# I say "Germany." What's the first thing you think of? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 24, 2012, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-say-germany-whats-the-first-thing-you-think-of/610507 "2012-01-24T16:24:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-say-germany-whats-the-first-thing-you-think-of/610507/101 "2012-01-25T16:23:16Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > I think of shiny black leather. Zooming out the leather turns into the foot of a black leather riding boot. Out further it is a long, slender, mid thigh-length boot attached to what I’m almost certain is a woman in a matching black-leather teddy with a 10’ whip hanging limply at her(?) side. She’s got a very pale face and crimson lipstick highlighting a derisive sneer. She is wearing a matching service cap. She says, “_Bad_ American!” There is a sharp report from the whip and I cry furiously into a ball gag, my hands cuffed securely behind me. I pay her in Trident Layers gum. Wow. Um… would you PM me her phone number, please? > [@Isamu](#): > > Fucking. > > But that’s actually in Austria. Anyway, my answer is still fucking. Ask me again tomorrow. I think we all know what your answer is going to be. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-say-germany-whats-the-first-thing-you-think-of/610507/102 "2012-01-25T16:44:30Z")
Penalty kicks. As in “always beating us on …” ---
**Author:** ![Aeris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Aeris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeris)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-say-germany-whats-the-first-thing-you-think-of/610507/103 "2012-01-25T17:28:46Z")
Food. Good food. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-say-germany-whats-the-first-thing-you-think-of/610507/104 "2012-01-25T17:57:27Z")
Lederhosen. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-say-germany-whats-the-first-thing-you-think-of/610507/105 "2012-01-25T18:56:12Z")
I first thought of the German flag. Then Hitler. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-say-germany-whats-the-first-thing-you-think-of/610507/106 "2012-01-25T19:02:15Z")
My first thought was Munich. I’ve been there and it is a lovely city in the summer. Germany has some lovely places and some nice people, many of whom were born decades after the events of WWII, it is worth keeping in mind. ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-say-germany-whats-the-first-thing-you-think-of/610507/107 "2012-01-25T19:04:28Z")
A friend from college who was from Bavaria. She was really nice. Oh yeah, and [this guy](http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/13800000/Hetalia-Axis-Power-APH-Germany-hetalia-13892922-1280-1024.jpg). Sorry. :o ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-say-germany-whats-the-first-thing-you-think-of/610507/108 "2012-01-25T21:12:40Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > My first thought was Munich. I’ve been there and it is a lovely city in the summer. Germany has some lovely places and some nice people, many of whom were born decades after the events of WWII, it is worth keeping in mind. When I visited Munich, we went on a bus tour. The tour guide pointed out a place we were passing by and said: There’s the beer hall where Adolf Hitler tried to do the infamous Beer Hall Putsch in 1923! So the Germans evidently don’t mind if you associate Hitler with Munich, they even encourage it. ---
**Author:** ![Eliot\_Ness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Eliot\_Ness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eliot_Ness)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-say-germany-whats-the-first-thing-you-think-of/610507/109 "2012-01-25T21:36:01Z")
brats ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2012, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-say-germany-whats-the-first-thing-you-think-of/610507/110 "2012-01-30T12:20:56Z")
These days I think of my grandfather who is recently widowed. My grandmother war bride he brought back to Canada in 1945. They met while he was fighting with the RCAF and she served in the ATS. We recently visited the war museum in Ottawa and I could see how deeply those years affected him. ---
**Author:** ![Bartman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@Bartman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bartman)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2012, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-say-germany-whats-the-first-thing-you-think-of/610507/111 "2012-01-30T13:56:10Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > At the moment I think, ‘single-handedly saving Europe from financial meltdown’. I thought Euro crisis as well… but more in the pig-headedly standing in the way of both of the two likely best solutions to the financial meltdown. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2012, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-say-germany-whats-the-first-thing-you-think-of/610507/112 "2012-01-30T14:08:35Z")
Sausages. ---
**Author:** ![Krouget](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b38774/32.png) [@Krouget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krouget)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2012, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-say-germany-whats-the-first-thing-you-think-of/610507/113 "2012-01-30T14:58:01Z")
German flag then soccer. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2012, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-say-germany-whats-the-first-thing-you-think-of/610507/114 "2012-01-30T16:31:20Z")
**Einsturzende Neubauten.** ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2012, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-say-germany-whats-the-first-thing-you-think-of/610507/115 "2012-01-30T16:40:38Z")
I’m not sure which way I should vote: I think of Mel Brooks and start humming a song. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2012, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-say-germany-whats-the-first-thing-you-think-of/610507/116 "2012-01-30T17:01:06Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > At the moment I think, ‘single-handedly saving Europe from financial meltdown’. Just like the last time. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2012, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-say-germany-whats-the-first-thing-you-think-of/610507/117 "2012-01-30T17:56:02Z")
It’s not fair at all- I’d LOVE to say the first thing I thought of was… oh, great musicians (Bach, Beethoven), brilliant mathematicians (Gauss, Leibniz), important scientists (Planck, Kepler), beautiful forests and mountains… or even beer and bratwurst. But no, Hitler was the first thing I thought of, even before I saw my two options ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2012, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-say-germany-whats-the-first-thing-you-think-of/610507/118 "2012-01-30T18:11:19Z")
Germany is where my grandparents came from, so that is the first thing I think of. Also, the whole Hitler thing, Germany isn’t the only country that had a dictator go nuts, you know; some even say the same thing about the U.S., with all of its wars and stuff (not that I would ever blame a _country_ for whatever its leaders do). ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2012, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-say-germany-whats-the-first-thing-you-think-of/610507/119 "2012-01-30T19:52:54Z")
> [@Eliot\_Ness](#): > > brats Yeah, they’re the wurst. I think 5 years ago, before I moved to Berlin, and before I knew anything outside of the US from any sort of real experience, I would’ve gone with Hitler, nazis, WWII, etc. Actually I have a recollection of this image always running through my head in my first few weeks here after learning of the common street food here, of a German WWII officer looking down (presumably at a captured American soldier, though it’s not apparent in the image) saying in english but with a heavy German accent: “so Doktor, vy not have a currywurst?”. I think after a short time here, associations with Hitler were quickly replaced with thoughts about the fall of the wall, which is far more present in the public consciousness now. At this point, Germany is my daily life, friends, work, etc… so nazis and Hitler are way, way down the list. ---
**Author:** ![Gulfstream\_Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/51bf81/32.png) [@Gulfstream\_Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gulfstream_Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-say-germany-whats-the-first-thing-you-think-of/610507/120 "2012-02-01T06:06:36Z")
My Mercedes-Benz. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-say-germany-whats-the-first-thing-you-think-of/610507.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-say-germany-whats-the-first-thing-you-think-of/610507.md?page=7)