Hallo zusammen!
In our last post, we dealt with the theme of ‘Why Study German’ and this proved to be an extremely popular post with views as far as India and Russia! To follow on from that, this week we will be giving you an insight into five German-speaking celebrities and their relationship with Deutsch.
Leonardo DiCaprio
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, most famous for his role in Titantic, has a German mother. His middle name is ‘Wilhelm’ which links him to his heritage. His Grandmother lived in Germany until her death in 2008 and he spent his summers in the small village of Oer-Erkenschwick in Nordrhein-Westfalen with her.
Watch DiCaprio speak a short few sentences in German in the short clip below.
Photo: Georges Biard
Sandra Bullock
Hollywood Actress and Producer Sandra Bullock had a German mother and she spent 12 years of her childhood in Nürnberg (Bayern) when her father worked in a military base there. She even had dual American/German citizenship up until 2009. Famous for films such as The Blind Side, Miss Congeniality, Ocean’s 8 and Bird Box, Sandra Bullock is more or less a native German speaker.
Watch Bullock speak German during an old acceptance speech in this clip.
Photo: Eva Rinaldi
Bruce Springsteen
The famous rock and roll legend Bruce Springsteen can trace his German language roots back to a speech he gave completely in German after the Fall of the Berlin Wall. During the 30th Anniversary commemoration of the Fall of the Berlin Wall last year, Germans recalled Springsteen’s song “Born in the USA” as one which called for democracy in former East Germany. During a massive 1988 concert, his refrain echoed out across East Berlin. Even Angela Merkel revealed that she too was a fan of his.
Listen to him sing “Born in the USA” at the 1988 concert in the video below.
Photo: Bill Ebbesen
Kim Cattrall
Kim Cattrall, star of “Sex In The City”, was born in Liverpool, but spent the 1980s in Frankfurt with her second husband. Here she learnt to speak the language fluently, despite now confessing that she has forgotten a lot of the Sprache.
Watch her speak in German at the 2008 Life Ball in Vienna.
Photo: George Pimental
Michael Fassbender
Anyone who has seen Inglourious Basterds knows that Irish-German actor Michael Fassbender has good enough German to play parts in German-language productions. The actor was born in Heidelberg, but was raised in Ireland by his German father and Irish mother.
Watch the below clip from Inglourious Basterds to see for yourself.
Photo: Gage Skidmore
We hope that you enjoyed reading this week’s blog post and listening to some celebrities speak German.
Bis bald!