Author: Andy Rowell

Once you have finished working through a grammar such as April Wilson’s German Quickly, and perhaps even before you are finished, you will want to attempt to translate theological German.

1. Attempt some passages from a German translation of the Bible.  There is lots of common theological vocabulary in Romans 1:1-7.  See Luther’s translation Roemer 1:1-7 (Luther Bibel 1545) or a contemporary German translation Roemer 1:1-7 (Hoffnung für Alle) You can access the entire Bible for free easily in either of these translations at www.biblegateway.com.
2. Find something you would like to translate.  Theological preferences vary widely!  Find something you are interested in.
3. If possible, find the text in both German and English so you can check your translations.
4. It is nice to have variety.  Plus variety helps you improve the breadth of what you can translate.

• Helmut Ziefle’s book Modern Theological German has selections from the Bible, Martin Luther, Adolf Schlatter, Albert Schweitzer, Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Helmut Thielicke, Hans Walter Wolff, Peter Stuhlmacher, Helmut Class, Dietrich Mendt, Theo Sorg, Gerhard Maier, and Rainer Riesner.  See my review of Ziefle’s book at Textbooks and Grammars 
• In the German reading course I took with other Duke University graduate students, we translated about a page from Friedrich Nietzsche, Herman Hesse, Karl Kraus, Peter Altenberg, Heinz Politzer, Rainer Maria Rilke, Bertolt Brecht, Friedrich von Schiller, Sigmund Freud, Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, G. W. F. Hegel, Karl Barth, and Herbert Marcuse.  
• Luther Seminary’s introductory course includes readings from Bonhoeffer, Thielicke, Barth and Moltmann.
  
• Christopher Begg’s course at The Catholic University of America included readings from J. Michel, J. Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI–of course!), G. Fischer & M. Hoitschka, A. Ohler, S. Pfürtner, O. Keel, J. Betz, and B. Schüller.
  
• Karin Grundler-Whitacre’s course at Harvard Divinity School includes readings from Barth, Bonhoeffer, Hildegard von Bingen, Kant, Luther, Rahner, Schleiermacher, Soelle, and Tillich.
• Bonhoeffer’s Life Together / Gemeinsames Leben is a popular choice.  The page numbers of the German edition are clearly displayed in the English critical edition so you can compare.
• From a Duke New Testament student: “I was going to let you know that a fantastic book for NT students to translate is Martin Hengel’s Die vier Evanglien und das eine Evangelium von Jesus Christus. It is scholarly, relevant, a great book, and the English translation is readily available (The Four Gospels and the One Gospel of Jesus Christ; warning, though, the English skips some sentences).”

 

Sample translation practice:

 

We have access through Duke University Library to the online digital edition of the new edition of the Church Dogmatics at The Digital Karl Barth Library.

Here is the link for Duke students who have NetID and Password.

There are 8,000 pages in the Church Dogmatics.  For recommendations on what to read from the Church Dogmatics, see Ben Myers’s blog post The best bits of Barth’s dogmatics: or, how to read the CD on your holiday

Sample practice 1.

Here is a two-page section from the Church Dogmatics on “the church.”
German Translation Practice–Church Dogmatics by Barth – Section 62.doc (67.0K)

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Sample practice 2. 

Here is some more German translation practice from 5 summary statements in the Church Dogmatics based on the best sections recommended by  Ben Myers in his post

German Translation Practice–Church Dogmatics by Barth – Sections 33 47 50 59 Fragment.doc (46.5K)

 

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Sample practice 3. 

Here is more theological German practice from 8 summary statements of the best sections of Barth’s Church Dogmatics as recommended by the commenters at  Ben Myers’s post

German Translation Practice–Church Dogmatics by Barth – Sections 4 8 28 41 49 64 69 71.doc (49.5K)

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Sample practice 4. 

Download German Translation Practice–Church Dogmatics by Barth – IV.1 Sections 57-63.doc (52.0K)
______________________________________________________________________________________________

Sample practice 5.

