Michael Commane | Schüler

Listen to Michael Commane's recording here. 
Full transcript of the recording below. 

It was September 1971 that I first went through the doors of the Goethe-Institut in Dublin to begin my learning of German.

It was a long cycle from Tallaght to Merrion Square.The cycle home was uphill. And how often I did that cycle in the rain and dark, and against the wind too.
Anyone who has learned German will know that the beginning stages of grammar are difficult. Seven different words for the definite article. Can you imagine how difficult that makes it?  The word for girl is neuter gender, health is feminine, while some rivers are feminine and others masculine. Many Germans have no idea what gender the River Liffey is. But if you dig deep enough, there is a logic behind it all, at least most of it.

If you have lost me, never mind, that’s enough about German grammar.

I am told by the people who know, that if you want to study philosophy, theology, music, engineering, then knowing something about the German language is a great help. The works of Goethe and Schiller are universally recognised as great literature. Then there’s Hegel and Marx. Röntgen discovered the X-Ray. And what about the Augustinian friar from Eisleben, church reformer, Martin Luther?
The current German climate minister Robert Habeck is a well known German writer and translator of English poetry into German.

I have never understood how a country that has been known as the land of ‘Dichter und Denker’, the land of poets and thinkers, could have ever allowed Hitler to happen. Indeed, it is a perpetual warning for all of us.
It so happens that on this day, February 2nd 1943, the Germans surrendered to the Red Army at Stalingrad, now Volgograd. The five month battle cost close to two million lives.  It was the first major defeat for Hitler's army and indeed is now recognised as a significant turning point in World War II. Russia has always felt that the West has never appreciated the importance of what happened on the River Volga and the sacrifice made by its people.
As the current Ukranian-Russian crisis unfolds, it is interesting to watch how Germany is reacting.
Because of Hitler and the terrible atrocities committed by the Germans on Ukrainian and Russian soil, the country is today feeling profoundly vexed and nervous, asking how it can now help the grandchildren and great grandchildren of those it brutalised and murdered. Today’s Germany is a bulwark of democracy and a country that abides by the rule of law.