Where does the Prussian king write "Das Volk ist mir zum Kotzen" = "The people makes me sick," as claimed in 6:26 in Die Revolution von 1848 I musstewissen Geschichte?
The video has been watched by 1.4 million at the time of writing.
I found this wording only in a famous mockery:
- Flugblätter und Flugschriftensammlung 1848/1849 - Nr_030 Lithographie, Karikatur, Friedrich Wilhelm IV., 1847, which shows only one "Spottblatt auf die Eröffnungsrede des Königs zum Vereinigten Landtag im April 1847" (= "mockery of the king's opening speech to the 'Vereinigter Landtag' [~ United Parliament] in April 1847" with this wording.
- "Das Volk ist mir zum Kotzen" Friedrich Wilhelm IV. von Preußen zur Eröffnung des "Vereinigten Landtags" am 11. April 1847
I became suspicious at the coarse expression since in German, this sounds much too cheap for a king. I do not like to put it here even as a quotation, since in German, this is bad colloquial language and should rather not be uttered at all. I could not imagine this to be written by the king because the wording also does not fit his writing and speaking style in other sources known to me:
- https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Wilhelm_IV.
- https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_mein_Volk_und_an_die_deutsche_Nation
- https://www.gutefrage.net/frage/warum-verzichtete-friedrich-wilhelm-iv--auf-die-kaiserkrone--deutschland
- https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Moritz_Arndt: "Der preußische König Friedrich Wilhelm IV. hatte Arndt schon vor der Konstituierung der Versammlung geschrieben, dass er die von einem demokratischen Parlament angebotene Krone nicht annehmen werde." - which does not sound like a coarse wording at all, without having read it.
- https://www.gutefrage.net/frage/warum-verzichtete-friedrich-wilhelm-iv--auf-die-kaiserkrone--deutschland
The wording seems to belong to the caricature alone, never written by the king. If that is true, and if the king got to know about this video, he would probably turn over in his grave in anger. After longer search, I have not found any letter or speech in which the Prussian king utters this.
Has the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm IV. (1795 - 1861) ever written: "Das Volk ist mir zum Kotzen" = "The people makes me sick"?
- In this wording, not just as a summary of someone mocking.
- And if so, where and when? (Likely around 1847/48.)
Grammar side note: "the people make" or "the people makes"?
This question was changed to the wording "The people make me sick". I changed it back since I guess that it is right for "Das Volk ist mir zum Kotzen". "Volk" is the people as a singular. Since English is not my mother tongue, I am not fully sure, but on the other hand, I tried to get advice from English speakers, and they did not seem to understand it:
- German Singular "Volk" in English: "Das Volk ist mir zum Kotzen" = "The people make me sick" or "The people makes me sick"? (this one was removed from the English Language and Usage SE (ELU SE) so that it is now back at the wrong German Language SE and closed. Before, it had been moved to ELU SE where it was closed since the native readers were unable to dig into this.
- Here is a remainder of my check why the question was closed. The singular of "the peoples" is "the people". Like in "the essence of a people". Was the question closed after a misunderstanding?
With "people" as plural, it has another meaning in German (= "die Menschen/Leute"), which is not meant here. Thus, I take the English plural, "the peoples" (= "die Völker") and make it the singular: "the people" (= "das Volk").