the festivities wind down, take a moment to personally thank the couple for inviting you.

Funerals are solemn (and highly regulated) rituals in Germany. Depending on the deceased’s and their family’s beliefs, the funeral can follow Christian or secular traditions. Christian funerals include a church service, often with an open casket, followed by burial or cremation. Secular funerals are more or less similar but without the religious elements.

Germans typically dress in dark and conservative clothing for funerals, so it’s advisable to do the same. If you want to offer condolences to the grieving family, a simple “Mein Beileid” (My condolences) is appropriate. Flowers are a common way to express sympathy; you can bring a wreath or bouquet to the funeral. During the service, maintain a quiet and respectful demeanor, ensuring your phone is on silent mode.

Public Behavior

Here are some points to consider when you’re out in public in Germany:

• Strong sense of community. Germans have a strong sense of community and look out for one another. If you spot lost items hanging from trees in Germany, it’s a thoughtful gesture by someone who found them, making it easier for the owner to retrieve them.
• Public transportation. When using public transportation , make sure to queue up and let people exit before boarding. Always buy a ticket and validate it before boarding trams, buses, or trains. Priority seats are reserved for those in need, so be ready to offer your seat.
• In public spaces and queues, Germans value order and quiet. Whether you’re waiting for a train or in a library, keep noise levels down and respect personal space. Noise levels are especially important in residential areas. Germans have specific quiet hours to ensure peaceful living, so keep the volume down, especially during evenings.
• Environmental consciousness is a way of life. Recycling is taken seriously in Germany, with specific bins for paper, plastic, glass, and more. Always recycle responsibly.
• Supermarket checkouts. Navigating supermarket checkouts in Germany is like a mini workout for your packing skills. Unlike some countries, there’s no dedicated bagger, so you’ll need to pack your items quickly into your own bags or reusable totes after they’re scanned. Don’t forget to have your own bags ready or purchase them at the store. Payment options include cash and cards.

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May 23, 2024

Current Issue

Big Germany, What Now?

May 23, 2024 issue

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A celebration of the unification of Germany, Berlin, 1990

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Books Drawn on for This Essay:

Germany, A Nation in Its Time: Before, During, and After Nationalism, 1500–2000

Discussing Pax Germanica: The Rise and Limits of German Hegemony in European Integration

Wie Wir Wurden, Was Wir Sind: Eine Kurze Geschichte der Deutschen [How We Became What We Are: A Short History of the Germans]

Germany in the World: A Global History, 1500–2000

Out of the Darkness: The Germans, 1942–2022

Countries, unlike human beings, can be old and young at the same time. More than 1,900 years ago Tacitus wrote a book about a fascinating people called the Germans. In his fifteenth-century treatise Germania , Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, better known as Pope Pius II, praised German cities as “the cleanest and the most pleasurable to look at” in all of Europe. But the state we know today as Germany—the Federal Republic of Germany—will celebrate only its seventy-fifth birthday on May 23 this year. Its current territorial shape dates back less than thirty-four years, to the unification of West and East Germany on October 3, 1990, which followed the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.

Yet already the post-Wall era is over and everyone, including the Germans, is asking what Germany will be next. Not just what it will do; what it will be . In his excellent Germany: A Nation in Its Time , the German-American historian Helmut Walser Smith reminds us just how many different Germanies there have been over the five centuries since Piccolomini’s Germania was first printed in 1496. Not only have the borders and political regimes changed repeatedly; so have the main features identified with the German nation.

Sometimes the dominant chord was cultural: the land of Dichter und Denker (poets and thinkers); the patrie de la pensée (homeland of thought) described by Madame de Staël in De l’Allemagne (1813); the Germany that according to George Eliot

has fought the hardest fight for freedom of thought, has produced the grandest inventions, has made magnificent contributions to science, has given us some of the divinest poetry, and quite the divinest music, in the world.

After two world wars and all the horrors of the Third Reich, many people naturally identified Germany with militarism. But Smith shows how first Prussian and then German military expenditure has in fact been on a roller coaster for the past two centuries.

