How many of you have kept up a foreign language that you learnt at school? Perhaps you have since learned a language that you didn’t begin at school? Or perhaps you can at least order two drinks and a salad, and say please, thank you and good morning in the variety of countries to which you have travelled?
Those of us ‘fortunate’ enough to have grown up with English as our native language do not, of course, need to learn any other languages, as everyone has had to learn ‘our’ language as the lingua franca of the world. And if foreigners do not understand us, we can always shout more loudly.
My father did his national service in Germany after the war, and had nothing good to say about the Germans whatsoever. The only snippet of the German language he learned while he was there, was “Wie geht’s meine kleine Kartoffelblume?” [“How are you my little potato-flower?”] I prefer not to think about what his motivation was for learning that particular phrase.
My dad’s stories of post-war Germany, however, must have had some sort of impact on me, because since then I’ve had a fascination with Germany, its people and its literature.
I studied German at school, though started with it too late really. I went on to do the A level (just scraping through), but I can’t claim that I was ever anything near fluent in the language.
Since then I have occasionally dipped into the deep wells of German history and culture, reading Thomas Mann and Hermann Hesse, and having brief visits to different parts of the country. But during the pandemic I discovered the ‘Easy German’ podcast, which had just started, and have been an avid listener ever since.
I feel that Cari, Manuel and Janusz, who present the podcast, are my dear friends, even if I know a lot about them and they know nothing of me.
One of the key features of the podcast is that the presenters share, not just personal aspects of their lives and relationships (Cari and Janusz are married, and Janusz is Manuel’s father), but also their take on German politics, culture and religion. Cari and Manuel, in particular, have taken part in demonstrations opposing Germany’s far-right party the Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD). Their education has been at a time where Germany’s responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust has been an established part of the curriculum, and ‘Nie wieder’ [Never again’] part of the zeitgeist. So it is a shock to many to see a deeply unpleasant nationalist party attracting so much support in certain parts (mainly the East) of the country.
How can the rise of far-right rhetoric, apparent in the UK as well as the rest of the world, best be resisted in this new world of social media influence?
When might going on a demonstration, or writing to an MP be insufficient?
Before 1933 there was plenty of opposition from within Germany to Hitler, but resistance faltered and, in the end, you don’t need me to tell you, was violently swept away until none could speak out without high levels of personal risk. Authoritarian government, history shows, and is sadly to be seen throughout the world today, usually ends very badly, not to mention the terrible damage to individual lives it does along the way.
In my favourite Hermann Hesse book, Das Glasperlenspiel [The Glass Bead Game], written during the Second World War, the central character, Josef Knecht, after a high-flying career in academia, resigns from his post as master of the Glass Bead Game in order to re-enter the ‘real world’ of ordinary life outside the ivory towers.
His defection from an authoritarian, sterile and self-satisfied regime signifies the need to engage in thoughtful commitment with wider society, even, as it turns out – spoiler alert – at personal cost to himself. As Knecht says. “Wir sind selbst Geschichte und sind an der Weltgeschichte und unserer Stellung in ihr mitverantwortlich” [“We ourselves are history, and we share responsibility for world history and our own place within it.”] There is always something to be learned from the immersive study of another people’s culture, history and language.
So, by the way, in case you fancy learning or topping up your language skills, as well as ‘Easy German’ there are podcasts and videos (all with English translations and vocabulary support) for Easy French, Turkish, Greek, Polish, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Russian and Mandarin… You never know when or where you might like to ask about the well-being of a little potato-flower.