List of winged words / B
Babylonian confusion
The term Babylonian language confusion (Latin: "confusio linguarum") comes from Genesis 11 : 7-9 LUT . After that, God confused the builders of the Tower of Babel so that "none of them understand the other's language". In it, linguistic diversity is portrayed as God's punishment for all of humanity.
The Bible describes the Tower of Babel . Since the project is seen as an attempt to become equal to God, he punished the builders by saying that everyone now had their own language so that no one could understand the other. Before that, the whole world spoke a common language. The construction remained unfinished due to the language problems.
The Bible takes up the topic of language confusion again in the Pentecost story of the New Testament in the Acts of the Apostles (2.1-13 LUT ). According to this story, the Holy Spirit of the connection to God made possible by Jesus Christ brings about a new way of speaking and understanding across all language barriers.
The "Babylonian language confusion" is often referred to when reporting on the administration of the European Community , where the linguistic diversity results in extra work and costs.
The Babylonian confusion of languages is also used in other contexts and modifications. The news magazine “ Der Spiegel ” titled a language-critical story about the “mishmash called Denglisch ” with: “Welcome to Blabylon”.
Balla balla
- A mentally less well-off is called a "screen" or, with a reduplicated sound word, "comrade Balla Balla"; its destination, the madhouse, "loony bin".
This is what the Romance scholar Werner Krauss wrote in his essay On the State of Our Language , which appeared on February 28, 1947 in the semi-monthly publication Die Gegenwart and dealt primarily with the language of the soldiers of the Second World War . In an expanded version, which Krauss prepared in the same year, taking into account the letters received from readers, he specified:
- Those who have a screen are also called that themselves, or with a [sic!] Gloomy word comrade Balla Balla accompanied by a characteristic circular movement in front of the forehead . (Note: Due to the mentioned circular movement, the connection with ball , Bollen , etc. is clear to me . Balla is familiar to me as a Glimpf- and Schelt word from Swabian, synonymous with Bobbel . Original relationship is Latin follis , Greek phallos .)
In 1965, the West Berlin band Rainbows had some success at home and abroad with their hit Balla Balla , the text of which consists of nothing more than these repeated words associated with the rutting cry my baby baby .
Good Samaritan
This expression goes back to the Gospel of Luke . There Jesus is asked by a scribe (10.25–37 LUT ):
- " 25 (...) Master, what do I have to do that I inherit eternal life?"
Jesus asks back:
- " 26 (...) What is written in the law?"
- " 27 He answered and said," You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself ""
But one thing was not clear to him and so he asked again:
- " 29 (...) Who is my neighbor?"
Then Jesus told him the following parable :
- “ 30 (…) There was a man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among the robbers; they stripped him and beat him and ran away and left him half dead. 31 But it happened that a priest was going down the same road; and when he saw him, he passed by. 32 Likewise, a Levite also: when he came to the place and saw him, he passed by. 33 But a Samaritan, who was on the way, came there; and when he saw him, he wailed for him; 34 And he went to him, poured oil and wine on his wounds and bandaged them, lifted him on his animal and brought him to an inn and tended him. 35 The next day he took out two silver groschen, gave them to the landlord, and said, Tend to him; And if you spend more I'll pay you when I come back "
At the end, Jesus asks the rhetorical question of who of these three was next to the victim.
The scribe replies that he must have been merciful to him. And Jesus closes the conversation with the following famous words:
- 37 (...) "So go there and do the same!"
Tree of knowledge
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This phrase goes back to the 1st book of Moses , where the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (2,9 LUT ) is mentioned in the garden of Eden .
As the tree of the knowledge of good and bad (Hebrew: עץ הדעת טוב ורע ° ez had-da ° at tôb wâ-râ), a tree is referred to in the paradise story, which - together with the tree of life - is in the middle of the paradise garden and God forbids man to eat its fruits:
“ 16 And the Lord GOD commanded the man, saying, You may eat ... of any tree in the garden, 17 but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for on the day you eat of it you must die. "
Via the Latin translation of the Vulgate , the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ( ligno ... scientiae boni et mali ) was interpreted in the Middle Ages as an apple tree ( Malus domestica ), the fruit as "apple" ( malum , homonym to malum "evil"), although there is no mention of it in the Hebrew Bible.
Despite a prohibition from God, Adam eats a fruit from this tree, which results in the expulsion from Paradise :
"The LORD God directed him out of the garden of Eden to cultivate the earth from which he was taken."
Trees die upright.
Trees die upright (Spanish: Los arboles mueren de pie ) is the title of a comedy by Alejandro Casona from 1949. In the play, a grandmother, who was deceived for years about the bad character of her grandson, succeeds in maintaining her composure and around the The luck of the others sake to continue playing the game.
Today this quote is used when speaking of an indomitable person who perishes:
- "Better to die upright than live on your knees."
Peter Schütt called a volume of poetry Trees Die Upright .
Beam me up, Scotty!
"Beam me up, Scotty" (Eng. "Beam me up, Scotty") is an alleged quote from the classic science fiction series Spaceship Enterprise (English Star Trek: The Original Series , 1966–1969), but that there is never said in exactly this wording.
The captain of the Enterprise, James Kirk , who is on a planet, says this sentence to his chief engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in order to be brought back on board the spaceship. The term "beaming" here refers to the transporter of the spaceship, which can teleport people and objects over limited distances . The two sentences actually uttered in the series by James Kirk that come closest to the alleged quote are "Two to beam up, Scotty" and "Beam us up, Mr. Scott". More than 16 years later, after the phrase had long since developed into a winged word, James Kirk then said exactly the same words in the film Star Trek IV: Back to the Present (1986), but in a different order: “Scotty, beam me up! ".
In the 1970s, "Beam me up, Scotty" became the most famous quote associated with Star Trek and in the following years found widespread use in everyday language as well as in literature. Usually it is understood as an exclamation or a phrase with which one expresses the wish for an (immediate) liberation or rescue from an unpleasant situation. Modified or expanded variants, often with a satirical undertone, also spread. For example, a bumper sticker from the 1970s read, “Beam me up, Scotty! There is no intelligent life on this planet. "
In the satirical cartoon series Southpark (1997 ff.) There is the Latin translation "Me transmitte sursum, Caledoni!" As an inscription above a planetarium.
