Nest polluters

As Nestbeschmutzer people are pejoratively referred to the social , economic or political system (family, work environment, village, town, businesses, government, etc.), where they live themselves or operate criticize or point out deficiencies. The counterpart with a positive cast is whistleblower . The designation of a person as a nest polluter came up around 1900 at the latest.

Older, but used with the same meaning, is the saying “dirty one's own nest”. It means "to speak disparagingly about one's own family or the community in which one lives"; it can be proven from the late Middle Ages .

origin

From the late Middle Ages onwards , the saying “dirty your own nest” or “shit in your own nest” has to be proven. This use goes back to the falsely attributed property of the hoopoe to pollute its own nest in zoology of the Middle Ages .

The poet Muskatblüt (around 1390–1438) wrote in a song: “Duostu the same in your own nest / You resembled the wedehoppen, / Whatever you sit or stand then / In it you must knop.” (Transferred roughly: You do it yourself in your own nest / then you resemble the hoopoe / where you sit or stand / you have to throw in.) In the marriage breeding book of the writer Johann Fischart (1546 or 1547–1591) it says: “Dan what kind of cattle Widhop species is, his eygen Shit nest? ”(Transferred for example: What kind of animal hoopoe behavior is it to shit one's own nest?).

From the middle of the 16th century onwards, the expression can be found in collections of proverbs: In his book Proverbs, Schöne, Weise, Herrliche Clugreden, und Hoff sprüch ... from 1541, the writer Sebastian Franck (1499–1542 or 1543) offers it in the form : “Courting your own nest like a hoopoe / Your eye shaming nit may conceal.” (Transferred for example: Courting your own nest like a hoopoe / Cannot keep your own shame.) Johannes Agricola (1494–1566) writes in his book Explanation of common German proverbs in chapter 665: "Who shits in his eygen nest, he ligts, and is not honored ... It is said that all birds keyner in his nest than the Widhopff, which is why he is also a despised bird is how he climbs a crown and battle, and has pretty feathers, because he is not honored. ”(Transferred for example: Who shits in his own nest is uncomfortable and is not honorable ... It is said that of the birds only the hoopoe does it in its own nest, which is why it is a despised bird, although it wears a crown and a crest [this should mean the head plumage of the hoopoe] and has a beautiful plumage because it is not honorable.)

In Thomas Murner's (1475–1537) book Schelmenzunft from 1514, the phrase is also illustrated with a woodcut. Under the heading The useless bird it says, among other things: “The bird has a bad kind / The seym own nest doesn’t save / Sunder himself shits threyn / The taste itself nymmet eyn /… / The bird cannot be the best / The one shits in its own nest. ”(Transferred for example: The bird has a bad habit / which does not spare its own nest / but shits into it itself / (and) accepts the smell / ... / This bird cannot be the best / the one in its own Nest craps.)

Modern use

The term can be proven as early as 1917. Richard Grelling wrote in his book on the question of war guilt, Das Verbrechen, about the English-German writer Houston Stewart Chamberlain : “The German friend of the people is insulted, but the English dirtier who denounces a ... people ... is showered with awards in Germany and testimonials ... "

In Austria writers like Thomas Bernhard or Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek were given this term by certain social classes and media like the Kronen Zeitung . This term also fell and fell in political discourse. In many debates in the German Bundestag in post-war Germany, for example, people who criticized the Nazi past of individual dignitaries were referred to as polluters.

