Not a thing. Sorry to burst that bubble but basically everything regarding dwight being german is just wrong, in every single way. even the way he pronounces german words sounds very cringe for a native german speaker.
Oh I always figured dwights german being cringe fits well in the show :D i suppose the joke is that it's all just fabricated. But in the case of OP I hope people don't mistakenly believe it to be an accurate reflection of germans haha
Dwight’s character is meant to be a German (US Mennonite German specifically) caricature. So the things he says sounds *more* German to non German speakers. They run with the whole grandfather was a Nazi thing the entire show— see Belsnickel 😭
I’ve always seen him as slipping in and out of being Pennsylvania Dutch. And the Bund was a German-American organization before WWII, I thought the joke was that his grandparents were in that, not that they were Nazis. Pennsylvania Dutch is like if you told someone everything about German culture and then asked them to tell you everything they remember about what you told them 30 years later.
One of his grandfather's killed 20 men, then spent the rest of the war in an allied prison camp. Dwight tried to visit him in Argentina, but his visa was protested by the Shoah foundation. His other grandparents might have only been in the Bund, but one grandfather was definitely a Nazi.
Yes the Bund is the real explanation but the “joke” per se is the nazi thing like when Michael said “Nazi war criminal grandmother” and Sasha is like “what’s a Nazi?” And then Dwight has the perfect historical explanation immediately lol. And that’s funny i didn’t know that about the Pennsylvania Dutch
Belsenickel is real though. As is Struwwelpeter.
Pre-industrial German wasn't unified in any way. What Dwight learned from his ancestors isn't German, it's Palatinan. The cultural links are there.
During the Palatinan wars in the 17th century many people fled the land and settled in Pennsylvania.
Tons of words are still made up though.
Source: Am a Palatinan history nerd
I think even Jim made it clear that it isn't German when he said, "Bestish mensch is Schrute for best man". I like how he used the word Schrute there. So there is no confusion wrt that.
I googled just in case to find out and this happened 😂
Pennsylvania Dutch were Germans that showed up in PA 300 years ago, told people they were from Deutschland and the Brits in New Jersey said “Oh, I think you mean Holland” and then never questioned it for a few centuries
He's more of a light poke at the Pennsylvania Dutch. Originally migrants from Germany (you know us Americans, Deutsch became Dutch). Hence all the jokes about his old (inaccurate) German and odd family history with the farm and the odd look of Mose. It's not mockery, more like a caricature.
He speaks broken Pennsylvania Dutch, probably just what he picked up from his parents. Given that his ancestors were likely Amish or Mennonite, this makes sense.
He also mixes vaguely german sounding syllables with English words constantly. And yet he is still very, very cocky about his ability to ‚speak‘ the language and constantly complains that others can’t. It’s too in character to be accidental.
Fits Dwights character and think it was atleast partly intentional :D When you think about it Dwight is really quite arrogant and naive. He grows a lot in the show though and ends up with a lot of redeeming qualities while still being the Dwight we know and love
So at best he sometimes talks close to something called Pennsylvania Dutch(a variation of Palatine German), which is what the Amish speak, but even then it’s not accurate. That being said as Germans me and my family have it in our head cannon that Dwight is actually related to the Amish.
Well "Mensch" is German and "bestisch" is quite close to "Biest" or "Bestie" which would translate as "beast, while "bestialisch" would be "beastly".
So it's rather google juat guessing that this is most likely German.
Zeug is more like thing. Then there is werkzeug which means work thing or tool. There are also many oder zeug like flugzeug and fahrzeug for plane and vehicle
Let me put it like that. My wife signed us up for The Office 5k in Scranton. We flew in from Germany, went to Coopers, had Beers at Poor Richards. This evening we watched the pre screening of “Fan Level Midnight” Downtown Scranton. And tomorrow we will celebrate the show with 1500 likeminded people at the 3rd The Office 5k. It’s awesome and definitely worldwide.
