Dear World, I have to confess
I speak the same language like Hitler, Goebbels and the Kaiser. The same language that gifted us words like Blitzkrieg and doppelganger.
I live in the city in which radioactivity was discovered. I live in the city where the holocaust was decided, quite close to that place actually. The building where the holocaust was decided is less than 5 miles from my home.
Some guy from my home town decided to transport Lenin to Russia which helped start the Revolution. Some guy from my country gave the secret on how to build nuclear bombs to the Soviets. Some guy from my home country gave the world Communism. Some guy from my home town helped start a world war. Another guy who lived in my home town for a while decided to start another world war.
Yet I do love this town and my language.
It is worth not making the same mistake the bigots do.
Most of the good in the world came from the German-speaking peoples, so no point judging them by the aberrant cases.
@amerika Oh thanks for that view. 🙂
I was not completely serious. Germany is a peaceful country and part of Europe now and I know that neither speaking German nor living in Berlin is a crime. I just wanted to highlight part of the history that is tied to my language and my city 🙂
In the meantime, look at some of the many good things that come out of Germany:
@amerika I like tabak but I switched to nicotine gum over time. Less cancerous. Except for that Germany is also famous for delicious wine that I can heavily recommend. And a lot of inventions stem from here, expecially quantum mechanics. But also book printing should not be underestimated, it fueled literacy all over Europe. Well and protestantism began in Wittenberg.
There is also the sheer amount of quality coding (programming) that comes out of Germany.
Am revisiting early German death metal today with the Fleshcrawl demos.
@sycramore
Gum is probably much easier. I cannot do cigarettes but enjoy a pipe or cigar. I have heard of the delicious German wines, but am unfamiliar with wine generally, being a beer drinker. And so, speaking of Germany... well who would not like to live next to a brewery rathskeller? I have fond memories of Lowenbrau in Munich. Gutenberg did good by all of us. I think so did Luther, although Calvin did one better.