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<   No. 439   2004-04-09   >

Comic #439

1 Erwin: {walking across the lost plateau in Venezuela} Herr Kolonel, I am often wondering... It is amazing how we can keep die Führer alive in a jar...
2 Haken: Nazi science sneers at der boundary between life and death!
2 Erwin: Ja, ja, of course...
3 Erwin: But why do we always call him "die Führer" like a woman, and not "der Führer" like a man?
4 Haken: Nazi science sneers also at der boundary between linguistic genders!

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I'm surprised nobody has pointed this out before now. According to German grammar, "die" is the definite article used before feminine nouns, while masculine nouns (such as Führer) take the article "der". But I've been using "die Führer" ever since the beginning.

I only noticed the mistake myself fairly recently, and figured I'd "explain" it in a strip before someone else noticed and pulled me up on it.


2013-03-25 Rerun commentary: This actually didn't stop several people later pointing out the apparent error, having not seen this strip before deciding to write to me about it.

I love Erwin's response line in panel 2. Clearly he's heard all about Nazi science sneering at things many times before.

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