Fake giant

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The dummy giant is a literary figure from the 1960 children's book Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver . The author Michael Ende describes him as a peaceful, empathic , helpful, lonely (but actually sociable) gentleman named Tur Tur , who cannot help the fact that others fear him because of his apparent size .

Since the late 1960s, Scheinriese has also been used as a catchphrase - especially in a political context - in journalism to characterize people, groups of people, states and other things. In this context, the metaphor usually has an ironic or derogatory connotation and describes an object that wrongly or unjustifiably shows or wants to claim the appearance of size, strength or power. In this type of use, the metaphor stands in contrast to the nice, unfortunate pseudo-giant Tur Tur in children's books.

The pseudo giant in children's books

In the children's book Jim Button and Lukas the Engine Driver, Jim and Lukas get lost in the desert "End of the World". There you notice a huge figure on the horizon. Jim is scared, but when Lukas goes ahead, he follows him with trembling knees. Lukas encourages himself and Jim and as they get closer and closer to the figure, the "giant" turns out to be a man of normal size who introduces himself as " Mr. Tur Tur ".

Mr. Tur Tur is a pseudo giant and explains his peculiarity to you by first explaining the perception of size at near and far in general, then noting his own phenomenon - being a pseudo giant - with disarming simplicity and coming to the conclusion that almost every human being have any special properties. Although others perceive him with fear due to his seemingly gigantic nature, he is actually "a very peaceful and sociable person", but because of the fear of others he was very alone during his childhood. He could only always rely on his parents, they would never have been afraid of him. Mr. Tur Tur also tells them about his loneliness after the death of his parents and about his decision to go into the desert so that the sight of him does not frighten other people unnecessarily.

At the end of the meeting, the pseudo giant Tur Tur proves his friendliness by helping Jim and Lukas find their way out of the desert. Jim Knopf, in turn, ends the loneliness of the illusory giant in the follow-up volume Jim Knopf und die Wilde 13 by bringing Mr. Tur Tur and Lukas - on behalf of King Alfonso the quarter to twelfth - as a living lighthouse to Lummerland . Because the island is so small, nobody can be so far away that they would be afraid of Mr. Tur Tur.

The pseudo giant in the children's book is a friendly, considerate, helpful, but also lonely person who is wrongly feared by other people due to her “natural quality”, her appearance as a pseudo giant.

reception

Literary reception

Michael Ende's description is clear: behind his otherness, his “special quality”, which the pseudo giant Tur Tur patiently explains, including Jim as an example, he is a normal person with wishes and unfulfilled needs. The story of the pseudo giant can - depending on age - lead to different perceptions. While children directly “perceive him as a poor fellow who has to be pityed” who generates compassion, adults associate more realistically: “For them, the pseudo giant stands for the inclination of people to tell themselves and others about their true meaning To deceive".

In the closing words of the essay Rise and Fall of Central Perspective (2004), the literary scholar Dieter Borchmeyer uses the pseudo giant to explain his conclusion:

“The 'dummy giant' turns the perspective foreshortening on its head. […] In the upside-down world of the pseudo-giant, the perspective glow becomes a plaything of the imagination - a signal that the central perspective , once the proud achievement of a thoroughly rationalized, scientifically controlled world, has played out its historical role forever. "

In an onion fish column in 2008 , Bastian Sick points out that the dummy giant can also serve as a semantic donkey bridge :

“With the help of the friendly giant Tur Tur you learn the difference between 'apparently' and 'apparently' - because Mr Tur Tur, whom Jim Knopf and Lukas meet in the desert on their trip to China, is only apparently a giant. A pseudo giant that gets bigger the further away it goes, and smaller and smaller the closer it gets. "

Reception in the judiciary

In a decision on maintaining contact between the father and the child living with the mother against his will, the higher court of the Canton of Zurich used the figure of Endes:

“Fear must be taken seriously; Overcoming them takes effort and also takes courage. But only those who actively tackle fear can overcome it or recognize that it was unfounded. The figure of the dummy giant 'Mr Tur Tur' from the children's book 'Jim Button and Lukas the Engine Driver' illustrates this phenomenon perfectly: the further away 'Mr Tur Tur' is, the more threatening he appears; only those who approach him will recognize that he is not a giant. "

As a metaphor in journalism

The mock giant metaphor is used in journalism in very different areas and usually with a meaning that deviates from the topic described in children's books. The metaphor then usually has an ironic or derogatory connotation and describes an object that falsely or unjustifiably shows or wants to claim the appearance of size, strength or power. A wide variety of people, groups, objects or concepts are associated with it.

