[Publius]

If you look at German history during the Thirty Years War (1618-48), you’ll understand why.

[AnAmericanMother]

Eh, the French have just as much Debatable Ground and conflict from the Hundred Years War as the Germans in the Thirty (and they weren't even one country until Bismarck - Holy Roman Empire doesn't count).

Must be something in the German temperament - a fatalism combined with unhealthy interest in the supernatural. It's in Grimm's Tales as well (the ones that never get published in the collections for children - but my kids loved them. They wanted the story about the naughty child who wouldn't lie quiet in his grave OVER and OVER again. Their dad is more German than I am, but there's some on our side.)

I think it's more prevalent in the North than in the South - the Bavarians I find much easier to understand.