Ethnophaulisms for Germans

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Canadian election poster from the First World War

Ethnophaulisms for Germans are originally derogatory terms, some of which were or are also used for Austrians , German-speaking Swiss or German-speaking minorities in other countries. Many of these terms come from the two world wars, when Germans were experienced as enemy soldiers or occupiers. While their importance has tended to decline today, new ethnophaulisms have also established themselves, for example through migrants in German-speaking countries or towards German-speaking migrants . For some of the terms, there are also insulting, humorous or self-deprecating uses.

designation origin meaning
herb United Kingdom , USA Derogatory term, originating from the First World War , which was mainly used in the USA during the Second World War . It refers to the stereotype of the German sauerkraut eater . In the post-war period there were also self-deprecating uses of the term, such as in Krautrock .
Piefke Austria Colloquially used, mostly derogatory term. As a family name, Piefke was Germanized from the Slavonic of Piwka by eastern settlers . The use for Germans could refer to the well-known Prussian military musician Johann Gottfried Piefke . After the Austro-Prussian war he conducted a music corps in a large parade in Marchfeld about 20 km from Vienna. The call “The Piefkes are coming” is said to have spread among the Viennese and has become a symbol of 50,000 marching Prussians .
Mof (plural moffen) Netherlands Was originally used in the time of the republic in the Netherlands for German immigrants ( Hollandgoers ) and has been documented since the 16th century, among others by Isaac Vos . The word probably goes back to the German words Muff and Muffig or is an onomatopoeia of the German language. The word was originally not a pejorative , but has been used as a swear word for "German", "Nazi" since the Second World War .
boche France The name comes from France and has been in use since the second half of the 19th century , roughly at the same time as the re-emergence of the Franco-German conflict . In the two world wars too, Germans were increasingly referred to as such. Originally, the term is likely to be traced back to alboche , a combination of the prefix al- - abbreviation for allemand "German" - and boche from caboche ("thick skull"). With boche one was a wooden ball, comparable bowling ball , respectively.
Fritz USA , UK , Russia As a typical German name par excellence , Fritz was particularly popular during World War II with a derogatory connotation for Germans. The name Friedrich , whose short form is Fritz, was actually a common first name at that time.
Jerry Anglo-Saxon language area Anglo-Saxon name used for German soldiers, the German armed forces or Germany as a whole during World War II . The name was already used in the First World War , but it was not widely used until later.
Hun Anglo-Saxon language area Due to the so-called Hunnenrede Kaiser Wilhelm II. Of 27 July 1900, the term Hun (Engl. Hun ) used for German in the English language as a pejorative. In this speech, the emperor had urged his troops to act particularly ruthlessly against the Chinese opponents in the Boxer Rebellion , drawing a comparison with the warfare of the Huns , which the enemy feared . The name was therefore used in the First and Second World War for the German enemy.

German merchant steamers requisitioned by Great Britain at the beginning of the First World War were called " Hunnendampfer ".

Rubber neck Switzerland The expression comes from the late 1970s and today also refers to migrants of German origin in Switzerland. Several derivations are possible. Germans talked all the time (in contrast to cautious Swiss), even "if you could turn their necks, they would still keep talking." Or they nodded incessantly when the boss said something.
Crucco Italy The term is derived from the Croatian / Slovenian kruh for bread. As a swear word, it was used in the First World War for the Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war of Croatian or Slovenian origin who begged for bread from the Italian soldiers. Later it applied to enemy soldiers in general and finally to Germans.
Szwab Poland The name comes from the Polish name for Swabians , which in World War II deteriorated into contemptible meaning and expanded to include Germans in general.
Schwabo Croatia , Bosnia-Herzegovina , Serbia , Montenegro Schwabo ( Bosnian / Croatian / Serbian  Švabo / Швабо , in Serbia Švaba ) is a colloquial term for all German speakers. It is derived from the earlier name for Danube Swabians and is used today by migrants from the former Yugoslavia for Austrians, Germans or German-speaking Swiss. The meaning can be cheerful and ironic, but also derogatory.
potato Germany In the 19th century, potato saxons or potato wedges were swear words for residents of certain regions (Erzgebirge, Saxony), who supposedly lived primarily on potatoes. In the 1960s, Italian immigrants referred to Germans as "potato eaters", the equivalent of the German swear word spaghetti eater . Potato for Germans was used from the 2000s as a swear word in the language of young people influenced by migrants, but later also as an ironic foreign and self-term, for example in German-language hip-hop.
Alman Germany Similar to potato , this is a term that is used in German-speaking countries in the youthful language of migrants for Germans without an obvious migration background. Derivation is the Turkish name Alman for German. Even with Alman , a range between sarcastic-humorous, neutral and derogatory connotations is possible for the term. Self-deprecating use is also quite common. There are widespread references to clichés about being German, such as small-mindedness , “German” appearance, German culture and customs , language , humor , eating and drinking habits, German behavior and bourgeoisie and generally to German life and work ethic. The expression was also taken up in net culture , where a number of memes about Almans are common.
Skopčák (plural skopčáci ) Czech Republic Disparaging term for Germans, originally for the members of the German minority on today's Czech territory ( Sudeten Germans ). It goes back to the phrase z kopců (German from the hills ), connected with the derivative suffix -ák . The designation of the Germans as hill dwellers goes back to the time before the Second World War, when the German population group inhabited the mountainous borderland while the Czechs lived in the more flat area in the middle of the country.
pølsetysker Denmark The compound from the nouns pølse (" Wurst " or " Würstchen ") and tysker (" German ") originally describes a thrifty German tourist who lives mainly on the sausages he has brought with him.

