New Dictionary Highlights Nazi Words to Avoid

[Aptrgangr]

New Dictionary Highlights Nazi Words to Avoid

By David Gordon Smith

Dozens of words in the German language, from "degenerate" to "final solution," have become taboo because of their use by the Nazis. A new dictionary of Third Reich terms provides a guide through the linguistic minefield.



DPA
The Nazis carried out a hate campaign against 'degenerate' music -- now the word itself has become taboo.

As if German weren't hard enough. Three genders, endlessly long words, verbs coming at the end of impossibly rambling sentences.

But there is another, more subtle, linguistic trap which both Germans and non-Germans can easily fall into -- and which is far worse a faux pas than a mere slip of the article. Mention that you've found the "Endlösung" ("final solution") to a problem you've been grappling with, or that you've made a "Selektion" ("selection") from a number of possible alternatives, and you will quickly find yourself the target of disapproving stares.
The reason is simple -- the aforementioned words are so tainted by their use by the Nazis that they are now completely taboo. To modern German ears, "Endlösung" will forever be associated with Hitler's genocidal "Final Solution to the Jewish Question," while "Selektion" is now verbum non grata due to its use to refer to the death camp practice of "selecting" inmates to be executed.
Now a new dictionary examines just what roles such terms play in the collective German psyche. The "Wörterbuch der 'Vergangenheitsbewältigung'" ("Dictionary of 'Coming to Terms with the Past'") examines around 1,000 words and phrases -- everything from "Anschluss," used to refer to the 1938 "annexation" of Austria, to "Wehrmacht," the name of the Nazi-era armed forces -- looking at how the meaning and usage of the terms have developed since the end of World War II.

Taboo Nazi Terms
German studies professor Georg Stötzel, who co-authored the dictionary together with Thorsten Eitz, explains how the words disappeared from the language after the end of the war. "There are very few terms associated with the Nazis which continued to be used with the same meaning after 1945," he told SPIEGEL ONLINE in an interview. In fact, as early as the late 1940s, German intellectuals like Dolf Sternberger and Wilhelm Süskind -- father of Patrick Süskind, author of the bestseller "Perfume" -- were writing essays examining the newly taboo Nazi terms.
For many, the simple power of the words and their associations made them literally unspeakable. That applied especially to victims of the Nazis. "Survivors simply couldn't bear to hear the word 'Lager,'" says Stötzel, referring to the German term for concentration or death camp.
Another reason for avoiding Nazi terms in public discourse is the fact that the speaker runs the risk of being accused of harboring Nazi sympathies. Often such a usage is enough to land the speaker on the front pages of Germany's newspapers. The late head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Paul Spiegel, courted controversy in 2005 when he criticized German policy on which Jews were allowed to immigrate from the former Soviet Union by saying that Russian Jews were being "selected." Similarly, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Cologne, Joachim Meisner, was heavily criticized last year (more...) when he used the word "entartete" ("degenerate") in a speech about art. The word is taboo -- particularly in that context -- because of its use by the Nazis to condemn modern art.

As it happens, the Catholic Church is one of the institutions which is quickest to make comparisons with the Third Reich, another linguistic phenomenon which Eitz and Stötzel's dictionary examines. Other groups which have few qualms about comparing their opponents with Hitler, or undesirable phenomena with Auschwitz, include environmental and peace groups, Stötzel explains. "These groups feel they have the moral right to make explicit comparisons with the Nazis," he says.

'Holocaust on Your Plate'
Such comparisons also get instant media attention -- and frequently condemnation. The controversial Archbishop Meisner was also the target of criticism in this regard when he made an implicit comparison between an abortion pill and the Zyklon B poison gas used by the Nazis in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, while other Catholic campaigners have coined the term "Babycaust" by analogy with "Holocaust" to condemn abortion. Meanwhile German animal rights activists attracted attention with an anti-factory farming campaign entitled "Holocaust on Your Plate."
But you don't even need to use Nazi-tainted terms to get into trouble. Just using the same rhetorical techniques as Joseph Goebbels, king of Third Reich propaganda, and other leading Nazis can land you in hot water. Former Vice Chancellor Franz Müntefering found this out the hard way in 2005 when he described hostile foreign investors as "locusts." Müntefering, who belongs to the left wing of the Social Democratic Party, was criticized for comparing people with animals, a trope considered deeply problematic due to the Nazi practise of portraying Jews as parasites and vermin.

"Sixty years later, people are still being compared to animals and plagues which have to be destroyed," wrote historian Michael Wolffsohn in a damning essay.

