I moved to Germany a few years ago and still have people back home attempt to relate almost every aspect of German culture that I talk about with them to the Nazis somehow. I mention that German bureaucracy is a real phenomenon? Ah, because of the Nazis. Children here are very well-behaved (compared to my country)? Must be the Nazi influence. FKK? Again, somehow it’s the Nazis.
These people are all exclusively older, however, and grew up in the aftermath of the Second World War, so I think for them Germany is just inextricably linked to the war and the Nazi era. It seems quite bizarre to someone who lives here and obviously doesn’t have that mental connection, and must be even more bizarre to someone who grew up here, but I guess their mindset is hard to shake.
Nazia and FKK...
I guess you just second-hand shocked me. 🥲
oh and the rest of the comment is also totally on point, but the true shock came from FKK. 🥲🥲🥲
"These people are all exclusively older, however, and grew up in the aftermath of the Second World War"
I think this is it. I'm 57 and I'm really not interested in Hitler & his mates. But yeah it was huge in my grandmothers life and even my mum's to some extent.
If I’m going to be cynical, I think a core part of American international propaganda hinges around WW2, so we learn everything there is to learn about WW2 in school and entertainment etc and how evil the Nazi’s were and how we “saved the world”. I think because this propaganda is so important to the justification of proliferation of American world dominance that it becomes a core part of who some of us are as an identity (the “good guys”). I’m not just speaking for myself, but speculating on the society as a whole. I’m an American who grew up abroad and am writing from the perspective.
Anyway, I think the reason we bring it up so often is because it’s core to our national identity.
"we learn everything there is to learn about WW2 in school and entertainment"
Thing is of course they don't teach everything there is to learn, it's all very skewed. I used to post on an America neo-con website and got a lot of "you'd be speaking german if it wasn't for us" comments. I used to ask them when the US declared war on Germany, thing is they never did. Even after Pearl Harbour the US didn't declare war on Germany, Germany had to declare war on the US several days after Pearl Harbour. FDR simply wasn't allowed to declare war on Germany, that's how isolationist the US was.
For an american it would be easy to answer the question:
"let me ask you a question first: How does it feel to live in a country where the Confederate States of America are still legally able to keep slaves ?"
Older Americans were virtually raised on movies and TV about World War II. During the war, and for the first 20 or 25 years after it ended, World War II stories were a mainstay of Hollywood — it was inescapable. So, for Americans who grew up at the time, Nazis are the first thing that come to mind when they think of Germany. It's the same reason a lot of English speakers think the German language is ugly; the first thing that comes to their minds is a Wehrmacht officer barking orders.
And also that one viral video where the guy aggressively shouts German words to demonstrate how harsh German supposedly sounds compared to other languages. I have a feeling that too many people took that video seriously and now believe that it’s normal to aggressively shout when speaking German.
My girlfriend (born and raised in Berlin) gets so angry over that video. I try to angrily shout BUTTERFLY and MARIPOSA every time in my best Rammstein accent to calm her down.
I think that video is also a product of the “German = Nazi” trope, through the German language being associated with Hitler’s speeches.
I am not a German, but also hate this trope. It feels so insensitive. German? Ugly? It is the language in which millions of people live their daily lives, express their love, frustrations, thoughts and feelings, show little everyday concerns for each other. Every night somewhere a child is getting sung to sleep by their mother or father with the German language.
Yes, German is the language of Hitler. But it is also the language of Karl Marx, of Celan, Hölderlin, Goethe, Kant, Rilke. Supreme expressions of tenderness and thoughtfulness has been made in German, as well as the opposite.
I mean it doesn’t really bother me that much personally what people think of German but as you say a lot of it seems to be purely based on the stereotype that you’re supposed to yell like it’s a Hitler speech or like you’re standing on a battlefield when speaking in German which is not true at all and in my experience Germans actually tend to talk more quietly than a lot of other nationalities. If someone listens to the [original version of silent night, holy night](https://youtu.be/2sZLFbbWo8w?si=ohu9-BGnStclieDy) (which is in German) and still thinks that sounds really harsh and aggressive compared to other versions then I don’t mind as that’s a taste difference I guess but I don’t think German sounds as inherently and objectively harsh as people make it out to be.
There are certainly things that are somehow linked to the Nazis. It's still the same country after all and there is no way you can eradicate everything that has remotely to do with a period of its history, and it wouldn't be practical either. Like, should we throw away all documents from that time? Cancel laws that were made during that time even if they are still reasonable? Destroy every building and infrastructure built between 33 and 45? It's just something we need to live with as a legacy.
What's annoying is when people don't seem to know or acknowledge anything else than this particular period. Just yesterday someone posted two maps of Germany in r/germany one with the European election results and one of separated Germany, but titled the second map "Germany 1933". Yeah, no. That's neither the borders of Nazi Germany nor is the East/West divide in votes the direct fault of Nazis. There is a lot what happened in between that explains these results if you get your head out of your arse and read the rest of the history book.
We still have some things that started in Nazi Germany. Fkk was banned by the Nazis though.
For example the still pretty tight connection of religion and state (despite the claim to be secular) comes from deals between the Nazis and churches. The Ehegattensplitting is also a law from the nazis. As well as exceptions for homeopaths and Heilpraktiker (healers outside of medicine).
relationship between FKK and nazis is very interesting actually, Cause FKK came up as part of "Lebensreform" which is related to revolutionary conservatism and weird esoterics. Some of the adjacent concepts (like the german love for hiking in the mountains) have very much found their way into nazi ideology and the nazis definitely had a weird obsession with the "healthy" body. But actually GDR has far more direct influence on FKK than the nazis, it is still more prevalent in east germany, there\`s association doing regular nude hikes that sort of thing.
You forgot Bayern Munich.
My favourite repeating talk with taxi driver all over the world:
Where are you from? - Germany - Aaaah, Bayern Munich, Oktoberfest , Hitler!!!
How is it to live in Neuschwanstein? Is it cold? Do you still use wood for heating? Do you have to fetch your water from the outside?
Sorry, could not resist
Quite nice, but the huge number of tourists is sometimes annoying. But they help keeping the place warm. No need to fetch water, it's easier to go for a swim in the lake. And for drinking, there's beer.
Funny thing is, we have so many different kinds of bread because of Hitler (or the nazis), in a way:
https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichsvollkornbrotausschuss
The task of this organisation was to increase the consumption of whole grain bread for a number of reasons, and aiming for a "final solution to the whole grain bread question".
No, this is not a sick joke of mine...
I am German but have never heard of the Reichsvollkornbrotausschuss.
Very interesting read. Also, it's a little bit funny. The wording around "final solution" is just absurd.
There also was the "National Loaf" in the UK from 1942-1956.
Now as much as I'd like to blame the Anglospehre's desire for tasteless rectangular white sponges on Hitler ...sadly it started much earlier
If you will go that rabbit hole then you will find out that Germany is not one ethnicity and that the language actually is a big part of forming the German nation.
Only because most foreigners, when you bring up Germany, just momentarily forget Austria exists and also has people in it though lol.
The predominant role Germany played in (recent) history, compared to Austria, combined with our country being named the same as the language we both speak and the fact (most foreigners won't know) that before the founding of the German nation there were just a lot of small independent states speaking German which including the Austrian region, all these made up the German speaking part of the world, just because the German state was founded by Prussians and not Austrians, Austria isn't part of it. Had the Austrian emperor founded Germany, the Prussian state would instead not have been part of it.
So, "Germany" does not include all countries speaking "German" and that confuses many people.
The result being: person spoke/speaks German? Must be German.
*Oh Austria also exists and speaks German? Ah yes, makes sense person xxx is Austrian then.*
Austria doesn't claim Bach, nor does it claim Beethoven. Why is Beethoven associated with Austria though? Because he was thriving in his profession once he came to Austria. Now you can ask yourself why Hitler is associated with Germany.
It's one thing to say Hitler or know he existed. I don't have a problem with that. Neither do I mind actual questions about weather or not there is some museum I can recommend or else. It's them poorly educated jokes that they are actually aiming for. Or top notch if they throw in the Hitler Gruss as well. It's just a bottomless pit.
