Big brother (language)

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The name big brother is used for an influential big or strong partner as a term in politics and business . This designation is also related to protectionism towards the small partners. In particular, it referred to the role of the United States of America and the USSR in relation to the states that were dependent on them during the Cold War .

In the parlance of the GDR and the other socialist states, "big brother" was a term for the Soviet Union (today: Russia ) that was mostly used ironically . It was also used to denote the relationship between West Germany and East Germany during the fall of the Wall.

Use before turning

Before the turning point and the peaceful revolution in the GDR , which arose in the area of ​​the former Soviet occupation zone and was united with the West German areas, i.e. the occupation zones of the other Allied victorious powers , “big brother” was used in the parlance of both German states .

Use in West Germany

Evidence of its use has existed since 1958, as the following example shows: “It is quiet in the pubs, the girls knit, they knit children's underwear or sweaters, and only when a ship belonging to their big brother, the rich American ally, is anchored in port , the colorful lamps of the jukeboxes light up. ”“ Big Brother ”was also used for the role of the USA and the Soviet Union in relation to their German partners.

Use in East Germany

In the GDR, “big brother” was a popular term for the Soviet Union. According to Dieter Herberg, this was not part of the public language of the GDR and ironically referred to the overpowering political ally of the Soviet Union.

For Birgit Wolf, the term is related to the “brother” dialectic , which was used synonymously in its own interpretation of fraternization as a paraphrase for peaceful cooperation. “Brother-” was officially used, especially in propaganda, as a defining word in the composition with other words such as: “ -land ”, “-staat”, “-volk”, “-bund”, “-bündnis”, “-partei” "Or" army ". According to the SED understanding, this combination of nouns was common in connection with other states and organizations, if they were of the same political orientation or pursued the same political class "struggle" interests.

In connection with the word collecting, the Federal Republic appears as the collecting side in the turning point. These or their representatives are ironically named as: "the big brother FRG " or "the big brother in the West." This is an allusion to the name for the Soviet Union from the time before the fall of the Wall.

Use in other Warsaw Pact states

In addition to the GDR, the term “big brother” was used in other Warsaw Pact states for the Soviet Union. For example in Bulgaria , whose population the Russians saw as real liberators, at the time of the Second World War and afterwards, and therefore meant it positively. The expression “Velký bratr”, however, still has negative connotations in the sense of “Big Brother USSR” in large parts of the population , writes Silke Gester in the study of Anglicisms in Czech and German in relation to the reality show “Big Brother “ , Which also ran in the Czech Republic .

Use in Germany after reunification

With the German unification of the states on October 3, 1990, the term continued to be used to describe the relationship between the GDR and the Soviet Union. When looking at the legal development in Germany, Adolf Laufs writes that the "big brother" Soviet Union as an occupying power imprinted its pattern on the GDR as a satellite state. Christian Müller uses the term “big brother” as a section heading: “Occupying power, big brother and guarantor of the SED regime.” Jürgen Kocka puts the description of big brother and rival in a context to consider the relationship between the two German states of the same nationality. The Federal Republic, which never fully recognized the GDR, was the reference point for comparison for the East Germans. However, the name also appears in connection with other countries, so Julia Bär writes in Water Conflicts in Central Asia that Uzbekistan was called the "big brother of Central Asia". Big Brother is the title of a book about the cooperation between the secret services of the GDR and the USSR.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Broder Carstensen, Ulrich Busse: Anglicisms dictionary . The influence of English on German vocabulary after 1945. 1 AE. W. de Gruyter, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-11-017169-4 , pp. 599 ( books.google.de ).
  2. ↑ a b c Birgit Wolf: Language in the GDR . a dictionary. W. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2000, ISBN 3-11-016427-2 , pp. 88, 34 f . ( books.google.de ).
  3. ↑ a b Dieter Herberg, Doris Steffens, Elke Tellenbach: Keywords of the turning point (writings of the Institute for German Language; Volume 6) . Dictionary for public use of language 1989/90. Böhlau Verlag, Berlin, New York 1997, ISBN 3-11-015398-X , p. 362 ( books.google.de ).
  4. ↑ Claudiu Fischer: Key Account Management and Customer Value in an international environment with a focus on Eastern Europe (diploma thesis) . Grin, ISBN 978-3-640-13353-6 , pp. 362 ( books.google.de ).
  5. ^ Silke Gester: Anglicisms in Czech and in German . Inventory and empirical analysis in 2000. Lang, 2001, ISBN 978-3-631-38504-3 , pp. 150 .
  6. ^ Adolf Laufs: Legal Development in Germany . W. de Gruyter, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-89949-301-6 , pp. 34 f . ( books.google.de ).
  7. ^ Christian Th. Müller: Arrival - Everyday Life - Departure . Migration and intercultural encounters in GDR society. Ed .: Patrice G. Poutrus. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-412-14605-6 , pp. 45 ff . ( books.google.de ).
  8. ↑ Jürgen Kocka: Work on the story . Social change in the 19th and 20th centuries. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-525-37021-6 , pp. 362 ( books.google.de ).
  9. ↑ Julia Bar: Water conflicts in Central Asia (=  WeltTrend Thesis . Volume 5 ). Universitätsverlag Potsdam, Potsdam 2009, ISBN 978-3-940793-72-0 , p. 94 .