Drat this German tongue.

Lego Mark Twain

My blog was read five times by someone in Germany! I was so excited to share my experiences, travels and stories with someone in Germany…unfortunately they stopped reading it. If they do come back, I feel it is my obligation to tell them Mark Twain was not a Germanophile.

Clemens traveled to Germany in 1878 with the hope of finding inspiration and a peaceful place to write. Upon arrival in Germany, he marveled at the beauty of the Rhine Valley but the charm of Germany eventually wore off. He did write 2,041 pages of A Tramp Abroad during his time away but included an appendix titled “The Awful German Language”. Below are list of Twain’s grievances while staying in Germany!

The German language:

Some of the words are so long that they have perspective.

Sounds of Germany:

The hatefulest thing in the world is a cuckoo clock.

I hate the very name of opera – partly because of the nights suffering I have endured in its presence, & partly because I want to love it and can’t.

Drat this stupid yodeling.

Church bells are usually hateful things…still that ringing goes on. I wish to God the church would burn down.

Baden –Baden:

See Naples and then die. – but endeavor to die before you see B.B.

Random FYI – The cuckoo bird lays its eggs in other bird’s nest. If the other bird removes the cuckoo’s eggs, the cuckoo takes revenge. Oliver Wendell Holmes once compared Americans to the cuckoo bird. “We Americans are all cuckoos. We make our homes in the nest of other birds.”

*This information can be found on pages 418-419 of Mark Twain: A Life by Ron Powers.