Waldemar III, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst

Waldemar III, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst was a German prince who died in 1391. Waldemar III, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst's dad's name was John.

There really were a lot of princes all over the world back in the olden days. There aren't as many princes these days. In fact, even the word prince has taken on new meaning in our modern times. When I hear the word prince, the first thing that comes to mind is Prince. Then I think of Prince spaghetti. Then I think of Milwaukee Brewers' firstbaseman Prince Fielder. Then I think of the Spin Doctors. Then I think of Bel Air. Then, and only then, I think of Waldemar III, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst.

One can only wonder what we'll think of when we hear the word prince in another 600 years.


Sometimes princes get angry.
Photo: itslefty via Flickr (CC)

SV Eintracht Trier 05

SV Eintracht Trier 05 is a German soccer club, originally founded in 1905. They currently play down in the fourth level of professional German leagues.

In Germany they call soccer Fußball (pronouced FOOS-ball). This is funny because that's our English word for a table game with hard plastic men lined up on metal rods with big heads and blocks for feet spinning very fast and knocking a ball into a goal. One can imagine a world in which this was always how German-English language relationships worked. For example, the German word for farming is Landwirtschaft. In English, landwirtschaft would be our word for hard plastic men lined up on metal rods with big heads and blocks for feet spinning very fast and planting crops.

Soccer is one of Germany's most cherished pastimes.


These foosball players wish they weren't suspended from metal rods.
Photo: Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos (ClintJCL) via Flickr (CC)