List of winged words / W

Winged words A. B. C. D. E. F. G H I. J K L. M. N O P Q R. S. T U V W. Y Z

Watch on the Rhine

Niederwald monument near Rüdesheim

The Watch on the Rhine is the title of a patriotic poemwritten in1840/41 by Max Schneckenburger , who wrote the text in Bern in November 1840under the impression of the danger of a new war with France.

The poem's title is also part of the refrain:

“A call roars like thunder,
like the clang of swords and the crash of waves:
To the Rhine, to the Rhine, to the German Rhine,
Who wants to be the keeper of the river?
Dear fatherland, may you be calm,
the watch on the Rhine stands firm and true! "

The poem achieved popular popularity in the setting by Carl Wilhelm in 1854 and its mobilizing character made it particularly relevant in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71.

The text of the song can also be found on a large plaque on the front of the base of the Germania monumental statue, the Niederwald monument above Rüdesheim am Rhein . Germania looks towards France ( Alsace and Lorraine ).

In the film Casablanca , Major Strasser's German officers sing this song in Rick's Café Americain, but are more and more drowned out by the other guests who sing the Marseillaise in response .

Wake up, damned of this earth!

The German version of the Internationale , the battle song of the international socialist workers' movement, begins with this militant appeal . The original text of the French communard Eugène Pottier from 1871 appeared in various translations in Germany and other neighboring countries. It was sung especially at May Day celebrations and was the national anthem of the Soviet Union until 1943. The German text is by Emil Luckhardt and reads:

Wake up, damned ones of this earth that
is still being made to starve!
The right as embers in the crater herd
now penetrate with power to the breakthrough.
Clear the table with the adversary!
Army of slaves, wake up!
To be nothing, no longer bear it,
to become everything, overflows!

|: Folks, hear the signals!
  On to the last stand!
  The International
  fights for human rights. : |

Wagalaweia!

Woglinde, Wellgunde and Floßhilde play in the Rhine

This incomprehensible word is a quote from Richard Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen . In the Rheingold , the three Rhine daughters (Woglinde, Wellgunde and Floßhilde), whom father Rhein has commissioned to guard the Rheingold, play in the waves:

"Around a reef in the middle of the stage, which with its slender tip rises up into the thicker, lighter dusk, one of the Rhine daughters circles in a graceful swimming movement."

Woglinde

“Weia! Waga! Wave, you wave, wave
to the cradle! Wagalaweia!
Wallala, weiala weia! "

Change through rapprochement

In July 1963, the SPD politician gave Egon Bahr before the Protestant Academy Tutzing a lecture entitled change through rapprochement . Bahr is considered one of Willy Brandt's most important advisers with regard to the Eastern Treaties and is sometimes referred to as the architect of the Eastern Treaties . As an objective of German foreign policy, he called for the abandonment of the policy of strength and took the view that changes can only be achieved in the long term through a large number of small steps.

At the end of his Tutzing speech, Bahr says:

“This is a policy that could be summed up as follows: change through rapprochement. I firmly believe that we can have enough self-confidence to pursue such a policy without illusions, which also fits in seamlessly with the Western concept of the strategy of peace, otherwise we would have to wait for miracles, and that is not politics. "

Wanderer, are you coming to Sparta?

Memorial plaque at Thermopylae

The so-called “ Thermopylae epigram ” by Simonides von Keos is said to have stood on the memorial stone for the three hundred Spartians who paid with their lives in the battle of Thermopylae for the fight against the Persian superiority:

" Ὦ ξεῖν ', ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε / κείμεθα τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι. "

Ō xein ', angellein Lakedaimoniois hoti tēde / keimetha tois keinōn rhēmasi peithomenoi.

"Oh stranger, announce to the Spartans that we are here, convinced of their words," or "as those who obey the law."

The Roman politician and speaker Marcus Tullius Cicero strikes a pathetic tone when he speaks of the sacred laws of the fatherland:

"Dic, hospes, Spartae nos te hic vidisse iacentes / dum sanctis patriae legibus obsequimur."

"Say, stranger, in Sparta that you saw us lying here, obeying the sacred laws of the fatherland."

Friedrich Schiller found the following translation in his poem “The Walk” in 1795 :

“ Wanderer, if you come to Sparta, proclaim there that you saw
Us lying here as the law ordered. "

For reception in the 20th century, see List of Greek Phrases / Omega .

Wanderer between two worlds

This designation goes back to the title of the novel The Wanderer Between Two Worlds by the writer Walter Flex , who died in the First World War and who wrote it in memory of a friend who died in the war before him. It became the most successful book by a German writer during World War I. The poem Wild geese rushing through the night contained in Wanderer  ... was soon set to music several times and became one of the most famous German poems of all.

The phrase “wanderer between two worlds” characterizes a person who tries to be at home in two different worlds, who may not know where he really belongs. The idealized figure of the young theology student, shaped by the spirit of the wandering bird , became an ideal image for many young readers.

When is a man a man?

In the song Men , which Herbert Grönemeyer released in 1984 with his fifth studio album 4630 Bochum , it says:

Men have it hard, take it easy;

hard outside and very soft inside;

are already calibrated to man as a child.

When is a man a man?

Former TV presenter Eva Herman put this question first in 2007 as the motto of her book The Principle Noah's Ark , which advocates a new family culture.

When will the three of us meet again?

The three witches from Macbeth

This is the beginning of the first and last stanzas of the ballad Die Brück 'am Tay by Theodor Fontane , who quotes the beginning of the drama Macbeth by William Shakespeare . With Shakespeare, three witches meet, with Fontane it is forces of nature that plan a meeting. Fontane's poem begins with the three witches from Shakespeare's Macbeth:

"When will the three of us meet again?"

"At the seventh hour, on the Brückendamm."

"On the central pillar."

"I put out the flame."

"Me with."

"I come from the north."

"And I from the south."

"And I from the sea."

"Hey, that's a row of rings,
and the bridge has to go into the bottom."

It is about the train that was supposed to run from Burntisland to Dundee on December 28, 1879 . The three-kilometer-long railway bridge over the Firth of Tay (estuarine Estuary of the River Tay in Dundee, eastern Scotland) plunged 15 months after the completion of one during a severe winter storm. The train sank in the Tay and killed everyone on the train.

Wouldn't it be easier if the government dissolved the people and chose another?

With this rhetorical question Bertolt Brecht reacted to the statements of the GDR leadership after the incidents on June 17, 1953 :

“The people have forfeited the government's trust. Wouldn't it be easier if the government dissolved the people and chose another? "

When there were mass protests by workers in the GDR in Berlin, he wrote a letter to Walter Ulbricht that same day expressing his approval of the measures taken by the GDR government and the intervention of the Soviet troops.

In the poetic reflection of the events in July / August 1953 he took a much more distant attitude, which he articulated in the Buckower Elegies in the poem The Solution . The poem was first published in Die Welt on December 9, 1959 .

“After the uprising of June 17th,
the secretary of the Writers'
Union had leaflets distributed in Stalinallee
which said that the people
had forfeited the government's trust
and could only win it back by doubling the
workload. Wouldn't it be
easier if the government
dissolved the people and
chose another? "

Warm breakdown

Carrying out a warm demolition or gaining warm demolition or removing warm means to collect a high, excessive sum insured through a fire at your highly insured house or business, or a demolition ban, e.g. B. to circumvent monument protection reasons. This rogue word is said to have existed since the 1930s. In construction, demolition refers to the demolition or demolition of buildings. Since nowadays, thanks to much better and, above all, fireproof building materials, in contrast to the timber construction that was common in the past, it is usually no longer necessary to completely demolish the entire building after a fire, but the damage from extinguishing materials and / or smoke alone is immense, one speaks In popular parlance, often only from a "warm renovation or fire renovation" if the damage was caused intentionally or at least obviously so.

wait, soon

"Just wait! Balde // You rest too. ” Is the end of Goethe's famous poem Wanderer's Night Song (Ein Gleiches) . Ringelnatz 's quatrain is to be seen as a parody of this poem :

Over in the forest
there is a guru -
just wait for
kangaroos soon.

Wait, just wait a while

“Wait, wait just a little while” is the beginning of a song from the operetta Marietta by Walter Kollo (first performance December 22, 1923 in the Metropol-Theater , Berlin ):

“Wait, just wait a while,
soon happiness will come to you too.
With the first blue violet
there is a soft knock on your door. "

Fritz Haarmann

This turned into a countdown verse in Hanover about the serial killer Fritz Haarmann , which exists in different versions. One of them is:

“Wait, just wait a while,
soon Haarmann will come to you too.
With the little cleaver he
makes mince out of you ... "

This rhyme is also used, slightly modified, in Fritz Lang's film M - A city seeks a murderer . Instead of hair man , it is more unspecific the black man .

Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot (En attendant Godot) is a playby Samuel Beckett's absurd theater from1949. The main characters in the play spend their time waiting for a Godot they do not know, who they do not know anything about, do not know once to see if it exists. Indeed, Godot himself does not appear and the waiting for him is obviously in vain. This is expressed e.g. B. in the dialog that recurs several times in the piece:

Tarragon: "Come on, let's go!"

Vladimir: "We can't."

Tarragon: "Why not?"

Vladimir: "We are waiting for Godot."

Tarragon: "Oh yes."

Why look into the distance?

The words “Why wander into the distance? See, the good is so close ” are based on the opening verses of Goethe's four-line memory :

“Do you want to wander on and on?
See the good is so close.
Just learn to take hold of happiness,
because happiness is always there. "

This slightly redesigned quote is used to express that home can be just as beautiful as distant countries, or to point out immediate possible solutions to a problem. This quote is used to advertise tourism in one's own country.

See also: Stay in the land and feed yourself honestly.

Why don't you belch and fart? Didn't you like it?

With these coarse words the reformer Martin Luther is said to have asked his guests why they behaved so unnaturally discreet. But the first document comes from the 18th century.

The Luther expert from the University of Leipzig, Helmar Junghans, explains the background to this alleged Luther quote:

"With this, some circles apparently wanted to prove their lifestyle with quotations from Luther."

Since Luther sometimes used a very coarse language, it was easy to slip this quote on him. This is also the name of a book with anecdotes about Luther by Mario Süßenguth . A happy fart never leaves a sad ass.

What a rascal am I again!

These words (also: "Oh, what a rascal am I again!" Or "I'm a rascal again today!" ) Were the classic words of the German comedian Heinz Erhardt , which he often used after his screwed puns or bizarre verses said.

This phrase is firmly associated with him. An obituary on February 20, 2008 read: “It's a rogue's birthday” . Erhardt is called the rogue of the nation and read his poems with a honest face. His cozy appearance and the childlike look behind his thick horn-rimmed glasses contributed to this image.

What creeps and flies there

Widespread but incorrect analogy - spelling of #Was creeping and fleeing .

What creeps and flew there

The third act of Friedrich Schiller's drama Wilhelm Tell begins with the singing of the boy Walter With the Arrow, the Bow , whose last stanza reads as follows:

“ To him belongs the vastness,
what his arrow reaches;
That is his prey,
what creeps and flies . "

Noah's Ark

Worms that crawl and birds that fly can already be found in Genesis among the animals that Noah takes into the ark :

“ ¹³ On the same day Noah went into the box with Shem, Ham, and Japheth, his sons, and his wife and three wives, ¹⁴ and all kinds of animals according to their kind, all kinds of cattle according to their kind, all kinds of creatures, that Earth creeps, after its kind and all kinds of birds after its kind, everything that could fly, everything that had wings; ¹⁵ everything went to Noah in boxes in pairs, of all flesh in which there was a living spirit. "

The term is usually intended to refer to all animals as pars pro toto . The widespread spelling with “ch” is not only linguistically but also historically incorrect; Schiller still writes correctly “fleugt”.

What was right then cannot be wrong today.

Hans Filbinger , 2006

With this sentence, the former Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, Hans Filbinger , commented on death sentences in which he was involved as a naval judge during the Nazi era.

The playwright Rolf Hochhuth published a preprint of his novel Eine Liebe in Deutschland in ZEIT on February 17, 1978 . In the final passage he referred to Filbinger as "Hitler's naval judge who, even while still in British captivity after Hitler's death, persecuted a German sailor with Nazi laws" .

When it became known in 1978 that Filbinger had applied for and passed death sentences against deserters as prosecutor and judge in the Navy in 1945 , he initially denied it, but increasingly lost public support and finally resigned as prime minister and later also from his party offices.

Filbinger was involved in at least 234 naval criminal proceedings. In 169 cases, he was the presiding judge or investigating officer and was therefore directly responsible for the verdict or the penal order. He was the prosecutor in 63 trials. The death penalty was tried in six cases. Filbinger represented the prosecution in three of them, and in two cases he passed death sentences as presiding judge. In one case he exerted outside influence.

What you inherit from your fathers, acquire it to own.

In his monologue, which ends with the decision to commit suicide , Faust speaks these famous words in Goethe's Faust I in view of the "old equipment that I don't use" left by his father :

What you have inherited from your fathers
, acquire it to own.
What is not used is a heavy burden;
It can only use what the moment creates.

The immediately following line continues the idea that the unused can become superfluous ballast:

What is not used is a heavy burden.

What you don't want to be done to you, don't do it to anyone else.

see: golden rule

What do Strunz allow?

The Italian soccer coach Giovanni Trapattoni said in a press conference on March 10, 1998 about the player Thomas Strunz :

"Struuunz! Strunz has been here for two years, has played ten games and is always injured. What do Strunz allow? Last years champion with Hamann eh… Nerlinger. These players were players and had become masters. Is always hurt! Has played 25 games in this team, in this club! Must respect the other colleagues! " 

Trapattoni continued to grumble:

“I always owe these players. One is Mario, one is, another Mehmet! Strunz I'm not addressing, only played 25 percent of the game! " 

Trapattoni then concluded with the famous words:

"I've finished!"

He obviously translated the Italian “ho terminato” (actually: “I have finished”) without taking into account that in German one is “finished” and not “finished”. In Switzerland, however, the comparable phrase “I have closed” to end a formal speech is quite common.

The goalkeeper Oliver Kahn says in retrospect about this incendiary speech:

“The legendary sentence: What do Strunz allow, I think. That will probably stay forever. " 

The title of the TV magazine Was allow Strunz !? can be traced back to this quote. with the television journalist Claus Strunz , who is not related to Thomas Strunz.

The linguist Ludger Hoffmann analyzed this speech and came to the following results:

“Between the relentless diagnosis at the beginning ('my players are as weak as a bottle ') and the concise final formula ('I've finished') there is a single, drawn out painful sound: 'Struuuuunz!' Since then, the 'Strunz expression has become the epitome of the unacceptable.' " 

It is also stated:

“The fact that the Italian Trapattoni indulges in the stretched and exclusive intonation of the repeatedly repeated word Strunz reveals a certain tendency towards coprolalia (= fecal language). Because 'stronzo' means 'piece of shit' in Italian, 'asshole'; also in German one says 'strunzen' for 'piss'. " 

What has been done to you, you poor child?

This verse comes from the poem Do you know the country , with which in Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship the enigmatic Mignon expresses her longing for her lost Italian homeland. The second stanza is about a palace she longs to return to:

“Do you know the house? Its roof rests on pillars,
The hall shines, the room shimmers,
And marble pictures stand and look at me:
What has been done to you, you poor child? "

What good would it do people if they win the whole world ...

"What good does it do a person if he gains the whole world and harms his soul?"

So Martin Luther translated the first part of verse Matth. 16, 26. In the Nova Vulgate it says:

"Quid enim prodest homini, si mundum universum lucretur, animae vero suae detrimentum patiatur?"

In the standard translation, the sentence is simpler

"What use is it to a person if he wins the whole world, but loses his life in the process?"

Sir Thomas More, accused of high treason, says the sentence in his trial to a lying witness in the film A Man for All Seasons :

"It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world ... but for Wales, Richard?"

What is it that lies, murders, steals within us?

This accusatory question can be found in a letter written in 1834 by the poet Georg Büchner to his bride. His complaint is the lack of freedom of man and his imperfection:

“I find a terrible equality in human nature, in human conditions an inevitable power, bestowed on everyone and nobody. The individual just foam on the wave, the size a mere coincidence, the rule of genius a puppet show, a ridiculous struggle against an iron law, to recognize it is the highest, to master it impossible. It no longer occurs to me to bend over in front of the parade pillars and corner pillars of history. I got my eyes used to the blood. But I'm not a guillotine knife. That must is one of the condemnation words with which man has been baptized. The saying: there must be an annoyance, but woe to him through whom it comes - is dreadful! What is it that lies, murders, steals within us? I don't want to pursue the idea any further. "

In his drama Dantons Tod , Büchner puts similar words in the mouth of the French revolutionary Georges Danton :

“Who wants to curse the hand on which the must's curse fell? Who spoke the must, who? What is it that lies, hurts, steals and murders in us? "

what is the human? Half animal, half angel.

The poem Human Determination by Joachim Lorenz Evers begins with this verse . The Swiss doctor and poet Albrecht von Haller had already expressed the same idea in his poem Thoughts on Reason, Superstition and Unbelief , in which it says:

“Unhappy middle thing of angels and cattle!
You brag about reason and you never use it.
What help you in the end do the high teachings of wisdom,
Too weak to understand it,
too proud to do without it? "

What is breaking into a bank versus starting a bank?

This is the question asked by the Marxist poet Bertolt Brecht in his Threepenny Opera in the third act, scene 3 (death row). It reads completely:

“What is a pick against a share? What is breaking into a bank versus starting a bank? What is the murder of a man versus the employment of a man? "

What is there in the bush?

This is the beginning of the so-called coach song from the time of the wars of liberation against Napoleon Bonaparte , which a Fusilier coach is said to have composed. It begins with the following verses:

"What's hanging around in that bush,
I think it's Napoleum."

In the song of the Lippe Sagittarius it says:

“Who is sneaking around in the bush?
Isn't that the Napoleum? "

At the beginning of the First World War, the song was changed to the then French President Raymond Poincaré :

“What hurts there in the bush?
I think that's Poincaré. "

The verse was also taken up by Eugen Roth in the epic The Woman in World History. Chapter 2: The Ancient World (1936), to express the surprise of the goddess Diana at the sudden appearance of Aktaion :

"The goddess turns around brusquely.
What is there in the bush?"

