Okay, not really. But, German TV viewers have selected Karl Marx, Martin Luther and Albert Einstein as among the top 10 Germans.

I can see the sit-com now:

Albert: God does not play dice with the Universe!

Martin: Certainly he does not, and that is why the Catholic Church must be reformed.

Karl: What’s that got to do with the proletariat’s struggle versus the oppressive capitalist? He uses the M-C-M process to extract surplus value from the blood of workers!

Albert: I just can’t work under these conditions! I’m going to America, I’ll catch you clowns later.

[Exit Einstein, Right]

Martin: You know…I think I’ll translate the Bible into German.

Karl: Yeah, you do that…now if I could just find a way to get my ideas to the oppressed masses….

[Enter Johannes Gutenberg, Left]

Johannes: You know, I’ve got this device that just might be able to help, I invented it just last week. It reproduces text at an incredible rate.

Karl: Sounds great, take me to this device so I might free the masses from their slavery.

Martin: Can I use it after Karl’s done? I’d really like to disseminate some theses and anti-semitism…err…bibles. Yes, bibles.

Johannes: Sure, sounds good fellas.

Einstein is a no-brain choice for a greatest Germans list. And I’ll even give Luther a (temporary) pass on the anti-semitism given that the Protestant reformation was one of the turning points in human history. But Marx? Okay, yes, I am adverse to his ideology. But, his writing and philosophy made possible the worst attrocities of the 20th century. Read Communist Manifesto or Das Kapital and you’ve got a virtual 19th-century Anarchist’s Cookbook. Violent revolution, confiscation of property…and that’s only the beginning. Call me crazy, but I’d not want to claim him for my country. Silly Germans.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 8th, 2003 at 22:32 by Timothy and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.