It says, “Do you know what a ‘Bieber’ would be?”, although I would also give points for “…what a ‘Bieber’ is”.
Don’t be misled by the tall German S that looks like a lower-case “f” without the cross-bar. If you look at the handwriting in the Declaration of Independence you’ll see that we still used the tall-s in English back then, with the now-universal short-s used only for the end of words. But to the best of my knowledge, the Germans don’t use Fraktur (AKA Gothic) print anymore.
The German says, “Do you know what a Bieber is supposed to be? or just “Do you know what a Bieber is?”
Could go either way.
And the answer is, “I don’t want to know.”
As to the Fraktur, interestingly, they did not use it much in the latter half of the 19th or earlier part of the 20th Centuries, but the Nazi party revived it as being more purely German. I’m always a bit uncomfortable when I see it.
CD: Your “supposed to be” translation does better capture the “soll sein”. For a foreigner who’s never really lived there, my German is not bad, but I’ll never sound like a native.
As for Fraktur, I’ve seen many, many German books in Fraktur up to WWII and very few that weren’t. (The only one I can think of was published in America.) Then after their defeat Fraktur virtually disappeared. But I’m ready to believe the Nazi connection.
The main use of the Schwaben font (I would have used Blackletter but it’s unreadable at that size) is mainly to invoke the “German-ness” of the Tiny Little U-Boat.
…to be fair, (and I’m not a bieber fan) he later explained that due to the interviewer’s accent, he thought that the interviewer had asked about the meaning of the word “Jewman”, and even later said “we don’t use words like that”….for whatever that explanation is worth…
FYI, “Bieber” is not the german word for beaver (which would be “Biber”, ok, only one letter off the mark). There is no meaning to the word “Bieber” apart from names, places or rivers.
However, as a native german speaker my first thought was also “beaver”, insofar the reference to the WWII mini-submarine was not really wrong. BTW, todays german army does have a armoured vehicle-launched bridge called “Biber” and in contrast to the mini-sub it is not a pre-fab coffin…
ksoskins about 14 years ago
Leave it to Bieber.
grapfhics about 14 years ago
Good one, Sheik!
zero about 14 years ago
@homonylo - you are excused. My grasp of German grammar was a bit off too. Basically it’s something like - “Do you know who this Bieber is?”
…ich denke
pschearer Premium Member about 14 years ago
It says, “Do you know what a ‘Bieber’ would be?”, although I would also give points for “…what a ‘Bieber’ is”.
Don’t be misled by the tall German S that looks like a lower-case “f” without the cross-bar. If you look at the handwriting in the Declaration of Independence you’ll see that we still used the tall-s in English back then, with the now-universal short-s used only for the end of words. But to the best of my knowledge, the Germans don’t use Fraktur (AKA Gothic) print anymore.
cdward about 14 years ago
The German says, “Do you know what a Bieber is supposed to be? or just “Do you know what a Bieber is?”
Could go either way.
And the answer is, “I don’t want to know.”
As to the Fraktur, interestingly, they did not use it much in the latter half of the 19th or earlier part of the 20th Centuries, but the Nazi party revived it as being more purely German. I’m always a bit uncomfortable when I see it.
pschearer Premium Member about 14 years ago
CD: Your “supposed to be” translation does better capture the “soll sein”. For a foreigner who’s never really lived there, my German is not bad, but I’ll never sound like a native.
As for Fraktur, I’ve seen many, many German books in Fraktur up to WWII and very few that weren’t. (The only one I can think of was published in America.) Then after their defeat Fraktur virtually disappeared. But I’m ready to believe the Nazi connection.
Pab Sungenis creator about 14 years ago
The main use of the Schwaben font (I would have used Blackletter but it’s unreadable at that size) is mainly to invoke the “German-ness” of the Tiny Little U-Boat.
kfaatz925 about 14 years ago
Loved this one! Thanks, Pab.
rotts about 14 years ago
When written in cursive, it’s called “Deutsche schrift” (German script).
freeholder1 about 14 years ago
How come all the right wing guys know German? :-)
freeholder1 about 14 years ago
Beiber never learned concentration at his summer camp.
jadoo823 about 14 years ago
…to be fair, (and I’m not a bieber fan) he later explained that due to the interviewer’s accent, he thought that the interviewer had asked about the meaning of the word “Jewman”, and even later said “we don’t use words like that”….for whatever that explanation is worth…
The Old Wolf about 14 years ago
grapfhics about 14 years ago
Ganz gut!
Jungverdorben about 14 years ago
FYI, “Bieber” is not the german word for beaver (which would be “Biber”, ok, only one letter off the mark). There is no meaning to the word “Bieber” apart from names, places or rivers. However, as a native german speaker my first thought was also “beaver”, insofar the reference to the WWII mini-submarine was not really wrong. BTW, todays german army does have a armoured vehicle-launched bridge called “Biber” and in contrast to the mini-sub it is not a pre-fab coffin…