What does the Maier do in the Himalayas?

With these words begins the refrain of a nonsense hit by Fritz Rotter about Professor Friedrich Wilhelm Maier and his expedition to the Himalayas, from which he unexpectedly returns with a “woman with enormous body shapes”.

"What is Meier doing in the Himalayas
What is Meier doing
in the great Himalayas
Up, yes, there he can
But how does he get down
I'm so scared for Meier
There is a slide and he's gone"

The song was characteristic of the German hit of the Weimar Republic .

What does not kill me, makes me stronger.

This quote from Friedrich Nietzsche can be found in his Götzen-Twilight , a work with the subtitle How to philosophize with the hammer . This dictum stands in a series of aphorisms under the motto From the war school of life and is used again and again in hopeless situations. So it says in a field post letter from 1916:

“ I've endured some things out here, and I will endure even more. I think I can really say of myself: “What doesn't kill me makes me stronger.” Yesterday I carried my good friend Boye to the grave and many other good hunters without changing a face; We did not suffer the losses in repeatedly stimulating, exciting, open combat, but exclusively in the hours of disruptive and exhausting artillery fire; I've learned to put even the most uncomfortable situation behind me. "

What are the times when talking about trees is almost a crime?

This quote is from the poem To Posterity of Bertolt Brecht and refers to the crimes in the Third Reich :

"What kind of times are those when
talking about trees is almost a crime
Because it includes keeping silent about so many crimes!"

The exile poet Brecht turns against writers who concealed the crimes of National Socialism , for example by remaining attached to natural poetry .

In his poem Conversation about Trees , the Austrian poet Erich Fried refers to the defoliants used by the US Army in the Vietnam War :

"In Vietnam the trees are defoliated"

The poet Walter Helmut Fritz reversed the Brecht quote in the context of the discussion about supposedly increasing environmental degradation by writing:

"In the meantime it has almost
become a crime
not to talk about trees ..."

What to do?

In Friedrich Schiller's poem Die Teilung der Erde (1795) it says about the poet who was not present when the earth was divided up and therefore came away empty-handed:

“What to do?” Said Zeus, “the world has been given away,
autumn, the hunt, the market is no longer mine.
Do you want to live with me in my heaven -
as often as you come, it should be open to you. "

What to do? said Zeus is used as a joking expression of perplexity.

What to do is also the title of a novel by the Russian writer NG Chernyshevsky , published in 1863 , from which Lenin took the title for his programmatic work What to do? (Russian: Что делать? Tschto djelatj? ) from 1902. In it he expresses his view that the proletariat is incapable of class struggle. The bourgeois intelligentsia invented socialism . Consequently the intelligentsia, as a force of professional revolutionaries, must lead the working class to victory. The proletariat itself only pursues so-called “bread and butter goals” .

What does the woman want?

Ernest Jones writes in his three-volume work Sigmund Freud: Life and Work (1955) that Freud once said to Marie Bonaparte :

The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is "What does a woman want?"

The German version of Jones' book The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud , translated by Gertrud Meili-Dworetzki with the assistance of Katherine Jones, reproduces this as follows:

The big question that has never been answered and which I have not been able to answer despite thirty years of research into the female soul is: 'What does woman want?'

What should we drink?

The words "What shall we drink for seven days" start the song for seven days . The Dutch band Bots produced the track Zeven dagen lang in 1976 . The German songwriter and politician Diether Dehm translated the song into German, and the bots set it to music again in 1980 with the German text. It begins with the following verses:

"What do we want to drink, for seven days,
what do we want to drink, such a thirst."

The second stanza says:

"Then we want to create, for seven days,
then we want to create, come, touch it."

Finally, in the third stanza:

"Now we have to fight, nobody knows how long,
yes, for a life without coercion."

The melody of the song is based on the Breton drinking song Son ar Chistr (Song of Cider ) , which was popularized internationally in 1970 by a recording by the harpist Alan Stivell and later given rhythm in a techno version by Scooter .

Other sources list as an initial recording

Jean Bernard / Jean-Marie Prima (1929)

on, as well as the following 17 cover versions:

Alan Stivell - Son ar Chistr (1970)

Bots - Zeven dagen lang (1976)

DJ's Sam en Moos - Wat zullen we drinken 7 days long (1976)

Angelo Branduardi - Gulliver (1977)

Bots - Seven Days Long (1980)

Comix - What Wanna Drink - For Seven Days (1991)

Knorz - So Friends (1993)

October Club - What do we want to drink (1995)

Tyske Ludder - Seven Days Long (1996)

Revels - Son ar Chistr (1998)

Molecular Value - Seven Days Long (1998)

Scooter - How Much Is The Fish (1998)

Rapalje - Wat zullen we drinken (1998)

Blackmore's Night - All For One (2003)

City - Seven Days Long (2004)

Adorned Brood - 7 Days Long (2006)

Mickie Krause - Jan Pillemann Otze (2008)

KIZ - What does the fish cost? (2008)

Scapegoat - 7 days (????)

Basslovers United - Drunken (2012)

Wash my fur and don't get it wet!

also: wash my fur and don't get me wet! and similar variants.

This saying goes that someone wants to enjoy an advantage without having to accept any disadvantage in return.

Hugo von Hofmannsthal quotes this phrase in Jedermann in the Devil's Scene.

This statement is intended to Johannes Mathesius ( Luther histories , 1566) Duke George of Saxony against Erasmus of Rotterdam did when this "a dubious and twisted answer was".

What do I care about the chatter of jestern?

“ What do I care about my chatter about jestern?” Is the kölsch- tinged version of the saying: “What do I care about my chatter from yesterday”. Today he is mostly attributed to Konrad Adenauer , the first Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany - from 1949 to 1963 - to characterize him as a realpolitician who reacts quickly and flexibly to changed circumstances. With this in mind, the addition: “Nobody can stop me from becoming wiser every day”.

While the latter is documented by Paul Weymar's "authorized biography" of Adenauer from 1955, "my chatter from yesterday" has not yet been proven as an expression of Adenauer, although it was already mentioned in a post-doctoral thesis from 1967/68 as an "Adenauer quote" referred to.

“What do I give up on my chatter from yesterday?” Quotes Dolf Sternberger in his essays from 1941–1946 and published in 1950 under the title Figures of Fable as a Frankfurt proverb . “What do I give to my stupid chatter from yesterday!” Has been attributed to the Prussian cultural politician Friedrich Althoff (1839–1908) since at least 1917 .

We are not amused!

We are not amused !

This English sentence ( listen ^{? / I} ), in German We don't think that's funny! , is attributed to the British Queen Victoria . She is said to have uttered it when she caught her valet Alexander Grantham Yorke parodying her or when she asked him to repeat a joke out loud that he had told a German guest (... a young man from Nantucket ...) . But she didn't find the joke funny at all. We (we) did not stand for the pluralis majestatis in this case , but included the ladies-in-waiting.

According to other sources, Victoria expressed her disapproval when someone at the table told an offensive story.

Contrary to the direct translation, this expression is mostly used to express a very strong displeasure or even anger.

In a sketch by Monty Python's Flying Circus , Queen Victoria says this sentence with a German accent.

The English saying is mostly quoted in its original version, even if it is often modified:

• "The Queen was / is not amused"
• " Loew , not amused 'about Ballack's apology."
• "The Kaiser is not amused!"

We are the champions.

Queen live, 1984

We Are the Champions (We are the Champions) is one of the most famous songs of the British rock band Queen . It comes from the album News of the World , which was released in October 1977. The refrain is sung by fans of winning teams today, especially at sporting events:

"We are the champions - my friends
And we'll keep on fighting - till the end -
We are the champions -
We are the champions
No time for losers
cause we are the champions - of the world -"

"We are the champions - my friends
And we will keep fighting - until the end -
We are the champions -
We are the champions -
No time for losers
Because we are we the champions - of the world"

We Shall Overcome.

Joan Baez , 1963 in Washington, DC
(Under the microphones: "We Shall Overcome" )

We Shall Overcome is a protest song that played an important role in the US civil rights movement . Since 1963 the song has been associated with Joan Baez , who recorded it and performed it at a number of civil rights demonstrations and years later at the Woodstock Festival in1969. In 1965, US President Lyndon B. Johnson used the phrase We shall overcome in a speech to Congress. The Selma to Montgomery marches (rememberedas Bloody Sunday ) had taken placejust a few days earlier. The song later found its way to South Africa , where it wassungin the later years of the anti- apartheid movement.

The chorus line, which also serves as the title, means “We will win!” Or “We will overcome!” The song begins with the following verse:

"We shall overcome, we shall overcome,
We shall overcome someday;
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe,
We shall overcome someday. "

Closed for wealth

Walter Knoblauch from Wittmund , who traveled to East Friesland as a peddler, was the first to win the main prize of half a million D-Marks in the German number lottery 6 out of 49 in 1956 , which he then spent with full hands with his wife Elisabeth. She did not get a concession for the hotel in Jever , which he bought her, so the sign "Closed for wealth" was hung on the door. This is also the title under which his story was filmed in 1968 with Arnim Dahl . On March 12, 1995, Knoblauch died completely impoverished in a homeless asylum in Papenburg.

Running away is the best strategy

Of the 36 Chinese stratagems ascribed to Chinese General Tan Daoji , the last one, running away when all other 35 lists fail, is often considered the best strategy.

Chinese means:

「走 為 上策。」

Zǒu wéi shàng cè.

Surrendering is total defeat, comparison is half defeat. Escape is not defeat and still offers the chance to win. This stratagem is usually represented with 三十六計 ， 走 為 上策.

Woe to him who lies!

Woe to him who lies! is a comedy by Franz Grillparzer . It takes place during the Merovingian era. The comic plot is based on the promise of the kitchen boy Leon to carry out the rescue of the nephew of Bishop Gregor von Chalons, who had been captured by the Teutons, without lying once.

At first sight this piece is mainly about lies and truth. But not only the meeting of two cultures that are at war with each other ( Teutons and Merovingians) and cannot find harmony is dealt with , but also the victory of practical reason over a worldly view.

The subject is still relevant. Grillparzer wants to show that you can often get further with the truth than with lying. It also shows that the truth is often viewed as a lie and does not appear to be believable.

Woe to the vanquished!

"Vae Victis" goes back to a report by Livy about the Gaul king Brennus . After his victory over the Romans, they accused him of using too heavy weights when weighing the imposed war contribution. Then Brennus is said to have thrown his sword into the balance with these words, so that the Romans now had to pay even more gold. The saying became proverbial and was later quoted by Plautus and Plutarch , for example . The material damage to the Roman Empire was far less than the immaterial, because the self-confidence of the Romans was shaken.

From this incident also comes: " Throwing his sword / something into the scales ".

Woe if you let go!

Ludwig Richter : A look at the grave of his belongings

This verse from Friedrich Schiller's poem Das Lied von der Glocke refers to the destructive power of fire:

The power of fire is benevolent,
When man tames it, guards it,
And what he forms, what he creates,
He thanks this heavenly power;
But the celestial power becomes terrible,
When it is released from the fetter, one
step on its own track
The free daughter of nature.
Woe if it is let go.
Growing without resistance.
Through the crowded streets,
the enormous fire rolls!
Because the elements hate
the image of the human hand.

This consideration shows how inconsistent happiness is. Based on the fire that melts the bell mass, Schiller also describes the destructive power of fire.

Defend the beginnings!

This request, which is often quoted in the form of “ fight back against the beginnings!” , Goes back to the Latin “Principiis obsta” of the Roman poet Ovid in his Remedia amoris (remedies against love) . They should help the unhappy lover to fall out of love again . When the relationship has already progressed, the person in love should over-feed himself with the beloved in order to be treatable at all.

"Principiis obsta. Sero medicina parata, cum mala per longas convaluere moras. "

"Defend the beginnings! The medicine is prepared too late when the ills have intensified through long hesitation. "

Today the quotation is mostly used in the plural of the verb to warn of pernicious developments - admittedly without knowing the origin and Ovid's ironic pathos.

Because, he concludes with razor sharpness, what cannot be cannot be.

This sentence comes from the poem The Impossible Fact by Christian Morgenstern .

The poem begins with the lines:

Palmström, some years ago,

becomes at a street bend

and from a motor vehicle

run over.

An examination of the statutes carried out by him shows that cars are not allowed to drive on this bend in the street. The conclusion is:

And he comes to the conclusion:

The experience was just a dream.

Because, he concludes,

cannot be what must not be.

Don't you know, my son, with how little understanding the world is governed?

Axel Oxenstierna

From Pope Julius III. It is said that he replied to a Portuguese monk who pityed him because he was burdened with rulership over the whole world:

"If you knew how little effort of understanding the world is ruled, you would be amazed."

The Latin version, which is attributed to the Swedish Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna , is probably derived from this:

"To nescis, mi fili, quantilla prudentia mundus regatur?"

"Don't you know, my son, with how little understanding the world is ruled?"

Oxenstierna is said to have written this to his son, who was supposed to take part in the negotiations on the Peace of Westphalia in Munster and was not up to the task.

What an artist is dying in me!

The Roman Emperor Nero is said to have said these words shortly before his death. The Latin wording is:

"Qualis artifex pereo."

Nero saw himself as an artist, attended theaters and concerts, had competitions organized and appeared as an artist himself, whereby he went into great debt.

In 67 he traveled to Greece and took part in all four Panhellenic games held in his honor in a single year. At the Olympic Games , musical competitions were held for the first time so that Nero could perform with his kithara . Nero is said to have won medals in 1808 and reciprocated by granting Greece self-government and exemption from taxes.

The emperor's waste had serious consequences, especially since he was still trying to make a profit by deteriorating coins. Then in Spain the governor Sulpicius was lifted up by his soldiers. When the Praetorians also fell away from Nero, he said several times:

"What an artist dies in me!"

On June 9 or 11, 68, he was killed by his secretary Epaphroditus with a dagger stab in the neck on an estate near Rome .

He died where the church of Santa Maria del Popolo now stands. His bones were supposed to rest there under a walnut tree that was felled by order of Pope Paschal II in 1099, as Nero's ghost was said to be haunted there. The bones were burned and the ashes were scattered in the Tiber .

What a ghost child

In the Gospel of Luke it is recorded how Jesus reproaches his disciples:

“52 And he sent messengers to himself; they went and came to a Samaritan market to give him lodging. 53 And they did not accept him, because he turned his face to walk to Jerusalem. 54 When his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, if you will, we will say that fire should fall from heaven and consume them, as Elijah did. 55 But Jesus turned and threatened them, saying, Do you not know what kind of spirit children you are? 56 The Son of man did not come to destroy the souls of men, but to preserve them. “Luther Bible 1912.

In the Vulgate the passage of interest here reads: “ increpavit illos, dicens: Nescitis cujus spiritus estis . 56 Filius hominis non venit animas perdere, sed salvare. “ Lk 9.55  VUL

It cannot be found in the current German Bible translations, however, as in the relevant editions of the Greek original text NA 28 and UBS5. In the edition of the Luther Bible published by the German Bible Society in 1975, the passage is only given in one note as a “later tradition” which “does not belong to the original text of the Gospel of Luke”.

Which piglet would you like?

At the beginning of each round in the career council show What am I? asked Robert Lembke his guest this in bairisch held standard questionnaire (High German: "Which pig would you like?" ). The candidate was then allowed to choose one of the different colored piggy banks.

Each member of the advice team was then allowed to ask a question until they received a “no” answer. After every "no" , Lembke flipped the license plate forward and threw a five-mark piece into the piggy bank his guest had chosen.

The sentence became proverbial and can be found in different variants:

• "Which soup would you like?"
• "What truth would you like?"
• "Waste separation - which bin would you like?"

World history is the world judgment

→ Main article : World history is the world judgment

World champion of hearts

This expression was used in German media for the German national soccer team at the 2006 World Cup after they lost in the semifinals. The team ultimately reached third place.

It is a variation on the expression Queen of Hearts coined for Diana, Princess of Wales .

Cosmopolitan city with a heart

Weltstadt mit Herz was the official slogan that the Bavarian capital Munich used for its own city ​​marketing from 1972 to 2005 . The slogan was found in a competition for the 1972 Summer Olympics . The author, the cinema secretary Dorit Lindner, received 2500 D-Marks as the winner .

The slogan is considered very successful. According to surveys, over 45 percent of all guests who have visited Munich know him. Weltstadt mit Herz is the subtitle of books about Munich. The slogan is also used critically when it says, " It is all too easy for the 'cosmopolitan city with a heart' - according to one of Munich's advertising slogans - to become a 'cosmopolitan city of elbows" .

Whom the hour strikes

Whom the Bell Tolls (English For Whom the Bell Tolls ) is a novel by Ernest Hemingway from 1940. The novel tells an episode of four days in the history of US guerrilla Robert Jordan in the Spanish Civil War .

For the title of the novel, Hemingway used a quote from the English poet John Donne :

“No Man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; [...] and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. "

“No man is an island, complete in himself; every person is a piece of the continent, a part of the mainland; [...] and therefore never ask to know who the [death] bell is striking; she hits you. "

The title is often quoted when trying to suggest that someone cannot escape a life-threatening danger.

To whom God gives an office, he also gives understanding.

The writer and educator Heinrich Zschokke explains in his essay Hans Dampf in all Gassen that this old German saying comes from Lalenburg:

“The old, meaningful proverb has always proven itself: to whom God gives an office, he also gives understanding; a proverb that originally comes from Lalenburg, as everyone knows. "

Lalenburg was considered synonymous with Schilda that "stories of Lalen to Lalenburg" similar to those on the Gotham whose officials have been handed down as stupid. So the sentence is meant ironically. The philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel wrote about this proverb in his preface to the basic lines of the philosophy of law :

"'To whom God gives an office, he also gives understanding' is an old joke that in our times one will probably not want to claim seriously."

The writer Erich Kästner wrote the same saying:

"Whom God gives an office, he robs him of his mind."

