Germans

Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe, who share a common German ancestry, culture and history. German is the shared mother tongue of a substantial majority of ethnic Germans.

[T]he German. Say what we will of their lager, their smoke, and their metaphysics, they have brought to us a fresh, vigorous and child-like nature; a boundless facility in the acquisition of knowledge; a subtle and far-reaching intellect, and a fearless love of truth. Though remarkable for patient and laborious thought, the true German is a joyous child of freedom, fond of manly sports, a lover of music, and a happy man generally. ~ Frederick Douglass

Arranged alphabetically by author or source:
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Quotes

[O]nly Germans are self-confident on the basis of an abstract notion- science, that is, the supposed knowledge of absolute truth. ... The German's self-assurance is worst of all, stronger and more repulsive than any other, because he imagines that he knows the truth- science- which he himself has invented but which is for him the absolute truth. ~ Leo Tolstoy

In Germany, it's, let's say it's 5:59 and you're heading for the bakery or whatever and it's due to close at 6. The German will walk right up to that door and close it right in your face, they will lock it on the other side of that glass door with a shrug, like "sorry". ~ Brian Reynolds Myers

B

• The Brits look to provoke. The Italians occasionally imagine conversations, though not maliciously. The Germans veer from confrontational to nationalistic.
  • Chris Ballard, "The Reflection, Future and Duality of Post-USMNT Jurgen Klinsmann" (16 May 2018), Sports Illustrated

• We [Germans] want to prove that we are good people. Even if no one wants to be reminded of this, the good that we do has to be seen in relation to the crimes that we initiated.
  • Arnulf Baring, as quoted in Financial Times (2015)

• We Germans have a far greater and more urgent duty towards civilization to perform than the Great Asiatic Power. We, like the Japanese, can only fulfil it by the sword.
  • Friedrich von Bernhardi, Germany and the next War (1911), Chapter XIII

• [W]hen people ask me are you, as a German, feel responsible for the Holocaust? No, because I'm born 1965 and it would be completely un-logical to say I'm responsible, but as a country we are responsible.
  • Uwe Boll, interview (2010), Lopta Film, Lopta and Moist

C

• And now it's time for me to meet Europe's "cuddly teddybears"... the Germans. Germany as a country has only been in existence for just over a hundred years. But in that time they've started two world wars, they've had two military coups, they've been brought on the brink of starvation two times, and they've invaded almost all of their neighbours.
  • Jeremy Clarkson, Top Gear: Jeremy Meets the Neighbours (2002)

D

• To no class of our population are we more indebted for valuable qualities of head, heart, and hand, than to the German. Say what we will of their lager, their smoke, and their metaphysics, they have brought to us a fresh, vigorous and child-like nature; a boundless facility in the acquisition of knowledge; a subtle and far-reaching intellect, and a fearless love of truth. Though remarkable for patient and laborious thought, the true German is a joyous child of freedom, fond of manly sports, a lover of music, and a happy man generally.
  • Frederick Douglass, "Our Composite Nationality" (7 December 1869), Boston, Massachusetts

F

• Germans will be facing a decisive moment. If they do not assert themselves, their futures will be dictated by others and they will move from decadence to powerlessness. And with powerlessness would come a geopolitical spiral from which they would not recover.
  • George Friedman, The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century (2009), Doubleday, p. 151

H

• If the Providence has so willed that the German people cannot be spared this fight, then I can only be grateful that it entrusted me with the leadership in this historic struggle which, for the next 500 or 1,000 years, will be described as decisive, not only for the history of Germany, but for the whole of Europe and indeed the whole world. The German people and their soldiers are working and fighting today, not only for the present, but for the coming, nay the most distant, generations. A historical revision on a unique scale has been imposed on us by the Creator...
  • Adolf Hitler, speech before the Reichstag (11 December 1941)

L

• In regard to the Germans and foreigners, I esteem them no better than other people, nor any worse.
  • Abraham Lincoln, speech to Germans at Cincinnati, Ohio (12 February 1861)

• In regard to Germans and foreigners, I esteem foreigners no better than other people, nor any worse. They are all of the great family of men, and if there is one shackle upon any of them, it would be far better to lift the load from them than to pile additional loads upon them.
  • Abraham Lincoln, speech to Germans at Cincinnati, Ohio (12 February 1861)

• Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for ninety minutes and at the end, the Germans win.
  • Gary Lineker after losing the 1990 FIFA World Cup semifinal to Germany by a penalty shootout, as quoted in Soccer Empire: The World Cup and the Future of France, by Laurent DuBois, p. 79

M

• In Germany, it's, let's say it's 5:59 and you're heading for the bakery or whatever and it's due to close at 6. The German will walk right up to that door and close it right in your face, they will lock it on the other side of that glass door with a shrug, like "sorry".
  • Brian Reynolds Myers, interview with Colin Marshall (February 2015)

P

• Stan: Dude, what the fuck is wrong with German people?
  • South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (30 June 1999), by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Paramount Pictures

R

• Many Germans feel guilty about the war. But they don't explain the real guilt we share; that we lost.
  • Hanna Reitsch, as quoted in "The first astronaut: tiny, daring Hanna", by Ron Laytner, The Deseret News (19 February 1981), pp. C1+, p. 12C

T

• Pfuel was one of those hopelessly and immutably self-confident men, self-confident to the point of martyrdom as only Germans are, because only Germans are self-confident on the basis of an abstract notion- science, that is, the supposed knowledge of absolute truth. ... The German's self-assurance is worst of all, stronger and more repulsive than any other, because he imagines that he knows the truth- science- which he himself has invented but which is for him the absolute truth.
  • Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, Book IX, Chapter Ten

V

• It will be a long time before I hear whether I qualify for German citizenship. Nothing will replace an extended family I will never know, nothing will displace the dark spaces inside my complex father, but I am anxious to see what does change if I become a German citizen.
  • Peter Van Buren, "Considering My Nazi Reparations" (28 July 2020), The American Conservative

W

• I'm not German, I'm Austrian and Austrians have a wonderful sense of humour, Germans, not so much.
  • Christoph Waltz, as quoted in "'Austrians have humour, Germans not so much'" (28 February 2013), The Local

• [T]here is the notion of sonderweg, literally the “special path,” down which the German people are fated to wander. ... [W]hether viewed from within or without, left or right, the Germans could be seen through such a lens to possess some collective essence — a specialness — capable of explaining everything. In this way, one could speak of a trajectory “from Luther to Hitler” and interpret history not as some chaotic jumble but as a crisp, linear process.
  • Thomas Chatterton Williams, "How Ta-Nehisi Coates Gives Whiteness Power" (6 October 2017), The New York Times, New York

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Germans at Wikipedia