7x01 Tower of London

If you want to be clever, please actually be:

"Germany has been the anvil for too long" (rough translation) has been Said by Bernhard von Bülow, the German Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in 1899 (December 11th 1899 to be precise).

And he was probably refering to something by Goethe:
"You must either conquer and rule or serve and lose, suffer or triumph, be the anvil or the hammer."

I'm not saying that behaving like a hammer and forcing people to do what you want is right. But isn't that exactly where Americans WANT to see their country? Being free themselves while forcing everyone else to do things the way they want them to?

I guess my point is:
Just because Hitler said something, it wasn't necessarily coined by him. Usually he put it into the context and THAT makes it kind of weird to hear someone say it.
But especially this phrase had been used before with EXACTLY the same meaning.

Wouldn't be too bad if Wendy knew and associated it with Hitler, but Taylor is usually a knowitall and probably should know that the origins go back further.

P.S.: I had to research it myself - but I think that is something you can expect a writer to do if they want to use our dark history for dramaturgic effect.