Customer Reviews

Harry Potter Und der Stein der Weisen

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Chances are if your thinking on buying this book in German, you've probably already read the Englsih version, so I won't bog you down with any lengthy opinion on the story itself except to say it is a modern classic, full of mystery and suspense that can be enjoyed by kids and adults alike.

Foreign language versions of English novels are notoriously difficult to translate, largely due to the high number of English words which have no exact translation in say, German or French. But on the whole, this was an exceptionally translated peice, with no major blunders sticking out (the Spanish version is full of them) The most obvious chnage is of "Hermione" to "Hermine" Perhaps Hermione would feel strange to pronounce to a native German speaker, not sure on that one.

A lot of people will tell you Spanish and French are far easier to learn than German. I found German more fun to learn, most people who say it is a difficult, technical language do not know that English and German belong in the same group of languages (Germanic) French, Spanish and Italian are in a completely different group (Romantic) So to brush up on language skills, or just to have fun reading a novel in another language, HP is probably the most fun and easy to understand novel on the market.

The story is excellent, and very useful as I am trying to learn German. So I can follow with my french version and this german one. The translations are basically the same, which makes it very practical and fun! I feel like I am rediscovering Harry Potter trough this german translation! Excellent book.

I highly recommend the Harry Potter serie for anyone wanting to improve his german. It certainly requires an intermediate knowledge, but read along with the english version, I could read at a much faster pace than most german books I've come accross. And of course, the story is absolutely great to read again and again!

Ich bin Amerikanerin, und ich hab das Buch niemals auf Englisch gelesen,also ist es schwer für mich, die Übersetzung mit der englischen Version zu vergleichen, aber ich kann sagen, dass die Übersetzung gut genug war, dass ich ab und zu total vergessen, dass ich im Moment Deutsch lese. Ich habe auch die spanische Version gelesen..aber die spanische Version war überhaupt nicht so gut wie die deutsche. Dieses Buch ist sehr gut für alle Studenten, die ihren deutschen Wortschatz vergrössern möchten. Manche Ausdrücke in diesem Buch, wird man nie im Klassenzimmer lernen. Aber natürlich sind die Gedichte im Buch nicht so gut wie in der englischen Version, aber das ist normal....Ich habe niemals eine Übersetzung gesehen, die besser war als die originale für Gedichten und Lieder.

This translation of Harry Potter pulled even this native speaker of English along almost as well as the original book, and I would recommend it for anyone who's had a couple of years of German as a skill and vocabulary builder. If you're struggling with Goethe or Thomas Mann, you need something that will show you that German can be fun to read, and this book will do the trick nicely. I suppose once could carp at a few things here and there, but this translation is so superior to the French translation that I wouldn't waste my time doing that, except to mention that Hermione's name has for some reason been changed to Hermine. If you get stuck, at least the trot's readily available!

harry potter ist ein sehr gut Buch, voll von fantastike Geschichte und prachtvolle Menschen! Es gefallt mir sehr viel, und ich kann es fur alle empfehlen! Harry Potter macht viel spass zu lesen. man ist glucklich, wenn er dieses Buch lesen.

Harry Potter ist super! Wenn man das Buch einmal in die Hand genommen hat, legt man es erst nach der letzten gelesenen Seite wieder weg. Es ist ein wunderbar spannendes und fesselndes Buch, sehr phantasievoll und sehr gut geschrieben noch dazu. Auf den über dreihundert Seiten ist Spannung angesagt. Man kann es jedem empfehlen, gross oder klein, alle werden von ihm begeistert sein.

Being German, I read all Harry Potter books in English firsthand and am glad I did, now that I also read Book 1 in German. The translation is not bad - I graduated on German translations of Alice in Wonderland and know how bad translations look - but some things about it really made me angry from knowing I could have done better. It's not only the usual trouble with puns - every translator gets into trouble with names like "Diagon Alley", which was simply translated as "Winkelgasse" - but some phrases simply lose the slight twinkle in Ms. Rowlings eye, though German is not a language lacking fun, or magic, or ... twinkles. The poems (I wonder if there aren't any in books 2 and 3 for translating reasons) are really badly translated. But what disturbed me most was the changing of characters' propper names. If they still call Hogwarts Hogwarts, why then rename Hermione (a Shakespearean name, a true heroine of amazonian rank) to Hermine, which is a name with a taste of old spinsters knitting woolen socks? Well at least Harry kept his name ... Still, the translation seems (for all who have not read the original and don't know the difference) to be good enough to make Harry No. 1 in German bestselling lists as well as elsewhere, everyone loves it and screams for more, so the German publishers have already announced book 5 to be issued in January, 2001 (wonder if Ms. Rowling knows?) Read this book if you're German and think your English won't be sufficient for reading the original text (which is really pleasant to read and will not mean hard work), or if you're a fan and interested in translations. But if you only want to read a German book, read something that was originally written in German, like Michael Ende. But if you're hesitating now, at least read the book in English. No one must go without Harry.

I read this in German before reading it in English. It's a lot of fun in both languages. In fact, it's great for improving one's skills in another tongue, because it's so enjoyable, you'll keep on reading. Taught me a lot of words that my German teachers never bothered with.