History Main / GratuitousGerman

* In ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'', Von Bach peppers his speech with German, but betrays himself as a poser, as Captain Comet, a UsefulNotes/WorldWarII veteran, notes no German would say ''schweinhund'', just ''schwein'', guessing Von Bach watched too many Hollywood films.

** "Ach du lieber...!"

** He addressed Beast as "Liebchen," which is inappropriate unless they were going for some all-blue HoYay. It's an out-of-date expression for "darling".

** Asuka is German, and so uses some rather poorly done German phrases throughout the series. The dubbers and her English voice actress all had a better grasp of the language, resulting in [[TranslationCorrection much improved pronunciation]]. The English dub also had her exclaiming "Mein Gott!" quite a bit, gave her a penchant for referring to Shinji as a 'dummkopf' (literally 'stupid-head', but good enough fit for Japanese "baka"), screaming "'''SCHWEINHUNDS!'''(correct: "Schweinehunude" - pig dogs) when fighting the JSSDF in ''End of Evangelion'', and generally added a lot more German into her regular speech.

** Asuka is German, and so uses some rather poorly done German phrases throughout the series. The dubbers and her English voice actress all had a better grasp of the language, resulting in [[TranslationCorrection much improved pronunciation]]. The English dub also had her exclaiming "Mein Gott!" quite a bit, gave her a penchant for referring to Shinji as a 'dummkopf' (literally 'stupid-head', but good enough fit for Japanese "baka"), screaming "'''SCHWEINHUNDS!''' when fighting the JSSDF in ''End of Evangelion'', and generally added a lot more German into her regular speech.

** Alucard also sometimes speaks German, once saying 'Heil den Ich' [[spoiler: after he makes a 90 degree landing on a aircraft carrier]]. Literal translation: vaguely 'Heal/Hail the I' and in correct grammar 'Heil mir/mich!' (depending on you going with 'to hail' or 'to heal' (probably the former in Third Realom and previous German culture))

* In ''Anime/{{K}}'' - "[[HealingFactor Macht nichts...]] [[CompleteImmortality Ich bin unverwundbar]]." When the Silver King [[spoiler: regains his memories]]. Justified in that he ''is'' German.

* ''Manga/{{Embalming}}'' has tons of it (and tons of [[GratuitousEnglish strange English]], too, considering the title). "I'll die if I don't eat a Baumkuchen!" (pyramid cake)[[note]]lit. ''tree cake'', because the layers resemble tree rings[[/note]].

* The names of the three main characters of ''Anime/{{Fireball}}'' are in German. Especially Drossel's name is made of [[OverlyLongName multiple with German phrases]], Drossel Juno Vierzehntes Heizregister Fürstin, which together don't make a whole lot of sense. Also, "Drossel" is the German name for the bird named trush.

* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', mainly with Rin's spells (for example "Neun, Acht, Sieben, Stil schießen, beschießen, erschießen!", "Abzug, Bedingung, Mittelstand.", "Ein Kämpfer ist ein Kämpfer!").

* ''Anime/FafnerInTheAzureDeadAggressor'' includes some examples of this trope, the Fafner units are named after German numerals (Mark Elf, Mark Zwei, Mark Sechs, etc) without forgetting the famous "Mark Sein" (which, funnily enough is homophone to '[es] mag sein.': '[it] might be.'). It might not be a case of completely gratuitous German, though, as Fafner is a concept taken from Germanic mythology.

* ''Manga/{{Embalming}}'' has tons of it (and tons of [[GratuitousEnglish strange English]], too, considering the title). "I'll die if I don't eat a Baumkuchen!".

** The manga now adds "Das stärkste Gefängnis". (Or that is what it was supposed to say, scanlation display it as "Das stärksten Gefängnis".)

** The {{Filler}} Bount Arc is full of (poorly translated) German in [[CallingYourAttacks attack calls]]. A grand ritual to open a portal uses the words "Tauch dich sofort auf!" (correctly: "Öffne dich jetzt!"), which translates into the command "Open!" towards the door.
** The Quincies have a European vibe, with their iconography specifically reminiscent of the Teutonic Knights. Accordingly, most of their attacks and artifacts named in the series have pseudo-German names (Letzt Stil, Seele Schneider, Heizen, Glitz(ern), Sprenger, etc.). When the Vandenreich appear, the Teutonic Knight themes have been updated to Nazi themes, akin to the real-life Nazi Party's appropriation of all things Teutonic Knight. The Vandenreich name is German for "hidden kingdom" and appears in the official English translation by this spelling. The Kanji means "invisible country" and German spelling should instead render it "Wandenreich".

* ''Film/KindergartenCop'' includes Arnold saying "Das macht mich stinksauer! Jetzt bin ich sauer!"

* The song "Blitzkrieg" Bop by Music/TheRamones.

* In the English version of the ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'' anime, Kagura's frenzied attempted conversation with a a foreign man was in mangled German rather than English. "Helpen? Das ''help''? ''HELPE MIEL''!"

* Satella Harvenheit, the Jewel Witch, [[spoiler:and Fiore, her sister]] in ''Manga/ChronoCrusade'' is German, and all of her attacks are called in that language. Another {{Woolseyism}} of the English dub is the fact that her voice actor (the same one who voiced Asuka in Eva) speaks the language.

