List of winged words / I

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

But I decided to become a politician.

This is one of Adolf Hitler's most frequently quoted sentences . In the first edition of Mein Kampf it still read :

"But I now decided to become a politician."

According to his account there, Hitler made this decision in 1919 so that something like the revolution of November 1918 could never be repeated. At that point he was a failed artist and a frustrated soldier who wanted to fight the war all over again. Hitler was caught in a gas attack by the British and was temporarily blind. In the Schützenhaus (Pasewalk) he heard about the defeat of the German Reich and the revolution. The weeping blind man now believed that he recognized the culprits for the defeat: the leaders of the Jewish-controlled November Revolution as part of an international conspiracy of the Jews:

“During those nights my hatred grew, the hatred of the perpetrators of this act […]. There is no bargaining with the Jews, only the hard either-or. But I decided to become a politician. "

I-AG

The German term Ich-AG (I-employer) denotes a sole proprietorship that was founded by an unemployed person who receives a business start-up grant (EXGZ) for this business start-up .

The term was coined by the authors of the Hartz concept , but is not official. The EXGZ was an instrument of labor market policy . It should make it easier for unemployed people to start their own business .

The term was declared the unword of the year 2002 by the Society for German Language , because this word creation from the current management discourse is missing

"The requirements of factual appropriateness and humane togetherness are particularly clear ... because it reduces individuals to linguistic stock exchange level."

I pray to the power of love.

Tersteegen monument with the beginning of the poem

I pray to the power of love is a spiritual song that the pietistic preacher Gerhard Tersteegen wrote in 1750 under the title evening blessing .

I pray to the power of love
revealed in Jesus;
I give myself to the free instinct,
whereby I was loved worm;
Instead of thinking of myself, I want to immerse myself in
the sea of ​​love.

The poem was set to music by the Ukrainian composer Dmytro Bortnjanskyj in 1822 and introduced at the Russian Tsar's court . After long detours, the melody is now part of the Great Zapfenstreich of the German Armed Forces .

I am for and even against.

“I am for and even against” ( Polish: Jestem za a nawet przeciw. ) Is one of the blooms of style of the Polish union leader and later President Lech Wałęsa , which is perceived as differently original in Poland.

I'm not stupid!

With this advertising slogan, the Media-Saturn-Holding increased its level of awareness for years with a lot of advertising. In other European countries the same slogan is used with slight modifications, but is always accompanied as the main motto by other mottos such as “Saubillig and much more”.

language	slogan	translation
Dutch	Ik ben toch niet gek!	I am not crazy!
French	Je ne suis pas fou.	I'm not crazy.
Greek	Δεν είμαι και κορόιδο!	I'm not a fool!
Hungarian	Mert hülye azért nem vagyok!	Because i'm not crazy
Italian	Non sono mica scemo!	I'm not stupid!
Polish	Never dla idiotów!	Not for idiots!
Portuguese	Eu é que not sou parvo!	I'm not a fool!
Spanish	¡Yo no soy tonto!	I'm not stupid!

Based on the posters and the slogan, the AStA Baden-Württemberg has a poster with the slogan “Tuition fees - I'm not stupid”, which is very similar to the posters of the Media-Saturn-Holding.

I am a Berliner.

Kennedy's template: "Ish am a Bearleener."

" I am a Berliner " is a famous quote from a speech given by John F. Kennedy in 1963 in front of the Schöneberg Town Hall on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift and the first visit by a US President after the Wall was built , with whom he expressed his solidarity wanted to express with the population of West Berlin .

The phrase appeared twice in the original text of the speech:

“Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was 'Civis Romanus sum'. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is 'Ich bin ein Berliner.' ”

“Two thousand years ago the proudest phrase was 'I am a citizen of Rome'. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest sentence is 'I'm a Berliner'. "

and

"All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words 'Ich bin ein Berliner'!"

"All free people, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free person, I am proud to be able to say 'I am a Berliner'!"

Donut

In the USA in the 1980s, the modern saga arose that Kennedy made himself a mockery of Berliners through improper use of German grammar. Grammatically correct it should have been “Ich bin Berliner” (without an indefinite article), and Kennedy's phrase was understood with great laughter by the Berliners as “Ich bin ein Berliner ” (pancake). Although this claim is incorrect, it is still very popular in the US, and Kennedy is often quoted as I am a jelly donut .

I am an elephant, madame.

I am an elephant, Madame is the title of a German feature film from 1968, whichjokingly modifiestwo well-known hit lines from the so-called tango song I kiss your hand, Madame :

I kiss your hand, Madame,
and dream it was your mouth.
I am so gallant, Madame,
and there is a reason for that.

The song was written by Fritz Rotter and Ralph Erwin in 1928 and became popular thanks to Richard Tauber's interpretation.

The film paraphrases the student revolt of the 1960s. A student rehearses the uprising on one of them and tries to break through the authoritarian structures. A humorous protest movement emerges that demands a democratic school system.

The film title is occasionally quoted to comment self-deprecatingly on one's own clumsy behavior towards a woman.

I am human, nothing human is alien to me.

This sentence comes from the comedy Heautontimorumenos (The Self Tormentor) by the Roman comedy poet Terence and reads in its Latin form:

"Homo sum, humani nil me alienum puto."

This is the main character's answer to the question of whether he has that much time to deal with other people's problems.

The saying was already a popular phrase in ancient times and is quoted in the writings of Cicero and Seneca . St. Augustine of Hippo also quoted this sentence and related it to his eventful life.

With the quote you indicate that you understand human weaknesses, or you admit your own weaknesses:

• "Nothing human is alien to the global citizen."
• "Nothing animal is alien to me." (Animal stories)
• "Nothing that is inhuman is alien to me." (Decalogue of Postmodernism)

Almost nothing human is alien to me is a book by Paul Bohannan and Dirk van der Elst with the subtitle How we can learn from other cultures .

I am a Prussian, do you know my colors?

the Prussian colors

This is the beginning of the Prussian song by Bernhard Thiersch , the first stanza of which reads:

I am a Prussian, do you know my colors?
The flag floats in front of me in white and black!
That my fathers died for freedom
, it shows, my colors indicate.
I will never despair of fear,
like them I will dare
|: Be it cloudy day, be it bright sunshine,
I am a Prussian, I want to be a Prussian! : |

The Dortmund high school director Thiersch wrote the first six stanzas in 1830 as a birthday present for Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III.

I am tired of ruling over slaves.

The Prussian King Friedrich II is said to have written this sentence in an instruction to his cabinet shortly before his death. The sentence is indicative of his increasingly negative judgment of people.

The quote collector Georg Büchmann writes in his Winged Words :

“The sentence corresponds completely to Friedrich's enlightened mind. Sixteen days before his death, in the cabinet order of August 1, 1786, he decreed the settlement of reclaimed land near Tilsit: 'The peasants who are employed there must all have their goods peculiar because they are not supposed to be slaves'. "

The playwright Rolf Hochhuth noted in a director's note:

“The number of cowards is paralyzing, Sophie has to control herself, she feels that disgust which is said to have made a king sigh: 'I'm tired of ruling over slaves' - he had forgotten that it was him who maintained slavery. "

I'm not in the donor mood today.

The quote is from William Shakespeare's tragedy Richard III. and reads in English:

"I am not in the giving vein today."

It is King Richard's reply when the Duke of Buckingham reminds him of his promise to give him the county of Hereford for helping Richard to the throne.

Today, the phrase "to be in the mood for a donation" refers to a momentary tendency towards generosity.

I am just a poor wanderer.

This well-known song comes from the operetta Der Vetter aus Dingsda by Eduard Künneke . A stranger comes to Castle de Weert and initially hides his identity behind the message that he is "just a poor wanderer":

I'm just a poor wanderer,
good night, dear girl, good night.

In Duden Volume 12 it says:

"The quote can be used to jokingly elude the question of one's own identity or to indicate that one only intends to stay in one place temporarily."

I'm so full, I don't like a leaf.

This famous fairy tale quote comes from table deck you, gold donkey and club from the sack of the Brothers Grimm. It tells how a tailor's goat answers the sons of his sons, who have taken them out to pasture in the morning, in the evening when they are asked whether they have had enough:

"I'm so full, I don't like a leaf, meh, meh!"

Thereupon returned home, she answers the tailor to the same question:

“What should I be fed up with? I just jumped over Gräbelein and didn't find a single leaf, meh, meh! "

Whereupon the tailor rejects all three sons one after the other. Only at the end of the fairy tale does he discover that the goat lied to him.

I'm so wild for your strawberry mouth.

The writer and translator Paul Zech translated the works of the French poet François Villon and was thereby stimulated to free adaptations, which he published under the title The vicious ballads and songs of Franz Villon . Zech added his own texts - without marking them. This also includes the poem I'm so wild after your strawberry mouth , which became very well known through the recitations of the actor Klaus Kinski and which begins with the following verses:

I'm so wild for your strawberry mouth,
I was screaming my lungs sore
for your white body, you woman.

Kinski also adopted this title for his 1975 autobiography, in which he describes his eccentric life.

I'm set for love from head to toe .

The chanson comes from the 1930 film The Blue Angel , the film adaptation of the novel Professor Unrat by Heinrich Mann , with which Marlene Dietrich became famous in the role of a lascivious bar singer. The text was written by Friedrich Hollaender , who also composed the film music for this cinema classic. The refrain is:

I am set to love from head to toe,
because that is my world
and nothing else!
That is what I should do, my nature:
I can only love
and nothing else!

The quote is used today with alternating additions:

• "I'm prepared for blows from head to toe." (German boxer or spouse)
• "I'm prepared from head to toe for thieves." (Construction of prisons)
• "I'm prepared for life from head to toe." ( Marianne Buggenhagen )

I'm too old to just play, too young to be without a wish.

With these words the old Faust complains in Goethe's drama Faust I about his life situation before he makes the pact with the devil :

In every dress I will feel the torment of the
narrow earth life.
I'm too old to just play,
Too young to be without a wish.

These words characterize a person's life crisis, but can also be found in the texts of personals .

I break the hearts of the proudest women .

The actor Heinz Rühmann sang this testimony of unshakable self-assessment in the 1938 film comedy Five million are looking for an heir . The song with the text by Bruno Balz and the melody by Lothar Brühne begins with the following lines:

I break the hearts of the proudest women
because I'm so stormy and so passionate I
just need to look one in the eye
and eat away

Rühmann's display is countered by his slim figure and awkward movements. A man whistles in between, and the women addressed talk to each other during the singing.

I thought a horse would kick me.

In an interview with ARD , the German Federal Minister of Finance, Hans Apel , expressed his amazement at the unforeseen negative turn in the discussion about the tax reform . These words later became the title of his autobiography.

In the book The New Sorrows of Young W. von Ulrich Plenzdorf published in 1973 it says:

"I thought a horse would kick me and brush a bus and everything together."

There are numerous variations with which one casually expresses that one did not think something was possible:

• "I think a moose will kiss me."
• "I think I'm in the forest."

I thank you, God, that I am not like the other people.

The full quote from the Gospel of Luke reads:

“ ^{9 But} he said to some who measured themselves that they were pious, and despised the others, such a parable: ¹⁰ Two people went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself: I thank you, God, that I am not like other people, robbers, unrighteous people, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week and tithe everything I have. ¹³ And the tax collector stood afar off, not wanting to lift his eyes to heaven, but struck his breast and said, God, have mercy on me as a sinner. ¹⁴ I tell you, this one went down justified into his house before the other. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled; and whoever humiliates himself will be exalted. "

Unlike the despised tax collector who is aware of his mistakes, the Pharisee is full of self-righteousness. Thus the words of the Pharisee are used mockingly to mark self-righteous people who want to rise above others.

Thank you.

This deliberately grammatically incorrect sentence was the reaction of the football player Willi Lippens in 1965 at a game in Herne , when he knocked an opponent to the ground, to the equally grammatically incorrect warning of the referee with the yellow card :

"Mr. Lippens, I am warning you!"

After a short cut, Lippens calls back mischievously:

"Mr. Referee, thank you."