The physician and aphorist Gerhard Uhlenbruck states on the same topic:

“To whom God gives an office, he also gives understanding. Unfortunately, the offices are not given by God. "

Whom God will prove right favor

With these words begins Joseph von Eichendorff's poem Der frohe Wandermann , which appeared for the first time in 1826 in his novella From the life of a good-for-nothing and which became a folk song when set by Friedrich Theodor Fröhlich :

“Whom God wants to show true favor, he
sends him into the wide world;
he wants to show him his miracles
in mountains and forests and streams and fields. "

One often hears the joking modification of the first verse:

“Whoever God wants to show real favor, he sends to the sausage factory. He lets him bite into the crackling sausage and gives him another one too. "

The songwriter Reinhard Mey picked up the folk song and processed it into a piece of its own under the title Whom God Wants to Show the Right Favor . In this he replaces the general travel motif with that of a tour of musicians. The first line by Eichendorff is used in a slightly different form in the refrain:

"Whoever God wants to show the right favor
, he simply sends them on tour."

The song was first published in 1977 on the album Menschenjunges .

Who else but you.

Susette Gontard as Diotima

With these words, the poet Friedrich Hölderlin dedicated the second volume of his novel Hyperion to Susette Gontard , the wife of the Frankfurt banker, in whose house he served as court master. Susette, a sensitive woman who was emotionally and intellectually underutilized in the ceremonial setting of Frankfurt social life, became the yardstick for Hölderlin's sense of beauty and a model for the Diotima of his novel.

In September 1798, Hölderlin left the house after a quarrel broke out with his husband about his relationship with Susette. Up to May 1800 there were letters and loose personal contacts.

Whom else but you is the title of a book about Hölderlin and Diotima.

Stefan Hartman writes in his essay Hölderlin in Travestie. About Susette from Erik Spinoy about this dedication:

“Who else but you - that can be read as a dedication to your own lover, but of course just as well as a dedication to the reader. Who else can such poems about a poet and his lover be dedicated to than the reader who knows the story? But it can also be a dedication to Susette, sent after her by the poet Spinoy as an archeologist. "

Susette died of rubella in 1802 at the age of 33. A copy of Hyperion, dedicated to her, was always open on the desk in the Tübingen room in which Hölderlin lived as a madman after 1807.

Susette probably defended herself against the death of Diotima, because Holderlin wrote to her in 1799:

“Here our Hyperion, dear! This fruit of our soulful days will give you a little joy. Forgive me for dying Diotima. You remember, we weren't able to fully unite about it at one time. I thought it was necessary for the whole system. If I had been able to form an artist little by little at your feet, in peace and freedom, yes, I think I would have quickly got what my heart longs for in dreams and in broad daylight, and often with silent despair, in all suffering. "

Whoever the gods love dies young.

A sentence from a play by the Greek poet Menandros was translated into Latin by the Roman comedy poet Plautus :

Ὅν οἱ θεοὶ φιλοῦσιν, ἀποθνῄσκει νέος.

Hon hoi theoi philousin, apothnēskei neos.

“ Quem di diligunt,
adulescens moritur.
(dum valet, sentit, sapit.) "

A similar thought can also be found in Schiller's poem Nänie :

“Even the beautiful must die! That conquers men and gods ... "

Irish writer Oscar Wilde transforms this statement to:

"Those whom the gods love grow young."

"Those who love the gods get young."

Wilde alludes to the sentence:

"Those whom the gods love the young."

"Whoever the gods love dies young."

Who the gods love is also the title of a film about the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart .

Less would have been more.

In the literary magazine Der Deutsche Merkur , which he edited , Christoph Martin Wieland wrote in a New Year's greeting in 1774:

"And less is often more, as Lessing's prince teaches us."

Wieland was referring to Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's tragedy Emilia Galotti (first act, fourth appearance), where Hettore Gonzaga, the Prince of Guastalla, counters the painter Conti that the portrait of Countess Orsina is too embellished, and says that :

“ Not so honest would be more honest. "

In an article published in Pravda in 1923, Lenin warned against hasty action in the construction of the Soviet state apparatus and gave the article the warning Better less, but better than a title.

A similar thought can be found in the Roman writer Pliny the Younger :

"Multum, non multa."

"A lot, not a lot."

When everyone becomes unfaithful

When everyone is unfaithful under the title Renewed Oath in an old Kommers book

" If everyone is unfaithful, we will remain loyal" is the opening line of a well-known German folk and student song by Max von Schenkendorf from 1814:

“If all are unfaithful, we will remain loyal,
That there may still be a flag for you on earth.
Companions of our youth, you pictures of better times, who
consecrated us to male virtue and love death. "

If that isn't proof.

Rainhard Fendrich at the age of 51 (2006)

This sentence comes from the song Midlife Crisis by Rainhard Fendrich , whose refrain contains statements such as the following:

"If someone overtakes on the right
and the driver is an old man,
if that is no proof
of the mid-life crisis,
I didn't even notice,
but thanks, now I know!"

The song made it into the German charts, but was received rather negatively in Austria, as Fendrich slowly turned away from the Viennese dialect.

Fendrich said in an interview on the subject of the midlife crisis :

“No, I was forced to take stock for the 50th time. The stupid jokes like: 'Now the candles are more expensive than the cake' and so on (laughs). I don't like to draw conclusions. "

If the mountain does not want to come to the prophet, the prophet must go to the mountain.

Nasreddin

This sentence comes from an Arabic review written in 1631 of the anecdotes of Nasreddin , a figure of sage, fool, master, beggar, judge, teacher and doctor in the Arab world.

Nasreddin, who wanted to be mistaken for a saint, was asked what miracle he could perform. He replied that he was going to order a mountain (in some versions a palm tree) to come to him and exclaimed:

"Mountain, come to me!"

When the mountain did not come, Nasreddin went to the mountain. Someone asked him where he was going. Nasreddin replied:

“The prophets and the saints are not haughty and deluded. If the mountain doesn't come to me, I'll go to it. "

Mountains stand for stability and immutability. Used in everyday life, these words mean that you have to act according to the circumstances and that when others do nothing, you have to be active yourself.

When the father with the son

When the father with the son is a German feature film from 1955 with Heinz Rühmann in the leading role. Rühmann plays Teddy Lemke, who looks after little Ulli like his own son; Ulli's mother Gerti emigrated to America. When Gerti, who is now married, returns from America to fetch her child, Teddy has a heavy heart to accept it.

The film title is identical to the title of the song Teddy and Ulli sing together:

"If the father goes out with the son
and then nobody likes to go home,
they experience the most amazing things on the way,
sometimes to cry - sometimes to laugh"

The film title quotes the first line of a nonsense poem written around 1840, which begins as follows:

“When the father and son crap out
on the firing hole of the cannon
without seconds
and the smallest creature thinks it smells thyme
in the center of Nature
-
then ade, ade, ade, then ade,
ade, ade, then ade, darling, goodbye ! "

The title of the film is used as a quote to comment on the actions of father and son together.

When the kings bau'n who carters to do.

This sentence by Friedrich Schiller can be found in the xenias and votive tablets from the estate: Kant and his interpreters :

“How one rich man feeds so many beggars
! When the kings build, the Kärrner have to do. "

The subject of this criticism are the philosophy lecturers who deal with the interpretation of the writings of the philosopher Immanuel Kant ; Above all, the Kant biographer Karl Vorländer meant the high school teacher LH Jakob.

The British writer Houston Stewart Chamberlain writes about this Schiller quote:

“I'm a beggar too. A beggar who has sat at the rich table of the Thinker King since early youth. But so far I have sat carefree at this table; I was more of a beggar than a carter; I fed my spirit, but I did not put myself 'in food'. "

When the culture's sun is low, even dwarfs cast a long shadow.

This remark is probably not, as is often claimed, from the Austrian satirist Karl Kraus , who thus transferred an insight from nature to culture. The quote corresponds to a German proverb:

"A little man often makes a big shadow."

The supposed Kraus quote is often used in disputes and can be found in articles about supposed sizes. For example, Thomas Frankenfeld writes in the Hamburger Abendblatt about a court decision that awarded the musician Dieter Bohlen the status of an artist:

"When the playwright Karl Kraus wrote this a hundred years ago, he could not have suspected that Western culture would one day be dominated by dwarfs."

If you finish your plate, the weather will be good tomorrow.

The idiom comes from Low German . It has nothing to do with the weather, but is probably based on a misunderstanding.

In Low German Platt the sentence means: "If you eat your plate empty, then tomorrow will be goodes wedder." The request says to eat everything so that the next day there is no warmed up meal from the day before. The correct High German translation is: “If you empty your plate, there will be something good again tomorrow.” “Goodes wedder” was therefore incorrectly translated and misunderstood as “good weather”.

When you have matters in hand, then I am reassured.

"When you have the matter in hand, I am reassured" (你 办事, 我 放心 .– Nǐ bàn shì, wǒ fàngxīn.) The Chinese party leader Mao Zedong is said to have written Hua Guofeng on a piece of paper in May 1976 . This note with the six characters was one of the main legitimations for Hua Guofeng to succeed Mao. Central Committee functionary Chen Yun is said to have found out through a questioning of politically ailing Hua in 1978 that in the year Mao died, Hua had no opportunity to speak to Mao alone for a long time.

The quote was often used ironically later, as Hua Guofeng was not considered a successful politician.

In 1978 Deng Xiaoping , who himself served as Hua's deputy in the offices of party chairman and prime minister, succeeded in weakening the influence of Hua's semi-Maoist-left-centrist wing in the Politburo . In 1980, Hua gave up the post of prime minister. At the turn of 1980/81 the show trial against the gang of four took place. Hua Guofeng's attempt to make the Gang of Four the sole scapegoat for all the failings in China since 1966 proved untenable. Instead, it became clear to what extent Hua herself had long been associated with the political currents for which the Gang of Four stood. So the trial meant the political end for Hua. In 1981, Hua was also replaced as party chairman. But they refrained from staging a spectacular fall. In 1981, Hua retained his seat in the Politburo, from which he only resigned at the 12th Party Congress in September 1982.

When you go to a woman, don't forget the whip!

Lou von Salomé (with whip), Paul Rée and Friedrich Nietzsche in a photo arranged by Nietzsche after Salomé had rejected their marriage proposals

This - usually incorrectly quoted - saying goes back to Friedrich Nietzsche , who in his poem Also sprach Zarathustra reports on Zarathustra's encounter with an "old woman". This asks the wise man to say something about women too, and he begins with the words:

“ Everything about women is a riddle, and everything about women has a solution: it's called pregnancy. "

It is then pointed out several times that women are dangerous for men and that women should discover "the child in man" and must submit to him. The "old woman" thanks Zarathustra for his explanations and confirms them with a "little truth":

“You go to women? Don't forget the whip! "

The Nietzsche biographer Carol Diethe wrote a book entitled Forget the Whip , which deals with Nietzsche's relationships with women.

Andreas Belwe writes about this famous quote:

“The first thing that comes to mind to the layman about Nietzsche is the saying: 'When you go to a woman, don't forget the whip.' [...] But: what very few people know is that this sentence is meant ironically and represents a criticism of the repressive gender relationship of its time. "

Belwe explains that Nietzsche was one of the first philosophers to take gender difference into account, noting:

“This quote then became the most misogynistic statement of all. But only out of ignorance. It also serves as a standard accusation against Nietzsche, labeling him gynophobic or misogynous. "

Nietzsche discussed mainly with women and was surrounded by women's rights activists, many of whom traveled to Sils Maria to visit him. These women included, for example:

• Helene von Druskowitz (the second female philosopher with a doctorate)
• Lou Andreas-Salomé (a well-traveled writer and psychoanalyst)

The radical feminist and pacifist Helene Stöcker paid tribute to Nietzsche in her autobiography with the following words:

"I do not feel so deeply connected to any other spirit among the living."

If stupidity hurt.

The saying “If stupidity hurts, he would have to scream all day” is probably based on the epic poem Folly by the Baroque poet Friedrich von Logau .

This idiom is often used in discussions and is occasionally expanded or modified as a joke:

• "If stupidity hurt, we would have to put up a huge noise barrier at the German border."
• "If stupidity hurt, some 'scientists' would have to roar in pain."

In Bavarian, this expression is also modified in view of the mountainous terrain:

• "If stupidity were to let the bike ride, you would brake uphill on the Zirler Berg."

When someone goes on a journey, he can tell something.

This quote comes in a slightly different form from a poem by the poet Matthias Claudius :

“When someone
goes on a journey , he can miscalculate something;
So I took my cane and hat
And chose to travel. "

By Kurt Tucholsky , the poem is entitled , when on a trip ... in which he mocks the enterprising behavior of Americans against the Romanian Queen:

“The Queen of Romania
was in America now.
So those soap dealers who incline for the royal could
court a majesty -
that is always a gain for business and feeling,
and in general: a queen is a queen. "

If it's not true, then it's very well made up.

Giordano Bruno before the Inquisition

These words are found in the heroic passions (Gli eroici furori) of the Italian poet and philosopher Giordano Bruno . In the original Italian they are as follows:

"Se non è vero, è molto ben trovato: se non è so, è molto bene iscusato l'uno per l'altro."

“If it's not true, it's very well made up. If that's not true, one of them has apologized well to the other. "

Bruno took up earlier formulations of the same idea:

"Chi l'ha detto?"

The quote is often used when a statement is questioned. For example, ZDF overwrites an article on conspiracy theories with the words “Not true, but at least well invented” .

If only women are young and beautiful, they have the gift of knowing it.

"If only women are young and beautiful, they have the gift of knowing it."

is a saying from William Shakespeare's comedy As You Like It (II, 7); in the English original it says

"If ladies be but young and fair, they have the gift to know it."

When they are accompanied by good speech

Friedrich Schiller begins Das Lied von der Glocke in the second stanza in 1799 as follows:

“ About the work that we are seriously preparing,
a serious word is probably appropriate;
When they are accompanied by good speeches
, the work goes on happily. "

This contemplation verse is intended to tell us that everyone should not carry out their work thoughtlessly, but should be on the job. In the world of politics, too, good speeches are always given and expected before deeds.

If I lose a few games, people suddenly leave the pots on the flowers they throw me.

Football coach Otto Rehhagel in an interview with the Stuttgarter Zeitung in August 2008.

When in the far back, in Turkey, the nations clash.

This quote from Goethe's drama Faust I characterizes the typical philistine :

I don't know anything better on Sundays and Feyers, Than
a conversation of war and war cries ,
When back, far, in Turkey,
The peoples beat each other.
You stand at the window, finish your drink
and watch the colorful ships slide down the river;
Then one goes home happy in the evening,
and blesses times of peace and peace.

The former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said in an interview with the news magazine Der Spiegel in 2003 :

“With Goethe it was still said: 'When back, far, in Turkey, the peoples clash'. Today the great poet would write differently: A collapsing state in Africa is no longer just about Africa. "

At the start of the 41st Munich Security Conference in 2005, German President Horst Köhler said:

“This comfortable detachment is over today. Television and the Internet bring catastrophes from all parts of the world into our living rooms - not just natural disasters, but also wars and terror. We are fully informed. But we can also be affected ourselves. "

If you stay here longer, you will all get slender eyes.

Prince Philip

At public appearances, especially abroad, Prince Philip , the husband of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain , uses a sometimes headstrong humor instead of the usual small talk, which is sometimes perceived by the media as tactless. For example, in 1986 he used these words to make an official visit to British students in China:

"If you stay here much longer, you'll all be slitty-eyed."

The British Foreign Office then felt compelled to apologize to the Chinese government.

During the same state visit he also said - based on a Chinese saying:

"If it has four legs and is not a chair, has wings and is not an airplane, or swims and is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it."

"If it has four legs and is not a chair, if it has wings and is not an airplane, or if it floats and is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it."

With such a biting humor and his politically incorrect audacity, however, he has also won the sympathy of many subjects, and some even feel honored to be poked by him:

“To be given one of his notorious sayings by Prince Philip is now almost a privilege in Great Britain. 'To be honest, it's an honor to be insulted by royalty. It's something you tell your grandchildren about, 'Welshwoman Beverly Richards told the BBC after meeting Prince Philip. "

If you stab us, won't we bleed?

This is the beginning of a famous quote from William Shakespeare's drama The Merchant of Venice , where the Jew Shylock says in English:

"If you prick us doe we not bleede? if you tickle us doe we not laugh? if you poison us doe we not die? and if you wrong us shall we not revenge? "

“If you stab us, won't we bleed? When you tickle us, don't we laugh? If you poison us, won't we die? And if you offend us, shouldn't we take revenge? "

If you have no idea: just shut up

In this wording, the bon mot can be found , as far as can be determined, for the first time in the 1999 program Nuhr vorwärts by German comedian Dieter Nuhr . Nuhr criticizes the fact that many people believe that they have an opinion on everything and that they have to make it known.

“If you have no idea, then you keep your mouth shut,” said Alfred Tetzlaff as “disgust” in the spring cleaning episode of the television series Ein Herz und ein Seele tönt, which was first broadcast on March 18, 1974 .

If they don't have bread, then they should just eat cake!

brioche

This is what the French Queen Marie Antoinette is said to have replied to the remark that the poor could no longer even afford bread:

"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, qu'ils mangent de la brioche!"

"If they don't have bread, then they should just eat cake!"

This phrase was attributed to Marie Antoinette, considered aloof and lavish, and often dated to the beginning of the French Revolution (1789). However, he is already in the Confessions ( Confessions ) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (written from 1765 to 1770, when Marie Antoinette was a child, and published in 1782). In the sixth book of his Confessions he writes:

"Enfin je me rappelai le pis-aller d'une grande princesse à qui l'on disait que les paysans n'avaient pas de pain, et qui répondit: qu'ils mangent de la brioche."

"At last I remembered the excuse of a great princess, who is said to be the farmers have no bread, and she replied: Then they should eat cake!"

It is a wandering anecdote that has already been told about the first wife of Louis XIV .

Brioche is a small yeast pastry that is traditionally part of the French breakfast. The translation of brioche as “cake” is ahistorical and misleading, since in the 18th century pastries contained little butter and sugar and were more like white bread .

