Erinnerungen an einen besonderen Menschen

What does “Revue passieren lassen” mean in German?

Reflecting on a loved one’s life, this speaker says wenn man dann mal alles Revue passieren lässt — “when you let it all pass in review.” The idiom means to mentally look back over a stretch of time, replaying memories one by one, the way a general once reviewed marching troops.

The phrase borrows French Revue (“review,” from revoir, “to see again”) and the military image of passer les troupes en revue, “to have the troops march past for inspection.” In everyday German it’s now purely reflective — das Jahr Revue passieren lassen (“to review the year”), or here, a whole life, remembered in the same orderly, respectful procession.