# Things ruined in Germany by the Nazis **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 5, 2014, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ruined-in-germany-by-the-nazis/692395 "2014-07-05T05:17:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ruined-in-germany-by-the-nazis/692395/61 "2014-07-05T16:41:26Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > Aye, before the war eugenics was all the rage even in serious circles in western society. After the war…not so much. Although that’s assuming there was anything there to ruin. Yes, precisely - people have been quick to forget that eugenics, particularly those of the “hey, let’s only let white people with a 120+ IQ have kids, whereas niggers, wogs and micks should be sterilized” kind was a _huge_ thing back in the 30s. The thing is, there’s definitely _some_ positive to genetic manipulation and “eugenics-lite” when it comes to disease prevention or even embryo selection (because, really, why \*not \*let parents pick superficial traits for their kids ? So you want a grey-eyed kid, or a red-haired kid, who gives a fuck ? They can pick it right back when they’re 18 anyway…). But of course, the problem is that it’s absurdly difficult to differentiate between genuine health concerns; cosmetic shallowness; and abject racism, legal-wise. And it’s one short step from “yes, you can pick and choose a sperm that will result in a kid with grey eyes” to “yes, we will preserve the Aryan purity of your offspring”. Another short step from “If you don’t preserve Aryan purity, you oughta be shot”. And then… yes. Most of these effects we can absolutely do without of course. But in another, different universe doctors are going “Just let us tweak just one gene set in every baby, and there will be no cancer anymore, ever”. Never gonna happen in this one. Because Nazis, gene purity, all that rot. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ruined-in-germany-by-the-nazis/692395/62 "2014-07-05T16:44:02Z")
> [@gracer](#): > > The OP asks what has been ruined in Germany by the Nazis. The number combination 88 was ruined in the US by neo-Nazis. It’s one thing we can’t really blame Hitler for. There may not be many things we can’t blame him for, but that has got to be one of them. 😉 The OP also mentions things that are ruined in the wider world as well, so I thinks that’s legit fair game. My opinion, of course. ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ruined-in-germany-by-the-nazis/692395/63 "2014-07-05T16:56:33Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > The OP also mentions things that are ruined in the wider world as well, so I thinks that’s legit fair game. My opinion, of course. I agree, and also just out of general interest. But I thought it might explain the raised eyebrows. (Also, how did I seem to leave out _most_ words in my previous post?! It’s like about half of all my brain thought I typed is missing… :smack: ) ---
**Author:** ![Doughbag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Doughbag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doughbag)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ruined-in-germany-by-the-nazis/692395/64 "2014-07-05T16:56:44Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > Anecdotal, of course, but in my time in Germany I have met some very, very funny people. Now, now, thereze is no need to insult ze Germans now, by calling zem funny. [Ja!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_xUIDRxdmc) ---
**Author:** ![kellner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@kellner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellner)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ruined-in-germany-by-the-nazis/692395/65 "2014-07-05T17:03:04Z")
> [@Doughbag](#): > > Certainly 88 has no meaning in German or Germany relating to Hitler or Nazi at all. > > So, 88 basically its an US American thing, like calling ketchup a vegetable, right? I don’t agree at all. It definitely exists here, although of course most people don’t spend much time thinking about moronic neo-nazi codes. For example, look at the recent outrage caused by Procter & Gamble when they sold detergent in packaging depicting a football jersey with the number 88. On one hand it was obscure enough that the design made it to the shelves, but on the other hand it caused serious backlash. > **[Detergent pulled in Germany over neo-Nazi code](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/05/09/germany-hitler-detergent/8897153/)** > > Procter & Gamble unintentionally places a neo-Nazi code on promotional packages for Ariel. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ruined-in-germany-by-the-nazis/692395/66 "2014-07-05T17:05:15Z")