Very often, however, German nationhood has been identified with economic development and prowess. This point was powerfully made by the Princeton historian Harold James in a book called A German Identity , published the year the Wall came down. And James wrote presciently that Clio, the muse of history, “should warn us not to trust Mercury (the economic god) too much.”

Post-Wall Germany trusted to Mercury. After West Germany under Chancellor Helmut Kohl unexpectedly achieved its goal of unification on Western terms, the old-new Federal Republic moved its capital from the small town of Bonn to previously divided Berlin and settled down to be a satisfied status quo power. Very much in the wider spirit of those times, it was the economic dimension of power that prevailed.

The historian James Sheehan has characterized this as the Primat der Wirtschaftspolitik (the primacy of economic policy), but it was also, more specifically, the Primat der Wirtschaft (the primacy of business). “The business of America is business” is a remark attributed to US president Calvin Coolidge. If one said of the post-Wall Berlin republic that “the business of Germany is business,” one would not be far wrong. This involved the very direct influence of German businesses on German governments, enhanced by the distinctive West German system of cooperative industrial relations known as Mitbestimmung . If it was not the big automobile or chemical company bosses on the telephone to the Chancellery, it was the trade union leaders, all urging some lucrative commercial deal. (Bosses and labor leaders could argue between themselves afterward about how to divide the resulting pie.)

By 2021 a staggering 47 percent of the country’s GDP came from the export of goods and services. The most spectacular growth was in business with China, on which Germany became significantly more dependent than any other European country. And while it self-identified as a civilian power, it exported a lot of German-made weapons, including nearly three hundred Taurus missiles to South Korea between 2013 and 2018—the very make of missile that Chancellor Olaf Scholz is stubbornly refusing to send to embattled Ukraine. In the years 2019–2023 Germany had a 5.6 percent share of global arms exports, ahead of Britain although still behind France. Mars in the service of Mercury.

With the eastward enlargement of the EU and NATO , Germany no longer had the insecurities of a frontline state. As former West German president Richard von Weizsäcker put it, this was the country’s liberation from its fateful historic Mittellage (middle position) between East and West, since it was now blessedly surrounded by fellow members of the geopolitical West. Accordingly, its defense expenditure sank as low as 1.1 percent of GDP in 2005.

Particularly in the angry polemics between Northern and Southern Europe during the eurozone crisis that became acute in 2010, Germans tended to attribute their economic success to their own skill, hard work, and virtue. After all, they had not piled up debt like those feckless Southern Europeans. German industry does indeed have extraordinary strengths, as anyone knows who drives a BMW , does their laundry in a Miele washing machine, cooks dinner in a Bosch oven, or wears Falke socks. And in the early 2000s, faced with the huge costs of German unification, the government of Gerhard Schröder had worked with business and trade union leaders to push through a painful set of reforms that kept German labor costs low while they soared in Southern Europe.

Yet this economic success was also the result of a uniquely favorable set of external circumstances. The single European currency, which many Germans regarded as a painful sacrifice of their treasured deutschmark, brought considerable economic advantage to Germany, since its companies could export to the rest of the eurozone without any risk of currency fluctuation and to the rest of the world at a more competitive exchange rate than the mighty deutschmark would have enjoyed. Meanwhile the eastward enlargement of the EU enabled German manufacturers to relocate production facilities to countries with cheap skilled labor like Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia while exporting freely across the entire EU single market. In a sense, this was the achievement of the liberal imperialist politician Friedrich Naumann’s 1915 vision of Mitteleuropa as a German-led common economic area, but it was done entirely peacefully, for the most part to mutual advantage, and within the larger legal and political structure of the EU.

Even more important were the external conditions beyond Europe. The Washington-based German commentator Constanze Stelzenmüller summed this up in a sharp formula. Post-1989 Germany, she wrote, outsourced its security needs to the US, its energy needs to Russia, and its economic growth needs to China.

Countries change but still manifest deep continuities. The French long for universalism; the British cleave to empiricism. Germans were good at making things in the fifteenth century—the Mainz entrepreneur Johannes Gutenberg’s movable-type printing press, for example—and they still are. Another of those deeper German continuities is what the German-British social thinker Ralf Dahrendorf identified as a yearning for synthesis.