For this he received the red card .

Thank you! The footballer Willi 'Ente' Lippens is a football biography by Dietmar Schott . Thank you. It is also the name of a restaurant on the outskirts of the city of Bottrop .

So I think I am.

The Latin phrase Cogito ergo sum ('I think therefore I am') is the translation of the French definition: Je pense, donc je suis .

This is a conclusion methodically formulated by René Descartes , which he formulates in his work Meditationes de prima philosophia following his radical doubts about his own capacity for knowledge as a foundation that cannot be further criticized :

"Since it is still me who doubts, I can no longer doubt this I myself, even if it dreams or fantasizes."

In the original Latin version cogito, ego sum , it was only tolerated by Descartes in the French translation as cogito, ergo sum , and has often been criticized since then.

I fear the Danaans, even if they bring presents.

Trojan horse , the Danaer gift , is drawn to the city of Troy .

This sentence, "I fear the Danaer (Greeks), even if they bring presents." Is mostly quoted from Virgil's epic Aeneid , where it says in Latin:

“Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.”

"Whatever it is, I fear the Danaers, even if they bring presents."

The original Greek variant is:

“ Φοβοῦ τοὺς Δαναοὺς καὶ δῶρα φέροντας. ”

"Phobou tous Danaous kai dōra pherontas."

"Fear the Danaer, even if they bring presents."

After the Greek army faked their departure, the Trojans brought the Trojan horse into the city despite warnings from the Laocoon . The Trojans believed that the wooden horse was a farewell gift from the Greeks for the god Poseidon .

I give you my word of honor that the allegations against me are unfounded.

When it became known in September 1987, shortly before the state elections in Schleswig-Holstein , that Der Spiegel would report on the Monday after the election that Prime Minister Uwe Barschel had initiated a smear campaign against his challenger Björn Engholm , the so-called Barschel affair developed . In a statement four days after the election, Barschel stated:

"In addition to these affidavits, which are to be presented to you immediately, I give you, I give the citizens of Schleswig-Holstein and the entire German public my word of honor - I repeat - I give you my word of honor that the allegations against me are unfounded. "

After doubts about Barschel's innocence arose, Barschel resigned from the office of Prime Minister on October 2, 1987. Nine days later he was found dead in the bathtub of his room at the Hotel Beau-Rivage in Geneva under circumstances that were not fully understood.

I went there for myself in the forest.

This quote comes from Goethe's poem Found in 1813, which he dedicated to his wife Christiane and which begins with the following words:

I went there
for myself in the forest ,
and looking for nothing, that
was my purpose.

With this quote Karl May begins his novel Der Spion von Ortry .

Goethe's poem was also set in sheet music in 1836 by the composer Carl Loewe under the title Im Vorübergehn .

The comedian Ingo Insterburg satirized the poem as follows:

I went there for myself in the forest,
I had a very Christmassy mood.
Then I saw a freezing girl who
wanted so much to be warm.
I took her home with me
and took off her wet clothes. ...

I believe this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship.

This famous film quote from the film Casablanca was only dubbed two weeks after the shooting ended. It reads in the English original:

"I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

With this ambiguous final dialogue, two unequal ones have come together at the end. One is the corrupt police chief Renault, who has to cooperate with the occupying forces, the other is the bar owner Rick, who has become a cynic over a disappointed love. At the end of the film, the chief of police helps the resistance fighter to escape and Rick lets go of the love he has found again. Finally, the chief of police Rick offers to cooperate. This ends the film, but it is to be suspected that the two dissimilar partners will also help others to escape in the future.

I don't resent even if my heart breaks too.

The quote is the beginning of a poem from Heinrich Heine's Lyric Intermezzo in the Book of Songs :

I do not resent, and even if my heart breaks,
forever lost love! I bear no grudge. No
matter how you shine in diamond splendor
, no ray falls into your heart's night

The poem gained greater fame through Robert Schumann's Dichterliebe cycle .

I wore it for seven years.

Theodor Fontane's ballad Archibald Douglas begins with these verses :

I wore it for seven years
and I can no longer wear it
wherever the world was most beautiful,
because it was boring and empty.
 

Count Archibald is referring to the seven-year exile from his Scottish homeland. Despite the death penalty, he ventures back to his homeland as a pilgrim and meets King Jacob on the hunt. He doesn't kill Archibald Douglas, but he doesn't want to hear him either. Count Douglas follows him and begs to kill him rather than refuse to return. Finally the king dismounts and takes the count back into his service:

Whoever loves home like you is loyal to the bottom of his soul.

The opening line is quoted jokingly today when you finally want to vent your heart after a long time.

I only have an office here and no opinion.

These humble words come from Friedrich Schiller's drama Wallenstein . With this answer, Colonel Wrangel, who is acting as a Swedish negotiator and whom Wallenstein asks for his opinion, evades a personal statement.

Even today one can evasively answer a question with this quote that one does not want to answer with a personal expression of opinion.

I lost my heart in Heidelberg.

Carl Rottmann : The Heidelberg Castle

This is the title of a very well-known hit by Fred Raymond from 1925, for which he also wrote an operetta in 1927. The text comes from Fritz Löhner-Beda and Ernst Neubach . A film from 1952 made these words even more popular. The chorus begins with the following verses:

I lost my heart in Heidelberg on
a mild summer night.
I was in love up to my ears
and her mouth laughed like a rose.

With the words "I lost my heart in ..." you can remember a place where you once fell in love with someone.

I slaughtered my aunt.

This line begins the Bänkellied The aunt murderer of Frank Wedekind . Wedekind appeared with this song in the Munich cabarets Elf Scharfrichter and Simplicissimus .

In the poem, a murderer reports in court that he killed his decrepit aunt and, because of his youth, hopes for a mild sentence, since money is more useful to him than an old aunt. The poem ends with the following words:

I slaughtered my aunt,
my aunt was old and weak;
But you, oh judge, you strive for
my flourishing youth.

In Duden Volume 12 it says explanatory to the above quote:

“With the quote you can, for example, jokingly answer the question of where you get the money for a major new purchase or the like. have taken. "

I have a dream

Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington

I Have a Dream (English for 'I have a dream') is the title of a famous speech by Martin Luther King Jr. , which he held at the large March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom protest on August 28, 1963 in Washington, DC , which was attended by more than 250,000 people.

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed :, We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood ... "

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We should take it for granted that all people are created equal.'
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood ... "

I've finished

"I'm done" was the saying of the Italian soccer coach Giovanni Trapattoni at the end of a press conference on March 10, 1998. As coach of Bayern Munich , he criticized the performance of some players in an extremely emotional manner. The sentence constructs ( “Was allow 'Strunz” , “… ware' weak as a bottle empty ” and especially “I have finished”), which were spoken in faulty German and were created in 3:30 minutes, found their way into German usage as an ironic expression; so commented z. B. the SPD the deselection of Helmut Kohl on a poster with "I'm done!".

The outburst of anger brought Trapattoni so much sympathy that he was able to earn money with it - for example as an advertising star for a sparkling water system ("not empty the bottle ...").

The saying is a 1: 1 translation from the Italian Ho finito! which means as much as “I 'm done!” The order noun-adjective (“bottle empty”) also comes from Trapattoni's mother tongue.

I don't have time to be tired now.

Kaiser Wilhelm I on his deathbed

These are said to have been the last coherent words that the German Emperor Wilhelm I uttered on the day of his death, March 9, 1888.

The sentence stands for the fulfillment of duty to the last moment, but was later ironically changed to:

"I don't have time now, I'm tired."

Wilhelm I died at the age of 91.

I have nothing to declare but my genius.

Oscar Wilde , 1882 in New York

When the Irish writer Oscar Wilde was asked by a New York customs officer when he entered the United States in 1882 what he had to declare, he said dandy in English:

"I have nothing to declare except my genius."

Another variant is also rumored, which plays a pun on the multiple meanings of the word declare (make known , determine , but also declare ):

"I'd like to declare - I'm a genius!"

"I would like to declare something: I am a genius!"

or “I would like to say: I am a genius!” Incidentally, this tour through the USA laid the foundation for Wilde's later success. His sharp pun was enthusiastically picked up by the American newspapers.

I only have one fatherland, that is Germany.

Heinrich Friedrich Karl from and to the stone

As a staunch opponent of particularism in Germany, the Prussian reformer Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom Stein wrote a letter to the Hanoverian imperial count Ernst zu Munster in 1812, from which this quote comes.

The full quote is as follows:

"I am sorry that Your Excellency suspects Prussia in me ... I only have one fatherland, that is Germany, and since according to the old constitution I belong only to him and to no particular part of it, I am only to him and not to a part." devoted to the same with all my heart. "

Freiherr vom Stein further states:

"My creed is unity."

Freiherr vom Stein is still considered one of the most important state reformers in German history. His achievements as a Prussian minister contributed to the integration of the secularized Westphalian bishoprics into the Prussian state, to overcoming the defeat against Napoleon in 1806 and to mobilizing the whole state.

I've spent a lot of my money on alcohol, women, and fast cars. The rest i just missed.

This saying comes from the Northern Irish soccer player George Best , who put it like this in English:

“I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered. "

Best also said of himself:

“I could join Alcoholics Anonymous. The only problem is, I can't remain anonymous. "

Best was one of the first media stars among soccer players. However, his extravagant lifestyle resulted in his addiction to alcoholism and his eventual death at the age of 59 after contracting a kidney infection.

I dared it.

Portrait of Ulrich von Hutten with his motto

"I dared" was the motto of the humanist Ulrich von Hutten ( Ain new song Mr. Vlrichs von Hutten - I dared with my senses ):

Back! Away! Who was so loyal like you?
'I dared and I still have no regrets.'
The thing called out, your lot took its course:
'Wake up, you noble freedom, wake up!'

In doing so, von Hutten may resort to the Greek poet Aeschylus , who puts the words “But I dared” in the mouth of Prometheus, who was bound up. Prometheus brought fire from heaven for the people and was severely punished for it.

Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess chose this quote as a burial motto for his grave in Wunsiedel , probably in reference to his flight to England. The National Socialist publisher Julius Friedrich Lehmann chose the same motto as a signet for all medical and "racial" books published by his publishing house.

The quote is used today when one has missed a goal and yet is proud to have tried.

I had a comrade.

Inscription on a fountain in Speyer

These are the opening words of the song The Good Comrade , which was composed by Ludwig Uhland in 1809 and set to music by Friedrich Silcher in 1825 . It starts with the following stanza:

I had a comrade,
You won't find a better one.
The drum beat to the quarrel,
He walked by my side
in the same step and step.

The song plays a major role in the funeral ceremony of the German Armed Forces and has also been adopted in the Austrian Armed Forces at military funeral ceremonies.

I once had a beautiful fatherland.

This quote comes from Heinrich Heine's poem In der Fremde , in which he wistfully remembers Germany in his exile in Paris:

I once had a beautiful fatherland.
The oak tree grew so tall there,
the violets nodded gently.
It was a dream.

That kissed me in German, and spoke in German
(you can hardly believe
how good it sounded) the word: 'I love you!'
It was a dream.

I came, saw and conquered.

Caesar's triumphal procession, during which the Latin saying Veni vidi vici is carried forward

"I came, saw and won" (Latin: Veni vidi vici ) was the laconic statement made by Gaius Julius Caesar in a letter to his friend Amintus after the unexpectedly quick victory at Zela over Pharnakes II of Pontus in 47 BC. Chr.

Pharnakes was the son of Mithridates VI. and rose against his father. In the course of the turmoil of the Roman civil war between Caesar and Pompey, Pharnakes tried to regain his ancestral paternal empire, but he was defeated by Caesar.

During his later triumphal procession , Caesar pointed out the ease of his victory by having a plaque with this saying carried before him.

What is less well known is that this sentence was actually transmitted in Greek:

“ Ἦλθον, εἶδον, ἐνίκησα. ”

"Ēlthon, eidon, enikēsa."

I can withstand anything but temptation.