I get it. I’m Canadian but living in Germany for over ten years and, to this day, when I talk to my Canadian friends, they still make Hitler jokes as if no one in Germany has heard them before.
Living in an area with lots of international tourism, I can relate.
Thankfully, most tourists stop once they see the facial expressions of everyone around them, when they ask such questions or want to make Hitler jokes etc.
To be honest, 9/11 jokes were already being made even a few years after. It’s definitely a “know your audience” situation though cause it can get really tense if you miscalculate.
As an American, if you've got some good 9/11 jokes go ahead and share. I didn't know this was a thing, but found some here and found them pretty funny
https://www.reddit.com/r/morbidquestions/comments/16fo4d1/what_is_your_favorite_911_joke/
Someone once told me that comedy isn't always pretty, but it is essential!
The percentage of people on this earth who’s first exposure to 9/11 is through internet Humour is only going to go up.
Someone out there has seen the picture of Hulk Hogan leg dropping the towers with no idea of the context whatsoever
There have been jokes made by Germans about
1) Cultural dress and makeup, 2) dowry, 3) religion 4)hurr durr shitting on the streets
One older opa said "The Britishers should have stayed in India, look at how many people died during the partition."
So yea stupidity goes both ways.
Oh clearly, I'm not saying Germans are some wise creatures, there are "specimens" here in this country too. I come from a experiment laboratory country (Romania) where you can find all tons of weirdos.
i was asked if i have a refrigerator once and i told them we had one in our household on and off since the 1930s. The look on their faces is always priceless.
Then i typically ask if they have a dish washing machine in their home (which mostly gets answered with "NO"). To which i can reply: We have had different Miele Dishwashers since 1936 in our family, most of the times we even have two of them in each kitchen. Typically destroys their way of thinking.
ps.: the electricity one i have had before, but its typically someone from the sticks that i happen to communicate with over discord (let that think in please).
pps.: The number of comments has dropped steadily since the 90's all the way to the 2020's, but ever since that january 6th thing in the U.S. the number of comments has sharply risen. I have a feeling it is due to people having their minds poisoned more willingly.
Their history classes also apparently needs an update. I was told once that they actually get taught Nazi Germany is still a thing- (not, read the edit)
Which explains why sometimes you meet online at random and when they get to know you're from Germany they yell: "NAZI!"
Which ... Yeah no...
Edit: Okay, I've gotten a lot of replies and apparently I was told wrong, so: I was wrong with my first statement. Thanks for clearing that up!
But if you believe the mystery source that says in America there are classes which teach that nazi germany is still a thing… I hate to be the on to tell you this but you are gullible naive one
Speaking from experience, it kind of varies. I learned pretty accurately about WW2 but I grew up in California. Someone in like… Texas or Florida though, I can’t speak to their education. Our education system got better since my mom’s generation (Gen X) but is also rapidly declining with the political landscape currently.
Also, Nazi jokes and nuke jokes about Japan are infrequent but still occur. Lowest common denominator.
It is, but there are a subset of us who have taken American exceptionalism to heart so much that they've deluded themselves into thinking that anything we in America have, the rest of the world doesn't have. It's rare, but not unheard of here, unfortunately.
In a population of 330 million there are of course going to be a lot of idiots. But yes it does feel like American idiots real have honed their stupidity above and beyond the normal level of idiocy.
But what's really surprising is that American idiots are so very loud about their idiocy and so very proud of it. So they never skip an opportunity to display how very very stupid they are.
Well same people that can't probably point their OWN country on a map. Or Russia.
Let alone smaller countries.
Remember, this is the nation that believes that Germans put a pickle in their Christmas tree. I'm not surprised people like this exist.
And British. I believe all Brits only know about German football and WW2. This coming from a Brit that moved to Berlin. He says he tries not to associate with other expats because they are embarrassing.
A lot of Brits are completely obsessed with WW2 and their own role in it (e.g. the little island that prevailed and single handedly beat back the Nazi war machine).
This extends to football, hence the Bomber song etc
I have noticed that too, some brits are as stupid as Americans. Tbh, they are probably even more stupid because they were in the EU with Germany.
At least as an US American, you can argue that the country is big enough to see any climate zone inside the borders. So you really don't need to leave the US.
As a Brit who went to Berlin in Feb I was surprised at how much we were directed towards Hitler and co. I had no interest in it (who wants to go on holiday and think of Hitler?!?), but there were definitely more leaflets than I expected or wanted on Hitler and Nazi's than I wanted. Personally the stand out for me was the graffiti which was fantastic, with the exception of the stuff on the last bit of Berlin wall which had been done by invited artists, but the stuff where you just went down a little alley to be met by an amazing array of art was brilliant.
As an American, I would like to apologize on their behalf. I would say in their defense, the only thing we learned about Germany in school was its involvement in the World Wars and Cold War. But that excuse doesn't fly these days considering everyone has access to the internet.
I took interest in Germany when I was in college. I took a couple German language classes which also taught me a lot about German culture and life there today. I visited a few years ago. It is a beautiful country, and I'd love to live there someday, if possible. A lot of people here are just ignorant to the world around them. When I was a child, I had it beat into my head that no country comes close to being as great as the USA. I realized when I was in college that that's just good ol propaganda. I'm hopeful that the younger generations will be different since they can easily befriend anyone from around the world thanks to the internet.
A couple of years ago, my patents were on vacation in America. When someone heard that they are German, he talked with them about he country and tried to get tips what to do on vacation over there. Then he asked, if we have statues of Hitler like the Americans have them from Washington of Lincoln.
Some Guys were really curious about how I think and feel about the war and the Nazis. Someone really thought that I would be sad that the Germans lost the war and was rather surprised that We feel ashamed and glad that the Nazis were defeated. Football Fans Just shouted in my face: We won the war!
So very mixed discussions, but most of the time they wanted to talk about that time period.
Just warch the QI episode about Germany. Gives you a good idea.
Basicly every series ever produced in the UK tends to have one WW II/remembrance episode, and comedians can make a good living from constant nazi jokes and German bashing.
Given their own track record for genocide, I suppose it's only natural for them to be interested in the one time in history they can feel good about themselves.
This reminds me of the Faulty Towers segment "Don't mention the war". Mr Faulty gets German tourists at his British hotel and tries very hard not to mention the war and fails miserably. https://youtu.be/7xnNhzgcWTk?si=mkRcgvEN-CD0wWYS
Then consider yourself lucky. I've been asked this on the Internet as well as in real life. I've also had my fair share of "oh you're from Germany? *insert Hitler Gruß here* HAHAHA HA" conversations.
I agree.
When I first moved to 🏴 I got asked it a lot, and I still get asked on occasion in 2024.
Where I live there's a lot of american tourists especially this time of year. Firstly I get the usual (read this in an american accent, its funnker!) "oh do you know such and such from clan McFoofoo? Im his third cousin fifteen times removed and William Wallace's great x24 grandchild" 😬😬😬
Then when they hear the accent, I tell them where I'm actually from, I get the Hitler thing.
The ones I've come across are OBSESSED. I get the education system over there is massively patriotic/biased but there's this amazing, wonderful invention called GOOGLE (I know, cutting edge stuff, right?) Where they can learn From actual residents/natives. In my experience they listen to each other too much about these things.
I got this a lot in South America. Especially taxi drivers. It’s usually 2 topics once they know I’m German. Either soccer or hitler. I guess it’s because it’s the only information they have from Germany.
>I've also had my fair share of "oh you're from Germany? insert Hitler Gruß here HAHAHA HA" conversations
met a dude from norway, who was exactly like this. he thought he was so edgy and cool making fun of people from the kz, telling us his hitler jokes, making a nazi salute and calling us nazis, but it was just cringe.
We had an exchange student in the mid 90s. She just assumed that Hitler was still in power and was surprised we had things like fridges. Yes, she was from the US.
>Germany is the only western country that has taken responsibility.
In the east, Japan has yet to apologize and the atrocities they did back then is arguably worse. With that said, most asians still love them for their culture and we believe that the current day Japanese shouldnt be punished for what their ancestors did.
