German Language Blog

Only two days until Valentine’s day! Have you already sent out your greeting cards, prepared your presents, planned the evening with your loved one?
The custom to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day as the day of lovers was introduced to Germany by US soldiers after WWII, and then got popularized among the general public by marketing campaigns for flowers and sweets. So even if the day has a slightly commercial feel to it in Germany, I figured it would be the right time to teach you some love-related vocabulary – thereby hopefully taking the focus from the commercial aspect to the interpersonal.

So, first things first! How do you tell someone that you love them in German? Ich liebe dich! Or, in the more old-fashioned / polite writing style: Ich liebe Dich! By the time you tell someone that you love them, you’re probably familiar enough that you’ve already switched to adressing each other as “du”. So, just for completeness’ sake, here’s what you say to someone with whom you’re still on “Sie”-level: Ich liebe Sie! (Not to be confused with “Ich liebe sie” = I love her!)

Maybe you also want to tell your friends how much you like them. In German, you’d probably not tell your friends that you ‘love’ them, because that’s usually interpreted as romantic love. Instead, one might say “Ich hab dich gern” (something between “I like you” and “I’m fond of you”). If that sounds too intimate for the occation, go with
Du bist ein guter Freund. / Du bist eine gute Freundin. = You’re a good friend (to a male person / to a female person). Or
Du bist mein bester Freund. / Du bist meine beste Freundin. = You’re my best male / female friend.
Ich bin so froh, dass es dich gibt! = I’m so glad that you exist! This you can tell everyone: lovers, friends and family.

But back to the core of Valentine’s. So you want to write a Valentine’s card to your loved one. Here are a couple of phrases that you might find useful:

Du bist der Mann, mit dem ich alt werden möchte. / Du bist die Frau, mit der ich alt werden möchte. = You’re the man / the woman I want to grow old with.

Dein Anblick bringt mich um den Verstand. = Your looks make me lose my mind.

Ich habe Schmetterlinge im Bauch. = Literally: I have butterflies in my stomach; but in German it’s only used for the feeling of being in love!

Ich kann mir ein Leben ohne dich nicht mehr vorstellen. = I can no longer imagine a life without you.

Wann werde ich dich endlich in meinen Armen halten? = When will I finally hold you in my arms?

Ich möchte in einem Meer deiner Küsse ertrinken. = I want to drown in a flood of your kisses.

Happy Valentine’s everyone!

As a special bonus I promise to correct the first ten love poems or letters or texts of any sort in German that get posted in the comments! So if you need some last-minute advice, this is your chance!

Today I want to introduce another German character to you. This one is for sure not as bekannt (famous) as Albert Einstein for example. But anyway he made his contribution to German poetry, humor and language.

Heinrich Christian Wilhelm Busch was born on April 15th 1832 in Widensahl. He was one of the most influentual humorous Dichter (poets) and Zeichner (drawers) in Germany. His first picture story was released in 1859. Already in the 1870´s he was one of the most famous characters in Germany. At the time of his death, he was seen as a „Classic of German humor“ who reached a great popularity with his satiric Bildergeschichten (picture stories).

Today he is also seen as a Pionier (pioneer) in comic strips. Some of his most famous Werke (creations) are:

- Max und Moritz
- Die fromme Helene
- Plisch und Plum
- Hans Huckebein, der Unglücksrabe
- Die Knopp-Trilogie

Many of his two-liners like „Vater werden ist nicht schwer, Vater sein dagegen sehr“ (To become father is very easy, but to be a father is not easy at all) or „Dieses war der erste Streich, doch der zweite folgt sogleich“ (This was the first coup, but the second one will follow immediately) became  figures of speech in German Sprachgebrauch (linguistic usage). His satires mock attributes of certain people or groupings. So he often offends the self-satisfaction and doubtable moral opinions of Spießbürger (philistines) and the bigotry of civil and clerical persons with his picture stories.

Busch was an earnest and close-mouthed man who lived many years in provincial Zurückgezogenheit (reclusiveness). He didn´t cherish his own picture stories. For him they were just a way to earn some money to advance his financial situation after unfinished studies of arts and a long lasting financial Abhängigkeit (dependency) on his parents.

His attempt to become a serious painter failed with his own demands on quality. So he destroyed most of his paintings. That things that were left couldn´t be related to a special style. His lyrical compositions and Prosa (prose) unfortunately were not accepted by the audience because the people clearly associated Wilhelm Busch with his picture sories.

The failure of becoming a serious artist was something that bothered him until his death in Mechtshausen on January 9th 1908. He stopped working long before that, because based on using eyeglasses and having a shaky hand, he was feeling old.