Where Is Eastern Germany?
Interestingly, it's precisely those groups who presumably most admire the Nazis who take the most care to avoid using specifically Third Reich terms. Far-right parties such as the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) flirt with Nazi ideology while avoiding taboo terms. "You can recognize the implication but you can't accuse them of using Nazi terminology," says Stötzel.
For example, senior NPD politician Holger Apfel has talked of his party's ambition to win seats in the "Reichstag," using the pre-1945 term for the German government instead of the modern "Bundestag" -- today, "Reichstag" can only be used in politically correct German to refer to the historical parliament building, not the institution. Similarly, far-right German politicians like to refer to the states of the former East Germany as "Mitteldeutschland" ("Central Germany") -- the implication being that present-day Poland actually comprises the eastern part of the country.
But perhaps the taint of at least some Nazi terms may fade with time. Take the word "Mädel," for example, a dialect word for "girl" which was favored by the Nazis. Its Third Reich connotations appear to be lost on young Germans today, many of whom use the word -- often ironically -- without a second thought. "Young people don't know it was used by the Nazis," says Stötzel.

From \'Anschluss\' to \'Zyklon B\': New Dictionary Highlights Nazi Words to Avoid - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

[Ferran]

Okay, let's ban all the words that at some point were used by some person we don't like. I'm sure all our dictionaries would look inmensely more ridiculous than those from George Orwell's 1984 universe.

[Aptrgangr]

I wait for the ban of applepie, really, it was Hitler's favourite cake so it must be an evil thing; and all people eating applepie must be evil too, of course.

Orwell would not have dreamt his visions become reality...

[Strengthandhonour]

Absolutely ridiculous and very frightening.
Words are being banned? what's next? banning emotions like anger because everyone thinks Hitler was super angry at the world? pathetic at best.

[BeornWulfWer]

How silly is it getting over in Germany?
How dare someone judge themselves in a position to dictate what Germans can and can't say.

[Delbáeth]

Originally Posted by BeornWulfWer

How silly is it getting over in Germany?
How dare someone judge themselves in a position to dictate what Germans can and can't say.

Have you got legal documentation and permission from Burssels to say this

[Marcus Marulus]

Autobahn should be abolished and dismantled, all of them, in the whole world, because it was during Hitler's times that they started to be extensively built.

[svin]

What aboutt Volkswagen?

[Kalevi]

Originally Posted by svin

What aboutt Volkswagen?

At least the Germans are lucky that their cars are running with "benzin" instead of "gas".

[Marcus Marulus]

Originally Posted by svin

What aboutt Volkswagen?

The very word Volk/folk and its correspondents in other European languages is very suspicious.

[Menydh]

I wonder how popular (or unpopular) is the name Adolf for new-born babies these days in Germany.

Originally Posted by BeornWulfWer

How silly is it getting over in Germany?
How dare someone judge themselves in a position to dictate what Germans can and can't say.

I don't know but all of this looks to me as... if it could happen only in Germany. Probably in other countries too. But in many countries so much prohibition wouldn't be taken very seriously by the public.

[Marcus Marulus]

Originally Posted by NatVox

I wonder how popular (or unpopular) is the name Adolf for new-born babies these days in Germany.

Hitler used to be a widespread family name among Jews of Hungary.

[Tryggr]

Originally Posted by NatVox

I wonder how popular (or unpopular) is the name Adolf for new-born babies these days in Germany.

In Dutch the names Adolf and Dolf were also very popular before WWII.

At least in Flanders though, after WWII, not a single person has been born with that name. I believe right now the name is completely extinct.

Not sure how it is in the Netherlands and in Germany.

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Tryggr

In Dutch the names Adolf and Dolf were also very popular before WWII.

At least in Flanders though, after WWII, not a single person has been born with that name. I believe right now the name is completely extinct.

Not sure how it is in the Netherlands and in Germany.

It is rare here. I can barely think of a few, including the President (Adolfo) and Vice-President (Rodolfo) of the first democratic government of Transition. Two traitors.

Otherwise it has to be an Argentine.

The Germanic origin of Adolf is "noble wolf", and of Rudolf is "glorious wolf". It all reminds me to "sitting bull", "black eagle", etc.

[Marcus Marulus]

Originally Posted by NatVox

The Germanic origin of Adolf is "noble wolf", and of Rudolf is "glorious wolf". It all reminds me to "sitting bull", "black eagle", etc.

It was a typical pattern for creating personal names. Not only among Germanics, but also among ancient Greeks, Slavs and even among Celts. You have either two nouns juxtaposed to form a larger unity or an adjcetive coupled with a noun. The name "wolf" (vuk, volk etc) is widespread also in Slavic lands, both as autonomous name and as component oof a composite name, eg. Vukoslav (literally: "wolf's glory").