> [@Doughbag](#): > > Certainly 88 has no meaning in German or Germany relating to Hitler or Nazi at all. > > So, 88 basically its an US American thing, like calling ketchup a vegetable, right? Yes, blaming this one on the actual Nazis is stretching it a bit. The 14 words (“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children”) originated with [David Lane](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lane_(white_nationalist)), a white nationalist leader and founder of [The Order](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Order_(group)), a very short lived white nationalist revolutionary organization in 1983-84. He also authored the [88 Precepts](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/88_Precepts), his political manifesto on how to bring about the 14 words while serving his 190 year sentence before dying in prison. 14/88 is a common Neo-Nazi/white supremacist thing. > [@jtur88](#): > > That’s funny. When I first went on line, on a freenet, more than 20 years ago, I entered a choice for username, and it said that was already taken, and offered a couple of alternatives, including jtur88 at the top of the list, so I clicked it. I’ve used it ever since, to avoid the necessity of clanking my recalcitrant short-term memory into gear… > > Today was the first time I have ever seen or heard of any idea that 88 had some goofy nazi reference, except once, about 5 years ago, somebody DMed in a forum and asked about it. I just assumed he had heard some nut case on all-night talk radio make some reference to it, and blew it off. > > You mean everybody think’s I’m a neo-nazi sympathizer? Good thing I didn’t use 711 (Ghengiz Khan) or 34 (Count Dracula) or 83 (Hillary Clinton). I’ll admit seeing an 88 in a username does set off some alarms to be on the lookout for other signs of Neo-Nazi political beliefs, but like you I have an email account that ends in 88 for pretty much the same reason as you that is my primary email account that I’ve been using for well over 20 years. I’d been using it for at least 10 years before I found out about the Neo-Nazi fetish with 88=HH=Heil Hitler. My feelings were and remain fuck them, I’m not going to go stop using my email address and go through the hassle of setting up a new primary email address where I get billing statements, etc just because some ignorant Neo-Nazi fucks decided to make the number their fetish. ---
**Author:** ![Doughbag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Doughbag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doughbag)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ruined-in-germany-by-the-nazis/692395/67 "2014-07-05T17:44:25Z")
> [@kellner](#): > > I don’t agree at all. It definitely exists here, although of course most people don’t spend much time thinking about moronic neo-nazi codes. > > For example, look at the recent outrage caused by Procter & Gamble when they sold detergent in packaging depicting a football jersey with the number 88. On one hand it was obscure enough that the design made it to the shelves, but on the other hand it caused serious backlash. > > [Detergent pulled in Germany over neo-Nazi code](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/05/09/germany-hitler-detergent/8897153/) Interesting, I only knew 88 as “egal ist 88” and CB-Funk meaning as “Kisses and Love” However, I stand corrected, the weird thing is, that is seems to be “[eingedeutscht](http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteen_Words)” also see [Wiki](http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechtsextreme_Symbole_und_Zeichen) B & H Blood & Honour, SWP, 14 words (the 14 words are english words). ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ruined-in-germany-by-the-nazis/692395/68 "2014-07-05T18:37:04Z")
> [@Fishtar](#): > > I went with a German friend to some sporting event here in the US. And when everybody stood up for the Spangled Banner, she kind of freaked out. And explained, that in Germany they do not do that kind stuff anymore… We had a German exchange student at my high school senior year. To say she was freaked out by stuff like the daily Pledge of Allegiance would be an understatement. It didn’t help that that this was post 9/11 when everyone was falling over themselves to see who was the most patriotic. > [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > …E.g., the word ‘fuhrer’ - now shunned in favour of ‘leiter’ which doesn’t carry images of Dolfy. The world _reich_ is similarly verboten in a non-historical context. The only post-war exceptions were East Germany keeping the name \*Deutsche Reichsbahn \* (in order to preserve treaty rights to operate in West Berlin) and the _Reichstag_ building in Berlin (for historical reasons, and it was still a highly controversial decision not to rename it). ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ruined-in-germany-by-the-nazis/692395/69 "2014-07-05T18:58:46Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > Vic Hitler’s career never quite took off. Well, (Walter) Rudolph Hess won a Nobel prize just after the war, so… ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ruined-in-germany-by-the-nazis/692395/70 "2014-07-05T19:48:18Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > I know what you’re thinking, what _didn’t_ they ruin in Germany … To be fair, and I guess one should be fair even to the Nazis, there were several things they didn’t ruin and in fact immeasurably improved. I’m thinking primarily of the road system. The Nazis were pioneers in the construction of modern motorways and transformed the transportation system in Germany. It was one of Hitler’s pet projects. There were other areas too which the Nazis vastly improved, eg the economy, industry, etc. Did it outweigh the things they ruined? Of course not, they were monsters. But you have to give even the Devil his due. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Cashless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Johnny\_Cashless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Cashless)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ruined-in-germany-by-the-nazis/692395/71 "2014-07-05T20:05:32Z")
