11.8 Germany and its past — how the language changed after 1945 — Epoché
What you will be able to do Understand what Vergangenheitsbewältigung means and why German has several words for coming to terms with the past. Recognise words that the Nazi regime used or changed, and know which of them are avoided today. Use the vocabulary of remembrance precisely: Denkmal and Mahnmal , Gedenken and Erinnerung . Follow two debates about language in Germany since 1990: the words of East and West, and gender-fair language. Sentences from this lesson, before the explanation. Read the German aloud; all of them come back below. German English Ich habe versucht, anzurufen, aber sie haben nicht abgenommen. [1] I tried calling, but they didn't answer. Ich habe nicht abgenommen. [2] I haven't lost any weight. Das sollte ein Tabu sein. [3] That should be a taboo. Ich verstehe eure Generation nicht. [4] I don't understand your generation. Lehnt euch nicht an diese Wand! [5] Don't lean against this wall. Warum gibt es noch immer Rassismus? [6] Why does racism still exist? Du gehörst mir nicht. [7] You don't belong to me. Prerequisites : 11.7 — you need the periods of history and the words for the twentieth century from 5.24 Vocabulary , and the history of the language from 11.5 Background . This lesson describes how German has been shaped by the way Germany has dealt with its history since 1945. It does not take sides in present-day debates; it sets out the facts and the words, so that you can understand what Germans mean when they use them. Some of these words are among the most important in the language for anyone who reads German newspapers, visits a German city or talks with Germans about the past. Words of the regime Every dictatorship works on language, and the Nazi regime did so systematically. The scholar Victor Klemperer, a Jew who survived in Dresden, kept notes on the language of the regime and published them in 1947 under the title LTI , short for the Latin Lingua Tertii Imperii , the language of the Third Reich. He observed how ordinary words changed their value: fanatisch , until then a word of blame, became a word of praise. He also recorded how the regime hid its crimes behind harmless-sounding words. The murder of the European Jews was called a final solution , and killing was called special treatment . After 1945 such words became impossible to use innocently. Germans today avoid the euphemisms of the regime except in quotation, and they are careful with words that the regime made its own. The word Führer is a good example: on its own, for a political leader, it is avoided, while compounds such as Reiseführer , guidebook , and Führerschein , driving licence , are completely normal. Learners should know that a single word can carry this kind of history, and when in doubt choose a neutral alternative. Coming to terms with the past German has several words for the long process of facing the crimes of the Nazi period. Vergangenheitsbewältigung , literally overcoming the past , became common in the 1950s; critics objected that a past like this cannot be overcome . In 1959 the philosopher Theodor W. Adorno gave a lecture on the Aufarbeitung der Vergangenheit , working through the past , and this word is now often preferred. Today many people speak of Erinnerungskultur , the culture of remembrance. The process was slow. In the first years after the war many Germans preferred not to talk about the past; historians speak of a time of silence and of memories that were pushed aside, verdrängt . The trials of Auschwitz guards in Frankfurt in the 1960s and the questions of the student generation of 1968, who asked their parents what they had done, changed this. In 1979 an American television series about the persecution of a Jewish family was watched by millions of West Germans, and the word Holocaust entered everyday German. On 8 May 1985, forty years after the end of the war, Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker called that day a day of liberation, a phrase that is now widely accepted. The language of remembrance A Denkmal is any monument; a Mahnmal is a monument that warns, from mahnen , to admonish . The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, opened in 2005, is usually called a Mahnmal . Since the 1990s the artist Gunter Demnig has set small brass plates into the pavement in front of the last homes of victims of the regime, each with a name and dates. They are called Stolpersteine , stumbling stones , and there are now more than a hundred thousand of them in Germany and other European countries. Erinnerung is remembering in general and also a single memory. Gedenken is formal and collective: the remembrance of the dead on a fixed day or at a fixed place. Germany marks 27 January, the day Auschwitz was liberated in 1945, as its day of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism. Language since 1990 The two German states also spoke and wrote differently. The GDR used its own political vocabulary: the Berlin Wall was officially an anti-fascist protective wall . After unification some East German words disappeared and others survived, and new words appeared: Wende for the change of 1989 and 1990, Ossi and Wessi as informal and sometimes unkind names for East and West Germans, and Ostalgie for nostalgia for parts of life in the East. The most visible debate about language today concerns gender. German nouns for people have masculine and feminine forms, and traditionally the masculine plural was used for everyone. Many writers now name both, as the library did in 9.8 Writing with Leserinnen und Leser , or use participles such as Studierende . Some go further and write a star or a colon inside the word. This is controversial: supporters see it as fair to all genders, opponents find it hard to read and not part of standard spelling. Several federal states have told their schools and offices not to use the star. As a learner, you should be able to read all these forms and choose the one that fits the text and the reader. In real sentences German English Hilft