In Oscar Wilde's comedy Lady Windermeres Fan (English: Lady Windermere's Fan ) the first act begins with a little argument between Lady Windermere and Lord Darlington. She asks him to spare her his compliments. When he nevertheless calls her "a very charming Puritan", she answers sternly:

"The adjective was superfluous, Lord Darlington."

In his apology, Lord Darlington replied:

"I can not help it. I can resist everything, just not temptation. "

I can highly recommend the Gestapo to everyone.

Ernest Jones , who personally contributed a lot to the fact that Sigmund Freud was able to travel from Vienna to London with his wife and daughter Anna on June 5, 1938 , reports in the third and last volume of his great Freud biography, which appeared in 1957, one of the Conditions on which the issuance of the exit visa was made dependent were the signing of a confirmation that the German authorities, and in particular the Gestapo, have given Freud every freedom since the annexation of Austria , paid him the respect appropriate to his reputation and supported him in every respect would have. When the Nazi commissioner appeared to him with this declaration, Freud had of course had no hesitation in signing it, but asked if he could add another sentence, namely:

"I can highly recommend the Gestapo to everyone."

This representation was and is largely taken at face value and mostly understood to mean that Freud actually wrote the end-sentence into the document. This is what Paul Watzlawick says: Human Communication (1969):

“So the Gestapo had an interest in Freud's signature, and Freud must have been faced with the choice of signing and thereby helping the enemy with the loss of his personal integrity or not signing and bearing the consequences of this refusal . […] Freud, however, managed to turn the tables and trap the Nazis in their own trap. When the Gestapo officer signed the document, Freud asked if he could add another sentence. Obviously, fully aware of his position of power, the officer agreed, and Freud wrote: 'I can highly recommend the Gestapo to everyone.' With that the roles were reversed; for after the Gestapo had once forced Freud to praise it, it could not easily refuse further 'spontaneous' praise. But for the world public […] this 'praise' could only mean a devastating sarcasm that made Freud's declaration unusable for propaganda purposes. Freud had thus succeeded in devaluing the declaration by means of a statement which, as part of the declaration, seemed to reinforce its content, but at the same time negated the meaning of the entire declaration with its obvious sarcasm . "

In 1989 the original text turned up at an auction of documents related to Freud's emigration. It reads from Freud's lawyer Dr. Alfred Indra written and signed by Freud:

“I am happy to confirm that up to June 4, 1938, no harassment of any kind has occurred to me or to my housemates. The authorities and functionaries of the party have always treated me and my housemates correctly and considerately.

Vienna, June 4, 1938. Prof. Dr. Sigm. Freud."

The famous ending is missing. The fact that the 82-year-old Freud might have been prepared to endanger not only his own departure but also the departure of his wife and daughter from Nazi Germany for a witty sarcasm would contradict every life experience anyway.

I can't eat as much as I want to throw up.

When the painter Max Liebermann watched the torchlight procession from the window of his apartment at the Brandenburg Gate on January 30, 1933 , the so-called seizure of power by Hitler , he expressed his disgust at it in the Berlin dialect :

"Oh, you know, I can't eat as much as I want to throw up."

In the film Des Teufels General , this phrase is used by Air Force General Harras (played by Curd Juergens ).

I cannot be a prince servant.

The Marquis von Posa speaks these proud words in Friedrich Schiller's drama Don Karlos . As a free Knight of Malta , the Marquis of Posa refuses to enter the service of King Philip II of Spain .

The writer Georg Herwegh received an audience with the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV on November 19, 1842. Instead of bowing in goodbye, however, he fixed the king and quotes Schiller:

"Sire, I cannot be a prince servant."

This serious violation of etiquette has the consequence that some of his followers turn away from him. However, Herwegh does not take the attacks seriously, rather he has the feeling that he is superior to the king. When his magazine Der Deutsche Bote was banned shortly afterwards , Herwegh wrote a letter to the king, which fell into the hands of a journalist and was printed in all important magazines. Herwegh is then expelled from Prussia and Saxony for insulting majesty . The government organized a press campaign, in which Heinrich Heine also took part, with which Herwegh and his close friends were to be silenced.

The Germanistin Marie Haller-Never man wrote to Schiller in 2005 a biography of Schiller, entitled I can not courtier be examined in it mind and artistic personality of the "poet of freedom."

I can not believe it.

The phrase “I can't believe it” as an expression of the greatest surprises comes from the poem I can't believe it, not believe by Adelbert von Chamisso , which became famous in the setting by Robert Schumann :

I can't believe it, I can't believe
it, a dream has haunted me;
How would he have lifted up
my arms among all and made me happy?

I know the way, I know the text.

The verse “I know the way, I know the text” comes from Heinrich Heine's cycle of poems Germany. A winter tale (chapter I, 8th stanza) and reads in the context:

I know the way, I know the text,
I also know the authors;
I know they secretly drank wine
And publicly preached water.

Heine is alluding to a so-called “renunciation song” that he heard on his return to Germany.

The beginning is occasionally quoted when one wants to comment on a point of view that has long since been seen through.

I don't know any parties anymore.

Lithograph by Max Liebermann , 1914. "I don't know any political parties anymore, I only know Germans (the Kaiser)."

This quote comes from Kaiser Wilhelm II , who, in view of the impending start of the war on August 4, 1914, said at the extraordinary session of the Reichstag in Berlin:

"I don't know any parties anymore, I only know Germans."

With this sentence Kaiser Wilhelm proclaims the truce and with it his consent to war. This quote was widely disseminated at the beginning of the war and, for example, brought to the people via postcards.

Three days earlier, the emperor had already expressed this idea in a speech to the people in front of the royal palace:

“In the upcoming struggle, I no longer know any parties among my people. There are only Germans among us. "

The artist Max Liebermann, for example, understood the emperor's words as a call to serve the national cause and, through the emperor's call to "To my dear Jews", felt obliged to participate in the war as a civilian.

I accuse …!

Front page of the literary newspaper L'Aurore with Zola's open letter

J'accuse ...! (French for, I Accuse ...! ') was the title of an open letter that the French writer Emile Zola in literature newspaper L'Aurore on the French President Faure Félix directed to the cause of the accused unjustly officer Alfred Dreyfus to represent .

The letter met with a great response, divided the political class and polarized French society, including families. Zola himself was indicted and convicted a little later, which prompted him to flee to England temporarily.

The Dreyfus affair began in 1894, after allegedly a French agent who worked as a cleaning lady in the German embassy in Paris discovered the remains of a letter in the wastepaper basket of the German military attaché Baron von Schwartzkoppen. In this document, which was subsequently called the bordereau , was a list of secret French documents and an offer to hand them over.

Since the bordereau mainly promised information about the artillery, the French general staff quickly suspected the artilleryman captain Dreyfus, who, as an Alsatian and above all as a Jew, seemed predestined to be a traitor.

I love you i love you

The Berlin court actor Johann Ferdinand Rüthling is said to have written the poem Mir und mich , in which he alludes to the fact that in the Berlin dialect the accusative is often confused with the dative :

I love you i love you
It’s right, I don’t know that and I’m also
pomade
… I don’t
love the third case,
I don’t love the fourth case,
I don’t love any case!

I love everyone.

On November 13, 1989, the Stasi chief Erich Mielke spoke for the first time in front of the GDR People's Chamber and, somewhat confused, said the words that were often used ironically in the subsequent period:

"We have, comrades, dear Members of Parliament, an extraordinarily high level of contact with all working people, everywhere, yes, we have a contact, yes, we have a contact, you will soon hear, you will soon hear why. ... I love, I love everyone, everyone, well, I love, I am committed to it! "

This statement was met with loud laughter. His statement was preceded by a hint from a Saxon LDPD member of the People's Chamber that Mielke should not constantly use the address comrades in his speech , since there are not only comrades in the plenary.

Theologian Christian Möller said of Mielke's appearance in a sermon in the Heidelberg University Church in 2001:

“I can see an unforgettable television scene from the fall of 1989: Erich Mielke, the almighty head of the GDR State Security Service, whom everyone, even party comrades, feared, steps in front of the People's Chamber after the collapse of the GDR and the opening of the Wall and calls out to the MPs with great pathos: “I love you all…” And they just laugh because they know exactly what he actually means: “I had you all under control…” And now this collapse of the most perfect State Security Service the world in just a few days! "

I don't love states, I love my wife.

Gustav Heinemann

When a journalist asked whether he loved Germany, former German President Gustav Heinemann said:

"I don't love states, I love my wife."

Heinemann took part in the commitment of his wife Hilda . The couple had four children, the first being the future theologian Uta Ranke-Heinemann .

The politician Ulla Jelpke , domestic policy spokeswoman for the parliamentary group Die Linke , said in 2006 about Heinemann's statement:

“I agree with this attitude of devoting emotions to people rather than a state structure. Even if it is fashionable to speak of "healthy patriotism", I recommend a healthy skepticism against any form of "love" for a state instead. "

Political scientist Thomas Risse said in an interview about the comment that Federal President Horst Köhler had declared in his inaugural speech that he loved his country:

“I agree with the former Federal President Gustav Heinemann, who said: 'I don't love any state, I love my wife'. It is true, however, that the nation-states generate intense feelings more easily than Europe: they have simply been around for a few centuries longer. "

I sit down with a stone.

Walther von der Vogelweide in the Codex Manesse

This is the beginning of a famous poem ( Reichston ) by the minstrel Walther von der Vogelweide in Middle High German.

“I sit down a stone and behind it leg with legs, then I set my elbow; I smooched in mîne hant daz kinne and a mîn cheek. dô dâhte I be me vil, how Werlte zer Solte live deheinen rât cond I given how erwurbe driu dinc, the verdurbe keinez niht. " ...

“I sat on a stone: I cover my leg with legs, on which stood my elbow; It nestled in my hand The chin and a cheek. For a long time I thought about the course of the world and earthly salvation; But I was no advice given, How three erwürbe thing ', that no one would spoil it. " ...

The three things are honor (reputation), perishable good (possession) and God's grace (grace), which have no safe path (escort) if peace and justice are not "healed" beforehand, i.e. H. to be restored.

I liked to cut it into every bark.

Robert Beyschlag : I liked to cut it into every bark

This quote comes from the poem Impatience in Wilhelm Müller's cycle of poems The beautiful Müllerin . This poem, which became famous in the setting by Franz Schubert , begins with the following stanza:

I like to cut it into every bark,
I like to dig it into every pebble,
I would like to sow it on every fresh bed
With cress seeds that give it away quickly , I would like to write it
on every white piece of paper:
Your is my heart, and it should stay forever.

Today the quote is occasionally used to express that you want to tell the world that you have found the right partner.

The writer Kurt Tucholsky wrote in 1917 under his pseudonym Peter Panter in his reviews and reviews

“Until then, however, I'll be hopelessly kitsched. It sings through my dreams, and I like to cut it into every bark, and always, always have it in mind. "

I look you in the eye, baby

In the German dubbed version of the US film Casablanca , Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) says this a total of four times to Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), three of them while consuming alcoholic beverages together. The English original "Here's looking at you, kid." Is actually known as a toast ( see Casablanca (film) #shooting ). The German version is understood by the audience to be a synonym for Rick's love for Elsa and has become a household word, while the sober toast of the original is not particularly noticeable in the USA, wrote Martin Wiegers in DIE ZEIT on April 3, 1992. That is true only partially correct, because in the list of the 100 best film quotes by the American Film Institute, “Here's looking at you, kid.” takes fifth place.

I sing like the bird sings.

This quote comes from Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship Years . In the penultimate stanza of his song, a harpist whom Wilhelm would like to reward for his beautiful playing expresses that he is by no means interested in material thanks:

I sing as the bird sings
That dwells in the branches.
The song that comes out of the throat
Is reward that is richly rewarding.

Today the quote is used to express that one enjoys singing or that one tends to speak freely.

I dance with you to heaven.

With this sentence begins the refrain of a hit that was composed by Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch for the 1937 film Sieben Facefeigen .

