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Is it true, that german people are too serious?

In addition to our school project: ,,humor around the globe“, I‘m going to present you some facts about the Germans and their sense of humor. The informations are from an interview from ,,FOCUS Online“, a german news website, with the expert Rainer Stollmann.

German people have the reputation, that they´re too serious and this is still the view of the world on Germany and why nobody tries German comedy. But where does this reputation come from? A lot of people think that stereotypes rely on the reality and when you look at the german culure, you can see that it´s more about romance and pain than about fun, which you can also see in the tales. Their culture is very important so that it still influences the people. Even the first cartoons, that were meant to be funny, have mainly serious aspects and are not meant for comedy. Moreover the literature is more likely to be romantic with a tragic end. But german people do know international comedy ,like Charlie Chaplin a famous comedian, even better than other nations.

Relying on the expert, Rainer Stollmann, germans should try to mix humor and seriousness to overcome the stereotypes and to have more fun in general. As a german I don´t think that we´re to serious but I agree that the german culture is taken very firmly and that we should be more humorous about it. I hope you liked my article and please review on the topic, wether you think germans are too serious or not.

Kristin

German Humour

For our school project on humour around the globe, I have decided to give some Information on German humour, being from Germany myself. I base this blog entry on an interview by FOCUS online with Rainer Stollmann an expert on the topic of humour.

To the question of whether Germans are humourless or not is easy to answer. Yes, they are. Stereotypes are often based in reality; Germans are not comedians they are romantics. That is the epoch that shaped Germany the most. To this day the most beloved classics in literature and music are serious and not humorous. Even though there are comedians from the 19th century such as Wilhelm Bush who is one the inventors of the cartoon most of his work is not funny but rather pedantic. Which can be seen in a lot of works from that time. While works from Shakespear often can be interpreted as a tragedy or comedy without disrupting the source material. German classics are either a comedy or a tragedy. To add to that there are only two classic works of classic literature in German history: “Minna von Barnhelm” by Lessing and “Der zerbrochene Krug” by Kleist. The first real comedies in Germany’s pop culture were fairy tales these were 500 years ago considered to be comedic. The most famous fairy tale writers: the Grimm brothers. They set themselves apart by giving their stories naive and innocent, romantic one could say. That is the typical “Grimm-Sound” but it also took away that comedic element that fairy tales were supposed to have. But that was 500 years ago today there are many comedians such as Otto Waalkes, Loriot, Helge Schneider and many more Satire papers. Because of the Stereotype of the unfunny German no one knows about the comedic potential that we have to offer. On the contrary German audiences are very familiar with international comedians. The likes of Charlie Chaplin, Mr Bean, and Monty Python are well-known all-around Germany.

So, does that mean that Germans are not that unfunny? Well, Loriot answered that question once he said that Germans draw a line between humour and seriousness. In other words, they are waiting for a signal to laugh. Loriot found that unfortunate and hoped that they would mix humour and their seriousness a bit more.

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Do Germans have any sense of humor ?

Today ´s topic is if Germans are humorous at all or not and what are the reasons for it. I, as a German student abroad at this school, find it really interesting to join the project “Humor around the globe” and to exchange ideas with you guys.

As far as I´m concerned it all starts with the history of Germany. But does this justify the stereotype of Germans and their seriousness? Somehow it really does. Around the end of the 18th century until into the 19th century was the aera of “ Romance” in Germany, which was mainly spread in europe countries. It decribes the values of longing and world pain in the past which affected several areas in the German culture like the music, the philosophy and the German literature. Overall everything in this aera was somehow connected with seriousness. An example for that are the tales written from brothers Grimm like “snow white” or “sleeping beauty”, which have a negative touch and are mostly without humor. If you don´t know those just let me give you an example for that. Do you expect toxic apples, bad stepmothers or a 100 years long sleep as a birthday present in a fairy tale for children? I guess you don´t, but it relates to the aera of romance.

But that´s not all. Some other experts comment on this question that Germans are very serious because they had a different development in comparison to other countries like France, which became a nation in a political way or England in an economical way. Germany instead sticks to its culture to form a nation and that´s probably one of the reasons why they are really serious when it comes to their culture.

Another point is that, because of the prejudices that Germans are humorless other nations don´t interest for the German comedy. In comparison to that the average audience in Germany knows apparently the most international comedians.

