Why is Wednesday so weird in German?

The German names for most of the days of the week are straightforward, but Wednesday sticks out as really weird. Why is it called "Mittwoch", which means "midweek", and where do the names of the days of the week come from anyway?

On the history of English:

Chapters:
00:00 What's the deal with Wednesday?
00:25 Babylonians and Israelites
01:39 Greek, Latin and Germanic
02:37 Modern German
03:26 Christian missionaries
04:07 The first day of the week

Music:
"Style Funk" and "Hot Swing"
Creative Commons Attribution licence

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[m.s.]

Interesting. There's a popular children's story about week days, specifically saturday in German. It's called 'Das Sams' and is based on a pun that I will lay out in German first and then try my best to translate and explain.

It goes like this (the protagonist is called 'Herr Taschenbier' so you can keep track):
"am Montag wurde Herr Taschenbier von Herrn Mon mit Mohnblumen begrüßt, am Dienstag hatte er wie üblich Dienst, am Mittwoch war Mitte der Woche, am Donnerstag war Gewitter mit Donner, am Freitag hatte er frei, am Sonntag schien die Sonne, und am Samstag kam das Sams." (This is NOT a direct quote from the book, it has been several years since I've had it read to me as a child, so there's very little I actually remember)

Anyway, on to the translation, or rather plot summary: 'Mr. Taschenbier (whose name translates to 'Mr. Pocketbeer') just lived out his normal and by most standards, pretty boring life, when he suddenly realized that all the names of the days of the week could predict things that would happen on that day:
on monday, a Mr. Mon would surprise him with poppy flowers ('Mohnblumen' in German),
on tuesday, it would be an ordinary work day (tuesday is 'Dienstag', 'der Dienst' translates to 'work' or 'service'),
on wednesday ('midweek'), it would be middle of the week (even though it's technically not, as the video established),
on thursday, there would be a thunderstorm with lots of thunder,
friday (Freitag) would be his day off from work (to have a day off is phrased as 'to have free' in German; 'frei' means free)
On sunday, the sun would shine (finally one that also works in English)
And on Saturday (Sams-tag), a being called the 'Sams' would appear and mess up his life in funny ways. It would have to be called the satur in English. (which would be a mere one letter away from what the day was named after in the first place)

Unsurprisingly, very few countries have attempted to translate the story as its wide use of puns and wordplay in a way that is integral to its plot and themes has made it untranslatable in the eyes of many. Still, there are exceptions: in the Netherlands, there's a version called the 'Zater', named after 'Zaterdag'; and in Swedish, it's called 'Lör' after 'Lördag'. There are also versions in Russian and Japanese, proving that it CAN be done, but only with lots of effort and ingenuity.

[mnsegler]

Love it. “and you can tell because it’s actually possible to buy groceries on a Saturday!” 😂

[Benjamin_Jehne]

For most Germans Mittwoch is still the middle of the week, as most of us don’t work on Saturday and Sunday. So it fits perfect, as we some kind of celebrate every Friday as the last day of work in a week.

[tomvorat]

Thor, in Germany, is also often referred to as „Donar“ in germanic mythology, which more closely resembles the „Donner“ of Donnerstag.

[icetwo]

Am Sonntag scheint die Sonne, Am Montag kommt Herr Mon, Am Dienstag hat man Dienst, Mittwoch ist die Mitte der Woche, Am Donnerstag gibt es Donner, Am Freitag hat man Frei und Samstags kommt das Sams

[sisuguillam]

Man lernt nie aus.... und mit Dir Neues zu lernen macht immer Spaß!
Schönes Wochenende!

[ornleifs]

We have the same name in Icelandic, it's "Miðvikudagur" Mid week day.

[kedrak]

Knowing that Saturday is a Werktag can be quite useful because some speed limits and parking signs only apply werktags.

[Hendricus]

How do you know something is related to Germany? There is a DIN for it

[theprofessionalfence-sitter]

Some dictionaries still list Wodenstag as an archaic term for Mittwoch. Also, one of the Low German names for Wednesday is Wunsdag/Woensdag.

[OpaSpielt]

Yeah, the Saturday ... Germany is divided into 3 parts here. The northern and northeastern regions use Sonnabend, the southern, western and southwestern regions use Samstag. But there's another small area close to the border of the Netherlands along river Ems in the northwest, where people use Saterdag in their local dialects.
Nice video again.
Have a nice day 🖐👴

[YPOC]

I can remember being confused by "Sonnabend" for the first time in primary school. More than two decades later I still couldn't say with certainty which day it meant.

[eisikater]

"In a word: Christianity." -- Andrew, you are ingenious as always.
I don't like Sundays because there's little you can do in a small village. But a sunny Sunday can be fun in summer.
The bloopers were excellent this time. Lads, watch Andrew's videos 'til the end!

[elfo]

Ich dachte immer, Samstag hat was mit dem Sams zu tun... :P

[wichardbeenken]

In southern German dialects often „Pfinztag“ is used for Thursday. It goes back to the Greek word πεντε for five and is an example for the High German consonant shift p>pf and t>z. Furthermore, in Bavarian you may find “Ertag” for Tuesday, wich goes back to the Greek god of war Αρης, but also to Arius the founder of Arianism, which was the predominant form of Christianity in the region during the 5th and 6th century. Thus, in Bavarian the only non-christian name of a day of the week is “Freitag”, but this may result from the missinterpretation of Friday as free-day before the weekend.😉

[InspektorDreyfus]

In den USA ist immer noch Sonntag der erste Tag der Woche. Dadurch werden in manchen Jahren die Kalenderwochen unterschiedlich gezählt. Woche 1 ist diejenige Woche, von der mindestens 4 Tage im neuen Jahr liegen.

[NomicFin]

Finnish has the same thing, with Wednesday being called "keskiviikko" (midweek). Interestingly in Swedish it's called "onsdag", which is derived from the same source as the English Wednesday (both are derived from "Odins dag", or Odin's day). That's notably because if the Finnish names of the weekdays had come from Swedish (which for historical reasons is where a lot of loanwords came from) you'd expect the word for Wednesday to be similar to the Swedish one. So it's likely that the Finnish names for the weekdays are actually derived from German.

[Leofwine]

The Old English bit was nicely pronounced (IIRC Rewboss/Andrew is from the UK's West Country region — at least he has relatives still living there, so maybe the Wessex ancestry is still shimmering in his blood like Cherkov-radiation).

The Italian bit needed a long e (since it's stressed and in an open syllable); whether open or closed, depends on the (native)speaker and his dialect.

Also, „Sonnabend“ is a word I first heard in the German version of the Nickelodeon series „Doug“. I only use „Samstag“.

[mickimicki]

Very thorough! You taught me several new things in a very short time.
There is a European language where all pagan weekdays were successfully eliminated. In Portuguese, the days between the day of the Lord (Domingo) and the Sabbath (Sábado) are named/numbered Segunda-feira, meaning "second mass", Terça-feira, "third mass", and so on: Quarta-feira, Quinta-feira, Sexta-feira. 
Which I feel must have been easier for foreigners to remember when weeks still started on Sunday.

[dcassus]

In Brazil the week still starts on Sunday (Domingo, yes day of the lord too). So much so that the other days are basically numbered: 2ª-feira, 3ª-feira, 4ª-feira, 5ª-feira, 6ª-feira. Feira being a very old way of naming the mass service of the catholic church. So: day of the 2nd mass (Monday), day of the 3rd mass (tuesday) and so on. And Saturday also remained with the Hebrew derivate sábado.