With these growing external dependencies, however, synthesis became not just an intellectual preference but a political imperative. Everything had to be not merely connected to but also compatible with everything else. German interests had also to be European interests. Beyond Europe, Germany had to be friends with the United States but also with Russia and with China, all at the same time. The country’s export-based business model must also be in harmony with its values-based political model. The Germans could do well while also being good.

In the case of the Federal Republic, being good has a specific meaning: to have learned the lessons from the Nazi past, and hence always standing for peace, human rights, dialogue, democracy, international law, and all the other good things we associate with the ideal of liberal international order. How Germany has fared in this respect is the subject of another outstanding book, Frank Trentmann’s Out of the Darkness: The Germans, 1942–2022 , a probing moral history with a distinctly mixed verdict. “When moral principles served German interests they were flaunted,” Trentmann writes at one point, “when they stood in the way they were ignored.”

These claims for synthesis were framed within a larger view—prevalent in much of the West in the post-Wall years, but nowhere more so than in Germany—of the way history was headed. The “End of History” was an American idea, but it was the Germans who lived the neo-Hegelian dream.

So history was going our way. Germany, Europe, and the West altogether had a model on which others would eventually converge. Globalization would facilitate democratization. True, Russia and China didn’t look terribly like liberal democracies, but as they modernized, they would get better. Western investment and trade would help them down history’s preordained track, while economic interdependence would underpin a Kantian perpetual peace.

Thus the country in which the Berlin Wall had come down enjoyed the greatest successes but also nourished the greatest illusions of Europe’s post-Wall era.

Over the last sixteen years this model has collapsed in two ways: gradually, then suddenly—to recall Ernest Hemingway’s description of how one goes bankrupt. The gradual phase coincided with a general crisis of Europe’s post-Wall order that started in 2008 with two near-simultaneous events: the eruption of the global financial crisis and Vladimir Putin’s military seizure of two large areas of Georgia. The sudden arrived on February 24, 2022, with his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

For virtually all the first period—in fact from November 2005 until December 2021—Germany was led by one of the most remarkable figures in modern German history: the former East German scientist Angela Merkel. For many Germans, this was a very good time. Yet most of the problems the country faces today were accumulating in the Merkel years.

The direct primacy of business meant that there wasn’t even a proper primacy of economic policy, since the effect was to privilege the immediate interests of existing German businesses, such as the automobile and chemical industries, over the industries of tomorrow. As a result, Germany (along with the rest of Europe) is far behind the US and China in AI and other innovative technologies, and faces competition from Chinese electric cars that may be both cheaper and better than German ones.

Two extreme manifestations of fiscal conservatism—a “debt brake” written into the constitution in 2009 and the so-called “black zero,” the finance ministry’s insistence for many years on running no budget deficit—have left the country with exceptionally healthy public finances but also chronic underinvestment in infrastructure. The most visible example is the German railways—the Deutsche Bahn—on which fierce cuts were inflicted in preparation for a privatization that never happened. In my experience, you must reckon on a Deutsche Bahn intercity train being either late or canceled.

A panicky choice to abandon all civil nuclear power after Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in 2011 has made it even more difficult to make the transition to green energy, urgently required to address the climate crisis, while at the same time weaning the country off Russian fossil fuels. Merkel’s decision to let in some one million refugees from Syria and the wider Middle East in 2015–2016 was admirably humane, and most of the new arrivals have been successfully integrated into the German economy, helping to ameliorate its acute shortage of skilled labor. But the fear that this irregular immigration from faraway and often majority-Muslim countries was “out of control” and would culturally transform the country too fast gave a big boost to the hard-right nationalist party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).

Shockingly, the AfD is currently ahead of Scholz’s Social Democrats in nationwide opinion polls for this June’s elections to the European Parliament. It’s doing even better in east German federal states such as Saxony and Thuringia, where it seems likely to be the clear winner in state elections this autumn. Also likely to do well there is a new “left conservative” grouping headed by the East German politician Sahra Wagenknecht, who skillfully combines left-wing socioeconomic rhetoric, a culturally conservative approach to immigration, and a tendentially pro-Russian opposition to military support for Ukraine. While there has been enormous investment and significant economic growth in East Germany, the psychological divide between East and West has increased rather than decreased—even while the chancellor was an East German. Many East Germans feel an angry sense that they are treated as second-class citizens.

