# German you learned from "Hogan's Heroes" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 15, 2017, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-you-learned-from-hogans-heroes/786614 "2017-05-15T00:25:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-you-learned-from-hogans-heroes/786614/21 "2017-05-15T23:29:03Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I also learned important French: Sacres chats! \*Viva le Colonel! \*and _Dirty Bosche!_ :mad: ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-you-learned-from-hogans-heroes/786614/22 "2017-05-15T23:30:13Z")
I \*\*own \*\*the \*Schatzi \*Toy Company! (“Little Treasure”) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-you-learned-from-hogans-heroes/786614/23 "2017-05-16T00:03:48Z")
From the pilot: _Herr Oberst, Sie mussen mir glauben!_ (“Colonel, you have to believe me!”) Here’s a fun idea: Name the most improbable actors ever to play Nazis on _ **Hogan’s Heroes** _. I nominate Gavin “Murray Slaughter” MacLeod and Harold “Martin Morgenstern” Gould. John “Dr Phillip ‘Bones’ Boyce” Hoyt comes in a close third. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-you-learned-from-hogans-heroes/786614/24 "2017-05-16T00:05:51Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > “Raus.” It means “out”. Schultz uses it when ushering them out of the barracks. And actually used IRL. When he was feeling nostalgic dad would wake us by banging on the wall and shouting, “Raus! Raus!” My kids didn’t like it either, but that’s what happens with family traditions. Not surprising how well-spelt the signs were, given the number of native German speakers in the cast. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-you-learned-from-hogans-heroes/786614/25 "2017-05-16T00:09:58Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > From the pilot: _Herr Oberst, Sie mussen mir glauben!_ (“Colonel, you have to believe me!”) > > Here’s a fun idea: Name the most improbable actors ever to play Nazis on _ **Hogan’s Heroes** _. > > I nominate Gavin “Murray Slaughter” MacLeod and Harold “Martin Morgenstern” Gould. > > John “Dr Phillip ‘Bones’ Boyce” Hoyt comes in a close third. And let’s not forget Dick “Mr Whipple” Wilson! 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-you-learned-from-hogans-heroes/786614/26 "2017-05-16T00:16:42Z")
Don’t forget the Russian they taught Schultz when they told him the Red Army was coming. “Tovarich” BTW, Ivan Dixon went on to direct a number of shows, including numerous episodes of “The Rockford Files” ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-you-learned-from-hogans-heroes/786614/27 "2017-05-16T00:38:15Z")
“eins”, “zwei”, “drei”, “vier”, “fünf”, “sechs”, etc… Counting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc… When Schulz would count the prisoners to report to Klink. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-you-learned-from-hogans-heroes/786614/28 "2017-05-16T00:38:21Z")
I remember hearing “Jawohl Mein Herr” all the time but in googling it translates to “Yes my Lord” which makes no sense. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-you-learned-from-hogans-heroes/786614/29 "2017-05-16T00:54:25Z")
I always assumed the German was quite accurate. Nearly all the actors playing Germans were native speakers, except for Hochstetter. Howard Caine was from Tennessee. IIRC Hilda didn’t even try a German accent. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-you-learned-from-hogans-heroes/786614/30 "2017-05-16T01:31:21Z")
Werner Klemperer was a German Jew who only agreed to play the part if “Klink never wins.” ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-you-learned-from-hogans-heroes/786614/31 "2017-05-16T01:48:28Z")
There may be a reason the recurring Gestapo officer was played by an American. The German actors may have turned it down. Playing a German in the Luftwaffe is different from Gestapo. Just a WAG on my part. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-you-learned-from-hogans-heroes/786614/32 "2017-05-16T03:04:48Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > From the pilot: _Herr Oberst, Sie mussen mir glauben!_ (“Colonel, you have to believe me!”) > > Here’s a fun idea: Name the most improbable actors ever to play Nazis on _ **Hogan’s Heroes** _. > > I nominate Gavin “Murray Slaughter” MacLeod and Harold “Martin Morgenstern” Gould. > > John “Dr Phillip ‘Bones’ Boyce” Hoyt comes in a close third. Somewhat similar is Bob Hastings (most famous for playing Lt Carpenter on “McHale’s Navy”) played a Russian pilot that the POWs found when they were outside the camp in their Allied uniforms. He wasn’t convinced they were Germans until Kinch asked him “Do I look like a German to you?”. Roger C Carmel played a German general on one episode. Harcourt Fenton Mudd a Nazi? It’s surprising that Kathleen Freeman was only on four episodes as Burkhalter’s sister. I would have thought once a month she dropped into camp to try to marry Klink. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-you-learned-from-hogans-heroes/786614/33 "2017-05-16T03:13:59Z")