If you take off from the flight ... from ... from the main station -

Transrapid Munich - decommissioned original Transrapid 07 as an information center in the  Munich Airport Center at Munich Airport

These slightly confused words come from the so-called Transrapid speech , which the then Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber gave at the New Year's reception of the Munich CSU on January 21, 2002 on the subject of connecting Munich Airport to Munich city center via the Transrapid . The whole sentence goes like this:

"If you take off from the flight ... from ... the main station - you get on the main station, you take the Transrapid to the airport in ... to the airport Franz Josef Strauss in ten minutes."

In the course of this passage Stoiber stalled several times and mixed up the words “Hauptbahnhof” and “Flughafen”. Four years later the passage was spread and satirized in the media. As a result, phrases like “when you leave the main train station” became popular words and were also quoted in other political areas in a modified form, but with a similar tone of voice.

The speech received cult status due to the many slip of the tongue it contains and contains sentences like the following:

“If you can get from the main train station in Munich ... in ten minutes without having to check-in at the airport, then you basically start your flight at the airport ... at ... the main train station in Munich. Ten minutes. Take a look at the big airports, if you are in Heathrow in London or anywhere else, my very ... uh, Charles de Gaulle in France or in ... in ... in Rome. "

A remix and a music video were made from this speech . Jürgen Trittin , Vice- President of the Greens in the Bundestag, started a first remix when he congratulated Stoiber on his 65th birthday in 2006 in the style of this speech.

If it is used to find the truth.

This saying comes from the Communard Fritz Teufel , who in 1967 had to answer to the Berlin district court as an alleged stone thrower at the demonstration against the Shah on June 2, 1967 in West Berlin . The request that he rise from his seat when the High Court entered, he complied with the following mocking comment:

"Well, if it serves to find the truth" .

The sentence is legendary: it summed up the formalism of justice.

Fritz Teufel was one of the cult figures of the Extra-Parliamentary Opposition (APO). If it helps to find the truth, it is also the title of the biography written by Marco Carini about Fritz Teufel.

In almost the same words, Manfred Krug comments in the television series Liebling Kreuzberg on the regulation that lawyers are only allowed to appear in court in robes :

"Because it serves to establish the truth."

If we want everything to stay the way it is, everything has to change.

This motto, which is supposed to express the futility of rigid insistence in the face of inevitable progress or unstoppable change, comes from the novel The Gattopardo (also known as The Leopard ) by the Sicilian Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa , also famous for the film adaptation of Luchino Visconti .

" Se vogliamo che tutto rimanga come è, bisogna che tutto cambi. “Becomes the motif of Tancredi, the representative of the young generation of the Sicilian noble family of Salina described in the novel and has become a well-known quote in Italy.

The word has also found its way into the German vocabulary, where it appears especially in political commentary, sometimes in variants such as “If we want everything to stay…” or “So that everything stays as it is…”, “So that it is it stays that way ... ”or“ So that just a few things stay the way they are, everything (first) has to change. ”The quote criticizes the fact that simply conservative clinging to conditions that are subject to mandatory change, or their own Inducing decay, is pointless or even counterproductive, and expresses that a truly preserving attitude requires radical changes under certain circumstances.

Anyone who only has a hammer as a tool sees a nail in every problem.

This idiom describes the fact that the perception of the environment and problem-solving behavior are influenced by individual experiences. Compare q: Robert Kagan .

Whoever digs a pit for others falls into it himself.

This proverb comes from the Old Testament book of proverbs , where it says in the German translation:

"Whoever digs a pit will fall into it."

It is found in a similar form in Psalm 7:16; 9.16; 57.7; Ecclesiastes Solomon 10: 8 and Sirach 27:29 .

This proverb corresponds to a quote from the epic didactic poem Works and Days by the Greek poet Hesiod :

Οἱ αἰτω κακά τεύχει ἀνήρ ἀλλω κακά τευχών. (Hoi aitô kaka teychei anêr allô kaka teychôn.)

"The man who does evil to another prepares evil for himself."

This proverb corresponds to: The book of Kohelet, chapter 10, verse 8 "Whoever digs a pit can fall into it ..."

Those who want to improve often make the good worse.

"Those who want to improve often make the good worse."

or in a different translation

"Often the good forfeits those who look for better."

is a saying from William Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear (I, 4); in the English original it says

"Striving to better, often we mar what's well."

Brakes are for losers.

The quote comes from racing and calls for taking a high risk in order to win. It was quoted by Mario Cipollini , an Italian sprinter bike . The TV presenter Panagiota Petridou has named her comedy program 2020/21 after this.

Anyone who doesn't know the truth is just a fool. But whoever knows it and calls it a lie is a criminal!

This quote from Bertolt Brecht's drama The Life of Galilei was used by CDU politician Heiner Geißler in the 1983 federal election campaign against the SPD .

Galileo Galilei worked well with his scientific colleagues as long as they were willing to serve science only. Scientists who put the truth aside for the good of the Church were criminals in his eyes. Galileo later had a tremendous internal conflict to cope with after he himself had been forced to retract by the Church. His students were disappointed because they thought he would be able to withstand the violence of the Church, and his student Andrea Sarti repeated Galileo's quote.

With the quote, Geissler referred to the dispute over the effects of the rental laws. The CDU argued that the Social Democrats had no right to polemicize against the unsocial rental laws, because basically the changes to the law had all been planned in their draft laws.

A similar formulation can be found in a song entitled Zum Wartburgfest 1817 , which can still be found in student Kommers books today. The author of the song is the writer August Daniel von Binzer . The sixth stanza reads:

"Toast! Live free word! Hurray up!
Anyone who knows the truth and does not tell it
remains a dishonorable, pathetic wretch. "

Who just rolled the cheese to the train station?

With this joking question you want to know who did something. It comes from a hit by Franz Strassmann from 1926:

Who just rolled the cheese to the train station?
That's a cheek, how can you do something like that,
because it hasn't been cleared yet!
The police got into it, now they're very angry and resentful,
yes who just rolled the cheese to the train station.

A poem by Robert T. Odeman starts as follows, closely following Goethe's Erlkönig :

Who rolls so late through night and wind?
It's the Swiss, my dear child.
He has to go to the station for the last train.
Can't you hear his heart beating loudly?

“Who rolled the cheese to the train station?” Is also the name of a song on the album Affentheater by Marius Müller-Westernhagen .

Whoever strives striving.

In Goethe's drama Faust II , angels proclaim the redemption formula for Faust's immortals, which they carry in the higher atmosphere:

"Whoever strives,
we can redeem."

In addition, however, there is divine love:

"And has love even
participated in him from above,
the blessed crowd meets him
with a warm welcome."

The first verse of the quote is used lightly as a joke for constant but perhaps unsuccessful endeavor.

If you don't have a house now, you won't build one anymore.

This is a line from Rainer Maria Rilke's poem Herbsttag , which he wrote in 1902. The poem begins with the following words:

“Lord: it is time. The summer was very big.
Put your shadow on the sundials
and let go of the winds in the corridors. "

The third and final stanza reads:

“If you don't have a house now, you won't build one anymore.
Those who are alone now will stay there for a long time,
will watch, read, write long letters
and
wander restlessly back and forth in the avenues when the leaves are drifting. "

Who can think something stupid, who can think something clever that the past world has not already thought?

Mephisto proclaims this insight in the second part of Goethe's Faust . He said this ironically after meeting the student, who had confronted him with a youthful thirst for action:

“Original, go there in your glory! -
How would you be offended by the insight:
Who can think something stupid, who can think something clever,
That the past world has not already thought? "

Those who don't work shouldn't eat either.

This is a slightly changed quote from Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians , with which the apostle Paul encourages the congregation in the Greek city of Thessaloniki to work:

“ ¹⁰ Because when we were with you, we impressed the rule on you: if you don't want to work, you shouldn't eat either. ¹¹ We hear, however, that some of you lead a disorderly life and do all sorts of things, just not work. " 2. Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians 3:10 ( 2 Thes 3:10  EU )

Paul means that you should take care of yourself and not be a burden to others.

August Bebel , founder of the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP), uses it in a context similar to the biblical sense . In its book "Die Frau und der Sozialismus", which has appeared in over 60 editions for several decades, it concludes its differentiating statements on the "duty of all those able to work" with:

"Socialism agrees with the Bible when it says: whoever doesn't work shouldn't eat".

The quote from Paul is later used in the constitution of the USSR from 1936 to 1977 ( Stalin constitution ). There it says:

Article 12. In the USSR, work is an obligation and a matter of honor for every citizen able to work, according to the principle: 'Whoever does not work should not eat'.

Paul von Hindenburg , Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army, wrote to the then Reich Chancellor on September 13, 1916:

It is necessary to extend the War Service Act to include wage earners. There are countless thousands of childless warrior women who only cost the state money. There are also thousands of women and girls running around who do nothing or pursue extremely useless jobs. In our current situation, the principle 'whoever does not work should not eat' is more justified than ever, also with regard to women.

A funny variation reads "If you don't work, you should at least eat well" .

Whoever is not with me is against me.

In the gospel according to Matthew (12:30) and in the gospel according to Luke (11:23) it says:

"Ὁ μὴ ὢν μετ᾽ ἐμοῦ κατ᾽ ἐμοῦ ἐστιν, καὶ ὁ μὴ συνάγων μετ᾽ ἐμοῦ σκορπίζει."

"Anyone who is not with me is against (against) me."

Conversely, Christ says in the Gospel according to Mark (9.40) and in the Gospel according to Luke (9.50):

"He who is not against us is for us."

Caesar also thought after Cicero :

"Te enim dicere audiebamus nos omnis adversarios putare nisi qui nobiscum essent, te omnis qui contra te non essent tuos." . ( Pro Q. Ligario Oratio 33)

"We heard your explanation: we (Pompeians) consider everyone to be opponents who are not for us, you are all friends who are not against you." (Translation by Heinrich Kraz 1869)

With the words "He who is not for us is against us" ("I've said in the past that nations are either with us or against us in the war on terror.") , George W. Bush made after the attacks of 11 September 2001 realized that he expected unconditional support from the rest of the world in the war on terror .

Who never ate his bread with tears.

This quote comes from a poem by Goethe in the novel Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship Years (2nd book, 13th chapter). It is one of the songs that the mysterious harpist sings. The entire first stanza of the poem is often quoted:

"Whoever never ate his bread with tears,
who never
sat crying on his bed during the sorrowful nights ,
does not know you, you heavenly powers."

The following funny variation is known:

"If you never ate
your bread in bed, you don't know how crumbs poke."

Who only lets God rule

Who only lets God rule is a hymn by the hymn poet and composer Georg Neumark from around 1641. The song comprises seven stanzas and is about trusting God . Neumark himself called it a song of comfort. The closing verses of the first stanza indicate a firm trust in God:

“He who only lets the dear God rule
and hopes in him at all times, he
will keep him wonderfully
in all need and sadness.
Whoever trusts God, the Most High,
has not built on sand. "

Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear!

Antependium in Ludwigshafen- Maudach

With this admonition, Jesus wants to point out to his listeners in the Gospel of Matthew (11: 15-19) that they can draw the right lessons from his parables if they only try to listen carefully:

"Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear! But to whom should I compare this sex? It is like the little children who sit in the market and call out to their companions and say: We whistled for you, and you did not want to dance; we complained to you and you did not want to cry. John came, did not eat or drink; so they say: He has the devil. The Son of Man came eating and drinking; they say: See how a man is an eater and a wine drinker, the tax collector and the fellow sinner! And wisdom must allow itself to be justified by its children. "

Even today one wants to express with this quotation from the Bible that one can understand the meaning of a communication with the necessary spiritual effort. It was an ancient Aramaic idiom used by rabbis when the students were particularly good at memorizing something.

With the words “Who has ears to hear” , however, an article about the audio book market today can also be headed.

The Austrian composer Johann Nepomuk David made this quote from the Bible the title of one of his motets in 1939 .

Who rides so late through night and wind?

This is the famous beginning of Goethe's ballad Erlkönig :

"Who rides so late through night and wind?
It is the father with his child.
He's got the boy in his arms,
he grabs him securely, he keeps him warm. "

The Erlkönig describes a father's nocturnal ride with his son. The boy sees the Erlkönig, by whom he feels threatened. The father tries to calm him down and give natural explanations.

Erlkönig has become the common name for the prototype of a car since the 1950s, and the press is more likely to publish photos the more eagerly the manufacturer tries to keep it secret. In this sense, the term was first used by the motor journalist Heinz-Ulrich Wieselmann , editor-in-chief of the automobile magazine auto motor und sport , and Werner Oswald , the second man in the editorial team from the beginning of 1950 to the end of 1957. Oswald tells:

“These little pictures, ridiculously harmless by today's standards, were considered an unprecedented provocation of the automotive industry… Editor-in-chief Wieselmann finally came up with the idea of ​​sweetening the bitter pill a little for the industrial companies concerned with amiable accompanying texts. With this in mind, one fine Sunday he rhymed a little eight-line poem in the style of the Erlkönig poem for the first few pictures. "

Mercedes-Benz 180 , the first Erlkönig

Erlkönig number one was the prototype of the Mercedes-Benz 180 in 1952 . The caption read:

"Erlkönig
1st episode
Who drives so quickly through rain and wind?
Is it a road cruiser from over there that is
only lagging behind in size
or even Daimler's youngest child? ... "

The comedian Heinz Erhardt composed a parody of Goethe's ballad entitled Der König Erl , which begins with the following words:

“Who rides through wind and night so late?
It's the father. It's about eight. "

The following version comes from comedian Otto Waalkes :

"Who rides so late through night and wind?
It's the butcher, he's looking for his beef. "

The comedian Eberhard Cohrs also took care of the Erlkönig, which then sounded u. a. so:

“Who rides so late in the dark bush?
The horse who stumbles and falls on the river. "

Who is throwing clay?

The well-known Berlin cabaret artist Claire Waldoff asked this question in a song written and composed by herself, the refrain of which is as follows:

“Who is throwing clay?
He should be ashamed of himself.
He should take something different.
As clay, of all things. "

The song turns against the unfriendliness and irritability of people in dealing with one another. The first stanza goes like this:

“The people nowadays are all so nervous.
every little thing makes them poisonous.
If one of them scolds the other, then I sing
my little song full of humor so that he shouldn't scold anymore: ... "

Those who do not remember their past are doomed to repeat it.

The American philosopher George Santayana warned in The Life of Reason :

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Today this quote is mostly used in a historical-moral sense. In the original context, however, Santayana argues against a naive belief in progress and at the same time against the perfectionism and idealism of Christianity. In contrast to these he sets a pragmatism that only knows progress as a change based on the awareness of the past.

Who should pay for that?

Jupp Schmitz

This rhetorical question is the title of a Cologne carnival hit from 1948/49. Kurt Feltz wrote the text under the pseudonym Walter Stein. The song was sung by the Krätzchensänger Jupp Schmitz , who also wrote the melody. The song immediately became one of the most popular hits of those years. The plagiarism allegation of the Hofbräuhaus-Lied composer Wilhelm Gabriel could n't change anything, who believed he recognized his march She was called Marie, composed in 1936 , and she was faithful .

The refrain, which is still much quoted today, is as follows:

"Who should pay for it, who ordered it,
who has so much pink and pink, who has so much money?"

The hit was created during the time of the currency reform and expressed the mood of the time. Pink-pink comes from the rogue language and is a slang term for money.

Today the hit title is quoted in different contexts, such as:

• "Financial crisis: who should pay for it?"
• "Inflation: Who should pay for it?"
• "Expensive living space - who should pay for it?"

If you have worries, you also have liquor.

" Anyone who has worries also has liqueur."

A finding from the picture story Die pious Helene by the draftsman Wilhelm Busch reads:

"It is a tradition from ancient times:
if you have worries, you also have liquor."

Helene says these words in Chapter 16, under the heading The Temptation . She looks at the bottle of liquor with a bad conscience :

",No!' - calls Helene - 'But now
I want to do it completely - and completely - and completely -
and definitely not do it again!' "

Then she looks at the bottle from a distance and comes closer and closer. Even the warning from her deceased aunt finally no longer prevents Helene from reaching for the bottle. Then the kerosene lamp falls over and Helene burns. In the end it says:

"Here you can see their rubble smoking.
The rest is no longer usable."

In 1948 DEFA shot an advertising strip for spirits under the title “ Who cares… ” .

He who seeks finds.

Whoever seeks will find a short version of the Bible verse Matthew 7 : 7 and part of the Sermon on the Mount : “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For whoever asks receives; and whoever searches there will find; and whoever knocks there will be opened. ” (Lutherbibel 1984 99/07). In the Latin original of the Vulgate Bible: “ Petite et dabitur vobis quaerite et invenietis pulsate et aperietur vobis. “In the Greek version, the position is “ Αἰτεῖτε καὶ δοθήσεται ὑμῖν, ζητεῖτε καὶ εὑρήσετε, κρούετε καὶ ἀνοιγήσεται ὑμῖν · ” ( Nestle-Aland ).
The saying is also quoted as “Seek, and you will find” .

Those who do not lose their minds about certain things have none to lose.

Emilia Galotti

This quote comes from the tragedy Emilia Galotti by the poet Gotthold Ephraim Lessing . In Act Four Countess Orsina says this to Odoardo Galotti, the father of the kidnapped Emilia Galotti, and gives him her dagger:

Odoardo

“The unfortunate one? - Madame! - What do I want from her? - Yes, by God, no madman speaks like that! "

Orsina

“Crazy? So that was what he trusted you of me? - Well, well; it may easily be none of his grossest lies. - I feel that! - And believe me, believe me: if you don't lose your mind about certain things, you have none to lose. - "

The background is that the absolutist ruler Hettore Gonzaga is obsessed with making the middle-class girl Emilia Galotti his lover. The Countess Orsina, the prince's former mistress, provokes Emilia's father to stab the prince.

If you have visions, you should go to the doctor right away.

The quote comes from Helmut Schmidt and was used for the first time in the election campaign before the federal election in 1980 . The statement was intended as a point against the economic and political thought models for the future expressed by Willy Brandt . Schmidt thought current crisis management was more important.