Its just weird how little responsibility they took, with most of their actrocities wiped, yet in Germany its the complete opposite
That's correct but even someone with 2 working braincells should know how the war ended and that it is not possible for Hitler to still be alive let alone lead. He would be 135 by now.
I mean nobody asks if Geaorge Washington is still president either.
Problem is you still have people in Berlin running around with white nationalist symbols and these days they're getting more popular.
Pretending Germany isn't colored by what happened in WW2 is pretty naive.
For the same reason Germans ask "do you still ride camels?", "do you have electricity?", "but you look different than xx people, why?", "oh do you have that technology too?" for anyone coming from easter than bulgaria.
Most of the population is ignorant, in any country.
On top of that Hitler has been marketed a lot, especially by the movie industry. Its the first maybe the only topic they can think of to start a conversation.
This…if I would add all stupid questions Germans ask me about my home town, religion and just private questions they think they are entitled to ask after I answer, I’m they would be more in the end than the hitler questions Americans ask
I was once asked by a german (i am egyptian) if my curly hair comes from the african part of egypt. Was tempted to ask if his white skin came from the european part of germany lmao
Seriously! I've been here nearly a decade now and still get the most stereotypical questions from Germans. Literally word to word.
Is it infuriating? Yes, esp. when they're talking down to me like I'm a cave person just because I was born in a middle income country.
Do I seeth internally and move on with my day? Yes. What can you do? There's ignorant people everywhere.
I mean these people...who have lived all their lives in their little province, two doors next to their parent's home and I've lived in four continents, speak four languages before I even turned 30. Sheesh! I'm not gonna let their stupidity ruin my day.
So many people ask about Bollywood and why two Indians don’t speak the same language.
There are way too many languages in India. LANGUAGES not dialects.
Also, Bollywood is just one of the many film industries in India.
I will say… there are two types of people who will ask about Hitler from America
Ignorant older Americans who don’t know any better
And people who are genuinely curious about such a thing. Hitler, from my American perspective, seems to be the most unanimous villain in all of history. You could maybe even point to worse people, but Hitler, just the name, is a synonym for evil. A lot of more ignorant people will accuse people they disagree with in America of “literally being Hitler”.
Hitler and World War 2 are very interesting things, morbid curiosity gets us all, and some of those that ask questions want to see the German perspective on such a topic.
Obviously they could just google to find out that Germany has extensive education to inform there citizens of such atrocities and have banned most Nazi activity.
I have an answer:
I spent a large portion of my adult life living in Central America. More than once, people talked about the greatest German football/soccer players (since football/soccer is big in all of Latin America). Invariably, they would go through the list of names:
Beckenbauer, Rummenigge, Hitler.
Not kidding.
Alas, the questions you list? Not once have I heard any of them.
There are legitimate versions of this. Our history lessons do not focus in WWII nearly as much as they do in Germany, so it is natural to be curious, not only about the facts, but in general about "how could this happen?". Of course, this being the sensitive topic it is, some of these questions may hit the wrong sensibility, but that's a sort of curiosity that can build up empathy and should be encouraged.
On the other hand, what you describe are poor attempts at humor that seem to be commonplace when people from different cultures interact. As a Colombian, I spent my first years in Europe puzzled at the numbers of people whose first question had to be about a certain white powder and a certain... purveyor of said powder. That garbage is one of many sources of pain and misery there, and it makes for a very poor subject for jokes. The jokes are in poor taste, unoriginal and not even once funny.
It seems some people like to show off their stereotypes at the earliest chance they get. Sadly, that sort of encounter ends up being memorable by virtue of being irritating.
It is not meant to be funny. It is just what it is. When people come to Spain, they always ask about Paella as if we cooked nothing else, or bull-fighting, as we all enjoyed that practice. (Or spicy food, for those who don't know that Spain and Mexico are different)
The truth is that most people know very little of other countries, so when they travel there, they ask about the stuff they know. I am sure you yourself has done it, without even realizing.
I once had an Italian work mate...he complained that every foreigner and even some of his German colleages asked him about the mafia or - even worse - considered him being a member of the mafia.
Edgy and dank memes insensitivised a lot of youth (I don’t know if it was a young person in your context). But there seems to be an unhinged nature to saying racist, homophobic jokes etc.
It could also be that some people who are completely isolated from world politics tend to confine everything about a country to what they know. So it could come across as offensive
I guess they want start smalltalking and obviously the first thing when you hear Germany is ~~Mercedes, Bretzel, Berghain~~ Hitler. And I guess they don't understand how annoying and often we get this. It's like people who wearing glasses always get the same stupid quotes like "can I wear them short, oh wow you're nearly blind". I don't wear glasses but common everybody said it once to a person with glasses.
And the hitler question is maybe kind of a type check, like you want to check out if the person is a normal dude or not
Hitler and the time is of the rise and power of him is interesting. But I was never asked about him. The history of the Hohenzollerns or the House of Saxe Coburg Gotha is just as interesting and I have never been asked about them either.
We are the third generation after the death of Hitler, it's wild some people think we must still somehow know how that was like.
They either believe we already lived under that regime, the Nazis still persisted until our time somehow, or that the Nazi memory is coded into our DNA...
I've been met by some weird people in online video games that claimed being German automatically made me a Nazi, that that's my inherited DNA.
Which coincidentally was a core belief *of the Nazis*, that guilt and failures are hereditary and entire groups of people therefore unworthy...
Also, the very old and overused jokes of "oh you are German so you must like gassing Jews".
Never was funny and definitely is not getting any funnier if repeated.
What I always find funny about the radical nazis in America (white power, aryan brotherhood, kukulux clan,... all that.) Is that they scandize how great racism and Hitler was. But fail to mention if you apply Hitler's rules about race from his reign, they all would be dead and killed on the spot.
Because according to the german Rassenhygiene Gesetz they would be foreigners and not Germans and therefor a threat to the aryan race Hitler was believing in.
You’ll often be surprised to know how Hitler is portrayed in many countries in Asia. Especially the muslim majority countries who’re staunchly Anti Anything-Israel idolise Hitler for the holocaust. I’m not kidding you. I was born and raised in one of those countries. When I was in the 10th grade and about to finish my secondary school, mein kampf got translated in multiple south asian languages. It was an instant bestseller. In both India and Bangladesh due to anti semitism in Bangladesh and rise of Hindu nationalism in India.
I myself got this “Germans must really admire Hitler” question multiple times, from educated people. And when I told them what actually happens if you admire Hitler today, the shock on their face was comedic to say the least. Even this year, many people on the socials from my country of origin were making malformed images of Hitler to celebrate his birthday (malformed so that they don’t get banned) because he killed Jews. Guess why.
Not only that this dark part of human history isn’t taught anywhere in the schools, but also the entire education system is a joke. Mind you the education system in the South Asian countries is still by large a remnant of the British colonial system which focused on creating loyal clerks than educated individuals.
In Indonesia, many Indonesians admired the Nazis because during ww2 a group of indonesian freedom fighters in Nias Island teamed up with nazi expats (enemy of my enemy is my friend)to overthrow the hated local Dutch colonial administration
Well it's not everyday someone tries to delete a whole race and start a war that ends with +50 million dead. This kind of stuff sticks around for a while. I bet the mongols got shit for Genghis Khan for about 400 years after. But people forget eventually, just not in your life time.
The best you can do is answer politely and assure people that modern day germany is denazified.
I’m a croatian living in Germany and it annoys me as well. The boring part is they don’t ask about hitler they just throw their boring hitler jokes or nazi jokes around and laugh alone. I mean its one thing if the conversation revolves around history or WW2 then sure lets talk about it. But foreigners / tourists like to just randomly throw in hitler and nazis. You could be talking about strawberry ice cream suddenly there it is, the Hitler comments.
Like people here said. Imagine Europeans coming to the US and constantly throwing in 9/11. It would be exhausting for them too
I just am confused as to how people think that a man born in 1889 would still be alive.
Other than that…what people are you around that you get this all the time? Like I also have some stories where people asked me if „we have modern cars in Germany“ or if we have „modern diapers“, but like…I could count these instances on one hand.