Man the stalag 13 group must have a weird view of their position in life given they think Hitler himself has talked on the phone with them a few times and ‘visited’ at least once. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-you-learned-from-hogans-heroes/786614/34 "2017-05-16T03:21:41Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > Man the stalag 13 group must have a weird view of their position in life given they think Hitler himself has talked on the phone with them a few times and ‘visited’ at least once. Why wouldn’t Hitler call and drop by for a visit when he was in the neighborhood? There never was a successful escape from Stalag 13 and Klink was named Kommandant of the month and won a free trip to Paris (a plot to get Kinchloe to Paris because a former high school classmate is a spiritual medium to the commander of the German garrison there). ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-you-learned-from-hogans-heroes/786614/35 "2017-05-16T06:21:26Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > It’s surprising that Kathleen Freeman was only on four episodes as Burkhalter’s sister. I would have thought once a month she dropped into camp to try to marry Klink. She was replaced by Alice “Esmerelda” Ghostley, who was married to Felice “Lt Maurice DuBois of the French Resistance” Orlandi IRL. James “Lt Frank Luger” Gregory played General Biedenbender of the Luftwaffe. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-you-learned-from-hogans-heroes/786614/36 "2017-05-16T06:30:07Z")
> [@astro](#): > > I remember hearing “Jawohl Mein Herr” all the time but in googling it translates to “Yes my Lord” which makes no sense. In contemporary English, _Herr_ in this context is just “sir”: _Jawohl, mein Herr_ = Yes, (my good) sir. I don’t know if it’s used like this in the military; I would think they use the superior’s rank instead: _Jawohl, Herr Oberst_. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-you-learned-from-hogans-heroes/786614/37 "2017-05-16T06:38:48Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > You know for all the craziness that gets debated about Hogan’s Heroes…I never hear anything about the brave casting of Ivan Dixon. IRL, he probably never would have wound up in a _Luftstalag_, because there were no black bomber crew in the USAAF. His presence can be explained only if you assume he was captured in Italy as a radio operator for the 99th (“Tuskegee”/“Red Tails”) Squadron, which flew fighter aircraft. This would also explain why he was always in Army ground forces uniform. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-you-learned-from-hogans-heroes/786614/38 "2017-05-16T06:47:04Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Werner Klemperer was a German Jew who only agreed to play the part if “Klink never wins.” He was also much more than an actor. From Wiki: \ ***Early life** Klemperer was born in Cologne, Germany, to a musical family. His father was renowned conductor Otto Klemperer and his mother was soprano Johanna Geisler … The Klemperer family emigrated to the United States in 1935, settling in Los Angeles, where Otto Klemperer took up work as a conductor… [Werner] Klemperer was also a violinist and an accomplished concert pianist. He broadened his acting career by performing as an operatic baritone and a singer in Broadway musicals. He can also be heard as the Speaker in Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder, in a 1979 live performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.\* ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-you-learned-from-hogans-heroes/786614/39 "2017-05-16T06:53:31Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > There may be a reason the recurring Gestapo officer was played by an American. > > The German actors may have turned it down. Playing a German in the Luftwaffe is different from Gestapo. > > Just a WAG on my part. **Fun Fact:** Howard Caine played the bartender in the live TV version of _ **Marty** _ with Rod Steiger, Betsy Palmer, and Nancy “Mrs Pynchon”/“Livia Soprano” Marchand. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-you-learned-from-hogans-heroes/786614/40 "2017-05-16T14:01:55Z")
> [@astro](#): > > I remember hearing “Jawohl Mein Herr” all the time but in googling it translates to “Yes my Lord” which makes no sense. “Mein Herr” is a formal way of saying sir. However, it would have been more realistic to use the military title: “Jawohl, Herr Oberst” when speaking to Col. Klink, for example. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-you-learned-from-hogans-heroes/786614.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-you-learned-from-hogans-heroes/786614.md?page=3)