German - the Angry Language

Let me start with a story...

I served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the beautiful country of Germany from 2010 - 2012. Upon my return, I was asked on many occasions to "say something in german." After responding to such requests I would receive looks of disappointment and distaste. "That doesn't sound like German," they would say. In all fairness, one could argue that my accent is terrible or that I can't get a strong enough roll in the back of my throat for the Rs. This never seemed to be an issue, however. What bothered people the most was that I never spoke angry enough. As if to say that all German speakers spoke with an angry tone in their voice...

It is my theory that this preconceived notion of german speakers stems from the second World War and german propaganda. When one watches a german propaganda film such as Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph des Willens" (Triumph of the Will), what stands out the most are the rousing speeches from Hitler and the energetic responses from his followers. I won't deny that Hitler spoke similarly to how we as Americans would perceive german speakers in the video above. But this does not encompass the german people as  whole. Let's listen to Hitler for a second...

I can't tell you how many Hitler jokes I've heard from my peers when we talk about Germany. Yet you won't here anything like that in Germany itself. Of course pop culture feeds this trend as well. For a while, it was really popular on Youtube to take a clip from the movie "Downfall" and edit the subtitles to say something funny. I didn't post one of the funny ones due to foul language. But the clip looks something like this...

Everyone remembers the angry german kid on youtube. Again, for language reasons I will not post said video. It remains a fact that Americans have an unfair stereotypical image of German being an angry language. In all reality it is quite beautiful and from personal experience I can say that Germans rarely talk in this tone (unless you're trying to share a spiritual message). Through history we have established this image. Through pop culture we have strengthened this stereotype of German as being the angry language. Because of this stereotype, harmful images and associations of Hitler remain with the German people. This is to them a very sensitive subject that is quite offensive when addressed in the manner we as Americans find so amusing. This is a one sided story that does not leave a whole lot of room for other interpretation.