Mark Twain: “German cleanliness reaches an altitude to which we may not aspire”
Ein unglaubischen Idee:"i think a clean city is a feeling of security"
[VIDEO]
The truth about: German Cleanliness
and the related item:
The truth about: German Order
Erica Jong- Fear of Flying (1973)
“I hated their [the Germans’] fanatical obsession with the illusion of cleanliness, illusion, mind you, because Germans are really not clean. The lacy white curtains, the quilts hanging out the windows to air, the housewives who scrub the sidewalks in front of their houses, and the storekeepers who scrub their front windows are all part of a carefully contrived façade to intimidate foreigners with Germany’s aggressive
wholesomeness"
Sauberkeit: Reiningungs Hausordnung im Mietverträge im Deutschland(Cleaning as part of German home rental contracts.)
More on the subject by researchers:
“Cleanliness and order are a show-off of local governments’ good will to solve urban problems”
"Real Germans are cleanliness fanatics. Usually they can only relax and stop worrying when they use their toilet at home, because then they are absolutely 100% sure that it was cleaned properly, because they did this themselves, after the cleaning lady cleaned it first. The chemical industry profits from this obssession, because the Germans are European leaders in the number of cleaning agents, powders and soaps that are purchased annually."
from : Primer for Real Germans
Walter Abish-How German Is It? (1980)and as footnote:
Die vergangenheitslose Stadt Brumholdstein wird auf dem Gelände des ehemaligen Konzentrationslagers Durst erbraut.
“the cleanliness. The painstaking cleanliness. As well as the all-pervasive sense of order. A reassuring dependability. A punctuality. An almost obsessive punctuality”
“this German perfection”
“our stress on punctuality, on the obsessive order,on the passion for beauty, for serenity, for cleanliness"
"Sweeping the German Nation: Domesticity and National Identity in
Germany, 1870–1945. By Nancy R. Reagin (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2007) 247 pp. $75.00
Reagin writes that when Germany became a nation, it had no national
anthem, no flag, and no postal system, among other markers or symbols of
nationhood. It did, however, have a nation of hardworking housewives, who,
in turn, had three (often embroidered) rallying cries: Cleanliness! Order!
Thrift!
Reagin does not contend that German women “really did keep cleaner
houses than their counterparts in other nations: we only know that many
thought that they did so”. She does contend that private cleanliness
became public Germanness.
In this impressive work, Reagin shows how German housewives
comprised an “imagined community”—she credits Benedict Anderson,
Imagined Communities (New York, 1983) for the phrase—strangers who did
not know one another, yet felt connected. The tethers included a plethora of
housewives’ organizations and women’s magazines, the latter including
“endless embroidery and craft patterns, articles on how to pose children in
photographs” that set standards by which a family could attain proper social
status (hint: snow white linens are a must) ."