Change through consensus has historically been one of the keys to the success of the Federal Republic, in politics as in industrial relations. But with the fragmentation of the political landscape into seven or eight parties, felt at the federal level also through the Bundesrat (the upper house, which represents the federal states), and significant interventions by the powerful Federal Constitutional Court, it has become more difficult to achieve either consensus or change.

Meanwhile, many of the countries that were meant graciously to converge toward the liberal democratic ideal have moved in the opposite direction—even in Germany’s immediate neighborhood. Since 2010, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán has systematically demolished democracy in a nearby country where the German car industry is heavily invested. In China, the turn has been even sharper, from the high hopes of gradual liberalization that accompanied the Beijing Olympics in 2008 to the harsh authoritarianism of Xi Jinping’s rule today.

Yet German companies have continued to make major investments in these places, often turning a blind eye to any conflict with their own country’s proclaimed values. Encouraged by the Chinese regime, Volkswagen, which depends on China for some 40 percent of its sales, opened a factory in Xinjiang in 2013. China has subsequently implemented policies in Xinjiang that have credibly been characterized as genocide, with large numbers of Uighurs being interned in “reeducation” camps. Asked about the existence of these camps by a BBC interviewer in 2019, Herbert Diess, then head of VW , said, “I’m not aware of that.” When I more recently pointed out to the head of another big German automobile company that Hungary, in which he had just announced another huge investment, was no longer a democracy, he swept aside the objection with an airy wave of his hand. “We can have different terms,” my notebook records him saying. “That’s okay.”

The most dramatic misjudgment was about Russia. Merkel, a fluent Russian speaker who as chancellor had a portrait of Catherine the Great—a Russian ruler of German origin—in her office, was by far the most influential European politician when it came to dealing with Putin. One might argue that the Minsk II agreement, which Germany (along with France) was instrumental in concluding in February 2015, following Putin’s annexation of Crimea and the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2014, was the best that could be done to stabilize the situation at a moment when Ukrainian defenses were collapsing. Completely indefensible, however, was the German failure to change tack thereafter, realistically reassessing the Russian threat. The most telling evidence is that, far from decreasing its energy dependence on Russia, Germany increased it: by 2020 a staggering 55 percent of its gas, 34 percent of its oil, and 57 percent of its hard coal came from Russia.

To complete the trio of major extra-European dependencies, Germany depended more than ever on the United States for its security. Even Donald Trump’s challenge to European NATO partners during his presidency produced only a slow and reluctant upward adjustment of German defense spending. In a speech in Munich in 2017, Merkel did say that “the times when we could completely rely on others are to some extent past.” But there was no fundamental change of policy.

All this happened under Merkel, but for twelve of her sixteen years as chancellor her Christian Democrats were in a so-called grand coalition with the Social Democrats. The worst mistakes in relations with Russia were largely the responsibility of the Social Democrats, especially the Nord Stream 2 pipeline between Russia and Germany, which was agreed upon and built after the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2014. And throughout Merkel’s final term in office, her finance minister and vice-chancellor was Scholz, the Social Democrat who in December 2021, after a surprising general election victory, succeeded her as chancellor.

Then, on February 24, 2022, Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The beginning of the largest war in Europe since 1945 reduced core assumptions of post-Wall Germany—political, economic, and military, but also moral—to rubble that was less immediately visible than that of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol but no less real.

Under the shock of this horror, and as Scholz introduced a new German word into the English language with his speech about a Zeitenwende (epochal turning point), there was an appeal for Germany to initiate an immediate boycott of fossil fuels from Russia. Scholz’s coalition government decided against taking this radical step, and the way he made the argument was telling. It would plunge Germany and Europe into a recession, he said. “Hundreds of thousands of jobs would be in danger, whole branches of industry on the brink.” (The chemical giant BASF alone guzzled some 4 percent of the country’s total annual consumption of gas, delivered through its own special pipeline.) And then Scholz said—for remember, everything must be in harmony with everything else—“ Nobody is served if, with eyes wide open, we put our economic substance at risk” (emphasis added). But if Putin had suddenly been deprived of a principal source of funding for his war machine, somebody would have been served: the Ukrainian people.