The science fiction parody Spaceballs (1987) contains a scene based on the Star Trek quote. The following dialogue develops between President Skroob, who does not really trust transporter technology, and the (female) spaceship officer Zircon:
"Zircon: Shall I have Snotty beam you down, sir?
Skroob: I don't know about this beaming stuff? Is it safe?
Zircon: Oh yes, sir. Snotty beamed me twice last night. It was wonderful.
Zircon: Snotty - beam him down. "
Within the drug scene in the United States in the 1980s, the phrase was also used in connection with the street drug crack . There it refers either to the drug intoxication induced by crack (getting high) or to a drug serving or a joint itself (mostly crack with phencyclidine added).
The actor James Doohan , who played the Scotty mentioned in the quote, published his autobiography in 1996 under the title Beam me up, Scotty .
Rapper Marteria referred to the quote on the album Roswell by releasing the song Scotty beam me high in 2017 .
Cover your sky, Zeus!
Goethe's poem Prometheus begins with these words :
- "Cover your sky, Zeus,
with cloud haze,
and practice like a boy who
decapitates thistles,
on oaks you and mountain heights"
According to Greek mythology, Prometheus brought fire to people and thereby incurred the wrath of Zeus. The poem is a proud monologue by Prometheus showing his contempt for Zeus.
You command your ways.
Keep your hammer, you bully!
One of the best-known examples from Paul Watzlawick's book How to Be Unhappy is The Story of the Hammer , which tells of a man who wants to hang up a picture but does not have a hammer at hand. He decides to go to the neighbor and borrow his hammer, but he doubts whether the neighbor would lend him his hammer. Then he can think of other behaviors of the neighbor that could indicate hostility towards him (but are probably also pure coincidence). Angry, the man finally storms to the neighbor and yells at him:
"Keep your hammer, you bully!"
With the little story, Watzlawick wants to make it clear that the inner attitude towards the person you are talking to also indirectly determines the course of a conversation and that it does not make sense to speculate about the thoughts and feelings of the other for no reason.
On closer inspection, the price increases, so does the respect.
In his picture story, painter Klecksel , Wilhelm Busch criticizes the educational philistines of his time. It is particularly characteristic of how the first-person narrator describes his behavior when assessing a painting:
"With a keen eye, according to connoisseurs,
I first look at the price.
And on closer inspection
, the attention increases with the price."
With God nothing is impossible.
According to the Gospel of Luke, the angel Gabriel says to Mary , who doubts that she will have a child: “With God nothing is impossible” :
" 34 Then Mary said to the angel," How is this supposed to happen, since I don't know about any man? 35 The angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the holy thing that is born will also be called the Son of God. 36 And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, is also with a son, her age, and is now in the sixth month, which is said to be sterile. 37 For with God nothing is impossible. "
With these words, the archangel refers to the supposedly sterile but pregnant Elizabeth .
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff takes up this quotation from the Bible in her poem On the Feast of the Annunciation , which begins with the following verses:
- "Yes, his power has no limits.
With God, nothing is impossible!"
See you again at Philippi!
The phrase “I'll see you again at Philippi's!” Goes back to Shakespeare's drama Julius Caesar (The Tragedy of Julius Caesar) . He takes up a quote from the story of the Greek writer Plutarch about the life of Caesar :
Shakespeare probably knew the Latin version:
- “Tuus sum, inquit, Brute, malus genius; in Philippis me videbis. "
Usually only the second part was reproduced:
- "(Cras) Philippis (iterum) me videbis."
- "Tomorrow you will see me again at Philippi's."
With these words Caesar's spirit answers Brutus ' question as to why he came:
- "To tell you that you
should see me at Philippi ." - "To tell thee thou shalt see me at Philippi."
At the Macedonian town of Philippi , Caesar's murder is avenged in the Battle of Philippi . Brutus tells his people that Caesar's ghost appeared to him on the battlefield; he asks one of his men to hold the sword and throws himself into it.
Today the phrase is occasionally used as a joking threat.
The first time, it still hurts.
The refrain of a song from the film Große Freiheit No. 7 by Helmut Käutner from 1944 begins with the words “The first time, it still hurts” :
The first time it still hurts,
you still believe
that you can't get over it.
But over time, so little by little,
you get used to it.
It is about the life experience that the first lovesickness is felt to be the most painful.
By the holy bureaucratic!
This exclamation goes back to a quote from the school comedy Flachsmann as an educator by Otto Ernst from 1900. The teacher Flemming says there with regard to his incompetent, narrow-minded director, who has gained an office by bureaucratic means:
- Bounce
- “I just chased the flax man to hell. He had no teaching license at all. He tricked his office through his brother's papers. "
- Flemming
- "… Is it possible! Of course: with the holy bureaucratic nothing is impossible! "
The holy Bürokrazius - a cheerful legend is a book by the Austrian writer Rudolf Greinz from the year 1922. It says under the heading How Father Hilarius came to write the legend of the holy Bürokrazius :
“After careful thought, Father Hilarius became convinced that he had indeed found the right patron saint of human stupidity in the holy office square. Not only the patron saint of human stupidity, but also those saints whose existence could only be explained by human stupidity, who was conceived and born out of human stupidity. "
The Holy Bureaucratic continues to enjoy veneration as the patron saint of cumbersome procedures in the bureaucracy . Bureaucracy (French-Greek: clerkship ) is the name for a short-sighted and narrow-minded civil servant economy, which has no understanding for the needs of the citizens.
Berlin, Berlin, we are driving to Berlin
"Berlin, Berlin, we are going to Berlin" is a battle song by German football fans at DFB-Pokal games, which was invented by the fans of FC Bayer Uerdingen 05 on Easter Saturday 1985 after the DFB semi-final victory against 1. FC Saarbrücken and should say that your own team will or has reached the cup final, which has been held in Berlin every year since 1985. The contract between the DFB and the State of Berlin for the use of the Olympic Stadium as the venue for the cup final ends in 2025 (last extension of the contract: July 3, 2020).