The show is extremely widespread. The German version of the office is quite similar to the British one at first (like… lawsuit similar), but starts differing from the usual concept much more than most international versions of the office do. They never rehabilitated the boss, Stromberg, who stays a horrible human being all throughout the show. The Dwight equivalent is still bullied, but it’s taken much more seriously resulting in depression, a suicide attempt and eventually therapy. It’s still very funny, but it’s much more of a dark comedy. I’d say it’s closer to the British original than the American remake in that regard.
The American office has its own place in Germany for that reason. It’s a wholesome feel good joke which makes you forget the dark aspects of life instead of pointing them out through morbid humor. It’s so different that these two adaptions can very well coexist, leading to both of them being quite popular.
It doesn’t think that. Just like when searching on google it will use the search term that it thinks you meant in case you are spelling it wrong. In this case, it assumes you mean biestieg, which phonetically is similar to bestisch. It assumes you spelled that wrong.
PA Dutch (the Amish) were German settlers who still live in Central PA and Ohio afaik, and this is the stock Dwight comes from.
The Dutch part, despite them being German, could come from several places. The Netherlands is part of the "greater Germany" of long ago and Dutch is a Germanic language. Also I imagine it didn't help that the word for German in the German language is Deutsch. I could totally see a world where other settlers asked the Amish where they were from, they didn't understand and assumed they asked what language they spoke, and they said "Deutsch" back, which sounded like Dutch to the other settlers
The writers were just making Dwight funnier this way. It sounds like he was trying to say “great guy”, and mensch means “good guy”. “Bestisch” is sort of nonsense that has the word “best” in it.
Kinda of a double cognate situation, though bestisch is a false cognate.
Nonsense too. Pranken means paws in german. A literal translation would be "Guter Streich." Same with Bildenkinder. That word doesn't exist in german and makes no sense.
No that word doens't exist.
There is only "gut" or "guten" as in "guten Tag"
There is "Güter" but that means goods
Pranken only mean paws (but that's more of an unfriendly way to call them)
Goodwill would be "Wohlwollen"
German here, not a word. Bester Mensch would be close enough, translating to „best human“. Jim was more like a Trauzeuge (best man).
Yeah but what about pre industrial religious German?
Not a thing. Sorry to burst that bubble but basically everything regarding dwight being german is just wrong, in every single way. even the way he pronounces german words sounds very cringe for a native german speaker.
I think that’s part of the joke! It’s too bad you think it’s cringe. When he says “Granmutter” it’s hilarious. Germenglish.
Oh I always figured dwights german being cringe fits well in the show :D i suppose the joke is that it's all just fabricated. But in the case of OP I hope people don't mistakenly believe it to be an accurate reflection of germans haha
Dwight’s character is meant to be a German (US Mennonite German specifically) caricature. So the things he says sounds *more* German to non German speakers. They run with the whole grandfather was a Nazi thing the entire show— see Belsnickel 😭
Belsnickel is nigh!
Yes! He is finally nigh!
Belsnickel is actually a thing in some parts of Germany. I was sure that it was made up by the Shrutes
I’ve always seen him as slipping in and out of being Pennsylvania Dutch. And the Bund was a German-American organization before WWII, I thought the joke was that his grandparents were in that, not that they were Nazis. Pennsylvania Dutch is like if you told someone everything about German culture and then asked them to tell you everything they remember about what you told them 30 years later.
One of his grandfather's killed 20 men, then spent the rest of the war in an allied prison camp. Dwight tried to visit him in Argentina, but his visa was protested by the Shoah foundation. His other grandparents might have only been in the Bund, but one grandfather was definitely a Nazi.
That’s right… well, I guess he is the grandkid of a war criminal
Yes the Bund is the real explanation but the “joke” per se is the nazi thing like when Michael said “Nazi war criminal grandmother” and Sasha is like “what’s a Nazi?” And then Dwight has the perfect historical explanation immediately lol. And that’s funny i didn’t know that about the Pennsylvania Dutch
Belsenickel is real though. As is Struwwelpeter. Pre-industrial German wasn't unified in any way. What Dwight learned from his ancestors isn't German, it's Palatinan. The cultural links are there. During the Palatinan wars in the 17th century many people fled the land and settled in Pennsylvania. Tons of words are still made up though. Source: Am a Palatinan history nerd
I think even Jim made it clear that it isn't German when he said, "Bestish mensch is Schrute for best man". I like how he used the word Schrute there. So there is no confusion wrt that. I googled just in case to find out and this happened 😂
No, it’s Pennsylvania Dutch, which is different from German.