The film tells of a William Tenson MacPhab who loses his last fortune of seven pounds due to shares in the steel tycoon Terbanks . He looks for him in his office to confront him, but flies out because the amount is so small. The next day, Tenson had it spread in the newspaper that he would give Terbanks seven slaps in the face over the next seven days so that he could appreciate the number seven more. The whole of London is excited when Tenson falls in love with Terbank's daughter Daisy, without knowing who she is.

In the chorus of the song it says:

I dance with you into heaven,
into the seventh heaven of love.
The earth is sinking and the two of us are alone,
in the seventh heaven of love.

Jochen Ulrich and Fabrice Jucquois from the Landestheater Linz write about this song :

“It is the promise to bring heaven to earth here to make the beloved one happy. It is the heaven of bliss, of happiness, like a detachment from the earth and a feeling of floating and flying. In the spirit of Augustine, who once said: 'O man, learn to dance, otherwise the angels will not know what to do with you.' "

I only understand train station.

According to Deutschlandradio, this saying goes back to the language used by soldiers during the First World War . In the grueling positional warfare, the soldiers at the front developed the saying “only understand the station” when someone absolutely wanted to take the train back home and couldn't think of anything else. The station became a symbol of home leave and any conversation that was not related to home was blocked.

Therefore the meaning should not be understood as it is still used today:

• "Calling in English - 'I only understand the train station.'"
• "I only understand train station - too many foreign words."
• "So that passengers don't just understand the train station"

I know that I know nothing.

Variation at a Greek restaurant in Mutterstadt :
Ἓν οἶδα, ὅτι οὐδὲν οἶδα.

The statement "I know that I know nothing" probably goes to the place in Plato's apology of Socrates back:

“Because neither of us may know anything good or special, but this one thinks he knows, because he doesn't know, but I, as I don't know, I don't mean it either, so I shine about this little after all to be wiser than him, that what I don't know, I don't think I know either. "

It is mostly quoted in the shortened German version:

" I know that I don't know anything ."

Οἶδα οὐκ εἰδώς.

Oida ouk eidos.

I know a miracle will happen one day.

This is the title of a hit with the text by Bruno Balz , which the Swedish actress Zarah Leander sang in the German feature film Die große Liebe , made in 1942 . It is used as an expression of an incorrigible optimism and begins with the following verses:

I know that one day a miracle will happen
and then a thousand fairy tales will come true.
I know that no love that
is so great and so wonderful can go away so quickly .

The film tells of a fighter pilot stationed in North Africa who is assigned to Berlin for one day as a reporter. There he saw a Danish singer on the stage of a variety show, with whom he immediately fell in love. After the performance, he follows her and speaks to her in the subway. But after a night together he has to go back to the front. From now on, one missed opportunity follows another.

The title of the extremely popular song could be understood as a slogan for perseverance by the National Socialists at the end of the Second World War, for example with a view to the miracle weapons promised by the Nazis , which were to turn the war at the last moment of the war. It could just as well be understood as an expression of the desperate hope of the German population that they would somehow survive the war, which was now experienced as apocalyptic. In fact, the song was composed by Balz after days of torture in the Gestapo headquarters.

I don't know what is it supposed to mean.

The mermaid Loreley below the Loreley rock

“I don't know what it should mean” is the beginning of Heinrich Heine's Loreley poem , which became a popular folk song when Friedrich Silcher set it to music . It begins with the following verses:

I don't know what does it mean
that I'm so sad;
A fairy tale from the old days,
I can't get it out of my mind.

In today's linguistic usage, situations, decisions or behaviors that are not understood are occasionally commented on, shaking the head with the quote “I don't know what is it supposed to mean”.

I want to grab fate by the throat.

This quote comes from a letter that Ludwig van Beethoven wrote to his childhood friend Franz Gerhard Wegeler on November 16, 1801 while he was working on his 2nd symphony . At this point, Beethoven still had the hope of being healed.

In the letter Beethoven describes that although he is suffering from his increasing hearing loss, his love for a magical girl has given him new courage to face life:

“I want to grab fate by the throat, it certainly shouldn't bend me down completely. Oh, it's so nice to live life a thousand times! "

On March 9, 2006, Thomas Schade wrote in the Sächsische Zeitung about Josef Kneifel , who was convicted as a terrorist in what was then Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz ) , who was imprisoned for ten months in 1975 for defamation of the state and on March 9, 1980 a Soviet tank from the pedestal wanted to blow up. In his attic it said on the wall:

"I want to grab fate by the throat."

I want a quarter, not just a third more.

The most famous story about the football player Horst Szymaniak is about one of his contract negotiations. His club president is said to have offered to increase his salary significantly, to which Szymaniak allegedly replied: " I want a quarter, not just a third more ". Depending on the source, this statement is also rumored with “an eighth / a quarter” or “ half / two thirds ”. Supposedly, the sentence should also have fallen when buying his apartment building.

I want in here!

The later Chancellor Gerhard Schröder supposedly wanted to become Chancellor when he was still a schoolboy. It is guaranteed that as a simple member of parliament in 1982 after a drinking tour, tipsy, he shook the fence of the Chancellery in Bonn and shouted:

"I want to get in here!"

Later, as Chancellor, Schröder said:

“It's a pretty tough job. I sometimes wonder why I rattled the gate to the Chancellery back then. "

I smell the morning air.

Eugène Delacroix : Hamlet and the Spirit

This quote is from William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet , in which the ghost who wants to reveal the whole truth about the death of Hamlet's father before he has to disappear at dawn says to Hamlet:

“But soft! methinks, I scent the morning air. "

“But be quiet! I think I smell morning air. "

Today the phrase “smell the morning air” is associated with something positive, for example when you believe that the right time has come to enforce your wishes and expect success:

• "US elections: Republicans smell the morning air."
• "Damaged T-Shareholders smell the morning air."
• "TuS Holstein smells after 5: 1 morning air."

I wish I were a chicken.

These words are the title and the beginning of the refrain of a hit song written by Peter Kreuder (music) and Hans Fritz Beckmann (text) for the UFA film Glückskinder (1936) and there by Lilian Harvey , Willy Fritsch , Paul Kemp and Oskar Sima was sung. With a cover version, the master sextet (a successor formation of the Comedian Harmonists that had been redeployed according to National Socialist guidelines ) tried to build on earlier successes in 1936.

I don't want me to be a chicken,
I don't have much to do.
I laid an egg in the morning and would be free in the afternoon.
The world attracted me,
no more fame and no money,
and
if I found the big lot, then I would just devour it.

The quote can be found today, for example, as the heading for a test report on egg cookers or for a report on a scientific experiment:

• "Students hatch eggs: I wish I were a chicken."

But there is also the reverse:

• "I wish I wasn't a chicken."

I wish it would be night or the Prussians would come!

the Duke of Wellington

At the Battle of Waterloo , the Duke of Wellington , who was under pressure from massive attacks by Napoleon Bonaparte , is said to have proclaimed in hope of Prussian support:

"I wish it would be night or the Prussians!"

The quote is attributed to Wellington while waiting for Blucher to arrive , but is not guaranteed. The battle ended in Wellington's favor with the help of Blucher and he was hailed as a hero by the English.

The French had suffered great losses; but they had come close to the line of the allies. But in trusting the Prussian aid promised by Blücher, Wellington held out. The tradition of his words fluctuates between the optimistic "Either night or the Prussians will come." And the militarily shorter I want night or Blucher!

According to another tradition, when Wellington sat with his generals before the battle, he said:

“Our plan is very simple; the Prussians or the night. "

I wish that every farmer had his chicken in the pot on Sundays.

During the Huguenot Wars , the French King Henry IV is said to have said to Charles Emanuel I , the Duke of Savoy :

"Si Dieu me prête vie, je ferai qu'il n'y aura point de laboreur en mon royaume qui n'ait les moyens d'avoir le dimanche une poule dans son pot! »

"If God gives me another life, I will bring it to the point that there is no farmer in my kingdom who is unable to have a chicken in his pot on Sundays."

Since 80 percent of the population lived in the country at that time, this statement meant wishing the people a better life. One of the king's traits was his unrecognized public appearance to see how his politics were received.

I would give you a tile from my stove without hesitation.

This playful expression of limitless trust comes from the first stanza of the poem I love you so much! from Joachim Ringelnatz :

I love you so much!
I would give you
a tile from my stove without hesitation
!

Ringelnatz wrote this famous love poem for his wife, the fifteen years younger foreign language teacher Leonharda Pieper , whom he called Muschelkalk . She was an indispensable assistant in all of his publications. In 1920 he announced his marriage to a friend from the pre-war days with the following words:

"I am trembling to announce to you and your esteemed mother, that I will marry Miss Lona Pieper on August 7th without money, without an apartment and without understanding."

I pulled a hawk.

These words are the beginning of the famous falcon song of the Kürenberger , a minstrel .

I'm all here.

"I'm all here."

This Low German quote ( I'm already here. ) Comes from the fairy tale The Hare and the Hedgehog , which the Brothers Grimm had included in their collection, which made it known throughout the German-speaking area. In this fairy tale, a hedgehog bets a rabbit that it can run faster. At the end of the run, the hare is greeted by the hedgehog's wife, whom he takes to be the hedgehog herself, with these words:

"As nu de Haas in full loops unnen on the field, roe em the hedgehogs sien Fro against 'ick bün all here."
De Haas stutzd and wondering sick nich little: he meende nich different than et wöör de Swinegel sülvst, de em dat torööp, because it is well known that the Swinegel see his happiness as much as he does. De Haas aver meende 'datt does not go well with right things.' He rööp 'looped again, wedder üm!'
Immediately he wedder like a Stormwind, that the ears on the head were flying. The hedgehogs s place Fro aver blev quietly up to honor. As nu de Haas baben ankööm, rööp em de Swinegel against 'ick bün all here.'
De Haas aver, very uuter sick vör Ihwer (anger), scream 'looped again, wedder um!' 'Mi nich too bad,' replied de Swinegel, 'because of me as often as you like.'
So löp de Haas threeunsöbentigmal, un de Swinegel Höhl (stopped) et ümmer with em uut. Every time de Haas arrived, de Swinegel or sien Fro 'ick bün all here.' "

The hare runs back and forth in the field until it falls dead.

The situation “rabbit and hedgehog” as well as the shout “I'm already here!” Are cited in comparable situations to this day. Usually the point of view of the rabbit is described who always comes up with the same frustrating result with the same competitor.

I sit there and eat buns.

This is the beginning of a nonsense poem by an unknown author in Berlin dialect , to which the writer Hartmann Goertz later gave the title Tiefsinn .

Knock

I sit there and eat buns.
Uff one time it knocks.
I sit, kieke, I am amazed, there
is one time at the door.
Well think ick, ick think well!
Now it is only it was closed.
And ick go out and peek.
And who is outside?
Icke.

The writer Kurt Tucholsky wrote about this poem in 1925:

"But one contribution touched my heart, only one in a tangle of irrelevant vision commis: the poem 'Icke'."

The composer Kurt Weill set the poem to music as a Klopslied in 1925 .

The quote is related to situations in which something strange happens out of the blue:

• "I eat Klops, there is a SMS knocking."

The following variant comes from the comic artist Gerhard Seyfried :

"I sit there and eat Klops, uff once: ... Kobs." ( Kob is short for contact area officer .)

Ignoramus et ignorabimus.

Emil Heinrich Du Bois-Reymond

The Latin saying Ignoramus et ignorabimus ('We don't know and we will never know.') Is a saying by the physiologist Emil Heinrich Du Bois-Reymond , who has become known as an expression of skepticism towards the explanatory claims of the natural sciences .

Du Bois-Reymond uttered the words for the first time in 1872 in the lecture On the Limits of Knowledge of Nature, which he gave at the meeting of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors in Leipzig.