Instead, Germany would wean itself off Russian fossil fuel just as quickly as was compatible with avoiding a recession. The choice may be defended on the basis of what Max Weber called an “ethics of responsibility” but it was Ukrainians who paid a tragic human price for more fortunate peoples’ past mistakes. According to the most careful independent assessment, by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, in the first year of the full-scale war Germany paid Russia some $30.6 billion for gas, oil, and coal. Some of this money will actually have gone toward the production and transportation of those fuels, but prices had soared precisely as a result of Putin’s war, making much of this pure profit. Since the energy sector is an integral part of Putin’s regime, we must conclude that these payments made a significant contribution to funding Russia’s war against Ukraine. (To give a sense of scale, Russian military expenditure in 2022 was estimated by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute to be around $102 billion, up from $66 billion in 2021.)

In the meantime, and to its great credit, Germany has become one of the leading supporters of Ukraine. According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy’s “Ukraine support tracker,” Germany committed some €22.1 billion in military, economic, and humanitarian aid to Kyiv in the first two years of the full-scale war, second only to the US. It has taken a leading role in the provision of air defenses. By 2024 the German chancellor was even lecturing other European countries on how they must do more for Ukraine.

Yet at every stage, Scholz dragged his feet on sending more powerful weapon systems, whether Marder infantry fighting vehicles (which he described as a “fearful escalation”), Leopard 2 tanks, or—still, at this writing—the Taurus missiles with which Ukraine could threaten Russian supply lines to Crimea. Multiple often-changing arguments were advanced, but a common thread was the fear of escalation by a nuclear-armed Russia. While Scholz joined French president Emmanuel Macron in talking up “European sovereignty,” his government, unlike those of France and Britain, clung to Washington’s coattails, doing nothing in military support for Kyiv unless the current US administration did it too.

To explain Scholz’s stance, one needs to understand his cautious managerial personality and formative experiences as a Young Socialist peace activist in the 1980s, as well as the presence of a Russia-fixated appeasement tendency in his party and a domestic politics in which he hopes to win over voters by positioning himself as a Friedenskanzler (“peace chancellor”). Yet in a larger perspective Scholz can also be viewed as a representative figure of Germany in this uncertain, transitional time.

A similar disorientation can be seen in other areas, such as the German approach to Israel during the war in Gaza. Germany has derived two imperatives from its historical responsibility for the Holocaust: a particular commitment to Israel, encapsulated in official statements that Israel’s security is part of the Staatsräson (existential national interest) of the Federal Republic, and a universal commitment to stand up everywhere for human rights and international humanitarian law. Over the last ten years Germany has provided 30 percent of Israel’s arms imports, second only to the US, and it rapidly stepped up weapon supplies after the horrific Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023. But the reckless way that Benjamin Netanyahu has conducted the war against Hamas in Gaza, entailing what have clearly been violations of international humanitarian law, has brought those two imperatives, the particular and the universal, into painful conflict.

Then there’s the prospect of Donald Trump being reelected on November 5—four days before the thirty-fifth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall—and putting in question the US commitment to NATO ’s “all for one and one for all” Article 5 guarantee to defend European member states. At a campaign rally in South Carolina this February, Trump boasted about how as president he had told the leader of a large NATO member state that he would “encourage” Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to countries that didn’t pay more for their own defense. The response in Germany? For several days the media were full of speculation about how one might create a European nuclear deterrent to cover Germany. Thus a country that had recently completed its exit from civil nuclear power was now suddenly talking about having nuclear weapons.

Old certainties have crumbled; new directions are yet to be found.

The last chapter of David Blackbourn’s magisterial Germany in the World: A Global History, 1500–2000 is titled “The German Question Answered.” Yet it ends by anticipating the advent, in the new millennium, of a German Question “of a new kind.” That latest variant of the German Question has now arrived. So, to adapt the title of Hans Fallada’s celebrated 1932 novel Little Man , What Now? , we need to ask: Big Germany, what now?

