The German Question, Part One Hundred Fifty-Eight

"German Contributions to the World" ("German" in the broad sense, not all were from Germany, but some were born in Austria-Hungary or Switzerland.)

Everyone should already know about German contributions to music, especially "classical music," so I'll just mention some names to refresh memories:* Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn (Bartholdy), Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Johann Strauss, Franz Schubert, (Franz) Joseph Haydn. Further, Wilhelm Furtwängler was a composer, but he was better known as a long time symphony conductor, and I'm sure you can still buy music conducted by him (he died in the 1950s).** Likewise for Otto Klemperer, another renowned conductor.*** Besides classical music, people like Marlene Dietrich, a singer and actress, and 1980s pop music star "Nena" ("99 Balloons") are well known. For "rock" fans, "The Scorpions" are from Germany.

In art, Paul Klee and Albrecht Dürer come to mind, and Klee was born in the German part of Switzerland. In Philosophy Immanuel Kant, Georg Friedrich Hegel, and Friedrich Nietzsche are all well known. Writers Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Günter Grass, Hermann Hesse, Thomas Mann, Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm ("The Brothers Grimm"),**** Heinrich Heine, Erich Maria Remarque (best known for "All Quiet On The Western Front"), Friedrich Schiller.

In film (and television), both acting or directing, I already mentioned Marlene Dietrich, and there was Otto Preminger, Fritz Lang, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Klemperer & (Johann) "John" Banner (both of "Hogan's Heroes"), Romy Schneider, Billy Wilder, Maximilian Schell, Bertholt Brecht (playwright). Leni Riefenstahl is recognized as a ground-breaking filmmaker, but she is controversial, due to her close association with Hitler.

In science, Wernher von Braun, who came to America after World War Two, is noted for rocket development.***** German engineering produced the great "Panther" tank, which actually took some design features from the Soviet T-34 tank. And most of you have undoubtedly heard of the famous "Tiger" tank. Its reputation was so "ferocious," it had an impact on the battlefield even when it was not present, as Allied soldiers tended to call any German tank a "Tiger."

* Remember, Austria was THE leading German state for centuries, so just as the now two separate countries share a common history until more recent times, some composers can also been seen as "shared," or "German" sense. Further, this list of names is not meant to name EVERY German composer or musician, artist, philosopher, etc, by any stretch of the imagination.

** Furtwängler is controversial, however, not for his music or conducting, but rather for his association with the Nazis, although he successfully later fled to Switzerland during the war.

*** He is the father of actor Werner Klemperer, mentioned above, who was famous as television's "Colonel Klink" in the comedy "Hogan's Heroes." Conductor Otto Klemperer was Jewish, who converted to Catholicism and returned to Judaism late in his life. He was married to a singer who was Lutheran; thus, their son Werner was part Jewish. The family left Germany not long after Hitler came to power and they soon came to the United States. John (real name, "Johann") Banner, who played "Sergeant Schultz" in the same comedy series, was born in Vienna. Banner, who was Jewish, fled to the United States when Hitler annexed Austria.

**** The Grimms also did much work in linguistics and etymology ("history of words," hmm).

***** The Germans developed a number of things for war, unfortunately often for the Nazis, but like it or not, war is a part of mankind, and weapons are therefore important. They developed the "Buzz Bombs," so called in England because of the buzzing sound their engine made, which were propelled aircraft with bombs in a warhead. Also known as the "V-1" rocket (V=Vergeltungswaffe; that is, "retaliation weapon"), it was followed by the far more elaborate missile the V-2, the actual forerunner to today's spacecraft and yes, today's intercontinental ballistic missiles. Both the Western Allies and the Soviets wanted to get their hands on the German scientists who helped develop these weapons, and fortunately, many were captured by the West. These Germans were so noted, in the TV sitcom "Get Smart," of the 1960s, in one episode at a rocket launch, all of the instructions are announced in both English and German, prompting someone to ask "Why in German too?" The answer comes back something to the effect that many "American" scientists understand German better than English.

WORD HISTORY:
Wax-This is the noun,^ meaning "material used for candles and substance made by bees." There is uncertainty about the ancient origins of this word, and I'm not really sold on any particular theory. It "could" be a Germanic invention, based upon the old verb form which meant "grow," with the idea of "the substance that 'grows' the honeycomb." Some non-Germanic eastern European languages have obvious forms of this word, but they are likely borrowings from Germanic (Lithuanian has "vaškas" and Polish has "wosk," for example). Anyway, Old Germanic had "wahksan," and this then gave Anglo-Saxon (Old English) "weax," which then became "wax." Common in the other Germanic languages: German has "Wachs," Low German Saxon has "Wass," Dutch has "was," West Frisian has "waaks," Norwegian and Danish have "voks," Swedish has "vax," and Icelandic has "vaks."

^ See Part 156 of this series for the old verb form "wax."