Its popularity increased because a major character in
Goethe's Faust (1808) has this name. In German, the Gretchenfrage [
de] ("question by Gretchen"), derived from Faust, is an idiom for a direct question that aims at the core of a problem and that should reveal the intentions and mindset of the questioned. The question is usually inconvenient to the questioned since he or she shall confess to something crucial he or she was intentionally or unintentionally vague about before.
In German-speaking countries, Gretchen is not frequent as a stand-alone given name, but as a colloquial diminutive or pet name of
Grete (Greta), which itself is a short form of
Margarete (Margaret).[1]
This page or section lists people that share the same
given name. If an
internal link led you here, you may wish to change that link to point directly to the intended article.
Its popularity increased because a major character in
Goethe's Faust (1808) has this name. In German, the Gretchenfrage [
de] ("question by Gretchen"), derived from Faust, is an idiom for a direct question that aims at the core of a problem and that should reveal the intentions and mindset of the questioned. The question is usually inconvenient to the questioned since he or she shall confess to something crucial he or she was intentionally or unintentionally vague about before.
In German-speaking countries, Gretchen is not frequent as a stand-alone given name, but as a colloquial diminutive or pet name of
Grete (Greta), which itself is a short form of
Margarete (Margaret).[1]
This page or section lists people that share the same
given name. If an
internal link led you here, you may wish to change that link to point directly to the intended article.