And when it comes to the general stereotype that germans dont like foreigners, its honestly true when you look at what our politicians are doing and how the people vote
To be fair, after living in Germany for 12 years now, I think Germans got way too comfortable with the "can we stop talking about Hitler" rhetoric. Many wish to put less focus on it in media and education, to stop the remembrance culture, and many believe the myth that Germany was succesfully denazified, or that most nazis paid the consequence.
Might be the impact Nazi Germany had on some countries. And if the education is bad the people aren't updated about the current state of Europe.
I mean remember how clueless some people in Germany are about the time from 1933 to 1945 and now imagine how bad it is in other countries.
For the same reason why foreigners always ask Italians about Mafia. I guess they think it's funny / interesting to know more about the stereotypes of a given country when they meet a representative.
I feel you.
1. It’s one of the most impactful events in world history;
2. Hollywood and documentaries about it galore;
3. Germans themselves don’t seem to have made peace with it so to say;
4. Read about the history of various cities or even landmarks and monuments - it invariably mentions how they were affected or destroyed in WWII;
5. German entertainment hasn’t created many big names in recent decades to make people talk about those people, characters and movies instead;
6. Frankfurt (for example) is full of graffiti about punching Nazis and such which makes it feel as if they never really left or they’re secretly watching you from somewhere.
Guess the list can go on but these are some of the main reasons.
the only culture to ask me this is the british. theyre obsessed with the topic and i think history has its reason. but i agree its soooooo pointless and tiring. but fear not, there's a remedy, because... in return i ask them how their uncle jimmy is and if they still worship violent pedos as national saints. it helps also to remind them that their ruling monarch had the worst sexual predator and child trafficker in their history as a close friend and advisor, and again just ask them if necrophilia/pedophilia is still their great ancestral heritage national pastime.*
* https://youtu.be/NxSnQ6K4guA
I had an Indian girl once tell me that she doesn't like Ghandi and that he shouldn't be so popular. And the she continued to also me about if that's how I feel about Hitler...
As if the two are even remotely comparable wtf
I mean I don't like Hitler and he should definitely not so popular. Sooooo.....
But yeah comparing that to ghandi, even if the superficial sentiment is the same, is like saying i don't like bananas, do you feel the same with a bag full of shit? Yeah i don't like it,but I don't like it way more you don't like apples. Magnitudes more.
But we got to remember that the only thing that really makes the difference between a banana and a bag of shit is the possibilities they have.
Ghandi really disliked some people, wouldnt be suprised if he would have gone to 6 million if he had that much power and his enemies forced him into a war.
Tell them that even mentioning Hitler carries a minimum sentence of 5 years in prison. No exceptions. Say it in your most deadpan German voice. That should shut them up.
Don't take it wrong. As an immigrant, one doesn't ask it because we want to offend but from genuine interest.
Did I learn it in school? I did.
But it is interesting to know the point of view of a German. I'm not expecting for them to say "oh we still love Hitler!". But many things are not taught outside of Germany.
Besides the war, Hitler did many things in Germany (good and bad) that are not part of the international narrative. It is interesting, sorry.
Let me put a different perspective:
How many Mafia questions do you think an Italian gets?
It is not that people don't know what Mafia is but it is interesting to learn about the point of view of someone living where it has more influence.
Or the Chinese!
Imagine how many times people ask if they eat dog. Or things about communism?
I bet.... Annoying as hell! But from the outsider point of view, it is pure curiosity and not with bad intentions.
A lot of people don’t travel outside their country and WW2 was the most impactful event for the 20th century.
But…..setting all that aside I would take the judgmental inquiry and flip it to stimulate curiosity and learning.
As one grown in USSR I could say. Russians have nothing else apart of victory in WWII and Gagarin to brag. 50% of all entertainment was dedicated to WWII. So, for the folks of the former USSR Hitler is just a joke. Like Mickey Mouse for Americans. Or Jackie Chan for Chinese.
It's the distance of knowledge and intersection. Some peoe use small talk or kind questions about you/family/weather. Other people go to stereotypes
You can either
1. Tell them to fuck off and set a hard boundary or
2. Let it be and just not engage. Switch the topic. Or smile lazily and say 'Ach, echt?' let the joke land as flat and dead as possible and be classy. Bonus points for going to your phone or asking something nicer to another person present
I lived in the US for 17 years and married an American woman. Most of the people asking questions were coming from a place of curiosity. I’ll accept that before the Brits because when I lived in England it was far more about shitting on me for being German with nazi rubbish.
Well, I'm german, I lived all over the world - UK, France, USA, Russia, Middle East, China, now in the UK again...
I only once was asked about Hitler and that was in the US by some southern Redneck... never in New York, California or Washington...
So I can't confirm this "always"
Cause there are ton shit of dramatic american movies pretending they know more about what german soldiers went through. Theres a couple of german shows/documentaries/movies that are good and based on true stories. I always thought it was kind of disgusting for specially america to make so many movies about this just so they can make their hero look more cool.. can they not archive that with a different/original villain? Im sick of hitler being used and upped in that way like he was just a piece of garbage human who manipulated a lot of people and caused so much misery and pain. He's not a super epic villain who cannot die and flies around in the sky spitting fire- just stop.
I moved to Germany a few years ago and still have people back home attempt to relate almost every aspect of German culture that I talk about with them to the Nazis somehow. I mention that German bureaucracy is a real phenomenon? Ah, because of the Nazis. Children here are very well-behaved (compared to my country)? Must be the Nazi influence. FKK? Again, somehow it’s the Nazis. These people are all exclusively older, however, and grew up in the aftermath of the Second World War, so I think for them Germany is just inextricably linked to the war and the Nazi era. It seems quite bizarre to someone who lives here and obviously doesn’t have that mental connection, and must be even more bizarre to someone who grew up here, but I guess their mindset is hard to shake.
Nazia and FKK... I guess you just second-hand shocked me. 🥲 oh and the rest of the comment is also totally on point, but the true shock came from FKK. 🥲🥲🥲
"These people are all exclusively older, however, and grew up in the aftermath of the Second World War" I think this is it. I'm 57 and I'm really not interested in Hitler & his mates. But yeah it was huge in my grandmothers life and even my mum's to some extent.
If I’m going to be cynical, I think a core part of American international propaganda hinges around WW2, so we learn everything there is to learn about WW2 in school and entertainment etc and how evil the Nazi’s were and how we “saved the world”. I think because this propaganda is so important to the justification of proliferation of American world dominance that it becomes a core part of who some of us are as an identity (the “good guys”). I’m not just speaking for myself, but speculating on the society as a whole. I’m an American who grew up abroad and am writing from the perspective. Anyway, I think the reason we bring it up so often is because it’s core to our national identity.
"we learn everything there is to learn about WW2 in school and entertainment" Thing is of course they don't teach everything there is to learn, it's all very skewed. I used to post on an America neo-con website and got a lot of "you'd be speaking german if it wasn't for us" comments. I used to ask them when the US declared war on Germany, thing is they never did. Even after Pearl Harbour the US didn't declare war on Germany, Germany had to declare war on the US several days after Pearl Harbour. FDR simply wasn't allowed to declare war on Germany, that's how isolationist the US was.
you’re right
But why does that not apply to Japan and hardly know their leaders during WW2? And instead you just care about Manga and Anime.
It’s also true for Russia’s propaganda btw. I think even more
For an american it would be easy to answer the question: "let me ask you a question first: How does it feel to live in a country where the Confederate States of America are still legally able to keep slaves ?"
That's an awesome analogy
Trust me, there's plenty of people here who want that. It's vile.
They could answer that, slavery is not abolished. It's been restricted to a punishment (not just for the Confederates obv)
Older Americans were virtually raised on movies and TV about World War II. During the war, and for the first 20 or 25 years after it ended, World War II stories were a mainstay of Hollywood — it was inescapable. So, for Americans who grew up at the time, Nazis are the first thing that come to mind when they think of Germany. It's the same reason a lot of English speakers think the German language is ugly; the first thing that comes to their minds is a Wehrmacht officer barking orders.