Since this essay has been somewhat critical of Germany’s post-Wall record, it’s important to stress that other leading Western democracies merit even sharper criticisms. Germany has committed no act of national folly comparable with Britain’s Brexit. No one can begin to compete with the French when it comes to the conflation of national and European interests. Italy’s versions of the AfD are actually running the country, and the Fratelli d’Italia’s post-neofascist prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, is regarded as a moderate compared with her coalition partner, the Lega’s Matteo Salvini. If Donald Trump were to return to the homeland of his grandfather Friedrich Trump, he would have zero chance of winning a national election, whereas he has an alarmingly serious chance of being reelected in the United States.

But our subject here is Germany, and Germany is Europe’s central power. It has more than one sixth of the EU’s population and produces more than a fifth of its GDP . Does that make it a hegemon? Heinrich August Winkler, the doyen of German historians, has suggested that, like Bismarckian Germany, the Federal Republic has a “half-hegemonic position” in Europe. The phrase captures modern Germany’s classic geopolitical problem: its in-between size, too large but also too small.

Yet certainly the Federal Republic is the single most powerful country inside the European Union. Berlin may not always get what it wants in Brussels, but very little happens if Berlin doesn’t want it to. In a forthcoming multiauthored volume, Discussing Pax Germanica: The Rise and Limits of German Hegemony in European Integration , Herman Van Rompuy, who was president of the European Council of EU national leaders between 2009 and 2014, writes matter-of-factly, “In the years of my mandate, there was only one time when the position of the European Council did not correspond to the position of Germany…” So which way Germany goes matters more to Europe than the future course of any other European country.

In the seventy-five years of the Federal Republic, there have been three great moments of German strategic choice: the so-called Westbindung , its founding chancellor Konrad Adenauer’s decision to bind the fledgling Federal Republic firmly into the transatlantic West in the 1950s; Chancellor Willy Brandt’s Ostpolitik , the West German détente policy toward the Soviet bloc, implemented in the 1970s; and Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s commitment to embed German unification in further steps of European unification in the 1990s.

At each of these turning points, there were “Roads Not Taken,” the title of an illuminating exhibition currently on view at the German Historical Museum in Berlin. It was not obvious to the German public that this was the right way to go, and the government’s policy was often fiercely contested.

Each time, three elements came together: an individual leader, a domestic debate, and an international setting. “In the beginning was Adenauer,” to quote the biblical opening line of Arnulf Baring’s monograph on the genesis of West German democracy, but the great founding father’s choice came in the international setting of a rapidly deepening cold war division of Europe. Brandt was an inspiring leader, but his Ostpolitik was also the German version of détente policies being pursued by the US, France, and Britain. Kohl’s personal contribution, like his physical stature, was immense, but he also acted at a high tide of enthusiasm for European integration and in response to demands from European partners such as France.

The international setting today positively demands a strategic change. As for leadership, Scholz looks like a transitional figure, but someone else can emerge, at the latest after the national election due in autumn 2025. Adenauer, Brandt, and Kohl did not enter the chancellor’s office as great European statesmen—they grew on the job.

That leaves the national debate, which is already happening (and includes a nervous metadebate about what one may or may not say about Israel and Gaza). Almost every point I have made in this essay has been made, sometimes more sharply, by German scholars and commentators. German specialists on Russia and Eastern Europe have been outspoken in their critique of Berlin’s failed Russian policy and half-hearted support for Ukraine. In many ways, this reminds me of the intellectual ferment in the 1960s that gave birth to Brandt’s Ostpolitik .

There is less evidence, unfortunately, that the country’s politicians and business leaders are listening. Yet Germany today needs open, critical thinking as badly as an overweight, middle-aged man needs exercise. For the individual questions that together make up this new German Question are very challenging.

Given the fragmentation of the party landscape, how can change through consensus be achieved? What is to be done about extreme political parties like the AfD that have significant public support? If the old export-based business model is increasingly incompatible with the country’s values-based political model, what is the new business model? Or will Berlin, as the acerbic economic commentator Wolfgang Münchau anticipates, “revert to its old practice of carving out deals with Eurasian dictators for the sake of German industry”? Returning from a recent trip to China, the Bavarian leader Markus Söder tweeted his satisfaction at having acted as a political “escort” to German business, adding, “We do Realpolitik instead of Moralpolitik.” Scholz soon followed him to Beijing, accompanied by a large business delegation.

