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LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Six celebrities you didn’t know spoke German

No, it's not just Arnold Schwarzenegger. There are some pretty surprising German-speaking celebrities. Here are six of the most fluent with video evidence.

Published: 21 December 2016 10:13 CET
Updated: 9 February 2021 16:19 CET
Six celebrities you didn't know spoke German
Gene Simmons is equally amazed he can speak German. Photo: DPA

1. Sandra Bullock

Photo: DPA

Sandra Bullock survived a crash from space in Gravity, but she’s also got another pretty impressive line on her CV: she speaks German. Bullock has a German mother and spent 12 years growing up near Nuremberg where her father was in the US military. Her German is apparently fluent, though she'll tell you it's a little rusty.

2. Vladimir Putin

Photo: DPA

Okay, he's maybe not the kind of celebrity you were thinking of, just one of the most powerful people on earth. As one of the top KGB men in Dresden during the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, he is a fluent German speaker. Maybe his time here introduced him to the Freikörperkultur or naturism, which would account for the number of times he's been photographed shirtless.

3. Michael Fassbender

Photo: DPA

How many beers was that again, Herr Fassbender? Anyone who has seen his career-making turn in Inglourious Basterds knows Irish-German actor Michael Fassbender can speak German (although not well enough not to blow his cover as a Brit). The man who garnered further attention for showing his Wurst in Shame has good enough German to ponder roles in German-language films and productions.

4. Kim Cattrall

Kim Cattrall promoting her book in Cologne in 2005. Photo: DPA

How do you say “Oh yes!?” in German? The British-Canadian star of Sex In The City was actually born in Liverpool (not Germany), but spent much of the 1980s with her second husband in Frankfurt where she learnt to speak the tongue fluently – although now claims she has forgotten most of it.

5. Mark Strong

Mark Strong at the Sherlock Holmes premiere in Berlin. Photo: SpreePiX Berlin / Wikimedia Commons

This very British actor is best known for his serious roles in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Imitation Game. But he’s not limited to that – he also collaborated with Sacha Baron Cohen (aka Ali G, Borat and Bruno) in his film Grimsby. His mother is Austrian, so he is fluent in German, and studied German law at Munich University for a year.

 
6. Gene Simmons

Gene Simmons performing at the “Rock im Revier” festival in Germany. Photo: DPA

KISS frontman Gene Simmons was born in Israel as Chaim Witz, and moved to the US when he was eight, where he later changed his name to Gene. His mother was from Hungary and, along with her brother, survived a concentration camp during the Second World War. Simmons not only speaks German but also Hungarian and Hebrew. That's rock and roll. 

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GERMAN WORD OF THE DAY

German word of the day: Grenze

From national borders to personal limitations, this German word is a great one to add to your active vocabulary.

Published: 22 February 2024 09:16 CET
Updated: 22 February 2024 11:16 CET
German word of the day: Grenze

Why do I need to know Grenze?

Because Grenze is one of those nifty words that has multiple uses beyond its most literal meaning, and which can also be used in verb form.

As with many German nouns, it also functions well as a compound noun (i.e. paired with other nouns to create a new word) so learning this word could add several new words to your vocabulary at once. 

What does it mean? 

Die Grenze (pronounced like this) can be best translated as border in English, but can also mean limit or boundary, depending on the context.

When you hear the word in a geographical sense, it’s usually used to discuss national borders, such as Germany’s borders with nine other countries.

Of course, borders don’t have to be national: a Stadtgrenze would refer to the city limits, while Bundeslandgrenzen are the borders between Germany’s federal states. Want to know where the border crossing is? In that case, you’ll need to locate the Grenzübergang (also a feminine noun). 

An Abgrenzung, meanwhile, is any kind of demarcation. 

In the list of useful compound nouns that can be made using Grenze, one particularly interesting one is Phantomgrenze. This word is used to describe borders that don’t physically exist but that take the form of cultural, political or economic divides – a prime example being the East/West divide that still exists in Germany more than three decades after reunification.

READ ALSO: How does Germany’s ‘phantom border’ still divide the country?

Less literally, you can use Grenzen to discuss physical or emotional limitations, or to talk about being pushed to the limit (an die Grenzen gestoßen sein). In a similar sense, there may be political boundaries (politische Grenzen), or scientific ones (wissenschaftliche Grenzen) that haven’t yet been crossed. 

You may have recently learned to set boundaries in your personal life, which can be described in German as “Grenzen setzen”. In that case, you may also want people to respect those boundaries (Grenzen respektieren). 

In fact, almost any well-known English phrase that refers to limits, borders or boundaries can usually be translated using Grenzen. For example, “Meine Leidenschaft kennt keine Grenzen” means “My passion knows no bounds.” 

Of course, this being German, there are countless other ways you can adapt Grenze not just into compound nouns but also into verbs or adjectives. 

Grenzen, of course, means “to border” while angrenzen means “to border on” and begrenzen means “to limit”. Speaking of which, if you’re hoping to snap up a discounted deal, you may well be warned: “Das Angebot ist stark begrenzt.” That tells you that the offer is limited, so you’d better hurry while stocks last!

Where does it come from?

Interestingly enough, the word Grenze has Slavic roots and stems from the Polish word granica, which also means border.

Geography buffs may well observe that Germany shares a fairly long border with Poland (along with eight other countries), so the etymology of the German word seems incredibly fitting. 

READ ALSO: Five German words that come from Polish

Use it like this: 

Es ist wichtig, die Grenzen anderer Menschen zu respektieren.

It’s important to respect other people’s boundaries. 

Wie viele Länder grenzen an Deutschland? 

How many countries border Germany?

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