List of winged words / H

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I have never seen the market and the streets so lonely.

Daniel Chodowiecki : Hermann meets Dorothea in the refugee trek

These words are the opening lines of Goethe's epic Hermann and Dorothea . There it is said at the beginning that almost all of the city's residents are curiously looking at a train of refugees that is passing near the town. The landlady Lieschen sends her son Hermann with gifts for those in need:

“I have never seen the market and the streets so lonely!
Isn't the city swept! how extinct! Not fifty, it
seems to me, remained of all our residents.
What curiosity doesn't do! So everyone runs and runs now,
To see the sad procession of the poor distributors. "

I really enjoy it!

This scornful response is received Faust by Mephistopheles in Goethe's play Faust . Mephisto is happy about Faust's involvement in his love for Gretchen and comments on the course of events with these cynical words:

Mephistopheles :

“And she understands the physiognomy masterfully.
In my presence it becomes her, she doesn't know how,
My little girl prophesies hidden meaning;
She feels that I am definitely a genius,
maybe even the devil.
Well, tonight -? "

Fist:

"What's it to you?"

Mephistopheles:

"I really enjoy it!"

Mephisto mocks Faust's double standards. Wouldn't he soon be making promises of eternal love to Gretchen that he couldn't keep?

I only have your love, I don't need your loyalty.

These are the first two lines of the song by Fiametta, the lover of the title character from Franz von Suppé's operetta Boccaccio :

"I only have your love,
I don't need loyalty,
love is only the bud
from which loyalty breaks."

Have sun in my heart!

Version of "Have sun in my heart" on a wall hanging

The request “Have sun in your heart!” Is the beginning of a poem from the well-read book From the years of learning and traveling in the life of the writer Caesar Flaischlen . The opening lines of the poem Have Sun ... , which is sung to the melody of May has come , is still quoted today as an encouragement to a positive attitude towards life:

Have sun in my heart
,
whether it is storming or snowing, whether the sky is full of clouds,
the earth is full of strife!

The first line also became the title of a feature film made with Liselotte Pulver in 1952 .

I have now, ah!

With these words, after three prologues, the actual plot of Goethe's drama Faust I begins :

I have now, ah! Philosophy,
jurisprudence and medicine,
and unfortunately also theology
, thoroughly studied, with ardent effort.
Here I stand, poor fool!
And am as smart as before [.]

They like to be quoted in the original sense of the regretful exclamation.

Habeas corpus.

With habeas corpus (Latin: “you should have the body”) the legally unrestricted royal arrest warrants were introduced in England in the Middle Ages . The arrest warrants began with the words, depending on the reason for arrest:

  • habeas corpus ad subjiciendum - one can hold on to the person in order to make them an object (an interrogation, an accusation)
  • habeas corpus ad testificandum - one can hold onto the person to get a testimony

In England Charles I misused this instrument by extorting payments from wealthy citizens with the threat of having them locked up if they refused to pay.

Today, habeas corpus is usually understood to mean the restrictions on this right. This restriction was made in England by a law of 1679 called the Habeas Corpus Amendment Act . It is also known colloquially as the Habeas Corpus Act , which is why it is often incorrect in German: "Habeas Corpus Act".

The European Convention on Human Rights classifies the right to protection from arbitrary detention in Article 5 as a human right .

Habemus papam.

Habemus Papam , 1415

According to a church rite, after a papal election with the Latin formula Habemus Papam , the new pope is still presented to the public by the cardinal protodeacon. The full formula, which has been handed down in writing since the 15th century, is:

"Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum: habemus Papam. Eminentissimum ac reverendissimum dominum, Dominum (first name of the Pope) , Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae cardinalem (last name of the Pope) , qui sibi nomen imposuit (Pope's name) . "
“I announce great joy to you: we have a Pope! The most outstanding and most venerable Lord, Mr. [first name] , of the Holy Roman Church Cardinal [last name] , who has given himself the name [Pope's name] . "

With the call, those waiting in front of the outside loggia of St. Peter's Church will be informed of the completed papal election.

"Habemus Satan" was a cynical comment on the election of CSU chairman Franz Josef Strauss as candidate for chancellor of the Union parties in 1980.

To have and not to have

Have and Have Not (English: To have and have not ) is the title of a novel by Ernest Hemingway . In the novel, a penniless boat rental company tries to earn his living with unscrupulous methods of the rich and is finally killed in a shootout. The title may refer to a passage in the 20th chapter of Miguel de Cervantes ' novel Don Quixote , which reads in Spanish:

"Dos linages sólos hay en el munde, como decia une abuela que son el tenir y el no tenir."
"There are only two families in the world, as one of my grandmothers said, the have and the not-have."

Have sua fata libelli.

Coat of arms with the motto Habent sua fata libelli on the facade of the Höllrigl bookstore in Salzburg

The Latin quotation Habent sua fata libelli comes from a didactic poem on the articulation of letters by the ancient grammarian Terentianus Maurus , which reads as follows:

"Pro captu lectoris (habent) sua fata libelli."
"Depending on the reception by the reader, the little books have their fate."

The media philosopher Vilém Flusser writes in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung about the fate of books :

“The author did not dare to defend himself against the rape of his text so as not to question the publication at the last minute, but suffered from every intervention as if from a stroke of fate: habent sua fata libelli, books have their fates . "

The quote refers to the sometimes very emotional reception of literary works:

  • "Investigation of the truth of the thesis 'habent sua fata libelli' in part of a library science collection"

But there are also variants of the saying:

  • "Habent sua fata bibliothecae" ( Libraries have their fates. )
  • "Habent sua fata libelli - when books already have fates, like ships then."
  • "Habent sua fata campanae - bells have their fates."

Sharks and small fish

Sharks and Small Fish is the title of a 1956 novel by Wolfgang Ott , in which the submarine war is depicted.

Big Sharks is a computer-animated film that was released in October 2004.

The title, made popular by the book and its film adaptation, was soon used to characterize the relationships between the rulers and the ruled:

  • "Sharks and small fish - the online personal loan trade is booming."
  • "Two takeovers: big sharks and small fish among themselves"

Hakuna Matata

Hakuna Matata is a saying from the East African language Swahili , which literally translates as "There are no" ( hakuna ) "problems" ( matata ).

The saying is particularly famous for the Walt Disney cartoon The Lion King . Hakuna Matata is the title of a song that is performed in the film and also in the musical based on it by the characters Timon and Pumbaa.

She half pulled him, half sank.

These words come from the penultimate line of the ballad Der Fischer by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . It tells of a fisherman who is so beguiled by the words and songs of a mermaid emerging from the water that he follows her into the water at the end:

“The water rushes, the water swells,
wets his bare foot;
His heart grew as longing
for him as with the dearest greeting.
She spoke to him, she sang to him;
It was all about him;
She half pulled him, half sank
and was no longer seen. "

This quote is used occasionally to comment on someone hesitant about entering into a certain relationship.

The quote can also be found in an article about the swan Petra in Münster , who attracted attention due to her affection for a white paddle boat in the shape of a swan:

"She half pulled him, half sank - but very quickly, zoo director Jörg Adler released Münster's swan Petra when the black lady fluttered wildly in the direction of the pedal boat swan."

People like to parody:

"She half took him off, half he took her off ..."

Didn't help him hurt and oh.

This quote comes from Goethe's folk song Heidenröslein , the third stanza of which reads as follows:

"And the wild boy broke his
little rose on the heathen;
Röslein struggled and stabbed
,
Did n't help him hurt and oh, just have to suffer.
Röslein, Röslein, Röslein red,
Röslein auf der Heiden. "

Hello Mr. Kaiser!

With this advertising slogan, the fictitious Günter Kaiser presented himself as a competent consultant in direct dialogue with the viewer and explained current insurance and pension issues in order to then suggest solutions from the Hamburg-Mannheimer . The spots were so well known that they were often shown right before the news .

Break a leg

A corruption of the Yiddish expression hatslokhe u brokhe , which was used as a wish for good luck and blessing, with the meaning of success and blessing , possibly led to the winged word broken neck and leg .

Stop my friend Who's getting mad so fast?

This was the saying of the HB male , a cartoon character used to advertise the HB cigarette brand . The HB male is one of the most famous advertising figures in the history of German advertising television.

The advertising films in the cinema and television always ran according to the same scheme: everyday situations were shown in which something always went wrong, causing the little man Bruno to get excited, rage with incomprehensible language and "blown up". The following slogan - spoken from the off in a soothing voice - was:

“Stop my friend! Who's getting mad so fast? Better to grab HB! "

Then the HB male floated back to the ground in a good mood, accompanied by the voice:

"Then everything works by itself."

