Count Koks
Graf Koks is the slang term for a person who acts particularly posh or bragging. In the Ruhr area , for example, a show-off and conceited person is called "Graf Koks von der Gasanstalt ", "Graf Koks von der Müllkippe " or "Graf Koks von der Halde ", in the Mainz area, however, "Graf Koks von der Gasanstalt" or "vom." Gaswerk ”, where Koks is pronounced alliteratively like Goks . The Berlin dialect also describes a "fine pee" as "Graf Koks". Other representatives of the “Berlin nobility” have similarly jocular and vulgar names, for example “Graf Rotz von der Backe ”, “Graf Rotz von der Popelsburg” (also a nickname of Christoph von Rotz , who does not come from Berlin) and “Lord Kacke "or" Graf Kacke ".
One possible explanation can be found in the environment of nouveau riche bourgeoisie in the 19th century, such as the industrialist families Stinnes, Thyssen and Krupp, who acquired aristocratic insignia with freshly won wealth from the coal and steel industry and were mockingly referred to as chimney barons or coke counts by long-time residents . The name could also be derived from a stiff, cylinder-like hat , which was previously called "coke" and which is said to have made popular an English dandy named William Coke who lived at the end of the 19th century ( Coke's Hat ). Similar hats were part of the rift of wandering journeyman carpenter .
Used by Tucholsky
Graf Koks is also the main character in a story by Kurt Tucholsky (alias "Peter Panter") in Weltbühne No. 1 on January 5, 1932 (p. 26).
It tells the story of the clever Count Koks, who summons a bailiff to the castle to convict a post office clerk who has the bad habit of opening and reading foreign letters. In the presence of the bailiff, Graf Koks wrote the following letter to a friend (see Kurt Tucholsky: Gesammelte Werke , Volume 10, p. 7, rororo 980):
- Dear friend,
- Since I know that the postwoman Emilie Dupont is constantly opening our letters and reading her because she is bursting with curiosity, I am sending you a living flea to stop her one day .
- With best regards
- Count Koks
Count Koks seals this letter in the presence of the bailiff without putting a flea in it. When the letter arrives, however, there is a flea in it.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ NRW: Kandinsky, Koks und Kobold on focus.de, published in Focus No. 20/2010 on May 17, 2010
- ↑ Peter Braun: Personal designations: der Mensch in der Deutschen Sprache , Niemeyer, Tübingen, 1997, p. 44 Online ( Memento of the original from June 9, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b I think my pig whistles! , Compact Verlag, p. 194 online
- ↑ Active Word, Volume 16, Issue 4, Pädagogischer Verlag Schwann, 1966, p. 276 Online
- ↑ The true E: a dictionary of the GDR soldier language , p. 139 online
- ↑ Die Weltbühne : Volume 28, Part 1, 1932 Online ( Memento of the original from June 9, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