Berlin is still Berlin.
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This saying comes from the song "Solang noch Unterst Linden (What goes through the Brandenburg Gate)", also known as the Lindenmarsch, from the 1923 revue "Drunter und drüber" by Fritz Oliven (Rideamus) , Herman Haller , Willi Wolff (text) and Walter Kollo (music). In the refrain it says: "As long as Unter Linden / the old trees are blooming / nothing can overcome us: / Berlin remains Berlin."
The text can also be found in the song Heimweh nach dem Kurfürstendamm , which the Berlin-born Günther Schwenn composed in Munich and which became known through the chanson singer Hildegard Knef . It begins with the following verses:
I'm so homesick for Kurfürstendamm,
longing for my Berlin!
And when I see
people in Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg or Vienna making an effort,
Berlin remains Berlin.
Another Berlin song has the line as the title and begins as follows:
Berlin is still Berlin, you
can't do anything about it!
For us, Berlin remains
the city of all countries.
This slogan is also the title of a collection of romantic stories in ballads and poems edited by Bert Schlender . At the same time, the quote is also used in a negative sense, as Peter Goedel wrote in 1987 in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit :
"Hardly anyone tries to design a future, really gives the city a chance, if you ignore the occasional pat on the back that you donate like a moribund: 'Life goes on,' - 'Berlin stays Berlin' ..."
Berlin air
Berlin Republic
When the publicist Johannes Gross introduced the concept of the Berlin Republic into the public debate, there was initially great outrage. In the tradition of the Weimar Republic and Bonn Republic, the Berlin Republic is the name given to the historical period after the unification of the GDR with the Federal Republic of Germany . On June 20, 1991, the German Bundestag decided to move the core area of government functions from Bonn to Berlin .
The term originated mainly in the so-called “capital debate” after the unification of the Federal Republic of Germany with the GDR in 1990. The capital of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn, was considered an apparently non-national capital because it had previously only been the capital of the Western Republic .
Modesty is an ornament.
In Franz Grillparzer's drama Die Ahnfrau from 1816 it says:
- "Humility adorns the youth."
This is a rearrangement of the words towards the end of the first act:
- "If modesty
adorns the youth, he does not misjudge his worth."
From this the well-known travesty developed:
- "Modesty is an ornament, but
you can go further without it."
Limited subject sense
When King Ernst August I repealed the constitution in Hanover in 1837 , seven Göttingen professors protested against it, including Wilhelm Eduard Albrecht from Elbing in Prussia . From there, John Prince-Smith wrote him a declaration of solidarity on behalf of his fellow citizens , on which the Prussian Interior Minister Gustav von Rochow was also to comment. He did this through his colleague Ferdinand Conrad Seiffart . In his disapproval, he formulated that it is not fitting for a subject to
"To apply the actions of the head of state to the standard of his limited insight"
From this formulation came the catchphrase of "limited subject understanding", which the writer Georg Herwegh used in a polemical letter from Königsberg to the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV in 1842 and for which he was expelled from Prussia:
"I do not ask for the ban to be lifted, because I know that my limited understanding of subjects, my consciousness of a new era, must forever contradict the aging consciousness and the regiment of most of the German ministers."
Better half
The name of the wife as "better half" comes from the shepherd novel The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (The Arcadia of the Countess of Pembroke) by the English poet Philip Sidney .
John Milton took this turn in his epic Paradise Lost (Paradise Lost) back on by Adam Eve his wife as "dearer half", as "more expensive half," call can.
Perhaps it echoes the myth of the spherical man in Plato's Dialog Symposion , according to which originally androgynous beings, the androgynoi , were divided into two halves by Zeus , which have since struggled together again.
Best-hated man
The expression probably goes back to Chancellor Otto von Bismarck , who on January 16, 1874 in a speech in the Prussian state parliament proclaimed that he could proudly claim to be the strongest and "best hated personality" in the German Empire at the moment to be.
Pray and work!
The motto of the Benedictine order “Pray and work” (Latin: Ora et labora ) comes from Benedict of Nursia . In full it reads:
"Ora et labora, Deus adest sine mora."
"Pray and work, God helps without delay"
Ora et Labora is an admonition that life should consist of prayer and work.
The rebellious poet Georg Herwegh modified the motif in his federal song for the General German Workers' Association as follows:
Pray and work! calls the world,
pray for a moment! because time is money.
Need is knocking on the door -
pray briefly! for time is bread.
Deceived cheater
The term “deceived cheater” goes back to the so-called ring parable in Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's verse drama Nathan the Wise (III, 7).
In the key scene of this play, Saladin summons Nathan and asks him which of the three monotheistic religions he thinks is the true one. Nathan replies with a parable . A man has a ring in it, which has the property of making its wearer "pleasant before God and men". This ring was passed down from father to son whom father loved most over many generations. But now the father does not want to give preference to any of his three sons and has a goldsmith make two duplicates of the ring. He gives each son a ring, assuring everyone that his ring is the real one.
After the death of their father, the sons go to court to clarify which ring is the real one. The judge, however, does not see himself in a position to determine this and reminds the three men that the real ring has the property of making the wearer popular; but if none of the three had this effect, then that could only mean that the real ring must have been lost. So he settles the dispute with a Solomonic decision:
Oh, all three of you are
deceived cheaters!
all three of
your rings
are not real.
The term stands for someone who wanted to deceive others, but was then deceived himself, or for someone who, by being deceived himself, deceives others with his conviction, without wanting or knowing it.
Biedermann and the firestarters
In the play Biedermann und die Brandstifter , which was first broadcast as a radio play on Bayerischer Rundfunk in 1953 , Max Frisch illustrates typical behavior of the philistine who does not oppose the crime and allows arsonists to go to work unhindered.
The opportunist Gottlieb Biedermann houses a peddler in his attic and realizes that he and his friend are going to start a fire in the attic. But the fearful honest man is unable to stop the pyromaniac. The fire spreads to the neighboring houses and the entire city burns down.
