cowardice
Cowardice outdated, as cowardice or Memmenhaftigkeit called, is the attribution of a critical seen or culpable inclination, his actions by anxiety or fear to be determined. Cowardice is described as a mental state in which a person does not face a task out of fear of danger, loss, pain or death. There are contexts in which the cowardly behavior of a person is also perceived as dishonorable .
term
The noun cowardice includes the adjective cowardly, which in Old Germanic had lapsed and condemned the basic meaning of death . It was not until the 15th century that the meaning of death, shrinking from danger, fearful developed from this .
In Brockhaus of 1894 cowardice is described as a "habitual state of mind in which a person shies away from danger or pain to the extent that on the one hand his freedom and action are paralyzed, on the other hand his feeling for honor and shame is dulled."
A coward is therefore often referred to as a person who shows a lack of courage and / or evades the consequences of an action. It is less difficult to be called “fearful” or “timid”. A cowardly person is considered a coward . As a substitute word for coward, there is also the word memme , which has been used since the 16th century , referring to woman , which in turn goes back to the Middle High German memme, mamme as "mother's breast".
Military history
“Cowardly” behavior is particularly reprehensible in those communities in which, due to external circumstances, the courage and bravery of all are crucial. In wars, for example, soldiers are brought before a military tribunal or executed if they show cowardice in front of the enemy and who use words or signs to urge others to also flee . According to Section 6 of the Military Penal Act , fear of personal danger does not excuse violating military service.
Even in ancient Athens , objectors to military service were viewed as cowards and condemned to sit in the market for three days in women's clothing. In Sparta , the coward was not allowed to marry a Sparti woman, anyone who met him could beat him without being allowed to defend himself. He also had to wear clothes that were dirty or covered with colored rags and was only allowed to shave half of his beard. In the Roman army , cowardice fell victim to whole units of the troops as punishment for decimation .
This punishment also went into the mercenary armies of the Middle Ages and later war troops, for example in 1642, when Archduke Leopold of Austria, after the lost battle of Breitenfeld , beheaded all the senior officers of the left wing (who in his opinion had fled cowardly), the lower ones hanging and had the crew decimate by shooting. In the Middle Ages, however, when cowardice became known, the exclusion from the circle of peers, considered to be shameful, was handled in circles of knights .
During the Second World War , many soldiers were sentenced to death on the grounds of “cowardice”. Examples are:
- after the unsuccessful demolition of the Remagen bridge ,
- Heinz Reinefarth ,
- Reprisals at the Battle of Wroclaw .
The reason "cowardice in front of the enemy" was sometimes used arbitrarily:
- The Nazi functionary Ludwig Ruckdeschel had his rival, Fritz Wächtler , the Gauleiter of the Bayreuth Gau, shot "for cowardice in front of the enemy" in April 1945 after he had accused him of deserting him at the Führer headquarters.
- The People's Court condemned Friedrich Fromm for “cowardice in front of the enemy” because no one could prove that he had participated in the assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944 .
- The submarine commander Heinz Hirsacker fell out of favor due to unsuccessful actions in some actions and was sentenced to death in early 1943 “for cowardice in front of the enemy”.
- After his squadron withdrew from North Africa in May 1943, Oskar-Heinrich Bär , a successful German fighter pilot during World War II , contradicted the criticism of the Air Force Commander in Chief Hermann Göring . Shortly thereafter, he was demoted to squadron captain for “cowardice in front of the enemy” and transferred to the fighter pilot's supplementary group in southern France. He was later rehabilitated.
Other meanings
In a different context, cowardly is also understood as " insidious " (a cowardly murder ).
In Chinese philosophy , however, cowardice is not seen as morally reprehensible, but can be a mere reaction to the potential of the situation. It is therefore not a human quality, but an effect of the situation. If the situation is favorable, courageous behavior can be an advantage, but if it is unfavorable it can be a disadvantage. You can then wait until the situation develops in your own favor.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cowardice . duden.de
- ↑ Meekness . duden.de
- ↑ Cowardice . In: Brockhaus Konversations-Lexikon 1894–1896, Volume 6, p. 632.
- ↑ cowardly . In: Duden - The dictionary of origin. Etymology of the German language. Dudenverlag, Mannheim 2007.
- ↑ a b cowardice . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 6, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 100.
- ^ Sentence after: Memme . In: Kluge Etymological Dictionary of the German Language . 24th edition. 2002
- ^ Francois Jullien: Lecture to managers on the effectiveness and efficiency in China and in the West. Merve Verlag, Berlin 2006