In September 1930 the mathematician David Hilbert made the following statements to German scientists and doctors in Königsberg :

“We must not believe those who today prophesy the end of culture with a philosophical air and a superior tone and who enjoy the ignorance. There is no ignorance for us, and in my opinion there is no such thing as science at all. Instead of foolish ignorance, on the contrary, our slogan is: We must know - we will know! "

The quote collector Georg Büchmann writes in his winged words about this word:

“In July 1858, du Bois-Reymond said in his' memorial address to Johannes Müller 'that Müller was never annoyed to' write down the old Scottish saying: 'Ignoramus' as the result after such a long and arduous discussion. This 'ignoramus' ('we do not know') is thus the germ of his 'winged word'. 'Ignoramus' was the formula used by the Altenglands jury in the event of their undecided whether an indictment was well founded or unfounded. According to R. Gneist ('Englische Verfassungsgeschichte' 1882, p. 604, note), King Charles II sought to remove this' monster ', as he called it, which' raged in the City of London in the years 1680–1682 'when the question for the Crown was' whether or not treason and rebellion in London and Middlesex is punishable'. "

You up there, we down there

You up there - we down there is a book by Günter Wallraff and Bernt Engelmann from 1973 in which they critically deal with the leading layers of German industrial society. Engelmann visits the rich and powerful upstairs and Wallraff exposes himself to brutal working conditions below .

The book title is quoted today in different contexts and variants:

• "Bundesliga: We up here, you down there"
• “You up there, we down there. The loss of the middle "
• “We up there, you down there. Everyone celebrates the elite universities "

Come ye Ye Children.

Your little children, come is a church Christmas carol by the Catholic priest Christoph von Schmid , which begins with the following verses:

Little children, come, oh come all!
Come to the manger in Bethlehem's stable
and see the
joy our Heavenly Father makes us on this holy night .

The well-known opening verse is often paraphrased and parodied, such as:

• "Come ye Ye Children. France's fruitful family policy. "
• "Family policy: your little ones are coming (or not)"
• “You children are not coming! History of contraception. "

Her husband is dead and sends her regards.

With these words, Mephistopheles in Goethe's Faust I informs Frau Marthe, Gretchen's neighbor, that her missing husband has died, and claims to know more about his death:

Marthe.

"What does he bring? Very much demand - "

Mephistopheles.

“I wish I had a happier fair!
I hope you won't make me atone for it:
your husband is dead and sends his regards. "

This statement is a hysteron proteron , a rhetorical figure in which the chronological or logical order is reversed.

The picaresque novel by the writer Hugo Hartung, published in 1965, is about the life, love and deeds of the Feldweibels JBN Schwärtlein with the title Your husband is dead and sends his regards .

You are approaching again, swaying figures.

Appropriation to Faust I

In the attribution to Faust I, Goethe addresses the characters in the drama himself, reports on the creative process and also reflects the mood that dominates him:

You are approaching again, swaying figures!
Which early showed itself to the gloomy look.
Do I try to hold on to you this time?
Do I still feel my heart inclined to that delusion?

Goethe tries to convey how the characters in the piece push their way into his thoughts as wavering (elusive) figures:

Today the quote is mostly jokingly related to drunk people or also to inconsistent people:

• "Schwankende Gestalten" (The entanglements of German diplomats in the Third Reich )
• "They are approaching again, the wavering figures of German madness."

In the blurb of the autobiography of cultural functionary Hilmar Hoffmann with the title You are approaching again, wavering figures it says:

“Hilmar Hoffmann, President of the Goethe Institute, has met many 'wavering figures' in his fifty years as a cultural politician. Artists like Fassbinder, Everding, Heiner Müller or Menuhin and politicians like Helmut Schmidt, Gorbatschow or Arafat. "

You will be like God.

Depiction of the fall of man at Notre Dame de Paris

In the creation story of the Tanakh the serpent says to Adam and Eve :

“ ¹ And the serpent was more cunning than all the animals of the field which the Lord God had made, and said to the woman, Yes, should God have said, You shall not eat of the fruits of the trees in the garden? ² And the woman said to the serpent, We eat of the fruits of the trees in the garden; ³ But God said of the fruits of the tree in the middle of the garden: Do not eat of them, neither do you touch them, so that you do not die. ⁴ And the serpent said to the woman, You will by no means die; ⁵ but God knows that on what day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, and you will know what is good and what is bad. "

She seduced the first people to eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge.

Goethe takes up this passage from the Bible in Faust I , where Mephisto writes it to the pupil in the Latin form in the studbook:

"Eritis sicut Deus, scientes bonum et malum."

Their number is legion.

This quote goes back to the Gospel according to Mark , where the "unclean spirit" answered Jesus when asked about his name:

“ Λεγεὼν ὄνομά μοι. ”

"Legeōn onoma moi."

"My name is Legion."

A Roman legion had a strength of well over 6,000 men, an incredibly high number for the conditions at the time. The Demon Legion was impressed by the power of Jesus and asked him not to send him back to Hell. Jesus drove out the demons and at the same time complied with their request: He allowed them to enter a herd of pigs. The pigs then drowned themselves in the Sea of ​​Galilee .

The modified quote is still in use today, such as:

• "The number of unemployed in Germany is legion."
• "Love talismans! - Now their number is legion. "

In the beginning was the word.

"In the beginning was the word" is the beginning of the Gospel according to John , which in the Greek original reads as follows:

Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος.

In Goethe's Faust I , Faust tries to translate this beginning and finds himself faced with the difficulty of transferring the word λόγος ( logos ) appropriately:

It is written: “In the beginning was the word !”
Here I stop! Who will help me further?
I can not possibly value the word so highly,
I have to translate it differently,
When I am properly enlightened by the spirit.
It is written: In the beginning there was the meaning .
Consider the first line,
that your pen does not hurry!
Is it the sense that works and creates everything?
It should say: In the beginning there was strength !
But, even by writing this down,
something is already warning me that I won't stay there.
The spirit helps me! suddenly I see advice
and confidently write: in the beginning was the deed !

In German you lie when you are polite.

At the beginning of the second act of Goethe's Faust II , Mephisto, disguised as a professor, meets the student from the study room scene of the first part again. He has now completed his bachelor's degree and is unleashing a canon of abuse at university teaching:

"It is by no means worth knowing."

When Mephistus asked if he was not aware of his rudeness, this justification comes:

Mephistopheles

You don’t know, my friend, how rough you are?

Baccalaureus

In German you lie when you are polite.

The Romance studies scholar Harald Weinrich , professor for German as a Foreign Language in Mannheim, wrote a book in 1986 with the title Do you lie in German when you are polite? and thus questions Goethe's statement. The social scientist and author Richard Albrecht translated the well-known German saying “Shear yourself to the devil” with “please, go to where you belong”.

It's good to chit chat in the dark

see Johann Michael Moscherosch

Grope in the dark

This phrase is based on a quote from Deuteronomy , where the prophet curses those who disobey God:

“ ²⁸ The Lord will strike you with madness, blindness, and rage of heart; ²⁹ and you will grope at noon as a blind man gropes in the dark; and you will have no luck on your way; and you will have to suffer violence and injustice all your life, and no one will help you. "

The phrase is used when a situation cannot be clarified or when you have no idea and cannot find a solution to a problem:

• "Police are still groping in the dark."
• "Attack on synagogue: Kripo is groping in the dark."
• "Dialogue in the dark is finally in the dark: bankruptcy"

With reference to the main actor in the crime series Derrick, there is the play on words "Horst tappert in the dark".

Not a tear in the gloomy eye

Title page of the Forward! with the poem at the bottom left

This description of great despair comes from the poem The Silesian Weavers , which Heinrich Heine wrote on the occasion of the Silesian weaving rebellion in 1844. The first stanza reads:

No tear in your gloomy eye,
you are sitting at the loom and baring your teeth:
'Germany, we weave your shroud,
we weave into it the triple curse -
we weave, we weave!

The so-called weaver's song was published under the title The poor weavers on June 10, 1844 in Karl Marxen's newspaper Vorwärts! first published and distributed as a leaflet with a circulation of 50,000 in the uprising areas.

The wording is taken up in a call from 2005:

"No tear in their gloomy eyes, they sit in the winter cold after the city has taken their place of residence."

Sit in the ivory tower

The term ivory tower , which describes a self-chosen isolation of artists and scientists, is indirectly traced back to the literary critic and writer Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve . Based on the Song of Solomon 7.5, he painted “Your neck is like a tower of ivory” (see also Marian title Tower of David ) and in his poem À. M. Villemain portrayed a figuratively mythical battle of the French romantics and gave Alfred de Vigny a rather unheroic part:

“Lamartine régna; chantre ailé qui soupire,
Il planait sans effort. Hugo, dur partisan,
(Comme chez Dante on voit, Florentin ou Pisan,
Un baron féodal), combattit sous l'armure,
Et tint haut sa bannière au milieu du murmure:
Il la maintient encore; et Vigny plus secret,
Comme en sa tour d'ivoire, avant midi, rentrait. "

In German roughly:

Lamartine ruled; groaning chant and swing,

He floats there, devoid of any effort. Hugo, a tough fighter

(This is how we see Dante, whether from Pisa or Florence,

A lord of the knightly days), fought under his armor

And held up his banner in the midst of the grumbling:

He still supports it firmly now; but Vigny, who did not trust

Moved home before noon, as if to his ivory tower.

I sit here in the cool cellar.

This is the opening verse of a well-known drinking song by Karl Müchler from the early 19th century:

In the cool cellar I am sitting here
on a barrel full of vines,
I am in good spirits and let myself be given
the very best

Everything passes in life.

In life everything goes over is the title of a hit that Peter Kreuder composed in 1940 and which became popular thanks to Ilse Werner's interpretation:

In life everything passes by
including happiness, but fortunately also suffering.
First you cry, then you laugh at it.
Suffering is followed by bliss.

In the sweat of his brow.

This expression goes back to the 1st book of Moses , where after the fall of man Adam is condemned by God to:

"With the sweat of your brow you shall eat your bread."

In seventh heaven

This phrase goes back to the Second Letter to the Corinthians, where the Apostle Paul of Tarsus wrote to the church in Corinth:

“ ¹ It is of no use to me to boast; yet I will come to the visions and revelation of the Lord. ² I know a man in Christ; Fourteen years ago (if he was in the body, I do not know; or if he was outside the body, I do not know; God knows) he was delighted up to the third heaven. "

In oriental ideas there are several heavens for the blessed , which are arranged one above the other. In early Christian apocryphal writings, the seventh heaven is referred to as the highest, in which God himself dwells with the angels .

The refrain of the hit song I dance with you in the sky from 1937, begins and ends with the verses:

I dance with you into heaven,
into the seventh heaven of love.

In the woods and on the heath

The director of the Royal Prussian State Lottery, Johann Wilhelm Bornemann , composed the hunter's song, which is still known today, in 1816, which begins with the following verses:

In the forest and on the heath,
there I look for my joy,
I am a hunter.
To look after the forests faithfully,
to kill the venison,
I like it…
Halli, hello, halli, hello,
I like it.

The truth is in wine.

Cork of a wine bottle with the well-known Latin version In vino veritas .

The phrase “In wine is the truth” (“because the wine is a mirror for the soul”) is also often quoted in its Latin version In vino veritas .

Pliny the Elder stated in his natural history: “ vulgoque veritas iam attributa vino est ”.

It probably only became a catchphrase through Erasmus of Rotterdam . Originally the sentence was ancient Greek and is ascribed to the poet Alkaios :

" Ἐν οἴνῳ ἀλήθεια. "

En oinō alētheia.

This famous sentence is also quoted in many variations:

• "The truth does not lie in wine."
• "The truth is not only in the wine, but also on the table."
• "Truth lies in wine and we in the wine cellar."
• "The truth lies in the wine and the fraud in the label."
• “Wine does not invent anything, it just gossips.” Schiller ( Die Piccolomini , 4 / VII, Isolani)

nothing new in the West

Nothing new in the West is the title of a novel by Erich Maria Remarque , which, based on the author's own experiences on the Western Front, describes the experiences of the young volunteer Paul Bäumer and his comrades on the front. Bäumer is wounded in an attack and spends a few weeks in the hospital . As soon as he is back at the front, his group falls apart. One after the other dies until he is also fatally hit shortly before the end of the war:

“It fell in October 1918, on a day which was so calm and quiet on the whole front that the army report was limited to the sentence that nothing new was to be reported in the West. He had slumped over and lay on the ground as if asleep. [...] - his face had such a composed expression as if he were almost satisfied that it had turned out that way. "

Always along the wall

is the title of a song by Hermann Frey from 1907, the melody of which was written by Walter Kollo . The refrain describes how a drunken reveler finds his way home:

And then I creep quietly and quietly
 Always along the wall,
Always along the wall,
home from a strolling trip […]
Always along the wall,
along the wall.

