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January Meme: Depiction of Germans in US and British media I'm familiar with
I had stopped watching Homeland mid season 3, but the fifth season as entirely produced in and largely taking place in Germany, so I was curious and watched the season 5 opener. (Though no more of the season. Not because it was that bad, but because it gave no indication the things that made me stop watching had changed.) In it, we get this gem of a scene: Saul and the local Berlin CIA head honcho are meeting with two German officials; in a very topical as of time of production scene, they’re talking about the fallout from the NSA scandal, and post meeting a frustrated Saul tells his colleague: “I don’t get these new Germans. They used to fight like hell.”
Watching, I was tempted to say: “New” Germans? Saul, dear, I know your specialty is supposed to be the Middle East, but this statement makes me conclude you get your information about Germany and the Germans from US pop culture, which explains a lot about the CIA.
The funny thing is that the current pop culture clichés featuring Germans are a relatively recent stereotype, historically speaking. If you read 18th or early to mid 19th century French or British novels and travel guides featuring Germans, they tend to embody different stereotypes altogether: impractical, dreamy-eyed poets, distracted professors, or fat innkeepers. (Come in male and female edition.) For the non fiction version of this, see Germaine de Stael’s De L’Allemagne, for fictional examples, well, take Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth, which features the German Professor archetype complete with student nephew. (Any US movie version changed this to making the Professor a Scot. I wonder why? ;) ) Come the unification of the German principalities under the leadership of Prussia after the French-Prussian war of the early 1870s, the second Empire, and the glorification of the military that went of it, a new stereotype was born: the evil Hun. This one reached its apotheosis in WWI as far as Anglosaxon pop culture was concerned, for obvious reasons. The Weimar Republic years basically added the German sex bomb to the German tropes (the female version usually gets played by Marlene Dietrich, the male version shows up in material based on Christopher Isherwood writings), but then the Evil Hun mutated into the still most popular German stereotype ever, The Operetta Nazi. (With ample help by rl events and people.) I don’t see this one disappearing any time soon, because, as I mentioned before, World War II strikes me as the British and American ultimate role playing game. It’s a good versus evil scenario where you don’t have to worry about compromise or shades of grey because one side is out for genocide led by a megalomaniac, and I don’t think US or British creators will ever get enough of it. This being said, there is US and British media who features other variations of Germans as well. Basically, what I’ve encountered through a few decades of watching are:
a) Operetta Nazis and/or Space Nazis. Easily identifiable by shouting and hissing all the time, having bad accents and mispronouncing “Achtung” in particular. Played mostly by British actors if the production is American, unless it’s a production made in the 30s and 40s, in which case they’re played by German exiles. In case you’re wondering, I freely admit that the genuine article often were their own parody, and of course they deserve all the mocking they can get and then some. (Though I disagree with the often voiced theory that enough ridicule would have prevented the Third Reich. Hitler was mocked and parodied before he ever ruled. Didn’t help one bit.) Typical example of an Operetta Nazi: any featured in an Indiana Jones movie.
b) Nazis meant as serious character studies. Usually also get embodied by British actors. (And the occasional Irishman.) Tend to be chilling as opposed to the Operetta and Space Nazis, not least because they’re given the occasional human moment bringing the audience to the uncomfortable suspicion that they could actually know people like this. Have another Spielberg example: the non-Jewish characters from Schindler’s List, of course.
c) Honorable Opponents. Tend to show up more in WWI era movies (though not those shot during WWI), unless they’re Rommel or Stauffenberg. These tend to be tragically on the wrong side, and occasionally have relationships with British and/or American characters. Still are preferably played by British actors, with the occasional German language actor thrown in. Sometimes they even get embodied by American actors. Example: the cast of All Quiet on the Western Front (based on a German novel, but it’s still a US movie).
d) Bond villains. Are usually played by German, Austrian and Swiss actors yearning for a paid holiday (thus spoke Klaus Maria Brandauer) who are enjoying themselves by scenery chewing. Interestingly enough, while their names are German, the movies shot in the 60s avoid giving them a Nazi past (worried about the box office in Germany?), even if Fleming did, and the later ones are too far removed from World War II anyway.
e) Guilt ridden Germans. Tend to have a Nazi father or grandfather, and are often actually played by German actors. Occasionally, an Operetta (Neo)Nazi will pose as a Guilt Ridden German and be demasked. A more recent example for a genuine Guilt Ridden German would be the banker in A Most Wanted Man.