The term has a derogatory connotation and can refer to German holidaymakers who not only bring their food, but also their way of life and their attitude, and who also expect this “ignorant, arrogant and complacent” from the host country.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Goethe-Institut - The legend of the Krauts. Retrieved May 21, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Like Pifky or Pifkowski ; Hans Bahlow: German name dictionary.
  3. ^ Anton Karl Mally: Piefke. Supplements. In: mother tongue. Journal for the maintenance and research of the German language. Volume 94, Jg. 1983/84, 3-4, Wiesbaden, April 1984, pp. 313-327, here: pp. 314f.
  4. ^ Konrad Kunze : dtv-Atlas onenology. 1998, p. 170: The name is also associated with beer here.
  5. ↑ Helmut Glück: German as a Foreign Language in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Baroque Period. de Gruyter, 2002, ISBN 3-11-017084-1 , p. 31.
  6. ↑ M. Philippa, F. Debrabandere, A. Quak, T. Schoonheim and N. van der Sijs (2003-2009) Etymologically Woordenboek van het Nederlands, 4 delen, Amsterdam
  7. ↑ Netherlands: Cuddling with the Moffs . In: Spiegel Online . tape 45 , November 7, 1994 ( spiegel.de [accessed May 21, 2019]).
  8. ↑ Kerstin Schweighöfer: Pretty attractive: The new love of the Dutch for their German neighbors. In: https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/ . Deutschlandfunk, November 3, 2012, accessed on May 21, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Meaning of the word and etymology of "alboche" and "boche" in the Trésor de la française .
  10. ↑ Irving L. Allen: The language of ethnic conflict: social organization and lexical culture . Columbia University Press, New York 1983, ISBN 0-231-05556-0 , pp. 57 .
  11. ^ First name Friedrich * Statistics and meaning. Retrieved on July 28, 2020 (German).
  12. ↑ Jerry , uses of the word Jerry at etymonline.com.
  13. ↑ The term “Hun” for Germans in general can be found in the British daily press into the 21st century, see Michael Stürmer : “Hitler was angry. Not our bombs ” . The world of November 3, 2004.
  14. ↑ John Man: Attila the Hun: a barbarian king and the fall of Rome . Bantam Books, London 2006, ISBN 978-0-553-81658-7 , pp. 303-307 .
  15. ↑ Marc Heinrich, Ascona: The Swiss and their Germans: Gorillas first . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed April 23, 2019]).
  16. ↑ Bruno Ziauddin: Grüezi rubber necks - why the Germans sometimes get on our nerves . Original edition. Rowohlt-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-499-62403-2 .
  17. ^ Il Vocabolario Treccani, Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 2nd edition 1997.
  18. ↑ crucco in Vocabolario - Treccani. Retrieved April 23, 2019 (it-IT).
  19. ^ Klaus Stierstorfer: Pictures of Germany - in the mirror of other nations; Literature - press - film - radio - television . Rowohlt Taschenbuch-Verl, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-499-55657-X , p. 271 .
  20. ↑ Danièle Hollick: Informal learning of teachers in the context of school and migration - an exploratory study on subjective theories of teachers . Kassel University Press, Kassel 2013, ISBN 978-3-86219-601-2 , pp. 188 .
  21. ↑ The art of offending everyone - apart from Piefke and Tschuschen | the beaver. Retrieved May 21, 2019 .
  22. ^ Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm: German Dictionary . Ed .: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. tape 11 . Leipzig 1854, p. Column 244-245 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
  23. ↑ Maria Paola Tenchini: On the semantics of ethnic bad names . In: Lingue e Linguaggi . tape 10 , 2013, ISSN  2239-0367 , p. 125-136, especially p. 127 f . ( core.ac.uk [PDF]).
  24. ↑ a b Ursula Bertels, Claudia Bußmann: Handbuch interkulturelle Didaktik . Ed .: Ethnology in School and Adult Education e. V. Waxmann, Münster / New York / Munich / Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-8309-7889-3 , pp. 23 .
  25. ↑ Cordula Weißköppel: Foreigners and Potato Germans: Identity performance in everyday life in an ethnically mixed secondary school class . Juventa, Weinheim / Munich 2001, p. 148 f .
  26. ↑ Frédéric Schwilden: Hip-Hop: Explain that to your neighbor in Kanakish . March 18, 2014 ( welt.de [accessed April 19, 2019]).
  27. ↑ Hengameh Yaghoobifarah: Column Habibitus: Which Potato Are You? The test . In: The daily newspaper : taz . November 11, 2017, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed April 19, 2019]).
  28. ↑ Marlen Hobrack: "Alman" insults: Is it racism to call Germans potatoes? July 24, 2018 ( welt.de [accessed August 12, 2019]).
  29. ↑ Bayerischer Rundfunk Conny Neumeyer: Interview with the makers of Alman Memes 2.0: What Alman Memes have to do with Loriot and Harald Schmidt . July 11, 2019 ( br.de [accessed February 4, 2020]).
  30. ↑ Wiktionary: skopčák
  31. ↑ Ordbog over det danske Sprog: " Pølse-tysker "
  32. ↑ Pølsetysker - the Danish swear word for Germans
  33. ↑ Wiktionary: pølsetysker