WS 2010/2011          exam translation (advanced)         (Staatsexamen Frühjahr 2008)              text #11          

    Alongside unhelpful images and memories, Britain experienced in the 1980s and 1990s more open anti-German prejudice among her rulers than at any time since 1945. Within the broader aim of reasserting Britain internationally, Margaret Thatcher*) and some of her senior ministers harboured deep personal suspicion of everything German.
    Though these were mainly open secrets to be deduced from their pronouncements, in 1989-92 they erupted to the surface. Unlike near-contemporaries who themselves had fought against Germany and come back keen to ensure that no such war should ever happen again, Thatcher never got over the experience of being a civilian threatened by the Luftwaffe. As Prime Minister she was constantly amazed that those around her did not share her views and sought advisers who did, notably her private secretary Charles Powell. When consulting historians chosen for their expertise on post-war Germany, she lectured them on what they ought to be advising her to do, generally what she already intended; [...] Challenged for her views, she announced that she did not believe in “national guilt”, adding, “but I do believe in national character”.
    Reminded of the size of Germany’s contribution to the EU budget, she responded, “it’s always been a misnomer to say that the Germans are the paymasters of Europe. The Germans have been simply paying reparations for all the things they did during the war.” Nor was she comforted by West Germany’s economic strength, which had sustained democracy since 1945, for she “never believed that German nationalism was dead”; younger Germans were sure to seek reunification and make their country again the dominant force in Europe. [...] She was unlucky therefore to be the premier who was forced to carry out the pledge to support the reunification of Germany given by her post-war predecessors [...].
    Struggling to obstruct the process, she argued like the victors of 1945 that German unity was simply too big an issue to be decided by Germans for themselves, but received backing of consequence from nobody who mattered. When Russia, America and France all accepted German unity, she had little option but to recognize what had happened, but even then assented only when assured that “sizable” British, French and American forces would remain on German soil, to contain not a Soviet threat but a hypothetical German one. This was, as she put it in her memoirs, “one instance in which a foreign policy I pursued met with unambiguous failure”.

Quelle: John Ramsden, Don 't Mention the War: The British and the Germans since 1890. London 2007: S. 402-405.  

for a longer passage click HERE

Don't Mention the War, SPECIAL (Ramsden)

Fawlty Towers: “The Germans”: a) (excerpt) www.spike.com/video/fawlty-towers-dont/2795405 

b) full: http://video.google.de/videoplay?docid=6669914129956242491&ei=g88vS8WFL42U2AKHldXPCw&q=%22don%27t+mention+the+war%22+fawlty+towers&hl=de#

Noel Coward: text: Don't let's be beastly to the Germans   X sound: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wveW9Tw2JKE   

Tom Lehrer: text: Tom Lehrer, Wernher von Braun  X sound: Wernher Von Braun.mp3

A new book (March 2010!) on Germany by a British author: 
"Germania", Simon Winder: http://us.macmillan.com/germania#video  
a) Simon Winder on foreign languages, including German: languages
b) Simon Winder on German food: German food
c) Simon Winder visits the Hofbräuhaus: Death by Oompah
d1) Simon Winder, Germania: Spectator review, 13/02/2010

d2)
www.spectator.co.uk/books/5765823/an-affable-tour-guide.thtml 

e) www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/7205965/Germania-by-Simon-Winder-review.html 

f1)
www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/27/germania-personal-history-simon-winder    
f2) www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/27/germania-personal-history-simon-winder/print 
g)
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/non-fiction/article7013733.ece 
h) www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/germania-by-simon-winder-1903801.html 
i)
http://news.scotsman.com/entertainment/Book-review-Germania-A-Personal.6069309.jp 

plus Patrick Leigh Fermor: Munich, January 1938, Hofbräuhaus

 *) CARTOON

 

more "Un-Kraut" cartoons: www.wepsite.de/cartoons(un-krauts).htm    

back to  exam translation WS 2010/2011, index    back to homepage

THE BOTTOM LINE THE BOTTOM LINE THE BOTTOM LINE THE BOTTOM LINE THE BOTTOM LINE THE BOTTOM LINE THE BOTTOM LINE