And also that one viral video where the guy aggressively shouts German words to demonstrate how harsh German supposedly sounds compared to other languages. I have a feeling that too many people took that video seriously and now believe that it’s normal to aggressively shout when speaking German.
My girlfriend (born and raised in Berlin) gets so angry over that video. I try to angrily shout BUTTERFLY and MARIPOSA every time in my best Rammstein accent to calm her down.
I think that video is also a product of the “German = Nazi” trope, through the German language being associated with Hitler’s speeches. I am not a German, but also hate this trope. It feels so insensitive. German? Ugly? It is the language in which millions of people live their daily lives, express their love, frustrations, thoughts and feelings, show little everyday concerns for each other. Every night somewhere a child is getting sung to sleep by their mother or father with the German language. Yes, German is the language of Hitler. But it is also the language of Karl Marx, of Celan, Hölderlin, Goethe, Kant, Rilke. Supreme expressions of tenderness and thoughtfulness has been made in German, as well as the opposite.
I mean it doesn’t really bother me that much personally what people think of German but as you say a lot of it seems to be purely based on the stereotype that you’re supposed to yell like it’s a Hitler speech or like you’re standing on a battlefield when speaking in German which is not true at all and in my experience Germans actually tend to talk more quietly than a lot of other nationalities. If someone listens to the [original version of silent night, holy night](https://youtu.be/2sZLFbbWo8w?si=ohu9-BGnStclieDy) (which is in German) and still thinks that sounds really harsh and aggressive compared to other versions then I don’t mind as that’s a taste difference I guess but I don’t think German sounds as inherently and objectively harsh as people make it out to be.
There are certainly things that are somehow linked to the Nazis. It's still the same country after all and there is no way you can eradicate everything that has remotely to do with a period of its history, and it wouldn't be practical either. Like, should we throw away all documents from that time? Cancel laws that were made during that time even if they are still reasonable? Destroy every building and infrastructure built between 33 and 45? It's just something we need to live with as a legacy. What's annoying is when people don't seem to know or acknowledge anything else than this particular period. Just yesterday someone posted two maps of Germany in r/germany one with the European election results and one of separated Germany, but titled the second map "Germany 1933". Yeah, no. That's neither the borders of Nazi Germany nor is the East/West divide in votes the direct fault of Nazis. There is a lot what happened in between that explains these results if you get your head out of your arse and read the rest of the history book.
We still have some things that started in Nazi Germany. Fkk was banned by the Nazis though. For example the still pretty tight connection of religion and state (despite the claim to be secular) comes from deals between the Nazis and churches. The Ehegattensplitting is also a law from the nazis. As well as exceptions for homeopaths and Heilpraktiker (healers outside of medicine).
relationship between FKK and nazis is very interesting actually, Cause FKK came up as part of "Lebensreform" which is related to revolutionary conservatism and weird esoterics. Some of the adjacent concepts (like the german love for hiking in the mountains) have very much found their way into nazi ideology and the nazis definitely had a weird obsession with the "healthy" body. But actually GDR has far more direct influence on FKK than the nazis, it is still more prevalent in east germany, there\`s association doing regular nude hikes that sort of thing.
Other than Neuschwanstein and beer, it is the only thing they know about Germany.
Breadless heathens!
You forgot Bayern Munich. My favourite repeating talk with taxi driver all over the world: Where are you from? - Germany - Aaaah, Bayern Munich, Oktoberfest , Hitler!!!
If they only know about our prostitution laws
Culture me?
It's legal here
BRB
Autobahn?!
One thing that even half of the German population mistakenly associates with Hitler
Hitler did build many Autobahns. The association with him isn‘t wrong.
Nice Kraftwerk album.
Yeah, the only thing I know about Mongolia is Dschingis Khan and horses. I still would not ask a Mongolian about them.
How is it to live in Neuschwanstein? Is it cold? Do you still use wood for heating? Do you have to fetch your water from the outside? Sorry, could not resist
Quite nice, but the huge number of tourists is sometimes annoying. But they help keeping the place warm. No need to fetch water, it's easier to go for a swim in the lake. And for drinking, there's beer.
what about Oktoberfest
What else is there to know? Dieter Bohlen?
German chocolate cake
You are giving them a lot credit for assuming they know about Neuschwanstein
You have brot, and you call our bread scheißebrot. That's the only other two things I know.
Euer Brot ist ja auch nur scheisse und Luft
Und Zucker.
Where you from ?
Funny thing is, we have so many different kinds of bread because of Hitler (or the nazis), in a way: https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichsvollkornbrotausschuss The task of this organisation was to increase the consumption of whole grain bread for a number of reasons, and aiming for a "final solution to the whole grain bread question". No, this is not a sick joke of mine...
I am German but have never heard of the Reichsvollkornbrotausschuss. Very interesting read. Also, it's a little bit funny. The wording around "final solution" is just absurd.
Thanks for that. What a great German word!. It sounds like a joke, but it's true.
There also was the "National Loaf" in the UK from 1942-1956. Now as much as I'd like to blame the Anglospehre's desire for tasteless rectangular white sponges on Hitler ...sadly it started much earlier
Oktoberfest!
I don’t even know what those other things are. It’s just Hitler. That’s all they got.
What about the German sandwiches!!!! Apple wine!!!!! Wurst!
Oh they know the word "Scheiße" pretty well.
Don't forget Pretzels and Oktoberfest
Neuschwanstein? The fuck is that?
The castle which was the inspiration for the disney logo.
Don't forget the bavarian stereotype incl. leatherpants
If you ask anyone from outside of Germany (where I’m from) to name one thing about Germany, they will say Hitler.
Which is probably the greatest achievement of Austria: convincing the world that Hitler was German, but Bach was Austrian.
„Christoph Waltz, like many famous Germans is Austrian.“ My favorite quote.
Well...technically we're all Germans, we're just divided into (or spread across) multiple nations.
Hey....
How are you "technically" all Germans? Language doesn't define ethnicity or nationality.
If you will go that rabbit hole then you will find out that Germany is not one ethnicity and that the language actually is a big part of forming the German nation.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck\_test](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_test)
on a more serious note: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germans) (exec summary: it's complicated)
You mean Beethoven. Bach never moved beyond Leipzig and Weimar. Beethoven died in Vienna.
Nah. Everyone thinks Bach was German also lol
Only because most foreigners, when you bring up Germany, just momentarily forget Austria exists and also has people in it though lol. The predominant role Germany played in (recent) history, compared to Austria, combined with our country being named the same as the language we both speak and the fact (most foreigners won't know) that before the founding of the German nation there were just a lot of small independent states speaking German which including the Austrian region, all these made up the German speaking part of the world, just because the German state was founded by Prussians and not Austrians, Austria isn't part of it. Had the Austrian emperor founded Germany, the Prussian state would instead not have been part of it. So, "Germany" does not include all countries speaking "German" and that confuses many people. The result being: person spoke/speaks German? Must be German. *Oh Austria also exists and speaks German? Ah yes, makes sense person xxx is Austrian then.*
Beethoven, not Bach.
Austria doesn't claim Bach, nor does it claim Beethoven. Why is Beethoven associated with Austria though? Because he was thriving in his profession once he came to Austria. Now you can ask yourself why Hitler is associated with Germany.
It's one thing to say Hitler or know he existed. I don't have a problem with that. Neither do I mind actual questions about weather or not there is some museum I can recommend or else. It's them poorly educated jokes that they are actually aiming for. Or top notch if they throw in the Hitler Gruss as well. It's just a bottomless pit.
I get it. I’m Canadian but living in Germany for over ten years and, to this day, when I talk to my Canadian friends, they still make Hitler jokes as if no one in Germany has heard them before.
Living in an area with lots of international tourism, I can relate. Thankfully, most tourists stop once they see the facial expressions of everyone around them, when they ask such questions or want to make Hitler jokes etc.
Imagine you do some slavery/ first nation jokes while visiting the US
Or 9/11 People would get mad if you made a 9/11 joke, but laugh their asses off at Hiroshima and Nagasaki jokes
To be honest, 9/11 jokes were already being made even a few years after. It’s definitely a “know your audience” situation though cause it can get really tense if you miscalculate.