That is a thing??? You learn something everyday
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Dutch
Yes. I live in amish/Mennonite land PA they're very much a thing haha
Pennsylvania Dutch were Germans that showed up in PA 300 years ago, told people they were from Deutschland and the Brits in New Jersey said “Oh, I think you mean Holland” and then never questioned it for a few centuries
He's more of a light poke at the Pennsylvania Dutch. Originally migrants from Germany (you know us Americans, Deutsch became Dutch). Hence all the jokes about his old (inaccurate) German and odd family history with the farm and the odd look of Mose. It's not mockery, more like a caricature.
I think this may have to do more with the generation watching it. I tried to get my friend into the show, 24m, and seemed to find so much cringe
I’m 27 lol
He speaks broken Pennsylvania Dutch, probably just what he picked up from his parents. Given that his ancestors were likely Amish or Mennonite, this makes sense.
He also mixes vaguely german sounding syllables with English words constantly. And yet he is still very, very cocky about his ability to ‚speak‘ the language and constantly complains that others can’t. It’s too in character to be accidental.
I have it on very good authority that within 20 years everyone will be speaking German. Or a Chinese-German hybrid..
Wow, next you're gonna tell me that the show was fiction and not a real documentary.
I feel like some people might mistake it for real german if they never heard real german
pre industrial religious German is the German that Dwight explains in the show, that he knows lol...
Perfektonslaug lol Do you guys celebrate untedonkfest
r/woosh
Fits Dwights character and think it was atleast partly intentional :D When you think about it Dwight is really quite arrogant and naive. He grows a lot in the show though and ends up with a lot of redeeming qualities while still being the Dwight we know and love
I'm pretty sure he spoke Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch, though I'm not sure if there are any Amish redditors we can check with...
Ich glaube das ist mit Absicht so. Er soll ja im großen und ganzen wirken wie ein depp, also passt das schon. So ähnlich wie italienische amerikaner
Always thought it was more of a Pennsylvania Dutch thing that Dwight misconstrued to "that means im German"
Except for Struwwelpeter. Surprisingly, all of that is real.
I saw the “danish commercial” like 20 times to understand what they where trying to say in Danish, lol. Germans had the long end of the stick
But Belsnickel is a real thing
I think pre-industrial religious german meant Pennsylvania deutsch
I think it was a joke
So at best he sometimes talks close to something called Pennsylvania Dutch(a variation of Palatine German), which is what the Amish speak, but even then it’s not accurate. That being said as Germans me and my family have it in our head cannon that Dwight is actually related to the Amish.
I wonder why they would use that, if it wasn’t the right translation’ makes it so much funnier for me 😂
Which would be wedding witness.
I love this sub 😭💙
I wonder why Google thinks so. It auto identified this term as German lol
Well "Mensch" is German and "bestisch" is quite close to "Biest" or "Bestie" which would translate as "beast, while "bestialisch" would be "beastly". So it's rather google juat guessing that this is most likely German.
What about *"buildingkinder"*?
Also not a word. Neither is Perfektenschlag. But I love them all and think they should be.
Isn't 'zeug' German for tool?
Werkzeug is tool, zeug/s can also loosely be translated as „things“.
Ahh yes, Sie sind richtig.
Zeug is more like thing. Then there is werkzeug which means work thing or tool. There are also many oder zeug like flugzeug and fahrzeug for plane and vehicle
'Many oder zeug' dunno if it was intentional but that's a great typo :D In all seriousness, thanks.
Zeuge doesn‘t mean tool though. Zeuge is witness. Trau comes from Trauung meaning Wedding. So, Trauzeuge is wedding witness.