Then there’s the military question. If Germany spends 2 percent of its GDP on defense, it will have the fourth-largest defense budget in the world. Were President Trump 2.0 drastically to reduce the US presence in Europe, Germany would soon become the continent’s leading military power outside Russia. What would all these German soldiers and guns be there for? Where, how, and with what ethos would they be deployed? How would Mars sit beside Mercury?

At this February’s Munich Security Conference, there was a striking contrast between the heroic rhetoric of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who talked of Ukrainian “warriors standing against the aggressor,” and the colorless bookkeeper’s language of the German chancellor. My notebook records Scholz saying at one point, “We are really impressed by the way the Ukrainian soldiers are doing their activities ” (emphasis added). Er, you mean fighting ? But in German, the entire language of war has been poisoned by its association with Nazism. In 2020 the head of the German army caused a stir when he said the country’s armed forces should be siegesfähig —capable of winning. (This is not a difficulty Germans have when they talk about their soccer team.) The defense minister now says the armed forces must be kriegstüchtig— war-capable. It will require imagination and judgment to find an appropriate new German vocabulary for the hard business of being ready to fight and die so that that you don’t need to fight and die.

German society has been described as “post-heroic.” In a recent poll, only 38 percent of those asked said they would be ready to take up arms to defend their country if it were attacked, whereas 59 percent said they wouldn’t. But then, unlike Poles or Estonians, let alone Ukrainians, most Germans still don’t really believe they might need to.

To talk of German angst is a hoary old cliché. But the German word Angst can mean either fear or anxiety. These are two very different things. Fear can mobilize—to “fight or flight.” Anxiety paralyzes. It’s the latter kind of angst that Germany is suffering from at the moment. The challenge for political and intellectual leadership will be to carry an anxious public to a position that is more realistic, morally consistent, and geopolitically, economically, and environmentally sustainable, without any sudden lurch from one extreme to another.

And what of Europe? “Even though the Germans speak about Europe with great warmth and conviction,” Van Rompuy writes, “Europe should not cost them too much.” Are the Germans now prepared, in their own enlightened long-term self-interest, to let the future of Europe cost them a little more? Given their own and other Europeans’ historically informed worries about the reemergence of German military power, it would make sense for them to be among the leaders in pushing for a more integrated European defense industry, a stronger European pillar of NATO , and an EU that takes defense seriously. But this would entail a pooling of sovereignty in an area even more vital and sensitive than a national currency disappearing into the eurozone. This is a challenge for all European countries, whose leaders always come up against a deep structural tension between policies that need to be European and politics that are still national.

Pending the coinage of a catchier term, I would describe the strategy Europe requires from Germany as a Gesamteuropapolitik— an all-Europe policy, putting together what have in the past been the largely separate Europapolitik , meaning EU policy, and Ostpolitik . Can Germany swing the balance of the European Union toward a genuine strategic commitment to include Ukraine, Moldova, the Western Balkans, and Georgia? Can it contribute the bold, innovative thinking needed to reform the EU, making it ready both to make another big enlargement and to face a dangerous world? Can it help shape a realistic new European policy toward Russia, not for the next twenty months but for the next twenty years? And how is Europe as a whole—including countries like self-marginalized Britain—to defend its values and way of life in a world where often reflexively anti-Western great and middle powers such as China, India, and Turkey are increasingly influential, while the US interest in Europe has diminished and will continue to diminish? Germany cannot do any of these things on its own, but without Germany none of them will happen.

Here is today’s German Question, and the only people who can answer it are the Germans themselves.

—April 24, 2024

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Timothy Garton Ash is Professor of European Studies Emeritus at Oxford and a Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. His latest book, Homelands: A Personal History of Europe , was recently awarded the Lionel Gelber Prize. (May 2024)

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The Awful German Language

From a tramp abroad.

