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Political Leaders and Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6273 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 113 of 142 16 July 2009 at 4:02pm | IP Logged | ||
He conquered most of Europe, then on the rebound got his country absolutely devastated in the most destructive war in human history, though not before destroying a lot of the rest of Europe first. I don't think a fondness for Verdi exonerates him from the charge of xenophobia. His lack of enthusiasm for Smetana was probably part of his anti-Slav prejudices, which were far more lethal than just liking or disliking this or that composer. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| krog Diglot Senior Member Austria Joined 6050 days ago 146 posts - 152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Latin | Message 114 of 142 16 July 2009 at 5:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Maybe someone could phone up Ian Kershaw to settle the question of whether Hitler was
xenophobic? I think it would be fair to say that the majority of Waldviertlers are neither lovers of foreign languages, nor particularly xenophilic; I don't see that there's any evidence that Hitler had a different (i.e. cosmopolitan) mindset. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| minus273 Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5766 days ago 288 posts - 346 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Ancient Greek, Tibetan | Message 115 of 142 16 July 2009 at 11:26pm | IP Logged | ||
It's the usual practice in all of China back then. Soong Ching-ling read baihua with a Shanghai dialect. Absolutely incomprehensible to the uninitiated. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6273 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 116 of 142 18 July 2009 at 11:51am | IP Logged | ||
He had a pan-German mindset (his birthplace was just across the border from Bavaria). But non-Germans counted for little, or nothing. In many ways, Nazism was German/Austrian small-town prejudices (probably more normal than not in a place like the Waldviertel), which became lethal when wedded to a military machine. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Juan M. Senior Member Colombia Joined 5900 days ago 460 posts - 597 votes | Message 117 of 142 18 July 2009 at 5:22pm | IP Logged | ||
While this was certainly an essential element in this particular case, I tend to conceive of Nazism as an expression of the rise of the state and collectivism during the first half of the previous century, and as an extension of the French Revolution, which inaugurated the era of planned and deliberate genocide in the West. I also believe that genuine democracy was inherited from the British and their faith in reasonableness rather than the French and their conception of politics as struggle. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6273 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 118 of 142 18 July 2009 at 7:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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The Nazis were hostile to the French Revolution, not least because it ushered in a period of Jewish emancipation.
In 1791, a mob encouraged by the local establishment in Birmingham attacked and burned a number of houses and establishments, including the house of the scientist Joseph Priestley, as a reaction to a dinner held to commemorate the storming of the Bastille. There is a good article about this in Wikipedia. And that was well before the Reign of Terror in France, but reflected the increasing fears that events in France would be destabilising. Later, supporters of the French Revolution in Britain were actively persecuted, including under sedition laws. Moreover, an Irish rebellion in 1798 inspired by the French Revolution was put down by British troops with massive violence. I am afraid British "faith in reasonableness" tends to dissipate when actual resistance is offered. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Juan M. Senior Member Colombia Joined 5900 days ago 460 posts - 597 votes | Message 119 of 142 19 July 2009 at 4:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't know what you showed by that, perhaps other than that violence is universal and a reminder of Europe's colonial past.
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| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6273 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 120 of 142 19 July 2009 at 6:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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I wouldn't say it was all that remote in the past. Algerians were being murdered in Paris in the early 1960s when they demanded freedom from colonial rule. And as a UK citizen with some grasp of history, the idea that the British have "faith in reasonableness" does not stand up to much examination, IMO. The example of Priestley was one of many I could have cited.
Nazis would have abhorred the idea that they were heirs to the French Revolution, and I find it a dubious claim. It only received negative comment in their publications and propaganda, and as I have noted before, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic liberation of Jews from all sorts of civil disabilities was unwelcome. The Nazis also saw the French Revolution as a forerunner of Marxism. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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