Stef's comments (member since Oct 16, 2008)

Stef's comments from the History is Not Boring group.

Zheng He - to find out whether he sailed around the world or not

Unlike Manuel I don't have the intention to change history because who can garantee me that the world gets a better place through my changes??? But I would love to remember what I saw and learned and heard.

It is fiction, not a history book. Therefore I don't really care whether the book is thoroughly researched or not. It just has to be somehow accurate. I read those books for fun and not to learn something about a special time. I rather read history books to gather information about former times.

Well, I have to admit I hadn't thought about that possibility. But when you say he united us in spirit and idealogy, doesn't that mean that every German stood behind him???
I think the biggest problem with that man is that no one read his book because if people had read it they wouldn't have voted for him in the first place.

Thorton wrote: "Thomas Jefferson - I thought he was a very inspirational man, besides being a founding father of this country. He was very revolutionary in his thinking, and had he had his way during the construct..."

Thorton,

what nation did Hitler unite???? Definitely not Germany. Germany was founded in 1871 without Austria. Hitler annexed Australia, I wouldn't call that a unification.
Before 1871, there was no Germany. There was a German Union but it was a loose collection of states. People didn't see themselves as Germans, they talked about themselves as Saxons, Bavarians, Prussians...Bismarck united this country in 1871 after the war with France.

This is my list of people I would invite to my dinner party:

Maria Stuart - to learn what it was like to be imprisoned
JFK - this man just fascinates me
Martin Luther - to find out whether he really nailed those 95 theses to the Castle church of Wittenberg on October 31, 1517 or not
Charles the Great - what was it like to live 1200 years ago
Alexander the Great - to listen to his stories
my ancestors - to learn more about my family :-)

Since I am unable to name just one, I list them all ( in no specific order)

- Johannes Gutenberg
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Abraham Lincoln
- Mohandas Gandhi
- Nelson Mandela
- Catherine the Great
- Maria Stuart
- Emilia Earhard
- Anne Frank
- and the early settlers in America and Australia

Manuel wrote: "Note to Stef:

I thought it would be too obvious to ask if she was from France or Pari;, I figured that if I asked about Qubec, she would say no, and then switch the subject to where ever she liv..."

Well, Maunel, I think that is the difference between Americans and Germans: you ask questions to start a conversation, most Germans only ask questions to confirm their assumptions.

I think Americans can call themselves happy that the 3rd generation speaks english and not their native language. In Germany we have the problem that even the 3rd generation often hardly speaks german. Their grandparents came here to work and to return to thier native country later but they got stuck and raised their kids and even grandchildren here but those generations often speak their mother tongue better than german.

Manuel,
one stupid question: If you were sure they were from France why did you ask if they were from Quebec????? Why didn't you ask them if they are from Paris? Or Lyon?

In Germany, many people complain about Denglish in every day language. Especially companies love to use english phrases for their advertisements and then wonder why elderly people don't understand it but not everyone learned English at school.

Spanish-American War

1. Religion
2. Second Defenestration of Prague
3. Wallenstein
4. Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden

5th grade when my teacher told us about Egypt. She had spent the summer in Egypt and showed us a lot of interesting pictures. From that moment on I was fascinated by history. And my fascination lasts until today.

I would choose to live in China during the Ming Dynasty. And if I can choose the person to be as well: Admiral Zheng He. Then I would finally find out whether he travelled around the world and discovered America or not.

Unlike Elisabeth I would rather have been with Armstrong and Aldrin on the moon than just in the control room in Houston.

Beside that it would have been cool to land with Columbus in America.

There are several things I would love to change in history like Napoleon's return from Elba, the 30 year war in Europe from 1618-1648, Hitler coming to power in 1933, the assassination of Lincoln, Kennedy and the murders from Sarajewo 1914....
But the question is what would happen to our world then??? Would it be a better place to live? Or would things be even worse hen they are already are? I doubt that the world we live in would be better if we could change our past.