You may remember Dwight Schrute, the quirky top paper salesman from NBC’s “The Office” (by the way, there is a German spin-off, called Stromberg). While the sitcom celebrated its finale back in May 2013, it is still one of the most watched shows today. And Mr Schrute is one of the audience’s favorite characters. Not only his dorky, freaky personality makes him uniquely popular, but also the emphasis on German stereotypes. From his strict sense of law and order to his upkeep of old Schrute family traditions, he proudly lives his German (Pennsylvania Dutch) heritage. Let’s take a deeper dive into all of Dwight’s Germanness throughout ALL 9 seasons of The Office. From his word use to nods to German culture and traditions. Today, we look at the German traditions Dwight brought into Dunder Mifflin, and check them on their Germanness!

Image by author, picture of Dwight’s bobblehead by Justiny8s at Flickr.com under license CC BY 2.0.

Dwight’s Bavarian Fairytale

S6E6 “Mafia”

Dwight: I inserted a listening device into the belly of the mallard. Now I can observe Jim, trap Jim, and destroy Jim, just like in the Bavarian fairytale. Only this time, the mallard skins the toad alive. And of course in this version you lose the whole veiled critique of the Kaiser thing.

While I found no video of this line, the video above shows how Jim pranks Dwight after he figured out that Dwight placed a recording device in the mallard on his desk. What is interesting about what he says is that this is just like in the Bavarian fairytale – which one?

There is, of course, the Froschkönig (The Frog Prince) by the Brüder Grimm (Grimm Brothers). However, the Brüder Grimm are not from Bavaria, and did not write a Märchen (fairytale) about a toad getting skinned by a mallard.

There is the Märchen from Südchina (Southern China), called Der Krötenkaiser (The Toad Emperor). In it, an old Kaiser (emperor) and his wife had no kids, and prayed for a child, even if it was a Kröte (toad). The wife gives birth to a toad, which they decide to raise. At some point, enemies are at the gate, and the Kaiser promises a Belohnung (reward) for whoever defeats the enemies. The Kröte rises to the cause and rides out to meet them. They were confused, seeing a Kröte as their enemy. In their confusion, the Kröte defeated them all. As a Belohnung, the Kröte could marry a Prinzessin (princess). However, the Kröte began annoying the Kaiser, and he ordered him to be killed. But the Prinzessin protested, as she claimed that the Kröte would take off his skin at night and actually is a handsome man. Not believing her, the Kaiser spied on the Prinzessin at night. And indeed, there was the Haut (skin) of the Kröte! The Kaiser donned the Haut, but could not take it off again. The handsome man took the Kaiser‘s clothes and became the new ruler, while the Kaiser became the Kröte.

This is as close a Märchen I could find that involves having a toad skinned alive, let alone by a mallard. It seems that this is complete nonsense. Though a Märchen with such violence is nothing new – just think about Red Riding Hood.

The Froschkönig also has a more violent original version than we know: instead of kissing the Frosch (frog), the Prinzessin throws the Frosch against the wall in disgust, upon which the Frosch turns into a Prinz (prince). Not quite as romantic…

Sabotage is an ancient Dutch art