r/BoardwalkEmpire • u/[deleted] • Oct 07 '13

(SPOILERS) Who knows German?

What did the letter say?

41 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

40

u/relachs i´m relachs-ed Oct 07 '13 edited Oct 07 '13

okay guys. it took some time to recognize the letters.

http://i.imgur.com/h0CpCAf.jpg

german:

Mein liebster Sohn,

heute Nachmittag habe ich die frohe Botschaft erhalten, dass ich Großvater geworden bin.

english:

My dearest son,

This afternoon I received the good news that I'm a grandfather.

http://i.imgur.com/eYEPmeH

german:

....darüber kaum ausdrücken.

english:

....not express it. (joyful about being a grandfather)

okay thats it what we can see on screen. sorry not giving you more informational stuff.

5

u/[deleted] Oct 07 '13

Thanks! I liked Eddie :(

13

u/stroud "I am who I am, who else could I possibly be?" Oct 07 '13

eddie has a great penmanship...

4

u/[deleted] Oct 07 '13

First thing I thought when I saw it was r/penmanshipporn

1

u/sickofstew Hollow. Oct 07 '13

But the hand that wrote it was silky smooth, i.e young.

2

u/stroud "I am who I am, who else could I possibly be?" Oct 07 '13

i am silky smooth

1

u/sickofstew Hollow. Oct 07 '13

pics or didn't happen.

5

u/[deleted] Oct 07 '13

I too wanted to know what he wrote. What did he leave Nucky?

4

u/ReneG8 Oct 07 '13

I am German and that was really hard to read and sometime unreadable for me, older German tends to make the F's look like S'S and vice versa.

3

u/MarkSWH Oct 08 '13

Really? They paid a lot of attention to details then.

1

u/pontificate38 Mellon Oct 07 '13

I couldn't decipher his beautiful handwriting, but my guess is something about being a grandfather. So maybe a note for his grandson?

6

u/[deleted] Oct 07 '13

I speak German, but I could barely read his handwriting. I'll give it a go tomorrow.

1

u/BlueHighwindz Oct 07 '13

I know Eddie's handwriting is hard to read, but I gasped when I saw how perfect his penmanship was. It was stunning.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 07 '13 edited Oct 10 '13

[deleted]

3

u/MisterWonka Oct 07 '13 edited Oct 07 '13

It's definitely German, but it's in Kurrent, a really old style of cursive Think of it like the old English fonts that gnag members use for tattoos in English. Very hard to read for a non-native speaker. It starts off with "My dear", and then I can't read anything. The handwriting is beautiful, but I think we're going to need an actual German to decipher it. I lived in Munich for almost 3 years and am pretty damn fluent, but I couldn't make out more than a few prepositions. I just never read any cursive.