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Welcome to Sprichwörtlich Deutsch, the podcast about German proverbs, idioms and expressions. My name is Kirsten Winkler, and I am your host.

Today’s expression is

Die Kirche im Dorf lassen.

As always, let’s take a look at the vocabulary first. Kirche, die Kirche is a church. Dorf, das Dorf is a village and lassen is our verb and means to leave or to let. Hence, the translation of Die Kirche im Dorf lassen is … right To leave the church in the village.

Another interesting and quite frequently used expression that goes back to the middle ages in Germany. Back then the church was the natural center of any village. All other buildings were constructed around it and the village grew from its center.

Over the year there were lots of processions and usually those processions were held on the main road of the village or town.
However, if the village was too small, the processions would take place outside of it, leaving the church at its place.

So when Germans say

Lassen wir die Kirche im Dorf.

or

Nun lassen Sie mal die Kirche im Dorf!

they want to express that everything should stay as it is. One should not exaggerate or mess with the natural order of things, everything is good as it is. A related expression is Die Kirche ums Kreuz tragen. – to carry the church around the cross which also relates to the processions where the cross is carried in front of the pilgrims around the church and not the other way around.

As I said, this expression is still very popular and you can use it in almost every environment, with family, friends and even in the working world. It is appropriate language and still understood. A related, but more modern expression would be Den Ball flach halten.

And that’s it for today’s episode of Sprichwörtlich Deutsch. Hope you join me next time and don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast either on iTunes or via FairLanguages.com

Music: Chillin’ With Jeris” by copperhead (feat. Jeris)

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