The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #36851 Message #511620
Posted By: Susanne (skw)
20-Jul-01 - 07:45 PM
Thread Name: Requesting some help - German Toasts
Subject: RE: Requesting some help
My favourite toast comes from the west coast marshes, an area called Dithmarschen, and goes: Dat et us wohl gah op us ole Dage! It is known as Martje Flor's toast. There is a story attached to it. When soldiers occupied the area during the Napoleonic Wars some officers found quarters in a prosperous farm. They expected to be fed etc. and humiliated the people living there. At dinner one night, they called for the owner's ten-year-old daughter, Martje Flor, put a glass of wine in her hand and said, "Give us a toast!", expecting, of course, to be grovelled to. She said, in her native Low German, "Dat et us wohl gah op us ole Dage!" (May we all live well in our old age.)