Current Events > Germany General.

(+) Yeah! (+)

and for some stupid reason, Latin

and I feel like Spanish is becoming more common
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@teepan95
@TarElessar
@ALIEN_WORK2HOP

What do you all think of Otto von Bismark, the first Chancellor of Germany? Clearly he was strong and competent, but was he a nice guy or not? Did he really care about the country, or was he just in it for the power and influence, or was it somewhere inbetween? How much did he revise history in his memoirs?

Talking of early Germany history, Frederick III wasn't very important. His father and son were, but he died after 99 days in the position of Kaiser. I know history has had some pretty short reigns for various senior political figures, but that's pretty bad. Then, his dreadful son came to the throne, and a bad tempered child was given a lot of power, which he used in a bad way.

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in one of my first posts, I told you that I lived in the States for 10 years.
So for much of my life, English was my first language.
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ALIEN_WORK2HOP posted...

in one of my first posts, I told you that I lived in the States for 10 years.
So for much of my life, English was my first language.

Yeah, I guess. But why are the German posters on this board passive-agressive with me?

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maybe because you ask questions like "Was Otto von Bismark a nice guy or not?" .

how the fuck are we supposed to know?

also, Germans are just passive aggressive in general. Don't be offended.
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I thought Germans knew their history pretty well?
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Choco posted...

and for some stupid reason, Latin

and I feel like Spanish is becoming more common

save yourself before he gets to you
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What are you talking about? And who is "he"?

I just watched a little of an amateur YouTube documentary about Bismark, but stopped because the person who made it didn't seem very...reliable. There was a punctuation mistake at the beginning of the video, and there was a mispronounced word within a few minutes, i.e. three pronounced "free".

Are these amateur YouTube documentaries a common thing, then? People just research a subject, put together some images and video footage, then make the video and upload it? This is fine, if the videos are good, but I have doubts. Perhaps it's best just to watch professional documentaries made for TV channels.

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Bump.
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There's something I still don't understand about East Germany.

So, it was a satellite state of the Soviet Union. This is basically true, and this is what the main leaders, Honecker and Ulbricht wanted for the country. Why, though? What did it really gain from being under the control (sort of) of the Soviet Union? I never actually grasped this.

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Sunhawk posted...

So, it was a satellite state of the Soviet Union. This is basically true, and this is what the main leaders, Honecker and Ulbricht wanted for the country. Why, though? What did it really gain from being under the control (sort of) of the Soviet Union? I never actually grasped this.

Maybe they believed in the mythology of socialism? Shrug.
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Sunhawk posted...

What did it really gain from being under the control (sort of) of the Soviet Union?

Being run by the Soviet Union meant not being overrun by the Soviet Union.

Just go ask Hungary.

yeah east germany had been under russian control since after ww2. You don't become a leader of east germany and suddenly tell russia to go fuck off.
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But after the annexation, from 1945 - 1949, East Germany become its own country. I don't fully understand why they allowed this, or worse still, actively wanted this. I know Russia not liking you can be pretty uncomfortable, but they could have been more independent.

At least, for the first decade or so, they allowed people to leave East Germany, if they wanted. Plenty of people went to West Germany, which was a civilised and independent country.

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This is a bizarre gimmick.
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Sunhawk posted...

At least, for the first decade or so, they allowed people to leave East Germany, if they wanted. Plenty of people went to West Germany, which was a civilised and independent country.

The part nobody wants to admit, is that the Berlin Wall was mutually beneficial.

Anyone productive was leaving the east, causing a severe brain-drain and undermining socialism.
People from the west would hop over and buy stuff from heavily-subsided stores, undermining capitalism.

Error1355 posted...

This is a bizarre gimmick.

Watch out, Sunhawk might call you a troll for disagreeing with him
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What are you talking about, Error? My interest in Germany?
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today, class, we will be going over which figures were the most affable at the time
be sure to get your nice guy flash cards ready
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Questionmarktarius posted...

The part nobody wants to admit, is that the Berlin Wall was mutually beneficial.

It wasn't actually mutually beneficial. There are specific individuals who benefited, but the two phenomena you described were overall harmful to both societies.
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Bump.
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Paul von Hindenberg was a pretty impressive person. One of the senior commanders in WW1, and he didn't seem too bad as president. The problem was, though, that he was so old when he became president, perhaps lacking in energy, which might've been why it was hard for him to stand up to Hitler, and of course, he eventually died and Hitler made full use of the occasion, merging the positions of president and chancellor, so that Hitler was both (although he used the title of "Leader", not "Chancellor").

How do Germans view him?

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Angela Merkel was in the British news yesterday (I think it was yesterday). It was something on Brexit, and a commentator was going on about how Germany was basically the European Union, which seemed like a pretty big exaggeration, but I can see why they said it.

Pax Germanica.

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Sunhawk posted...

Paul von Hindenberg was a pretty impressive person. One of the senior commanders in WW1, and he didn't seem too bad as president. The problem was, though, that he was so old when he became president, perhaps lacking in energy, which might've been why it was hard for him to stand up to Hitler, and of course, he eventually died and Hitler made full use of the occasion, merging the positions of president and chancellor, so that Hitler was both (although he used the title of "Leader", not "Chancellor").

How do Germans view him?

wut

Hitler was slapped down 2/3 times before he took power
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I know that, but eventually (obviously) it worked. And it was partly because von Hinderberg allowed it.

You know, we're slowly getting towards 420 posts in this topic. I guess Hitler would be pleased...if he hadn't been dead for about 70 years.

