Very first was a sort of post-card picture of atown square with white flowers and a lady wearing traditional red skirt.
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Germany Schaefer, former Detroit Tigers second baseman who achieved notoriety by stealing first base.
I took four years of German in high school, and while I was never fluent, and can only remember a few words and phrases, I remember the trip my class took to Bavaria (and Austria and Switzerland), so when I hear “Germany,” I think mainly of that particular trip. I was 16 at the time, and it was hands down one of the greatest, most fun experiences of my life. The culture, the towns and villages, the architecture (I was extremely impressed by the Gothic cathedrals and castles), the food, the beer…
College roommate who was terrified of me because I resembled Meinhof and talked about terrorists a lot.
My large stash of explosive chemicals might have been extra cause for concern.
A country. In Europe.
Now that I think about, the first name that came to mind was, “Bismark.” Not because I’m some history wonk, but because I’m playing way to much Civilization V these days.
Yeah, I visualize a map of Europe.
Hitler and the Nazis come soon after that, though.
Lahr, or, more specifically, CFB Lahr, followed by vague thoughts of " home" and a bit of sadness and homesickness.
I spent three of the best years of my life there, and it’s not something I ever want to forget. I think I’d be listing a lot of things before I’d get to “Hitler.”
The very first thing I thought of was the Holocaust but I counted that was a vote for Hitler.
Volkswagen
Rammstein.
More specifically, Till Lindemann, lead singer of Rammstein.
(There’s a lot more good German industrial metal out there besides Rammstein [Eisbrecher, Oomph, etc] but Lindemann and crew are the most famous.)
Big country, center of northish side of Europe, has Denmark just north of it, is north and east from Switzerland and France… (hey, I’m in Spain, I know the way there from parts SW better than from other directions)
They have beer, and Bayer (the pharma company), and Bayer (the soccer team), and Bayer (the other soccer team), and some real pretty old houses, and an amazing variety of sausages, and too much potato in their menus (I don’t like kartoffen in any language) and a chancellor whose speeches I can understand, which is quite surprising given my horrible grasp of the language.
Deutschmarks.
Castles!
An old love interest who was German. Too bad she was married, since she returned the sentiment.
Rhin riesling. Beer. Audi. Volkswagen. Bayer (the pharma company). A colleague or two. Exchange students. A few pretty decent polytechnical university groups. A grammar which only the Finns can do even worse.
And since you mention Hitler specifically: Ol’ Adolf is pretty far down on my list, even though we - unlike you Americans - were occupied by Nazi forces for five years during WW2
ETA:
Like Einstürzende Neubauten?
Zweibrucken.
Beer, castles, and my ancestors.
I think of the friends I know from there whom I met online, who are huge Star Wars nerds.
Actually, until last week I was rabidly studying geography for Jeopardy, so I thought of the shape of the country, then its capital and rivers.