Perception

From the Migration Period (400-800 AD) until nowadays Central Europe had a turbulent history of changes. Though the number of violent conflicts between ethnic groups and states fortunately have been decreasing during the last decades, many of them are still remembered. As especially the early years of the mentioned period throw a light on the development of Germanic Languages in Central Europe I am going to tell more about them in one of my next entries. But first I want to address the chapter that still seems to be the main focus for most people who live in and/or are interested in this region: The Third Reich. 


Nazi Germany officially ended with the German Instrument of Surrender on May 8, 1945 - exactly 22 years before I was born, more than 67 years from today. And after 67 years the ideology of the Third Reich and its impact on people in and outside Germany still provides the basis for political decisions, historical research, school lessons, university lectures, admissions and assignments of guilt, novels and movies.


During my time as a student it was the main topic in many school years in History, Geography, German and Religion lessons. I had to write many exams and essays about it, so I will happily drop the chance to do here again. We also had to read many books and watch many films of different qualities related to the topic and though this also is over 20 years ago, every year new books are published and new films are made. 


Not long ago I had a conversation about that with  my partner in life. He uttered the opinion that as long as it was fiction there was no need for any resemblance to reality. The reader of the book or the audience of the movie would not expect to learn about historical facts and details. They only wanted to be entertained. Thinking of quite a number of movies I happened to watch, I can only hope this distinguished opinion of my best-of-all-men is wide-spread. 


If I had to name one book that provides an impression as serious as authentic I would select "LTI - Lingua Tertii Imperii, Notizbuch eines Philologen" by Victor Klemperer. In a very rational manner it deals with the alterations the Nazis contributed to the German language, their way of using, misusing and assaulting it, and by doing this using, misusing and assaulting people. From the view of a philologist Klemperer also displays a view on history and nature of the folks, that was developing these alterations and expressing itself in these terms. For advanced students of German and those who are interested in more than the every-day use of the Standard German language, the book might also provide some revealing insight into nowadays use of German, heated discussions about certain terms in the media, that we might call "LTI-terms" following the book, and the sensitivity of some German social groups as well as the willfull repetition habit of others.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTI_-_Lingua_Tertii_Imperii

http://www.amazon.com/Language-Third-Reich-Lingua-Imperii/dp/0826491308/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338822043&sr=8-1

An insider-movie that seems to be worth watching is one by director Michael Verhoeven about the youth of Anna Rosmus, a German - well, seen from here, Bavarian - author now living in the United States of America. It has won several awards and I recently found it subtitled on youtube:

Anna - here called Sonja - a school girl in the aftermath of the Third Reich develops an interest in the nazi past of her town and decides to do research and write an essay about it ... As entertaining as the movie seems to be and whether it really displays an exact copy of what truly had happened in Mrs. Rosmus' youth, it shows a nicely authentic view on one especially Bavarian attitude on dealing with the "bad times" of the nazi regime. Bavarians in pre-Christian times had different Gods than all other tribes - and they still like to point out that they see and do everything "their way".

Side note 1: The subtitles in some situations might be equally helpful for German native speakers of other parts of Germany. ;)

Side note 2: If you are learning Standard German, please, do not take the example of spoken language for valuable for any other part of Germany than Bavaria. ;)