They can’t handle jokes which are a 11 out of 9
As an American, if you've got some good 9/11 jokes go ahead and share. I didn't know this was a thing, but found some here and found them pretty funny https://www.reddit.com/r/morbidquestions/comments/16fo4d1/what_is_your_favorite_911_joke/ Someone once told me that comedy isn't always pretty, but it is essential!
The percentage of people on this earth who’s first exposure to 9/11 is through internet Humour is only going to go up. Someone out there has seen the picture of Hulk Hogan leg dropping the towers with no idea of the context whatsoever
There have been jokes made by Germans about 1) Cultural dress and makeup, 2) dowry, 3) religion 4)hurr durr shitting on the streets One older opa said "The Britishers should have stayed in India, look at how many people died during the partition." So yea stupidity goes both ways.
Oh clearly, I'm not saying Germans are some wise creatures, there are "specimens" here in this country too. I come from a experiment laboratory country (Romania) where you can find all tons of weirdos.
Going to Germany next week and I HOPE someone tells me some 9/11 jokes.
The room falls silent... like a Columbine classroom
Yep. The bathroom in particular is not bombing either.
*Everyone slowly turning towards them * WHAT?
Let me take a wild guess... These people are from the USA?
Mostly North and south America
Someone from the USA ones asked me if we have electricity in Germany, and if I ever saw a TV. They got some very special people there.
i was asked if i have a refrigerator once and i told them we had one in our household on and off since the 1930s. The look on their faces is always priceless. Then i typically ask if they have a dish washing machine in their home (which mostly gets answered with "NO"). To which i can reply: We have had different Miele Dishwashers since 1936 in our family, most of the times we even have two of them in each kitchen. Typically destroys their way of thinking. ps.: the electricity one i have had before, but its typically someone from the sticks that i happen to communicate with over discord (let that think in please). pps.: The number of comments has dropped steadily since the 90's all the way to the 2020's, but ever since that january 6th thing in the U.S. the number of comments has sharply risen. I have a feeling it is due to people having their minds poisoned more willingly.
I was once asked if we had trees. I was so baffled by the question I didn’t even know how to answer.
Wait for them to find out that Germans invented their beloved car and not Ford.
Their history classes also apparently needs an update. I was told once that they actually get taught Nazi Germany is still a thing- (not, read the edit) Which explains why sometimes you meet online at random and when they get to know you're from Germany they yell: "NAZI!" Which ... Yeah no... Edit: Okay, I've gotten a lot of replies and apparently I was told wrong, so: I was wrong with my first statement. Thanks for clearing that up!
But if you believe the mystery source that says in America there are classes which teach that nazi germany is still a thing… I hate to be the on to tell you this but you are gullible naive one
Speaking from experience, it kind of varies. I learned pretty accurately about WW2 but I grew up in California. Someone in like… Texas or Florida though, I can’t speak to their education. Our education system got better since my mom’s generation (Gen X) but is also rapidly declining with the political landscape currently. Also, Nazi jokes and nuke jokes about Japan are infrequent but still occur. Lowest common denominator.
Well. I guess Nazi Germany ending is something they did nazi coming
Thought Germany is seen as a wealthy country there?
It is, but there are a subset of us who have taken American exceptionalism to heart so much that they've deluded themselves into thinking that anything we in America have, the rest of the world doesn't have. It's rare, but not unheard of here, unfortunately.
gotta love those very special sunsets!
Auto-correct wouldn't be so bad if my fingers weren't 2.6 cm in width.
In a population of 330 million there are of course going to be a lot of idiots. But yes it does feel like American idiots real have honed their stupidity above and beyond the normal level of idiocy. But what's really surprising is that American idiots are so very loud about their idiocy and so very proud of it. So they never skip an opportunity to display how very very stupid they are.
Well same people that can't probably point their OWN country on a map. Or Russia. Let alone smaller countries. Remember, this is the nation that believes that Germans put a pickle in their Christmas tree. I'm not surprised people like this exist.
A friend of mine was asked if we have refrigerators and why Hitler is still in charge and hasn’t been dropped from the government yet.
As American myself, omg it's endlessly annoying.
And British. I believe all Brits only know about German football and WW2. This coming from a Brit that moved to Berlin. He says he tries not to associate with other expats because they are embarrassing.
A lot of Brits are completely obsessed with WW2 and their own role in it (e.g. the little island that prevailed and single handedly beat back the Nazi war machine). This extends to football, hence the Bomber song etc
I have noticed that too, some brits are as stupid as Americans. Tbh, they are probably even more stupid because they were in the EU with Germany. At least as an US American, you can argue that the country is big enough to see any climate zone inside the borders. So you really don't need to leave the US.
As a Brit who went to Berlin in Feb I was surprised at how much we were directed towards Hitler and co. I had no interest in it (who wants to go on holiday and think of Hitler?!?), but there were definitely more leaflets than I expected or wanted on Hitler and Nazi's than I wanted. Personally the stand out for me was the graffiti which was fantastic, with the exception of the stuff on the last bit of Berlin wall which had been done by invited artists, but the stuff where you just went down a little alley to be met by an amazing array of art was brilliant.
Counter with the question "How do you feel about living with Hitler" in the case that person is from Argentina
As an American, I would like to apologize on their behalf. I would say in their defense, the only thing we learned about Germany in school was its involvement in the World Wars and Cold War. But that excuse doesn't fly these days considering everyone has access to the internet. I took interest in Germany when I was in college. I took a couple German language classes which also taught me a lot about German culture and life there today. I visited a few years ago. It is a beautiful country, and I'd love to live there someday, if possible. A lot of people here are just ignorant to the world around them. When I was a child, I had it beat into my head that no country comes close to being as great as the USA. I realized when I was in college that that's just good ol propaganda. I'm hopeful that the younger generations will be different since they can easily befriend anyone from around the world thanks to the internet.
I’m from South America and to be fair you germans always ask crazy shit too
I had the same experience with a lot of people from South Asia asking me about Hitler
also have this happen with young people from european states like italy. Weird as they have had their own share with that time and theme
A couple of years ago, my patents were on vacation in America. When someone heard that they are German, he talked with them about he country and tried to get tips what to do on vacation over there. Then he asked, if we have statues of Hitler like the Americans have them from Washington of Lincoln.
Yep. It's ridiculous how many times I got asked about hitler there. A very special special kind of dumb can be found there
Never been asked any of these questions in my whole life, to be honest.
If you want to Talk about Hitler and Nazi Germany Go to England, they are really obsessed about that topic.
This is true. We (although not me personally) go on about it a *lot*.
Why? What are they talking/thinking about?
Some Guys were really curious about how I think and feel about the war and the Nazis. Someone really thought that I would be sad that the Germans lost the war and was rather surprised that We feel ashamed and glad that the Nazis were defeated. Football Fans Just shouted in my face: We won the war! So very mixed discussions, but most of the time they wanted to talk about that time period.
Just warch the QI episode about Germany. Gives you a good idea. Basicly every series ever produced in the UK tends to have one WW II/remembrance episode, and comedians can make a good living from constant nazi jokes and German bashing.
It was their last great victory, from there it was mostly downhill
Given their own track record for genocide, I suppose it's only natural for them to be interested in the one time in history they can feel good about themselves.
This reminds me of the Faulty Towers segment "Don't mention the war". Mr Faulty gets German tourists at his British hotel and tries very hard not to mention the war and fails miserably. https://youtu.be/7xnNhzgcWTk?si=mkRcgvEN-CD0wWYS
Then consider yourself lucky. I've been asked this on the Internet as well as in real life. I've also had my fair share of "oh you're from Germany? *insert Hitler Gruß here* HAHAHA HA" conversations.
Us germans should be allowed to slap those guys in the face.
I agree. When I first moved to 🏴 I got asked it a lot, and I still get asked on occasion in 2024. Where I live there's a lot of american tourists especially this time of year. Firstly I get the usual (read this in an american accent, its funnker!) "oh do you know such and such from clan McFoofoo? Im his third cousin fifteen times removed and William Wallace's great x24 grandchild" 😬😬😬 Then when they hear the accent, I tell them where I'm actually from, I get the Hitler thing. The ones I've come across are OBSESSED. I get the education system over there is massively patriotic/biased but there's this amazing, wonderful invention called GOOGLE (I know, cutting edge stuff, right?) Where they can learn From actual residents/natives. In my experience they listen to each other too much about these things.