Quotes

• On the occasion of a laudation for Peter Bichsel, the Swiss writer Max Frisch remarked : "Those who make the nest dirty point indignantly at someone who notices their dirt and call him the nest dirtier."
• Heinrich Boell called Erich Kuby recognizing a "traitor of rank."
• Incidentally, the one who points out the dirt is considered to be much more dangerous than the one who makes the dirt. Kurt Tucholsky in a letter to Herbert Ihering dated August 10, 1922.

literature

• Hermann L. Gremliza : Against Germany: 48 soiling of the nest . Konkret-Literatur-Verlag, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-89458-193-X .
• Collective authors for nest pollution: confidentiality. A report. The Schneider case and other attempts to uncover National Socialist continuities in the history of science . Unrast Verlag, Münster 1996, ISBN 3-928300-47-4 .
• Christian Hörburger: Nihilists - Pacifists - Polluters . Seen time in the mirror of the cabaret. Tübingen 1993, Publisher: Institute for Peace Education Tübingen eV
• Pia Janke among others: The nest polluter. Jelinek & Austria . Jung und Jung, Salzburg 2002, ISBN 3-902144-41-6 .
• Heinz Küpper: Dictionary of German colloquial language , 1st edition, 6th reprint. Stuttgart, Munich, Düsseldorf, Leipzig: Klett, 1997, page 571 f .; Lemmas polluting the nest and nest
• Lutz Röhrich: Lexicon of the proverbial sayings , 5 volumes, Freiburg i. Br. 1991, volume 3, page 1089 f .; Lemma: nest .

See also

• 31er
• denunciation
• Muckraker

Web links

Wiktionary: Nestbeschmutzer  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

1. ^ Heinz Küpper: Dictionary of German colloquial language , 1st edition, 6th reprint. Stuttgart, Munich, Düsseldorf, Leipzig: Klett, 1997, page 571; Lemma polluting the nest
2. ^ Knaur: The German Dictionary , Lexicographical Institute Munich, 1985, page 697
3. ↑ Duden 11, Dudenverlag, 1992, ISBN 3-411-04111-0 , page 515
4. ^ Lutz Röhrich: Lexicon of proverbial sayings , 5 volumes, Freiburg i. Br. 1991, volume 3, page 1089 f .; Lemma: nest .
5. ^ Heinz Küpper: Dictionary of German colloquial language , 1st edition, 6th reprint. Stuttgart, Munich, Düsseldorf, Leipzig: Klett, 1997, page 571 f .; Lemma Nest , No. 12 and No. 14.
6. ↑ Text of the song by Eberhard von Groote: Lieder Muskatbluts , Cöln 1852 , song no. 44, page 116 ff., Here: verses 67–70.
7. ↑ Translation "knoppen" as "defecate" by Eberhard von Groote: Songs nutmeg blood , Cologne 1852 , page 313, commentary on Song no. 44.
8. ^ Johann Scheible: Johann Fischarts Flöhhatz, Weibertratz, Ehezuchtbüchlein, Podagrammisch Trostbüchlein ... , (= Johann Scheible (ed.), The Monastery; 10th volume: 37th to 40th cell), Stuttgart 1848, page 487 .
9. ↑ Sebastian Franck: Proverbs, Beautiful, Wise, Magnificent Clugreden, and Hoff sprüch ... , Getruck zou Franckenfurt am Meyn, Bey Christian Egenolffen, (1541), page 56.
10. ↑ "courting" should stand here euphemistically for "relieving himself of necessity"; see. Matthias Lexer: Middle High German dictionary Lemma "hovieren" .
11. ↑ Quoted from Lutz Röhrich: Lexicon of the proverbial sayings , 5 volumes, Freiburg i. Br. 1991, volume 3, page 1089 f .; Lemma: nest .
12. ^ Digitized by the Bavarian State Library of a guild edition Augsburg 1514; Illustration and text “The useless bird” .
13. ^ Richard Grelling: Das Verbrechen , Payot & Cie, 1917, p. 352
14. ↑ Die-eule.at ( Memento of the original from May 24, 2007 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. 
15. ↑ 3sat.de
16. ↑ Bundestag.de ( Memento of the original dated August 4, 2011 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. 
17. ↑ Wolfgang Mistereck, Adrienne Schneider (ed.): Zeltreden: Speeches for the award of the literary prize "Stadtschreiber von Bergen" 1974-1998 . Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 1998, ISBN 3-89244-322-X , p. 96 (367 p., Limited preview in Google Book search).
18. ↑ Kuby biography