Why so many Chinese people want to learn German? Although English is the main foreign language in China, time and again I'm surprised how many Chinese are either learning German, or would like to do it at some point. In fact, when I think about it, I’m not able to think about a single Chinese acquaintance of mine who hasn't mention to me that they have learned, are learning at present, or mean to learn German, and there are quite a few. Even if their English is miserable, they are already pondering or even trying to add German to it. Just this month two Chinese people, a man and a woman, contacted me separately (not on this website, in fact, not on a language-learning site at all). When we exchanged the basic information about ourselves, at some point I mentioned that I am fluent in German. The woman is a waitress, her English is very poor. Why would she need German? The man turned out to be an active German learner. Of course, German is popular in Russia too. It mostly has to do with the deep historical, economical, and cultural ties between Germany and Russia. German settlements have existed in Russia since the 18th century, Russian academicians and even emperors were ethnic Germans. China doesn't have similar connections. Still, German in Russia remains only one of the possible second foreign languages. Many Russians would rather choose French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese and Japanese. I myself had French as my second foreign language at school and I started to learn German only after I have learned Spanish for two years and completely failed at it. By the way, I am well aware that those other languages are also learned in China, especially Italian, but the popularity of the German language in China is out of any understandable proportion. There has to be something about the German culture that is so attractive to many Chinese. What is it? Is it the music of Bach and Wagner? Why not that of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov? Is that the writings of Goethe and Fontane? Why not of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky? The scale suggests that it has to be something much more superficial than the classics. And what could be more superficial about one's understanding of the German culture than to connect it with Hitler and the Third Reich? I already knew that Hitler is immensely popular in some Muslim nations, in India and in Mongolia. After I searched on the Internet, I found that he is also popular in China. An article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung describes Hitler in China as a second greatest person after the chairman Mao