h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Whoever wrote this message can't be German or at least not serious about his/her nationality. This article sound like Germans are aggressive but we just had the misfortune to have some leaders who wanted to conquer the world. And we're not the only ones take Napoleon who wanted to conquer the world but nobody says the French are aggressive and love to start wars!
And another thing is that I always wondered why everybody thinks about Lederhosen when they think about Germany. Only a small percentage of the population in a small area of the country wear Lederhosen and that only on special occasions, so Lederhosen are as typical for Germany as drinking milk for America!
If anybody has any sense than they'll change this partly really ridiculous entry about Germany!!

Partly, you are right. There are much more things to be said about Germany, but the researchers don't allways have time to do their work properly. You take a look at some towns, watch some television, read about it. The national television should give an adequate picture of the country, but probably the lederhosen got into the discription because the researcher watched during the oktober Bierfesten in Munchen.
And the agression, I don't see too many errors there. Sure, Napoleon I was a bad guy too, mopping up the whole of mainland Europe. But since Germany defeated Napoleon III, it's not very hard to imagine they took that imperialism with them in the booty from Paris. (Now I wonder who nicked it from Berlin in 1945?)Since then they tried twice to mop up Europe for their own. By the way, one of the founding fathers of the german militarism got his military training in the state army of Holland round 1600, to put a different light on that peacefull country .

I think the Germans are very peaceful people as long as there's no evil dictator who wants to conquer the world (or at least Europe) or somebody's annoying them (like this article did me). To answer your question I think if you ask some countries they wuold say that the Americans nicked it 1945!

Remember: the guide may be wrong, but it has a reputation for being definitively wrong.

Germans obviously dont have a sense of humour!

But they are not evil people and I have met many Germans and found them to be very nice, not evil at all!

I think the article had one thing missing that would have balanced the whole thing: ''America is the only country to drop a nuclear device in aggression on another country...twice.''
(petition to get this added to the offical guide entry to balance things up slightly)

Not only did america drop the bomb twice but they dropped it on a country that had already offered to surrender

Germans do have a sense of humour as long as you don't mention the war.

Oh and all the stereotypes are supported by this whole conversation. Get a sense of humour people !!!

Person-humor=aggression
(fred chiphovens 34th law of maths in the workplace)

On the other hand, your message just stresses the point, that german are very bad in the field of humor.
When viewed from Starfix 5, Germany DOES look like described in the original text.
(I missed a view thing in it anyway, but i still have to do some more research.)

cu
joern, (North-Germany)

I think we have a sense of humour when you talk about a war we won!

That says it all!

Just to remind you there've been more wars than WW1 and WW2!

I don't how it is in other parts of Germany. However us in a small town in Bavaria called Schwandorf allways make jokes about the war we lost.

Ich hasse alle leute die nicht genau wie ich sind!

Dann hast du ein ganz schoen grosses Problem, weil auf der Erde ungefaehr 5-6 Milliarden Menschen leben, die nicht wie du sind.
(Nur um das klarzustellen, bist du ein Rasist?)

And once again the Anglophones bring out the jaded jokes about Germany. Yep, we kicked their behind during the Wars. But, since that was half a century ago, perhaps we ought to let the past lie.

1. "Get a sense of humour". Hmmmm... fair enough. Except that the whole war gag seems to be a little tired. "We bashed the Bosch", "We hounded the Hun from his homeland", "We jizzed in Jerry's jockstrap". Great. Get over it and talk about something else.

2. "It's just harmless fun". Debatable. As an Englishman living in Germany for a year I'm in a peculiarly good position to view German attitudes towards such matters. Many Germans have an excruciating load of guilt concerning the War on their shoulders. The ubiquitous graffito "Deutschland muss sterben" ("Germany must die") is indicative of the prevalent attitude of self-debasement. This tragic acceptance of unearned guilt can - at least in part - be attributed to the fusillade of lame war-related quips, excoriating war films, and advertisements involving handsome, stereotypical English protagonists, with the facial hair and derring-do of dashing Lancaster bomber pilots throwing bouncing-towels across swimming pools to outwit the simpleton, fat, German sunbathers.

3. To attribute to individuals the crimes of others of their nation is to indulge in the casuistry of the racist. Of course the authors of this article weren't seriously attributing such characteristics to the German individual but the pervading atmosphere among British youth - or at least sizeable sections therof - is still one of jovial superiority over, or patronizing condescension towards "the old enemy" and the barrage of jests only reinforces such attitudes. Apparently in a recent showing of "Saving Private Ryan" in England, the cinema burst into a peal of applause / raucous cheering whenever a German was shot. Disconcerting.

4. Nobody seems to mention nowadays that England was the inventor of the concentration camp or that she was the first to employ them. I wonder why.

However, what is utterly beyond question is that Germany is responsible for the arse-end of Euro-pop. This is, after all, the country that shot David Hasslehof and the Backstreet Boys to fame. Shame on you, Deutschland.

DAMN! Would you believe I keep a German to English dictionary right next to my computer for no reason, and now when I need it I can't find it!