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What Germans Are Reading

the-american-interest.com

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Re: What Germans Are Reading

#51

Post by RandomBookmarks »

s9w wrote: post #32
DanielleMolloy wrote: post #12

As far as I know the Spiegel list, which has a lot of media and book shop presence does not count Amazon. The GfK in German has an exklusive deal with Amazon for data, and they do not deliver the Spiegel list data. The Spiegel list also uses an additional voting scheme among their journalists. I have found the Spiegel list a bit weird for years, it contains a lot of highly light reading or polemic stuff like that guy…

Also the Spiegel list removes books it doesn't like. https://www.welt.de/kultur/article167043384/Spiegel-verteidi...

Please be accurate. Correct would be: They removed a book they consider anti-semitic. That is quite different from what you stated.

But great to include the source.

Re: What Germans Are Reading

#52

Post by watwut »

raxxorrax wrote: post #24
qwsxyh wrote: post #3

> Michael Winterhoff’s Deutschland Verdummt claims that German children today “have no tolerance for frustration, and they avoid all exertion.” By the time they graduate, half of them still “have the psyche of a small child.” The author of eight previous books on childhood development, Winterhoff’s primary concern is that children today have become “tyrants.” They don’t know proper boundaries; they have not been taug…

You can probably release this book every 30 years or so and have a bot replace contemporary parts and jargon. He says that the development of children is negatively affected by adults, who lack authority by elevating children to their level. Information technology had further enabled children to fortify this power imbalance. Maybe he has a point, but as a psychologist for children you probably get a warped image afte…

It is perfectly possible for younger generation to be less capable in something, to be more violent then previous generation and so on. And these developments can be objectively measured too.

Kids who are being raised in communism are bound to behave differently then the ones who are being raised for capitalism/democracy. For that matter, generation that grew pre-WWII and during it was raised completely differently and towards different values too - especially in Germany. They were in fact taught to obey much more. You was not in fact supposed to think for yourself, while in todays world it is more of an advantage.

The real question is how much of this complain is "real" and how much is just politics to push for changes author would like. And how much of what is real change is bad and how much is actually adaptation to more competitive more free world.

Re: What Germans Are Reading

#53

Post by jcbrand »

jotm wrote: post #44
epaga wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may be mistaking "kontrolliert werden" for "being controlled" when it actually means "being checked". Reminds me of when American friends were SHOCKED by a political poster that quipped "Vertrauen ist gut, Kontrolle ist besser" - they thought it meant "Trust is good, control is better", but it actually means "Trust is good, but checking things is better"

Wait until they hear the German national anthem (well, the first verse) :D

I assume you're referring to "Deutschland über alles" (Germany over everything).

It's no longer the first verse due to the Nazi history, but it doesn't come from that time.

It actually comes from the mid 1800s (IIRC) when Germany didn't exist as a unified state. People lived in many different kingdoms and principalities and many yearned for a German state.

The anthem comes from this time and this line is supposed to mean that Germany is preferable to the various smaller states of that time.

Source: "Germany, memories of a nation" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23113270-germany

Re: What Germans Are Reading

#54

Post by bhaak »

chalst wrote: post #36
bhaak wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also gets never old to tell that this quote is most likely not from Socrates. But you know that already, don't you? What we know from Socrates, this doesn't sound like something he would have said. Although, having done no writings of his own, we have two main sources for his life. But then again, Plato often put his own words into Socrates' mouth and this is something Plato could have said. :-)

Cf. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/01/misbehave/

Thank you. I didn't know we know the actual source.

I only knew of some leads back to the 50s or 60s.

Re: What Germans Are Reading

#55

Post by usrusr »

martin_a wrote: post #39
DanielleMolloy wrote: post #12

As far as I know the Spiegel list, which has a lot of media and book shop presence does not count Amazon. The GfK in German has an exklusive deal with Amazon for data, and they do not deliver the Spiegel list data. The Spiegel list also uses an additional voting scheme among their journalists. I have found the Spiegel list a bit weird for years, it contains a lot of highly light reading or polemic stuff like that guy…

I think the Spiegel list also does not count total sales but relative sales over a time span, so you can become a "best seller author" with rather low sales numbers, when everybody has sold only few books. Strange system.

So in a month with slow book sales, you'd prefer to see best sellers replaced with least bad sellers? But the term "best" is relative, absolutely!

Re: What Germans Are Reading

#56

Post by mbeex »

RandomBookmarks wrote: post #51
s9w wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also the Spiegel list removes books it doesn't like. https://www.welt.de/kultur/article167043384/Spiegel-verteidi...

Please be accurate. Correct would be: They removed a book they consider anti-semitic. That is quite different from what you stated. But great to include the source.

That's their reasoning. Which doesn't mean at all that he's not right. In case of doubt read the book.

Re: What Germans Are Reading

#57

Post by jotm »

jcbrand wrote: post #53
jotm wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait until they hear the German national anthem (well, the first verse) :D

I assume you're referring to "Deutschland über alles" (Germany over everything). It's no longer the first verse due to the Nazi history, but it doesn't come from that time. It actually comes from the mid 1800s (IIRC) when Germany didn't exist as a unified state. People lived in many different kingdoms and principalities and many yearned for a German state. The anthem comes from this time and this line is supposed to…

Yes, yes, I got that explanation.

But the first time a foreigner hears it, it sounds a lot like "Germany over everyone in the world", which can carry the implication :P

Re: What Germans Are Reading

#58

Post by luckylion »

LeanderK wrote: post #50
ekianjo wrote: post #40

Besides the obvious sampling issue (The Spiegel as a reference), not sure there anything interesting in that list, because it's a reflection of: - What is published in the German language (much smaller than in the English corpus) - What is published at all (choices from local publishers) - What matches the political/media agenda of the day/year: people are well known to read about the topics that is being talked abou…

I am not sure what your comment is suggesting? Literally the third sentence is: > Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series looking at the books, authors, and ideas capturing the zeitgeist in various countries this summer. Isn't capturing the zeitgeist exactly trying to understand what's occupying the thoughts of a country? Also I think you're greatly exaggerating the speed of "fashion". These are all issues we ha…

> since the refugee crisis it's one of the main themes of political discourse.

That's very recent, so it may be fashion, who knows whether tolerance & diversity will still be a major topic in 2025.

From my personal experience, education is a big topic, but mostly top-down. It's in politics, it's in the media, it's in literature, but it's not like average parents discuss the education system a lot. They're involved with details, but I've never witnessed a discussion at dinner or a party about the education system (while it'll quickly go to politics, economics etc, and most of my friends have children of school age).

Re: What Germans Are Reading

#59

Post by zuuow »

RandomBookmarks wrote: post #51
s9w wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also the Spiegel list removes books it doesn't like. https://www.welt.de/kultur/article167043384/Spiegel-verteidi...

Please be accurate. Correct would be: They removed a book they consider anti-semitic. That is quite different from what you stated. But great to include the source.

Both are correct. They removed a book they didn't like because they considered it to be anti-semitic. They are not exclusive.

Re: What Germans Are Reading

#60

Post by rexgallorum2 »

ekianjo wrote: post #37

My German is rusty but: > Toleranz: Einfach Schwer (Tolerance Isn’t Easy) is an improper translation. That's "Tolerance: Simply Difficult" and that translates fine in English too since you can keep the same style while being accurate.

'Tolerance Isn’t Easy' is okay, freely translated. The trouble with translating it literally is that you lose the wordplay. 'Einfach' means both 'easy' and 'simple'. 'Tolerance: Easy and Difficult' is even more exact, but sounds kind of stupid in English, so I would prefer the original.
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