Once upon a time, there was a language so full of poetry and melodiousness that it moved people to tears. A language that was constantly refined by poets and thinkers. A language that came within a hair’s breadth of being spoken all over the world. But that was a long time ago – and is gone for good.
Today, German is a linguistic relic!
How on earth did it come to this, that our kids know who Babo is – but have no idea who Goethe was? Why aren’t we surprised when adverts tell us about Care Companies, Createurs d’Automobiles or Sense and Simplicity? And why on earth do we name our children Justin, Cheyenne or Jeremy?
Andreas Hock found answers to these and many other questions about the decline of our language – a decline that actually began hundreds of years ago and for which it’s not just Frederick the Great, Adolf Hitler or Helmut Kohl who are to blame. But all of us, mate!
