The Secret Catholic Insider Guide
to Germany
From the Editor
Beverly Stevens
Today, Germany is a world-beater. Beautiful cars, sculpted landscapes, sparkling clean cities, a social welfare system that provides for all -- Germany, the pariah of the world after World War II, was in 2013 voted the most admired nation on the planet.
Such amazing success is heady stuff indeed for the three generations since Hitler who have rebuilt this war-torn land with a traumatized population and a Marshall plan.
German Language and Ideology
ermans and their culture are often misunderstood, perhaps due to their
difficult language and idiosyncratic culture. Linguists have long noted that the German language allows for precision in a way almost impossible to imagine in English or the Romance languages. For this reason, in the 18th and 19th centuries, German was considered to be the 'best' scientific language. (Full disclosure: Although I am a New Yorker, I speak German fluently, having been raised with it as my first language.)
The German language is also key to understanding the Germans' love of ideas -- good, bad or indifferent. From Luther to Marx to Freud, from Heidegger to Nietzsche to Hitler, Germany's history is full of men of ideas who have vastly influenced the world. Ideas of course often quickly lead to ideologies -- the Nazis amply demonstrated the destructive power of an ideology
fervently embraced.
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