„Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof”
🔤 Literal meaning:
“I only understand train station.”
🧠 Actual meaning:
“I don’t understand anything.” / “I’m completely lost.”
It’s what we say when someone explains something and… our mind is elsewhere 🙃
In English, it would be something like:
"It's all Greek to me".
🕰️ 🌍 Historical origin
The expression comes from World War I.
Soldiers, exhausted and longing to go home, would listen to any conversation, and the only thing that interested them was the word “Bahnhof” (train station), because it meant going home.
So when someone talked about strategies, orders, or complicated topics, the soldiers would reply:
“Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof.”
That is: “I don’t care about anything you’re saying; all I want is to leave.”
Over time, it became a popular phrase to express total incomprehension.