The quote can be found in a description of the first steps in ice jogging:

“It is always advisable to practice the first time with a second person or in a group. You can also take into account the spatial conditions, such as the ties, which are sometimes the last possible means of support before falling. Loosely based on the old song 'And so I creep quietly and quietly, always along the wall.' "

Always go slowly!

This request is the beginning of the popular song Die Krähwinkler Landwehr :

Always slowly, always slowly, so
that the Krähwinkler Landwehr can follow.
The marching doesn’t come to an end
either, because the captain doesn’t know the map.

The popular mocking song is about the military qualities of the Krähwinkler Landsturm. So the troops have to march more slowly in order not to lose the Krähwinkler.

The place name Krähwinkel was used by Jean Paul in his satire The secret lament of the present men and later by Kotzebue with the place name in his plays: Die deutscher Kleinstädter and Des Esels Schatten or the Trial in Krähwinkel .

Always smile!

"Always smile!" Is the motto of the Chinese Prince Sou-Chong from the operetta Das Land des Smiles by Franz Lehár , in which Lisa from Vienna falls in love with the Chinese Prince Sou-Chong at a party in a salon and with China follows:

Of the longing that consumes me.
Even if we Chinese break our hearts, who
cares, we don't show it.

Always smiling and always happy,
always satisfied, whatever happens.
Smile despite pain and a thousand pains, but
how it looks in there is nobody's business.

The quote is also used today in connection with psychological topics:

• "Always smile? Why we sometimes pretend we're not unhappy or upset. "
• "Always smile. His wife died four weeks ago. Now he's campaigning. "
• "Don't just smile: equal rights for Japanese women."

The sun rises again and again.

These encouraging words are the title of a song by Udo Jürgens and part of the refrain:

Because over and over again the sun rises
and again a day brings its light for us.

The title is often quoted to cheer up but also specifically in connection with photographs of the sunrise:

• "German Baltic Sea ... and the sun rises again and again!"
• "It's also true in Japan: The sun rises again and again."

Be on everyone's lips

• All people talk about it. Conversation piece.

Sit in the front row

"At ARD and ZDF you sit in the front row" was a slogan that the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF used to advertise their programs from 1989 onwards. They meant the topicality and attractiveness of their television programs. The advertising slogan has meanwhile passed into common usage, so that “sitting in the first row” can also mean “preferential treatment”. The background for this image campaign was the threat of competition from the strengthened private broadcasters. In the mid-1990s, this often satirized slogan, which was also predominantly assigned to ARD, no longer proved to be contemporary.

The two broadcasters received the offended viewers award for this slogan in 1990 on the grounds that it should be left to the viewers themselves where they want to sit. In addition, the first row is not the best.

Evil tongues wrote the saying in order to: "At ARD and ZDF you line up in the first seats."

Stand in the chalk

The saying

Stand in the chalk

means to be in debt. The innkeepers used to write the debts of their guests on a blackboard in chalk. The similar word from

To chalk a little ,

so to add something to one has the same origin, as well as (from the host)

well written

to be, so to have no debts.

It is very ambiguous in the Gaudeamus songs by Victor von Scheffel in Der Ichthyosaurus (verse 7):

It died that hour

The whole dinosaur egg

You got too deep into the chalk

It was over then, of course.

The Ichthyosaurus came out of this geological chalk only through the paleontologists .

People don't like to be alone at night.

This hit song, composed by Franz Grothe , was sung by Marika Rökk in the 1944 film The Woman of My Dreams . The chorus begins with the following verses:

At night man doesn't like to be alone,
because love in the bright moonlight
is the most beautiful thing, you know what I mean,
on the one hand and on the other and also.

In the most daring sense of the word.

With this formulation, Marquis Posa in Friedrich Schiller's drama Don Karlos confirms his friendship with Don Karlos by answering his question "Der Meinige?"

For ever
and in the most daring sense of the word.

Posa hints at the unusual nature of this friendship that defies norms.

Hit the bushes

This phrase probably goes back to the poem Der Wilde by Johann Gottfried Seume , where it says of the Huron :

The Huron said quietly and seriously:
Look, you strange, clever, wise people
, look, we savages are better people;
And he lashed sideways in the bushes.

Send to the desert

Scapegoat by William Holman Hunt

The terms scapegoat and "send into the wilderness" are based on Leviticus 16 . It says there:

“Then Aaron is to put his two hands on his head and over him confess all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions with which they have sinned, and is to put them on the head of the goat and him through a man who stands by to be brought into the desert, so that the goat would take on all their iniquity and carry them into the wilderness. "

On Yom Kippur , the day of the forgiveness of sins, the sins of the people of Israel were made known by the high priest and symbolically transferred to a billy goat by the laying on of hands. When the goat was driven into the desert, these sins were also chased away.

In this our country

With the words “In this land of ours” the German politician Helmut Kohl referred to the Federal Republic of Germany , until he gave up this phrase again after the frequent satiricals by cabaret artists.

The satirist Peter Knorr and the cartoonist Hans Traxler published a book in 1983 called Pear. The book about the chancellor. A primer for the young vegetables and the clean fruits in this our country , which referred to this phrase.

Gerd Bacher , Kohl's media advisor, was asked the following in a 1976 Spiegel interview:

"If you guess, for example: Mr. Kohl, you shouldn't say so often: 'In this country of ours', does that work?"

Bacher replied:

“Then he laughs at it, mostly knows anyway that these stereotypes exist and gradually gets used to them. I have the impression that lately he has used fewer empty phrases like 'in this country of ours'. "

In this sign you will win.

the dream of constantine

According to legend, these words appeared to Emperor Constantine either in a dream or under a shining cross in the sky when he fought against his counter-emperor Maxentius in the battle of the Milvian Bridge . The original Greek version was:

" Ἐν τούτῳ νίκα. "

En toutō nika.

Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea , Constantine's court theologian, reports of a cross with a corresponding Greek inscription that Constantine saw in the sun and describes the event similar to the conversion of the Apostle Paul in the Acts of the Apostles

The more popular Latin version of this saying is:

“ In hoc signo vinces .”

This slogan was the motto of the 4th Guard Brigade of the Croatian Army; it can also be found on the packs of the Pall Mall cigarette brand .

in this holy halls

"In these hallowed halls" is the beginning of an aria by the Sun King Sarastro in Mozart's opera Die Zauberflöte , the libretto of which is by Emanuel Schikaneder :

In this holy halls;
one does not know the revenge.
And when a person has fallen,
love leads him to duty.
|: Then he walks
    happily and happily to a friend's hand in the better country.: |
to the better, to the better country.

With this, Sarastro explains to the daughter of the Queen of the Night, Pamina, that vengeance is unknown in his area.

In this poverty what abundance!

The title character in Goethe's Faust I speaks these words after allowing Mephisto to lead him into Gretchen's room:

How breathes the feeling of silence, of
order, of contentment!
In this poverty what abundance!
What bliss in this dungeon!

The modest decor of the room stimulates his imagination and lets him imagine the fulfilled life of the occupant of the room.

In dulci jubilo

Postage stamp of the Deutsche Bundespost (1962) : Tuning fork in front of the musical text of the song In dulci jubilo

In dulci jubilo is a song from the 14th century that is mainly sung in Christian churches and parishes during the Advent and Christmas season. This Latin quote means "in sweet jubilation" and is the beginning of a medieval Christmas carol with mixed Latin and German text:

In dulci jubilo,
now sing and be happy!
The bliss of our hearts leads
in præsepio
and shines as the sun
matris in gremio.

The song comes from a manuscript from the 14th century with the biography of the mystic Heinrich Seuse .

In red light

In redemption , Antwerp 1607

In flagranti is a phrase taken from Latin, which is shortened from in flagranti delicto (= 'in the flames of crime') and means 'in the act'.

This legal formula goes back to a formulation in the Codex Iustinianus published by Emperor Justinian's Justice Minister Tribonianus . There it says:

“In ipsa rapina et adhuc flagrante crimine comprehensi”

"They were caught directly carrying out the robbery and committing the crime."

To become flesh and blood

This phrase could go back to the connection "flesh and blood" often found in the Bible with the meaning of the human body.

For example, Paul's letter to the Ephesians says:

"Because we don't have to fight with flesh and blood, but with ... the evil spirits under heaven."

In Paul's first letter to the Corinthians , the apostle Paul writes:

"But I say that, dear brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God."

The idiom expresses that something becomes so natural for someone that it is more or less a part of themselves.

It will all be over in fifty years.

With this joking phrase you try to comfort yourself or someone else over something. It comes from a couplet by comedian Otto Reutter , in which each stanza ends with this wisdom:

If you don't like something, always think: '
Nothing in this world lasts forever.'
The smallest annoyance, the greatest torment
are not permanent, they end time.
So be your consolation, whatever it is:
'In fifty years it will all be over.'

The lights are going out across Europe.

British Foreign Secretary Edward Gray said on August 3, 1914, at the start of the First World War :

“The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime. "

“The lights are going out across Europe; we will not see them being lit again. "

The Stuttgarter Zeitung describes the background to this quote:

“On the evening of August 3, 1914, British Foreign Secretary Edward Gray looked out from his office at London's St. James Park, where the gas lamps were just being lit. In view of the global political situation, the politicians were seized with gloomy premonitions: 'The lights are going out all over Europe, we will never see them being lit', he told a friend. "

He buries his nose in every quark.

The quote comes from the prologue in heaven in Goethe's drama Faust I , where Mephisto makes this dismissive remark about man:

And if he just lay still in the grass!
He buries his nose in every quark.

There is a story in every human face.

This quote comes from Friedrich von Bodenstedts Lieder des Mirza-Schaffy . In the Mixed Poems and Proverbs contained therein it says:

In every human face is
his story,
his hate and love
clearly written.

In medias res

The phrase in medias res , also medias in res , is a Latin phrase and means 'in the middle of things'. The term comes from Horace ' ars poetica , in verse 148 of which the Roman poet praises the narrative style of the Greek poet Homer in the Iliad: right at the beginning he leads the audience straight into the middle of things, i.e. into the action. In a figurative sense, the phrase stands for tackling a problem or a thing quickly. The opposite is an entry from ovo ('from the egg on').

The sun doesn't set in my kingdom.

Spanish colonial empire at the time of its greatest expansion around 1600

“The sun doesn't set in my empire” is said to have asserted Emperor Charles V , whose sphere of influence extended over parts of Europe and America. Friedrich Schiller puts these words in the mouth of the Spanish King Philip II in his drama Don Karlos :

My name is
the richest man in the baptized world.
The four winds lie in my states,
the ocean is my country's pond,
the sun does not set in my kingdom.

From 1492 to 1898, Spanish colonies were scattered around the world. They reached from Spain through Latin America to the Philippines . When the sun set in one colony, it rose again in another.

There are many apartments in my father's house.

Jesus Christ addresses these words in his farewell speech to his disciples:

“ ¹ And he said to his disciples, Do not be alarmed. Believe in God and believe in me! ² There are many apartments in my father's house. If it were not so, I wanted to say to you: I am going to prepare the place for you. "

Jesus wants to say that there is room in the kingdom of God for people of very different kinds.

This quotation from the Bible was used, for example, in a speech at an urn cemetery in the diocese of Münster :

“'There are many apartments in my heavenly Father's house,' quotes Müller from the Gospel of John. He looks at the 300 urn chambers, each of which can be filled with two urns. "

The same quote is also the motto of the monthly meetings of the gay and lesbian basic church of the Reformed Basel Church, who see it as an expression of tolerance and hospitality .