Biedermann can be seen as an example of the cowardice and / or the lack of foresight many Germans have towards National Socialism, which can be confirmed with the following quote from the play:
“Joke is the third best disguise. Second best: sentimentality. But the best and safest disguise is still the bare and bare truth. Nobody believes them. "
In Duden Volume 12 it says in an explanatory manner on the use of this title in a figurative sense:
“The title of this piece is cited accordingly when conformism and excessive security thinking are to be denounced, when the Saint Florian principle is carried so far that the arsonist is given the matches in the hope that he will like the neighboring house set fire."
Big Brother is watching you.
This English sentence is the saying on a propaganda poster in the novel 1984 by George Orwell and means:
"Big brother is watching you."
The Big Brother is the alleged dictator of a country which has driven the monitoring and surveillance of its citizens to perfection. Its purpose is to make citizens feel that they are being watched everywhere and at all times. In fact, they are completely monitored by so-called tele screens .
The TV show Big Brother was created based on this model , in which a group of people live completely under video surveillance and cut off from the outside world.
The saying is often used in connection with video surveillance or non-suspicion surveillance. Big Brother is now a metaphor for an all-powerful, all-controlling state authority. Since 1998, the Big Brother Award has been given in many countries to authorities, companies, organizations and people who impair people's privacy in a special and lasting manner or who make personal data accessible to third parties.
Draw, artist! Do not talk!
This is the first part of the motto that Johann Wolfgang von Goethe placed in front of the art section of his collection of poems, which appeared in 1815:
“Draw, artist! Do not talk!
Your poem is just a touch. "
The words are to be understood as an invitation to design the material as graphically as possible using economical means. The Germanist Wulf Segebrecht writes about this motto:
"Goethe seems to be pleading here for the lovely approximation of the poem, for what is only hinted at, that breathed in with a lot of feeling but little art, to which we, especially in Germany, owe a lyrical mass production."
The writer Robert Gernhardt modified Goethe's poem as follows:
“Please, artist, do not educate
and give up your poem.
Word is wind, and as a
rule no breath at all does. "
Education is a civil right.
Education is civil rights is the title of a book by the sociologist Ralf Dahrendorf from 1965 and a catchphrase from the debate about equal opportunities .
Dahrendorf referred to the extremely low number of high school graduates and students in the Federal Republic of Germany at the time compared to other European countries. He saw this as a threat to German democracy and thus provided essential arguments for the expansion of education .
The weekly newspaper Die Zeit wrote on February 11, 1966:
“Ralf Dahrendorf's book 'Education is Citizenship'. Published by Nannen-Verlag at the end of last year after a ZEIT series, it met with a great deal of approval and opposition, and thus, the author's intention, kept the discussion going on a question that was crucial for our century - as in a declaration by the first government Erhard stood to read - as important as the social question is for the nineteenth century. "
Education is what's left over after you've forgotten everything you've learned.
This phrase is wrongly attributed to Albert Einstein . It is documented for Werner Heisenberg , who gave it as follows in his speech on the 100th anniversary of the Maximiliansgymnasium in Munich on July 13, 1949:
"Education is what is left over when you've forgotten everything you've learned."
Education makes you free.
The motto of the bookseller Joseph Meyer , the founder of the Bibliographical Institute , which opened up new groups of buyers and readers by publishing inexpensive classic editions and new advertising and distribution methods.
The motto was widely used in the so-called Groschenbibliothek of German classics and remained the motto of the Bibliographical Institute for many decades. It became a catchphrase for supporters of a liberal school policy. In the closing words of the editor of his 52-volume Große Conversations-Lexikons, Joseph Meyer formulated this idea again in 1855:
"Everyone's intelligence is the strongest refuge of humanity and freedom."
I'm neither a miss, nor beautiful, can go home unsupervised.
In the first part of Goethe's Faust , Gretchen uses these words - modest and a little snippy at the same time - to reject Faust, who had previously asked her flatteringly:
"My beautiful lady, may I dare to
offer my arm and escort to her?"
The word miss is still used by Goethe in the old sense of a young woman from the nobility . Later, the form of address also applies to middle-class girls. In the Weimar Republic , the Prussian Interior Minister Wolfgang Heine made it clear in an order of June 13, 1919:
"It can ... no single woman be prevented from calling herself a woman."
But for decades an unmarried woman will of course be a miss in everyday life . With a regulation by the National Socialists, this form of address became official again from 1937.
Up to the blood
This expression can already be found in the New Testament, where it says in the Letter to the Hebrews of the Apostle Paul :
“ 3 Remember him who endured so much opposition to himself from sinners, so that you do not become weary and do not lose courage.
4 You have not yet resisted down to the blood in the fight against sin 5 and you have already forgotten the consolation that speaks to you as to his children. "
Today the expression is mostly associated with agony without pity:
- "Love down to the blood." (Stories about jealousy)
- Witches tormented to the blood (horror film)
A song by the German metal singer Doro Pesch with the title Bis zum Blut has the following opening verses:
"Up to the blood
No way too far
To be close to freedom"
Except for the knife
When the Napoleonic troops occupied Spain, Zaragoza was besieged in 1808/1809 . The Spanish general José de Palafox y Melci is said to have refused the request to surrender the city with the words "war to the knife" (that is, using even the most primitive weapons). The city of Saragossa had few and outdated defenses. There was tough street fighting. After 61 days of siege, the French lifted the siege and withdrew. When Napoleon Bonaparte came to Spain in person, Palafox had to retreat to Saragossa. There the second siege of Zaragoza took place, which ended after three months with the surrender of the city.
The German title of the 1931 film The Skin Game by Alfred Hitchcock is up to the knife . The film tells of the conflict between an old-established noble family and a nouveau riche industrial family over a piece of land on which a factory is to be built.
The quote is mainly used when a merciless argument is to be characterized:
- "Election Day in the USA: Fight to the Knife"
- "Dallas: Fight to the Knife"
- "Up to the knife or the high school of politics"
So far and no further!