See http://ergebung.wordpress.com/ for a number of readings in German with some translation help provided.

Theological German: Advice and Resources Homepage

________________________________________________

What other sources for theological German translation practice would you recommend?

Note from August 2021: This webpage was created in 2009 and has only been sporadically updated since then.

Five Tips on Studying Vocabulary:

1. Consider using an audio or computer resource to embed vocabulary more deeply into your memory.  Learning to speak and hear German may not be necessary for reading German, but hearing and speaking it, will help you remember it better.  See Audio Resources and Computer Interactive Software

2. Use flashcards.  You can likely access the flashcards you need at flashcardexchange.com because someone has probably already entered them for you there.  If you get a $20 lifetime subscription at flashcardexchange.com you can download and print out flashcards for the site.  The website has a huge database of cards that were entered by participants in the site.  For example, all of the vocabulay words for German Quickly and German for Reading Knowledge have been entered.  You can do online quizzing there for free without buying any subscription.  On that site, search the tag “quickly” for all of the German Quickly flashcards or search for “German Quickly” with the title search.

3. Walk.  It is possible to walk and study vocabulary.  This keeps you awake and helps you get some exercise.  Checklist: flashcards (printed out from internet), rubber bands for holding flashcards (available at a drug store or Walmart or Amazon.com), a pen for notes.

4. Peer pressure.  There is no substitute for the external pressure of having cumulative quizzes in a classroom with other students and a professor.  See Courses in North America

5. Persist.  See Tips on Motivation

Theological German: Advice and Resources Homepage

________________________________________________

What else have you found helpful for learning vocabulary?

Note from August 2021: This webpage was created in 2009 and has only been sporadically updated since then.

If you are translating theological German in an exam, the writer will likely have a high vocabulary and will not be afraid to use it.  You want a thick dictionary which has all or most of those words so you do not have to figure out what the word might mean from its parts.   The one I use and is probably the best is:

Collins German Unabridged Dictionary, 7th Edition

(available online to Duke students at Credo Reference)

while the

Oxford German Dictionary  could also be considered.

(available online to Duke students at Oxford Reference Online).

I originally had a 1991 Collins version from the library and that was awful because it was all black and white and the print was small.  The newer versions have the entries in bold navy blue which is a huge improvement.  In general, it has been very reliable in having theological words and workable definitions.

These big dictionaries, however, will not be fun to drag everywhere unless you leave your laptop at home and instead carry the dictionary in its spot in your bag.

I love my Collins.  I have circled with pencil the entries that I have looked up so they are easier to find the next time.  I have also underlined the relevant definition when I have checked with an English translation to confirm I picked the right one.

The first half of the dictionary (1,000 pages)  is English-German (which I rarely use) and the second half is German-English (pages 1001-2000) which I constantly use while translating.

I also recommend a supplementary dictionary:

See my review of this book at the Textbooks and Grammars page

For a smaller portable dictionary, I would go with the following pocket dictionary:

Online dictionaries:

Here is an extended quotation from Fred Gaiser of Luther Theological Seminary in his syllabus.

Note the several online dictionaries now available, for example (there may be others):

http://dict.leo.org

http://dictionaries.travlang.com/GermanEnglish/

http://www.quickdic.org/index_e.html

http://www.wordreference.com/

http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/

http://www.ego4u.com/en/dictionary

http://dictionary.reverso.net/german-english

Also, for the hardness of your hearts, the Google translator, at: http://www.google.com/ig?hl=en&referrer=ign

(Note: This can be useful for shorter and simpler phrases; it cannot be trusted for more complex constructions; unlike a good dictionary, it gives no alternatives or nuances for word meanings; and, of course, regular use of it will ensure that the user never actually learns the language.)

Theological German: Advice and Resources Homepage

__________________

Note from August 2021: This webpage was created in 2009 and has only been sporadically updated since then.