Fool's edge

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Narrensaum is a pictorial, demarcating and derogatory term for the representatives of an extremist , fanatical or eccentric current on the edge of a political, social or cultural movement. It is a translation of the English term lunatic fringe ( lunatic means "crazy, insane"; fringe means "hem" or "edge").

Lunatic fringe

In its political meaning, the English phrase was coined around 1913 by the American President Theodore Roosevelt , who used it several times. He spoke of the fact that there is a fool's edge in every reform movement (“there is a lunatic fringe to every reform movement”). In his autobiography Roosevelt portrayed himself as a reformer, followed by at least nine-tenths of honest reform proponents; but the extremists and ultras of the reform movement, who had not supported him, he attributed to the lunatic fringe , such as the “ultra- pacifists ”, the “so-called anti-imperialists or anti-militarists” and the advocates of a “peace at any price ". Roosevelt applies this coincidence to the Cubists and Futurists in another much-cited passage , namely in a review of an exhibition of modern art in New York entitled An Art Exhibition , which was included in his collection of essays History as Literature (1913). There he wrote that there is probably in every progressive movement a tendency to extravagance , which is the price for avoiding platitudes . It is true that it is often necessary to shake off the "dead hand" of the reactionaries , but one must also see that there is usually a fool's seam among the disciples of a forward-looking movement, and in modern art these are the cubists and futurists.

The expression became proverbial in English. It found its way into the standard English dictionaries, such as the Oxford English Dictionary and the Merriam-Webster . Webster's Third National Dictionary (1981) gives evidence such as quotations from John Dos Passos and Harold Laski . It can also be found in numerous collections of quotations, such as Bartlett's Familiar Quotations or the Yale Book of Quotations . In another meaning, namely as a name for a fashionable pony hairstyle , it can be proven as early as the 1870s.

William Safire observed in his Political Dictionary that the addition “lunatic fringe”, which Theodore Roosevelt had used especially for the radical wing of the reformers, was “revived” in the 1940s and from then on was mostly used against the radical right. He cites a speech by Franklin Delano Roosevelt from 1944 in which the president warned against the anti-communist fear propaganda such as the fascist black shirts, the Nazi brown shirts "and in this country the silver shirts and the people from the fool's seam".

Use in German

In German, both the English expression lunatic fringe and the translation "narrensaum" are occasionally used. There are also other attempts at translation, such as “fringe area of ​​madness”, “crazy fringe group” or “semi-crazy fringe existences”. "Narrensaum" and the English addition "lunatic fringe" can be found synonymously several times in the historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler , mostly in application to extreme ethnic groups. There is early evidence for the word in the novels of Ernst von Salomon ( Die Geächteten , 1930; Der Questionebogen , 1951). Despite this occasional use, there is no entry for Narrensaum in common German dictionaries and collections of quotations, such as the German dictionary , the Duden , the Wahrig and the Büchmann .

The Austrian FPÖ politician Norbert Hofer used the word "fool's seam" to attract broader public attention in 2016. He distinguished himself from xenophobic hate postings on the Facebook page of his party friend Heinz-Christian Strache with the remark that there was a "real fool's edge" in Austria; he himself had also become a victim of hate postings.

In the same sense, Rolf Schlierer , then deputy federal chairman of the party “ The Republicans ”, had assured in 1992 that the “Republicans” had nothing in common with the “right-wing fool's seams”. Matthias Falter, employee of the Institute for Contemporary History at the University of Vienna , assessed such uses as tactical distancing: “The concept of the fool's seam ... serves to legitimize one's own position (on the right edge), while other positions are simultaneously delegitimized and - as in the case of right-wing extremists Currents - are implicitly played down. ”The historian Michael Sturm and the author Andrea Maria Dusl , who wrote in a column for the Salzburger Nachrichten , argued :“ The term 'fool's edge' is often used when it comes to political derailments sorry right margin. "

