Sure. If you would be a German then you could for example understand this very wonderful yiddish song without any translation or transformation: http://youtu.be/Os5UeFjBFTs By the way: Carolus Magnus is the original - king Arthur is only like a kind of copy of his reality. It's also very astonishing that a kind of rememorial on his empire was able to create the European Union. The first six european nations France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands were even able to work together after hundreds of years of separations. I think he would smile about.
Charlesmagne or Karl der Große, he is father of the French, German and Italian naitons. All of these countries may claim them as there heritiage. Funny thing Charlesmagne grandfather was Charles Martel who stopped the Muslims back in 733? near Tours. So the French definately have a right to claim him. Charlesmagne himself had his government in Aachen and spent most of his life patrolling his kindom and killing germanic tribes. As emporer of the Holy Roman Empire the Italians can claim him to as one of many emperors who governed Italy, or parts of Italy. What can we say about flanders? They have french and german cultural ties to France or with Germany, so Charlesmagne is the forruner of the Europe that we have today.
He was just someone who tried to expand his territory. Do you call Attila the Hun King a forrunner of the Europe that we have today, too?
Volker, there are certain figures in history that are important centuries after there death. J.Christ is one, or even Karl Marx. Of course Karl der Großer was a killer, but who wasnt. If you look at the 21st century, man has changed much except for his choice of weapons. Some can certaily call Karl der Großer unifiery of Western Europe, others could call him a barbarian knight with lots of blood on his hands. Karl did more than kill german tribes, he sponsered education, the building of monataries and selected a unified case of writing. Anyways, I like him more than Bundeskanzlerin Angie Merkel.
I fear you don't know what your words are saying. Birds were not singing in the meadow of the birchs in Auschwitz. This place was to human for them. It was a place created from ignorant liars believing in their own idiocies and transported from the illusions of sick brains into reality. Not a good place for birds. Not the only place where the birds are not singing. Do you hear the birds here singing? Not? ... Hmmm ... http://youtu.be/ych7uO1dER0 http://youtu.be/FOzM8oJetAQ
all kings, knights, warriors, generals and soildiers murdered and killed, why are you picking on Charlie?
Yes, he was kinda educated himself, he could read and write, which was rather uncommon even for a king back then. The unifying Europe thing is kinda strange, I mean, he did not try to form an early European Union or had a vision about this, he mainly did, what other rulers at his time did at the same time. One thing is history and another thing is what Karlspreis commission members may try to make out of it. Really? I don't get this.
He had the reputation of being very brutal, this is what we learned in history lessons in school, clearly a bad guy in history. Newer research raises doubt about this image, but this is the image I grew up with. Sure I went to school in Saxonia, and killing Saxons is even more bad. Ok, we learned, that Saxonians are not Saxons in history lessons, too. A bit like Dracula, who has the image of being very brutal, even though he did not do much different than other rulers of his time. Dracula got his image mainly from Germans. Dracula was actually brutal, just like Karl der Grosse.
While I would not boast about it if I was German or German/American Pope Benedict XVI is not only German, but was in the Hitler youth.
German Swastika turns from left to right. Why do these photoshop fakers don't get simple things correct?
Well, Pope Benedict XVI does not even deny to have been in the Hitler Youth. It's not surprising that he was "as membership was required by law for all 14-year-old German boys after December 1939". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Benedict_XVI
The picture is a fake, in my opinion. It was not required by law for him, because he was older. It's just, his school needed money from the government and so they gave lists about all pupils joining. His family did not want him to change school because of this. It was more a paper thing anyway, this was a Catholic school.
Whatever you think, Volky. Maybe you should write a letter of concern to "Der Spiegel", because they used the very same picture and they have a reputation for thorough journalistic investigation to lose: http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,352861,00.html Of course that he was in the HJ does not necessarily mean that Ratzinger was a full-blooded Nazi, it just means that he was a normal German boy of his time. It would be pretty hard to find many German people of his generation who were not in the HJ or the BDM as boys and girls.
Did you read, what was written under this photo? Pflichtdienst im Jungvolk: Joseph Ratzinger als Flakhelfer auf einem Foto von 1943 Translation: Duty service in Jungvolk: Joseph Ratzinger as anti-aircraft gunner on a photo from 1943 So it's military uniform, not a HJ uniform and the part with the eagle and the turned German swastika is not included there. Yes, exactly this. The British yellow press tried to make something else of it, because it sells newspapers. It's not even, that they serve anti-German sentiments with it, they want a scandal people may be interested in.
Exactly, no reason to get upset about it, stop being a bloody kraut, lean back and enjoy the comedy-factor whenever the Sun mentions the war.
First: Every German was in the Hitler youth who was in his age. Second: That's only half of the truth in his special case because he went just simple home when he saw it's senseless what he's doing. You may call him a weakling or an hero - but for sure he never was a Nazi. I'm sure the Nazis would had killed him if their own desaster in the end of World War 2 would had not been so gigantic. Third: I'm also nearly sure you know very well thaz Joseph Ratzinger never in his life was Nazi. Everyone who likes to "demonstrate" that Pope Benedict is anNAzi (and all catholics are Nazsi) is in my eyes himselve an antichristian and anticatholic like a Nazi.
