Wow. Um… would you PM me her phone number, please?
I think we all know what your answer is going to be.
Penalty kicks. As in “always beating us on …”
Food. Good food.
Lederhosen.
I first thought of the German flag. Then Hitler.
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.
A friend from college who was from Bavaria. She was really nice.
Oh yeah, and this guy. Sorry. :o
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.
brats
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.
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.
Sausages.
German flag then soccer.
Einsturzende Neubauten.
I’m not sure which way I should vote: I think of Mel Brooks and start humming a song.
Just like the last time.
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
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).
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.
My Mercedes-Benz.