Famous Germans – Franz Beckenbauer

Sven Mandel / CC-BY-SA-4.0

Today I thought we look at a different type of famous German, not an artist or author or inventor, but a former football player. And as it’s his birthday today it’s only fitting that we talk about Franz Beckenbauer, or ‘der Kaiser’ (the emperor), as he was nicknamed. Franz Beckenbauer was born on the 11th … Read more

German actors: Willy Millowitsch

German stage and TV actor Willy Millowitsch was born on the 8th January 1909. He had his own theatre, the Volkstheater Millowitsch in Cologne (now in the hands of his son Peter). For non Germans he was probably most known for his part in ‘National Lampoon’s European Vacation’ (German title ‘Hilfe, die Amis kommen’), but for … Read more

10 Martin Luther quotes in German and English

This month Germany is celebrating the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s reformation. Reformation Day is on the 31st October, the day, when in 1517 Luther nailed 95 theses onto the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. If you want to read them, they can be found here in German and here in English, but in … Read more

10 famous film quotes in German

You probably know some famous film quotes and maybe even like using them in conversation. But what about those quotes in German? Here are 10 of them.  Do you know the original sentences? “Ich bin Spartacus!” “Ich seh dir in die Augen, Kleines!” “Na los doch, make my day!” “Ich komme wieder” “Guten Morgen … und … Read more

German idioms with colours

  Yesterday I saw somebody with a black eye, which reminded me how we use idioms differently. In English, people have a black eye but in German they have a blue eye (ein blaues Auge). That gave me the idea for the following slide show. I hope I haven’t forgotten any interesting sentences or phrases … Read more

13 German idioms with drinks

Many years ago a friend gave me this little jar with chocolate drink as a present. The powder is not designed to be used for a drink. Instead, the jar contains ‘Kakao, durch den Sie andere ziehen können’ – ‘cocoa, through which you can pull others’. That translation, of course, doesn’t make any sense, because … Read more

German idiom – einen Kater haben

Having been away for a few days I only just got the chance to read the Christmas edition of the German magazine Stern when the above advert caught my eye. It was advertising the Christmas Day film ‘Der gestiefelte Kater’ (Puss in Boots) with the sentence ‘Haben Sie Weihnachten auch ‘nen (that’s short for ‘einen’) Kater? … Read more

German idiom – wo sich Fuchs und Hase gute Nacht sagen

  This German  idiom  ‘wo sich Fuchs und Hase gute Nacht sagen’ has been written especially for Vicky, who said, she lived there  😉   Wo sich fuchs und hase gute nacht sagen from Angelika Davey EDIT: If you don’t want to click the slides, you can now also watch it as a video:

German Idiom – den Wald vor lauter Bäumen nicht sehen

  While going for a long walk the other day I suddenly had the idea of introducing German idioms with photos. As I had already taking quite a few pictures that day, the first idiom was an easy choice. Have a look: I thought this is a good example for idioms. Although this time the … Read more

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