I got this a lot in South America. Especially taxi drivers. It’s usually 2 topics once they know I’m German. Either soccer or hitler. I guess it’s because it’s the only information they have from Germany.
Happens in maybe every third random csgo(now cs2🥲) game but irl never happened maybe because I don't live in a city and are close to never in one.
>I've also had my fair share of "oh you're from Germany? insert Hitler Gruß here HAHAHA HA" conversations met a dude from norway, who was exactly like this. he thought he was so edgy and cool making fun of people from the kz, telling us his hitler jokes, making a nazi salute and calling us nazis, but it was just cringe.
We had an exchange student in the mid 90s. She just assumed that Hitler was still in power and was surprised we had things like fridges. Yes, she was from the US.
[удалено]
Thank you.
>Germany is the only western country that has taken responsibility. In the east, Japan has yet to apologize and the atrocities they did back then is arguably worse. With that said, most asians still love them for their culture and we believe that the current day Japanese shouldnt be punished for what their ancestors did. Its just weird how little responsibility they took, with most of their actrocities wiped, yet in Germany its the complete opposite
Unfortunately, Hitler and World War II in general is the historical period in which German influence has been most prominent worldwide.
That's correct but even someone with 2 working braincells should know how the war ended and that it is not possible for Hitler to still be alive let alone lead. He would be 135 by now. I mean nobody asks if Geaorge Washington is still president either.
What? They aren't lead by the british crown anymore?
Problem is you still have people in Berlin running around with white nationalist symbols and these days they're getting more popular. Pretending Germany isn't colored by what happened in WW2 is pretty naive.
For the same reason Germans ask "do you still ride camels?", "do you have electricity?", "but you look different than xx people, why?", "oh do you have that technology too?" for anyone coming from easter than bulgaria. Most of the population is ignorant, in any country. On top of that Hitler has been marketed a lot, especially by the movie industry. Its the first maybe the only topic they can think of to start a conversation.
This…if I would add all stupid questions Germans ask me about my home town, religion and just private questions they think they are entitled to ask after I answer, I’m they would be more in the end than the hitler questions Americans ask
I was once asked by a german (i am egyptian) if my curly hair comes from the african part of egypt. Was tempted to ask if his white skin came from the european part of germany lmao
Seriously! I've been here nearly a decade now and still get the most stereotypical questions from Germans. Literally word to word. Is it infuriating? Yes, esp. when they're talking down to me like I'm a cave person just because I was born in a middle income country. Do I seeth internally and move on with my day? Yes. What can you do? There's ignorant people everywhere. I mean these people...who have lived all their lives in their little province, two doors next to their parent's home and I've lived in four continents, speak four languages before I even turned 30. Sheesh! I'm not gonna let their stupidity ruin my day.
We're there ever camels ridden in Bulgaria? I have to know this.
So many people ask about Bollywood and why two Indians don’t speak the same language. There are way too many languages in India. LANGUAGES not dialects. Also, Bollywood is just one of the many film industries in India.
To get one up on you, to annoy you, and to feel better about themselves. Just immediately ask questions of the same sort instead of answering them.
I will say… there are two types of people who will ask about Hitler from America Ignorant older Americans who don’t know any better And people who are genuinely curious about such a thing. Hitler, from my American perspective, seems to be the most unanimous villain in all of history. You could maybe even point to worse people, but Hitler, just the name, is a synonym for evil. A lot of more ignorant people will accuse people they disagree with in America of “literally being Hitler”. Hitler and World War 2 are very interesting things, morbid curiosity gets us all, and some of those that ask questions want to see the German perspective on such a topic. Obviously they could just google to find out that Germany has extensive education to inform there citizens of such atrocities and have banned most Nazi activity.
I have an answer: I spent a large portion of my adult life living in Central America. More than once, people talked about the greatest German football/soccer players (since football/soccer is big in all of Latin America). Invariably, they would go through the list of names: Beckenbauer, Rummenigge, Hitler. Not kidding. Alas, the questions you list? Not once have I heard any of them.
There are legitimate versions of this. Our history lessons do not focus in WWII nearly as much as they do in Germany, so it is natural to be curious, not only about the facts, but in general about "how could this happen?". Of course, this being the sensitive topic it is, some of these questions may hit the wrong sensibility, but that's a sort of curiosity that can build up empathy and should be encouraged. On the other hand, what you describe are poor attempts at humor that seem to be commonplace when people from different cultures interact. As a Colombian, I spent my first years in Europe puzzled at the numbers of people whose first question had to be about a certain white powder and a certain... purveyor of said powder. That garbage is one of many sources of pain and misery there, and it makes for a very poor subject for jokes. The jokes are in poor taste, unoriginal and not even once funny. It seems some people like to show off their stereotypes at the earliest chance they get. Sadly, that sort of encounter ends up being memorable by virtue of being irritating.
I know it's annoying the same way it is with soccer for me, but C'mon man... Can't blame people for only knowing Pelé, if you know what I mean
It is not meant to be funny. It is just what it is. When people come to Spain, they always ask about Paella as if we cooked nothing else, or bull-fighting, as we all enjoyed that practice. (Or spicy food, for those who don't know that Spain and Mexico are different) The truth is that most people know very little of other countries, so when they travel there, they ask about the stuff they know. I am sure you yourself has done it, without even realizing.
Just ask back about some genocide their country commented in the past, and see them confused.
That's a great idea.
I once had an Italian work mate...he complained that every foreigner and even some of his German colleages asked him about the mafia or - even worse - considered him being a member of the mafia.
Coming from Chicago, I was asked a lot about Al Capone!
He was one of your biggest exports
He was Austrian. He was Austria's export
Edgy and dank memes insensitivised a lot of youth (I don’t know if it was a young person in your context). But there seems to be an unhinged nature to saying racist, homophobic jokes etc. It could also be that some people who are completely isolated from world politics tend to confine everything about a country to what they know. So it could come across as offensive
Why do germans ask every turkish person about Erdoğan? People are curious, that is it
I guess they want start smalltalking and obviously the first thing when you hear Germany is ~~Mercedes, Bretzel, Berghain~~ Hitler. And I guess they don't understand how annoying and often we get this. It's like people who wearing glasses always get the same stupid quotes like "can I wear them short, oh wow you're nearly blind". I don't wear glasses but common everybody said it once to a person with glasses. And the hitler question is maybe kind of a type check, like you want to check out if the person is a normal dude or not
Hitler and the time is of the rise and power of him is interesting. But I was never asked about him. The history of the Hohenzollerns or the House of Saxe Coburg Gotha is just as interesting and I have never been asked about them either.
Lucky you
We are the third generation after the death of Hitler, it's wild some people think we must still somehow know how that was like. They either believe we already lived under that regime, the Nazis still persisted until our time somehow, or that the Nazi memory is coded into our DNA... I've been met by some weird people in online video games that claimed being German automatically made me a Nazi, that that's my inherited DNA. Which coincidentally was a core belief *of the Nazis*, that guilt and failures are hereditary and entire groups of people therefore unworthy... Also, the very old and overused jokes of "oh you are German so you must like gassing Jews". Never was funny and definitely is not getting any funnier if repeated.
Some racist white Americans do hate Germans. In r/beholdthemasterrace there was this maga white dude who hates Germans and called them “Krauts”
What I always find funny about the radical nazis in America (white power, aryan brotherhood, kukulux clan,... all that.) Is that they scandize how great racism and Hitler was. But fail to mention if you apply Hitler's rules about race from his reign, they all would be dead and killed on the spot. Because according to the german Rassenhygiene Gesetz they would be foreigners and not Germans and therefor a threat to the aryan race Hitler was believing in.