Who of you is without sin, let him cast the first stone.

Alessandro Turchi: Jesus and the adulteress

This phrase is of biblical origin. In the Gospel of John it is recorded that Pharisees and scribes brought an adulteress to Jesus and asked him if she should be stoned:

“The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught committing adultery. ... Moses commanded us in the law to stone such women. Well what do you say ... but Jesus bent down and wrote on the earth with his finger. When they persistently asked further questions, he straightened up and said to them: Who of you is without sin, be the first to throw a stone at you. "

Jesus' answer in the Greek original was:

Ὁ ἀναμάρτητος ὑμῶν πρῶτος ἐπ 'αὐτὴν βαλέτω λίθον.

What is striking is the serenity with which Jesus proceeds here and the simple solution to the problem. His opponents tried to lure him into a trap. If he says: “Stone them!” How can he then continue to speak of God's love? If he says: “Set them free!” He calls for breaking the law.

The Bible passage continues:

When they heard his answer, the scribes and Pharisees went quietly. Jesus was left alone with the woman. He straightened up and asked the woman: “Where are you? Has nobody condemned you? ”The woman replied:“ Nobody, Lord. ”Then Jesus said to her:“ I do not judge you either. Go and sin no more from now on! "

Who knows how close my end is to me!

The chorale , the text of which Ämilie Juliane Gräfin von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt had published in 1688, begins as follows:

“Who knows how close my end is to me!
Time goes there, death comes.
Oh, how quick and agile
my distress can come! "

In the arrangement by Johann Sebastian Bach , the song has the following text:

“Who knows how close my end is to me?
God alone knows
whether my pilgrimage on earth
may be short or long. "

There is a poem for this song by Mascha Kaléko in which it says:

“I am not afraid of my own death, only of the death of those who are close to me. How should I live when they are no longer there? ... Remember: one only dies one's own death, but one has to live with the death of others. "

Who counts the peoples?

This quote is the beginning of the 12th stanza from Friedrich Schiller's ballad Die Kraniche des Ibykus . There the Isthmian Games in honor of the sea god Poseidon are the occasion, as it says at the beginning of the poem:

"To the battle of the chariots and chants The Greek tribes
happily
united on Corinthus' Strait ."

At the beginning of the 12th stanza it says:

"Who counts the peoples, names the names that came
together hospitably here?"

Life punishes those who come too late.

Mikhail Gorbachev

In his speech on October 6, 1989 on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the GDR , Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev allegedly uttered the famous sentence:

"Those who come too late are punished by life."

("Того, кто опоздает, накажет жизнь" - Towo, kto oposdajet, nakaschet schisnj.)

However, the sentence does not come from Gorbachev himself, but from his spokesman Gennady Gerasimov .

According to Zeit, Gorbachev's quote at Berlin-Schönefeld Airport was “straightened” afterwards . A recording of the current camera of the GDR television from October 5, 1989 shows how Gorbatschow is received by Erich Honecker for the 40th anniversary of the GDR. On this occasion he said the sentence

"I believe that dangers await only those who do not react to life" , which is probably the Russian version of the idea that was also expressed in Germany in this German proverb that existed long before Gorbachev.

In his memoirs, Gorbachev writes that two days later he said to Honecker in a one-on-one conversation:

“Life demands courageous decisions. Those who come too late are punished by life. "

First come first serve

The saying, first come, first served, comes from the Sachsenspiegel by Eike von Repgow and is therefore already around 700 years old. It says in the original: "De ok first to the molen kumt, de scal first paint" and refers to farmers who came to the mill and sometimes had to accept long waiting times.

It corresponds to the greyhound principle or the priority principle , which is Latin "Prior tempore, potior iure" ("Earlier in time, stronger in the law") and excludes privileges.

If you have two pairs of pants, turn one into money and get this book.

This request comes from Georg Christoph Lichtenberg's notebook and is occasionally cited as an advertisement for a book. So it says in a book review on Amazon :

“Lichtenberg also used the saying, 'If you have two pairs of pants, turn one into money and get this book.' It goes without saying that Gernhardt refers to this saying and hopes that it will also apply to the present 'Our earth is perhaps a female'. "

Kurt Tucholsky wrote under his pseudonym Peter Panter:

“We have to thank Ludwig Hardt for this beautiful book, which reminds us of the hours when we heard it. Sometimes you want to order it in the evening, just as you might have fetched a violinist in the past. Speak one. And because that is not possible - but it was possible once, Ludwig Hardt, and thanks for the evening in Kurland ! - that's why Christian Lichtenberg should offer him his greeting: 'If you have two pairs of pants, make one for money and get this book!' Incidentally, the request is bisexual. "

Whoever believes it will be saved.

“He who believes will be saved” goes back to a passage in the Gospel according to Mark . There it says:

“He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but whoever does not believe will be damned. "

Today this phrase is no longer used in connection with baptism and predominantly no longer for religious beliefs , but more generally for beliefs without a fact-based basis. The formulation has meanwhile had a derisive and condescending connotation and means something like: Anyone who believes this may be happy with it, but turns out to be naive.

A variation reads: “He who believes will be saved; if you don't believe it, you will go to heaven. "

What a Wonderful World

What a Wonderful World (English: What a wonderful world ) is the title of a song that wassungby Louis Armstrong . The first stanza of the text reads:

"I see trees of green, red roses too.
I see them bloom for me and for you,
and I think to myself: What a wonderful world. "

The song tells of the beauty of the world and should form a countercurrent to the increasingly deteriorating political climate in the USA in 1967.

What would Jesus do?

WWJD bracelet

WWJD (English abbreviation for " W hat w ould J esus d o" - "What would Jesus do?") Is a slogan that is mainly found on bracelets. Such bracelets are intended to remind the wearer of all actions to ask himself how Jesus Christ would react, act or think in this situation.

Janie Tinklenberg, who led a Christian youth group in Michigan, discovered this question in an 1896 book by Charles Monroe Sheldon in 1989. (Sheldon was a leader in the social gospel movement.) The question and its associated bracelets spread rapidly among the US -american youth. According to Tinklenberg, over 52 million bracelets have been sold worldwide to date.

The band DVDA around Matt Stone and Trey Parker parodied this question with the song What Would Brian Boitano Do? (What would Brian Boitano do?), Which Stone and Parker used twice in their feature film South Park: The Movie - Bigger, Longer, Unedited .

Where is the beef?

"Where is the beef?" ( "Where's the beef?") Is an American phrase and has its origins in a commercial fast-food chain Wendy's . The spot ran for the first time in 1984: three elderly women are standing at a table and are inspecting an oversized hamburger. While two of the women praise its size, the rolls, etc., the viewer notices that there is hardly any meat in the hamburger. The third of the older women then asks incessantly: “Where is the beef?” The saying is used in everyday life to question what looks promising at first glance.

The important thing is on the pitch

“It is important to be on the pitch” is a quote from football trainer Alfred Preißler , which, in a concise manner , calls for competition practice to take precedence over all theory in relation to football.

Otto Rehhagel quoted this sentence as the Greek national coach:

“Everything that is previously expressed in terms of expectations is something for the media. What then happens afterwards, there is the great sentence from Adi Preißler: It is important on the place. Everything is decided there. Football lives from the imponderables. It is important that our team is physically in top shape and that we try to implement all of our possibilities. "

Lick against the sting

This phrase, already used by the ancient playwrights, Aeschylus, Euripides and Terence, probably became even more common through the Bible. In the book of Acts , the apostle Paul of Tarsus justifies himself to the Jewish king Agrippa . He tells of his conversion and how a voice said to him:

“ Saul, Saul, what are you following me? It will be difficult for you to lurch against the sting. "

The linguistic image is taken from the ox that "licks" (an old word for kicking out ) against the stalk of the drover .

Nowadays this phrase is mainly used when someone is fighting against a trend. So it says in an article on the website of the station n-tv under the heading "Right-wing populism in sight - licking against the sting" :

"The Cologne social scientist Christoph Butterwegge, this time with his Fulda colleague Gudrun Hentges and a number of other authors from Germany, Switzerland and Austria, has once again set out to crack against the sting of prevailing doctrinal and political opinions."

Like a man's nose, so is his Johannes

In this sentence, Johannes is synonymous with penis . However, there is no correlation between the length of the nose and the length of the penis.

Like the organ pipes

Organ prospectus in Aalen

This picture is based on the idea of ​​an organ prospect , the face of an organ. It has already been the satirist Johann species in his major work Geschichtsklitterung used. There it says in the fifth chapter, which deals with marriage and starting a family, of mothers:

"Here you put jre hurriedly around the table staff as white as the organ pipes, the father can whistle with the rod when he wants, blow on the bellows."

The phrase is used again and again on large families where the children are arranged according to size. Like the organ pipes is a family story by Christian Ryke with anecdotes and pranks in a family with eleven children and a dog.

Tit for tat.

This idiom is a shortened quote from the Old Testament Book of Proverbs , where the German translation says:

"As one does to me, I will do it again."

Like you to me, so I to you is also a poem by Johann Wolfgang Goethe , which has the following wording:

“Man with buttoned pockets,
nobody does anything to please you:
hand is only washed by hand;
If you want to take, give! "

Like an elephant in a china shop

The phrase - you behave like an elephant in a china shop - means a clumsy, clumsy demeanor. A clever and cautious animal was popularly ascribed to these properties in ignorance in order to emphasize the contrast between the large animal and fragile porcelain with a strong contrast. To smash porcelain means to crudely destroy a delicate, fragile, cautious, silent bond or matter; instead of finely honed diplomacy on a smooth parquet, only rough politics.

Like a man

This phrase is particularly common in the Old Testament book of judges . It says there:

"The children of Israel went out and gathered together like one man."

"All the people opened up like one man."

"So all the men of Israel gathered in the city, united like one man."

The emphasis is therefore not on “man” but on “a”: It is not a particularly masculine behavior that is described, but rather the togetherness or simultaneity emphasized.

Like a tear in the ocean

Like a tear in the ocean is the title of a novel trilogy by the Austro-French writer Manès Sperber ,published in 1961, whichtellsthe story of the Communist Party's betrayal ofa great idea.

Sparhawk was a member of the Communist Party and an exile functionary of the Comintern . After 1933 he was active in the resistance in Austria and Yugoslavia. He describes how power struggles and betrayal make the fight against the fascists increasingly hopeless and the disaffected resistance fighters themselves become victims of Stalinism in the course of the Soviet purges and the Hitler-Stalin Pact .

The third chapter of the third part, which in French has the same title as the entire trilogy with “Qu'une larme dans l'océan” , was published separately with a foreword by André Malraux .

Like once in May

This phrase comes from the poem Allerseelen by the writer Hermann von Gilm zu Rosenegg , the first stanza of which has the following wording:

"Put the fragrant mignonette on the table, bring the
last red asters
and let's talk about love again
|: As once in May.: |"

The third and final stanza reads:

“Today it blooms and sparkles on every grave,
one day in the year is free for the dead;
Come to my heart that I have you again,
|: As once in May.: | "

As in May , the title of an operetta by Willi Kollo and Walter Lieck is based on Rudolf Bernauer's vocal mates . It is a journey through the history of Berlin. The following lines come from this operetta:

“That was in Schöneberg in May.
A little girl was there too.
That kissed the boy often and with pleasure,
as is usual in Schöneberg. "

The communist poet Erich Weinert (1890–1953) also used these words in a refrained manner in Social Democratic Mailiedchen 1923 , one of his many satirical poems against German social democracy: "Put the picture of August Bebel on the table ..."

Like Lili Marleen once did

Memorial to Lili Marleen and Lale Andersen on Langeoog Island

This is the refrain from the famous soldier's song Lili Marleen , the text of which the writer Hans Leip wrote in 1915 during the First World War, before he left for the Russian front, during a guard in front of the guard barracks in Berlin. Leip was in love with two girls - Lili and Marleen - whom he combined into one person.

The song begins with the following verse:

“In front of the barracks There was a lantern in
front of the big gate And it is still standing in front of it. So we want to see each other again We want to stand by the lantern




|: Like Lili Marleen once did. : | “

During the Second World War , the song was first broadcast every evening on the Belgrade soldier broadcaster, the local Wehrmacht broadcaster. When the station was taken over, they had asked for a few records from Wiener Rundfunk and received some that was rarely played - including Lale Andersen's Lili Marleen disc . This record was played more often for want of others, until an objection was raised by Berlin and it was not done. A short time later, inquiries came from everyone on the front as to why they were n't playing Lili Marleen anymore. And then it was played every night at the end of the broadcast shortly before 10 p.m.

Like painted!

Girodet Trioson : The Sleeping Endymion

The exclamation can be found in Goethe's drama Faust II , where Faust has Paris and Helena appear before the emperor and court . When the beautiful Helena bends over sleeping Paris to kiss him, this is what a delighted lady-in-waiting says:

diplomat

I have seen princesses of this kind,
I think she is beautiful from head to foot.

Hofmann

She approaches the sleeper cunningly mildly.

lady

How ugly next to a youthful picture!

poet

He is illuminated by her beauty.

lady

Endymion and Luna! like painted!

The Greek moon goddess Selene (Latin: Luna) fell in love with the Greek king Endymion and put him in a cave. There she let him fall into an eternal sleep in order to save him from death and to preserve eternal youth. But every night she comes and kisses him.

What is the name of the mayor of Wesel?

One of the donkeys from Wesel

In the 19th century, the folk song researcher Anton Wilhelm von Zuccalmaglio documented the exclamation “What is the name of the mayor of Wesel ? Donkey ”whose origin is unknown. According to a travel report from 1819, the saying was originally used as an Echoruf on Rhine shipping and did not refer to the Wesel on the Lower Rhine, but to the town of Oberwesel in the Middle Rhine Valley . The saying and the corresponding answer "donkey" developed into a catchphrase and was taken up many times, including in the film Der Schuh des Manitu from 2001. The line of text inspired the donkey from Wesel as a symbol of the city on the Lower Rhine.

How do I get such shine into my hut?

In the prologue to Friedrich Schiller's drama The Maid of Orleans , Thibaut d'Arc, a wealthy farmer, says:

"I have seen her three times
at home on our kings' chairs,
a sparkling diadem of seven stars
on her head, the scepter in her hand,
from which three white lilies sprang,
and me, her father, her two sisters
and all princes, counts, archbishops,
the king himself bowed to her.
How do I get such shine in my hut? "

How do I tell my child?

How do I tell my child? is the title of an educational film from 1970 that made this question, which goes back to earlier educational publications, even more popular. It is quoted today in many contexts:

• "Education: How do I tell my daughter?"
• "Separation - how do I tell my child?"
• “How do I tell my child? Advice for adoptive parents "

How do I tell my kids? is the title of a book by Jean-Jacques Sempé published in 1960 .

Like sand at the ocean

This comparison occurs several times in the Old Testament. For example, the prophet Isaiah says:

"For whether your people, O Israel, are like sand by the sea, only those who are left should be converted."

The Joseph story says:

“So Joseph piled up the grain as much as a dime a dozen, so that he stopped counting; because you couldn't count it. "

How scales fall from your eyes

The phrase goes back to a passage in the book of Acts . After the apparition of Damascus, the future apostle Paul of Tarsus was blind for three days. It is said of his healing by Ananias :

"And immediately it fell from his eyes like scales, and he saw again."

Certain eye diseases have been compared to dandruff covering the eyes.

How the pictures look alike.

How the pictures look alike is a famous aria from Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca . There the painter Mario Cavaradossi is commissioned to paint the picture of Maria Magdalena in a church. He designed the altarpiece based on the model of a beautiful stranger who has recently been seen often in church. Although Cavaradossi admits that the stranger had served him as a model, he asserts that his heart belongs only to his lover, the singer and prima donna Floria Tosca. Tosca's jealousy increases when she recognizes Countess Attavanti in the picture.

In this aria Cavaradossi praises the black eyes of his lover Tosca and the blue eyes of Countess Attavanti. The aria begins with the lines:

"Recondita armonia di bellezze diverse!"

"They are similar in beauty, but both are different!"

How should one rule a people who have 246 types of cheese?

Cheese shop in France

The French President Charles de Gaulle is said to have said with regard to the governability of France:

"Comment voulez-vous gouverner un pays qui a deux cent quarante-six variétés de fromage?"

"How do you intend to rule a people who have 246 types of cheese?"

However, the number of types of cheese mentioned by de Gaulle does not match the number of types produced according to current estimates. In reality, there are more than 700 types of French cheese known.

How much earth does man need?

How much earth does man need? (Russian: Много ли человеку земли нужно?) is the title of a story by Leo Tolstoy thatdeals withhuman possessiveness:

"If I had enough land, I didn't fear anyone, not even the devil."

The greedy farmer Pachom is allowed to buy as much land from the Bashkirs as he can walk around from sunrise to sunset. However, he overestimates himself and collapses dead after having circled a very large piece of land. At the end of the story it says:

"The servant took the hoe, dug a grave for Pachom, exactly as long as the piece of earth that he covered with his body, from foot to head - six cubits - and scratched him."

The title of the story, with its meaningful question, has become a standing formula with which greed is questioned, and corresponds to the parable of the poor rich man from the Gospel of Luke , who, after having reaped a particularly rich harvest, says:

“'Now I'll be fine. I want to eat and drink well and enjoy my life! ' But God said to him, 'You fool! You will die this night. What do you have left of your wealth then? '"

Will to power

The will to power is the title of a collection of texts by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche . The will to power is derived according to Nietzsche, the actions of the strong, morally unbound superman .

Nietzsche came up with the idea of ​​the will to power primarily through his reading of Schopenhauer and his metaphysics of the will. In contrast to Schopenhauer's “will to live” , for Nietzsche the will to power is a phenomenon of knowing :

"Only where there is life there is will: but not the will to live, but - this is how I teach you - the will to power!"

Wind of Change

View of the Moscow River and Gorky Park

Wind of Change is a rock ballad by the Scorpions . The text celebrates the political change that occurred in Europe at the end of the 1980s (including the fall of the Berlin Wall ), the newly won freedom of people in the former Eastern Bloc and the imminent end of the Cold War . The song begins with the following verses:

"I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change"

The Gorky Park is a Moscow amusement park on the right bank of the Moscow River .

