"Hallo, Gemulichkite!"
One time while reading an issue of German Life about the legacy of German-Americans and their strong perseverance and struggle to keep their cultural expression alive; there was one word I spotted that was very new to me. It's a word that only we both Richendeuch and Bauerdeuch say but those other people (non-German Americans) are not allowed to say, and it's no different than a white person dressing up as a Native American in full Cheif regalia, or not asking to wear lederhosen or a dirndl at a gathering or wedding. To us, it just means friendship, well-being, or another way to say, Prost, Servus, Gerzi, or Danke Schon! That word is Gemulichkite... When non-Richendeutch or Bauerdeuch people use this word it is not in a positive light like we want it to mean; when I hear this word uttered by regular non-immigrant Americans this is what I picture...
"Should wei ban the toys in the dungeon heir Bergermister?"Some German-Americans use Gemulichkite in advertising for Beirhausen or Restaurants without knowing its passive-aggressive history and association with the charactures of Kiser William, Otto von Bismark, Adolf Hitler (a real xenophobe like Trump who also wrote a best-selling book), and characters Burgermeister Misterberger who bans all the toys from the town (except the ones that make him tickle...).
What many people don't realize is that Otto warned Archduke Ferdian of Austria about going into an open car and parading it around a poor village would lead to both his death and a World War, and told him his safest bet was to cancel if he wanted to stay alive. Advice that he did not listen to because he got a rich motor car to show off how wealthy he was which is a big mistake and lead to his assassination and the rest you know in your AP World History 101. He was not only a general but also a man who helped modernize and elevate Germany into a socialistic democracy that put cleanliness in industry, food, drink, and in the streets in high regard, was against child labor, and used mothers and children as positive messages in political art.
Many of the negative portals of Otto and Willam come from French propaganda and the American Eugenics Movement a.k.a Prohibition. Germany was way ahead of human health than America during its Industrial Revolution; many German ideas also lead the Progressive Movement in the United States. One German-American Henry Heinz was the first to put electric lights in his factory and invented the assembly line way before Henry Ford (also a xenophobe). Also, a German-American cartoonist named Thomas Nast is the one credited with introducing Santa Claus and also used him as an Abolitionist symbol giving gifts and supporting Union soldiers during the Civil War; making Ulysses. S. Grant who also met Otto von Bismark declare Christmas a national holiday.
Teddy Roosevelt who practiced temperance (not drinking), defended and even supported German-American unions and businesses. At one point he tried his best to learn German and remarked about our drinking songs as glorious even though he could not understand what we were singing (maybe Doc should travel back in time and give him Google Translate).
We have many drinking songs of pride, joy, and fun; one I like to play on my tuba Hubert is Im Muchichen Steht ein Hoffbrauhaus but one song that people are familiar with that refects when you should say Gemulichkite is the song Ein Prosit. The song is sung before drinking beir or any hard liquor in hopes that you and others drinking is blessed or does not die which is why in Bavaria there is the saying, "Hopp und Maltz, Gott mitt talz!" which means God Bless my Hopps and Maltz, two ingredients in German beir (it's also a motto for a wing of the Bavarian government that inspects beir for impurities...). The song has its origin in the Saxony region of Germany written by Benard Deitrich and is the only piece of his work to survive for a long time; only to be popularized by a Bavarian band leader and landlord Georg Lang who sung and introduced the song with a large orchestra in 1898 in a beir tent, how do you fit an orchestra into a tent, wei don't know how he did it? But he did and now it's ritual to sing the song before drinking.
Ein Prosit, ein Prosit!
Der Gemütlichkeit!
Ein Prosit, ein Prosit!
Der Gemütlichkeit!
