I was in Germany a few years ago, and I remember a historian we were working with swearing a lot (in English) just to make points or convey extremities. When I queried him about it he said swearing didn't have particularly negative connotations when used in "normal conversation" in German. I took this at face value at the time, so I apologize if I've misspoken on the matter.

That sounds like a lame excuse. Maybe he was just unaware that he was swearing so much. I think it’s generally easier to swear in a second language: There are no parents around to tell you not to use certain words. I certainly don’t feel the same when swearing in English and German.

I almost never swear in German – written or spoken – because it feels wrong to me†. I have less problems swearing in English. This goes so far that I tend to say “fuck” to myself when something goes wrong and not the German equivalent (or if I do use a German word it’s the tame „verdammt“ – “damn”).

There is this comedy routine from 1998 by a German comedian about exactly this topic, by the way. I found it on YouTube, even with subtitles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxNLENPsbq4 (I’m not in any way claiming that it’s any good, it just fits so well.)

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† I don’t have a problem with others swearing. I’m not offended by it.

German, as a language, is rather ill-suited to swearing. Other than "shit", there are no strong expletives I encounter. But lots of people say "fuck" (in English). I've often felt the need for a stronger expletive but there don't seem to be any. So I am sometimes reduced to swearing in one of the other languages I know. Finnish is best suited to the task, but pretty much any language seems to do better than German.