The organization now known as Blitzer International Inc was founded in 1933 by the German educationalist Adolf Blitzer. He developed a system of language teaching which today is still the basis for the world-famous Blitzer courses.

“Somewhere in the Middle East” (photographed by a correspondent)

The principles he laid down were deceptively simple. Students would read comic books and memorize German phrases such as Achtung! Donner und Blitzen! Schnell, Englander Schwein! Aaagghhhh...! They and the teacher would scream these at each other for 60 minutes, with suitable frenzied arm movements.

There was no formal grammar instruction. Instead students absorbed the grammatical system naturally, by using it. Teachers employed a barrage of questions to be answered. And, most importantly, each Blitzer teacher had to be a pure Aryan native speaker of German.

After the war Blitzer moved to the United States and adapted the same technique to English.

Typical classroom dialogue
Teacher: What is the capital of Germany? Answer me at once, you fool!
Student: Er—the old capital or the new one?
Teacher: I ask the questions! Which nation is the undisputed master of Europe?
Student: Er—Great Britain?
Teacher (frothing at mouth): No, you worm, Germany! For you, my friend, the course is over.

Total Invasion®

After several years of research and testing, Blitzer created a stir in academic circles with the introduction of its Total Invasion® (TI) programme. Total Invasion is geared for students with an urgent need to relocate overseas, usually accompanied by tanks. The programme immerses the student in language instruction more than eight hours a day, for two to six weeks.

Note: Blitzer has recently been bought by Kamikaze Publishing and now produces a Japanese language course.