...the phrase already had great resonance in Germany. The word dolchstoss—“dagger thrust”—had been popularized almost fifty years before in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung.
And the article - which I haven't finished yet - ain't so bad neither.
...the phrase already had great resonance in Germany. The word dolchstoss—“dagger thrust”—had been popularized almost fifty years before in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung.
And the article - which I haven't finished yet - ain't so bad neither.
Wait until you see the German unwords: http://www.unwortdesjahres.org/
The Unword of the 20th Century, "Menschenmaterial", http://www.unwortdesjahres.org/20jh.htm , describing the reduction of people to exploitable material, has an even greater resonance in American business: it translates to "Human Resources".
And here's another one especially for you, Mr Sapphire Stone, which you are obviously not paying attention to: "Recht oder Unrecht - mein Vaterland", which can be found at the entrance to an educational facility in a beech forest near Weimar: http://www.deathcamps.org/websites/pic/big0302%20KL%20Buchenwald%20My%20Country%20Right%20or%20Wrong%20Recht%20oder%20Unrecht%20Mein%20Vaterland%201945.jpg
At least some of the people who wore the striped school uniforms seem to have learned the lesson, instead of becoming a Godless liberal.
When Martha Stewart was convicted, I asked a German friend to help me invent a German word that meant Shame at feeling joy at someone else's misfortune. She says
Schadenfreudeschult
covers it nicely. I just like the sound of it.
Christoph-
'Menschenmaterial' brings to mind an English word I recently learned courtesy of the illustrious US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, used in the characterization of our long-suffering troops currently vacationing in the warmer climes:
fungible.
n.
Something that is exchangeable or substitutable. Often used in the plural.
Regarding the "Recht oder Unrecht - mein Vaterland" quote, it provides (a perhaps unpleasant) window into my own psyche that each semester, during the very temporary hell finals week brought, I would post an index card above my desk which read 'Arbeit macht frei'*, to remind me that if I simply persevered and completed my schoolwork, I would be rewarded with glorious leisure time.
Insensitive and cheapening of my forebears, you say? Guilty. That's me, anything for the cheap laugh. On the other hand, given that it took me some fourteen years to complete my undergraduate studies, it obviously didn't work so well.
J.
*A quote you may recall from the entrance to another educational facility in the 'Old Europe'.
Wil-
'Schadenfreude' was exactly the word I had in mind when I was praising the language. 'Weltschmerz' is another.
J.
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