This phrase goes back to the Old Testament book of Job . There God silences the complaining Job with a verbose representation of his omnipotence as creator of the world:
"Who closed the sea with gates [...] when I broke my border for him, set him gates and bolts and said: You are allowed to go this far and no further, your waves of pride must settle here?"
He is referring to the separation of land and sea made by him in the creation story ( Genesis 1.9 EU ).
This can already be found in Schiller's drama The Robbers, reduced to “so far and no further!” .
Down to the dolls
The Siegesallee , jokingly or contemptuously referred to by parts of the Berlin population as Puppenallee , was a splendid boulevard in the Tiergarten in Berlin commissioned by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1895, with 32 monuments and 64 busts from the history of Brandenburg and Berlin. The 750 meter long avenue ran from the former Königsplatz (now the Platz der Republik ) as a visual axis to the Victory Column to Kemperplatz .
Frederick the Great had mid-18th century at the Grosser Stern in Tiergarten by Georg Wenceslaus von Knobelsdorff let up mythological still images in Berlin slang were called "dolls". The way “to the dolls” seemed quite long to Berliners, and that is why the term was soon used for long distances in time. Today the phrase "stay up until the dolls" is known beyond Berlin.
Black is beautiful.
This English catchphrase (“Black is beautiful.”) Emerged from the US black power movement in the 1960s and is an expression of the increased self-confidence of black people.
Black is beautiful was used by the CDU in election advertising in the 1970s and referred to the slang term used by CDU / CSU politicians as "the blacks".
Black Power
Black Power , the catchphrase of the more radical part of the civil rights movement in the USA means something like "black power" and goes back to the 1954 novel by the American writer Richard Wright .
Blue flower
The so-called blue flower can be found before the romantic era . It belongs in the folk tale that tells of a blue miracle flower that one finds by chance and that opens up access to hidden treasures.
Inspired by a picture of his friend Friedrich Schwedenstein , Novalis used this symbol as the first romantic novel Heinrich von Ofterdingen that remained in his fragment . It begins with young Heinrich pondering about meeting a mysterious stranger before going to sleep:
“The youth lay restless on his bed, thinking of the stranger and his stories. It is not the treasures that have aroused such an inexpressible desire in me, he said to himself; Far away from me lies all greed: but I long to see the blue flower. "
Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff wrote a poem about The Blue Flower . Adelbert von Chamisso said he had found the “blue flower of romanticism” in the Harz Mountains , Heinrich Zschokke used it as a symbol of longing and love in the novella Der Freihof von Aarau .
The poet Heinrich Heine refers to Novalis in his treatise Confessions :
"Novalis invented and celebrated the blue flower as the symbol of romantic longing in his novel Heinrich von Ofterdingen."
The blue flower found its way into the Reise-Liedgut via the Wandervogel :
“When the golden sun shines brightly
into the world I must go;
because somewhere
the blue flower must bloom full of splendor . "
Quote from the song We want to go ashore , text by Hjalmar Kutzleb :
“In the forest deep within, the blue flower blooms fine,
to win the flower we draw into the world.
The trees rustle, the river murmurs,
and if you want to find the blue flower, you have to be a wanderer. "
Stay in the country and feed yourself honestly.
This request comes from Psalm 37. There it says about the apparent happiness of the wicked:
- “1 A psalm of David. Do not be angry with the wicked; do not be jealous of the evildoers. 2 For like the grass they will soon be cut down, and like the green herb they will wither. 3 Hope in the LORD and do good; stay in the country and feed yourself honestly. "
The Stuttgarter Zeitung writes about this motto in its online edition:
“Doesn't that saying sound like the gruffest Biedermeier? There it is, the raised index finger of the grandmother, who warns of naughty adventures: You, you, you - be nice! "
But after these introductory words, the author comes to the realization that the saying contains a call to self-discipline and non-violence, just as it would be worthy of the Sermon on the Mount . He warns against taking up the fight against evil on your own, but also does not require you to run away.
“One of the closing verses sums up the tenacious hope for change: 'I saw a wicked man who insisted on violence and spread himself out and green like a cedar tree. Then I came over again; see, there it was gone. '"
Look back in anger
In 1956 the play Look Back in Anger by the Englishman John Osborne appeared . After the premiere, the catchphrase “ angry young men ” was created, which was used to describe socially critical authors in England during the 1950s.
The successful play was made into a film with Richard Burton three years later .
Blonde beast
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In his pamphlet Zur Genealogy der Moral , the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche explains that it is precisely the members of the “noble races” who “are kept in bounds by mutual guarding, by jealousy inter pares ”, and that precisely these have the need for time time to leave the confines of civilization. So the representative of the gentleman's morality becomes a "blonde beast who lusts after prey and victory":
“At the bottom of all these noble races, the predator, the glorious blonde beast, lusting for prey and victory, cannot be mistaken; For this hidden reason it requires discharge from time to time, the animal has to get out again, has to return to the wilderness: - Roman, Arab, Germanic, Japanese nobility, Homeric heroes, Scandinavian Vikings - they are all equal in this need . "
Nietzsche explains this zoological term when he talks about the taming of the "human beast":
“In the early Middle Ages, when the church was primarily a menagerie, the most beautiful specimens of the 'blonde beast' were hunted everywhere - for example, the noble Germanic tribes were 'improved'. But what did such an 'improved' Teuton, seduced into a monastery, look like afterwards? Like a caricature of a person, like a freak: he had become a 'sinner', he was stuck in a cage. "
Blondes preferred.
Blondes preferred is the German distribution title of the US comedy Gentlemen Prefer Blondes from 1953. The main characters in it are two female singers, one of whom has a preference for diamonds and the other a weakness for men.
Blooming landscapes
The term blooming landscapes was the vision of the German Chancellor Helmut Kohl as an economic future perspective for the new federal states .
Helmut Kohl used the term u. a. in his televised address on the introduction of monetary, economic and social union between the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany on July 1, 1990. After nature has recaptured disused industrial landscapes and marshalling yards, the term is increasingly understood in a different sense, namely as a symbol for the deindustrialization of East Germany.
Blood is thicker than water.