Björn Höcke , the leader of the right-wing extremist AfD in the Thuringian state parliament , used the expression left fool's seam at a performance in Forchheim, Upper Franconia, to denigrate counter-demonstrators of a local alliance of trade unions and parties (including the SPD, CSU, FDP and free voters).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Uwe Backes: Democracy science passé? Problem areas of today's political science from the perspective of extremism research . In: Alexander Gallus (Ed.): Political Science Passages. German forays to explore a subject . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2016, pp. 189–208, here: p. 189.
  2. ↑ See William Safire: Safire's Political Dictionary. New edition 2008. Oxford University Press, New York, p. 405; the quote can be found in Roosevelt's autobiography: Theodore Roosevelt. To Autobiography . Macmillan, New York 1913. The 2nd edition from 1919 can be viewed online at archive.org, p. 296 there.
  3. ^ Theodore Roosevelt: An Art Exhibition . In: Theodore Roosevelt: History as Literature and other essays , Scribner, New York 1913, pp. 301-310, here: p. 305. Online at Wikisource . In English the passage reads: “Probably in any reform movement, any progressive movement, in any field of life, the penalty for avoiding the commonplace is a liability to extravagance. It is vitally necessary to move forward and to shake off the dead hand, often the fossilized dead hand, of the reactionaries; and yet we have to face the fact that there is apt to be a lunatic fringe among the votaries of any forward movement. In this recent art exhibition the lunatic fringe was fully in evidence, especially in the rooms devoted to the Cubists and the Futurists, or Near-Impressionists. "
  4. ↑ From The Grand Design , 1949: “He's a staunch New Dealer and a true liberal but he has not been associated with the lunatic fringe of radical experimentation.” For example, German: “He is a sworn New Deal man and a real liberal, but it had nothing to do with the fool's edge of radical experiments. "
  5. ↑ From The American Democracy , 1948: "Hardly less revealing is the direction taken, after the Treaty of Versailles, by the lunatic fringe in American thought." For example, German: "Hardly less revealing is the direction that the fool's edge of American thought is following the Versailles Treaty . ”What is meant are phenomena like the Ku Klux Klan , as the following sentence shows.
  6. ↑ See Fred Shapiro: You can quote them . In: Yale Alumni Magazine , September / October 2010.
  7. ^ William Safire: Safire's Political Dictionary . New edition 2008. Oxford University Press, New York, p. 405.
  8. ↑ Martin Wieland: The leader of the British fascists. "The best way to discredit Mosley: Let him talk!" In: Die ZEIT , August 10, 1962. Online .
  9. ^ Theo Sommer : Sleepless gendarmes . In: Die ZEIT , June 10, 1988. Online .
  10. ^ Egon Schwarz: The contribution of the Jews to German literature . In: Hans Otto Horch, Horst Denkler (ed.): Conditio judaica. Judaism, anti-Semitism and German-language literature from the 18th century to the First World War . Interdisciplinary symposium of the Werner Reimers Foundation Bad Homburg vdH First part. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1988, pp. 309-328, here: p. 325.
  11. ↑ An example from his German social history. 1914–1949 (= Volume 4), CH Beck, Munich 2003, p. 559: “Thanks to this talent as a speaker, his [Hitler's] star rose in the smoky Munich beer halls, where the members of the 'Lunatic Fringe', the right-wing extremist fool's fringe, frequented . "
  12. ↑ See Solomon: Die Geächteten , p. 251; The questionnaire , p. 401; also for example: Interim balance sheet of the historical commission for the investigation of the Schneider / Schwerte case and its contemporary historical circumstances , online , p. 20. The word is put into the mouth in the outlaw Hermann Ehrhardt and denotes ethnic sects, "Runenrauner and Rasserassler", im Questionnaire is in the same context.
  13. ↑ Hofer "condemns" hate postings and speaks of "foolish seams". Der Standard , October 18, 2016, accessed November 4, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Robert Sedlaczek : There are spinners everywhere. Wiener Zeitung , November 1, 2016, accessed on November 4, 2016 .
  15. ↑ Cashmere instead of combat uniform. In: Der Spiegel , April 13, 1992. Online .
  16. ^ Matthias Falter: Critical Thinking Beyond Horseshoe. “Extremism” and its political functionality. In: Forum for critical right-wing extremism research (ed.): Order - Power - Extremism. Effects and alternatives of the extremism model. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2011, pp. 85–101, here: p. 95.
  17. ↑ Michael Sturm: Fate - Heroism - Sacrifice. The extreme right's use of history . In: Martin Langebach, Michael Sturm (ed.): Places of remembrance of the extreme right . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2015, pp. 17–60, here: p. 29.
  18. ↑ Andrea Maria Dusl in her column in the Salzburger Nachrichten , February 10, 2018.
  19. ↑ http://www.nordbayern.de/region/forchheim/forchheim-1000-menschen-demonstrieren-gegen-hocke-1.7930780 Forchheim 1000 people demonstrate against Höcke