Hanging line
Hängolin (also Hängulin or similar) refers to an unspecified anaphrodisiac or sedative , which is said to be added to the food of male soldiers, prison inmates or boarding school residents in order to lower their libido and / or erectile function .
The reasons given for the administration are avoidance of conflict, prevention of homosexual practices and masturbation as well as the reduction of sexual distress.
use
The term is found mainly in the German military , starting with the German Army of the First World War, through the Wehrmacht , NVA and the Bundeswehr . Similar terms are used in the Swiss Army . Today the term is almost only used jokingly. Among Catholic theologians, the term was or is also used with regard to seminars for the priests, in which it was assumed, half seriously, that such a substance was added to food (usually by nuns working in the kitchen) in order to encourage candidates on the path to a celibate lifestyle hold.
history
"Hängolin" is the oldest known name. Well proven by the Wehrmacht during the Second World War , it probably goes back to the time of the First World War and, through the ending “-olin”, is based on a common name for oily dissolved drugs at the time. The origin of the word stem and its first use is unclear. In everyday reception, the syllable “hanging” is often interpreted as the opposite of erection . In the First World War there were actually food supplements, but they were vitamins and additives.
“Hängolin” could also have originated from a predecessor myth that is hardly known today. Soda (baking soda) and bromine , for example, have had a similar effect, and their allegedly "energizing" effect was wrongly recommended for self-medication. Outside of the military, this word creation from the soldier's language is used ironically for real drugs that have erectile dysfunction or similar side effects.
There are regionally different names for the remedy, which change from time to time. In Switzerland, for example, the same effect has been attributed to a preparation called antibockin since the 1980s . Other synonyms are, for example, Schlapposan , Nullbock or Schlappofix , each with endings that are reminiscent of the names of drugs.
Truthfulness
According to popular opinion, the story of Hängolin is to be regarded as a modern saga , as there has never been any admixture of drugs in food to lower the libido or erectile function in soldiers. On the one hand, there are no suitable substances whose addition can be dosed with sufficient accuracy for many individuals at the same time so that an effect is achieved and undesirable side effects are avoided. On the other hand, there was at no time a legal basis for the involuntary administration of such substances in the area where this myth was distributed ; in fact, this would be a bodily harm . The systematic use of such means had never been considered even for war conditions. Nevertheless, the hangolin rumor persisted among soldiers.
The Hängolin story was also part of the staging, with which older soldiers and superiors tried to convey a threatening, intimidating picture of the military conditions to the newly recruited, in which special rules apply, especially with regard to individual rights. In the GDR military the myth was handed down with the rituals and sayings of the EK movement .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Christoph Drösser: Zero Bock in the military. Zeit Online Gesundheit, September 15, 2009, accessed April 30, 2015 .