Why Germans hate Subtitles

If you turn on the TV in the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and many other European countries, English-language films and series are most likely broadcast in the original language with added subtitles. In my home country, Germany, however, things are completely different: Europe's largest voice acting industry has developed here - and almost every film and series is meticulously translated into German. Why is that? And why don't Germans like subtitles?

A film by Matthias Schwarzer and Noah Matzat.

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Sources for the video:

Germany, a dubbing nation (Goethe Institute, German):

The magic of dubbing (NDR, German):

A short history of dubbing (Meine Südstadt, German):

The triumph of the sound film (Planet Wissen, German):

Interview Joseph Garncarz (Deutschlandfunk Kultur German):

The establishment of the dubbing of foreign language films (Joseph Garncarz, German):

The study that Joseph Garncarz refers to:
Victor Volmar: “Foreign Versions”. In: Journal of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. Vol. 55. (1950), pp. 536–546

Films in the Nazi era (Federal Agency for Civic Education, German):

Films in the Nazi era (German Historical Museum, German):

Films in the Nazi era (Uni Kiel, German):

How films were changed through dubbing (ORF, German):

How Italy banned foreign words (Adam Smith Institute):

Film subtitles help with language learning (Max Planck Institute, German):

Ranking of the countries with the best English skills (EF.de)

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Intro song:
MÆT - Start Again

Music:
Epidemic Sound

#dubbing #voiceacting #voiceactor

[MatthiasSchwarzerEnglish]

Thanks for watching! Here's more you might like:

[janco_verduin]

As a Dutchman (18 milion inhabitants btw) I've always found german dubbing hilarious. It always sounds artificial to me and it adds an ironic tone even when it is not intended. So glad we keep the original language here.

[markmurphy]

I lived in Deutschland for 9 months or so, and was surprised how much dubbing changed the very personality of the characters and story. This was most pronounced in the TV show Peter Falk in his show "Columbo". English speakers are in on the joke that Columbo acts like a buffoon to trap his suspects, and his speech patterns are appropriately strange. In the German dubbed versions, he sounds very suave and self assured, which TOTALLY changes tenor of the whole show. From a faux bumbling fool to a self-assured genius detective. When my German friend visited me in NYC, she was so unhappy with the original voice of Peter Falk she couldn't watch the show.

[nocturne]

I don't agree that things like feelings, irony etc is lost in subtitles. You can still hear it in the original language, those things tend to not get lost in translation that often.

[MTTT]

Sometimes such a German voice actor can get a funny side-hustle, so to speak. The voice actor for the James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan for example voiced the welcome message at the Cologne airport with the words

'Wilkommen in Bonn. Köln Bonn.'

As an homage to his voice for Bond, James Bond.

[andrejbartulin]

In Croatia, we use subtitles. However, kids channels are dubbed. Same in cinema

[Phiyedough]

I'm British but have lived in Hungary (where very few people speak English) and Croatia (where lots of people speak English. Hungary uses dubbing but Croatia uses subtitles.

[dmdm]

I'm from Portugal and there our movies are with the original language and subtitles, the only exception are animation movies or cartoons, those are dubbed in portuguese. But all my life I grew up listening to the original language that now that I'm living in Germany I need to go to the Netherlands every time I want to go to the cinema, luckily I don't live that far from the border. But I simply can't listen to the dub version I always notice that what's being spoken doesn't match the lips. I have to say that watching movies with their original language with subtitles definitely helped with learning English.

[platinaatje]

I always prefer original sound with subtitles.

[tonybennett]

Back in the 80s I used to visit a Dutch friend living in Amsterdam. He explained that one of the reasons that the Dutch spoke such good English was that they were able to pick up BBC television, which with the quality of its programmes was very popular. That signal didn't reach as far as Germany, but I don't know if it would have made any difference even if it had.

With so many blockbusters being made in English, maybe it's not surprising that those are dubbed, but here in London all foreign language films are subtitled because they appeal to a smaller demographic. I prefer it that way because I want an actor's complete performance and cadence and inflections can be detected even when in a foreign language. Surely German cinema goers can never truly assess an Oscar winning performance when so much of it is lost.


BTW are German audiences ever offered the choice of subtitles for any of these films?

[saddq]

Poland has the weirdest kind of dubbing. They use one (male) voice to dub EVERY voice in the movie, and not even synchronous with the lip movements. It's called a 'lektor'.

[johnnyjolijt]

In The Netherlands we use subtitles except for programs for (small) children.
I grew up very close to the German border and had accsess to German television as well. I remember they would also vocaly ‘explain’ what was going on in silent films like Charlie Chaplin, L&H (Dick und Doof) and the Pink Panther (Der Rosarote Panther).