Wind, sand and stars

Wind, sand and stars (French: Terre des hommes ) is the title of a collection of reports by the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry , in which he tells of adventures and encounters on his flights in loosely strung together chapters.

Wave the fence post

→ Main article : Wink with the fence post

We Germans fear God, but nothing else in the world.

The German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck spoke these words in the Reichstag in 1888. Then he continued:

"And it is the fear of God that lets us love and cultivate peace."

Significantly, only the first part of the quotation became the winged word and this is also how it is quoted in the New Song Book for Artillerymen published in 1893 :

“Yes, if the enemies of the empire proclaim war
to us then lead us, German Emperor, with God through battle and victory.
We fear no enemies, we fight with courage
with God for German freedom! With God for the Fatherland
'We Germans fear God
but nothing else in the world' "

We slaughtered the wrong pig.

With the words "We the wrong pig slaughtered" (English: we've cut the wrong pig ) to the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1952 American US in a speech in the university town of Fulton , the end of the Second World War have commented. The wrong pig is said to have meant Germany. However, this sentence does not appear in the manuscript of the speech. In addition, there is no primary reference that can be used to verify this quote. Churchill further said in his speech:

"Unite to stop Russia!"

In 1937 Churchill had announced in a speech in the lower house that he would rather opt for National Socialism than for Communism.

We have won!

Depiction of Pheidippides in the Louvre

“We have won!” (Ancient Greek: Νενικήκαμεν. - “Nenikēkamen.” ) Were supposedly the words that, according to Lukian of Samosata, the messenger Pheidippides shouted, who ran to Athens with the news of the victory in the battle of Marathon and then collapsed dead should be.

Based on this legend, the marathon was launched as a sporting discipline at the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 .

Dieter Eckart wrote in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on October 24, 1987:

“The ancient marathon runner is an all-round tragic hero: not only was his name not Pheidippides, he not only did not run from Marathon to Athens, he not only collapsed dead there, he never even existed. It was invented much later. "

We only trained our strengths today, so I stopped training after 15 minutes.

This joking sentence goes back to the Austrian soccer coach Josef Hickersberger . He said he was the coach of the Austrian national team at a press conference during the 2008 European Football Championship .

For this sentence he was later honored with the German Football Culture Prize.

We have religion enough to hate one another but not enough to love one another.

This statement begins Jonathan Swift 's written on October 1, 1706 Thoughts on Various Subjects ( thoughts on various subjects ):

"We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another."

We can do everything. Except standard German.

Sticker of the advertising campaign of the state of Baden-Württemberg

The slogan was invented by the advertising agency Scholz & Friends and initially offered to the state of Saxony , which refused to use it. The agency then offered the Baden-Württemberg slogan , but the decision-makers seized it immediately.

The self-deprecating slogan then became the motto of the advertising and sympathy campaign of the state of Baden-Württemberg , which started in October 1999. The campaign was intended to make the state's economic performance better known and to draw attention to its cultural qualities. The emotional moment was targeted. The core message is:

"Successful because human."

When the slogan had already become part of everyday language, the number of TV spots was greatly reduced.

A parody of this slogan is used by the language advice service at the Technical University of Chemnitz . In reverse of the content it is stated: "We cannot do everything, but German"

We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon.

This condescending remark is attributed to Konrad Adenauer . With horizon intellectual foresight and intellectual are level meant.

In Walter Henkels ' book "... not so picky at all, ladies and gentlemen ..." - new Adenauer anecdotes , one reads:

Erich Ollenhauer in a Bundestag debate on Adenauer: "Mr. Chancellor, don't be so nasty to the opposition, we all have to live under the same sky."

Adenauer: "But we don't have the same horizon, Mr. Ollenhauer!"

The magazine Neue Preußische Jahrbücher presented a slightly different version in 1975:

In a debate in the Bundestag in 1960, Erich Ollenhauer said: “Mr. Chancellor, don't be so disgusting to the opposition, we all have to live under the same sky.” “That's right,” replied Konrad Adenauer quick-witted, “but we don't all have the same horizon . "

However, nothing of this is to be found in the minutes of the 43 plenary sessions in 1960.

We don't learn for school, but for life.

“We do not learn for life, but for school” (“ Non vitae, sed scholae discimus ”) is a Seneca quote (epistulae morales ad Lucilium 106, 12) in which he expresses his criticism of the schools of his time. The more popular twisted version, “Non scholae, sed vitae discimus” (“We don't learn for school, but for life”) , is often used by teachers to show that what you learn in school matters for life.

On the contrary, Seneca's original version is to be understood as a criticism of the philosophy schools of his time. In the original he writes:

“It's children's games that we play there. The sharpness and delicacy of thinking become blunted with superfluous problems; Such discussions do not help us to live properly, but at most to help us speak taught. Wisdom of life is more open than school wisdom; yes, let's just say it straight out: it would be better if we could learn common sense from our learned schooling. But like all our other goods, we waste it on superfluous luxury, our greatest good, philosophy, on superfluous questions. As with the excessive addiction to everything else, we also suffer from an excessive addiction to learning: we learn not for life, but for school. "

We are right

We are right means we did everything right, our plans, intentions and products hit the mark. The word comes from the sailor's language when a ship was on the correct course or when a submarine was correctly positioned, neither bow nor stern-heavy .

We are all sinners.

This knowledge goes back to Paul's letter to the Romans . There it says in the third chapter, which deals with the relationship between law and faith, merit and grace:

"Because there is no difference here: They are all sinners and lack the glory that they should have with God."

We are the people!

" We are the people " was the slogan of the Monday demonstrations and part of the turning point in the GDR in autumn 1989. Until 1968, the GDR had called itself a "people 's democracy ". Every week hundreds of thousands of GDR citizens spoke up with the cry “We are the people” and protested against the political situation. The words come from Georg Büchner's drama Danton's death in 1835 and affirm the right of the people to resist their exploiters and oppressors. Ferdinand Freiligrath used it in 1844 in his poem Despite everything! . Later it became, as a harbinger of German unification, “We are one people” - in this context the Germans from the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR were meant .

Vanessa Fischer examined the relationship between the sentences “We are the people!” And “We are one people!” On Deutschlandradio . On October 9, 1989, the organizers of the Monday demonstration expected the worst and feared clashes with the state security. That is why the Justice Working Group, Human Rights Working Group and the Environmental Protection Working Group created an appeal for non-violence by flyer , which was addressed to demonstrators and security forces alike. The decisive sentence was written in a locked manner: "We are one people" .

This sentence united demonstrators and security forces - which was rated with mixed feelings among the creators, which is why some were oriented towards the fact that the sentence could also be understood as a thought of a united nation. However, the demonstrators did not take up this formulation at this point in time.

When and where exactly the demonstrators chanted “We are one people!” For the first time remains unclear, dates from November 13, 1989 onwards. What is certain is that this sentence as a mass cry from the beginning of October until December 1989 is not applicable in the GDR was heard. For the demonstrators, on the other hand, the word “ Germany united in the fatherland ” became increasingly important.

We are the natives of Trizonesia

Occupation zones in Germany in 1945

In post-war Germany, the three western zones were called Trizone , which was also jokingly called Trizonesia in the vernacular. After the American and British military governments had created a joint economic area with the bizone , France with its zone of occupation only hesitantly joined this development in 1948.

In 1948 the pop singer Karl Berbuer wrote the carnival hit We are the natives of Trizonesia , which at times also had to serve as a “national anthem substitute ” , for example in 1949 at an international stalker race in the Müngersdorfer Stadium in Cologne, on the occasion of a victory of the local hero Jean Schorn .

The hit begins with the following verses:

“We are the natives of Trizonesia,
Hei-di-tschimmela, tschimmela-bumm,
We have little maids with fiery, wild vassals.
Heidi tschmimmela Tschimmela Tschimmela Tschimmela bumm. "

Berbuer stated in his hit that the old times (of National Socialism ) are over and the world keeps turning. He corrupts the German essence to the artificial word Wesien . A scientific study comes to the following conclusion:

"The desire, wrapped in self-irony, to overcome national isolation."

We are more popular than Jesus now.

John Lennon , 1969

In a 1966 interview, Beatles singer John Lennon said :

“Christianity wants to go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right, and I will be proved right. We are more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first - rock'n'roll or Christianity. "

“Christianity will cede. It will wane and go away. I don't need an argument, I'm right and it will turn out to be right. We are more popular than Jesus now ; I don't know which will go first - rock and roll or Christianity. "

Following Lennon's comment, conservative Christian groups in the United States publicly burned Beatles records.

In 2008, an unpublished interview with John Lennon was discovered in the archives of the British broadcaster BBC , in which John Lennon claims that the Beatles are "a Christian band" . In this 1969 interview, Lennon revised his statement and stated that he was misunderstood. He hopes that his music will encourage people to turn to the Christian faith:

“My saying was just an expression of my feeling that it looks like the Beatles have a greater influence on youth than Jesus. I never said that we like that, I'm one of the biggest Jesus fans myself. But if I can bring this focus, which is on the Beatles, to the message of Christ, then that is exactly our job and why we are here. "

We are young and that is nice.

These words are part of the refrain of the so-called children's friend's song , which Jürgen Brand alias Emil Sonnemann , the director of the prison in Bremen- Oslebshausen , wrote in 1914 for the socialist youth. It begins with the following stanza:

"We are young the world is open
O you beautiful wide world!
Our seeing our hoping
moves out through forest and field.
Brother, don't hang
your head, you can't see the stars!
|: Looking up, pushing forward,
We are young and that is nice.: | “

Brand could not prevent the National Socialists from later collecting this traveling song for their youth organization.

We are young, the world is open ... was the title of a special exhibition in the house of the Wannsee Conference in 2002/2003 about a Jewish youth group in the 20th century. In the introduction to this exhibition it says:

“'We are young, the world is open…'
- so begins a popular song that reflects the hope and optimism of the youth movement between the world wars. ...
It all started around the turn of the century with common hikes by middle-class youths, who called themselves Wandervögel a few years later and who combined the rejection of the modern industrial world with the desire for a 'simple life' in the 'free nature'. "

We got away with it again.

We Got Away Again (English: The Skin of Our Teeth ) is the title of a play by the American writer Thornton Wilder , which wasshapedby the Second World War as the Americans experienced it. It takes place in the prehistory (ice age, flood) and in the present (war). In the three acts, historical time and present modern time are constantly intertwined.

Wilder tells the story of a typical American family in the 1930s / 1940s, and at the same time synonymous characters for Adam, Eve, Lilith and Cain. Representing all of humanity, the family goes through essential catastrophes in human history in three acts (ice age, flood, war). Together they build their lives again and again.

We are Pope!

“ We are Pope! “Was a headline in the Bild newspaper on April 20, 2005, one day after the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI. The paper was alluding to the phrase “We are world champions” , which is part of celebrations when football world championships are won - a comparison that sometimes led to severe criticism. According to Bild's editor-in-chief Kai Diekmann , the headline was invented by the newspaper's head of politics, Georg Streiter.

The attempt by Bild-Zeitung to register the phrase as a word mark was rejected by the Munich Trademark and Patent Office in November 2006. According to the opinion of the court, such a trademark offends against morality: "If the term Pope - as Jesus' representative - is used for sales purposes, believers could be offended".

We have come to you to inform you that your departure has become possible today.

Hans-Dietrich Genscher

"We came to you to inform you that your departure [... became possible] today." Said Hans-Dietrich Genscher on the balcony of the German embassy in Prague . Thousands of GDR refugees wishing to leave the country had gathered in the embassy courtyard . The end of the sentence was drowned out in the jubilation of the refugees. A plaque on the balcony railing reminds of the moving words. The possibility of indirect departure to the Federal Republic of Germany achieved in negotiations, by train with a detour via the GDR territory in order to maintain the facade of a regular departure from there, was then fearfully questioned in heckling, since an arrest by GDR organs for " illegal border crossing “Was feared.

We should learn from the Chinese - they have the same characters for crisis and opportunity.

This saying by the former German President Richard von Weizsäcker is quoted in different ways, for example:

“We could learn a lot from the Chinese. I was told that they had one and the same character for the crisis and for the opportunity. "

This statement is not entirely correct, because the Chinese word for crisis consists of two characters:

• 危 wēi (危险 weixian = dangerous)
• 机 jī (机会 jihui = opportunity)

The American linguist Mark Liberman traced the history of this term in English back to the China mission in 1938. This idea was expressed by the later US President John F. Kennedy on April 12, 1959 in a speech in Indianapolis :

"When written in Chinese the word crisis is composed of two characters. One represents danger, and the other represents opportunity. "

“Written in Chinese, the word crisis is made up of two characters. One stands for danger, the other for opportunity. "

Kennedy used this trope more often in his speeches and it was also used by other politicians such as Richard M. Nixon .

We drown our grandma in her little house.

These seemingly cynical words are the title of the carnival hit " We drunk our grandma's little house " by Robert Steidl from 1922.

We drown our grandma, her little house,
her little house, her little house.
We'll mess up our grandma, her little house,
And the first and second mortgages.

The writer Kurt Tucholsky wrote about this song in the magazine Die Weltbühne in 1922 under the heading A German Folk Song :

“In German lands there is currently a song in swing that contains the most perfect expression of the people's soul that one can imagine - yes, more: that really shows in what time we live, what this time is like, and how we ourselves have to ask her. "

Tucholsky further states:

“So the song wants to say: 'We, the singers, are determined to turn our esteemed grandmother's belongings, especially her real estate, into cash and to invest the sum thus gained in spiritual drinks.' Like this -? The little song contains the current economic situation in a nutshell: We live from the substance. "

There were three of us in this marriage.

Camilla , 2005

In a television interview with journalist Martin Bashir in November 1995 , Lady Diana revealed numerous details of her marriage to Prince Charles . So she also talked about her own affair. The interview culminated in the famous words:

"Well there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded."

"There were three of us in this marriage - so it was a bit crowded."

The television broadcast turned into a scandal. Queen Elizabeth II then wrote to the separated couple requesting a divorce.

The British heir to the throne and Camilla Parker Bowles had been lovers for over ten years. In 1989, an intimate conversation between the two was recorded and published in 1993. After Charles publicly admitted adultery in 1994, Diana divorced in 1996. In 2005, Camilla Parker Bowles and Prince Charles married. The wedding was only performed in a civil ceremony, as the Anglican Church of England refused to marry divorced people whose former spouses are still alive.

We savages are better people!

The quote comes from Johann Gottfried Seume's poem Der Wilde , published in 1793 , which tells of the bad experiences of an Indian from the Huron tribe with one of the supposedly civilized immigrants. The poem closes with the following words:

“The Huron said quietly and seriously:
Look, you strange, clever, wise people
, look, we savages are better people;
And he hit the side of the bushes. "

We wind your maiden wreath.

This popular verse comes from Carl Maria von Weber's opera Der Freischütz , the text of which is from Johann Friedrich Kind , and is sung by the bridesmaids choir:

“We'll wind your maiden wreath with violet-blue silk;
We lead you to play and dance, to happiness and love! "

The song soon became a folk song and was so popular that Heinrich Heine found it unbearable and complained as follows:

“Even if I got up in the morning in the best of moods, all my cheerfulness is annoyed when the school youths pass my window early, chirping the 'maiden wreath'. It takes less than an hour for my landlady's daughter to get up with her 'maiden wreath'. I hear my barber singing the 'maiden wreath' up the stairs. The little laundress comes' with lavender, myrtle 'and thyme'. So it goes away. My head is booming. I can't stand it, hurry out of the house and throw myself into a cab with my anger. It's good that I can't hear singing through the rattle of wheels. At *** li I get off. Is it a lady to speak to? The servant is running. ,Yes.' The door flies open. The lady is sitting at the piano and welcomes me with a sweet:
'Where is the handsome suitor?
I can hardly wait for him. ' - "

The beginning of the song is occasionally quoted to allude to an upcoming wedding.

We never want to part.

The singer Heidi Brühl received her first gold record for the hit We never want to go apart . The song begins with the following verse:

“We never want to part,
we always want to stand together. No
matter how much happens in the big world,
We never want to part.
Our world remains so beautiful,
we never want to part. "

The title is also cited as a resolution never to lose one's slim figure.

We want to be one people of brothers.

Rütli oath

"We want to be a single nation of brothers" is the beginning of the Rütli oath in Schiller's drama Wilhelm Tell :

We want to be one people of brothers,
in no need to separate and in danger.
We want to be free as the fathers were,
dying rather than living in bondage.
We want to trust in the highest God
and not be afraid of the power of men.

The Rütli oath is a Swiss national myth . It says that envoys from the three original cantons of Switzerland took an oath on the Rütli , a remote alpine meadow on Lake Lucerne , which sealed an alliance of protection and defiance. This alliance is popularly considered to be the foundation of the Confederation . Since Aegidius Tschudi ( Chronicon Helveticum ) , the leaders of these emissaries (the so-called Three Confederates) have been equated with Werner Stauffacher von Schwyz , Walter Fürst von Uri and Arnold von Melchtal from Unterwalden . Other variants replaced Fürst with Wilhelm Tell .

In the German translation of the Disney comics by Erika Fuchs , the triplets Tick, Trick and Track refuse to follow the request of their uncle Donald Duck and get into the bathtub. They join hands and speak together:

"We want to be a united people of brothers, wash ourselves in no need and danger."

We wanted justice and got the rule of law.

“We wanted justice and we got the rule of law” is a resigned statement by the GDR civil rights activist Bärbel Bohley , with which she expressed the disappointment of many former members of the civil movements about the inadequate legal processing of the GDR's injustice after reunification .

Knowledge is power .

The catchy formula "Knowledge is power" ( English: "Knowledge itself is power." ) Comes from the writings of the English philosopher Francis Bacon . In the Latin original it says: " Ipsa scientia potestas est " .

Bacon demanded what later in the Enlightenment largely determined natural science: its practical application. The aim of science is to control nature in the interest of progress. However, man can only control nature if he knows it:

"Nature can only be tamed by obedience."