The advertising slogan is also quoted differently:

  • "Hot air balloons: who is going to get up in the air?"

Hand of God

The Hand of God (Spanish: la mano de Dios ) describes a situation during the 1986 World Cup in which the Argentine soccer player Diego Maradona used his hand to score an irregular goal in the quarter-final against England. Maradona himself coined the expression when he showed no remorse after the game and said in front of the cameras:

"Un poco con la cabeza de Maradona y un poco con la mano de Dios"
"A little with Maradona's head and a little with the hand of God"

England goalkeeper Peter Shilton rushed out of the gate to pick up a high ball. At the same time, Maradona jumped into the air and steered the ball past the goalkeeper into the goal with his left hand. The television images clearly showed that Maradona had played the ball by hand. The protests of the English players at the Tunisian referee Ali Ben Naceur were of no use. England lost the game 2-1, Argentina defeated Germany in the final and became world champions for the second time.

It wasn't until 2005 that Maradona admitted to actually playing the ball by hand. In his autobiography, Maradona put it this way:

“Ahora sí puedo contar lo que en aquel momento no podía, lo que en aquel momento definí como 'La mano de Dios'… Qué mano de Dios, ¡fue la mano del Diego! Y fue como robarle la billetera a los ingleses también ... "
“Now I can tell what I couldn't tell then, what I then called the 'hand of God' ... The hand of God was the hand of Diego! And it was like stealing the wallet from the English ... "

Craft has golden ground

The saying goes in full: “Handicraft has golden ground, said the weaver, the sun shone in his empty haversack.” Actually, this saying was sarcastically applied to the poverty of many small master craftsmen, especially weavers. Their poverty had become truly proverbial in the nineteenth century with the advent of industrialization and had led to the weavers' revolts.

Today almost only the first part is quoted, in the often false assumption that craftsmen (as service providers) earn particularly well.

Hannemann, you go ahead!

The saying “Hannemann, you go ahead!” Comes from the folk tale The Seven Swabians , which the Brothers Grimm also included in their collection. This fairy tale tells how seven Swabians want to kill a dragon together with a spear, which is actually a hare. It is said of the Brothers Grimm:

Walk, Veitli, walk, go ahead,
I want to go over there in front of you.

The following wording is more common:

Hannemann, you go ahead!
You have the biggest boots on so
that the animal cannot bite you.

The name "Hannemann" is a subsidiary form of the first name "Johannes". The phrase is used today when you want to send someone over to do an unpleasant thing.

Hannibal ante portas!

John Leech :
As an eleven-year-old Hannibal swears eternal hatred of Rome.

This Latin warning means "Hannibal at the gates" and goes back to a statement by the Roman politician Marcus Tullius Cicero , in whose Philippine speeches the phrase "Hannibal ad portas" occurs.

The same formulation can be found in the historian Livy. In the Second Punic War , the Carthaginian general Hannibal conquered almost all of southern Italy and had penetrated as far as Rome .

Modifications of the quote are still in use today:

  • “Hannibal ante portas. The US War and the World "
  • Pappa ante portas (title of a feature film by Loriot )
  • "Brussels: Stoiber ante portas" ( Edmund Stoiber's activity in Brussels)
  • "Currency reform Ante Portas?"

Hans in hapiness

Hans in luck in Berlin

A “happy Hans” is a carefree, carefree person to whom everything falls automatically. Hans im Glück is a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, in which a simple-minded boy gives away a lump of gold, his wages of seven years, and after a series of bad barter deals has nothing more than a grindstone that falls into a well. Now he feels relieved of a burden:

“'As happy as I am,' he exclaimed, 'there is no man under the sun.' With a light heart and free from all burdens, he jumped away until he was at home with his mother. "

The fairy tale allows for several popular teachings:

The Hans-im-Glück-Preis is a literary prize that was founded in 1977 by the writer Frederik Hetmann and his wife and has been awarded annually since 1978 to promote young authors of books for young people. The award got its name because Hans happily gave away his lucky goods. He created a balance between those who are happy and those who need a little nudge to be happy. Writers usually need this nudge.

Jack of all trades

The jack of all trades is a bustling person who thinks he knows everything. The first evidence for this expression is the collection of proverbs by Johann Agricola in the 16th century. However, Agricola writes of a "Hans in all streets". The name Hans (von Johannes) was so common in German-speaking countries in the 16th century that it was literally to be found “in every street”. The expression "Hans Dampf in alle Gassen" goes back to the phrase "Hans in alle Gassen".

Hans Dampf in allen Gassen is then the title of a story by Heinrich Zschokke . The main character in it is "Hans, the son of Mayor Peter Dampf", who combines the above-mentioned characteristics.

A well-known figure of this name is said to have existed in Gotha . There a verse epic appeared in 1846 in which a "Hans George, called Hans Dampf" appeared.

happy end

The Scheinanglizismus happy ending (correct: happy ending ) translates Happy Ending , within the meaning of Good starting. The English term came into use through the art of cinema. The term happy ending thus originally refers to a movie, but is also applied to a series, a novel or a story such as a fairy tale.

Kurt Tucholsky's well-known poem Afterwards closes with the following words:

“The marriage was for the most part
boiled milk and boredom.
And that's why there is
always a glare at the happy ending in the film. "

Happy few

In the St. Crispins Day speech in William Shakespeare's royal drama Henry V , the English King Henry V refers these English words (the lucky few) to the small group of his comrades in arms who will take part in the upcoming Battle of Azincourt and who he will will even name his brothers:

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers."
"We few, we few lucky ones, we crowd of brothers."

Band of Brothers is a ten-part television production by the US pay-TV broadcaster HBO from 2001. The miniseries is based on the book of the same name by historian Stephen Ambrose and describes the events of World War II between 1944 and 1945 As seen from the soldiers of the Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Paratrooper Regiment, 101st Airborne Division of the US Armed Forces.

To the Happy Few is the (English) follow-up to the novel La Chartreuse de Parme ( The Charterhouse of Parma ) , which the French writer Stendhal wrote in Civitavecchia in 1838. Stendhal feared failure and thought he was writing for a very small group. That is why it is important for him that his books will still be read in 100 years. The novel was enthusiastically reviewed by Balzac in the Revue Parisienne and was Stendhal's only book success during his lifetime.

The expression happy few is used today to refer to a select group.

Harry, pull up the car!

The phrase "Harry, drive up the car" comes from the television series Derrick and had cult status among fans of the series. For a long time it was said that he never appeared on the series. When asked about it , Derrick actor Horst Tappert said in an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung:

“I always said: I've never spoken the phrase Harry, get the car. And one day I was sitting with guests in front of a repeat, and suddenly I said on TV: Harry, get the car. I almost got a hit. "

This sentence had taken on a life of its own and was only used this once. A derrick sketch in the comedy series RTL Saturday Night , in which Harry (here Tommy Krappweis ) received the said order from Derrick (here Stefan Jürgens ) and instead of pulling up the car, pushed a shopping cart forwards , probably also contributed to the popularity .

Hate is love that has failed

Quote from the Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard .

Ugly duckling

The Ugly Duckling is a fairy tale by the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen , which tells how a swan chick accidentally hatches in a duck's nest. When it hatches it is uglier than the ducklings and is bullied by everyone:

“The big egg is finally bursting. ,Peep peep!' said the boy and crawled out; it was big and ugly. The duck looked at it. 'That's a very big duckling,' she said; 'None of the others looks like this; should it be a kalekutian cake? Well, let's get to it soon; it has to go into the water, whether I should push it into it myself. '"

It grows into a proud, young swan and is recognized by its conspecifics.

Do you have a grandpa, send him to Europe

This was a frequently used mockery of the 1970s, which was intended to underline the then insignificance of the European Parliament . In the opinion of many commentators, the main function of the European Parliament was to provide retired politicians with a supply post where they could no longer cause damage if they lacked any skills. Nowadays, the change from a national parliament to the European Parliament no longer means a loss of power, since, unlike back then, the European Parliament decides in most cases on an equal footing with the Council and does not only act as an adviser.

The mockery is still occasionally used in connection with European elections.

Did you pray for the night, Desdemona?

Dante Gabriel Rossetti : Desdemona's death song

These are the words Othello addressed to his wife Desdemona in William Shakespeare's tragedy :

"Have you prayed to-night, Desdemona?"