One of the earliest mentions was made by Golo Mann in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit in 1969; it relates to Germany and other countries:

“The lament that Germany is economically a giant and politically a dwarf shows a lack of understanding for what the states are, can be, and should be today; not just the former great powers of Europe, but the states in general. The dwarves can no longer become giants, even if they triple their production of goods again. On the contrary, it should become increasingly clear that even the last giants are only pseudo giants; a lesson President Lyndon B. Johnson - do you remember that? - learned bitterly. "

After that and to this day, there has been a variety of media uses of the dummy giant metaphor for people , parties , states , commercial enterprises , football clubs , national teams , automobiles , a daily newspaper , a financial instrument , the labor market , climate protection plans , and much more.

Spotlight

In contrast to Scheinriese , the antonym Scheinzwerg received considerably less attention, although Mr. Tur Tur introduces it with disarming logic in the same book chapter: “That is why I say I am a dummy giant. Just as you could call the other people spot dwarfs, because they look like dwarfs from a distance, although they are not. "

In 2010, the 50th anniversary of publication anniversary of the book Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver , appeared in the Frankfurter Rundschau an article entitled The bill dwarf , referring to the book by Michael Ende, the first did not want a publisher and later became one of the most popular German children's books and has now been translated into 33 languages.

Both terms were brought together in 1997 in an article entitled “From 'Scheinzwerg' to 'Scheingiesen' - German foreign policy in analysis”.

Neologisms

Based on the history of the pseudo giant Tur Tur, neologisms have also emerged that are more or less frequently used: Turturismus, Tur-Turisierung, pseudo-giant, etc.

See also

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

literature

  • Michael Ende: Jim Button and Lukas the Engine Driver. Omnibus Verlag, TB edition 1995, ISBN 3-570-20145-7 .
  • Michael Ende, Beate Dölling: Jim Knopf and the dummy giant. with illustrations by Mathias Weber and Franz Josef Tripp. Thienemann Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-522-43557-4 .
  • Gerda and Rüdiger Maschwitz: Imagination trip The sham giant , from imagination trips to the meaning of life . Kösel-Verlag, Munich 1998. pp. 160-162, ISBN 978-3-466-36505-0 .