Some vocabulary to this post:
bekannt – famous
der Dichter – poet
der Zeichner – drawer
die Bildergeschichte – picture story
der Pinoier – pioneer
das Werk – creation
der Sprachgebrauch – linguistic usage
der Spießbürger – philistine
die Zurückgezogenheit -  reclusiveness
die Abhängigkeit – dependency
die Prosa – prose

At the end of the year 2011, I posted an article called „Some simple fatcs about Germany“. While doing the research for this article, I discovered some other interesting facts about Germany that I didn´t know before though I´m living here since I was born.

One of them was about religions. For not being very religiös (religious) myself, I normally don´t care much about religious topics. But when I read about the spreading of the different religions, this sounded quite interesting to me.

So, to come to a point, we have countless religions respectively subassembly groups or Abspaltungen (split-offs) of them. The biggest main religion is das Christentum (Christianity). Out of this main religion there are also the most split-offs. Take a look:

- Römisch-katholische Kirche (Roman Catholic Church)
- Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (Protestant Church of Germany)
- Orthodoxes Christentum (Orthodox Christianity)
- Neuapostolische Kirche (New Apostolic Church)
- Zeugen Jehovas (Jehovah´s Witnesses)
- Baptisten (Baptists)
- Mennoniten (Mennonites)
- Selbständige Evangelische-Lutherische Kirche
- Pfingstler
- Siebenten-Tags-Adventisten
- Kirche Jesu Christi der Heiligen der Letzten Tage (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
- Altkatholische Kirche
- Christliche Wissenschaft
- Anglikaner (Anglicans)

Beside Christianity we also have Islam, das Judentum (Jewry), Hinduismus (Hinduism) and Buddhismus (Buddhism) in Germany.

Here are some numbers of the strongest religions in Germany:

Konfessionslos	28.214.000	34,60%
Römisch-katholische Kirche	24.909.332	30,50%
Evangelische Landeskirchen	24.194.986	29,50%
Islam	4.000.000	4,88%
Griechische-Orthodoxe Kirche	450.000	0,55%
Neuapostolische Kirche	359.833	0,44%
Rumänisch-Orthodoxe Kirche	300.000	0,36%
Serbisch-Orthodoxe Kirche	250.000	0,31%
Buddhisten	245.000	0,30%
Juden	200.000	0,24%
Russisch-Orthodoxe Kirche	180.000	0,22%

Die Missionierung (proselytization) took place from the 6th to the 10th century. Whereas Protestant reformation began in the 16th century with Martin Luther (1483-1546). The interesting thing is, before World War 1, approximately 60% of the Bevölkerung (population) in Germany was affected by the Protestant Church. Nowadays, the two main religions have almost the same number of members. The Roman Catholic Church even has a slight Vorsprung (advance).

The orthodox churches came with the immigrants. Most of them were coming from eastern countries like Greek, Serbia, Russia, Bulgaria…

Jehovah`s Witnesses were founded in the USA and exists in Germany since 1903.

Islam has its own Untergruppen (subassembly groups) as well (Sunnites, Shiites, Alevites and even further ones). Most of the people in Germany with an islamic background have turkish roots.

Most of the Jews living in Germany have their origin in Eastern Europe. Nowadays we have approximetaly 200.000 of them in Germany. There are Jewish communities in Germany since the 1st centruy, so this is the oldest Glaubensgemeinschaft (denomination) that we have here.

Well, as far as I can overlook this, almost every religion is somehow represented in Germany. But also a third af the population is konfessionslos (undenominational), that means without a certain religion. In my optinion this makes people diverse and interesting. As long as everybody stays tolerant and respects other persuasions, it is a great way to do so.

Some vocabulary to this post:

religiös – religious
die Abspaltung – split-off
das Christentum – Christianity
die Römisch-katholische Kirche – Roman Catholic Church
die Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland – Protestant Church of Germany
das Orthodoxes Christentum – Orthodox Christianity
die Neuapostolische Kirche – New Apostolic Church
die Zeugen Jehovas – Jehovah´s Witnesses
die Baptisten – Baptists
die Mennoniten – Mennonites
die Kirche Jesu Christi der Heiligen der Letzten Tage – Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
die Anglikaner – Anglicans
das Judentum – Jewry
der Hinduismus – Hinduism
der Buddhismus – Buddhism
die Missionierung -  proselytization
die Bevölkerung – population
der Vorsprung – advance
die Untergruppe – subassembly group
die Glaubensgemeinschaft -  denomination
konfessionslos -  undenominational