MovieChat Forums > Ride with the Devil (1999) Discussion > German or Dutch?

German or Dutch?

posted 15 years ago by info-6068
37 replies | jump to latest

Jake Roedel was he a German or a Dutchman?
It might be that Americans think its all the same, because most have no clue about how Europe looks like, but it sure aint the same. A Dutchman (Dutchy) is from The Netherlands an not from Germany. So what about Jake Roedel? At the beginning it is said that he is German, in the middle he is Dutch and later he is German again. Throughout the whole film he is called 'Dutchy' by the group he is riding with.....
Bit confusing here.
My advise tho the script writer and all other writers: Do some good research! Especially when its about an historic item!

I am Dutch myself and we don't like to be called German ans as far as I know Germans don't like to be called Dutch either.

[–] vicky_lc2001 (1907) 7 years ago

Germans refer to themselves as Dutch while the English and Americans refer to them as Germans from the Latin word Aleman or Alemania. So either applies to him.

[–] Noufa (397) 3 years ago

As others have noted, national borders were up for grabs during the Napoleonic era. So there was understandable confusion about how to address Jake.

But there's a 1929 interview with Civil War veterans floating around the internet. They casually rerefer to Union soldiers as "the Dutch".

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/cjjept/1929_interviews_with_civil_war_veterans_a_view_of/

They appear to be using the word in reference to ALL Unionists. So there's a subtext that Jake is suspected of split loyalties.

This also supports Mencken's theory that the label "Yankees" was derived from "Jan Kaas", a nickname for the early settlers of New York City. I understand foreigners use it to refer to all of us Americans. But here in the US, it's still understood as a reference to northerners.

Seriously under-appreciated movie, BTW. Funny that it took a Taiwanese director to get so much right about the American Civil War. What a shame it bombed.