|
 |
"Hitler" not a tainted word in Germany? | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| blackverve Senior Member Canada Joined 4572 days ago 40 posts - 46 votes Studies: German | Message 1 of 14 03 January 2012 at 12:50am | IP Logged | ||
|
Whoa, I'm bloody curious...
I saw this today: http://www.exberliner.com/culture The word "Hitler" used in "Hitler comics"! Then I watched the German movie "Rabbit without Ears" and Hitler was mentioned. And this looks like it was supposed to a mainstream Ashton-Kutcher-type-girl-meets-boy comedy thing. And then I was reading an article (forgot the link) about an old theatre in Berlin where it was mentioned "The Führer himself had a box rented out here." Like it's supposed to be cooler, then? I thought the word wouldn't be used in jest in Germany. Is it a hipster thing? What are the mainstream views of Hitler in Germany? Edited by blackverve on 03 January 2012 at 12:51am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5439 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes  | Message 2 of 14 03 January 2012 at 1:23am | IP Logged | ||
|
Yes, since Roberto Benigni´s "La vita è bella" there have been many discussions, whether you may laugh about nazism. But Hitler is part of the pop culture now. I think, things like Moers Der Bonker would have been impossible a few years ago... Edited by Cabaire on 03 January 2012 at 1:28am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| blackverve Senior Member Canada Joined 4572 days ago 40 posts - 46 votes Studies: German | Message 3 of 14 04 January 2012 at 6:01pm | IP Logged | ||
So, one can bring up Hitler in Germany without any frowns? Part of pop culture? Is he seen as a clown or hero or anything positive in pop culture? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5439 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes | Message 4 of 14 04 January 2012 at 7:36pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Hero? Are you kidding? Search in Youtube a bit and you will find a lot of material where the piss is taken out of him. Also in comedy he is often alluded to. One of my friends is a genial voice imitator of Adolf.
Of course many people, especially the elderly who have witnessed those times and official society frowns upon such frolicking and one of the surest way to stop your poltical career is to make unfortunate comparisons with the third reich. It depends who says what when. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Hampie Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6499 days ago 625 posts - 1009 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Latin, German, Mandarin | Message 5 of 14 04 January 2012 at 10:26pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I would not say that Hitler goes well with all Germans. The exchange student in my student corridor and her friend
were upset to the extent that they wept over a Hitler joke told by another German at a party. And, everything that has even remotely to do with nazism makes them, well, uneasy and a bit aggravated. Just for the sake of it, if you’re a foreigner, perhaps you should stay away from speaking about Hitler in German. Mein Kampf is still not legal in Germany, as far as I know. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5174 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 6 of 14 04 January 2012 at 11:57pm | IP Logged | ||
|
If you watch Chaplin's "The Dictator", you will see that joking about Hitler started even while he was alive.
The thing about the Second World War though, is that there are millions of different stories around it, which because of its proximity in time, still cause a lot of pain, for all parties involved. It can be triggered by the most innocent looking topic. Therefore it is good to operate with extreme care when dealing with it. 20 years ago I was staying with some good friends in Berlin, when for some reason the topic of Lebensborn was raised by one of their guests. Lebensborn, for those who are not familiar with it, was a programme set up to encourage soldiers to breed with the locals to create an improved arian race. Since Norwegians have a high percentage of tall blondes, which were the preferred mothers, Norway had the second highest number of Lebensborn homes in the world, after Germany. I had read about it just before, and about all the problems this created for the mothers and children, who of course after the war were not viewed positively. It was therefore a shock to me to hear Lebensborn referred to as an extra cool home with help for mothers. I was so upset I almost threw up, but I was desperately trying to hide my reaction, but failed miserably, and ended up sobbing. And was even more desperate, because my friends did not understand why I was upset, and I did not want them to feel uncomfortable, but I just could not help myself, it was a physical reaction. So there we were, with noone wishing to offend anyone, and yet, 40 years after the war, it still cast its shadow on us, inspite of us being good friends. That is the nasty thing about war in any country. It is not a "mission accomplished" sort of thing. It lasts in generations, and may be a sore point for all involved parties. Not really a joking matter. 14 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5606 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 7 of 14 05 January 2012 at 8:24am | IP Logged | ||
Yes, but not in Germany. Solfrid Cristin, what you experienced might have been one of the campaigns to 'reclaim' tainted vocabulary by removing its symbolic value. I can't say if it was a good idea in that case. Basically the idea was that if the nazi propaganda machine can create symbols by making them omnipresent, and then use those symbols to create the idea of omnipresence of nazi ideology, the opposite direction should also work; by undermining the symbolism you can take away its power over people's minds. It's a tactic used currently with the character Storch Heinar, which is used to diffuse and ridicule current neonazi symbolism. What you, blackverve, noticed is black humour, one of many strategies to deal with sensitive issues. I remember one analysis by a British comedian who claimed that in the UK, they would've started making Hitler jokes immediately after the war, which would have allowed people to move on much sooner. He might have had a point there, but to me the question is: Is it a sensible idea to 'move on' when what you're talking about still affects millions of people, directly and, increasingly indirectly? One sentence I often hear from people of my generation is that they are sick of hearing about the Third Empire and WWII, that it doesn't have any relevance to their own life and that they don't want to feel guilty for something that happened when their parents or grandparents were their age. In the same mood, most Hitler jokes I've heard were made. I personally believe that such utterances show a rather shallow and shortsighted personality, but let's not digress. Hitler certainly was not a hero, and if you hear anything like that you either misunderstood the intention or are talking with somebody embracing (neo-)nazi ideology. Don't make Hitler jokes yourself in German, don't laugh when you aren't sure you understood what the other person meant. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| atama warui Triglot Senior Member Japan Joined 4541 days ago 594 posts - 985 votes Speaks: German*, English, Japanese | Message 8 of 14 19 January 2012 at 8:15pm | IP Logged | ||
|
The German "Unwort des Jahres 2011" is "Dönermorde".
This refers to a series of murder done to foreigners in Germany by a bunch of neo-nazis. The word itself was often in use when that topic came up in the media (especially by boulevard newspapers like "Bild-Zeitung") and symbolizes the kind of downplaying in a semantical way people tend to use when it comes to this kind of thing. "Döner" is a Turkish dish pretty common in Germany, and some of the victims worked in such a restaurant that doesn't rectify the use of this word-abomination at all, hence the current "award". You could say that the topic is still not off our radar here in Germany. Making jokes about Hitler or the nazi ideology might be common by some groups of people, while most will probably classify them as atleast "bad taste". Even speaking about the topic is a sensible thing - it's pretty easy to mess up, so people try to avoid it. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