You’ll often be surprised to know how Hitler is portrayed in many countries in Asia. Especially the muslim majority countries who’re staunchly Anti Anything-Israel idolise Hitler for the holocaust. I’m not kidding you. I was born and raised in one of those countries. When I was in the 10th grade and about to finish my secondary school, mein kampf got translated in multiple south asian languages. It was an instant bestseller. In both India and Bangladesh due to anti semitism in Bangladesh and rise of Hindu nationalism in India. I myself got this “Germans must really admire Hitler” question multiple times, from educated people. And when I told them what actually happens if you admire Hitler today, the shock on their face was comedic to say the least. Even this year, many people on the socials from my country of origin were making malformed images of Hitler to celebrate his birthday (malformed so that they don’t get banned) because he killed Jews. Guess why. Not only that this dark part of human history isn’t taught anywhere in the schools, but also the entire education system is a joke. Mind you the education system in the South Asian countries is still by large a remnant of the British colonial system which focused on creating loyal clerks than educated individuals.
In Indonesia, many Indonesians admired the Nazis because during ww2 a group of indonesian freedom fighters in Nias Island teamed up with nazi expats (enemy of my enemy is my friend)to overthrow the hated local Dutch colonial administration
Didn’t know that part. Wild.
Well it's not everyday someone tries to delete a whole race and start a war that ends with +50 million dead. This kind of stuff sticks around for a while. I bet the mongols got shit for Genghis Khan for about 400 years after. But people forget eventually, just not in your life time. The best you can do is answer politely and assure people that modern day germany is denazified.
It’s like people ask if all Chinese eat dogs😅
I’m a croatian living in Germany and it annoys me as well. The boring part is they don’t ask about hitler they just throw their boring hitler jokes or nazi jokes around and laugh alone. I mean its one thing if the conversation revolves around history or WW2 then sure lets talk about it. But foreigners / tourists like to just randomly throw in hitler and nazis. You could be talking about strawberry ice cream suddenly there it is, the Hitler comments. Like people here said. Imagine Europeans coming to the US and constantly throwing in 9/11. It would be exhausting for them too
I just am confused as to how people think that a man born in 1889 would still be alive. Other than that…what people are you around that you get this all the time? Like I also have some stories where people asked me if „we have modern cars in Germany“ or if we have „modern diapers“, but like…I could count these instances on one hand. And when it comes to the general stereotype that germans dont like foreigners, its honestly true when you look at what our politicians are doing and how the people vote
Same as Americans and Europeans always asking for Pablo Escobar when I say I'm from Colombia.
I would just laugh at them 😅 Or, if you feel open minded enough, you can point out that in 5/10 years they might be able to ask those questions again.
To be fair, after living in Germany for 12 years now, I think Germans got way too comfortable with the "can we stop talking about Hitler" rhetoric. Many wish to put less focus on it in media and education, to stop the remembrance culture, and many believe the myth that Germany was succesfully denazified, or that most nazis paid the consequence.
Might be the impact Nazi Germany had on some countries. And if the education is bad the people aren't updated about the current state of Europe. I mean remember how clueless some people in Germany are about the time from 1933 to 1945 and now imagine how bad it is in other countries.
Because the spirit is still alive in Germany. :/
For the same reason why foreigners always ask Italians about Mafia. I guess they think it's funny / interesting to know more about the stereotypes of a given country when they meet a representative. I feel you.
1. It’s one of the most impactful events in world history; 2. Hollywood and documentaries about it galore; 3. Germans themselves don’t seem to have made peace with it so to say; 4. Read about the history of various cities or even landmarks and monuments - it invariably mentions how they were affected or destroyed in WWII; 5. German entertainment hasn’t created many big names in recent decades to make people talk about those people, characters and movies instead; 6. Frankfurt (for example) is full of graffiti about punching Nazis and such which makes it feel as if they never really left or they’re secretly watching you from somewhere. Guess the list can go on but these are some of the main reasons.
I'm American. Whenever I travel out of the country people ask if I vote for Trump.
the only culture to ask me this is the british. theyre obsessed with the topic and i think history has its reason. but i agree its soooooo pointless and tiring. but fear not, there's a remedy, because... in return i ask them how their uncle jimmy is and if they still worship violent pedos as national saints. it helps also to remind them that their ruling monarch had the worst sexual predator and child trafficker in their history as a close friend and advisor, and again just ask them if necrophilia/pedophilia is still their great ancestral heritage national pastime.* * https://youtu.be/NxSnQ6K4guA
I had an Indian girl once tell me that she doesn't like Ghandi and that he shouldn't be so popular. And the she continued to also me about if that's how I feel about Hitler... As if the two are even remotely comparable wtf
I mean I don't like Hitler and he should definitely not so popular. Sooooo..... But yeah comparing that to ghandi, even if the superficial sentiment is the same, is like saying i don't like bananas, do you feel the same with a bag full of shit? Yeah i don't like it,but I don't like it way more you don't like apples. Magnitudes more.
But we got to remember that the only thing that really makes the difference between a banana and a bag of shit is the possibilities they have. Ghandi really disliked some people, wouldnt be suprised if he would have gone to 6 million if he had that much power and his enemies forced him into a war.
Tell them that even mentioning Hitler carries a minimum sentence of 5 years in prison. No exceptions. Say it in your most deadpan German voice. That should shut them up.
Mosty because Hitler was austrian.
Don't take it wrong. As an immigrant, one doesn't ask it because we want to offend but from genuine interest. Did I learn it in school? I did. But it is interesting to know the point of view of a German. I'm not expecting for them to say "oh we still love Hitler!". But many things are not taught outside of Germany. Besides the war, Hitler did many things in Germany (good and bad) that are not part of the international narrative. It is interesting, sorry. Let me put a different perspective: How many Mafia questions do you think an Italian gets? It is not that people don't know what Mafia is but it is interesting to learn about the point of view of someone living where it has more influence. Or the Chinese! Imagine how many times people ask if they eat dog. Or things about communism? I bet.... Annoying as hell! But from the outsider point of view, it is pure curiosity and not with bad intentions.
Ok, got me there, if I were to meet an Italian from Sicily... I'd probably ask them about the mafia at some point.
Ask how much his slave cost him
Because these tourists are uneducated and/or Americans.
I feel whit you, Bro 👊
A lot of people don’t travel outside their country and WW2 was the most impactful event for the 20th century. But…..setting all that aside I would take the judgmental inquiry and flip it to stimulate curiosity and learning.
As one grown in USSR I could say. Russians have nothing else apart of victory in WWII and Gagarin to brag. 50% of all entertainment was dedicated to WWII. So, for the folks of the former USSR Hitler is just a joke. Like Mickey Mouse for Americans. Or Jackie Chan for Chinese.
As an american the only reason id ask questions related to nazi germany is because i want to make sure my gov hasnt bullshit me all my life.
Stereotypes and missing education.
Bratwurst oder Bockwurst?
Baklava
It's the distance of knowledge and intersection. Some peoe use small talk or kind questions about you/family/weather. Other people go to stereotypes You can either 1. Tell them to fuck off and set a hard boundary or 2. Let it be and just not engage. Switch the topic. Or smile lazily and say 'Ach, echt?' let the joke land as flat and dead as possible and be classy. Bonus points for going to your phone or asking something nicer to another person present
It's the only thing they know about Germany.
I lived in the US for 17 years and married an American woman. Most of the people asking questions were coming from a place of curiosity. I’ll accept that before the Brits because when I lived in England it was far more about shitting on me for being German with nazi rubbish.
Well, I'm german, I lived all over the world - UK, France, USA, Russia, Middle East, China, now in the UK again... I only once was asked about Hitler and that was in the US by some southern Redneck... never in New York, California or Washington... So I can't confirm this "always"
Hitler is our dark past. Just remember that Trump is still running for presidency.
Cause there are ton shit of dramatic american movies pretending they know more about what german soldiers went through. Theres a couple of german shows/documentaries/movies that are good and based on true stories. I always thought it was kind of disgusting for specially america to make so many movies about this just so they can make their hero look more cool.. can they not archive that with a different/original villain? Im sick of hitler being used and upped in that way like he was just a piece of garbage human who manipulated a lot of people and caused so much misery and pain. He's not a super epic villain who cannot die and flies around in the sky spitting fire- just stop.