Just to sum up, it becomes clear that Germans are sometimes prejudices that they are not funny , what is related to their past. But in this question if Germans are humorous I agree with the statement from Loriot, who once said that Germans do like to laugh as much as other nation do, but they seperate humor and seriousness too much and wait for a signal if it´s appropriate to laugh. Instead Germans should learn to mix seriousness and humor. I think it is also a great advice for anyone. So how do you think about it, can you agree with it or do have another opinion ?

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Is it true that Germans are humorless?

Some countries have prejudices against Germany because of the assumption that Germans would not understand fun. The expert Rainer Stollmann is going to substantiate the given prejudices.

First of all he starts with the explanation that Germans are humorless because of the epoch of romantic. Other cultures didn’t know about the epoche .One important term of the epoche is ‘’yearning’’. That term means that people didn’t enjoy to laugh. It is clear that this time is 200 years ago, but it is still a trade-marke of the German culture.

Then the interviewer starts to ask Stollmann about the humourists of the 19th century. Stollmann counters on this with telling about the stuffiness of the humourists works. He mentions that there are only two comedy versions.

Later on Rainer Stollmann talks about ‘’Grimmschen’’ fairytales. All that time fairytales were stories to laugh. They were like jokes today. But these fairytales withdraw the joke by using naive things.

Than Stollmann talks about Loriot. He is also a pretty funny person, but the problem is that nobody knows him. Loriot also says that the German people split serious and humour . He also mentions that Germans should mix these two qualities.

All in all is to say that Germans have a reason for their humourless. But it is also to say that they should mix their serious with their humour.

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Homework blog post Differences in humour

Every person has its own humour and each of us understand it in a different way. But there are myths and opinions about the German humour and why it is so different like the others. And I explain to you what is behind all these facts. So why are the Germans called humorless? Many people from other nations are shaped by prejudice and allegations which have evolved over the years. For example that they do not understand and like fun and that they are to serous for that. it is true that many Germans do not laugh much. But why? This has its origin in the era of romantic, where sensitive, soft, naive and thoughtful feelings formed the emotions of the German people. They wrote more texts about their longings and serious thoughts. And other nations do not really know that much about this season. So they did not understand the meaning of it and found it strange. These feelings of this time followed them into the presence and built the culture of Germany. Nevertheless there were many German people like authors and directors who created a special type of humour and who are known for this cultural aspect. An example for this are the ‘’ Grimm’s Märchen ‘’ which were written by the Gebrüder Grimm, who took on the feeling of these longings and the serious mind. Many of their self created stories had a sad ending and seriously actions, which in my opinion are not something for little kids. Because the content of the stories were mostly with an aggressive and depressive background for example the stories of Max and Moritz. Even though the German humour is different like the others, many people like this type of humour, because it is funny on its own way. Also to mention is that all nations had a beginning of their own humour in the past. Like that the French people have a political humour and the British ones an economic humour. But what you can laugh about does not depend on the nations because each one has its own humour they can laugh about and there is not any better one. To sum up the German humour might seem to be bourgeois and not funny, but it shows the Trademark of Germany and its culture.

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Do Germans even know humour?

Our school project humour around the globe needed someone to write about German humour and who would be better than me, the German exchange student. The base of my blog entry is an interview by ‘FOCUS Online’ with FOCUS-Online Expert Rainer Stollmann. Prejudices are usually not without a reference to the reality, as in the case of the Germans. I’m not saying we are completely humourless but our seriousness was born in the era of romance, which is not known in other countries. Our seriousness is the German trademark. Even our literature is serious Schiller and Goethe could never be interpreted as a comedy. Contrary to this Shakespear can be played as a tragedy or a comedy. We only have two comedies in the classic German advanced culture named “Mina von Barnheim” written by Lessing and “Der zebrochene Krug” by Kleist. Once upon a time fairy tales were something to laugh but the brothers Grimm made them to something serious, naive and romantic. Prejudices are the reason for other countries not knowing any comedians from Germany. However German people know comedy on an international level.

Conclusion is that Germans strictly separate humour and seriousness. I agree with Stollmann’s advice to sometimes laugh in serious moments to lighten up the atmosphere but we’re not that un hilarious, right? Don’t you agree?