21 December 2025
What do Germans mean when they talk about a donkey bridge (Eselsbrücke)?
Random German Word of the Day: Eselsbrücke - This German word literally means “donkey bridge” and refers to any mnemonic device or phrase that is used to remember facts or information.
A current example for something like this would be the English “PEMDAS” (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiply, Divide, Add, Subtract).
Example
A famous German Eselsbrücke is this rhyme:
Wer nämlich mit h schreibt, ist dämlich. Whoever writes the word ‘nämlich’ with an ‘h’ is stupid.
This saying is meant to help prevent impressionable German children from putting the letter ‘h’ between the ‘ä’ and the ‘m’ in the word ‘nämlich’… however, what you’ve probably noticed and what many Germans haven’t is that there’s a pretty important ‘h’ in the word anyway… But you get the point.
Origin
Eselsbrücke is traced to the Latin pons asinorum (“bridge of asses”), used in medieval scholastic reasoning. Today it is a bridge over a gap in your memory: an extra association or image that helps you reach the answer.
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