Detlef

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Detlef or Detlev is a male given name of Old High German origin. It was one of the most popular first names in Germany from 1935 to 1965, but has been largely out of use since then. Unless otherwise stated, name day is July 23.

Origin and meaning

It means "son of the people" or "the one who lives in the people" and is composed of the Old High German words diot 'people' and body / leiba 'son / descendant'.

variants

There are various spellings, but Detlef or Detlev are the most common. Also known are:

  • Dethlef
  • Detleff
  • Dettlef
  • Dettlev
  • Dietlieb
  • Delf (short form)
  • Tjalf (Frisian short form)
  • Deetleff (East Frisian)
  • Detlof (Scandinavian)
  • Detleph (English)
  • Detlof (Swedish)
  • Tjellef (southern Danish)

Well-known namesake

Detlef

pseudonym

  • Karl Detlef, pseudonym of Klara Bauer (1836–1876), novelist

Detlev

Stereotypical use

Occasionally, especially in jokes, the name Detlev (roughly how to pronounce "Deetleew") is used as a mostly derogatory term for gay men. Originally this comes from the German for soldiers in the Bundeswehr and is dated in this meaning by the lexicographer Heinz Küpper from the year 1965.

In 1969/1970 the radio play long-play record Ach duuu… - Musical enthusiasm based on notes by the travesty artist Marcel-André , on which he dragged his friend Detlef into a travesty bar, was released. This one is heterosexual, but the "Deetleef" runs through the entire season.

In the 1970s a whole range of Detlev numbers followed, starting with the Düsseldorf carnivalist Friedhelm Riegel with Hallo Detlev, hello girls, huuuch ... to a whole record series under the pseudonym "Detlev" between 1974 and 1980, some of which were based on parodies of well-known hits . The first and still best known number No man can be so gay is a parody of the Gitte Hænning hit No man can be so beautiful . Behind Detlev stood the producer Gerhard Kampf and the arranger Alexander Gordan , who also sang himself, after none of the introducing performers from the gay scene sang "gay enough". Gerhard Kuchten very much regrets that these hit parodies could make coming-out much more difficult because of the clichés they contain and that even people with the first name Detlev did not always have an easy life with their name: "That was not meant."

As a result, in the 1970s, men's handbags were also referred to as Detlev bags or Detlev slings .

The stereotype was reinforced by the biographical drug scene novel Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo , published in 1978, and its film adaptation from 1981. Christiane's friend, who earned his living as a hustler , was called Detlef. Independently of this, the Neue Deutsche Welle singer Ixi released her debut single Detlev , which was written before the film, in 1982 [I ask you, go on the line for me] , a humorous and cheeky request that turns the normal world around almost never played on the radio because of this line.

Other first names often used in this sense are Olaf and Egon .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Popular-vornamen.de : Detlev
  2. ↑ firstname.de: Detlef
  3. ^ Heinz Küpper: Illustrated Lexicon of German Slang , 1982-1984
  4. ↑ Oh duuu. April 28, 2017, accessed May 16, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b Ralf J. Raber: I want it all to exist! - Homosexuality on Record, Part 2 (1952-1976) ISBN 3-89916-076-2
  6. ↑ Jody Skinner: Terms for the homosexual in German. Volume II - A Dictionary , The Blue Owl, 1998, ISBN 3-89206-903-4
  7. ↑ Michael Tann: "Don't give me a hickey - all just not a hickey" - that's what it sounded like in 1983 from all radio stations , interview with Gaby Tiedemann, ichwillspass.de, around 1992
  8. ↑ Christel Balle: Taboos in Language. P. Lang, 1990, p. 162