Besserwessi
Besserwessi ( suitcase word from Besserwisser and Wessi ) is an expression that arose after German reunification in the 1990s. He denotes the behavior of some West German citizens towards the East German population, which was perceived as know-it-all and arrogant . The Duden defines Besserwessi colloquially derogatory for a “person who comes from the old federal states and behaves knowingly and instructively towards residents of the new federal states, especially with regard to the political and economic area”.
The German Language Society (GfdS) chose the word as word of the year in 1991 . In the opinion of the GfdS, it was a term used consistently in 1991 that critically describes the relationship between West and East Germans. Grip the words would alls, vests and Westerner summarized. It was also proposed to be the bad word of the year because - according to Horst Dieter Schlosser - "in northeast Germany at least as bitter swear word as the Piefke in Austria for the 'Prussian' creaking German".
literature
- Dieter Herberg, Michael Kinne, Doris Steffens, Elke Tellenbach, Doris Al-Wadi: new vocabulary: neologisms of the 90s in German . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2004, ISBN 978-3-11-017750-3 , p. 27 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Besserwessi . In: duden.de , accessed on January 18, 2013
- ↑ Ute Röding-Lange: Names for 'Germany' in the time of the 'turning point'. Shown in selected West German print media , Königshausen & Neumann 1997, p. 246, online on Google books