f) World War II era Jewish Characters born in Germany. I’m not saying “Germans” because Erik “Magneto” Lehnsherr would strongly protest being called one or obvious reasons, but the movie version of him is according to X Men: First Class from Düsseldorf, which makes him a Rhinelander, no less. Anyway, these characters usually are heroes with the occasional morally ambiguous type (again: Magneto) thrown in.
g) Characters who happen to be German but whose function in the plot of whichever story they’re in actually isn’t about them being German. These are still the minority and thus I am delighted whenever I come across one. Or several. Examples include: Bert Myers (shades of grey guy in Highlander: The Raven, doesn’t have a single Nazi connection in sight), Wolfgang Bogdanov in Sense8 (safe cracker by profession and with issues galore, but Wolfgang’s evil father was a Russian Mobster, not a Nazi, which for a present day Berlin guy in his 30s actually is far more likely), Agron (and all the other Germans, but Agron is a main character) in Spartacus (one half of the canon gay couple which survives the show when almost everyone else on the slave side dies); Dr. Schultz in Quentin Tarantino’s Django.
Now, I’m not saying these characters are a wonder of characterization and richness and what not, and that their stories are superior to others. Absolutely not. They and their stories of origin can each be criticized for valid reasons. But, like I said: their function in the plot isn’t defined by them being German. And that’s just such a gift to German watchers.
The other days
Watching, I was tempted to say: “New” Germans? Saul, dear, I know your specialty is supposed to be the Middle East, but this statement makes me conclude you get your information about Germany and the Germans from US pop culture, which explains a lot about the CIA.
The funny thing is that the current pop culture clichés featuring Germans are a relatively recent stereotype, historically speaking. If you read 18th or early to mid 19th century French or British novels and travel guides featuring Germans, they tend to embody different stereotypes altogether: impractical, dreamy-eyed poets, distracted professors, or fat innkeepers. (Come in male and female edition.) For the non fiction version of this, see Germaine de Stael’s De L’Allemagne, for fictional examples, well, take Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth, which features the German Professor archetype complete with student nephew. (Any US movie version changed this to making the Professor a Scot. I wonder why? ;) ) Come the unification of the German principalities under the leadership of Prussia after the French-Prussian war of the early 1870s, the second Empire, and the glorification of the military that went of it, a new stereotype was born: the evil Hun. This one reached its apotheosis in WWI as far as Anglosaxon pop culture was concerned, for obvious reasons. The Weimar Republic years basically added the German sex bomb to the German tropes (the female version usually gets played by Marlene Dietrich, the male version shows up in material based on Christopher Isherwood writings), but then the Evil Hun mutated into the still most popular German stereotype ever, The Operetta Nazi. (With ample help by rl events and people.) I don’t see this one disappearing any time soon, because, as I mentioned before, World War II strikes me as the British and American ultimate role playing game. It’s a good versus evil scenario where you don’t have to worry about compromise or shades of grey because one side is out for genocide led by a megalomaniac, and I don’t think US or British creators will ever get enough of it. This being said, there is US and British media who features other variations of Germans as well. Basically, what I’ve encountered through a few decades of watching are:
a) Operetta Nazis and/or Space Nazis. Easily identifiable by shouting and hissing all the time, having bad accents and mispronouncing “Achtung” in particular. Played mostly by British actors if the production is American, unless it’s a production made in the 30s and 40s, in which case they’re played by German exiles. In case you’re wondering, I freely admit that the genuine article often were their own parody, and of course they deserve all the mocking they can get and then some. (Though I disagree with the often voiced theory that enough ridicule would have prevented the Third Reich. Hitler was mocked and parodied before he ever ruled. Didn’t help one bit.) Typical example of an Operetta Nazi: any featured in an Indiana Jones movie.
b) Nazis meant as serious character studies. Usually also get embodied by British actors. (And the occasional Irishman.) Tend to be chilling as opposed to the Operetta and Space Nazis, not least because they’re given the occasional human moment bringing the audience to the uncomfortable suspicion that they could actually know people like this. Have another Spielberg example: the non-Jewish characters from Schindler’s List, of course.
c) Honorable Opponents. Tend to show up more in WWI era movies (though not those shot during WWI), unless they’re Rommel or Stauffenberg. These tend to be tragically on the wrong side, and occasionally have relationships with British and/or American characters. Still are preferably played by British actors, with the occasional German language actor thrown in. Sometimes they even get embodied by American actors. Example: the cast of All Quiet on the Western Front (based on a German novel, but it’s still a US movie).
d) Bond villains. Are usually played by German, Austrian and Swiss actors yearning for a paid holiday (thus spoke Klaus Maria Brandauer) who are enjoying themselves by scenery chewing. Interestingly enough, while their names are German, the movies shot in the 60s avoid giving them a Nazi past (worried about the box office in Germany?), even if Fleming did, and the later ones are too far removed from World War II anyway.
