Why Germans can’t get enough of Wilhelm Shakespeare

He is the epitome of Englishness. So it may surprise many fans of William Shakespeare to hear that the Bard is as popular in Germany as in his native country.

They even refer to him as "unser" (our) Shakespeare.

The Globe theatre in Southwark is celebrating the country's affinity with the playwright with a series of events called Shakespeare Is German.

The programme includes talks, readings and screenings on Germany's unlikely love affair with the English icon. Shakespeare remains the most performed author on the German stage, and more of his plays are staged there than in England.

His work has been translated and admired by German writers including Goethe, Hegel, Heine and Nietzsche, and The German Shakespeare society was founded as early as 1864 in Weimar.

Cord Meier-Klodt, head of culture and education at the German Embassy in London, said: "Shakespeare's Globe is to be praised for highlighting the enormous impact The Bard of Avon' had on the German greats."

The Shakespeare Is German season opens on October 7 with the launch of a book of new translations of Goethe's essays on Shakespeare.

FAMOUS LINES

"Sein oder Nichtsein, das ist die Frage" — To be, or not to be, that is the question (Hamlet)

"Soll ich vergleichen einem Sommertage dich, der du lieblicher und milder bist?" — Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate (Sonnet 18)

"Schafft Chaos und bindet die Kriegsfurien los" — Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war (Julius Caesar)