The Moor Othello has just stepped into Desdemona's bedchamber to kill his unfaithful wife. An embroidered handkerchief that Desdemona has lost becomes the decisive indicator in an intrigue that Desdemona is unfaithful. Othello is a general in the army of the Republic of Venice and has secretly married the beautiful Desdemona.

Did you know?

Did you know? was a 45-minute quiz show with high ratings that wasbroadcast on ARD from 1958 to 1969. Heinz Maegerlein was the moderator.

In each round, an area of ​​knowledge (for example foreign words) or a category (for example “What you know - what you should know”) was asked. These were questions that could often be answered with a very good general education.

The quote is often used in connection with questions of knowledge:

  • “Did you know? - Today: Is there really cocaine in Coca-Cola? "
  • “Did you know? Amazing facts about our water consumption. "
  • "Did you know ?: Questions from the naturalization test."

Main and state action

Johann Chr. Vollert: Traveling theater on the river bank

This expression goes back to the pieces of the German touring stage of the 17th and 18th centuries, in which a main piece (the "main action") was framed by comical interludes and reenactments. These pieces mostly dealt with pseudo-historical material ("state actions").

The polemical term "main and state actions" for these plays was coined by the writer and theater critic Johann Christoph Gottsched .

The theologian and writer Johannes Daniel Falk used this expression in 1798 in his description of the journeys of Scaramuz :

“I find the custom of German publishers to present the spirit of their publishing articles to the public in a praising content advertisement, even before the book itself is printed, just as permissible and praiseworthy as Picini's habit, which also takes place before the main and state action in his Raise the shack itself, meanwhile put a big monkey at the window or in front of the door, which is supposed to entice a respectful audience with entertaining capers, while the trumpeters blow their hoarse sound and Bajazzo incessantly shouts in the ears of passers-by: “Allons, gentlemen! always in! Funny funny. The great bear dance should always begin! ”(There is no human soul inside.) - The reviews of the book are no less worthy of prizes in the world of scholars, when it has now been published. For just as the big ape, which, so to speak, holds the prologue on the doorstep, also plays a leading role in the play itself in those main and state events at the annual fairs, so it often happens in Germany that the ape, which has a book for years trumpeted beforehand, and the one who writes and criticizes it are one and the same person. "

The phrase "main and state action" is used today to express that something is being carried out with too much effort:

  • "Football is not the nicest thing in the world, it is the main and state action."
  • "Many politicians, however, seem to want to make a major and state action out of it."

House without a guardian

House without Guardians is the title of a novel by Heinrich Böll , published in1954, in which the fate of two women is portrayed who have to live on without their husbands who died in the war and whose sons have to grow up without a father.

The novel is set in a town on the Rhine in the early 1950s. The plot is told from the perspective of the five main characters.

If you go to my Jew, I will hit your Jew.

This expression can be found in the comedy Der Datterich , in which it says:

"Haag you my iodine, then I also have yours."

The saying goes back to the story The two postillons in Johann Peter Hebels treasure chest of the Rhenish family friend . In this story, two coachmen get two businessmen to tip more: At a narrow street, the coachmen pretend they're getting into an argument, beat the other coachman's passenger with their whips and shout:

“You shouldn't hit my passenger; he's entrusted to me and pays honestly, or I'll hit yours too. "

This makes it clear to business people how much the coachmen care for them and that they deserve better wages. One of the passengers complained about the delay by asking if they should wait another forty years. Because of this allusion to the forty-year migration of the Israelites through the desert, it was probably said, "Take home my Jews, I strike your Jews".

Another source is the poem The Two Jews by Karl Simrock from 1831. It depicts a dispute as to whether a believer or an enlightened Jew is better suited to the tenant of an estate. One line of the poem reads:

"Friend, if you hit my Jew, I'll hit yours."

Pike in the carp pond

The German historian Heinrich Leo compared the French Emperor Napoleon III with a pike . , whom he saw as a political troublemaker in the balance of European forces.

Leo may have been inspired by an article by the publicist Joseph Görres , who wrote in 1804:

“The German carp crouched comfortably in the shallow water and sat tight from the bottom and did not move and ate mud and got fat. Some of the more active, independent nature of the pike race had to get up and ride under them and drive them out of the mold if they were to become edible. "

In 1888 Otto von Bismarck took up this picture in a speech in the Reichstag and characterized Germany's position between the two neighboring states of France and Russia in the following words:

"The pike in the European carp pond prevent us from becoming carp."

In the Kladderadatsch 1860 it says about Heinrich Leo:

"Finally at the 'carp pond' he thanks the servants in greeting,
bedded himself in the mud to dream of the 'god-sent pike'."

In the pond the pike chases the lazy carp and does not let them rest.

Yeast of the people

This derogatory expression means something like "depraved part of a population" and goes back to the Latin faex civitatis , which can be found in Marcus Tullius Cicero's defense speech Pro Flacco .

Hail in the wreath!

Christian VII of Denmark

Heil dir im Siegerkranz was from 1871 to 1918 a representativesong ofthe German Empire , which was sung in particular with reference to the emperor. This quote goes back to asong of praise to the Danish King Christian VII writtenby the Schleswig poet Heinrich Harries in1790, which begins with the following stanza:

“Hail to you, the loving
ruler of the fatherland!
Hail, Christian, to you!
Feel in the splendor of the throne the
great bliss of being
father of the people!
Heil, Christian, you! "

Balthasar Gerhard Schumacher published an abbreviated form in 1793 in the Berlinische Nachrichten von Staats- und Schumacherachen with the subtitle God Save the King , which also indicated the way of singing.

The opening verses are:

“Hail to you in the wreath,
ruler of the fatherland,
hail to emperor!
||: Feel in the splendor of the throne the
great bliss of being
darling of the people!
Heil Kaiser, you!: || "

It is reported that the song was not undisputed during World War I due to the fact that it shared the melody with the English royal anthem.

Perfect world

This expression probably goes back to a collection of poems by the writer Werner Bergengruen , published in 1950 , which was given the title Die Heile Welt .

The poem Die Heile Welt , written in 1944, states:

“Know when
the blood splatters from your heart in hours of pain :
Nobody can wound the world,
only the shell is scratched.
Deep in the innermost part of the rings,
their core rests safely and soundly.
And with every thing of creation
you always have a part in it. "

Rudolf Grulich wrote about this title :

"The title of a selection of poems 'Die heile Welt', which expressed the poet's unshakable trust in God's creation, had to anger all those who judged literature on ideological motives."

Holy egoism

In October 1914, at the presentation of the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which he temporarily took over, the Italian Prime Minister Antonio Salandra coined the word sacro egoismo ( sacred egoism ), saying:

“The main guidelines of our international policy tomorrow will be the same as they were yesterday. To obey them requires an unshakable steadfastness of the soul, a clear understanding of the real interests of the country, a maturity of reflection which, if necessary, does not exclude the willingness to act; There is a need for warmth not in words, but in action; what is required is a spirit free from prejudices, from every preconceived opinion, from every feeling except unlimited and exclusive devotion to the fatherland, sacred egoism for Italy. "

The Kingdom of Italy had been allied with the two empires of Germany and Austria-Hungary in the Triple Alliance since 1882 . The German Emperor Wilhelm II and the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I hoped to keep Italy's sacred egoism in check. Italy declared its neutrality at the beginning of the First World War, as it feared an Austro-Hungarian increase in territory in the Balkans . At the turn of the year 1914/15 Italy began to demand Austrian territories in return for neutrality. Emperor Franz Joseph I declared himself ready to cede some areas, but refused to surrender South Tyrol . Thereupon Italy concluded a secret treaty with the Allies, which granted it large territorial gains if it declared war on Austria-Hungary within four weeks. Italy then withdrew from the Triple Alliance and on May 23, 1915 declared war on its former ally.

This breach of word caused violent indignation in Austria-Hungary. Emperor Franz Joseph I issued the following manifesto on the same day:

“To my peoples!
The King of Italy has declared war on me. A breach of loyalty, the like of which history does not know, has been committed by the kingdom of Italy against its two allies.
After an alliance of more than thirty years, during which it was able to increase its territorial holdings and develop to an unexpected bloom, Italy left Us in the hour of danger and went over to the camp of Our enemies with flying colors. "

The quote is still used today, for example, to describe the foreign policy of certain states:

  • "America's Sacred Selfishness"
  • “Holy egoists. The sociobiology of Indian temple monkeys "(book title by Volker Sommer )

Holy war

A holy war is a war that is waged and justified on behalf of a god. In ancient Greece , wars to protect the Sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi and its possessions against predatory neighbors were fought as holy wars under amphictyon law. The first holy war was waged by Athens and the tyrant Kleisthenes of Sicyon 600–590 BC. Against Krissa , who had molested the pilgrims.