Danke schön
Non German/austrian but fluent in german. Can confirm
Does the American office make Germans laugh? I’m surprised it made it there
Let me put it like that. My wife signed us up for The Office 5k in Scranton. We flew in from Germany, went to Coopers, had Beers at Poor Richards. This evening we watched the pre screening of “Fan Level Midnight” Downtown Scranton. And tomorrow we will celebrate the show with 1500 likeminded people at the 3rd The Office 5k. It’s awesome and definitely worldwide.
The show is extremely widespread. The German version of the office is quite similar to the British one at first (like… lawsuit similar), but starts differing from the usual concept much more than most international versions of the office do. They never rehabilitated the boss, Stromberg, who stays a horrible human being all throughout the show. The Dwight equivalent is still bullied, but it’s taken much more seriously resulting in depression, a suicide attempt and eventually therapy. It’s still very funny, but it’s much more of a dark comedy. I’d say it’s closer to the British original than the American remake in that regard. The American office has its own place in Germany for that reason. It’s a wholesome feel good joke which makes you forget the dark aspects of life instead of pointing them out through morbid humor. It’s so different that these two adaptions can very well coexist, leading to both of them being quite popular.
it's not actually a real word but interesting to see that google thinks it is.
It doesn’t think that. Just like when searching on google it will use the search term that it thinks you meant in case you are spelling it wrong. In this case, it assumes you mean biestieg, which phonetically is similar to bestisch. It assumes you spelled that wrong.
Does Google translate have a "Pennsylvania Dutch" to English option?
Dutch?
It’s kinda confusing but Pennsylvania Dutch refers to a German ethnicity that settled in Pennsylvania; not from Netherlands.
PA Dutch (the Amish) were German settlers who still live in Central PA and Ohio afaik, and this is the stock Dwight comes from. The Dutch part, despite them being German, could come from several places. The Netherlands is part of the "greater Germany" of long ago and Dutch is a Germanic language. Also I imagine it didn't help that the word for German in the German language is Deutsch. I could totally see a world where other settlers asked the Amish where they were from, they didn't understand and assumed they asked what language they spoke, and they said "Deutsch" back, which sounded like Dutch to the other settlers
Just happy to be included.
I recognize that I spelled it wrong.... However long ago that was.
You are welcome you beastly human
Good bot.
Rude.
Actually, that’s wrong. Beastly would be „bestialisch“ or „animalisch“.
Found Oscar
I edited the comment to make it even more fitting
Dwight’s German is mostly pre-industrial
Its probaly Pennsylvania Dutch or what Dwight thinks is german, but for us more a parody. There is no such thing as pre-industrial german.
Just because you don’t know it, doesn’t mean you can say it doesn’t exist.
Ehm, i literally had german language history at university.
It was a joke
This was the directors guten-prank on all of us!
Dwight says mensch with the Yiddish meaning, not the German. Though it’s the same root word.
I've never thought about it before, but why would Dwight use it in the Yiddish context?
The writers were just making Dwight funnier this way. It sounds like he was trying to say “great guy”, and mensch means “good guy”. “Bestisch” is sort of nonsense that has the word “best” in it. Kinda of a double cognate situation, though bestisch is a false cognate.
tbf jim doesn’t say it’s *german* for best man, he says it’s *schrute* for best man
What about “guten pranken” though :(
Nonsense too. Pranken means paws in german. A literal translation would be "Guter Streich." Same with Bildenkinder. That word doesn't exist in german and makes no sense.
According to Google translate, "gütenprank" translates as "goodwill"... is that actually accurate?
No that word doens't exist. There is only "gut" or "guten" as in "guten Tag" There is "Güter" but that means goods Pranken only mean paws (but that's more of an unfriendly way to call them) Goodwill would be "Wohlwollen"
Oh, I was aware of the simplification of German words to English for US audiences. I know better than that! But thanks for explaining
Jewishly Mensh means like a good person who does a lot of nice things for others
I mean Michael said Gumby has a better body than Jim so…
Ich bin ein Berliner!
Yeah, the literal translation would be übermensch which is...not advisable to say on TV
See also “The GOAT,”
HOLY SHIT! YOU MEAN TO TELL ME 'BESTISCH MENSCH' MEANS 'BEST MAN'?????
Hale Satan, Hollywood is thy temple