My grandfathers house in Battersea, for one thing. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Plutonium\_Kid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@The\_Plutonium\_Kid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Plutonium_Kid)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ruined-in-germany-by-the-nazis/692395/72 "2014-07-05T22:27:25Z")
Folk songs. When I took a German course in college, the instructor told the class that many Germans could no longer listen to generations-old folk songs because they so often sang them at Nazi youth camps. That’s genuinely sad. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ruined-in-germany-by-the-nazis/692395/73 "2014-07-05T22:47:55Z")
Presidential backrubs were once friendly and helpful - now they seem creepy and intrusive. ---
**Author:** ![JEngelman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e79b87/32.png) [@JEngelman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JEngelman)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ruined-in-germany-by-the-nazis/692395/74 "2014-07-05T22:49:10Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > From the Wiki timeline: > \* > 1220: The Sachsenspiegel, the most influential German code of law from the Middle Ages condemns slavery as a violation of God’s likeness to man.\* > > That would be 556 years before the Americans codified their condemnation of Slavery. The Holy Roman Empire, which included nearly all of Germany, welcomed Jews after they had been expelled from England and France. That is why Yiddish is a combination of Hebrew and Germany. ---
**Author:** ![JEngelman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e79b87/32.png) [@JEngelman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JEngelman)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ruined-in-germany-by-the-nazis/692395/75 "2014-07-05T22:57:19Z")
Is it illegal to own a copy of Mein Kampf in Germany? I have read that one can get a prison sentence for owing a copy in Austria. I own a copy of Mein Kampf. I have read it. I still do not hate Jews. Hitler expressed his hatred for Jews in Mein Kampf, but he never made an effort to justify it. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ruined-in-germany-by-the-nazis/692395/76 "2014-07-05T23:48:27Z")
> [@JEngelman](#): > > I have read that one can get a prison sentence for owing a copy in Austria. Frankly, such restrictive laws, if they exist, ironically smack of Nazism themselves. I mean, jail for owning a book? Sounds like a regime-type law. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2014, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ruined-in-germany-by-the-nazis/692395/77 "2014-07-06T01:34:14Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > Perhaps the one positive legacy of the whole holocaust is that it is forever associated now with prejudice - at least against Jews. It’s that much harder for bigots to justify a point of view now associated with the ultimate evil acts of the 20th century. (Though that apparently doesn’t stop some.) > > It has also put extreme nationalism and territorial expansion or land grabs in the same bad light - notice the numerous comparisons to Hitler when Russia took Crimea from the Ukraine. (With apologies to Tom Lehrer) . . . _When correctly analyzed, . . . Everything is Godwinized!_ ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2014, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ruined-in-germany-by-the-nazis/692395/78 "2014-07-06T01:50:31Z")
There was a minor kerfuffle a while back on Wikipedia where there was a user using ARYAN818 who claimed to be Indian living in the 818 area code of Los Angeles, but they got banned anyway. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2014, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ruined-in-germany-by-the-nazis/692395/79 "2014-07-06T03:16:35Z")
> [@gracer](#): > > T > > RE: SS - my mother had a good friend whose maiden name was Sally Smith (let’s say, it was slightly different). Sally Smith was German teacher. The school had the habit of the subject and then the initials of the teacher, such that her door and all the time tables read “German SS”. She quickly got married and is now thankfully Mrs. E. SS is back, with a vengeance. Effective in 2005, it is no longer legal in Germany to use the uniquely German letter ß to represent a double-S in many (but not all) words. Spellers are now required to use “ss” instead of “ß”, however there seems to be no criminal or judicial penalty for failing to update German orthography, in our out of the Federal Republic of Germany, and some rogue newspapers are refusing to comply, including the influential \*Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. \* ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2014, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ruined-in-germany-by-the-nazis/692395/80 "2014-07-06T03:28:22Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > SS is back, with a vengeance. Effective in 2005, it is no longer legal in Germany to use the uniquely German letter ß to represent a double-S in many (but not all) words. That seems odd. Isn’t ß just used for double-s within words? I wouldn’t think it would evoke an abbreviation like SS. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ruined-in-germany-by-the-nazis/692395.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ruined-in-germany-by-the-nazis/692395.md?page=5)