Christianity in the first two centuries generally rejected military service. There was evidence that there were no Christians in the Roman army until 175. A gradual process of Christians growing into political responsibility culminated in the Constantinian Turn of 313, as a result of which wars to expand Christianity were finally legitimized theologically. Eusebius of Caesarea then wrote in a hymn of praise to Emperor Constantine that he was “waging a war under the cross, which is thus holy”. The idea that military activity represents a heavenly reward worthy of merit in the sense of religion, is evident even before the crusades in three points on warrior martyrdom. Church representatives of the 9th century such as Bishop Agobard are regarded as pioneers of the crusade idea . He saw the task of the Christian emperors in subjugating non-Christians "so that they accept the faith and expand the boundaries of the kingdom of believers." In the High Middle Ages, the Latin term bellum sacrum was briefly used in connection with the Crusades .

Muslim scholars emphasize that the term jihad ( Arabic جهاد Jihād  'effort, struggle') cannot betranslated as holy war , since a war isnot considered holy in Islam . Jihad is a shortening ofالجهاد في سبيل الله Al-Jihādu fī sabīl illāh , literally: 'the effort' / 'the struggle in the way of God' ''. Shi'ite scholars also view jihad as a kind of spiritual effort by the individual. In the Qur'an Jihad and its different verb forms occur 35 times; 29 times of which meant a fight with a weapon in hand and twice as an effort to "counteract evil desires and seductions".

Holy cannon barrel!

This outdated exclamation of surprise comes from Karl Millöcker's operetta Der Bettelstudent . In this song, Colonel Ollendorf complains that the courted Laura turned him away:

Oh, I only
kissed her on the shoulder.
Here I felt the blow
With the fan in the face. -
All sky million thunderous weather,
holy cannon barrel.
Some things have already happened to me,
but not yet!

Holy cannon barrel! is the German title of the US comedy Sons o 'Guns by Lloyd Bacon from 1936. In the film, a young musical star plays the hero on stage and then has to go to war in Europe ...

Crickets at the stove

This term is the translation of the title of a Christmas story by the English writer Charles Dickens , which is called The Cricket on the Hearth in English . The house cricket is a long-nosed insect that prefers to find shelter in human settlement areas.

Heimchen am Herd is a derogatory term for a naive, non- emancipated woman who only knows how to fulfill her domestic duties.

Heinrich, the car breaks.

The quote comes from the fairy tale The Frog King or the Iron Heinrich . When, after a crash during a carriage ride, the young king told his loyal servant Heinrich that the carriage was breaking, he replied:

"No, sir, the car is not,
it is a ribbon from my heart that
lay in great pain
when you sat in the well
when you were wasting a frog."

There are of course a number of parodies of this much-quoted saying, such as the following from 1911:

"Heinerich
the car breaks
if he breaks in the middle he
has to go to the forge"

In a psychological interpretation of the fairy tale, Heinrich Tischner states:

“On the bumpy roads it happened time and again that cars broke and got stranded. Here the risky ride is a picture of the confusion of puberty. The young man is still so used to being offended that he misinterprets the signals of relaxation as new alarm signals. "

Heinrich! I dread you.

Gretchen in the dungeon.
Gretchen recommends herself to God, Mephisto pulls Faust with him. Lithograph by Wilhelm Hensel based on the information provided by Prince Radziwill (1835).

This quote is from Goethe's tragedy Faust . Faust enters the dungeon. The mentally confused and tormented by feelings of guilt Gretchen initially considers him to be her executioner. When she recognizes him, she vacillates between the desire for proof of love and disgust for her brother's murderer. Faust tries to persuade her to flee, but she refuses:

“I am yours, father! Save me!
Your angels! You holy hosts,
camp around to keep me!
Heinrich! I dread you. "

When Gretchen sees Mephisto, she is frightened and recommends herself to God. Mephisto pushes Faust out of prison: The redemption of Gretchen is revealed in a "voice from above": "Is saved". Mephisto and Faust flee.

In the dungeon scene, Gretchen resists the temptation to escape with the help of Faust and Mephistus and thus avoid their execution. She wants to atone for her guilt and with these words turns away from Faust.

Hot! My wife is dead!

"Hot! My wife is dead! '"

In the adventures of a bachelor of the Knopp trilogy by Wilhelm Busch , the bachelor Knopp encounters a certain sour bread on the way, which with these words expresses his joy that he has been redeemed by his wife:

“Sauerbrot, who laughs happily,
has made himself a punch.
'HOT !!' calls out Sauerbrot -
'Heissa! My wife is dead !!
Here in this side
room she rests by the candlelight.
Today she doesn't bother us anymore,
Well, old man, sit down,
take the glass and toast,
Never become a husband,
Because as such, you can say,
you have to endure a lot of annoyance. '"

His wife is lying in the next room, but is only apparently dead; and when she appears in the door, Sauerbrot falls dead in shock.

Hot spur

The term hotspur (English: Hotspur ) comes from William Shakespeare's royal drama Henry IV , which appeared in 1598 under the following title:

"The Historie of Henrie the Fourth: with the Battell at Shrewsburrie, between the King and Lord Henry Percy, surnamed Henrie Hotspur of the North. With the humorous conseits of Sir John Fallstaffe. "
"The story of Henry IV with the battle of Shrewsbury between the king and Lord Heinrich Percy, known as Henry Hotspur of the North, and with the funny ideas of Sir John Fallstaff."

Hotspur is the nickname Henry Percys ( Harry Hotspur ), a hot-blooded, chivalrous youth who was first a friend, then an enemy of King Henry IV . This gained a reputation as a daredevil in battles against the French and Scots. His nickname probably has to do with the fact that he equipped his fighting cocks with spurs.

Tottenham Hotspur is an English football club from the district of Tottenham in north London, which was founded in 1882 and which traces its name back to Harry Hotspur and which has a rooster with pronounced spurs as its emblem.

The word hot spur is synonymous with a daredevil or warrior who rushes off without thinking:

  • "National goalkeeper Lehmann: World Cup hero, hot spur, goalscorer."
  • "Hot spur Hamilton needs to cool down."
  • "From hot spur to service provider"

Brighter than a thousand suns

The expression brighter than a thousand suns comes from the Hindu religion. The all-goddess Devi is described as a beautiful woman whose face shines brighter than a thousand suns . It is said that when she blinks, she is recreating the universe ( cyclical worldview ).

The term was used by the researchers involved in the first atomic bomb test as part of the Manhattan project to describe the resulting atomic lightning bolt. A book by the Berlin author Robert Jungk that deals with this topic is also called Heller than a thousand suns .

Hercules at the crossroads

Annibale Carracci : Hercules at the crossroads

The image of Hercules at the crossroads goes back to a passage in the memories of Socrates by the Greek writer Xenophon , who tells how Hercules, as a young man, comes to a fork in the road where pleasure and virtue meet him as female figures. Faced with a choice, Hercules chooses the path of virtue.

The sophist Prodikos tells the fable as follows:

“One day the young Heracles came to a fork in the road, where two women of tall, but very different stature, met the lonely, musing youth. On one path stood a woman in sumptuous robes, lavishly cleaned, on the other hand a woman in plain clothes, who modestly lowered her gaze. First the splendid woman (lust) spoke to him:
'If you follow my path, Heracles, you will have a life full of pleasure and wealth. You will meet neither hardship nor suffering here, only bliss! '
Then the other (virtue):
'The love of the gods and those around them cannot be attained without hardship. Much suffering will befall you on the path of virtue, but your reward will be respect, reverence and love of people. Only you can decide which path should be yours. '
Heracles decided to follow the path of arete and honor. "

He hates Hermann!

With this verse in Berlin dialect begin and end the five stanzas of a song with which the singer Claire Waldoff appeared from 1914 and which the composer Ludwig Mendelssohn had written for her:

“He hows Hermann!
How the man can
smooch, squeeze, kiss!
I already know a lot of druggists,
but no one else got there that quickly
, yes, he's a master!
He hates Hermann! "

The sentimental song about a beloved man named Hermann was augmented by a mocking verse during the Nazi regime, which referred to Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring . Waldoff's last public stage appearance took place in 1936 in the Berlin Scala in the presence of propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels , who threatened the theater director:

"If I see this person on stage again, I'll leave Scala."