US Immigration: German Immigrants

This essay about German immigration to America in the 1800s explores the significant influx of Germans and the reasons behind their migration, including economic hardships and political upheavals like the failed 1848 revolutions. It highlights how these immigrants predominantly settled in the Midwest, impacting the regional economy by introducing various trades and industries, notably brewing. Culturally, they enriched the American landscape with new traditions and institutions, such as kindergartens and cultural clubs. The essay also touches on the challenges faced, including anti-German sentiment during World War I. Overall, it underscores the profound influence German immigrants had on American society, from economic contributions to cultural enrichment, illustrating their integral role in shaping the nation’s character.

How it works

During the 19th century, the United States emerged as a beacon of aspiration and potential for numerous European immigrants, among whom were the Germans, constituting one of the most substantial cohorts seeking fresh horizons in America. The migration surge of Germans to the United States in the 1800s transcended mere relocation, evolving into a significant event that left an indelible mark on the nation’s cultural and economic fabric.

The rationales underpinning the mass exodus from Germany were manifold. Initially, the early decades of the century witnessed Germans departing predominantly due to economic hardships and the scarcity of fertile land.

Many were independent agrarians or sought employment within America’s burgeoning agricultural domain. Nonetheless, as the century unfolded, political turbulence and stringent legislation imposed by the German Confederation catalyzed a new wave of emigration. The thwarted revolutions of 1848—a succession of political upheavals aimed at instituting more liberal governance structures across the German territories—likewise exerted a pivotal influence. A considerable number of the Forty-Eighters, as the revolutionaries came to be known, sought refuge in America following the suppression of their movements, importing ideals that would sow the seeds of progressivism in their newfound homeland.

Upon their arrival in America, German immigrants predominantly settled in the Midwest, particularly in states such as Wisconsin, Ohio, and Illinois. Urban centers like Milwaukee, Cincinnati, and St. Louis experienced notable upticks in their German populace. These immigrants were not solely tillers of the soil; they were also skilled craftsmen, brewers, and entrepreneurs. They entrenched themselves in diverse vocations and significantly augmented the American economy by establishing enterprises. The introduction of German brewing methodologies, for instance, catalyzed the flourishing of the brewing industry in these regions.

Culturally, the Germans wielded substantial influence. They inaugurated numerous cultural associations, encompassing musical and choral societies, which played a pivotal role in enriching the American cultural milieu. German-language periodicals proliferated, aiding in the preservation of linguistic bonds and dissemination of information within the German-American community. Moreover, they introduced educational paradigms, notably the concept of kindergarten, which would subsequently be embraced nationwide.

Nevertheless, the assimilation of German immigrants was not devoid of hurdles. During World War I, anti-German sentiments surged in America. Germans were frequently stigmatized, and there was a concerted effort to compel them to assimilate and adopt English names and language. Despite these pressures, German Americans persisted in contributing to their adoptive homeland, integrating their customs and traditions into the broader American tapestry.

The legacy of German immigration in the 1800s remains palpable today, particularly in the Midwest, where German festivals and thoroughfare names bear testament to the enduring sway of German culture. Economically, they laid the groundwork for industries that are integral components of the American economic landscape. Politically, their early advocacy for progressive reforms has left an enduring imprint on American society.

In summation, the German immigration wave of the 1800s constituted a pivotal epoch that played a seminal role in shaping modern America. Through their fortitude and contributions, German immigrants not only found a new abode but also played an indispensable role in forging the diverse and dynamic ethos of the United States. Their narrative stands as a testament to the profound impact of immigration on the evolution of American society, encapsulating both the trials and triumphs inherent in such vast human movements.

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US Immigration: German Immigrants. (2024, May 01). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/us-immigration-german-immigrants/

"US Immigration: German Immigrants." PapersOwl.com , 1 May 2024, https://papersowl.com/examples/us-immigration-german-immigrants/

PapersOwl.com. (2024). US Immigration: German Immigrants . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/us-immigration-german-immigrants/ [Accessed: 8 May. 2024]

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"US Immigration: German Immigrants," PapersOwl.com , 01-May-2024. [Online]. Available: https://papersowl.com/examples/us-immigration-german-immigrants/. [Accessed: 8-May-2024]

PapersOwl.com. (2024). US Immigration: German Immigrants . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/us-immigration-german-immigrants/ [Accessed: 8-May-2024]

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