The German will pause and settle back in his seat. He'll sit and calculate for a minute or two. Then he'll lead off.
At least five of these guys will be political figures. The first guy will always be Konrad Adenauer, the first chancellor after World War II. Everyone has this enormous respect for the guy and what had to be done in those days. He acted presidential and you can't find a single person to today to ever criticize anything this guy ever did.
Then Helmet Schmidt will be mentioned. For Germans....this guy is the Holy Grail of leaders. You can take him into a room and announce some colossal emergency and he goes into action and gives orders like a drill sergeant. He leads people to an end purpose. It's been twenty-five years since he wrapped up his chancellor duties and folks still view him today as an absolute legend. This is the guy that you can view today....in his eighties....who chain-smokes and still runs through two packs a day (my guess). He can still walk into a hotel or building where smoking is illegal and light-up....and not a person will ever say a word. He commands respect.
Then you've got Helmet Kohl who ran Germany for sixteen years and his glitter disappeared by the end. Most Germans still have this positive attitude about the guy. Some will openly criticize him for staying too long and probably becoming somewhat corrupted at the end.
For the fourth and fifth positions...it'll be toss-ups. There's Green Party folks like Petra Kelly or Joschka Fischer. There's your friendly Bavarian political boss....Franz Josef Strauss. Erich Honecker might be mentioned....even if he was the East German boss at the end as the wall collapsed.
Around the sixth spot will always be Ludwig II...the crazy Bavarian king who built the dream castle. He captures the mind and creativity of Germans. Bavarians still have this mythical view of the guy.
By the seventh and eighth position, you come to Richard Wagner or Bach or Beethoven. At least two will always be mentioned.
The ninth? Franz Beckenbauer typically gets mentioned. Der Kaiser. Most Americans would laugh that a soccer coach would rate into the top ten. Remember, this is a regular German at a pub....and they would have this view of the Kaiser holding the crown jewels of German attitude and vision on the field. If the Kaiser says something...it's typically worth remembering....that's what a German would say.
Then we come to the tenth man. The shocker here is that it's a religious figure who has been dead for four-hundred and fifty-odd years. Martin Luther. Most Americans can't envision how anyone would equate a religious figure to a top ten position. Germans have this different view of his achievements, and it lives on today.
If you put yourself in 1500's Germany....it's a country of have's and have-not's. Out of a hundred men, five have something to own, and ninety-five are just surviving. Somewhere in the midst of this daily existence for both....is the Catholic Church.
The church held power over the Kings, the Princes, the Lords, and even the little guys at the end of the line. The church had this franchise-like mentality. They wanted to come into every community and build up a church. And in significant towns....they wanted a cathedral. The difference between a church and a cathedral in today's world? It's like comparing a two-story mom & pop storefront, and then a Super Wal-Mart. Cost became this huge factor in the construction of every single cathedral.
So if you were a Bishop somewhere....to move up the food chain ladder....you needed to build cathedrals. Kings, Princes and Lords had this pocket of money....and the Catholic Church went after as much as they could get....but this wasn't enough. So this scheme was hatched to go after the little guy and his money.
The deal was simple....you create these sermons where sin was going to forbid you entry into heaven. The little guy was stupid enough to believe the deal....and then you offer up this special letter which was stamped, and it'd suggest that you were sin-free as of the date it was "sold".
For this one priest who was close to having a nervous breakdown because of his seriousness nature into religion....this smacked of a commercial nature. The comical thing was that the special letter would be sold on one week....and within a month....the local church bosses would convince you that new sins had been committed....so you'd need a whole new letter stamped. More cash would be involved.
Martin Luther becomes this magnet for trouble. He won't sit by and just let this happen.
An internal battle within the leadership of what exists in Germany in the 1500s now starts to emerge. In the end, the mighty Catholic Church emerges as the loser. This mythical character of a simple priest that stood up....now becomes a legend that endears to even this day.
It was a battle between good and evil, as far as most Germans see it.
So a simple priest from 450-odd years ago, ends up as the tenth man that most Germans would put on their list.
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