e) Guilt ridden Germans. Tend to have a Nazi father or grandfather, and are often actually played by German actors. Occasionally, an Operetta (Neo)Nazi will pose as a Guilt Ridden German and be demasked. A more recent example for a genuine Guilt Ridden German would be the banker in A Most Wanted Man.
f) World War II era Jewish Characters born in Germany. I’m not saying “Germans” because Erik “Magneto” Lehnsherr would strongly protest being called one or obvious reasons, but the movie version of him is according to X Men: First Class from Düsseldorf, which makes him a Rhinelander, no less. Anyway, these characters usually are heroes with the occasional morally ambiguous type (again: Magneto) thrown in.
g) Characters who happen to be German but whose function in the plot of whichever story they’re in actually isn’t about them being German. These are still the minority and thus I am delighted whenever I come across one. Or several. Examples include: Bert Myers (shades of grey guy in Highlander: The Raven, doesn’t have a single Nazi connection in sight), Wolfgang Bogdanov in Sense8 (safe cracker by profession and with issues galore, but Wolfgang’s evil father was a Russian Mobster, not a Nazi, which for a present day Berlin guy in his 30s actually is far more likely), Agron (and all the other Germans, but Agron is a main character) in Spartacus (one half of the canon gay couple which survives the show when almost everyone else on the slave side dies); Dr. Schultz in Quentin Tarantino’s Django.
Now, I’m not saying these characters are a wonder of characterization and richness and what not, and that their stories are superior to others. Absolutely not. They and their stories of origin can each be criticized for valid reasons. But, like I said: their function in the plot isn’t defined by them being German. And that’s just such a gift to German watchers.
The other days
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Also, I don't know if you've ever watched Flashforward - a horrible mess of a series that tried to cash in on the Lost phenomenon - but they both had an Operetta-friendly Evil Alt-Nazi, and his determined, probably Guilt-Ridden prison warden. Their names were, I kid you not, Geier and Krieger.
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True, true. *has often cringed for countrymen and -women abroad* Mind you, it would be interesting whether Horriblel Tourist clichés differ by nation? The only thing ascribed to the Horrible German Tourist which isn't to the Horrible American or Horrible British Tourist I can think of is the "occupies beach spot or chair around the pool by towel early in the morning" cliché.
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-J
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And complicated by the fact that there's a substantial Italian American community in the US which I guess is what most movie-goers are familiar with. But no, Italian Americans are not Italians and Italians are not stuck to the time of War War II and going around dressed like my grandmother (boy, that 2012 Woody Allen movie that was set in Rome was awful that way).
Also, we aren't all mobsters. (And don't get me started on how irritating I find the gangster genre in of itself. Yes, even masterpieces like the Godfather are f*cking glorifying and glamorizing the lives of murderous pieces of sh*t. That's not on.)
But, yes, that's something I should definitely think about doing in more detail... *nods*
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Not just in the realities of work hours, family leave time and vacations and such, but in their political rhetoric you hear about "hardworking Americans" every other sentence it seems, when some politician talks about how their audience should deserve something, so it is clear they expect their audience to identify with that label and be proud to work a lot too. Politicians here don't seem to do that nearly as much (address people as "fleissig" or "hart arbeitend" or whatever). The closest you come is in various envy discourses when people are disgruntled that others seemingly have managed to work less yet get the same or more benefits and feel taken advantage of, which isn't quite the same thing, because the underlying sentiment is that you should work the least amount you can get away with.
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There was an episode of the radio series "John Finnemore's Double Acts" last autumn with a German character which I thought was v well-written. Her being German is part of the plot -- she wants to improve her English so she can read fanfiction and the episode is a conversation lesson she has with a runaway English teenager who's trying to pass herself off as a qualified teacher -- but most of her characterisation isn't about her Germanness. I liked it because John Finnemore clearly speaks at least some German and the linguistic jokes aren't based on Elke being bad at English but on Lorna being so bad at teaching it that she keeps making Elke's English worse. Anyway, I recommend it if you're looking for good German characters in British media (it's no. 5 on here http://fourble.co.uk/podcast/johnfinnemoresdoubleacts)
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Re: the Schlegels, true, and he even named them after one of our most famous 19th century literati (or two, since the brothers Schlegel were both writers, but I bet Forster was thinking more of August Wilhelm the Shakespeare translator - i.e. co writer of the most famous German Shakespeare translation ever - than of his brother Friedrich the novelist).
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