Bacon formulated this catchy dictum more cautiously:

"Science and human potency come together to the extent that ignorance of the cause nullifies the effect."

The recognized cause of an effect is a prerequisite for deliberately producing causal relationships.

Cabaret artists who made fun of the German Chancellor Helmut Kohl's alleged ignorance turned it into “don't know, never mind!” .

An old spontaneous saying is: “Knowledge is power, but knowing nothing does not matter either!” Another variation is: “Knowledge is power! So: if you know a lot, you have to do a lot! "

Know where the shoe pinches

“Not knowing (or knowing) where one's shoe pinches” comes from Plutarch , who says in his regulations for married couples (Coniugalia praecepta) that the Roman general Paulus Aemilius responded to the allegations of his friends that he had differed from his impeccable wife get divorced, put out his shoe and said:

"This shoe is also nice to look at and new, but nobody knows where it pinches me."

The idiom is used in different variations, such as:

• "Only we know where the problem is."
• "I want to know where the problem is."
• "Where the shoe pinches in studies"

Where is the positive?

“Where is the positive?” Is a quote from Erich Kästner's volume of poetry A man gives information from 1930. It contains a poem with the title And where is the positive, Mr. Kästner? whose first stanza reads as follows:

And you keep sending me letters
in which you write
, underlined in bold,: 'Mr Kästner, where is the positive?'
Yes, the devil knows where that goes.

Kästner explains here that he considers it inappropriate to write happy poetry in view of the sad state of the world. Today the abbreviated title of the poem is quoted when someone reports exclusively negative.

Under the heading Where is the negative, Mr. Diekmann? Der Spiegel magazine comments on an action by the Bild newspaper to present its readers with an issue with only good news for Christmas 2002:

“Where's the positive, Mr. Kästner” - a reader's question to the writer and journalist Erich Kästner is synonymous with the dilemma of all media: Most news - whether wars, plane crashes or economic crisis - are negative. "Bild", known as Germany's number one tabloid primarily for sensational journalism, wanted to prove for Christmas that there was another way.

Where the world is boarded up.

The fence at the end of the world?

In 1609 Johannes Olorinus Variscus told in his Ethographia Mundi, among other stories of lies, that someone had come to the end of the world and there "found the world with boards" .

The figurative phrase "the world is boarded up here" means as much as here it goes no further or here nothing is going on.

In the book The Fence at the End of the World by Reinhard Kaiser it says under the heading With Büchmann :

“Everyone knows the world is boarded up at its end. And everyone also knows that this is not true. Because, firstly, there is no end on our globe and, secondly, there is no fence at this end. Still, this double likelihood violation is very popular. The claim that there is a fence at the end of the world is one of our favorite fallacies, one of those exemplary falsehoods that are brought forward only for the sake of lying or to test children's gullibility. The adults also sometimes use the fence at the end of the world to prove that everything has its limits. "

Where I sit is always up.

With these words Otto von Bismarck confidently declared that, due to his importance as Chancellor, he did not take care of the table arrangements. When Queen Augusta von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach , the wife of Wilhelm I , complained that the ministers' wives, especially the wife of Bismarck, were higher up than they should be, said Bismarck, to whom this was reported:

“My wife belongs to me and must not be placed worse than me. But you can seat me wherever Her Majesty pleases. Where I sit is always upstairs. "

This remark goes back to a passage in Spanish literature where it is said that the Duke and Don Germanus of La Mancha argued about who should sit at the table above. The following anecdote is told:

“ Once upon a time there was a farmer who invited a Junker into his house. Usually the landlord sat at the top of the table, but this also applied to the Junkers. So they got into the dispute about whose right to the seat at the top of the table should now prevail, and since both were very adamant and each wanted to give preference to the other, there was no end in sight, until finally the farmer had both hands on the Junker's shoulders put him down on the chair by force and said to him: 'Sit down, you lout, because where I sit is always up. '“

Where are they running?

"Where are they running?" Is the repeated question of a completely inexperienced spectator on a racecourse in the 1926 sketch Racecourse Talks by Wilhelm Bendow and Paul Morgan , of which there are different versions (such as one from 1946 by Bendow and Franz-Otto Krüger ) . The humorist Loriot used this sketch as a soundtrack for an animated film and the phrase helped "Yes, where are they going, where are they going to go?" Thus great notoriety.

“Where are they running? My God, everything is dark with me, what is that? Oh, I've got the glass upside down ... Well, that can happen ... Where are you running, where are you running ... My God, where are you running? Where are they running? Ahh !! I got a shock! I only ever see your silly face! "

Wherever you sing, sit down.

These words come from the poem Die Gesänge by Johann Gottfried Seume , the first stanza of which begins as follows:

Wherever one sings, sit down quietly,
Without fear, what one believes in the land,
Wherever one sings, no one is robbed;
Bad guys don't have songs.

Usually the first and last lines are quoted together in a slightly varied form:

“Wherever one sings, calm down; bad people have no songs. "

This idea was already expressed by the various authors before Seume. In the song Frau Musica by Martin Luther , for example, it says:

There can be no bad courage here,
Where journeyman sing well.

In the 1973 film Live and Let Die from the series of James Bond films, Roger Moore parodied this saying as James Bond. After Tee Hee, equipped with a metal arm, bent his pistol and then left the room laughing, Roger Moore throws his own weapon, a Walther PPK , with the sentence: “Wherever you laugh, sit down. Evil people keep laughing "in the trash.

In Uwe Dick's Sauwald prose, the sentence is adapted to the times: “Wherever one sings, calm down. But check the texts every now and then. "

Where right becomes wrong, resistance becomes a duty.

This slogan became popular in the early 1970s in the anti-nuclear movement against the planned nuclear power plant in Wyhl . It is often erroneously attributed to Bertolt Brecht .

Where brute forces rule senselessly

The verse "Where raw forces are senseless" comes from Schiller's poem Lied von der Glocke , in which the master reports on the casting of the bell, which can easily break after the mold has cooled down:

Where raw forces rule senselessly
, no structure can take shape.

With this statement Schiller also referred to the French Revolution , the excesses of which he condemned.

Today the quote is used jokingly when someone tries in vain to achieve something by force. A slang rephrase is:

Where brute force is senseless, no button can hold your pants.

Where is that written?

With the question "Where is written?" Forwards Martin Luther in the Small Catechism , the biblical basis for his statements about baptism , communion and forgiveness one:

“What does such water baptism mean?
It means that the old Adam within us should be drowned by daily repentance and repentance and die with all sins and evil desires; and again a new man come out and rise daily who lives eternally in righteousness and purity before God.
Where is that written?
The apostle Paul speaks to the Romans in the sixth chapter: We are buried with Christ through baptism into death so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in a new life. "

With the words "Where is it?" (Old Greek: Ποῦ κεῖται; - Pou keitai? ) Doubted the followers of the Greek philosopher Epicurus , where an anxious dogmatism was said findings newfound at.

Today the words “Where is it written?” Are used as a rhetorical question to express that there is no rule that prohibits one's own actions.

In the 3rd act of Leo Falls' operetta Der liebe Augustin , the quote is ridiculed:

"Where is that written
? You are only allowed to love one?
One often raves about several,
sometimes lighter, sometimes heavier ... "

Where there is a lot of light, there is also a lot of shadow.

This statement can be found in Goethe's drama Götz von Berlichingen , where Götz skeptically replies in the first act to Weislingen's wish that God let him experience a lot of joy in his son:

“Where there is a lot of light, there is strong shadow - but I'd welcome it. Want to see what's there. "

This phrase is literally used today in the sense of “where there is a lot of positive, there is also a lot of negative”.

Where have you been adam

Adam and Eve after the Fall (Adam puts the blame on Eve.)
( Domenico Zampieri , 1620)

Where have you been adam is the title of a novel by Heinrich Böll from 1951. Böll overwrites his anti-warnovelwith the formulaic statement from the day and night books by the writer and cultural critic Theodor Haecker :

Where have you been adam
I was in the world war

This question follows the path of the soldier Feinhals from the Eastern Front to the threshold of his parents' house:

“A world catastrophe can serve many things. Also to find an alibi before God. Where have you been, Adam? I was in the world war! "

The question to Adam goes back to a passage in the Old Testament (Genesis 3: 9) where God calls out to Adam, who, after eating from the tree of knowledge in Paradise, hid himself from God:

⁹ And the Lord God called Adam, and said to him, Where are you?

¹⁰ And he said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, for I am naked and I was hiding.

¹¹ And he said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat from it?

¹² And the man said, The woman whom you gave me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.

We don't need roads where we're going.

The phrase, “Where we're going, we don't need roads” comes from the 1985 film Back to the Future . Doc Emmet Brown, played by Christopher Lloyd , gives this phrase in response to Marty McFly's ( Michael J. Fox ) comment, that the road is too short to travel back in time to the fictional year 2015, as you cannot reach the required 141 km / h on it fast enough.

Ronald Reagan used this phrase in the State of the Union Address in 1986 .

Well run, the air is fresh and pure!

Staffelberg with Franconian flag

With this exclamation begins the so-called song of the Franks , which Joseph Victor von Scheffel wrote in the summer of 1859 under the title Wanderlied in the Upper Franconian monastery of Banz and which the Franks regard as their "secret national anthem". It begins with the following verses:

Well run, the air is fresh and pure!
Anyone who sits for a long time has to rust.
The most beautiful sunshine,
let us taste the sky.

The song is sung on official occasions, mostly after the German national anthem and the Bavarian anthem .

Prosperity for everyone!

Prosperity for all! demanded the German economic politician Ludwig Erhard , the founder of the social market economy , in a book with this title :

“'Prosperity for all' and 'prosperity through competition' are inseparable; the first postulate marks the goal, the second the path that leads to this goal. "

Erhard himself writes about this keyword:

“Even the title of this book 'Prosperity for All' is full of problems, because it by no means corresponds to my conviction that even with the achievement of this goal the German person would be given happiness and satisfaction and prosperity for all could be sufficient for the social To guarantee harmony. "

In addition to the thesis "Prosperity for everyone" , Erhard saw another thesis "Property for everyone" . On the way to more and more diversified private property , self-confidence should be awakened and citizenship strengthened.

An anarchist magazine at the beginning of the 20th century had the same title .

Do you want total war?

The rhetorical question “Do you want total war?” Comes from the Sportpalast speech that the German Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels gave on February 18, 1943 in the Berlin Sportpalast . Goebbels asked ten questions about the willingness to fight, the fourth of which read as follows:

The English claim that the German people are resisting the government's total war measures. It doesn't want total war, say the English, but surrender. I ask you: do you want total war? If necessary, do you want it to be more total and radical than we can even imagine today?

After the setback in Stalingrad , a rhetorical act was intended to re-establish the people's determination to win. On the same evening Goebbels noted cynically: “This hour of idiocy. If I had told people, jump off the third floor of Columbushaus , they would have done it too! ”It took another full year and five months before Hitler formally ordered total war .

Dictionary of the Brute

The Unmenschen dictionary was created between 1945 and 1948 by Dolf Sternberger with Gerhard Storz and Wilhelm E. Süskind for the magazine Die Wandlung and published in book form in 1957 under the title From the Unmenschen Dictionary .

Using 28 terms, you examine the language of the National Socialists , which is still effective today. Sternberger wrote in his foreword to the 1957 book edition:

"The dictionary of the monster has remained the dictionary of the current German language, ..."

There are comments on words and their specific orientation, i.e. their abuse or use under National Socialism:

Concern, alignment, care, character-wise, carry out, real, one-time, use, women's work, shaping, turn out, intellectually, cultural workers, camp, performance-wise, girl, human treatment, organize, problem, propaganda, cross-shooting, space, training, sector, portable, intolerable, representatives, know about, current affairs .

If one wants to mark certain expressions as inhuman today, one can point out that they could come from "the dictionary of the monster" . Examples of this are expressions such as socially acceptable early death , ethnic cleansing and social waste.

Whereof one can not speak, thereof one must be silent.

This much-quoted sentence comes from the last section of the Tractatus logico-philosophicus , the first major work of the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein .

This does not mean that certain truths are better left unmentioned, but that what makes speaking or thinking possible cannot be its object. Wittgenstein himself believed that he had solved all philosophical problems with the Tractatus and therefore withdrew from philosophy for a few years.

The art historian Ernst Gombrich followed Wittgenstein's seventh main sentence in his work Ornament und Kunst. The jewelery instinct and sense of order in the psychology of decorative creation decidedly oppose this by opposing the view that it is impossible to discuss what cannot be precisely designated:

"Fortunately, the popular opinion is incorrect that you cannot talk about what you cannot define."

Wrdlbrmpfd

Karl Valentin fountain on the Viktualienmarkt

This word comes from the monster Sketch The cyclist of the Munich comedian Karl Valentin , in which a cyclist by a policeman is stopped because it was prohibited, a car horn and a bicycle bell has used. When asked for his name, the cyclist says Wrdlbrmpfd and gets off scot-free because the policeman can't write that:

Policeman: "How do you mean?"
Valentin: "Wrdlbrmpfd."
Policeman: "How?"
Valentin: "Wrdlbrmpfd."
Policeman: "Wadlstrumpf?"

...

Policeman : “What a stupid name! - Now see that you can get on. "

In a description of the Karl-Valentin-Fountain in Alfons Schweigert's Big Book of the Viktualienmarkt it says:

“The dubiousness of the world and the dubiousness of the questions posed to it are also underlined by the four small masks on the sheet. Three of them represent Valentin's famous roles, as a mixtum compositum from the cyclist 'Wrdlbrmpfd', the bearded father from the 'Confirmation' and the gendarme from the 'robber barons before Munich'. "

Whimsical saint

A “strange saint” today is a strange person or a nerd. However, the expression goes back to Psalm 4,4 in the Old Testament, which according to the Luther translation reads:

Know how wonderfully the Lord guides His saints.

For Martin Luther , “wonderful” was still synonymous with “wonderful” and that is what the revised version says. According to this, “a wonderful saint” was actually a “miraculous saint”.

The German scholar and narrative researcher Heinz Rölleke points out that, from the second edition , Wilhelm Grimm excessively entered “sayings and idiosyncratic idioms of the people that I always listen to” in the stories. That should also apply to the fairy tale about Brother Lustig , his practical thinking, his generosity and friendliness towards saints and devils:

“'It's good that he trots off, it's a strange saint' 'what grief he has in his head, because what he gives with one hand, he takes with the other: there is no understanding in it' [... ] "

