By Anya Graf
Dedicated to Luisa Schiffer, who celebrated the best of me, and taught me to love the worst of me in Deutsch, Englisch, and even in bits of Philippinisch all the way from lovely Spremberg.
Source: Wordpress
“That’s so crazy,” people would often say after hearing me introduce myself in German. Just a few kind, introductory words, which garner the response: You literally sound just like a Nazi. It’s a reaction I’m used to, sure, but getting used to hearing it didn’t exactly guarantee that it would become less offensive each time I heard it. In fact, the more I heard it, the more affronted I became. I’m sure anyone who speaks the German language can relate. Most people think these comments are lighthearted and funny, and I’m sure they mean no harm, but it’s about time we drew the line and made people realize that this actually perpetuates prejudice against present-day Germans. At the very least, this behavior is xenophobic.
To common folk, the first person that comes to mind when the German language is mentioned is the infamous Adolf Hitler (who isn’t even German, FYI). Another good choice would be Count von Count from Sesame Street. But present-day Germans don’t even sound like that. Not even close. Since the dawn of time, the German language has been stereotyped as somewhat stiff or unfeeling. It is mechanical and efficient, much like the people who speak it, although the mechanical part is arguable, because Germans are surprisingly warm people once you realize that they aren’t indifferent, just awkward. However, with the rise of Hitler in the mid-1930s, the rest of the Western world began to regard and associate the language with aggression.
Hitler, while generally an awful human being, happened to be a talented public speaker. To be a good one, you’d need not only the gift of words, but also the strength of a lasting delivery. And this man, with all his spit-filled speeches, managed to convince the severely damaged German people of 1933 each time his fist cut through the air. But Hitler’s words reeked aggression with each syllable. From his ethnocentric and anti-Semitic sentiments against Jews he would soon deem "subhuman," to the angry way he bellowed these harmful messages — everything about Hitler was aggressive, and this image soon engulfed people’s perception of not just the German language, but its people, too.
Think of the first time the buzz of the television drew you to the vibrant world of cartoons. Who was your favorite character? I had a lot, but for the sake of this article, we’re going to be talking about Vanessa Doofenshmirtz. Vanessa was the daughter of Charlene Doofenshmirtz, an All-American mother who had the image down to a T. Her father, on the other hand, was Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, an immigrant from a fictional European country called Drusselstein. Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz spoke with a thick German accent, and in multiple flashback episodes, he is seen sporting a lederhosen whilst speaking to his dirndl clad mother — both traditional pieces of Bavarian clothing. And as you might be able to guess, Dr. Doofenshmirtz was the show’s supposed villain.
In her article, Isabel Fattal shares that cartoon villains having foreign accents is “likely reflective of America’s hostility toward those countries during World War II and the Cold War.” And though these wars predate our favorite cartoons by multiple decades, the stereotype still stands. “They have continued to find these same accent trends through the past few decades, even as the political and social climate changes and the nation’s zeitgeist is marked by different ethnic and global tensions,” Fattal adds. Minor signs of prejudice supplanted within us deep into our childhoods multiply into larger, more hateful sentiments as we grow older. Hollywood has subconsciously trained us to be Anti-German. How could we appreciate a language we were never given a chance to fall in love with? If we fix common misconceptions churned out by the media, then perhaps we’d be able to hear more words along the lines of, “your German is excellent!” instead of the usual, “you talk like Hitler!”
I’m going to take a leap of faith and declare that I prefer the sound of crisp German consonants to the ones swallowed by the French. Yes, some of us would rather sit through the harrowing process of figuring out when to use ‘der, die, das’ instead of ‘le, la, les’. Yes, we exist. German can sound just as romantic as French, if not even more. I’m fairly certain the works of Sophie Mereau could convince you. And it’s just as powerful as any Scandinavian language, too. German might not be the language of Vikings, but it is, after all, the language of kings. It is a country that gave the world one Conrad after another, and even a particular Karl der Große, otherwise known as Charlemagne. It can be funny, too. The German word for turtle is ‘schildkröte’ which directly translates to shield toad, and the word glove takes the German form of ‘handschuh’ which literally means hand shoe in English. It’s transparent, like that. And romantic, and powerful, and funny, and so much more. Aggressive would be the last word I’d use to describe it.
I know you still think I sound like a Nazi, and I still disagree. But I also know that it isn’t your fault that you think I do, nor is it mine. This is the result of an accumulation of decades of Anti-German propaganda and anti-immigrant, xenophobic sentiments. I don’t think I sound like Hitler or a mean cartoon villain, the words I speak are a reflection of every moment my heart was inches away from a best friend nestled safely in Spremberg. They are a collection of the best fragments I keep from days spent poring over German cookbooks with a boy who once called me his schönheit. They are every glimmer of hope that shines through each virtual memory shared with my European Studies blockmates, for they serve as a beacon of journeys we’ve yet to embark on together. And, finally, they are a symbol of every second chance humanity has ever begged for, because I don’t think anyone in the history of mankind has ever worked as hard as Germany has for a second chance.
When you look at your hand and your finger, you are looking at objects whose names are of German origin. The colors that make up the world around us are German, too, and so are your fests, hamsters, noodles (nudeln), and even your favorite long haired Disney Princess, Rapunzel, which is actually the name of a type of lettuce in Germany. Appreciating the German language is a process, but it only begins once you allow yourself to. And once you do, it is so easy to realize that it plays a bigger part in our lives than formerly presumed. One need not be fluent in the language to understand German, you just need to see past your internal prejudice and recognize the language for what it truly is: Love. In every color and every syllable. Love.
About the author
At 18 years old, AB EU freshman Anya juggles writing, being an environmental advocate, and full time mother to her one year old Labrador Retriever.
Sources:
01: Germany has made conscious efforts to rid its language of Nazi associations.
02: Giving cartoon villains foreign accents fuels xenophobic sentiments. Such is the case with Germans being typecast as either evil scientists or Nazis.
03: For most of the 20th Century, America harbored Anti-German sentiments, deeming German immigrants undesirable.
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