Germany

Germany is a modern European nation (formally Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or Federal Republic of Germany) whose recorded ethnic, territorial, and political history reaches back to the 1st century BCE.

Sourced

• The death is a master from Germany.
  • Original (German): Der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland.
  • Paul Celan, "Todesfuge", published in 1948.

• In Köln, a town of monks and bones,
  And pavement fang'd with murderous stones,
  And rags and hags, and hideous wenches,
  I counted two-and-seventy stenches,
  All well defined, and several stinks!
  Ye nymphs that reign o'er sewers and sinks,
  The River Rhine, it is well known,
  Doth wash your city of Cologne;
  But tell me, nymphs! what power divine
  Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine?
  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Cologne; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 124.

• Thinking of Germany in the night robs me of my sleep.
  • Original (German): Denk ich an Deutschland in der Nacht, dann bin ich um den Schlaf gebracht.
  • Heinrich Heine, Nachtgedanken (1843).

• At Dresden on the Elbe, that handsome city,
  Where straw hats, verses, and cigars are made,
  They've built (it well may make us feel afraid,)
  A music club and music warehouse pretty.
  • Heinrich Heine, Book of Songs, Sonnets, Dresden Poetry; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 204.

• If now, after the collapse, should any of these lackeys of Adolf Hitler have the insolence to claim they were merely harmless onlookers, let them feel the scourge of avenging mankind.
  • Original (German): Wenn nun jetzt, nach dem Zusammenbruch, sich einige dieser Lakaien von Adolf Hitler die Frechheit erlauben, als harmlose Mitläufer gelten zu wollen, dann kann man nur wünschen, daß sie schnellstens die Wut der rächenden Menschheit zu spüren bekommen.
  • Friedrich Kellner, My Opposition, 1945.

• In the valley of the Pegnitz, where,
  Across broad meadow-lands,
  Rise the blue Franconian mountains,
  Nuremburg, the ancient, stands.
  Quaint old town of toil and traffic,
  Quaint old town of art and song,
  Memories haunt thy pointed gables,
  Like the rooks that round thee throng.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Nuremburg; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 562.

• The Satan of the Italian and English poets may be more poetic; but the German Satan is more satanic; and in this respect one could say, the Satan is a German invention.
  • Original (German) : Der Satan der italienischen und englischen Dichter mag poetischer sein; aber der deutsche Satan ist satanischer; und insofern könnte man sagen, der Satan sei eine deutsche Erfindung.
  • Friedrich Schlegel, Athenäumsfragmente 379
  • Note: The Italian poet may mean Dante, the English poet John Milton.

Unsourced

• Whenever the literary German dives into a sentence, that is the last you are going to see of him till he emerges on the other side of his Atlantic with his verb in his mouth.
  • Mark Twain

• The Teutonic reputation for brutality is well-founded. Their operas last three or four days. And they have no word for "fluffy".
  • Captain Blackadder, Blackadder Goes Forth, Episode 4: Private Plane.

• To the English I say this: be grateful for the Germans. Were it not for them, you would be the most hated people in Europe.
  • Simon Munnery, Attention Scum episode three

• To think about Germany is to think about Auschwitz.
  • Original (German): An Deutschland zu denken, heißt an Auschwitz zu denken.
  • Theodor Adorno