Same situation here ("Zwischenablage"-country, was made familiar with the concept in the non-icon days, learned the shortcuts and never click icons). The icons were always somewhat confusing to me, I have to actively think what they mean if I want to use icon-only buttons.

I believe the now known icons were popularised esp. through MS Office. What I found on the net is that Susan Kare did the more obvious scissor cut-icon for the Mac earlier. Would be interesting to read where those icons originated.