There is a Hofbräuhaus in Munich.

Hofbräuhaus on an old postcard

In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus is the title of 1935 resulting Hofbräuhaus -Lieds, one of the most popular party song, loud whose first verse as follows:

There is a Hofbräuhaus in Munich - oans, zwoa, gsuffa.
Many a keg spills out - oans, zwoa, gsuffa.

The song was composed by Wilhelm Gabriel from Berlin , who allegedly came up with the melody for the lyrics of his friend Klaus Siegfried Richter in the Berlin Café am Zoo. It became a carnival hit in 1936 and was used as film music for a movie comedy first shown in 1953, which is about an inheritance dispute between a Munich and a Berlin family against the backdrop of the Oktoberfest .

The beginning of the Hofbräuhaus song was later quoted by the Munich band Spider Murphy Gang . Her number one single Scandal im Sperrgebiet , released in 1981, begins with the words:

"There is a Hofbräuhaus in Munich - but brothels have to go out."

In a nutshell

nutshell

In nuce ('in a nut') is a Latin phrase for 'short and sweet'. Pliny the Elder reports that, according to Cicero, a short version of the Iliad should have had space in a nutshell.

In the English-speaking area, the variant in a nutshell is often used. In German, the term is used in the following contexts:

• "Opera 'in nuce' / Opera in a nutshell"
• "In nuce - Knowledge - Meyers Lexicon online"
• "In Nuce - revision course and workbook on the Latin language"
• "Jesuitism in nuce, or characteristic of St. Ignace of Loyola"

In petto

Since Pope Martin V it has happened that the Pope does not publish the names immediately when electing new cardinals , but keeps them to himself for the time being:

"Alias ​​in pectore reservamus arbitrio nostro quandocumque declarandos."

"We will keep others [...] in our chests for the time being and will announce them once at our discretion."

The in pectore became in Italian translation in petto .

This approach is chosen, for example, if the candidate, in the current political situation in his country, would have to expect reprisals if his appointment were to become known. A year can pass from the nomination to the official proclamation of the cardinal in pectore . If the Pope dies before the cardinal's name is published, the reservation will also expire and the nominee will not become a cardinal. John Paul II appointed a cardinal in pectore in his last consistory in October 2003 . However, since John Paul II died without witnesses or written records having made the cardinal's name public in pectore, the person in question lost all claims and rights to the cardinalate with the death of the Pope.

To die in beauty

This formulation probably goes back to Henrik Ibsen's play Hedda Gabler (III, 7).

The heroine gives Løvborg, who believes he has lost his book manuscript and therefore wants to put an end to his life, one of her pistols. He is supposed to carry out his suicide “in a beautiful way”. Hedda doesn't tell him that he dropped it on the street and that Jörgen found it. Instead, she encourages him to commit suicide and hands him a gun. Then she burns the manuscript and explains to Jörgen that she destroyed it to secure his and her future.

The quote is also used in other areas:

• "To die in beauty was the life goal of the Egyptians."
• "To die in beauty is quite stupid if there is no applause from the audience."
• "Spain doesn't want to die in beauty this time." (Football coverage)

Be silent in seven languages

Immanuel Bekker

This joking phrase is associated with the Berlin classical philologist Immanuel Bekker , of whom his teacher Friedrich August Wolf is said to have said that he was silent in seven languages.

Wolf was a classical philologist and classical scholar. His main work is his work Prolegomena ad Homerum , written in 1795 , in which he critically examined the works of Homer for their origin. His pupil, Bekker, was known to be able to speak, but was extremely silent. He studied against the will of his parents and was characterized by “hard work, his powers of observation, sober prudence and independence of judgment”. On Schleiermacher's recommendation he accepted a position as private tutor in Lanke near Bernau, where he wrote his important review of Wolf's Homer.

This joking phrase is used today when someone does not speak at all during a discussion and is just a mute listener. In this sense it was also used by the philosopher Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher :

“Schleiermacher's witty word, B. be silent in seven languages, has become a winged one; He did not understand these seven languages ​​in the ordinary sense of the word, but knew them all in their historical development. A born language talent, B. knew how to adapt himself to a foreign idiom with the greatest of ease and, since learning a language was soon overcome, he achieved a very uncommon knowledge of the literatures of modern civilized peoples. "

The quote collector Georg Büchmann writes about this quote in his winged words :

“In 'Zelter's correspondence with Goethe' (VS 413), Zelter says in a letter of March 15, 1830: 'Now I have to be silent (like our Philologus Bekker, whom you call the mute in seven languages)'; and Halm 'Nekrolog auf Immanuel Bekker' (session report of the Bavarian Akad. d. Wissensch. '1872, p. 221) says:' Schleiermacher's witty word, Bekker is silent in seven languages, has become a winged one '. "

In dust with all the enemies of Brandenburg!

Relief on the Kleist monument in Frankfurt (Oder) with the inscription: In dust with all enemies of Brandenburg

Heinrich von Kleist ends his play Prince Friedrich von Homburg or the Battle of Fehrbellin with these words, which subsequently became a political catchphrase in Prussia .

The prince, who started a (victorious) battle on his own initiative, is sentenced to death and does not learn of his pardon, but is led outside blindfolded. He believes his execution is imminent, but instead the Elector's niece puts a laurel wreath on him. The prince now asks if everything is a dream and passes out.

The Prince of Homburg.

"No, say! Is it a dream? "

Kottwitz.

"A dream, what else?"

Several officers.

"In the field! In the field!"

Count Truchß.

"To battle!"

Field Marshal.

"To victory! To victory!"

All.

"In dust with all the enemies of Brandenburg!"

Dieter Schröder wrote in the Berliner Zeitung under the heading Why no more state can be made with Prussia :

“'In the dust with all the enemies of Brandenburg', it says in Kleist's 'Prince of Homburg' after the victory over the Swedes in 1675 at Fehrbellin. There was no talk of Prussia. "

In tyrannos!

The second edition of Friedrich Schiller's drama Die Räuber had the title vignette of an angry soaring lion with this Latin motto ('Against the tyrants!'). In the third edition, a lion tears up a second, held down, with the same motto. This could be understood as an allusion to Duke Carl Eugen von Württemberg , who forced Schiller to study medicine at his military academy. Schiller was now bolder and also called himself the author.

With the motto, the title of a lost polemic by Ulrich von Hutten was taken up, whose last (lost) pamphlet in his short time in Switzerland, entitled In tyrannos, was dedicated to the journalistic dispute with Erasmus von Rotterdam .

Inner emigration

The term Innere Emigration describes the attitude of writers and artists who were in opposition to the Nazi regime during the Nazi era , but who did not emigrate from Germany (or from Austria after the Anschluss in 1938).

The term was coined by Frank Thiess , who used it to describe the decision of personalities who were critical or even negative about their attitude after National Socialism and whose works were often declared to be " degenerate art " by the National Socialists , but who had personal and family obligations to one Were prevented from emigrating or fleeing or felt motivated to stay out of responsibility towards their fellow human beings.

In the great family book of nature

These words come from Heinrich Heine's poem Das Hohelied :

The woman's body is a poem,
which the Lord God wrote
in the great register of nature,
When the spirit drove it.

The term “ Stammbuch” means a kind of poetry album in which guests, friends, acquaintances enter their names with sayings or the like.

Some idiot is always boring somewhere

The singer-songwriter Reinhard Mey wrote a song when he was annoyed with DIY enthusiasts that begins with the following verses:

Whether in the largest hall or in the smallest room:
some idiot is always drilling somewhere!
A drill rambo drills like an obsession,
holds the Black & Decker like a Smith & Wesson.

The SWR overwrites a legal tip on the subject of house rules in larger apartment buildings with these words and declares that drilling is not permitted between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. and between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

The former gymnast Eberhard Gienger says in an interview about Mey's neighborhood dispute on the island of Sylt:

“He can get rough too. But Mey processed the event with the repositioning of his song 'Irgendein Duck somewhere always bores' into 'Irgendein Duck somewhere always mows'. That was the better way. "

To err is human.

Errare humanum est.
To err is human.

“ To err is human” (“Errare humanum est”) goes back to Hieronymus ' statement errasse humanum est . But Theognis already regrets that “mortal people are stuck with missteps”. In the drama Antigone des Sophocles , in the drama Hippolytos des Euripides and the play by an unknown Greek tragedian, the same thing occurs with similar words, while in the epigram of the fallen at Chäronea it says in Demosthenes :

"To err in nothing is a quality of the gods."

Cicero, on the other hand, writes in his battle speeches against Philip II of Macedonia , the so-called Philippika :

"Cuiusvis hominis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis in errare perseverare." ("Every person can be wrong, only the fool persists.")

Today ( E rrare h umanum e st) is sometimes jokingly seen as an acronym for MARRIAGE ; also translated as "To be insane is male".

The American television reporter Dan Rather says about this saying:

"To err is human. But if you really want to screw up, you need a computer. "

Trials and tribulations

Irrungen, Wirrungen is a socially critical novel by Theodor Fontane , which deals with the improper love between a noblewoman and a middle-class girl. At the end of the novel, each of them has an acceptable spouse.

The title of this novel is still used today to comment on confused states:

• "Errors, confusions and boos in the US election campaign."
• "Errors, confusions at Swan Lake"
• "The strip 'Love Vegas' is all about trials and tribulations in Las Vegas"

Is' what, doc?

Is' what, doc? (Eng. What's up, Doc? ) is the German title of a screwball comedy by Peter Bogdanovich from 1972, in which Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal play the leading roles. The story begins with four identical travel bags. In the hotel, all these bags get mixed up, creating amusing tangles. One of the main characters in the film is the always confused musicologist Howard Bannister, who is greeted with this sentence in a chaotic scene.

What's up, doc? is a popular word in US colloquial language. The question originally goes back to the cartoon series Bugs Bunny , whose main character of the same name uses the sentence at the beginning of many of his cartoons to greet his opponent. The sentence is used today in colloquial language to greet people and as a rhetorical question.

Is that art or can it go away?

This question is brought into connection with several careless disposals or changes to modern works of art by caretakers or cleaners who did not perceive them as works of art, but as garbage or dirt. In particular, the cleaning and misappropriation of an old bathtub intended as an art installation by the director of the Düsseldorf Art Academy, Joseph Beuys , by two SPD members in 1973 at a celebration in the Morsbroich Museum, and the removal of his installation called " Fettecke " in 1986 by a caretaker , are considered to be the origin of this question, which is usually posed by journalists in the course of reports on modern works of art in a humorous or ironic way. Comedian Mike Krüger also named one of his albums and the accompanying stage program in 2010 with the question "Is this art or can it go away?"

Is the necessary money available?

For the film adaptation of his threepenny opera , Bertolt Brecht added three stanzas to the ballad in which Macheath pardons everyone. The first of these new stanzas is:

And so
everything comes together at the end of the day .
If the necessary money is available,
the end is usually good.

If the word has fled the lip, you will never take it.

These words come from an epigram by the writer Wilhelm Müller . The quote goes in full:

"Once the word has fled from the Lipp, you will never get hold of it, the Reu immediately follows with four horses."

These words correspond to a Chinese proverb that goes like this:

一言既出 ， 驷马 难 追.

Yī yán jì chū, sìmǎ nán zhuī.

"A pronounced word, hardly a four-in-hand can catch up ."

In Horace 's epistles there is also a hexameter of the same meaning (I, 18,71):

Et semel emissum volat irrevocabile verbum.

And once posted, the word flies irrevocably.

If it is madness, it has a method.

Polonius

This quote goes back to William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet :

"Though this be madness, yet there is method in't."

"Is this madness, it has a method."

