When thinking about the stereotypes of the German language, the perceived aggressiveness and anger of German speakers is one of the first stereotypes that come out. The perception is that speakers in German are angry, yelling and therefore are not nice people. This is of course not true. German speakers are not always angry or rude when they speak.

This may have put you off learning the language, perhaps because you thought people might wonder why you wanted to learn such an aggressive language, or because you yourself thought it was too angry or aggressive.

Why do people think the German language is so aggressive? You certainly don’t need to know German to become angry or yell. English speakers are just as capable of yelling and arguing. English speakers can also tell jokes and make people laugh, in the same way, German speakers can make jokes and create laughter. Although a non-German speaker may hear a German conversation and only hear aggressive or guttural-sound words, this does not mean the conversation is aggressive or negative.

Ways The German Language Is Not Aggressive

German literature, including poems, conveys a deep and vast array of emotions. One particularly famous German writer is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who wrote incredibly emotionally moving pieces of literature, such as “The Sorrows of Young Werther”.

Some examples of other German-made media that is quite soft and thoughtful include the band Rosenstoltz, which can have very soft, emotionally evoking music. Of course, German is also capable of more aggressive music, such as the well-known Rammstein, Eisbrecher or Megaherz.

Of course, German has its own share of – some might say – terrible, dad jokes. Many of these jokes play on words, and the German language almost seems to have more ability to do this compared to English. An example of this is:

Was sagt ein Chemiker, wenn ein Goldbarren auf seinem Kopf landet? Au.

What did the chemist say when a gold bar hit his head? Au.

If you are ever in doubt about the aggressiveness of a language, including German, consider this: A language itself is neither aggressive nor unaggressive. It is simply a vehicle that is used by humans to communicate their feelings, desires and thoughts with people around them.

This means the German language can be used to show aggression, but it is not inherently aggressive.

Is German Pronunciation Aggressive?

Part of the stereotype of an aggressive language stems from the guttural sounds that are often used in German. Some words that are commonly used for comparisons between German and other languages are Schmetterling (butterfly), Flugzeug (plane). For native speakers of German, however, this does not even register as anything aggressive, rather, it is simply the way German words are pronounced.

Although the German language may sound aggressive to a non-German speaker, the sounds of the words are not a reflection of their emotional state.

The stereotypical German person in media and movies is usually quite angry and may over-emphasize the guttural sounds of their German accent. This is particularly the case when they are speaking English. The usual trope of a German person is that they are usually the villain in the movie. This contributes to the perception that the German language itself is an aggressive language.

While German may have a larger proportion of words and sounds that may sound harsh or guttural, the same could be said of almost any language. This stereotype can easily be overcome by learning a little bit of the language so that the next time you hear German, instead of hearing odd-sounding words, you’ll understand why it is called a beautiful language.

You can read more about the beauty of the German language in the following post here.

The Directness Of ‘Aggressive’ Germans

German native speakers are often seen to be very direct in communicating their thoughts. To English speakers, who often like to talk ‘around’ what they really mean, this can be quite shocking. Often directness in English is considered rude, particularly when it is the cultural norm to tiptoe around a topic rather than address the elephant in the room. This can mean that English speakers who are learning German can be put off by this level of directness.

Unfortunately for English speakers, this cultural norm can result in confusion and misunderstandings. It can also result in people feeling pressured to do something they don’t really want to do. They feel as though they can’t actually express how they are really feeling and what they really want. Because of their directness, German speakers don’t experience this problem to the same degree.

The directness of Germans isn’t a bug; it’s a feature.

This is not a reflection on the German language itself but rather on German culture. Germans value direct communication, which results in clarity and understanding in conversations. A German person speaking to you about something in a direct manner isn’t trying to be aggressive, they are simply getting to the heart of the matter in their own way. This may make for some uncomfortable conversations, however, Germans tend to prefer conversations that are of substance rather than standing together discussing the weather.

This can also mean that when German native speakers travel to an English-speaking country, their level of directness in English can be off-putting. This is then seen as a reflection of the Germans themselves and can result in this aggressive stereotype continuing.

The Look Of The ‘Aggressive’ German Language

On occasion, the German language has been called ugly, and this may be a reflection of the long words that are often used in everyday German. To write large numbers, for example, 134, you must write “hundertvierunddreißig”. To a non-German speaker, the word looks like a mess, and you may not even know how to begin to say it. To hear this and other similarly long words spoken, you would think the Germans might be casually discussing the end of the world. Often in the English language, longer words are associated with technical words or words that very smart or intellectual people use.

In the German language, long words are actually an advantage of the language. German learners often find that these words are incredibly useful because they are quite straightforward to translate. In understanding how they are created and how to say them, these words are not seen as ugly at all.

Often in German classes, I will hear a native English speaker express their disappointment that the English language doesn’t have the feature to create larger compound words in the same way that the German language does. The German language allows speakers to combine multiple words together in order to create a single larger word, in a way that English simply cannot accommodate. For a non-German speaker, it might look ugly, but for a German speaker, it looks like a work of art.

Examples of this concept (called compound words) include words such as Schadenfreude (pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune), or Kummerspeck (excess weight caused by overeating because of emotional problems). The benefit of these compound words is that German can simply create words with more complex meanings than English, although some of these may be longer than English words.

You can find out about some other compound words and efficiencies of the German language in this post here.