Love and Trams

At a dinner with some friends just before Christmas, we got to talking about "love" in German: Specifically, that there are two phrases in German that more or less mean "I love you" – "ich liebe dich" and "ich hab dich lieb" – and it's not always clear why people use one or the other.

The consensus of the two Germans present seemed to be that "ich liebe dich" is only for romantic love, whereas "ich hab dich lieb" is broader and can be for parents, siblings, friends, etc.

Then, though, we realized you can use the verb "lieben" when you talk about someone ("Ich liebe meine Schwester" = "I love my sister") even if you wouldn't say "ich liebe dich" to them.

Hm.

Before we start casting psychological judgements on Germans, though, based on the fact that they'll talk about love about each other but not necessarily to each other (cue Garrison Keillor's joke about the Norwegian farmer who loved his wife so much...that he almost told her!), one of the Germans at the dinner pointed out that you can "lieben" a lot of things in German, like ice cream, or a favorite teacher. So basically, as a verb with an object, it just means you like something a lot – the same way we use "love" in English.

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Heading home from the dinner party, I caught the M10 tram with a friend who was also going the same way.

I've written before about the M10 and how I affectionately call it the "party tram," since that's what it turns into on weekend nights, when it's packed full of young folks shuttling between clubs, drinking in the tram and strewing around beer bottles and confetti. That post is the all-time most viewed post on this blog, though I assume that's through the accident of people trying to look up actual information about the M10 and ending up with me instead.

Anyway, this night shortly before Christmas my friend Naomi and I got on the M10 at Nordbahnhof and it was empty, even though it was a weekend night.

"Everyone's gone home for Christmas," Naomi said, and I had to agree that the demographic who turn the tram into a party are also probably the same folks who are young enough (and living far enough from home) that they leave for wherever it is their parents live several days ahead of Christmas, rather than just-before-Christmas-Eve or not-leaving-at-all-but-celebrating-in-Berlin-with-friends like the folks we know.

Never thought I'd see the M10 at 2 a.m. on a Saturday night with just three or four quiet passengers and one lone empty champagne bottle keeping them company from the middle of the floor!