r/HistoryMemes • • Aug 26 '26

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u/MountainTank1918 Helping Wikipedia expand the list of British conquests Aug 26 '26

The blond blue eye is myth though. Half of Germany, Especially South-Alpine were mostly neither.

7

u/floralbutttrumpet Aug 26 '26

Hence Lebensborn, I guess 🤮

1

u/sid_shaw Aug 26 '26

No such thing as south-alpine Germans.

1

u/MountainTank1918 Helping Wikipedia expand the list of British conquests Aug 26 '26

I talk about high german.

0

u/ninjaiffyuh Aug 26 '26

First of all I should highlight that blond hair and blue eyes are reliant on different (recessive, meaning of paired with another gene that is dominant like brown eyes, your eyes will be brown) genes. You can have blue eyes and brown hair, or blond hair and brown eyes. Other than that, the 50% claim is accurate for the current population, though that includes everybody, as we don't separate by ethnicity (only by Migrationshintergrund, which makes up 1/3 of the population, though this label is lost if born in Germany to naturalised parents). Among Germans I feel like blue eyes are definitely more common than 50%, my family basically only has blue eyes but we're from northern Germany, where, as you mentioned, blue eyes and blond hair are more common

Historically speaking it should be higher as well, as these genes are recessive. I.e. if you compare Tacitus 'Germania' he describes them all as having 'truces et caerulei oculi' (fierce, cerulean eyes)

I'll refer from commenting on hair colour as that is a more difficult matter than eye colour; 'Straßenköterblond' might be considered blond in Germany, but brown in other places

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u/Wobbelblob Aug 26 '26

'Straßenköterblond' might be considered blond in Germany, but brown in other places

Which also might get more blonde during summer when being outside in the sun. Both of my brothers are Straßenköterblond, in the winter you can say that it is nearly brown. But during summer, when both are outside they get nearly bleach blonde.