Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof (ikh fair-SHTAY-uh noor BAHN-hohf) Literally “I understand only train station” From ich verstehe (I understand) + nur (only) + bahnhof (train station). The phrase dates to the First World War, when exhausted German soldiers longed to leave the front and associated the train station with going home. When they heard more orders or military talk, they joked that bahnhof was the only word they understood. That is how the expression came to mean, “I don’t understand a thing.”