Although Marseille is a French surname, he was German. So, am I correct to assume that he was called [mar-zai-le], not [mar-sei]?
Howdy Chris!
First, a link to a wikipedia page, stating the pronounciation at the very beginning:
en.wikipedia.org/…/Hans-Joachim_Marseille
As it says, he came from Berlin - then as now many people there learn French at school, and there were times, where French was seen by many Germans as the language spoken by classy people. That’s why it wasn’t strange for this family to keep the French pronounciation. Hope it helps, have a nice day
Paweł
So educated Germans called him [mar-sei]. I’ll call him mar-sei, too!
I remember seeing an old interview with Macky Steinhoff and he used the french pronunciation.
while he may have been from Berlin, I’ll bet his family came from the Alsace-Lorraine region, near the French border. That section of land traded between France and germany seems like every 50-100 years, so there was a lot of mixing.
Nah, the wikipedia page says his family was Hugenotes, protestants driven away from France for religious reasons towards the end of 17th century. Interesting, huh? Have a nice day
Paweł
I’m reading a book about Marseille, “The Star of Africa.” It says he was a Huguenot. It’s an amazing book, BTW. One of his commanders declaired him an Allied ace because he managed to destroy more than 5 BF-109’s he had flown in France.
And it seems that he was shot down a few times as well. Superb marksman, so-so pilot.
Anything I’ve ever read on him states that he was a superb pilot. His headstone simply says “Undefeated” “Marseille was the unrivalled virtuoso among the fighter pilots of World War 2. His achievements had previously been regarded as impossible and they were never excelled by anyone after his death.” Adolf Galland
If he was a Hugenote , he could have come with the other French to South Africa and have been an Allied ace instead of being on the wrong side!
Theuns