Goebbels had previously banned the song because of the parody of Göring:

"Right tinsel, left tinsel,
And the belly is imma fetta,
In the air he is a master - he hates
Hermann!"

Lord of the flies

Lord of the Flies, Beelzebub , was the Hebrew distortion of the name of the city god of Ekron in the land of the Philistines . Baal Zebul originally meant "exalted lord".

In Goethe's Faust I , Mephisto describes himself in the following words:

"Lord of the rats and mice,
the flies, frogs, bugs, lice"

The name was particularly widespread through William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies , in which it is described how a group of schoolboys tries to survive on an uninhabited island and is increasingly brutalized.

Lord, the meaning of the speech was obscure.

These words come from Friedrich Schiller's ballad Der Gang nach dem Eisenhammer . The servant Fridolin gives it to his master to answer the question what they said to him in the iron smelter:


The Count sinks here in deep astonishment , horrified:
'And what answer did you get
at the iron hammer? speak! ' -
'Lord, the speech made sense,
laughing at the stove:
It is worried and well taken care of,
The count will praise his servants.' - "

The meaning of speech was obscure today when one wants to suggest that one did not understand the meaning of a statement:

“The Evangelical Academy was packed, you could hardly find standing room to listen to Sloterdijk's remarks on 'What is humanity'. "The speech made sense darkly," summarized Harald Tews in Die Welt. "

Lord: it's time. The summer was very big.

Rainer Maria Rilke's poem Herbsttag begins with these words :

“Lord: it is time. The summer was very big.
Put your shadow on the sundials
and let go of the winds in the corridors. "

The opening verse expresses that one now wants to enjoy the fruits of one's labor.

Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate!

Reagan's speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate .

Former US President Ronald Reagan said in a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate on June 12, 1987 , two years before the fall of the Berlin Wall :

" Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. "
“Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! "

On the same day, Reagan also said:

"President von Weizsaecker has said: the German question is open as long as the Brandenburg Gate is closed."
"Federal President von Weizsäcker said that the German question is open as long as the Brandenburg Gate is closed."

Waiter! May we bring you something?

With these words, the main character reminds Loriots comedy film Pappa ante Portas during a visit in a bourgeois restaurant hectic Upper because he still has not received the order. Before that he says to his wife:

"They don't like us here."

The film quote has found its way into everyday language and can be found, for example, in the description of a Munich café :

“Everything is reminiscent of Loriot's 'Waiter, may we bring YOU something?' Lame waitresses, inattentive, sloppy ... and the food was sometimes better. "

Lord, give me patience, but please immediately!

This impatient invitation is the title of a book by Reinhard Egg with the subtitle "The sense of waiting in a fast-moving time".

An even more impatient version of this saying is:

"Dear God! Give me patience! But zack, zack! "

In the newspaper of the Evangelical Church Community in Denklingen the quote is taken up and explained as follows:

“The sentence meant as a joke: 'Lord, give me patience! But please immediately! ' summarizes it vividly. The good intention is there, but the way of doing it is really human. "

The saying is probably a parodic twisting of a well-known quote from Augustine , in which he describes his relationship to chastity in his own youth as follows:

At the beginning of my youth I asked you for chastity and said: 'Give me chastity and abstinence, but not right away!' Because I was afraid you would hear me too quickly, heal me all too quickly from the sickness of my lusts, which I would rather enjoy to the brim than extinguish. ( Confessiones , VIII.7.)

The passage "Give me chastity ..." is often taken out of the reporting context and shortened as: "Lord, give me chastity, but not immediately!"

I lead glorious times towards you.

The German Emperor Wilhelm II addressed these words to the German people at the turn of the 20th century and probably spoke from the heart of a large part of the people, because at this time an immense belief in progress had spread.

In a speech at the feast of the Brandenburg Provincial Parliament in 1892, Wilhelm said verbatim:

"We are still destined for great things, and I still lead wonderful days towards you."

However, Wilhelm's reign ended with the catastrophe of the First World War .

Heart, my heart, what's that supposed to give

With these words begins Johann Wolfgang Goethe's poem Neue Liebe, neue Leben , in which the disquiet is described that a lover feels when he is near his loved one.

Goethe takes up the beginning of a war poem by the Greek poet Archilochus (" Θυμὲ θύμ '. " - Thyme, thym' ), whose first verses in the German translation read as follows:

Heart, my heart, emerge again
from the sea of ​​misery!
Throw
your chest into the fray, restrain your disaster.

Goethe's poem begins with the following verses:

Heart, my heart, what's that supposed to give
What is it that troubles you so much?
What a strange new life!
I do not recognize you anymore.

Eureka!

Seal of the US state of California with the motto "Eureka"

Eureka (: ancient Greek . Εὕρηκα means something like "I've found it!")

The exclamation became famous after an anecdote handed down by Plutarch and Vitruvius , according to which Archimedes walked through the city of Syracuse undressed and shouting “Eureka!” After he discovered the Archimedes' principle named after him in the bathtub . The tyrant of Syracuse wanted to know if his crown was really made of pure gold and asked Archimedes to check the gold content of the crown. Archimedes thought for a long time, but initially found no solution. But when he noticed in the bathroom that bath water sloshed over the edge and that the amount of water that had run off corresponded to the volume of his body, Archimedes ran enthusiastically naked through Syracuse and shouted: "Got it!"

Since then, Heureka has been a joyous exclamation when successfully solving a difficult task.

Heureka is also the motto of the US state California , which has this word in its state seal. It refers to the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in January 1848, which triggered the California gold rush .

Today here tomorrow there

Hannes Wader , 2004

Today here, tomorrow there is the best-known title of the songwriter Hannes Wader . The melody comes from the song Indian Summer by the American musician Gary Bolstad, who studied veterinary medicine in Berlin in the 1960s and performed in folk clubs. Here today, there tomorrow, its catchy melody turned into a kind of modern folk song, which was sung to the guitar at group evenings, school trips and similar occasions, especially in the 1970s and 1980s:

“Here today, there tomorrow,
I'm hardly there, I have to go,
I've never complained about it.
I chose it myself,
never counted the years,
never asked about yesterday and tomorrow. "

The song describes the attitude towards life of a person who is always on the move, never asks about “yesterday and tomorrow”, but occasionally has “heavy dreams” because of it.

Title and lyrics of the song with the tradition and living the Wandervogel movement (see especially the song The cloth is raised, we will abseil , in turn, the Russian shanty Ty Seaman quotes) and became a household word . So that overrides Wirtschaftswoche an article about the future of work with "Here today, gone tomorrow" and declares that the world of work stand before a radical change that from the word flexibility is dominated.

Today is not every day.

The saying from the credits of the television series The Pink Panther went into everyday language. In the song Who turned the clock ... it says:

"Who has turned the clock?
Is it already that late?
It's a shame it has to be
Is it really over for today ???

Today is not every day,
I'll be back, no question "

Today I don't make myself supper, today I worry.

These words were used by the cabaret artist Wolfgang Neuss , but according to some sources they are attributed to the writer Kurt Tucholsky . An article in the news magazine Der Spiegel says about the political affair between Wolfgang Schäuble and his "party friend" Brigitte Baumeister about donations:

“In the late evening, Hofmann and Ströbele in particular had irritable speeches with Schäuble, who at the end of the long day, annoyed, quoted a bon mot from Tucholsky in response to hypothetical questions: 'Today I won't make dinner, today I worry.'"

In a modified form, the princes also use the sentence in the song What should I give her? on:

"I'm not going to have dinner tonight, I'm so worried!"

Here Welf - here Waiblingen!

This battle cry is said to have been used for the first time at the Battle of Weinsberg in 1140. The party of the Staufer King Konrad III named after the Hohenstaufen castle of Waiblingen . there defeated the opposing party of the Guelphs , a Frankish noble family who saw their claims to power violated by the election of Konrad as king.

From the battle cry, the names of the Papal and Staufer parties, Guelphs and Ghibellines , emerged in Italian ; whereby the Guelfs became supporters of the church and the Ghibellines remained on the side of the Hohenstaufen.

Based on these party names, the following proverbs arose in Germany and Italy:

"I am not a Welf, not Ghibellin, I hang my coat on the one who pays well."
“Guelfo non son, nè Ghibellin m 'appello; chi mi dà più, io volterò mantello, chi mi dà da mangiar, tengo da quello. "

Here I am person, here I can be.

