Kultur 3

After reading all of the articles for Kultur 3 what interested me was the German's aptness to negativity. The article listed a few contributors to German pessimism including Nietzsche and Goethe, but I wondered what or who else may have contributed to the German state of mind as we see it today.

The works of the prominent German poet and natural philosopher Goethe may have been a contributor to the German obsession with natural foods. Goethe wrote many works in the field of natural philosophy which celebrated the beauty and serenity of nature as it is. Goethe's obsession with nature, and especially with plants, possibly could have influenced the German mind set on the matter today. One of the articles for kultur 3 mentioned that 70% of Germans say that they would never eat genetically modified foods. It is possible that their respect for what is natural stops them from eating what they deem unnatural and synthetic. Goethe's interest in close examination and classification of the world around him shaped much of German science as it is today. I know that when I think of Germany, I think of a place where much great science is performed every day. There seems to even be a stereotype that German scientists are some of the best! This belief (actually more of a trend) has been adopted because of Germany's many great scientists through history.

Gottfried Leibniz was yet another large father figure in the German philosophy. His support of rationalist ideals led him to be considered as one of the three fathers of the rationalist movement. Now, Germans today are considered to be highly logical and rational beings. Leibniz's philosophies along with Friedrich Nietzsche's nihilism has led Germans to be deep thinkers, prone to being pessimistic. This possibly also stems from a sometimes not-so-glamorous history.

Germans have had to come to terms with their involvement in the Holocaust with time. Such a traumatic event in German history has left many Germans with a strong sense of civic duty and has allowed many Germans to think critically about other things in life. It is clear that German's rich history has shaped how Germans think and act today. German stereotypes and idiosyncrasies seem to stem from how Germany was in the past.