Why would heaven hang full of violins? Discover German-language expressions relating to the heavenly spheres.
'The Ecstasy of the Magdalen' (1616/1620)Image: Heritage Art/Heritage Images/picture alliance
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Heaven hangs full of violins?
That's the literal translation of the German idiom "Der Himmel hängt voller Geigen," and it describes a state of ecstatic happiness. It is believed to be inspired by Baroque paintings of angels playing the violin and other heavenly instruments.
The expression has been found in writings by Martin Luther, as well as in a 17th-century collection of German folk poems and songs edited by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano, "Des Knaben Wunderhorn: Alte deutsche Lieder" (The boy's magic horn: old German songs).
Later, a 1912 hit operetta by Austrian composer Leo Fall, "Der liebe Augustin" (Dear Augustin), contributed to popularizing the idiom, as one of the highlights of the work used the expression too.
As our picture gallery shows, there are several very common German sayings that use images of the heavens.
Heavenly German idioms
The German language has idioms referring to the heavens, for unrealistic promises, extreme happiness or appalling problems.
Image: Stringer/SNA/IMAGO
No one is born a master
Everyone has to learn — that is the gist of the German idiom, "Es ist noch kein Meister vom Himmel gefallen" (No one has fallen out of the heavens a master). It's a form of consolation for people when they fail or make mistakes as they start out learning something new.
Image: Konstantin Kalishko/Zoonar/picture alliance
Extremely happy
Walking on air, floating along on cloud nine? Germans might feel "heaven hangs full of violins" (Der Himmel hängt voller Geigen), or else they could be "floating in seventh heaven" (Im siebten Himmel schweben).
Image: akg-images/picture alliance
Whatever it takes
More often than not, the German idiom "Des Menschen Wille ist sein Himmelreich" (a person's wishes are their heavenly kingdom) is a sigh of exasperation to express, "Do what you want if it makes you happy." Choices, however crazy, foolish or silly they may seem, that make a person happy are after all just that — their own choices.
The German language has a similar idiom — but "earth" is replaced by hell: The term "Himmel und Hölle in Bewegung setzen" (move heaven and hell) means you pull all the stops and leave no stone unturned to achieve a goal.
Image: Jochen Tack/picture alliance
Purely appalling
Appalling, scandalous: When Germans exclaim "das schreit zum Himmel" (that screams to the heavens), they are pointing out a very grave and serious grievance, an injustice or problem. So grave that, colloquially, it no longer falls under worldly jurisdiction, but calls for a heavenly ruling.
If you hear someone was literally promised the blue from the sky (Das Blaue vom Himmel versprechen), beware: These promises are unlikely to ever come true. They are unrealistic and unreachable.
Image: Stringer/SNA/IMAGO
Out of the blue
What comes out of the blue is unexpected, surprising, The German idiom adds lightening to the image: "Wie ein Blitz aus heiterem Himmel" (like lightening from a clear sky). Scientific background: We mostly see blue skies, by the way, because blue light is scattered more than the other colors since it travels as shorter, smaller waves.
Image: Jan Eifert/dpa/picture alliance
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Inspired by heaven, around the world
International writers, too, have gone down in history with quotes about heaven.
Henry David Thoreau, a 19th-century US poet and philosopher, is quoted as having said, "Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads." Also in the 19th century, US humorist and writer Mark Twain had the maxim, "Go to heaven for the climate, hell for the company." He also figured that there is "no humor in heaven."
Almost 300 years earlier, English playwright William Shakespeare suggested in "Hamlet" that "there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
English writer Virginia Woolf is famously quoted as having said, "Sometimes I think heaven must be one continuous unexhausted reading," — while Austrian poet by the name of Ernst Ferstl has no doubt that "Heaven and Hell are different for everyone."
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