This quote is from Goethe's drama Faust . Faust says during the Easter walk:

“Even from paths far
away from the mountain, colored clothes flash at us.
I can already hear the turmoil of the village,
the people's true heaven is here,
big and small cheer with satisfaction:
Here I am a person, here I can be. "

His famulus Wagner answers Faust's monologue:

“To walk with you, Herr Doctor,
is honorable and profitable;
But I would not lose myself here alone,
because I am an enemy of all raw things. "

Goethe is wrong here.

Goethe is wrong here is a quote attributed to the philologist Heinrich Düntzer , which is an example of the narrow-mindedness of scientists. Heinrich Düntzer commented on Goethe's statement handed down by Eckermann that his first and last love was Lili Schönemann with:

"Goethe could not rightly claim this either."

This was later shortened to the following dictum :

“Goethe is wrong here. Rather, that applies to Friederike Brion! "

Lili Schönemann got engaged to Goethe in the spring of 1775. The engagement was broken after six months, because the parents' houses were opposed to the connection.

Friederike Brion was an Alsatian pastor's daughter and had indeed had a short but intense love affair with the young Goethe a few years earlier (1770/1771).

Here is Rhodes, here jump!

In Aesop's fable “The Boastful Pentathlon” someone boasted that he once made a giant leap in Rhodes and cited witnesses. One of the bystanders replies:

“Friend, if it's true, you don't need any witnesses. Here is Rhodes, here jump ”.

This sentence is mostly used in Latin in the form “ Hic Rhodus, hic salta! “Quoted. Literally, however, Aesop says:

"Look, this is Rhodes, here is the jump too."

The original Greek version is Ἰδοῦ Ῥόδος, καὶ ἀποπήδησον.  - Idou Rhodos kai apopēdēson.

Here I am, I can't help it.

Plaque on the base of the Luther statue of the Reformation monument in Worms

The often quoted phrase

"Here I stand, I can't help it, God help me, amen."

is not a historical word by Martin Luther , but has a great history of impact, cf. Pictures . It sums up Luther's words on April 17, 1521 before the Diet in Worms , when he was asked to withdraw before the assembled princes and imperial estates and after a day of reflection said:

[Since] ... my conscience is caught in the words of God, I cannot and will not revoke anything because it is dangerous and impossible to do something against conscience. God help me. Amen. "

Here the guest turns with horror.

Pharaoh Amasis (King of Egypt)

These are the words the Egyptian Pharaoh Amasis said in Friedrich Schiller's ballad Der Ring des Polykrates to his friend, the tyrant Polykrates of Samos. The Egyptian king fears the envy of the gods, because Polykrates seems to have unlimited success and happiness. He therefore advises him to throw his most precious treasure into the sea. Polykrates throws his favorite ring into the sea, but the next day the cook appears who found the ring in a caught fish. Amasis now believes that the gods want his friend's ruin and leaves Polycrates on the spot:

“Here the guest turns in horror:
'I cannot live
further here like this, you cannot be further my friend.
The gods want your perdition;
I hurry away, not to die with you. '
And spoke it and quickly embarked. "

The ballad deals with the topic that greatest success only makes one fear the more certain deep fall.

Here where my imagination found peace

This is the motto of Richard Wagner's former home in Bayreuth, Haus Wahnfried , on the front of which the following slogan is engraved:

"Here where my imagination found peace - Wahnfried - let me name this house."

This motto manifests Wagner's conviction that Bayreuth has found the fulfillment of his life. Richard Wagner drafted this motto on May 21, 1876 and had it posted on three panels (including names) on the front.

Help Samiel!

This invocation of an evil spirit comes from the libretto to Carl Maria von Weber's opera Der Freischütz . Afraid of missing a test shot, the hunter boy Max enters into a pact with the black hunter Samiel, who wants to help him with the magic of a free ball:

In the second act Kaspar calls out:

“Well served! Bless it, Samiel! He made me warm! But where is Max? Should he break his word? Samiel, help! "

Later he calls:

“Help, Samiel! Silly grimaces! Hahaha! Take another look so that you can see the consequences of your cowardly folly. "

heaven on earth

The earliest evidence of this expression is a passage from the poem The Lost Paradise by the English poet John Milton , where paradise for Adam and Eve is referred to as heaven an earth .

In 1797, the pedagogue Christian Gotthilf Salzmann published a book with the title Heaven on Earth, or Path to Bliss .

Exulting heavily, sad to death

The two lines come from the song that Klärchen, Egmont's beloved, sings in Act 3 of Goethe's tragedy Egmont :

“Joyful
and sorrowful,
thoughtful; long and anxious
in floating agony,
cheering sky high, sad to death;
happy alone
is the soul that loves. "

The quote expresses the abrupt change from exuberance to sadness. The song was set to music by Beethoven , Schubert and Liszt . Often the passage is misquoted:
a) "hang and bang" instead of correctly "long and bang";
b) "saddened to death" instead of correctly "saddened to death". The term is also used in psychology to describe the symptoms of bipolar disorder .

The song of the good man sounds high.

With these words begins the ballad The Song of the Good Man by the poet Gottfried August Bürger :

“The song of the good man sounds high, like the
sound of an organ and the sound of a bell.
Whoever can boast of high courage is
not worth gold, singing is worthwhile.
Thank God! that I can sing and praise:
To sing and praise the good man. "

The poem is about a poor but righteous farmer who performs a heroic act of rescue, but leaves the gold offered as a prize to the rescued victims:

“'My life is not for sale for gold.
I am poor, but I have my fill.
Your gold will be given to the tax collector
who has lost his possessions! '
So he called, with a hearty humble tone,
And turned his back and walked away. "

Erich Kästner's poem The Little Man's Song is based on this well-known ballad and begins as follows:

"The song of the little man
sounds high. It sounds as high as it can,
high above his hump."

Haughtiness comes before the event.

Depiction in Chartres Cathedral

This proverb comes from the Old Testament book of proverbs , where it says in the German translation:

"Proud courage comes before the fall."

A similar statement can be found in the book of Tobit :

"Hope ... is the beginning of all ruin."

and the book of Jesus Sirach :

"Arrogance is never good and nothing but bad can grow out of it."

Arrogance is one of the seven root sins of Catholic moral teaching.

Highest railway

See Supreme Railway

Courtesy of heart.

In Goethe's novel The Elective Affinities , Ottilie writes in her diary:

“There is a courtesy of the heart; it is related to love. "

This formulation can also be found in Friedrich Nietzsche's book Beyond Good and Evil :

"For some, being happy about praise is only a courtesy of the heart - and precisely the opposite of a vanity of the spirit."

What is meant by this formulation is a courtesy that comes from within.

Higher nonsense

The expression “higher nonsense” was probably used for the first time around 1850 by the angry publisher Otto Wigand in the “Yearbooks for Science and Art”. There it says:

“We mean the social dizziness in the dear German fatherland: temporary exudation of emotions on a large scale; Blood surges that go up to mild frenzy, are at least on the level of higher nonsense. "

The article aims against the hype that was driven now with a famous singer or dancer, now with a fashionable work of literature.

The political-satirical weekly magazine Kladderadatsch, on the other hand, bends the meaning of the expression in such a way that he understands it as humor increased to a joke , and in 1856 uses the expression "style of higher nonsense".

hell of Earth

This expression probably goes back to the apocryphal wisdom of Solomon in the Old Testament. There it says:

“... and what is created in the world is good and there is nothing harmful in it. In addition, the kingdom of hell is not on earth "

The literary historian Johann Gottfried Gruber published a book in 1800 with the title Hell on Earth, or History of the Fredini Family .

Homeric laughter

Aphrodite and Ares are laughed at by the other gods, painting by Joachim Wtewael .

Homeric laughter (Greek: ἄσβεστος γέλως - ásbestos gélos "inextinguishable laughter") describes the loud, hearty laughter that the epic poet Homer lets the gods sing in the Iliad (I, 599) and the Odyssey (VIII, 326).

The reason for this was the god Hephaestus in the Odyssey : he had his wife Aphrodite , who was cheating on him with Ares , trapped with him in a net that he had attached over his marriage bed.

In the translation by Johann Heinrich Voss it says:

“Now the gods, the givers of good, were standing in the anteroom;
And long laughter rang out from the blessed gods
When they saw the arts of the clever inventor Hephestus. "

To this day, the term has stood for loud, never-ending laughter:

  • "Homeric laughter at the stock exchange"
  • "While reading the article, Homeric laughter for several minutes must have thundered around the globe."
  • "Homeric laughter about SPÖ"

Hommingberger cheetah trout

Hommingberger Gepardenforelle is a search term with which the computer magazine c't launched a search engine optimization competition in April 2005 . The aim was to get the best position in the search engines Google , Yahoo! on the two deadlines of May 15 and December 15, 2005 at 11:00 am. , MSN and Seekport .

This should provide an insight into the ranking mechanisms of the search services and current optimization trends. The term was chosen because there is neither a place in Hommingberg nor a cheetah trout and so the search engines did not return any hits before the start of the competition. Models were the English term Nigritude ultramarine and the experimental setup of schnitzel with potato salad .

After a week, the fictional fish was one of the most common fish in the world. Suddenly, numerous breeding farms offered their own website, recipes were circulating and fossils were found. The number of sightings rose from zero to 542,000 on Google between April 16 and April 25.

Homo faber

The term homo faber (German: “the artful man”) is used in philosophical anthropology to distinguish modern man from older human epochs through his quality as an active modifier of his environment.

The name can be found in 1928 in Max Scheler's work The position of man in the cosmos . Accordingly, homo faber means a person who does not differ significantly from animals, but who only has a more pronounced intelligence and a higher level of manual dexterity.

Homo faber - A Report is the title of a 1957 novel by Max Frisch , which Volker Schlöndorff filmed as Homo Faber in 1991 . In the course of the novel, engineer and development worker Walter Faber realizes that his technical worldview is not enough to capture reality. Frisch criticizes the type of homo faber, who in the 1950s stood as a model for purposeful role behavior.

Homo homini lupus

Homo homini lupus (Latin: "Man is a wolf to man") is a quote from the Roman comedy poet Plautus , the original text of which is completely as follows:

"Lupus est homo homini, non homo, quom qualis sit, non novit." ("Man is a wolf to man, not a man if he does not know what kind [his counterpart] is.")

A merchant uses these words to justify his refusal to hand over a large sum of money to a stranger.

The saying became known through the English state theorist Thomas Hobbes . The state can create peace between people, but maybe only in such a way that it can tax them better.

Homo ludens

The Homo Ludens (Latin: "the playing man") developed on the match his skills. He discovers his characteristics and thereby develops himself. Playing is equated with freedom of action and requires own thinking.

Friedrich Schiller emphasized the importance of playing in his letters On the Aesthetic Education of Man and spoke out against the specialization and mechanization of the fulfillment of life. According to Schiller, play is a human achievement which alone is able to bring out the holistic nature of human abilities. It was also Schiller who coined the now famous sentence: "... and he [the person] is only completely human when he plays."

Hops and malt, may the Lord preserve it

Besides yeast and water, hops and malt are the basic ingredients in the production of beer. The old saying, hops and malt, God save , can often be found on beer mugs and murals.

Hops and malt lost

“There hops and malt are lost” or “in this case hops and malt are lost” is a saying that says that with a person or in a situation all efforts are in vain and no improvement in the situation can be expected. It comes from the beer brewery, which used to take place much more often in the small-scale or private sector, where much less professional organization and often improvised work was done. In the event that the taste of the beer was irreversibly spoiled during the brewing process, the most important ingredients, hops and malt, were lost.

Oops, now i come!

"Oops, now I'm coming!" Was the title of a German hit from 1932 with which Hans Albers characterized himself as a rough daredevil with a heart. The following verses appear several times in this song:

Oops, now i come!
All doors open, all windows open.
Come on oops, now I'm coming,
and whoever goes with me comes up one.

Listen, what's coming in from outside?

With this verse begins a popular folk song that has been known since the end of the 19th century and first found widespread use in the student environment:

“Listen, what's coming in from outside?
Hollahi, hollaho.
will probably be my sweetheart.
Hollahi, hollaho
Go by and don't
look inside , Hollahi, hollaho,
it probably won't have been,
Hollahi, hollaho. "

A conference on the subject of “Transport and handover of surgical emergency patients” in Graz is headed with the words “Listen what comes in from outside!” .

Hornberger shooting

City fountain in Hornberg , mercenary and fool have the Hornberger shooting down

The Hornberg Shooting is the event that gave rise to the phrase “that goes like the Hornberg Shooting”. The phrase is used when a matter is announced with a great deal of noise, but then nothing comes of it and ends with no result.

There are different explanations for the background to this saying. One of them is that in Hornberg in 1564 the Duke Christoph von Württemberg had announced himself. This should be received with all honors and of course with a salute. When everything was ready, a large cloud of dust approached from a distance. Everyone cheered and the cannons thundered as hard as they could. But the dust cloud unfortunately turned out to be just a stagecoach. The same thing happened when a grocer's cart and later a herd of cattle approached the city. The lookout had given false alarms every time, and all the powder was gone when the duke finally came. Some Hornbergers then tried to imitate the thunder of cannons by roaring.

Already Friedrich Schiller wrote in 1780 in the first act of his drama The Robbers :

"It went like shooting at Hornberg and had to pull away with a long nose."

Horror vacui

Horror vacui (Latin: "fear of emptiness") was a term used in scholastic philosophy, which believed that nature disgusts empty space and tries to fill it up by all means.

But even the ancient philosopher Aristotle was concerned with the question of whether there could be a vacuum , a space in which there is absolutely nothing. In several thought experiments he came to the conviction that there could be no vacuum and even attested nature an abhorrence of absolute emptiness.

The discovery that air flows into evacuated rooms later confirms this idea. It has not yet been possible to create an absolute vacuum.

The term is now used in a figurative sense, when, for example, artists compulsively design every free area, see Horror vacui (art) .

Houston, we have a problem!

The damaged service module of the Apollo 13 after the separation

The sentence “ Houston, we have a problem! "(Actually:" Houston, we had a problem here! ") Comes from the moon flight of Apollo 13 . With these words John "Jack" Swigert reported to the control center of NASA in Houston , a life-threatening problem:

Jack Swigert , Jr. “Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here.”
“This is Houston. Say again please. "
James" Jim "Lovell :" Houston, we've had a problem. We've had a main B bus undervolt. "

55 hours and 54 minutes after takeoff, over 300,000 km from Earth, one of the oxygen tanks exploded. The explosion of oxygen tank 2 also tore a leak in the adjacent tank 1. The three fuel cells, which were fed with oxygen from the two tanks to generate electricity and water, could therefore no longer do their work sooner or later. The only alternative was to abort the mission and bring Apollo 13 back to Earth as quickly as possible. The landing on the moon was canceled and the course changed so that the trajectory around the moon was back to earth.

Humor is when you laugh anyway.

This quote comes from the German writer Otto Julius Bierbaum , who put this motto in front of his "Yankeedoodle ride and other travel stories" published in 1909.

It is often used in situations where it is deemed best to face difficulties with serenity. A laugh is therefore humor if it occurs in a situation of danger or failure, is not directed against third parties and conveys hope of overcoming the crisis.

A bon mot based on this quote reads:

"Even if there is a storm and a crash in life,
Humor is when you laugh anyway"

In a dissertation at the Technical University of Braunschweig on British humor, Dietmar Marhenke explains the quote as follows:

"The saying, which is a popular saying in Germany [...]" Humor is when you laugh anyway "includes [...] a certain superiority of the laughing person who is above the paradox by showing the willingness to be cheerful, even if there is nothing makes you laugh. ”“ Observations in everyday life show that the definition from the German Bierbaum […] is acknowledged in Germany, but is mostly not put into practice in the event of adversity. ”

Accordingly, the essayist Sigismund von Radecki Bierbaum's statement changed into:

"German humor is when you still don't laugh."

Dogs, do you want to live forever?

The question, dogs, do you want to live forever, was the title of a German film about the Battle of Stalingrad that was released in 1959.

In the foreground of this film is the brutality of the military logic towards the individuals and the rebellion against senseless decisions, which consider humans as material to be worn out.

The title goes back to the Prussian King Friedrich II , who is said to have shouted in anger to his fleeing soldiers during the Battle of Kolin , which Prussia lost to Austria:

"You cursed rascals, do you want to live forever?"

Modifications of the quotation are - ironically or cynically - applied to other groups of people or in films, whereby the salutation and / or the verb can change:

Bear a hundredfold fruit

The phrase goes back to the New Testament parable of the sower.

The Gospel of Matthew says:

“3 And he spoke to them various things in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And while he was sowing, some fell by the way; then the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell into the stony where there was not much earth; and soon rose because it did not have deep earth. 6 But when the sun rose, it withered, and while it was not rooted it became dry. 7 Some fell under the thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it. 8 Some fell on good land and bore fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty-fold, some thirty-fold. "

The Gospel of Mark says:

“4 And it came to pass, as he was sowing, some fell by the way; the birds came under the sky and ate it up. 5 Some fell into the stony where there was not much earth; and soon rose because it did not have deep earth. 6 And when the sun rose, it withered, and while it had no roots it withered. 7 And some fell under the thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it bore no fruit. 8 And some fell on good land, and bore fruit, which increased and grew; some wore thirtyfold and some sixtyfold and some a hundredfold. "

Hunger is the best cook

Myra Albert Wiggins , Hunger is the Best Cook (1898)

This proverb can be found for the first time in the Middle High German poet Freidank in the form:

"Hunger is the best cook / who has been or will be."
"Hunger is the best cook there has ever been or will be."

The thought can be found in ancient times. So says Socrates : "so that the desire for food becomes a spice for him". In Cicero says in Latin:

"Cibi condumentian est fames."
"The seasoning of food is hunger."

The proverbial saying means that every meal tastes good when you are hungry. Gudrun Mangold wrote a book with recipes and stories, the title of which already suggests the rough life in the Swabian Alb :

"Hunger is the best cook. Barren times on the rough Alb "

The composer Engelbert Humperdinck also used this proverb in his fairy tale opera Hansel and Gretel . In the first song of the father he has the following lines sing:

“Oh, we poor, poor people
every day like today,
a big hole in the bag
and a bigger one in the stomach
rallalala, rallalala, hunger is the best cook "

According to a legend ( see here ), Elector Jan Wellem got lost while hunting in the forest, where he was saved from starvation. However, the deliciousness of the stew on offer could no longer be achieved later, after returning to his residence. His question about the reason was answered with “Hunger is the best cook”.

Whore Babylon

Bamberg Apocalypse: Babylon the whore sitting on a scarlet-colored animal with seven heads and ten horns

The whore of Babylon is one of the biblical allegories for the opponents of the believers in general and the Roman Empire in particular. Its most effective description can be found in the Revelation of John :

“1 And one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked to me, saying to me, Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot, who sits by many waters; 2 with whom did the kings of the earth whore; and those who dwell on the earth got drunk from the wine of their fornication. 3 And he brought me in spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, which was full of names of blasphemy and had seven heads and ten horns. "

Whore Babylon is a kind of man-made religiosity that has its origins in Babylon , where the old rebellion spreads again shortly after the flood .

Their hallmarks are fornication and idolatry. Revelation describes the harlot in such a way that an interpretation of the city of Rome and the Roman Empire is probable. Her wealth and splendor are perishable, from one hour to the next she will be plunged into bitter poverty, nakedness and loneliness. Those who suffer under the rule of the harlot, above all Christians, will rejoice in this.

During the Reformation , Martin Luther and John Knox referred to the Roman Catholic Church as the whore of Babylon . Today Christian fundamentalists apply this expression to regional and free churches.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Hermann and Dorothea in the Gutenberg-DE project
  2. Goethe: Faust I , Marthens Garten
  3. Quoted from: sternenfall.de
  4. Complete text: http://www.constitution.org/eng/habcorpa.htm
  5. In English the word act is ambiguous, it means both "act", "act", "act", "step" (of parliament) and "law"
  6. ^ Annuntio Vobis Gaudium Magnum Habemus Papam . vatican.va
  7. Terentianus Maurus : De litteris . Verse 258
  8. nzzfolio.ch
  9. Investigation of the truth of the thesis “habent sua fata libelli”. oszk.hu
  10. echo-muenster.de ( Memento from March 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  11. Hans in luck . Quoted from Hans im Glück (1857) on Wikisource
  12. Quoted from: staff.uni-mainz.de
  13. ^ William Shakespeare : Heinrich V. IV, 3
  14. Süddeutsche Zeitung : Edition March 27, 2004
  15. Hans Christian Andersen : The ugly duckling . Quoted from www.zeno.org
  16. Andreas Knießling: democratic deficit and legitimacy of the EU. The framework conditions of the 6th election of the European Parliament in June 2004. In: Center for Applied Political Research (C · A · P) , 2007
  17. Gerd Werle: The underestimated parliament. In: Luxemburger Wort , June 1, 2004, p. 3.
  18. ^ William Shakespeare : Othello . V, 2
  19. Johannes Daniel Falk : Journey by water and by land from Scaramuz. Postscript to the inclined and inclined reader . Quoted from: literatur-live.de
  20. Joseph Görres : Char. and crit. 1804. p. 52
  21. Keywords: Pike in the carp pond . textlog.de
  22. ^ Marcus Tullius Cicero : Pro Flacco . 8.18
  23. Quoted from Germany until 1918 (Heil dir im Siegerkranz)
  24. a b German-Baltic Society e. V. ( Memento of March 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  25. Franz Joseph I : To my peoples! May 23, 1915. Quoted from: twschwarzer.de ( Memento from September 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  26. Markus Enders, Holger Zaborowski: Yearbook for Philosophy of Religion . Volume II, 2003, p. 48
  27. Ursula Spuler-Stegemann : The 101 most important questions about Islam . Munich 2007, p. 125
  28. Quoted from: planet-vienna.com
  29. Quoted from: volksliederarchiv.de
  30. Cultural studies, fairy tales explained: The Frog King. heinrich-tischner.de
  31. Faust . Gretchen's redemption . Verses 4405-4612
  32. ^ Wilhelm Busch : Adventure of a Bachelor . Quoted from www.gazette.de ( Memento from October 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  33. Quoted from wienerzeitung.at ( Memento from November 10, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
  34. a b Barbara Schleicher: Aunt Amalie with lace skirts ( memento from November 10, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) in the Wiener Zeitung on May 10, 2002.
  35. Second Book of Kings 1, 2
  36. Faust . Study room
  37. Quoted from: literaturwelt.com ( Memento from October 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  38. HW current.
  39. Quoted from: onlinekunst.de
  40. a b Ronald Reagan : Speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate , June 12, 1987
  41. Scene 41. jennyoepke.de
  42. ^ Cafe Munich MUC, Munich. ( Memento from September 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Kneipen-suche.com
  43. In the Middle 54. ( Memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.3 MB) mittendrin.org
  44. Horst Rüdiger : Greek lyric poets . Artemis-Verlag, Zurich 1949, p. 72 f.
  45. Quoted from musikguru.de
  46. Quoted from: serienoldies.de
  47. Schäuble against Baumeister: Ex, lies and videos . Mirror online
  48. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Faust I , Before the Gate, verse 940. Quoted from Faust I on Wikisource
  49. Martin Treu : Martin Luther and money . P. 49 ff.
  50. ^ Friedrich Schiller : The ring of the Polykrates in the project Gutenberg-DE
  51. see Georg Büchmann: Winged words. The treasure trove of quotations of the German people . Nineteenth increased and improved edition, Berlin, Haude & Spener'sche Buchhandlung (F. Weidling), 1898, p. 163
  52. Quoted from: literaturwelt.com ( Memento from September 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  53. Book of Proverbs , 16:18
  54. Book of Tobit , 4.14
  55. Sirach , 3:30
  56. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : The elective affinities . Part 2. 5th chapter
  57. Friedrich Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil. 4th main piece
  58. Quoted from: textlog.de
  59. Wisdom of Solomon. 1.19
  60. Oops, now I'm coming! Lyrics - Hans Albers
  61. Tobias Widmaier: Listen, what comes in from outside (2012). In: Popular and Traditional Songs. Historical-critical song lexicon of the German Folk Song Archive
  62. Quoted from: singenundpiele.de
  63. Listen to what's coming in from outside! ( Memento of March 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) AGN Working Group for Emergency Medicine Emergency Graz
  64. Peter Tokofsky: 'The Hornberger shooting': Proverbial expression, narrative, and drama. In: Proverbium 10 (1993), pp. 321-330 ( online ).
  65. Houston, we have a problem on phrases.org
  66. Dietmar Marhenke: British humor in an intercultural context . P. 24, Braunschweig 2003.
  67. Dietmar Marhenke: British humor in an intercultural context . P. 235, Braunschweig 2003.
  68. Gospel according to Matthew . 13.8. Quoted from: bibel-online.net
  69. ^ Gospel according to Mark . 4.8. Quoted from: bibel-online.net
  70. Revelation of John . 17.1 ff. Quoted from: bibel-online.net