{"id":191,"date":"2006-05-22T21:33:01","date_gmt":"2006-05-22T19:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.genista.de\/engine\/?p=191"},"modified":"2006-05-23T00:54:15","modified_gmt":"2006-05-22T22:54:15","slug":"bob-larson-your-swabian-neighbors-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genista.de\/engine\/?p=191","title":{"rendered":"Bob Larson – Your Swabian Neighbors (3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"swabianneighbors.jpg\" There is mythological evidence from the middle ages, suggesting the Swabians were a jolly, lively people then, full of vigour and joy. You wouldn’t think it today, and the introductory section of this book, meant to show Swabians in the best possible light and endowed with a preface by Cleverle Sp\u00e4th, is a case in point. The most salient features of the Swabian mind, his thriftyness, his shrewdness, his xenophobia, take some stretching to be made into qualities, and with some, most notably the Kehrwoche, even Larson’s well meaning prose fails to create any appeal or sense. The anecdote of Larson interacting with Willy Reichert, Arnulf Klett and the likes are positively painful, but admittedly that might be just to me, and just because they hit too close to home.
\nMuch more interesting and entertaining are his broad sweeps through Swabian history, overloaded in places with genealogical details of the Dukes, or obscure military history of possible interest to his American military audience, but quite boring to me. The book is valuable for its benevolent outsider’s view on my home, that contrasts interestingly with my malevolent insider’s perspective.
\nMost interesting, however, was this response to the infamous Lied der Schwaben<\/a>, which, though reviled by true Swabians for its unflattering depiction of local customs, I remember being hung on a plate in our home when I was a kid. I never thought the Lied der Schwaben problematic, in fact considered it quite accurate and liked it for its candidness, if not literary quality. The response, on the other hand, in its attempt to restore Swabian honor is quite utterly horrible. So here you go:<\/p>\n

Das “Lied der Schwaben”? –
\nDer dies ausgebr\u00fctet,
\naus welchem and`ren deutschen Stamm er sei.
\nWo Roheit in der Gossensprache w\u00fctet,
\nsind Art und Herkunft weltweit einerlei!<\/p>\n

Humor? –
\nDer Schwabe liebt ihn tiefer, leiser;
\nals Geistesfunke stillvergn\u00fcgter Welt.
\nDie Leute leben hierzulande weiser
\nals grobe Torheit gr\u00f6lend dargestellt.<\/p>\n

Das Lied der Schwaben:
\nUhland hat`s gesungen!
\nEs schwingt im Flei\u00df, in Daseinsheiterkeit!
\nIn Schiller, M\u00f6rike ist`s aufgeklungen –
\nund in Motoren dr\u00f6hnt es erdenweit!<\/p>\n

Das Kraftzitat des G\u00f6tz von Berlichingen
\nist menschheitsalter Allgemeinbesitz, –
\ndrum h\u00f6rt man`s auch im Schwabenland erklingen:
\nzum Beispiel f\u00fcr “Poeten” ohne Witz!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is mythological evidence from the middle ages, suggesting the Swabians were a jolly, lively people then, full of vigour and joy. You wouldn’t think it today, and the introductory section of this book, meant to show Swabians in the best possible light and endowed with a preface by Cleverle Sp\u00e4th, is a case in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,9,4,15,5,16,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-right","category-books","category-deutsch","category-deutschland","category-englisch","category-history","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genista.de\/engine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genista.de\/engine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genista.de\/engine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genista.de\/engine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genista.de\/engine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.genista.de\/engine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genista.de\/engine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genista.de\/engine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genista.de\/engine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}