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Quoted from: stefanjacob.de
2. ^ Richard Wagner : Das Rheingold . Foreplay. 1st scene. Quoted from: opera-guide.ch
3. ↑ Quoted from fes.de (PDF)
4. ^ The Walk (Wikisource); First published in 1795 in Die Horen (Schiller) under the title "Elegie"
5. ↑ groenemeyer.de
6. ↑ Bertolt Brecht based on the poem The Solution from the Buckower Elegies.
7. ↑ Bertolt Brecht : The solution Bertolt Brecht - The solution. In: sven-jordan.de. April 13, 2010, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
8. ↑ Christoph Drösser: Right ?: Disreputable quote. In: zeit.de . February 1, 2001, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
9. ↑ 1. Book Mose 7,13 ff. Quoted from: bibel-online.net
10. ^ Friedrich Schiller: Wilhelm Tell - Third Act, First Scene. Quoted from: Project Gutenberg
11. ↑ Quoted in: Affäre Filbinger: Was Rechtsens Was ... In: Der Spiegel . No. 20 , 1978, p. 23 ( online ).
12. ^ Christian Semler: The Nazi judge ruled until the end. In: taz.de . April 14, 2007, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
13. ↑ Goethe: Faust I , verse 682 ff.
14. ^ ^{A b} Giovanni Trapattoni . Press conference on March 10, 1998. Quoted from: Anger speech: What allow Strunz? In: stern.de . January 29, 2004, accessed January 16, 2015 .  ; Trapattoni - What did Strunz allow? I got Done on YouTube , October 26th, 2009.
15. ↑ Trapattoni's angry speech: 10 years "What do Strunz allow?" ( Memento of March 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) In: de.eurosport.yahoo.com .
16. ↑ ^{a b} “Weak as empty bottle” ( Memento from May 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) In: 11freunde.de .
17. ^ Goethe's works. Hamburg edition in 14 volumes. Volume 7, Hamburg 1948 ff, p. 145. Online at Zeno.org
18. ↑ Georg Büchner . March 10, 1834. Quoted from: Klaus Dautel: Georg Büchner. In: zum.de. Retrieved January 16, 2015 . 
19. ↑ Georg Büchner : Danton's death . 2nd act, 5th scene.
20. ^ Albrecht von Haller : Human determination . Quoted from: poem by Albrecht von Haller - thoughts on reason, superstition and unbelief. In: amigoo.de. Retrieved January 16, 2015 . 
21. ↑ Bertolt Brecht : The Threepenny Opera . Print version 1931, scene 9; Text originally from the piece Happy End by Elisabeth Hauptmann, 1929.
22. ↑ crawls around there in the bush What crawls around there in the bush? . In: Popular and Traditional Songs. Historical-critical song lexicon of the German Folk Song Archive
23. ↑ Manhattan Quartet - Was Macht Der Maier Am Himalaya: Manhattan Quartet: Free Download & Streaming: Internet Archive. In: archive.org. December 31, 2014, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
24. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/2017/http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/6185/3
25. ↑ Otto Braun: From the posthumous writings of an early completed man . Quoted from: vatermoerder.de (PDF; 235 kB)
26. ^ KO Conrady: The great German poetry book. Athenaeum 1978.
27. ^ Ernest Jones: The life and work of Sigmund Freud . Vol. 2, Basic Books 1953, p. 421 books.google , Basic Books 1961 (abrigded), p. 377 books.google
28. ^ Volume 2, Bern and Stuttgart 1962, p. 493.
29. ↑ Lyrics of Bots - Seven days long. Retrieved July 4, 2020 . 
30. ^ After the newspaper The Plain Dealer quoted Adenauer on December 4, 1949 with the remark that Germany should "make a contribution to defense in a European army under the command of a higher European commander" ( Documents on Germany Policy . Series II, Volume 2, No. 100, p. 301), Adenauer was accused “during a parliamentary group meeting of the CDU [...] that he had radically changed his stance. Adenauer replied: 'But gentlemen, nobody can stop me from becoming wiser every day.' In those December days, a friend told him that he had the people's 'no-me mood' against him and, consequently, of all MPs who did not want to spoil their voters. Adenauer had replied: If one day it came to the fact that Germany would have to be armed in order to secure world peace, then a European armed force would be the way to avoid a new German militarism. 'I am firmly convinced', he declared literally, 'that many who are now speaking against it in the Bundestag think basically the same. Let's wait. At most I said that earlier, what the others will say a little later. ' Half a year later everyone in Germany had understood that the Chancellor had not simply 'panicked' with his warning words of December 16. The Korean War broke out on June 25, 1950. ”- Paul Weymar: Konrad Adenauer. The authorized biography . Munich: Kindler 1955, p. 521 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
31. ↑ Konrad Adenauer: Quotes , accessed on December 22, 2013.
32. ↑ "So you don't need to think immediately about the Adenauer quote: 'What do I care about my foolish chatter from yesterday?'" - Horst Jürgen Helle: Sociology and Symbol. A contribution to the theory of action and the theory of social change . Habilitation thesis, Westdeutscher Verlag, Cologne and Opladen 1961, p. 56 books.google .
33. ^ Dolf Sternberger: Figures of the fable. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1950, p. 15 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
34. ^ Monthly for higher schools . Volume 16 (1917), p. 533.
35. ↑ Peter Köhler: The most beautiful quotes from politicians .
36. ↑ Quoted from: magistrix.de ( Memento from August 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
37. ^ The History Place - Great Speeches Collection: Lyndon B. Johnson Speech - We Shall Overcome. In: historyplace.com. March 15, 1965, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
38. ^ Dunaway, 1990, p. 243.
39. ↑ Langenscheidt's concise dictionary of English. Langenscheidt, Berlin and Munich 1991, ISBN 3-468-04122-5 , entry "overcome" (see also the discussion page: "How exactly would one translate 'We Shall Overcome' into German?")
40. ↑ "Closed because of wealth". In: jeversches-wochenblatt.de. October 8, 2012, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
41. ↑ Lotto: Restaurant "closed because of wealth". In: nwzonline.de. March 5, 2011, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
42. ↑ This narrates Livy 5,48,9.
43. ↑ Quoted from Das Lied von der Glocke on Wikisource
44. ^ Ovid : Remedia Amoris . 91.
45. ↑ Completely at christian-morgenstern.de and at de.wikisource
46. ↑ ^{a b} Winged words. The treasure trove of quotations of the German people ( Memento from September 24, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) In: susning.nu .
47. ↑ Suetonius : De vita Caesarum 49.1 la.wikisource .
48. ↑ Luke - Chapter 9 in the Luther Bible 1912
49. ↑ bibelwissenschaft.de/online-bibeln/novum-testamentum-graece-na-28
50. ↑ bibelwissenschaft.de/online-bibeln/greek-new-testament-ubs5
51. ↑ cf. Wilfried Härle : Search for traces of God: Studies on fundamental theology and doctrine of God. Berlin De Gruyter 2008, p. 144 books.google .
52. ↑ Quoted from: Heinrich Zschokke: Hans Dampf in allen Gassen (PDF; 170 kB)
53. ^ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel : Basic lines of the philosophy of law .
54. ↑ Quoted from: Whom God wants to show right favor. In: balladen.de. Retrieved January 16, 2015 . 
55. ↑ Holderlin in travesty - NedWeb. In: ned.univie.ac.at. December 22, 2014, archived from the original on January 16, 2015 ; accessed on January 16, 2015 . 
56. ↑ Schwarzrock: The ZEIT school library (22): Dear Helene! In: zeit.de . December 31, 1899, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
57. ↑ Plautus : Bacchides , p. 816 f.
58. ↑ Friedrich Schiller : Complete Works. Volume 3: Poems, Stories, Translations . Artemis and Winkler, Zurich / Düsseldorf 1996.
59. Jump up ↑ Oscar Wilde : Maxims for the instruction of the overeducated , Maxim 19.
60. ↑ Gotthold Ephraim Lessing . Emilia Galotti . Christian Friedrich Voß, Berlin 1772, p. 10. Digital full-text edition in Wikisource (version from September 26, 2010)
61. ↑ Quoted from: Rainhard Fendrich Lyrics "Midlife Crisis" ( Memento from January 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: lyricstime.com
62. ^ Singer Rainhard Fendrich ( Memento from June 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: cineastentreff.de .
63. ↑ Quoted from: When the father with the son. In: informatik.uni-frankfurt.de. Archived from the original on June 12, 2009 ; accessed on January 16, 2015 . 
64. ↑ Quoted from General German Kommersbuch: 351 on Wikisource .
65. ↑ Houston Stewart Chamberlain : Immanuel Kant. Munich: F. Bruckmann A.-G., 1905. Quoted from: Houston Stewart Chamberlain - Immanuel Kant. In: hschamberlain.net. Archived from the original on January 16, 2015 ; accessed on January 16, 2015 . 
66. ^ Wiener Zeitung Online: Unmasked: The wrong Karl Kraus - Sedlaczek on Wednesday - Wiener Zeitung Online. In: wienerzeitung.at. January 9, 2007, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
67. ↑ Thomas Frankenfeld: In the name of the people: Bohlen is art. In: Abendblatt.de . November 13, 2007, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
68. ↑ Where does the phrase come from? In: Abendblatt.de . February 5, 2013, accessed March 28, 2016 . 
69. ↑ Karl Pilny : The Asian Century. China and Japan on the way to a new world power . Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 97 ( limited preview in the Google book search)
70. ↑ Nietzsche, Friedrich, Also Spoke Zarathustra, Die Reden Zarathustra, From old and young women. In: zeno.org. Retrieved January 16, 2015 . 
71. ↑ Matthias Claudius : Urian's journey around the world . From: ASMUS omnia sua SECUM portans, or all works by Wandsbeck Bothen , 4th part. Wandsbek, 1774. p. 113, mostly wrongly quoted.
72. ↑ Tucholsky - Poems: When one goes on a journey ... In: textlog.de. December 7, 1926, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
73. ↑ Giordano Bruno : Gli eroici furori . 2nd part, 3rd dialogue.
74. ↑ Not true, but at least well made up. In: mythos.zdf.de. Archived from the original on March 27, 2008 ; accessed on January 16, 2015 . 
75. ↑ Stuttgarter Zeitung No. 184/2008 of August 8, 2008, p. 34.
76. ↑ Goethe: Faust I . 860ff. Quoted from Faust I on Wikisource
77. ↑ A salutary shock . In: Der Spiegel . No. 52 , 2003 ( online ).
78. ^ Speech by Federal President Horst Köhler on the occasion of the dinner to kick off the 41st M & u. In: bundespraesident.de. February 11, 2005, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
79. ↑ Quoted from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh on Wikiquote
80. ↑ Markus Hesselmann: Prince Philip is making a mistake again. In: tagesspiegel.de . March 8, 2008, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
81. ^ William Shakespeare : The Merchant of Venice . 3rd act, 1st scene.
82. ↑ Title Hold Fresse on the CD Nuhr nach Vorn , May 4, 1999, Collection Lab (Universal).
83. ↑ One Heart and One Soul - Spring Cleaning Part 3 of 5 on YouTube , January 24, 2010.
84. ↑ Christoph Drösser: Right ?: Revolution cake. In: zeit.de . November 8, 2006, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
85. ^ Œuvres complettes de JJ Rousseau, citoyen de Genève, nouvelle édition, tome 17, Paris 1793, p. 188 ( limited preview in the Google book search); Launette 1889, Les Confessions (Rousseau) / Livre VI.
86. ↑ Stoiber 10 Minuten Transrapid on YouTube , October 17, 2006.
87. ↑ Marco Carini: Fritz Teufel. If it is used to find the truth . Hamburg: Konkret Literatur Verlag, 2003.
88. ↑ Book of Proverbs , 26, 27.
89. ^ Hesiod Works and Days , verse 265.
90. ↑ Bertolt Brecht : Life of Galilei , image 9.
91. ↑ Tammo Ernst: 1920-1929 - filmed at the time - stories, photographs, film recordings - Part 9. In: Zeiten-gefilmt.de. June 14, 2020, archived from the original on January 16, 2015 ; accessed on January 16, 2015 . 
92. ↑ August Bebel: The woman and socialism . First edition 1879, in the 40th edition on p. 343/344 ( online June 7, 2015 )
93. ↑ Chapter 1, Article 12 of the Constitution of the USSR from 1936 on Verassungen.net ( full text ( Memento from June 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ))
94. ↑ quoted from Wolfgang Kruse (2014) / BPB : Economics of War
95. ^ Cicero: pro Ligario. In: thelatinlibrary.com. Retrieved January 16, 2015 . 
96. ↑ Marcus Tullius Cicero: Orationes selectae XVII… , Groos, 1837, p. 278 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
97. ↑ Cicero's speech for Ligarius [microform]. In: eptember11.archive.org. Retrieved January 16, 2015 .  P. 16.
98. ↑ Gospel of Matthew 11: 15-19. Quoted from: bibel-online.net
99. ↑ Who has ears to hear ( Memento of November 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: buchjournal.buchhandel.de .
100. ^ Werner Oswald: Mercedes-Benz Passenger Cars 1886–1986. 5th edition, Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-613-01133-6 , p. 488 f.
101. ↑ Denise Juchem: Mercedes 180 - first Erlkönig in car history. In: welt.de . January 8, 2013, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
102. ^ John McCormick: George Santayana: A Biography . Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1987, p. 141.
103. ^ Wilhelm Busch : The pious Helene . Chapter 16. Quoted from: Wilhelm Busch - Die fromme Helene, 16. Chapter. In: wilhelm-busch-seiten.de. August 17, 2005, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
104. ↑ Emilia Galotti : Emilia Galotti , IV, 7.
105. ↑ Joh 8,3–7 EU , quoted from the standard translation 
106. ↑ Chorale: Who knows how close my end is to me - Text & Translation. In: bach-cantatas.com. September 19, 2008, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
107. ↑ BWV 27. In: webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca. Retrieved January 16, 2015 . 
108. ↑ C. Drösser: Right ?: Gorbi's warning. In: zeit.de . October 13, 1999, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
109. ^ Kurt Tucholsky : Criticisms and Reviews . Quoted from: textlog.de
110. ^ Gospel according to Mark , 16:16.
111. ↑ Ottmar Fuchs : Whoever believes will be blessed ... Whoever does not believe will also go to heaven. Echter Verlag, Würzburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-429-03485-6 .
112. ↑ What Would Jesus Do? In: christianity.com. January 16, 2015, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
113. ↑ Rp Online: The self-confident phrase king: Rehhagel: "Important is on the place". In: ngz-online.de. June 10, 2008, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
114. ↑ Acts of the Apostles . 26.14.
115. ↑ Right-wing populism in the sights Against the sting licking In: n-tv.de
116. ↑ Rudolf Köster: Proper names in the German vocabulary: Ein Lexikon , p. 82 limited preview in the Google book search
117. ↑ "Like a man's nose, be like that ..." In: krone.at. October 11, 2007, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
118. ↑ Book of Proverbs , 24, 29.
119. ↑ Goethe - Poems: As you me, so I you. In: textlog.de. June 22, 2005, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
120. ↑ Book of Judges. 20.1.
121. ↑ Book of Judges. 20.8.
122. ↑ Book of Judges. November 20
123. ↑ All Souls' Day / Put the fragrant Mignonette on the table / As once in May. In: ingeb.org. Retrieved January 16, 2015 . 
124. ↑ That was in Schöneberg. In: ta7.de. Retrieved January 16, 2015 . 
125. ↑ erinnerorte.de ( Memento from February 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
126. ↑ Lili Marleen. In: ingeb.org. Retrieved January 16, 2015 . 
127. ↑ Goethe: Faust II . Knight hall . 1st act. Quoted from: Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, Dramen, Faust. Tragedy, Faust. The tragedy part two, act 1, knight's hall. In: zeno.org. Retrieved January 16, 2015 . 
128. ↑ The donkey from Wesel . In: derwesten.de . May 18, 2016. Retrieved January 29, 2020.
129. ↑ A trip to Switzerland (continued) Fourteenth report. Water ride. Newspaper for the Elegant World , January 26, 1819, p. 148
130. ↑ Wesel's largest donkey advertisement (rp-online.de)
131. ↑ Friedrich Schiller: The Maiden of Orleans - Prologue. In: Wissen-im-netz.info. March 9, 2003, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on January 16, 2015 . 
132. ↑ DNB 454657846
133. ↑ Isaiah . 10, 29.
134. ^ 1. Book of Moses . 41.49.
135. ↑ Acts of the Apostles . 9.18.
136. ↑ Gospel according to Luke . 12.13-21.
137. ↑ KSA 4, p. 149.
138. ^ A proud word resounds like blaring fanfares - Volksliederarchiv. In: volksliederarchiv.de. Archived from the original on January 16, 2015 ; accessed on January 16, 2015 . 
139. ↑ Unknown: Map of Germany: Germany, your slogans. In: zeit.de . November 27, 2008, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
140. ↑ Scholz & Friends We can do anything. Except Standard German ( Memento from April 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
141. ↑ Melanie Schumann: "We can not do everything, but German." Dr. Ruth Geier has been offering language counseling at the TU Chemnitz for ten years , TU Chemnitz , August 2, 2010, accessed on March 24, 2011.
142. ↑ Sven Näbrich: grammar at local rates , DW-World.de , February 1st 2010, accessed on 24 March 2011th
143. ↑ Walter Henkels: Not that picky at all, ladies and gentlemen . Fischer-Bücherei, 1967, p. 24 ( limited preview in Google book search).
144. ^ New Prussian Yearbooks . D., Volume 3, 1975, p. 104 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
145. ^ German Bundestag: German Bundestag: Search. In: suche.bundestag.de. May 31, 2012, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
146. ↑ Klaus Bartels: Veni Vidi Vici , p. 110.
147. ↑ Paul's Letter to the Romans . Verse 23.
148. ↑ Büchner, Georg, Dramen, Dantons Tod, 1st act. In: zeno.org. Retrieved January 16, 2015 . 
149. ↑ The individual and the whole. In: kurt-roessler.de. Retrieved January 16, 2015 . 
150. ^ Appeal of the organized resistance to nonviolence on October 9, 1989
151. ↑ ^{a b} Vanessa Fischer: We are one people (archive). In: dradio.de. September 29, 2005, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
152. ↑ Kölner Sportkurier , 4/1949, p. 8.
153. ^ The occupying powers: ( Memento from April 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) In: angriff1945.de .
154. ↑ John Lennon in an interview with The Evening Standard newspaper on March 4, 1966 .
155. ↑ Interview by Ken Seymour for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation when John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono were at the Bed-In For Peace demonstration in Montreal . Aired July 13, 2008 on BBC Radio. Quoted from: Previously unknown interview with John Lennon: Was he a Christian? In: livenet.ch. July 28, 2008, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
156. ↑ Quoted from: We are young, the world is open "Song of Children's Friends" ( Memento from December 30, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
157. ↑ "We are young, the world is open ..." A Jewish youth group in the 20th century ( Memento of 3 May 2006 at the Internet Archive ) In: ghwk.de .
158. ↑ Commercial papal than "image". In: sueddeutsche.de . Retrieved January 16, 2015 . 
159. ↑ Language Log: Crisis = danger + opportunity: The plot thickens. In: itre.cis.upenn.edu. March 27, 2007, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
160. ^ Remarks at the Convocation of the United Negro College Fund, Indianapolis, Indiana, April 12, 1959 ( Memento of July 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: jfklibrary.org .
161. ↑ We drown our grandma's little house / Our grandma drives a motorcycle in the chicken coop. In: ingeb.org. Retrieved January 16, 2015 . 
162. ↑ ^{a b} Tucholsky, Kurt, Werke, 1922, Ein deutsches Volkslied. In: zeno.org. December 14, 1922, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
163. ↑ Diana Spencer in an interview with Martin Bashir on the BBC on November 20, 1995.
164. ↑ The maiden wreath. In: www2.hu-berlin.de. Archived from the original on March 19, 2009 ; accessed on January 16, 2015 . 
165. ↑ Heidi Brühl Lyrics "We never want to go apart" ( Memento from November 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) In: lyricstime.com .
166. ↑ https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article9566915/Sie-wollte-Gerechtigkeit-und-bekam-den-Rechtsstaat.html
167. ↑ Bacon. In: Geist-oder-materie.de. Retrieved January 16, 2015 . 
168. ↑ "Bilds" beautiful world: where is the negative, Mr. Diekmann? In: Spiegel Online . December 24, 2002, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
169. ↑ The fence at the end of the world. In: reinhardkaiser.com. Retrieved January 16, 2015 . 
170. ^ Theodor Eschenburg: Protocol from Plutarch to Pappritz. In: zeit.de . February 9, 1962, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
171. ↑ Laughing Parade. In: charlybader.de. Archived from the original on January 27, 2015 ; accessed on January 16, 2015 . 
172. ↑ What we believe - Martin Luther's Small Catechism ( Memento from December 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: velkd.de .
173. ↑ Genesis - Chapter 3
174. ^ ^{A b} Ludwig Erhard : Prosperity for everyone! Quoted from: ludwig-erhard-stiftung.de (PDF; 3.7 MB)
175. ↑ Quotation from Helge Hesse: Here I stand, I can't help it. Through world history in 80 sentences. Munich 2008, p. 283.
176. ^ ISBN 3-608-76156-X
177. ↑ Alfons Schweiggert (Ed.): The big book from the Viktualienmarkt . Quoted from Dr. Josef Greber: Fountain in the city center: Viktualienmarkt 4. In: ju-greber.de. Retrieved January 16, 2015 . 
178. ^ Brothers Grimm : Children's and Household Tales . Full edition, Patmos, ISBN 3-538-06943-3 .