gh4acws gave me the link to this in the comments above, but I wanted to add the text here.
"Monologue from a play / film „des Teufels General“ Carl Zuckmeyer http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=89371
"on lineage, and nobility and racial purity ( a fatherly peptalk to a young officer who has been picked on by hif 'fellow' (very prussian) officers because he did not have a lineage like them but a rather dubious grandmother of unknown provenance) "
Think - what may not have happened in an old family from the Rhine - from the Rhine I say the people-mill the blending-vat of Europe Now lets imagine your ancestors Since year one There was a Roman centurion A dark guy , brown like a ripe olive Who taught a blond girl Latin . And then a Jewish spice-merchant came into the family an earnest man Who became Christian before even marrying - and fonded the catholic familytradition And a greek physician or a celtic legionary A mercenary from Grisons, a Swedish horseman A soldier from Napoleons army, a deserted cossack , a raftsman from the Blackforest A wandering millers journeyman from Alsace A fat Rhineskipper from the Netherlands A Maygar, a Pandur, an officer from Vienna, a french gambler A musician from Bohemia They all lived on the banks of the Rhine, lived, scuffled, drank and sang and fathered children and And Goethe came from that melting pot and Beethoven And Gutenberg and Mathias Grunewald and Eh - look it up in the encyclopaedia They were the Best, my dear, the best in the world And Why? Because there the people mixed Mixed like the water from wells and brooks and creeks and small rivers Flowing together to a great living river From the Rhine, that means from the occident That is natural nobility That is 'race'
no subject
"Monologue from a play / film „des Teufels General“ Carl Zuckmeyer
http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=89371
"on lineage, and nobility and racial purity ( a fatherly peptalk to a young officer who has been picked on by hif 'fellow' (very prussian) officers because he did not have a lineage like them but a rather dubious grandmother of unknown provenance) "
Think - what may not have happened in an old family from the Rhine
- from the Rhine I say
the people-mill
the blending-vat of Europe
Now lets imagine your ancestors Since year one
There was a Roman centurion
A dark guy , brown like a ripe olive
Who taught a blond girl Latin .
And then a Jewish spice-merchant came into the family
an earnest man
Who became Christian before even marrying - and fonded the catholic familytradition
And a greek physician or a celtic legionary
A mercenary from Grisons, a Swedish horseman
A soldier from Napoleons army, a deserted cossack , a raftsman from the Blackforest
A wandering millers journeyman from Alsace
A fat Rhineskipper from the Netherlands
A Maygar, a Pandur, an officer from Vienna, a french gambler
A musician from Bohemia
They all lived on the banks of the Rhine, lived, scuffled, drank and sang
and fathered children and
And Goethe came from that melting pot and Beethoven
And Gutenberg and Mathias Grunewald and
Eh - look it up in the encyclopaedia
They were the Best, my dear, the best in the world
And Why?
Because there the people mixed
Mixed like the water from wells and brooks and creeks and small rivers
Flowing together to a great living river
From the Rhine, that means from the occident
That is natural nobility
That is 'race'