Understanding German to Better Understand German History

Understanding German can really be a bonus to your World War II history learning experience. If you are a student of 20th Century history, particularly World Wars I and II, and you don't understand German, you are really missing out. Basically, when it comes to having any perspective about the two World Wars from the German standpoint, you are at the mercy of translators and interpretors. Whatever you are getting is most likely biased and based on the translators opinion.

I meet many people who are quite knowlegable about the Germans in World War II, and in many cases this is their specialty area. But, it amazes me that, as much as they are well versed about German operations, generals, divisions, vehicles, etc., they hardly know a word of German. If it were not for the History Channel, many people would hardly know squat about World War II. For general information, the History Channel has its purpose. But, when it comes to the Germans, the History Channel is slanted. There comes a point when you need to understand German to understand the whole scope of World War II. If you are interested in understanding the actions and operations of the Germans in World War II and you still ask yourself, "why learn German?", then let me say that you will be able to hear, learn, and inculcate the raw, unfiltered, unbiased material and information of the German side as it was originally written, spoken and produced!

I've been learning and speaking German for 20 years now and when I study World War II, understanding German is really beneficial (and entertaining) to me. Now, for example, I can watch the whole series of the original German news reels (called "die Deutsche Wochenshau") and understand the narrator very well. This series is reproduced with English subtitles and I've noticed that many times the translations are inaccurate and/or biased. Its great to bypass the subtitles and understand the words right out of the narrator's mouth. What's also great is that, since I understand German, I can relate to what I'm hearing and can experience this news footage in a manner close to what a German citizen during the war would have experienced. (By the way, once you've decided to learn German, watching German movies and newsreels is probably the best way to learn German, particularly if you enjoy World War II history).

Understanding German will definitely give you an extra advantage to learning
about Germany in both World Wars. You can start understanding personal accounts written by common German soldiers and what famous leaders like Rommel, Kesselring, Hitler, Guderian, and Goebbels meant when they said certain things and made their many speeches. When I've compared certain German accounts to the English translations, I can't tell you how many times I've noticed the translations were inaccurate. So, if you want to more accurately understand the Kaiser Reich and the Third Reich and want to bypass the translation spin-doctors, start learning German now. There are some courses available on the internet which will get you moving quickly through the German language (compared to classrooms). Try Quick-Basic-German.info. It looks like the best one I've come across for good German fundamentals and rapid growth. Give it a try and pretty soon you'll be experiencing Germany from a whole new vantage point!