The Chamberlain Polonius, who tries to fathom the mental state of the seemingly confused Hamlet, feels the deeper meaning in the utterances and behavior of Hamlet:

Hamlet

"Defamations, sir; for the satirical scoundrel says that old men have gray beards; that their faces are wrinkled; that tough ambergris and resin ooze from their eyes; that they have a superfluous lack of wit and, at the same time, very weak loins. Even though I am deeply and firmly convinced of all this, I do not consider it cheap to put it on paper like this; for you yourself, Lord, would be as old as me if you could go backwards like a cancer. "

Polonius

(aside) “If this is madness, it has a method.
Don't you want to go out of thin air, Prince? "

Today the Shakespeare quotation is mostly used in other contexts and in modifications:

• "'If it is madness, it has a method' - Chemical warfare agents and their effect on humans"
• "This madness has a method."
• "There are cool, clever computers behind the madness that has method."

If it is God's work, it will endure; if it is human work, it will perish.

Luther monument on the market square of Lutherstadt Wittenberg

This is the inscription on the Luther monument in Lutherstadt Wittenberg , which was created by the sculptor Gottfried Schadow and which was erected in 1821. It goes back to a passage in the book of Acts in which it is reported that the scribe Gamaliel warned against attacks on the apostles with the following words:

“Let go of these people and let them go! If the advice or the work is from men, it will perish; but if it is from God, you cannot dampen it. "

With these words, Martin Luther meant that the Reformation would endure if it was willed by God.

Iurare in verba magistri

This Latin phrase from the letters of the Roman poet Horace means 'swear by the master's words' and today means 'accepting the opinion of someone superior without criticism'.

Goethe used the German equivalent in his drama Faust . In the student scene, Mephisto gives the student the wrong advice:

It is best here, too, if you only hear one,
And swear by the Master's words.

He then also continues:

On the whole - stick to words!
Then you go through the secure gate
to the temple of certainty.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Quoted from: werkblatt.at
2. ↑ Quoted from: volksliederarchiv.de
3. ↑ Anna Lewandowska: Proverbs-Usage Today: an intercultural-contrastive comparison of proverbs using Polish and German print media, Peter Lang, 2008, p. 96 books.google.de
4. ↑ u-asta.uni-freiburg.de
5. ↑ en: I am a Berliner # Jelly donut misconception
6. ↑ Quoted from: magistrix.de
7. ↑ Quoted from: ingeb.org
8. ↑ Georg Büchmann : Winged words . 19th edition. 1898. Quoted from: susning.nu
9. ↑ In Hochhuth's delivery room . In: Die Zeit , No. 19/1972
10. ^ William Shakespeare : Richard III . 1V.2
11. ↑ Quoted from: garten-literatur.de ( Memento from September 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
12. ↑ Quoted from: louisan.de
13. ↑ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Faust I , verse 1544 ff.
14. ↑ Quoted from: informatik.uni-frankfurt.de ( Memento from March 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
15. ↑ Lk 18,9-14  LUT
16. ↑ Uwe Barschel in the press conference on September 18, 1987. ZDF : Death in Geneva - The Barschel Case , video, October 7, 2007, 3: 45–16: 15 ( Memento from April 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
17. ↑ Quoted from: insterburg-und-co.de
18. ↑ Quoted from I don't resent, and if the heart breaks too on Wikisource
19. ↑ Friedrich Schiller : Wallenstein's death. 1.5
20. ↑ Quoted from: ingeb.org
21. ↑ David Martyn analyzes the linguistic peculiarity of "I've finished" ( grammatical defect or rhetorical figure ?): ""  [!] . In: Jürgen Fohrmann (Ed.): Rhetorik. Figuration and performance. DFG symposium 2002. Metzler, Stuttgart and Weimar 2004 (=  Germanistic symposia report volumes . Volume 25), ISBN 3-476-02009-6 , pp. 397-419.
22. ↑ Richard Ellman: Oscar Wilde , Chapter 6
23. ^ Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom Stein in a letter to Ernst zu Münster on December 1, 1812
24. ↑ Craig: Failure of Reforms . P. 36; there quoted from Freiherr vom Stein, Volume 3, p. 818.
25. ↑ Quoted from: zeno.org
26. ↑ Quoted from: freiburger-anthologie.ub.uni-freiburg.de
27. ^ Ernest Jones: Sigmund Freud. Life and work. (1957) p. 226 books google : “ One of the conditions for being granted an exit visa was that he sign a document that ran as follows, 'I Prof. Freud, hereby confirm that after the connection of Austria to the German Reich I have been treated by the German authorities and particularly the Gestapo with all the respect and consideration due to my scientific reputation, that I could live and work in full freedom, that I could continue to pursue my activities in every way I desired, that I found full support from all concerned in this respect, and that I have not the slightest reason for any complaint. ' When the Nazi Commissar brought it along Freud had of course no compunction in signing it, but he asked if he might be allowed to add a sentence, which was: 'I can heartily recommend the Gestapo to anyone'. "Comp. to go down, Moses . In: Der Spiegel . No. 51 , 1959, pp. 61-81 ( Online - Dec. 16, 1959 ).
28. ↑ Paul Watzlawick: Menschliche Kommunikation (1969), Chapter 6.42, Example 7, p. 191
29. ↑ Alain de Mijolla: A Sale in Vienna , in: Journal de l'association internationale d'histoire de la psychanalyse , vol. 8, enotes.com ( Memento June 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ).
30. ↑ cf. also Bernd Nitzschke: Freud pictures . The time Oct. 8, 1993 .
31. ^ Friedrich Schiller : Don Karlos . 3rd act, 10th appearance
32. ↑ Adelbert von Chamisso : I can't believe it, I can't believe it in the Gutenberg-DE project
33. ↑ dhm.de
34. ↑ theologie.uni-hd.de ( Memento from October 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
35. ↑ Quoted from: Not the chief economist, but the head of state was elected . In: Die Zeit , No. 22/2004
36. ↑ das-parlament.de ( Memento of 16 May 2007 at the Internet Archive )
37. ↑ fu-berlin.de ( Memento from May 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
38. ↑ Quoted from: freiburger-anthologie.ub.uni-freiburg.de
39. ↑ textlog.de
40. ↑ Martin Wiegers: "I look you in the eye, little one", says Humphrey Bogart to Ingrid Bergman in the film "Casablanca". A love story that moved millions to tears. But in reality everything was very different: champagne in mind . In: The time . No. 15/1992 ( online ).
41. ^ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Wilhelm Meisters apprenticeship years . 2nd book. 11th chapter
42. ↑ landestheater-linz.at
43. ↑ Quoted from: lyricsplayground.com ( Memento from July 14, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
44. ↑ Persecuted for life: § 175. In: Bruno Balz Archive Berlin. 2012, archived from the original on June 22, 2013 ; Retrieved March 26, 2013 .  With excerpt from the interview with Bruno Balz from 1982 in: The great seducers: on the trail of infamous songs , MDR, August 11, 2002, 8:15 pm
45. ↑ Michael Leon: Miracles Happened. Bruno Balz - a drama in the artistic elite of the Third Reich. (No longer available online.) In: Profil.at. December 29, 2011, archived from the original on November 15, 2012 ; Retrieved March 26, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
46. ↑ sz-online.de ( Memento from November 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
47. ↑ Ulrich Homann / Ernst Thoman: When the duck ran amok. Stories from the first ten years of the Bundesliga 1963–1973. Klartext, Essen 1989, ISBN 3-88474-443-7 , p. 26.
48. ↑ Peter Köhler (Ed.): The most beautiful quotations from politicians . Humboldt-Verlag, Baden-Gaden 2005, ISBN 3-89994-047-4 , p. 68
49. ^ William Shakespeare : Hamlet . 1st act, 5th scene.
50. ↑ Quoted from: comedian-harmonists.de ( Memento from August 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
51. ↑ Quoted from: https://books.google.de/books?id=-6xFAQAAIAAJ&q=Ihnen+und+Ihrer+rerereverten+Woman+Mutter+teile+ich+an+all+glieder+bebend+mit&dq=Ihnen+und + Your + honored + wife + mother + I + share + in + all + members + trembling + with & hl = de & sa = X & ved = 0ahUKEwjClrmglY7qAhUMjqQKHW9qBlAQ6AEIPjAD
52. ↑ The Hare and the Hedgehog on Wikisource
53. ↑ Quoted from: gedichte.vu
54. ↑ Kurt Tucholsky : Europe with the exclamation mark . Quoted from: textlog.de
55. ^ Kurt Weill Foundation, catalog raisonné ( Memento from November 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
56. ^ Georg Büchmann : Winged Words , 19th edition (1898). Quoted from: susning.nu ( Memento from May 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
57. ↑ Goethe: Faust I . Verse 2913. Quoted from Faust I on Wikisource
58. ↑ Goethe: Faust I . Appropriation . Quoted from Faust I on Wikisource
59. ↑ perlentaucher.de
60. ↑ 1 Mos 3: 1–5  ELB
61. ↑ Mk 5.9  EU
62. ↑ Joh 1,1  EU
63. ↑ Goethe: Faust I . Verses 1224-1237. Quoted from Faust I on Wikisource
64. ↑ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Faust II . 2nd act. Quoted from Wikisource
65. ↑ 5 Mos 28 : 28-29  LUT
66. ↑ antifa-freiburg.de ( Memento from May 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
67. ↑ Quoted from: volksliederarchiv.de
68. ^ 1 Mos 3.19  EU
69. ↑ 2 Cor 12 : 1-2  LUT
70. ↑ Quoted from: ingeb.org
71. ↑ Ice jogging ( memento from June 23, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
72. ↑ Quoted from: volksliederarchiv.de
73. ↑ mosapedia.de
74. ↑ Quoted from: udojuergens.de ( Memento from May 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
75. ↑ be on everyone's lips in the Wiktionary
76. ↑ Quoted from: ingeb.org
77. ^ Friedrich Schiller : Don Karlos . 1.9
78. ↑ Quoted from Der Wilde on Wikisource
79. ↑ I am not traveling as a body figure . In: Der Spiegel . No. 10 , 1976 ( online ).
80. ↑ Acts 22.6  EU
81. ↑ loge-zur-wahrheit.de ( Memento from June 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
82. ↑ Quoted from In Dulci Jubilo on Wikisource
83. ↑ Codex Iustinianus 9,13,1
84. ^ Lutz Röhrich : Act. In: Lexicon of the proverbial sayings. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder. New edition 1991, volume 5, p. 1602
85. ↑ Eph 6,12  LUT
86. ↑ 1 Cor 15.50  LUT
87. ↑ Quoted from: salmoxisbote.de
88. ↑ Edward Gray ( Wikiquote )
89. ↑ financialnews-us.com ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
90. ↑ 90 years ago - the lights went out in Europe ( Memento from August 14, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) stuttgarter-zeitung.de
91. ↑ Goethe: Faust I . Prologue in Heaven . 26 f. Quoted from Faust I on Wikisource
92. ^ Friedrich Schiller : Don Karlos , Act I, 6th scene
93. ^ Jn 14 : 1–2  EU
94. ↑ kirchensite.de
95. ↑ Karl Ritter von Halm:  Bekker, Immanuel . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, pp. 300-303.
96. ↑ Quoted from: Karl Ritter von Halm:  Bekker, Immanuel . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, pp. 300-303.
97. ^ Georg Büchmann : Winged Words , 19th edition (1898). Quoted from: susning.nu ( Memento from June 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
98. ^ Heinrich von Kleist : Prince Friedrich von Homburg or the battle of Fehrbellin . 5th act. Quoted from: gutenberg.org
99. ↑ A broad field . In: Berliner Zeitung , February 23, 2002
100. ↑ Quoted from: reinhard-mey.de  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
101. ↑ Heroes on Heroes - In the car I sing along to Reinhard Mey's songs . welt.de
102. ↑ On this and on further continuations of the saying cf. Meinolf Schumacher : "... is human." Medieval variations of an ancient sentence . In: Journal for German Antiquity and German Literature 119 (1990), pp. 163–170.
103. ↑ lateinservice.de ( Memento from July 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
104. ↑ William Shakespeare : Hamlet (2nd act, 2nd scene)
105. ↑ s: Hamlet / Second Act , translation by August Wilhelm Schlegel
106. ↑ Acts 5 : 38-39  LUT
107. ↑ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Faust I . School scene