For reference: OP is American.
In American pop culture, it's often taken as a cliché that German is guttural and harsh. This video from a couple years back probably best sums up the sentiment. But it's common in our popular media too--think of all the shouty Gestapo officers you see in old war movies. As a longtime student of German, I think it's hogwash, but there's no denying such a stereotype exists. Here's my question, then: did this idea--of German as such a harsh language--exist prior to the World Wars? Are there any examples of writers/commentators expressing such an idea from that time? Or did that cliché, ostensibly phonetic, arise out of the world wars and the deluge of WW2-themed American media that followed, in which Nazis were the bad guys? (That's just my pet theory, but I'd love more insight!)
Thanks, all!
Definitely. In Nietzsche's 'The Gay Science' (published in 1882), there is a section dedicated to his criticism of the German language's tone (the section's name is literally "The Tone of the German Language"). He mentions the reverence the German people had for the courts' writing style, which was later gradually established inside the spoken language as well. According to him,
People gradually drew this inference, and spoke also as they wrote, they thus became still more select in the forms of their words, in the choice of their terms and modes of expression, and finally also in their tones : they affected a court tone when they spoke, and the affectation at last became natural.
He reinforce this stereotype/idea even more explicitly later in the section:
I believe that the sound of the German language in the Middle Ages, and especially after the Middle Ages, was extremely rustic and vulgar;
and in this:
But notwithstanding this practice, German must have sounded intolerably vulgar to Montaigne, and even to Racine : even at present, in the mouths of travellers among the Italian populace, it still sounds very coarse, sylvan, and hoarse, as if it had originated in smoky rooms and outlandish districts.
For further reading you can read, as mentioned, 'The Gay Science'.
Source:
The Gay Science (section 105), Nietzsche
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There's an anecdote from Charles V:
Indeed another, who was German, related that the same Charles V sometimes used to say: if it was necessary to talk with God, that he would talk in Spanish, which language suggests itself for the graveness and majesty of the Spaniards; if with friends, in Italian, for the dialect of the Italians was one of familiarity; if to caress someone, in French, for no language is tenderer than theirs; if to threaten someone or to speak harshly to them, in German, for their entire language is threatening, rough and vehement.
The original goes as follows, is attributed to one Girolamo Fabrizi d'Aquapendente, 1607:
Alius vero, qui Germanus erat, retulit, eundem Carolum Quintum dicere aliquando solitum esse; Si loqui cum Deo oporteret, se Hispanice locuturum, quod lingua Hispanorum gravitatem maiestatemque prae se ferat; si cum amicis, Italice, quod Italorum dialectus familiaris sit; si cui blandiendum esset, Gallice, quod illorum lingua nihil blandius; si cui minandum aut asperius loquendum, Germanice, quod tota eorum lingua minax, aspera sit ac vehemens.
The quotes as it is presented here is sourced and can be found in Harald Weinrich's Anekdotisches zur spanischen Sprachgeschichte im Siglo d'Oro (an article published in "Italic and Romance. Linguistic studies in honor of Ernst Pulgram", ed. by Herbert J. Izzo, John Benjamin's Publishing Company, 1980.)
I don't know if this is an answer to your specific question about the spoken language of German, but trends in classical music, specifically opera, leaned away from German and towards more typically "beautiful" languages such as French and Italian. This influence may have extended to have an effect upon perspective of spoken language, which seems to be more what you are asking about.
Opera originated in Europe at the tail end of the 16th century, and although it was established as an art form in both Italian and German, the German style operas were significantly less popular than the Italian style operas. This preference for Italian was so pronounced that operas composed in Germany in the 17th and early 18th centuries would have recitatives written in German, so that the audience could understand the plot of the presented story, while having arias written in Italian, as that was the preferred musical language of the time period. (see - works of Reinhard Keiser, specifically after 1703's Claudius). German language opera continued to struggle, even when presented with opportunities for great success such as the establishment of Emperor Joseph II's Burgtheater - a German-language opera organization that lasted only five years - until Mozart's rise to fame. Mozart's Abduction from the Seralio was a significant success as a German-language opera, and the 1791 composition of The Magic Flute was the icing on the cake. From that point on, German-language opera had, at the very least, legs to stand upon as an art form. Beethoven's Fidelio, Wagner's slew of operas (e.g. Lohengrin), Richard Strauss' slew of operas (e.g. Die Rosenkavalier), and later composers such as Alban Berg (e.g. Wozzek) continued to produce high-quality opera that was spoken and sung in German.
However, it took 200 years for the mindset of "Italian is the most beautiful language for opera to be sung in" to change, even though opera was being composed similarly in both Italian-speaking countries and German-speaking countries. It should also be pointed out that the German operatic style of "Singspiel" has been used regularly in composition of opera since the rise of German opera at the end of the 18th century, which could lead to some people arguing that the German operatic form is superior to the Italian operatic form.
Given the connections between language and music, it wouldn't be outside of the realm of possibility for this preference of non-German music to have some root in preference of non-German language. As I said before, I don't know if this is a specific answer to your question about perspective of spoken German language, but maybe it can shed a small amount of light.
aside - this is my first attempt at an answer here, so if I did anything wrong please let me know.
Edit - word
One of Prussia's rulers Fredrick the Great or Friedrich der Große (ruled 1740–1786) is famous for criticising the way the German languge was spoken. French was the language he chose to speak and write in, though the court was run using German, when speaking to his generals1.
One of his most notable quotes is: "Das Deutsche ist ein barbarischer Jargon, gerade noch geeignet, um mit seinen Pferden zu sprechen“. 2 German is a barbaric vernacular, which is just good enough to use when speaking to horses.
1 pg 3323 - Romanische Sprachgeschichte / Histoire linguistique de la Romania. 3. Teilband Volume 23 of Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft / Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science - Gerhard Ernst, Walter de Gruyter, 2009