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Sunhawk posted...

I guess Hitler would be pleased

I honestly doubt Hitler would care about a topic on an obscure social board on a video game website, considering he had his hands full with leading a nation, but hey, I might be wrong again.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Sunhawk posted...

At least, for the first decade or so, they allowed people to leave East Germany, if they wanted. Plenty of people went to West Germany, which was a civilised and independent country.

The part nobody wants to admit, is that the Berlin Wall was mutually beneficial.

Anyone productive was leaving the east, causing a severe brain-drain and undermining socialism.
People from the west would hop over and buy stuff from heavily-subsided stores, undermining capitalism.

Absolutely true, but it was doing quite the opposite for capitalism. For the people living in East Berlin, they'd see people with the spending power to come to where they live and be very well off in comparison. On top of that, subsidizing the cost of goods is something that market based economies regularly do, whether it be by tax breaks, tariffs, price controls, wars, etc, and tax rates were really high in the US coming out of WWII as well. With such a depressed economy in East Berlin and a lack of real GDP production, or rather a lack of revenue, from what was produced, the SD curves for them would dictate deflated costs.

And that's why the Soviets hated it so much. It was making their economy look bad, especially because of how dilapidated the infrastructure was when the Westerners would come over. That said, they needed that fucking money and that's why they would allow some access, but it also allowed them to kidnap some of our people as well.

Sativa_Rose posted...

Questionmarktarius posted...

The part nobody wants to admit, is that the Berlin Wall was mutually beneficial.

It wasn't actually mutually beneficial. There are specific individuals who benefited, but the two phenomena you described were overall harmful to both societies.

Would you mind expanding on this?
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Here's something interesting discovered about von Hindenberg.

You know that stupid "stab in the back" theory that Hitler and some others believed, that Germany had somehow been betrayed by its own leadership in WW1, and that's why they surrended? von Hinderberg believed it as well. I mean, he seemed like a pretty intelligent guy, and not mentally ill like Hitler quite possibly was, and yet he still believed it.

I guess after a huge defeat, I suppose people need a way to rationalise it, so they can cope. Still seems farfetched, though.

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TarElessar posted...

Sunhawk posted...

I guess Hitler would be pleased

I honestly doubt Hitler would care about a topic on an obscure social board on a video game website, considering he had his hands full with leading a nation, but hey, I might be wrong again.

"Again". At least he admits it.

CE isn't obscure, though, at least by GameFAQs standards. It's still probably the most active of the social boards, and pretty busy in general. And GF is still a reasonably major website, but not like in the 2000s obviously.

Hitler probably wouldn't play video games, though, even if he did live in the present day. He would think they were an indulgence, and "not worthy of a true German citizen". I can already imagine the rhetoric, and how he would put it into his speeches.

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@teepan95
@ALIEN_WORK2HOP

Is The Final Days of Sophie Scholl worth watching? I didn't know what it was / who she was until recently, but it looks like an interesting film.

You know, I've wanted to watch The Lives of Others for quite a while, but the only version I found didn't have subtitles, which was kinda a problem. Shame, it looks like a good film.

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TarElessar posted...

Sunhawk posted...

I guess Hitler would be pleased

I honestly doubt Hitler would care about a topic on an obscure social board on a video game website, considering he had his hands full with leading a nation, but hey, I might be wrong again.

What a weird thing to think about anyways lol
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Any texts that are good on the German language and culture?
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Never seen that film

I'm not really into German cinema
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teepan95 posted...

Never seen that film

I'm not really into German cinema

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I just saw it, I thought it was good. Plenty of interesting scenes, and it's usually nice to see a film about someone who resists against a bad society.

teepan, ALIEN, is German cinema not that big in Germany, then? Do Germans mostly follow a steady diet of American films, the latest stuff from Hollywood?

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Bump.
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We have a lot of german films and shows, but most of them are crap imo. The best stuff is still from Hollywood.
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I'm not much of a film guy anyway. I tend to stick to box office hits over films with supposed artistic merit
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"Supposed artistic merit"? You sound like 80% of the people on CE. They don't want to watch any dirty films, just easy to consume, actiony, partly CGI, lots of bad jokes every scene, movies and popcorn flicks.
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I say supposed cause I'm not in a position to judge for myself, so I have to go by the judgment of others

It wasn't a knock on artistic films. I'm just a filthy casual
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Why aren't you in a position to judge it yourself? Don't you have a brain, and opinions?
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Everyone has different taste Sunhawk
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Sunhawk posted...

Why aren't you in a position to judge it yourself? Don't you have a brain, and opinions?

Not when it comes to artistic merit in films, no
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Alpha218 posted...

Everyone has different taste Sunhawk

I'm not sure if I approve of that.

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You know, even after Wilhelm II left office, and still entertained hopes that the monarchy would one day be restored. He thought the 2 leaders of the Weimar Republic might do it, and later, Hitler. Thankfully, it didn't happen. He just live in some European country for a few years, and then died. The Netherlands, I think. Pretty bad leader.
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Bump.
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@SchoolForAnts
@pinky0926
@jeffhardyb0yz

Do any of you have anything to say about Germany?

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Why would they have anything to say about Germany? Genuinely curious why you tagged them lol
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Sunhawk posted...

@SchoolForAnts
@pinky0926
@jeffhardyb0yz

Do any of you have anything to say about Germany?

I plan to go to berlin soon and part of that experience will involve an outrageous SEX party

what do you think about that
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I can't tell if you're joking or not, but I suspect you're not.
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