[TheMrMe]

As an Icelander, I hate dubbing with a passion. It's associated with children here, and I'm perfectly capable of reading subtitles. I prefer the original language, whatever it be, with subtitles in a language I speak.

[Gsyncro]

It's a similar situation here in Quebec. Since there's a strong french speaking population here, there's a booming film, tv and music industry that's all in french. Now, we also like American and European pop culture so foreign language films and tv shows get dubbed. However, there are lot's of anglophones in the province, so the english versions are also readily available. Bilingual people like me will rather watch the original versions but if I have to, I find it much less annoying to watch a dubbed version rather than read a movie I can still fully understand!!

Also movies dubbed in french are dubbed here. In France they do their own, so you might end up with an American movie with two different titles and different dialogues in french. Our dubs are mostly with an international french accent (leaning towards proper French accent) but in some cases the dubbing is done in Québécois.

Being of German origin, I find the topic and the similarities fascinating!!

[gosoftcz]

In the Czech republic are almost all movies and series fully dubbed. It is almost impossible to see movie with subtitles on any major tv channel. Also text is adjusted to be in sync with lip movement. It could be applied to streaming services as well, what I could see from statistics, dubbed movie has much wide audience than only with subtitles. But how such is possible, that only 11million people speaks Czech and still dubbing seems to be economically viable.

[fredskronk]

I think it’s interesting that the voice actor claims that feelings are lost with subtitles. I totally agree with him on subtitles moving your gaze away from the action and that is why many people here in Sweden just don’t read them. On streaming service you can actually turn the off all together.

On the other hand. When I was a child, cartoons got dubbed while live action was subtitled, even when aimed at kids. Nowadays even live action are dubbed, both on tv and in cinemas.

However. My children aren’t watching that. They mostly watch stuff on YouTube where everything is in English. My ten year old is practically fluent in English and the seven year old isn’t far behind. Teachers in Sweden are actually somewhat complaining about their pupils knowing more English than they are tasked to teach.

So with that in mind. I don’t think that feelings, humour nor irony is getting lost on us. :)

[nirutivan]

As a germanspeaking Swiss I grew up with the German dubs.

I personally love subtitles and I even sometimes put them on when I watch things in German 😂

Generally:
I tend to watch it in the original language with subtitles when I speak or learn a language or when a language is similar to a language I know (the language of the subtitles is either German, English or the language of the movie itself). For other languages I often tend to prefer a dub.
I kinda like subs to help me understand what is being said, but I don‘t really like it when the subs are the only option to understand what is being said (I hope it‘s understandable what I mean with that).

[MichielvandenBroeke]

It’s funny. I’m dutch and as a kid I used to watch popular movies on german television because they were broadcasted much earlier there than on dutch television. I learned german that way

[Kate-vdhl]

It's a wonderful thing if you're trying to learn German. Any tv show adults or kids will have German dubbing. I'm learning Dutch rn and I'm really frustrated that I can't find dubs of any of the shows I want to watch. Not even teen shows!! It just makes it difficult when all I have available is kids movies and tv.

[yannsalmon]

Contrary to what the video stated, France has also a very prominent dubbing industry which is extremely professional and specialized. I think that France, Spain and Italy level of precision and quality in the way they do dubbing are identical and no different from Germany. You can add Canadian Quebec that does their own French version (mostly because it’s a separate market from Europe).

In France also you will get discussions between people who prefer subtitles over dubbing and vice-versa. There’s no definite answer because both appeal to very different audiences. Luckily, we live in an era where that doesn’t really matter because now you can choose whatever you like, nobody’s forcing you to watch subtitles if you don’t want to or listening to an awkward dubbed version if you don’t like it.

The dubbing scene in France have iconic actors and actresses. There are French voices that you recognize immediately and associate with foreign actors like Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford, Robert De Niro, etc. As in Germany, it’s not systematic to use always the same actor, even if they generally try to keep it consistent. But it also depends on other factors like the availability of the voice actor, the terms of the contract or artistic direction requirements.

When it comes to voice dubbing for animated movies like Pixar or Dreamworks or even some Animes, there has been a big marketing tendency to pick local French celebrities over dubbing professionals to be able to use their names for promoting the movie. The daughter of a Friend used to dub in French the main character of an animated series for kids (as a matter of fact, it was a character of German origins : Die Biene Maja (Maya l’abeille in French - Maya the bee in English). She did the voice for all the episodes of the TV series but when they made an animated movie released in theaters, the production picked a popular female French singer to dub Maya in the movie instead of her so they could promote it with a celebrity cast.
The problem with what has been called « star talent » dubbing is that even if you are a talented famous actor or actress, that doesn’t mean that you can do dubbing well… it’s a totally different type of performance from playing in front of the camera. And many celebrity cast are not even actors in the first place. So the results are not always good. But they are not always bad either, there have been pleasant surprises as well as total disasters.