Otto Sarrazin

Otto Sarrazin (born December 22, 1842 in Bocholt , † June 6, 1921 in Berlin ) was a German civil engineer and high-ranking Prussian construction officer , on his death he was entitled Real Secret Construction Councilor .

Sarrazin emerged above all as a specialist writer and editor of two important specialist magazines. Outside of work, he was a leading representative of the General German Language Association and campaigned for the keeping of the German language - primarily by avoiding unnecessary foreign words.

In terms of local politics, he was active as a local councilor at his place of residence, the then rural community of Friedenau near Berlin .

job

Sarrazin attended the Paulinum grammar school in Münster , where he founded the grammar school choral society Bardophonia with other students . After graduating from high school in 1862, he studied civil engineering. Following the 1st state examination, he initially worked as a construction manager ( trainee lawyer in the public building administration) in the construction of the Berlin Ringbahn under Ernst Dircksen . After participating in the Franco-Prussian War , he passed the 2nd state examination to become a government builder ( Assessor ) in June 1872 , which was backdated by eleven months because of his military service.

He then worked at the technical department for railways in the Prussian Ministry of Commerce and as an auxiliary teacher for hydraulic engineering at the Berlin Academy of Construction. From the end of 1873 he worked on the construction of the Moselle Railway ; During this time he lived in Koblenz , where he also married.

Through various publications - including on the feared effects of educational reform efforts on state construction - his superiors noticed him as particularly knowledgeable and eloquent. When, after the reorganization of the state building industry in Prussia, Albert Maybach founded the specialist journal Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung as the minister responsible for public works in early 1881 , he appointed Otto Sarrazin as editor of the new paper. He fulfilled this task so successfully that in 1885 he was also appointed head of the Bauwesen magazine, which had been in existence since 1851 . He held this dual function until he retired on June 30, 1913. He preserved the independent profiles of both papers so well that, despite the considerable overlap in content and target group, they were only merged many years after his death under the effects of the global economic crisis .

Language maintenance

In addition to his job, Sarrazin was also interested in language maintenance . He wrote a German translation dictionary (published in 1886), in which he lists many German translations , such as " Fahrrad ". However, whether he is really the originator of these terms is disputed. For example, Pryor Dodge writes in his book Fascination Bicycle that the term “bicycle” was introduced as early as 1885 by an agreement between German cycling associations. For example, Sarrazin implemented the terms 'compartment' (instead of the previously common coupé ), 'platform' (instead of platform ), 'ticket' (instead of ticket ) and 'return ticket' (instead of return ticket ) on the railways . This makes him an important representative of German language purism . In 1900 Sarrazin became chairman of the General German Language Association .

Awards

• Honorary doctorate (as Dr.-Ing. ) From the Technical University of Charlottenburg
• Honorary doctorate (as Dr. phil. ) From the Ludwigs-Universität Gießen
• 1947, previously was after the SA -Scharführer Erwin Jänisch named street in Berlin-Friedenau in Sarrazin street renamed to honor his achievements as a peace Auer community councilor.
• His grave is in the Friedenau cemetery on Stubenrauchstrasse .

Fonts

• Dictionary for a German standard spelling. Berlin 1903.
• German translation dictionary. Ernst & Korn, Berlin 1886. /… / 4th, increased edition, Wilhelm Ernst & Sohn, Berlin 1912. / 5th, increased edition, Wilhelm Ernst & Sohn, Berlin 1918.
• The foreign word in the official language and in architecture and building science. Ernst & Korn, Berlin 1884.

Others

• Otto Sarrazin is a great-great-uncle of the politician Thilo Sarrazin .

literature

• H. Zimmermann: Otto Sarrazin †. In: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung , 41st year 1921, No. 53, July 2, 1921, p. 329 f.
• Anke Heier: German foreign word lexicography between 1800 and 2007. On the metalinguistic and lexicographical treatment of external loan assets in language contact dictionaries of German. de Gruyter, Berlin 2012
• Klaus Rockenbach, Wilhelm Schulte: Otto Sarrazin 1842–1921, Chairman of the General German Language Association, in Westmünsterländische Biografien, 3rd row: Geschichte im Westmünsterland, 9th ed. And publishing company for historical regional studies of the western Münsterland, Vreden and Bredevoort 2018, p 145-150

Web links

• Literature by and about Otto Sarrazin in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The resulting offsetting of participation in the war against the period of service as a civil servant played a role both for promotions and for the calculation of a pension .
2. ↑ Pryor Dodge: The fascination of bicycles. History, technology, development. Delius Klasing (Edition Moby Dick), Kiel 1997, ISBN 3-89595-118-8 .
3. ↑ Herbert Blume: Successes and failures of lexical purism in Germany at the time of the General German Language Association and today. In: Archive “Mother tongue” , No. 3/2013.
4. ↑ Sarrazinstrasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
5. ↑ Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung , 4th year 1884, No. 34a, August 2, 1884, p. 465, opus.kobv.de/zlb .