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The discussion about the validity of the German spoken in the episode seems a bit too elaborate for an encyclopedic article. Is it really necessary to discuss at length improperly translated sentences by some TV writer?
The German text about the first reported sighting of the two children really is German, but full of mistakes. It reads:
Literally translated, this would read:
Which doesn't sound too bad until you realize that eine is the feminine form while Geistlicher is masculine, Schwarz is singular but Wälder is plural, but the Black Forest ist der Schwarzwald anyway; das is the wrong definite article for Körper (der Körper, plural die Körper, is masculine), Kinder as the plural form of das Kind also demands a die; von das Kinder should be der Kinder (being a genetive); both körper and kinder (as well as ich, eine, junge, mädchen and darauf) should be capitalized -- and so forth through the whole text. In other words, somebody probably just ran the English sentence through a computer. Needless to say, German fans of the show noticed.
Correct German would be something like:
Even then, this would be modern and not 17th century German, which was considerably different in spelling and style.
Giles's spoken German is far better that what the computer provides. (He already proved his impressive German accent in the season 2 episode "Killed by Death".) In the car, he says
and struggles to remember the word for "veil", which would be Schleier. The sentence then becomes Lüften Sie den Schleier, "Lift the veil". This is perfectly correct German, though it does leave open whom he is addressing, as this is a direct order to one person in the formal (polite) form. During the first part of the incantation -- before the fire is put out -- die Macht ("the power"), die Macht den Weg bereiten ("clear the path for the power") and das Böse soll das Gesicht des Bösen tragen (roughly "the evil shall have the face of evil") can be understood, with the rest being garbled by Giles. The second part, before he throws the potion, is Versteckt Euch nicht hinter falschen Gesichtern ("Do not hide behind false faces"). Though this is a different form of address than the veil part (a direct order in the familiar plural, as appropriate for two children), all spoken German is in fact correct.
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