German Of The Day: Flaschenpost

February 23, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, High Art, Home Cooking, Humor Tags: German, Germans, Germany, Language, Letters, Mail, Messages, New Zealand Leave a comment

That means message in a bottle.

Message in a bottle thrown into Rhine by German family found in New Zealand – Eight years after throwing a bottle containing a message into the Rhine, a German family has been contacted by New Zealanders who say they found the message 18,000km away. But the finder didn’t give their address.

It almost sounds too, I dunno, implausible to be true.

“We are still totally surprised to have received feedback after all this time. And then of all the places, from New Zealand, our dream destination, to which we have unfortunately not yet been.”

German Of The Day: Rodungsstopp

February 18, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hypochondria, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Brandenburg, Employment, Environmentalists, German, Germans, Germany, Gigafactory, Greens, Jobs, Language, Tesla, The Green Shirts, Trees 2 Comments

That means to stop the clearing. Of trees, in this case.

That this particular Rodungsstopp could also stop the construction of Tesla’s planned Gigafactory in Brandenburg – and what could turn out to be the livelihood of 12,000 people – doesn’t seem to interest the greener than green politicians who have sought it.

Tesla has been ordered to temporarily halt preparations for a car factory in Germany after environmentalists won a court injunction on Sunday…

Protesters say the factory is a threat to local wildlife and water supplies…

According to local media reports, Tesla has promised to relocate colonies of forest ants, reptiles and bats, and is working with conservationists. Last month, authorities defused seven Second World War bombs discovered at the site.

Tesla currently has two Gigafactories in the US and one in Shanghai, China.

Der Rodungsstopp an der geplanten Tesla-Fabrik in Brandenburg alarmiert die Wirtschaft: Mehrere Verbände warnen vor Konsequenzen für den gesamten Standort Deutschland.

German Of The Day: Versehentlich

February 11, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Gaffs, German, Germans, Germany, Iran, Israel, Language, Mistakes, Presidents Leave a comment

That means by accident. By accident, Mr. President? Really?

I don’t believe in accidents. I’ve seen too many of them.

In gaff, German president’s office slams Iran on Islamic Revolution anniversary – In what observers are calling an embarrassing error, the office of Germany’s president sent a message to Iran to mark the 41st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, even though he wanted to send no message given the political situation there.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s office “mistakenly” sent the telegram, which was prepared in advance in case the president chose to use it, Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper reported.

Im vergangenen Jahr hatten die Glückwünsche Kritik unter anderem vom Präsidenten des Zentralrats der Juden, Josef Schuster, hervorgerufen. Der Iran droht Israel mit der Vernichtung.

German Of The Day: Bitch

February 9, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Hideology, High Art, Home Cooking, Humor Tags: Culture, German, Germans, Germany, Language, Tik Tok, Twitter Leave a comment

That means bitch.

Remember: Germany is the land of Goethe and Schiller. These two guys are Goethe und Schiller 2.0.

How many ex-boyfriends have you already had, bitch?
Look at me, bitch. Look at what a beauty I am. Ten.
Oh my God!

Honey, how many ex-boyfriends do you have, bitch?
I’m much too young. I’m not allowed to have a boyfriend.
Oh my God!
Ra-ta-ta-ta!

Bitch, how many ex-boyfriends do you have?
I don’t have an ex-boyfriend yet, bitch.
Oh my God!

German Of The Day: Rückgang

February 7, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings Tags: Economy, German, Germans, Germany, Industry, Language, Recession Leave a comment

That means decline.

You know. Like the Decline and Fall of the Merkel Empire?

Biggest German industry slump in a decade revives recession fears – German industrial output suffered its biggest fall in December since the recession-hit year of 2009, a shock drop highlighting the weakness in manufacturing that risks dragging Europe’s largest economy into contraction again.

Deutsche Industrieproduktion bricht ein – “Spielball der Weltkonjunktur.”

German Of The Day: Zerreißen

February 5, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: Democrats, Donald Trump, German, Language, Meltdowns, Nancy Pelosi, State of the Union Address 1 Comment

That means to tear up.

That’s Nancy Pelosi. She’s a crazy lady. And they’ll soon be coming to take her away.

They’re coming to take me away
Ha ha, they’re coming to take me away
Ho ho, hee hee, ha ha
To the funny farm
Where life is beautiful all the time
And I’ll be happy to see those nice young men in their clean white coats…

Nancy Pelosi reißt nach Donalds Trumps Rede zur Lage der Nation dessen Manuskript in Stücke.

German Of The Day: Bootsmigranten

February 3, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Asylum Seekers, Europe, German, Germans, Germany, Greece, Immigration, Italy, Language, Migrants, Refugees Leave a comment

That means boat migrants.

You know, like “most boat migrants are not refugees?”

The number of refugees coming to Europe keeps climbing from month to month but the fewest of them are refugees and the fewest of them will be given permission to stay. The punch line: They’ll stay anyway.

Die meisten Bootsmigranten sind keine Flüchtlinge.

German Of The Day: Ehrenbürger

January 31, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, History, Home Cooking, Hypocrisy Tags: Berlin, German, Germans, Germany, History, Honor, Language, Paul von Hindenburg Leave a comment

That means citizen of honor.

And now, after 87 years, Berlin’s red-redder-green city government (SPD, the Left Party, the Greens) has decided that Paul von Hindenburg can no longer carry that title.

Liberals everywhere are all the same. They are routinely shocked to discover that historical figures fail to meet their current level of enlightened leftist consciousness and must therefore ridicule their memory with pious outbursts of intoxicating guilt and self-righteous outrage. Otherwise they’re a nice bunch of folks, I’m sure.

Am 20. April 1933 wurde Paul von Hindenburg Ehrenbürger Berlins – am gleichen Tag wie Adolf Hitler. Nun wurde ihm die Ehrenbürgerschaft aberkannt. Er habe dazu beigetragen, die Demokratie in Deutschland zu zerstören.

German Of The Day: Die Ewigen Propheten Des Untergangs

January 21, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: Climate Change, Davos, Davos Economic Forum, Donald Trump, Doomsday, German, Germans, Germany, Greta, Greta Thunberg, Hysteria, Language, Switzerland 2 Comments

That means the perennial prophets of doom.

Here is an example: Trump calls climate activists ‘perennial prophets of doom’ during Davos economic forum.

“This is not a time for pessimism. This is a time for optimism. Fear and doubt is not a good thought process because this is a time for tremendous hope and joy and optimism and action.” I would translate that into German but German just doesn’t have that kind of vocabulary.

„Wir müssen die ewigen Propheten des Untergangs und ihre Vorhersagen der Apokalypse zurückweisen.”

“Adapting” Standards

January 20, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Education, Employment, German, Germans, Germany, Jobs, Language, Police, Requirements, Standards Leave a comment

It’s not just in the United States that standards in education must remain, uh, flexible.

Germany has to keep adapting its standards too. Take Germany’s federal cops. Please.

Germany to lower language requirements for federal police recruits – Facing a shortage of recruits, authorities have reportedly had to “adapt” their standards for the current generation.

In a bid to fill thousands of new positions this year, Germany’s federal police (Bundespolizei) has lowered requirements for recruits, according to a media report published Monday.

The newspapers of the Funke Media Group reported on the changes, noting that physical fitness requirements as well as the language level in exams have been changed.

“We must adapt to the societal changes of young people with relation to the mental and physical requirements for the police profession.”

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

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