** Asuka in the Spanish dub is very fond of uttering phrases in Gratuitous German. In her introductory chapter from the Japanese original, when Shinji and Asuka [[Awesome/MechaAnime must open an Angel's mouth in order to make it swallow a battleship]], she says "Open, open, open!"; the dub, however, replaces it with "Öffnen, öffnen, öffnen!" . And she also loves exclaiming "Scheiße!".

* ''LightNovel/BakaAndTestSummonTheBeasts'': Minami tends to babble in German when she's upset, a good example being in the BeachEpisode after she sees Himeji [[ACupAngst wearing a bikini]]. Justified, since she lived in Germany for most of her life.

** "Kommeinezuspadt? Kommeinezuspadt? Kommeinezuspadt!" by Music/TomWaits, from his album ''Music/{{Alice}}'' is more a case of AsLongAsItSoundsForeign. Most of the rest of song is just vaguely German-sounding gibberish, though, and the title is intentionally misspelled - the last part should be "spät", not "spadt", and the title's [[WeWillUseWikiWordsInTheFuture spelled as one word]] but it's actually a sentence. "Komm eine zu spät" literally means "Come one too late". It's likely the actual title is supposed to be "Komm nie zu spät", which means "Don't come too late".

* The ''VideoGame/SaGaFrontier2 OST'' is the soundtrack from the video game. Released in Japan, the album's printed paper inserts expect a native Japanese reader, but nearly ''all'' the track names are in German for no obvious reason. (A handful are [[GratuitousFrench in French]].) Though, in fairness, the game's composer Creator/MasashiHamauzu is a Japanese national who was born in UsefulNotes/{{Munich}}, Germany.

* In ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'' most of the names of people and places are German or based on German naming.
** Even more so, their Gods have names that are simple German words or are corruptions of them, like Leidenschaft (passion) or Geduldh (from geduld which means patience).

* ''VideoGame/ShadowHeartsCovenant''... Sorta. You see, this character, Karen König, has special moves which had German names. Unfortunately, the transliteration from Japanese katakana to English didn't make it.
** Heuervelk is supposed to be Feuerwerk, fire works
** Bullenfogel is supposed to be Brennvogel, burn-bird (although you'd say Brennender Vogel, burning bird in German - or, more simply: Phönix)
** Geuschbenst is supposed to be Gespenst, meaning ghost (or, more literally, "spook")
** Sonnestark is most likely wrong in the Japanese version, too , as it is supposed to mean "power of the sun", which would be "Sonnenkraft" (the Japanese word for "strength can mean stärke as well as Kraft in German. This is most likely a case of did not do the research)

** In the book "Masters of Doom", which chronicles the history of developer Creator/IdSoftware up to ''VideoGame/QuakeIIIArena'', John Romero is described as screaming ridiculous German lines into a microphone for later implementation while ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D'' was being developed.
** In ''VideoGame/ReturnToCastleWolfenstein'', most of the important dialogue is [[TranslationConvention rendered in English]]; however, the most EnemyChatter is in German. ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D'' has ThoseWackyNazis actually speaking German.

* Practically the whole premise of ''Anime/PumpkinScissors'' is Post [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI WWI]] Pre [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII WWII]] Germany. "Gespenst Jäger" (Ghost Hunter, though "Gespenst" is only the singular - correct version would be Gespensterjäger, as one word) and "Himmel" (a drug) which means heaven/sky, are the ones you hear mainly.

* The ending theme for ''LightNovel/SagaOfTanyaTheEvil'' is in German.

* Justified in ''LightNovel/SpiceAndWolf'': All of the writing is in German, but the series takes place in an alternate universe version of medieval Europe, presumably based on Germany.

* In ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' Kurt, who comes from Germany, is one of the main characters. There are a few times when he slips German into his sentences, but he stops this early in the first season. As it's a longtime trait of his character, it's also present in ''WesternAnimation/XMen: The Animated Series'' and ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen2009''.

* The American fast-food chain (Der)[[note]]The "Der" hasn't been officially used in the name since 1977, although some older restaurants still have their original signage.[[/note]] Wienerschnitzel. According to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, one would normally use the neuter form "das" for "Wienerschnitzel". Additionally, a "Wiener Schnitzel" (which of course comes from Austria[[note]]Whose capital city is Vienna, or "Wien" in the original German, hence the name.[[/note]]) is a completely different food entirely from a hot dog (sometimes called a "wiener"[[note]]also spelled "weiner"[[/note]]), which the restaurant chain specializes in. In Germany, some sausages (similar to hot dogs) are called "Wiener Würstchen", hence the misunderstanding. And, by the way, the correct German name would be "Wiener Schnitzel" , not "Wienerschnitzel".

[[caption-width-right:329:''Rein Weißritter'', a ''Gespenst'' mk.II customized to serve as a fire support unit for the ''Gespenst'' mk.III "''Alteisen''" and subsequently turned into a technorganic monstrosity by the extradimensional beings known as the ''Einsts''. [[VideoGame/SuperRobotWars30 Last seen]] serving aboard the ''Dreikreuz'' mothership ''[[UpToEleven Dreißig Super Roboter Flugzeugträger]]''.]]