References and comments

  1. ↑ a b All quotations are from Michael Ende: Jim Knopf and Lukas the engine driver. Omnibus Verlag, 1995, ISBN 3-570-20145-7 , end of Chapter 16 and Chapter 17, pp. 131-133.
  2. ↑ " Take it easy. I think, besides his size, the giant looks quite well mannered ... Just because he's so big doesn't mean he has to be a monster. ... If he wanted to do something to us, he could have done it long ago. He seems to be benign. "
  3. ↑ " If one of you got up now and went away, it would get smaller and smaller until it finally looked like a point on the horizon. When it came back, it would slowly get bigger and bigger until it finally stood before us in its real size. You will admit, however, that in reality the person concerned always remains the same size. It just seems like it gets smaller and smaller and then bigger again. "
  4. ↑ " Well [...] for me it's just the other way around. That's all. […] I've always been like this […] and I can't help it. "
  5. ↑ “ A lot of people have special characteristics. Mr Knopf, for example, has black skin. It is so naturally, and there is nothing strange about it, is there? "
  6. ↑ “ Still, I never had playmates because everyone was afraid of me. "
  7. ↑ “ My parents were the only people who weren't afraid of me. "
  8. ↑ “ Both of you, my friends, have been the first people since my parents were not to be afraid of me. I longed indescribably to be able to talk to someone one more time before I die. […] Now, whenever I feel lonely, I will think of you, and it will be a great comfort to me that I have friends somewhere in the world. "
  9. ↑ “ I wanted to look for a country where people wouldn't be afraid of me. I have traveled all over the world […]. That's when I went to the desert last so that nobody would be frightened by me. "
  10. ↑ a b c d Christian Mayer: The world is button. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . May 21, 2010.
  11. ↑ Hans-Heino Ewers: Comedy in children's books: Manifestations of the comic in children's and youth literature . Beltz Juventa, 1992, ISBN 3-7799-0447-0 , p. 29 .
  12. ^ Gabriele Brandstetter, Gerhard Neumann: Romantic knowledge poetics: the arts and sciences around 1800 . Königshausen & Neumann, 2004, ISBN 978-3-8260-2632-4 , p. 310 .
  13. ↑ Bastian Sick: Onion fish: Pföne paved Mupfel. on: Spiegel-online . May 8, 2008.
  14. ↑ Excerpt from the judgment PQ190029 of the Second Civil Chamber of the Higher Court of the Canton of Zurich from September 2, 2019 (PDF)
  15. ↑ Golo Mann: Provisional solution, model - or what else? Twenty Years of the Federal Republic: The Germans' incomplete self-image . In: The time. May 30, 1969.
  16. ↑ Behind the headlines - Konstantin Wecker's web magazine: Guttenberg - the pseudo giant is wavering. ( Memento of the original from January 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. February 21, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / hinter-den-schlagzeilen.de
  17. ↑ Armin Laschet: The green in disguise . on: taz.de , May 24, 2012.
  18. ↑ Hans-Joachim Selenz : Scheinriese Joschka Fischer ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.freiewelt.net 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. . In: The free world. April 15, 2013.
  19. ^ A b Ludwig Greven: Westerwelle and the apparent giant Tur Tur . In: The time. February 5, 2010.
  20. ^ Party of the false giants . on: Spiegel-online. November 26, 2010.
  21. ↑ Ronald Kurt: "India is great!" - Structural problems of a pseudo giant. Or: The Indian family in the globalization process. In: Leviathan. Zeitschrift für Sozialwissenschaft (2011), pp. 293–313.
  22. ↑ Ulf Engel: West African hegemon or pseudo giant? Nigeria in international politics . ETH Zurich, 2007.
  23. ^ Fritz Vorholz: Scheinriese . In: The time. January 15, 2009.
  24. ↑ ams / eag / go / heu / jos / nan / dgw: These are the pseudo giants of the German economy . In: The world. December 9, 2013.
  25. ↑ Jürgen Marks: The apparent giant Tur Tur, Facebook and the missing bratwurst . In: Augsburger Allgemeine. August 5, 2011.
  26. ↑ Alfred Draxler: Schalke is only a pseudo giant . In: Bild newspaper, October 24, 2013.
  27. ↑ Thomas Klemm: Ice Hockey World Championship - Guesswork after the debacle . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine. May 6, 2005.
  28. ↑ Wolfgang Scheffler: World Cup qualification - eight seconds for eternity . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine. 22th of March 2013.
  29. ↑ Stefan Henseke: An imposing apparent giant . In: Berliner Kurier. December 29, 2001.
  30. ↑ Mercedes-Benz A 180 CDI - Scheinriese ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stern.de archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . on: stern.de , July 16, 2007.
  31. ^ Franz Rother: Brilliance BS6: The lame pseudo giant . In: Handelsblatt . July 2, 2007.
  32. ↑ Daniel Zylbersztajn: Newspaper Crisis in Great Britain - The Scheinriese . on: taz.de , January 13, 2014.
  33. ↑ Wolfgang Münchau: The trace of money: The apparent giant in the debt crisis . on: Spiegel-online. May 30, 2012.
  34. ↑ Maren Lehky: Caution: Apparent giant - What does the job market want? In: The time. April 2, 2012.
  35. ↑ Greens: With recourse to roots in the future . In: Hamburger Morgenpost. December 3, 2006.
  36. ↑ Elke Vogel: From Lummerland to the World - Michael Ende's children's book "Jim Knopf" turns 50 . In: Schwäbisches Tagblatt. August 7, 2010.
  37. ↑ Der Scheinzwerg ( