Hump-dump affair

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Hilmar Kabas, who started the affair

The words hump and dump are creations of the then FPÖ state party chairman of Vienna Hilmar Kabas , which he brought into the political discussion in Austria in 2000 . As a result, these terms became independent and became a synonym for a “politics of acoustic misunderstandings”.

prehistory

After the National Council election in 1999 , the new Austrian federal government, a coalition of FPÖ and ÖVP under Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel ( Federal Government Schüssel I ), was sworn in on February 4, 2000 . Federal President Thomas Klestil had previously deleted two names proposed by the FPÖ from the list of ministers: Thomas Prinzhorn , who was to become finance minister, and Hilmar Kabas, who was supposed to be minister of defense. The swearing-in was carried out by Klestil with a markedly emotionless expression; his rejection of this coalition was known. The formation of a government was followed by violent protests at home and abroad against the participation of the FPÖ, which observers classified as right-wing populist and right-wing extremist. The governments of the other EU states reduced their contacts with the Austrian government bilaterally to the minimum required (widely known in Austria as “ EU sanctions ”).

"Hump or dump"

At the state party conference of the Vienna FPÖ on May 7, 2000, Kabas said in relation to the previous formation of a government and the “sanctions” about Klestil: “He behaved like a rascal, and it is a shame that we have such a president.” Several Journalists testified to the authenticity of the quote. When asked immediately by the Austria Press Agency (APA), Kabas declined: “That was more of a joke. But I didn't say ruff in connection with Klestil. It was something like hump or dump, but I don't remember exactly anymore. "

Both the designation of the Federal President as a rascal and the attempt to downplay what was said by means of word creations - even Kabas could not explain what he meant by "hump" or "dump" when asked - met with general rejection. In the further course of the affair, the public prosecutor's office in Vienna determined ex officio whether the head of state had been insulted. After the results of the investigation were available, however, Klestil decided not to authorize a criminal prosecution.

The affair only had legal consequences when the Salzburg FPÖ chairman Karl Schnell said at a party event in November 2000: “Lump is actually a harmless expression. We all know this expression. Lumpi I call my dog ​​- that's a netta, liaba Falott. ”In this case, Klestil agreed to prosecute. Schnell's immunity as a member of the state parliament was lifted. In July 2001 he was sentenced by the Vienna Regional Court to a fine of 100,000 Austrian Schillings (around 7,200 euros). The Vienna Higher Regional Court upheld the judgment in December 2001.

Political rhetoric after the "hump-dump affair"

The affair also had consequences for Austrian domestic politics insofar as alleged hearing errors threatened to become a means of political rhetoric. According to the minutes of an ORF editor, the then FPÖ spokesman Peter Westenthaler threatened the journalist on January 25, 2002 in a telephone conversation in connection with the creation of a TV discussion program that he did not like: "Then there will be stink!" After the minutes were published by the ORF denied Westenthaler; he said "Then comes the trunk!" to explain without but what the then largely unknown SPÖ - Federal Councilor Melitta Trunk should have to do with the TV debate.

In November 2002, according to all journalists present , Jörg Haider described Karl-Heinz Grasser , who had previously become finance minister as a member of the FPÖ and practically switched to the ÖVP after the so-called Knittelfelder Putsch (he officially became independent of parties), as a “traitor”, which again provided discussions about appropriate language in the political debate. Thomas Prinzhorn , then Deputy President of the National Council , stated that the journalists had misheard because Haider had described Grasser as "blown away".

In September 2007, a discussion arose as to whether Tyrolean governor Herwig van Staa had referred to the former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer as a "pig" or only spoke of "silence", as van Staa did in the context of an anniversary celebration of the German Alpine Club in Vent in the Ötztal Consequence protested. Even when, a few days later, a tape recording of the speech was published on the website of environmental activist Markus Wilhelm , the matter could not be clarified beyond any doubt.

Reception in public

Within a few hours or days, the individual, in itself senseless, corruptions of hump and dump had condensed into the compound hump-dump in the media reporting , which was given the attribute of devaluing a frivolous rhetoric or a populist political group. Terms such as hump-dump politician , hump-dump party, etc. similar, which always expressed a distance to the author Kabas and generally to a political stance like his. The hump-dump affair as a whole was seen as a symptom of a threatening “infantilisation of the republic”, which manifests itself in the fact that “the less fun politics becomes, the more vehemently it integrates itself into the entertainment industry, the unsuccessful, badly made, and amateurish as the authentic and sold credible ”.

At the same time, criticism of the ways in which such words, newly formed in the media, were used was always associated with a certain scorn and ridicule of the clumsiness and ridiculousness of such a justification. This was also expressed in the fact that the same word formation process was used in many ways by the political opposing side and by media critical of the FPÖ. For example, after Westenthaler's correction of “Then comes the Trunk”, the SPÖ Carinthia responded with the statement that Westenthaler had rather said “Hunk or Zunk”, and the daily newspaper Der Standard analyzed “Dumpes from Kubus” among other things.

When linguists from the University of Graz voted for the Austrian nonsense of the year 2000, the term “hump-dump” was placed second behind “social accuracy”. The reasoning stated: “This is a nonsense word in the actual sense, because 'normal' words have a meaning. [...] They were invented by their creator out of embarrassment, without his ever being able to say what they mean. It has remained so to this day. It can also be regarded as a bad word because what was presumably actually said was concealed or denied, although ear witnesses knew the opposite. "

literature

  • Ewald Ehtreiber: The “Dictionary of Political Language in Austria” - a work report. In: Rudolf Muhr / Manfred B. Sellner (eds.): Ten Years of Research on Austrian German: 1995–2005. A balance sheet. Frankfurt / M. 2006.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Was Haider's 'traitor' just a 'blown away'? , World on Sunday , November 2002
  2. ↑ Markus Wilhelm's website with the tape recordings
  3. ^ Karl-Markus Gauß : The infantilization of the republic. In:  Der Standard , June 10, 2000, p. 39, online
  4. ↑ Kleine Zeitung , January 26, 2002, online archive
  5. ↑ Günter Traxler: Dumpes from Kubus, Der Standard , May 10, 2000, p. 33, online archive
  6. ↑ Press text of the University of Graz on the choice of the "Wort / Unwort" 2000 ( Memento of the original from May 19, 2016 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.oedeutsch.at