Two elements of German grammar that give difficulties to non-native speakers are indirekte Rede (reported speech, a device which does not exist in English), and the conditional mode. Hmm. Is that why I had no problem understanding the folks in Zurich when they called on the phone (they all spoke English either pretty well or very well), but when they'd send a fax in English I'd have to stand there scratching my head and wondering "what on earth are they trying to tell me here in this word puzzle? "
However, said Wilhelm, it was questionable whether the name Hitler should have been mentioned.
English and German are a lot alike in some of their expressions. When I read "However it is questionable whether the name Hitler would have had to fall", I remembered a conversation with a German friend, who what said "They should never have let fall the name of ____" (different person but similar context), and I pondered that one for a second and realized he was essentially talking about the concept of name-dropping Shouldn't have dropped/let fall the name. In other words, bad idea to mention it.
He said that this [incident] was in fact "a major gaffe" and an "unfortunate statement" possibly forming an "ignominious pinnacle" of the anti-Americanism that had been a common theme in politics for the past two weeks.
I never would have figured that out. It's awkward even when accurately translated.
She went on to say that now that the chancellor was talking of a "German way", the peace movement was faced with the situation of having to tell the government that it was "speaking with an anti-American tone".
Boy, I bet that rubs the peace movement the wrong way.
Hänsel said that the conflict had to be resolved in a civilian and civil way, not a German way.
I don't think she knows how funny that was :D.
She stressed the need to strengthen the UN internationally against U.S. unilateralism. However, she claimed that this intention had been thwarted "in the last two wars [Kosovo and ...? - tictoc], in which Ms. Frau Däubler-Gmelin had no problem with either the U.S. president or the U.S. legal system".
Now, when she mentioned the last two wars, I was sure she meant World Wars. Guess not.
You're right, Kosovo and what? Last Gulf War? And she thinks those were examples of US unilateralism?
Greens are just effin' weird...
Ms. Hansel is PDS, i.e., neocommunist, not Green. As I told tictoc, I think the "last two wars" are Kosovo and Afghanistan.
Thank you for your response, I always enjoy reading your comments.
Tomorrow's edition of Die Welt, a conservative German paper, includes this cartoon:
Herta says: "But I didn't mean it that way at all!"
More info on Schwaebisches Tagblatt, the local daily that broke the story, and its editor-in-chief:
The ST is a leftist paper and always supports the Red/Green (Red=social democrat) coalition government. Local people call it "Neckar Pravda" (the Neckar is the river that flows through Tübingen). Christoph Müller, its editor in chief, is an outspoken homosexual. It broke his heart to spill the beans on Herta... but like every journalist, he would kill for a scoop.