Sprechen sie deutsche?

[a2jacketpatches]

I'm thinking this was a leaflet dropped by allied aircraft, can anyone translate it? I went through a bunch of paper this evening and found this along with an original poem titled "Over the Hump" by an ATC Lt. stationed in the CBI. I'll post the poem some time tomorrow.

 

[Lebensgefahr]

Pardoning my school boy German it translates roughly as;

I don`t dream of the happy old times
I am breaking through and not looking back.

Alles gutte
LG

 

[Steve27752]

Nien sprechen zie engle :lol:

 

[a2jacketpatches]

Well I wonder what the purpose of this was. I'm sure I got it with some WW1 or 2 stuff.

 

[greyhound52]

If this is a quote from Ulrich von Hutten then according to google he was a German scholar, poet and reformer. He was an outspoken critic of the Roman Catholic Church and a bridge between the humanists and the Lutheran Reformation. He was a leader of the Imperial Knights of the Holy Roman Empire.(21 April 1488 – 29 August 1523)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulrich_von_Hutten

 

[ties70]

Well I wonder what the purpose of this was. I'm sure I got it with some WW1 or 2 stuff.

You might be correct with your impression that this paper has something to do with the third reich or at least with German nationalism. Of course the words are much older, as Hutten died in the 1520s. In his days he was known as a reformer, which in generally means that he was in favour of a strong German leadership / the Kaiser, instead of the predominant influence of the church.

His biggest influence was that his views and works became the core of a „National myth“. His work "Arminius", in which he hails the victor of the "Varusschlacht" (German tribes against roman army in the Teutoburg forrest) as the first defender of the German people, who saves Germany from the roman suppression, was especially famous among the nationalistic movement of the 19th. Keep in mind that there was no Germany at that time ( - 1848) but lots of small countries, led by local aristocracy plus the big players Prussia, Hannover....Some parts were occupied by France or belonged to Denmark.

The idea of a strong Germany, led by one strong figure was welcomed by lots of nazi authors and "philosophers", who took Hutten's ideas and used them for their ideology.
In the Wehrmacht there were several units related to Hutten (Infantry, artillery, panzer....).

Maybe you remember the name Otto Ernst Remer? He was the commander of the battalion "Grossdeutschland", which had a major part in defeating operation Valkyrie on July 20, 1944...he later founded a right-wing nazi group called "Fellowship Ulrich v. Hutten".

So you see, there is almost nothingh in German history that doesn't have at least two sides to everything..

Regards,

Ties

 

[dujardin]

thanks for this small and interesant ''lesson''