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Tag Archives: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Time in Germany: How Did We Get Here? Posted by on May 21, 2020

We’ve written many posts on how to tell time in German. However, we’ve never discussed how we got there! How is it that in the United States, you say 4 pm, and in Germany, you’d say sechzehn Uhr (sixteen hours)? Why is this referred to as military time in the US and just… time in German? It…

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German Poetry (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe): Erlkönig – Erlking/Elfking Posted by on Aug 22, 2012

Here is another poem of my poem-series, so to speak. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s “Erlkönig” is a quite gloomy poem. By the way, the word “Erlkönig” is another term for “Schwarzer Mann” (bogeyman).       Wer reitet so spätdurch Nacht und Wind?Es ist der Vatermit seinem Kind; Er hat den Knaben wohl in dem…

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German Poetry (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe): Der Zauberlehrling – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice Posted by on Aug 19, 2012

I wonder whether foreign learners of German do ever deal with German literature in classroom, especially with poetry. Therefore, I thought it could be maybe interesting to you to get to know some poems that also native speakers of German have to memorize at any time in their school life. For starters, I chose Johann…

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