Lexikaliker at 1,000

At Lexikaliker, Gunther has just posted his thousandth post, with a photograph of an 1888 inscription from a house in Bad Doberan, Germany:

Der Eine betracht’s
Der Andre verlacht’s
Der Dritte veracht’s
Was macht’s

Google Translate turns that into gibberish. A plausible idiomatic translation might read:

One contemplates it
Another laughs at it
The third despises it
Who cares

Reading these words, I thought I was facing some impossible riddle. But no. It is the building itself:


[The American Architect and Building News 28 (1890).]

Thank you, Gunther, for this post and so many other thought-provoking posts and beautiful photographs. Hurra!

[“Hurra”: German for “Hurrah.”]