Kaiser Wilhelm II popularized this old folk wisdom by using it several times against the British and Americans. He wanted to confirm the blood relationship with the Germans, which is stronger than the separating sea.
The oldest evidence of this pictorial saying can be found in the animal poem Reinhart Fuchs by Heinrich der Glichezaere from the 12th century. There it says that kinship blood is not diluted by water. It was understood that a blood relative is closer to one than the godparents who are connected to one through the waters of baptism .
Blood is a very special juice.
In Goethe's drama Faust I , Faust made a pact with Mephisto that he would like to have sealed. Faust is supposed to sign the contract in blood. In this context, Mephisto notes:
- "Blood is a very special juice."
The signature with blood is part of an alliance with the devil, because in mythology blood was considered the seat of the soul.
Blood, sweat and tears
In his first speech as Prime Minister, Winston Churchill promised his compatriots " nothing but blood, tears, toil and sweat" and stated that the "war against a monstrous tyranny like them has never been surpassed, in the sinister catalog of the crimes of humanity "can only be ended with a" victory at any price ".
The blood-sweat-and-tears speech (also for short "blood, sweat and tears"; English "blood, sweat and tears") was the first speech that Churchill gave as the new Prime Minister on May 13, 1940 before the House of Commons . The speech was preceded by a vote in the House of Commons in which Churchill asked the members of parliament to express their confidence in the policies of the all-party coalition government that had been formed in the previous days, which would replace the previous government of Arthur Neville Chamberlain , which consisted exclusively of conservative politicians was kicked.
blood and ground
Blood and soil was one of the key terms in National Socialist ideology, but can be found even before the time of the Third Reich. Detectable as a pair of terms is blood and soil already in 1922 published work The Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler , is spoken in the "clash between blood and soil around the inner form of a transplanted animal and human species." The picture was then taken over by August Winnig , whose text Liberation from 1926 and his book Das Reich als Republik (1928) each begin with the sentence: "Blood and soil are the fate of the peoples (people)".
It was only through Richard Walther Darré , a member of the Artamanen , who gave his paper, published in 1930, the title New Nobility from Blood and Soil , that the concise formula became a central concept of Nazi ideology, which is specifically dependent on racial, economic and agricultural policy ideas tried to prove.
Blood and Iron
The term blood and iron goes back to a speech that the then Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck gave to the budget commission of the Prussian House of Representatives on September 30, 1862 . In order to enforce his ideas of an army reform against the budget law of the House of Representatives, he spoke among other things the sentence:
"The big questions of the time are not decided by speeches or majority decisions, but by iron and blood."
Bismarck acted according to this maxim, preparing the Franco-German War from 1870 to 1871 and making the German Empire possible in 1871.
Bohemian villages
"These are Bohemian villages for me", is a saying for: "That is completely unknown to me", or: "I don't understand that."
Under the impression of the strange Slavic village names, the expression "Bohemian villages" was used as early as the 16th century to indicate something completely foreign. In 1595 Georg Rollenhagen said:
"I tell him that by my honor / I am the Behmische Doerffer."
Karl Gutzkow gives the following characteristics in 1845:
“With one, a Bohemian village looks like what we are talking about, with another like a sentence from natural history, with the third like the Pythagorean theorem, with the fourth like the theory of equations of the fourth degree, with the fifth, one Minister, like his portfolio, with the sixth like something that has already been forgotten or, with musical speakers, like something about which one understands nothing. "
In Bohemia itself the Czechs speak of the “Spanish village” on the same occasion - Spain was a Habsburg, but very remote kingdom at the time.
Bomb the headquarters!
The Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong branded Chinese culture as bourgeois and reactionary in 1965. From this cultural criticism he then developed the idea of a permanent revolution against the so-called reactionary and counterrevolutionary elements in the state, society and in the party apparatus of the Chinese Communist Party . So he urges young Chinese to bomb the headquarters (s):
「炮打司令部.」
「Baoda silingbu.」
Jutta Lietsch writes on the 40th anniversary of this appeal:
“What the young Red Guards did not suspect: They were used unscrupulously by the Great Chairman Mao. His position in the Communist Party was threatened after years of bitter hunger and internal party purges. To save himself, the founder of the state incited the population on May 25, 1966: 'Bomb the headquarters!' This meant other authorities and the party headquarters. "
Lietsch continues:
“Red Guards groups soon formed in schools, factories and authorities. Each claimed to be more revolutionary than anyone else. They hit each other, in some places with weapons that they had stolen from army camps. "
Bona nox
These Latin words mean good night and are the beginning of a canon by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , of which there are two versions. The adult version begins as follows:
- " Bona nox! You're
a right ox,
Bona notte,
Dear Lotte,
Bonne nuit,
ugh, ugh,
good night, good night,
today we have to go far,
good night, good night, it
's high time,
good night,
sleep free 'healthy and
stay' round as a ball! "
Bonjour sadness.
Is quoted when something particularly desolate is to be described:
- “Bonjour sad. Answers from the Province "
- "Bonjour tristesse: France is fighting for its vacationers."
- "Kosovo: Bonjour tristesse"
Evil seven
A quarrelsome woman is called an evil seven. The expression is first found in this meaning in the Latin Ethographia mundi (moral description of the world) by the writer Johann Sommer . In this work it is stated:
"Is your wife such a nasty seventh ...?"
The expression probably goes back to a playing card in the card game Karnöffel. In this game, there was a card with the number seven that all other tricks but could not be tripped by any other card. This playing card was called “devil” or “evil seven”. The fact that this card was associated with quarrelsome women is explained by the fact that it depicts a woman arguing with her husband.
Or the expression comes from the expression that a woman has passed from the sixth to the seventh request. This refers to the Lord's Prayer with the requests "and do not lead us into temptation" and "but deliver us from evil".
Planks that mean the world
This formulation comes from Friedrich Schiller's poem To the Friends :
- “Let's see the great things of all time
On the boards that mean the world,
pass us by in silence , meaningfully.
