History
Jedem das Seine has been an idiomatic German expression for several centuries. For example, it is found in the works of Martin Luther and contemporaries.
It appears in the title of a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, Nur jedem das Seine ("Let all be paid duly"), first performed at Weimar in 1715.
Some nineteenth-century comedies bear the title Jedem das Seine, including works by Johann Friedrich Rochlitz and Caroline Bernstein.
An ironic twist on the proverb, "jedem das Seine, mir das Meiste" ("to each his own, to me the most"), can be traced to Carl Zuckmayer's 1931 play, The Captain of Köpenick.
In 1937, the Nazis constructed the Buchenwald concentration camp, near Weimar, Germany. The motto Jedem das Seine was placed over the camp's main entrance gate.
Read more about this topic: Jedem Das Seine
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The custard is setting; meanwhile
I not only have my own history to worry about
But am forced to fret over insufficient details related to large
Unfinished concepts that can never bring themselves to the point
Of being, with or without my help, if any were forthcoming.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“When the history of this period is written, [William Jennings] Bryan will stand out as one of the most remarkable men of his generation and one of the biggest political men of our country.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)