Author Topic: Could Ww2 german soldiers speak english??  (Read 3973 times)

Offline AdamPA1006

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Could Ww2 german soldiers speak english??
« on: 17-01-2010, 05:01:33 »
I'm reading a book my donald burgett and according to him many of the germans he encountered spoke english. also how accurate are these types of books??
« Last Edit: 17-01-2010, 05:01:00 by AdamPA1006 »

Offline Captain Pyjama Shark

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Re: Could Ww2 german soldiers speak english??
« Reply #1 on: 17-01-2010, 05:01:26 »
Most Germans that I've ever encountered speak German.

Edit: I was mocking his original post.  I am not dumb.
« Last Edit: 17-01-2010, 06:01:58 by Captain Pyjama Shark »

Offline FlyGuy45

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Re: Could Ww2 german soldiers speak english??
« Reply #2 on: 17-01-2010, 06:01:10 »
Most Americans I encounter speak Spa...English.

I think English is one of the most common languages, and it would appear so back then as well.

Offline Oddball

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Re: Could Ww2 german soldiers speak english??
« Reply #3 on: 17-01-2010, 06:01:49 »
Actually, if you think about it.... Chinese is the most common language considering they make up the largest one nationality.  ::) Then I think it's Spanish  :o, and then English   :-\.. scary yes.... but it's logical  8)... whether it's true or not..I don't know....  ;)

Offline Captain Pyjama Shark

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Re: Could Ww2 german soldiers speak english??
« Reply #4 on: 17-01-2010, 06:01:36 »
Why is that scary?  We Anglo-Saxons are terribly selfish when it comes to language.  Other peoples are generally much better about that.

Offline Oddball

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Re: Could Ww2 german soldiers speak english??
« Reply #5 on: 17-01-2010, 06:01:05 »
It is... ::)

Offline Captain Pyjama Shark

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Re: Could Ww2 german soldiers speak english??
« Reply #6 on: 17-01-2010, 06:01:31 »
Pourquoi?

Offline VonMudra

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Re: Could Ww2 german soldiers speak english??
« Reply #7 on: 17-01-2010, 06:01:19 »
Most germans learn english in school, so having german soldiers who spoke some english in WW2 is not far off....

Offline Tolga<3

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Re: Could Ww2 german soldiers speak english??
« Reply #8 on: 17-01-2010, 07:01:39 »
I would expect any Career/Voluntary NCO** from any country to speak English, now I dont know WWII standards, but I mean it could be right...
« Last Edit: 17-01-2010, 07:01:19 by Tolga<3[TR] »
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Offline Schultz

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Re: Could Ww2 german soldiers speak english??
« Reply #9 on: 17-01-2010, 07:01:55 »
afaik the ordinary german soldier in ww2 didnt spoke english. a few did, because they were living in the usa but returned to the reich because of the "call of blood". the "call of blood" was an proclamation by the reichs goverment to all germans living in foreign countries, to come home and fight for their fatherland. at the end of the war, the only english words that was taught <-(hope its the right word) to german soldiers and civilians as well were "i surrender".
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Offline Paasky

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Re: Could Ww2 german soldiers speak english??
« Reply #10 on: 17-01-2010, 12:01:28 »
Yeah, according to BoB the only thing the Germans could say are Nicht Schissen & Ich bin keine nazi.
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Offline Ts4EVER

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Re: Could Ww2 german soldiers speak english??
« Reply #11 on: 17-01-2010, 13:01:25 »
afaik the ordinary german soldier in ww2 didnt spoke english. a few did, because they were living in the usa but returned to the reich because of the "call of blood". the "call of blood" was an proclamation by the reichs goverment to all germans living in foreign countries, to come home and fight for their fatherland. at the end of the war, the only english words that was taught <-(hope its the right word) to german soldiers and civilians as well were "i surrender".

Well those were special cases. I'm sure some Germans spoke English without having lived in the USA, but it was probably less common than today, where it is taught in the standard school curriculum. But Germans were conscripted and that means that there are a lot of highly educated people in the military as well or perhaps merchants who traded in England or perhaps people who had English relatives etc...

Offline Dukat

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Re: Could Ww2 german soldiers speak english??
« Reply #12 on: 17-01-2010, 15:01:04 »
Nono. It was not common at all to speak english as a second language. It all depends on your level of education. And during the 20ies and 30ies germany was poor. So many people did not spend time on education. Besides the average level of high school graduations was much below than what we have today.

Just let me give an example: My grandma was born on the countryside during World War I, her mother died when she gave her birth. My grandma went to elementary school for 6 years. There was one teacher for all children of all ages. Where do you expect these people to learn foreign languages? You can't teach em.

Only those who attended high school had a chance to learn foreign languages. Most common would have been latin, breeding priests and physicians. And even though the french were an archenemy their language was still considered a regarded and cultivated language. It was the language of the former nobility with all its attractiveness. So, there was no need to learn english. Not more than learning polish, dutch, czech, hungarian, italian or whatever. So in order to learn english there must have been some kind of dedication or talent already.

If you look at the terrible english of former Nazi ministers like Albert Speer, you can see that you could be at the head of the state, having enjoyed longtime education, without the need to ever have learned english. No doubt, he is a clever guy, so he had to learn english quickly after the 3rd Reich collapsed when coooperating with the allies. And when you're german, english is naturally the most easiest language to learn.

So after the war Brits and Americans flooded the western zones and it became common to teach english as the first foreign language, while people in the east were taught russian. However that allowed the U.S. culture to have such big impact on germany nowadays. Before it was rather french.

In order to come back to the topic: If you spoke english, you were something special and more regarded due to your higher level of education that allowed you to speak foreign languages at all.

I usually imagine my own sounds with it, like `tjunk, tupdieyupdiedee` aaa enemy spotted, ratatatataboom

Offline Schneider

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Re: Could Ww2 german soldiers speak english??
« Reply #13 on: 17-01-2010, 16:01:47 »
The education in 20s and 30s germany was not really that heavily effected by the economy crisis. It just was usual, especially in rural areas, that there is one teacher living in the schoolhouse teaching children of all classes simultaneously. Which would otherwise hardly be effective, as there were usually not more than ~30-40 children at one school. Remember that back then kids would have hardly be able to jump a bus and drive to a central school with more than 1000 students like 10kms away, as its common today.

Yet, foreign languages just had no real eligibility in the curriculums back then. Why should they? English was, in comparison with today, completely unneccessary. Today it's quite usual here to learn french as second language, but back then france was the arch enemy.
So, at standard schools for kids that were to learn a standard job later, none would usually learn a foreign language.

Of course, grammar schools for kids who wanted to go to university did teach foreign language. A LOT, actually. But this was usual latin and ancient greek, following old humanist ideals, with latin being the international language of science (back then, till it got somewhat superseded by german, which was then replaced by english). Remember that those languages were considered the fundament of european culture, which to a certain degree is absolutely correct. Plus these languages pose a wide range of grammatics to learn, which is however quite logically structured (at least Latin, I don't know ancient greek) and hence was regarded useful to cultivate the students education.

The german education only grew REALLY poor during the wars. My grandmother used to tell me how happy she was seeing me learn so much and being able to tell her so much, as she was so curious as a child - but in her time in school (~1937 or 38 till about 1944 or 45) they spent most of there time gathering beechnuts for oil or blueberries in the forest, sewing socks for soldiers, they were provided to the local noble landlords estate as seasonal workers etc. pp.

Offline Yustax

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Re: Could Ww2 german soldiers speak english??
« Reply #14 on: 17-01-2010, 16:01:58 »
Operation Greif anyone?