Everything repeats itself only in life,
only the imagination is forever young;
What has never and nowhere happened,
That alone never becomes out of date! "
These boards mean the stage in the theater , which used to be made entirely of wood. Occasionally the phrase is also associated with ski boards, for example in the subtitle of the film Ski Heil - The two boards that mean the world (2009) by Richard Rossmann .
bread and games
It is said that during the imperial era the Roman people only asked for bread and circus games ("Panem et circenses") without caring about the common good. Something similar has been said earlier about the people of Alexandria. The Emperor Trajan first applied the saying to Rome , who said:
“Populum Romanum duabus praecipue rebus, annona et spectaculis, teneri”
"The Roman people can only be kept in check by two main things: that they are given enough to eat and that spectacular spectacles are offered to them."
Even today, the expression refers to attempts by a government to distract the people from problems by trying to raise the general mood with election gifts or impressively staged major events. Ultimately, the term probably goes back to a Greek quote that the speaker Dion Chrysostom originally applied to the conditions in the Egyptian metropolis of Alexandria :
- "But what can anyone say about the great mass of Alexandrians, to whom one must only throw a lot of bread."
In short, this means:
- " Πολὺν ἄρτον καὶ θέαν ἵππων "
- polyn arton kei thean hippon
- "Lots of bread and horse racing"
Since 2002 , Germany's largest Roman Games have been held annually in August in Trier under the name of Bread & Games . Bread and Games is a 1959 novel by Siegfried Lenz .
Brother Straubinger
Synonym of the hardworking craftsperson who happily wanders from one city to the next to demonstrate his craftsmanship. The character was later often associated with tramps.
Brothers to the sun, to freedom
Breath of deepest conviction
This expression goes back to the historian Heinrich von Treitschke , who first used it in the essay Fichte and the national idea .
The chest tone is the tone produced by the chest voice, in which the chest serves as a resonance body and can sound very full. The phrase is used when someone says something with the utmost conviction:
- "Diego Maradona takes up his position as Argentine national football coach with the greatest of conviction."
- "The deepest conviction expressed aversion to Keynesian economic policy"
Book of life
The picture of the book of life as a book of fate goes back to the 2nd book of Moses . In this book the righteous are entered by God while the sinners are erased from it. It is based on the idea of a divine directory that contains the names of all God-pleasing people who have ever lived:
- “30 In the morning Moses said to the people, You have done a great sin; now I will go up to the Lord, whether I may atone for your sins. 31 And when Moses came again to the LORD, he said, Ah, the people have committed a great sin, and they have made gods of gold for themselves. 32 Now forgive them their sins; if not, erase me from your book that you have written. 33 The Lord said to Moses, What? I want to erase those who sin against me from my book. "
This book is also mentioned in Psalm 69, which speaks of the Book of the Living :
- "29 Erase them from the book of the living, so that the righteous will not write them."
Book with seven seals
The saying "For me this is like a book with seven seals" means that something is very difficult to understand.
Bookbinder Wanninger
“To feel like Buchbinder Wanninger” is a catchphrase used for situations in which offices or companies refer an applicant from employee to employee.
Books have a sense of honor. If you give them out, they don't come back.
As far as can be seen, the bon mot was first published in the weekly newspaper Das Ostpreußenblatt on July 12, 1975 and attributed to Theodor Fontane without citing the source . This ascription is definitely wrong. The quote has not yet been found in writings by or about Fontane. This also applies to the version
“Books have no sense of honor. If you lend them, they won't come back. "
This was presented by Thomas Wurzel, Managing Director of the Sparkassen-Kulturstiftung Hessen-Thüringen, in his laudation on the occasion of the 2007 Thuringian Library Prize being presented to the Suhl City Library .
Books are thick letters to friends.
“Books are just thick letters to friends; Letters are only thinner books for the world. ”- Jean Paul : Fourth pastoral and circular letter. All works. XX. Fourth delivery. Fifth volume. G. Reimer, Berlin 1826.
Pandora's box
The Pandora's box is a metaphor for impending disaster. See Pandora's box and Georg Büchmann.
Federal Chancellor of the Allies
On November 25, 1949, after 20 hours of debate on the Petersberg Agreement, at around 3 a.m., SPD leader Kurt Schumacher called out one of the most famous heckling calls in Bundestag history to Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer :
"The Federal Chancellor of the Allies."
This interjection made the members of the governing coalition angry and prompted the President of the Bundestag Erich Köhler to call for order. Since Schumacher refused to withdraw his interjection, Koehler excluded him from participating in the negotiations of the Bundestag for a period of 20 days because of gross violation of the rules of procedure.
Adenauer had signed the Petersberg Agreement with the Western Allies two days earlier. It provided for the Federal Republic of Germany to join the International Ruhr Authority , which controlled coal and steel production in the most important economic area in West Germany. Schumacher feared a sell-out of German interests and continued dismantling.
Business as usual
This English phrase was coined by Winston Churchill , who said in a speech on November 9, 1914:
"The maxim of the British people is business as usual!"
"The maxim of the British people is - Business goes on as normal"
Churchill was referring to the just started First World War and its influence on business life.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dieter E. Zimmer : Why German is dying out as a scientific language . In: Die Zeit , No. 30/1996
- ^ Nicole Alexander, Nikolaus von Festenberg: Welcome to Blabylon. Silly Anglicisms wash over German and create a mishmash called Denglish . In: Der Spiegel . No. 29 , 2001 ( online ).
- ↑ The present . Half-monthly publication, published by Bernhard Guttmann , Robert Haerdter , Albert Oeser , Benno Reifenberg . Freiburg im Breisgau , issue 28/29 (2nd year issue 3/4) pp. 29–32.
