False quotes on the internet – please help to curb them!

A clever quote, a big name, all together on a sharepic, that's how you know it. But many quotes are wrong.

The spread of unchecked false quotes is becoming increasingly prevalent. Last but not least, the problem is that such cuckoo quotes are often copied from the Internet into political speeches, public reporting and books. This in turn increases their credibility and makes exposure more difficult. Misquotations are reprehensible, regardless of the message they are intended to convey.

A call from Dr. Andreas Neumann from Münster in Westphalia

Beethoven – Often quoted, but often wrong

On Ludwig van Beethoven's 250th birthday in mid-December 2020, it became increasingly noticeable again: There is hardly a musical wisdom that Beethoven is said not to have already said.

Short and succinct sayings linked to his portrait. Viral share pics. For example:

“Music is the electrical ground in which the mind lives, thinks, invents”

Beethoven is said to have said, or translated into English, connected to his likeness: “ Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents. “

A brief internet search shows that it was not Beethoven who said this, but Bettina von Arnim (1785-1859) in a letter to Goethe.

“It doesn’t matter, it’s everywhere.”

When I pointed out the fakes in a corresponding posting on the site https://www.classicfm.com/ , I was replied that the quotes could be found on many other websites and were therefore real. The answer is often: It doesn't matter who it comes from. The message alone is crucial. However, both are untrue.

On September 30, 2020, the ARD’s “title, theses, temperament” used the quote attributed to Twain as a teaser for a program about the American election campaign: “ Never argue with a fool, the viewers may not be able to tell the difference.” “I responded to it, under the post itself, as private messages to the channel and on my own page - to which, probably in keeping with the fake, there was never a response.

I would like to call on people not to distribute quotes without checking them. If there is no source for the quote - as is very often the case on the Internet - be skeptical and, without being a know-it-all, at least point out that a source is missing. If you have a little time and inclination and your intuition tells you it's fake, check.

Verification made easy

The literary works of most of the most frequently misquoted people - from Socrates to Dante and Goethe to Bismarck and Loriot - are freely available and easy to search. Regarding Loriot, who, like Twain, is suitable for supporting rather funny sayings, there is a nice example of a successful debunking by the quotation researcher Gerald Krieghofer at https://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/loriot-zitate-krieghofer-einstein- corona-1.4916049 .

Fake quotes from foreign language authors or fake quotes translated into a foreign language can usually be identified quite easily by translating or back-translating two or three key words into the original language and searching the Internet. Last but not least, there are now websites that specialize in exposing such fakes, such as (in English) https://quoteinvestigator.com/ and (in German) the blog https://falschzitate.blogspot.com/ .

Conclusion

Always ask yourself what interests the spreaders of such fakes might have. If you are sensitive to the numerous falsifications regarding the past, you will also notice attempts to attribute emotionalizing and polarizing statements to living politicians - see https://www.mimikama.org/aktuelles/frei-erfundene-politiker-zitate / – especially not in.

This article was written by lawyer Dr. Andreas Neumann, www.immoanwalt.nrw – Contact: [email protected]