- ↑ Werner Krauss: The escape into argot . In: Sprachwissenschaft und Wortgeschichte (1997), p. 128 books.google , p. 140 books.google
- ↑ S. Perkowitz: Hollywood science: Movies, Science, and the End of the World . Columbia University Press 2007, ISBN 978-0-231-14280-9 ( excerpt in Google book search)
- ↑ a b Chrysti M. Smith: Verbivore's Feast: Second Course: More Word & Phrase Origins . Farcounty Press 2006, ISBN 1-56037-402-0 , p. 301 ( excerpt in the Google book search)
- ^ A b c d Elizabeth Webber, Mike Feinsilber: Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Allusion . Merriam-Webster 1999, ISBN 0-87779-628-9 , pp. 47-48 ( excerpt from Google book search)
- ^ Beam me up Scotty . In: Duden - quotations and sayings: origin, meaning and current use . Bibliographisches Institut, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-411-91243-8 , p. 74
- ↑ Christa Pöpperlmann: Nomen est omen: The most famous Latin quotes & idioms and what's behind them . Compact Verlag 2008, ISBN 978-3-8174-6414-2 , p. 81 ( excerpt in the Google book search)
- ↑ Quoted here from the IMDB's Memorable quotes for Mel Brooks Spaceballs ( quote 1 , quote 2 )
- ^ Jeff Prucher: Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction . Oxford University Press 2007, ISBN 978-0-19-530567-8 , p. 1499 ( excerpt in Google book search)
- ^ Glen Hanson, Peter J. Venturelli, Annette E. Fleckenstein: Drugs and Society . Jones & Bartlett Publishers 2008, ISBN 978-0-7637-5642-0 , p. 8 ( excerpt in the Google book search)
- ↑ Lukas: Marteria publishes tracklist for "Roswell". In: Backspin.de . March 17, 2017, accessed January 8, 2018 .
- ^ Prometheus (poem) on Wikisource
- ↑ Annette von Droste-Hülshoff: The spiritual year in the Gutenberg-DE project
- ↑ Plutarch : Life of Caesar , 69, 11
- ^ William Shakespeare : Julius Caesar , 4th act, 3rd scene, German by August Wilhelm Schlegel zeno.org
- ^ Otto Ernst: Flachsmann as an educator in the Gutenberg-DE project
- ↑ Quoted from: gutenberg.org
- ↑ Calle Kops: “Berlin, Berlin, we're going to Berlin” . Deutsche Welle, February 9, 2010
- ↑ Ute-Christiane Hauenschild: Rideamus - The life story of Fritz olive . Hentrich & Hentrich, 2009. p. 186
- ↑ Quoted from: golyr.de
- ↑ Movies. In: Die Zeit , No. 46/1987
- ↑ For example with Rudolf von Vorst: Corambo. in: Fliegende Blätter No. 1684. Schreiber Verlag, Munich 1877. Permanent link Heidelberg University Library
- ↑ After Georg Büchmann : Winged words. The treasure trove of quotations of the German people. Continued by Walter Robert-tornow . Haude & Spener, Berlin 1900, p. 553 f.
- ↑ 10th edition 1655
- ↑ Paradise Lost , Book V. verse 95
- ↑ Winged words. The treasure trove of quotations of the German people , collected and explained by Georg Büchmann. Continued by Walter Robert-tornow. Nineteenth increased and improved edition. Berlin, Haude & Spener'sche Buchhandlung (F. Weidling), 1898. P. 504 susning.nu ; see. also https://books.google.de/books?id=sM0xCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA297&lpg=PA297&dq=geha%C3%9Fte
- ^ Max Frisch : Biedermann and the arsonists
- ^ Duden Volume 12. Quotes and sayings
- ↑ a b literaturkritik.de
- ↑ Education is a civil right . In: Die Zeit , No. 7/1966
- ↑ Werner Heisenberg: Collected Works , Volume 3, Part 5 (1984) p. 406 books.google p. 406
- ^ Dora Landé: Women's Movement . In: Sozialistische Monatshefte , 25, 1919, pp. 741–746, esp. P. 745 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
- ↑ Quoted from: musicsonglyrics.com
- ↑ 2nd act, 2nd scene zeno.org cf. also Georg Büchmann : Winged words , 19th edition (1898). P. 31 susning.nu
- ↑ Psalm 37. Quoted from: bibel-online.net
- ↑ a b stuttgarter-zeitung.de ( Memento from May 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Friedrich Nietzsche: On the genealogy of morality. Quoted from: zeno.org
- ^ Friedrich Nietzsche: Götzen-Twilight or How to philosophize with the hammer. Quoted from: zeno.org
- ↑ Verse 266 f .: ovch hore I say daz sippeblvt / von wazzere niht vertirbet ( Heinrich der Glîchezâre: Reinhart Fuchs . Middle High German and New High German. Edited, translated and explained by Karl-Heinz Göttert . Reclams Universal-Bibliothek 9819, Stuttgart 1976; bibliographical supplemented edition 2005, p. 20)
- ↑ Goethe: Faust I . 2. Study room scene
- ↑ Quoted from: Wilhelm Schüßler (Ed.), Otto von Bismarck, Reden, 1847–1869 . In: Hermann von Petersdorff (Ed.): Bismarck: The collected works , Volume 10. Otto Stolberg, Berlin 1924-1935, pp. 139-40.
- ↑ schule-bw.de ( Memento from November 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Quoted from: ingeb.org
- ^ Friedrich Schiller: Poems in the Gutenberg-DE project
- ↑ Dion Chrysostom : Speech to the Alexandrines , 31
- ↑ 2 Book of Moses . 32.32. Quoted from: bibel-online.net
- ↑ Psalm . 69.29. Quoted from: bibel-online.net
- ^ The Ostpreußenblatt July 12, 1975 (PDF; 12.7 MB), p. 2
- ↑ db-thueringen.de (PDF; 241 kB)
- ^ Google Books
- ↑ Georg Büchmann: Winged words . 18th edition. P. 502
- ^ Minutes of the 18th session of the German Bundestag on 24./25. November 1949 (PDF) pp. 525 (A) - 526 (A) and at konrad-adenauer.de (html) . See in detail Michael F. Feldkamp : The interjection "The Federal Chancellor of the Allies!" And the parliamentary settlement of the conflict between Konrad Adenauer and Kurt Schumacher in the autumn of 1949. In: Markus Raasch, Tobias Hirschmüller (ed.): Von Freiheit, Solidarität and Subsidiarity - State and Society of Modernity in Theory and Practice. Festschrift for Karsten Ruppert on his 65th birthday (= contributions to political science. Vol. 175). Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-428-13806-7 , pp. 665-708.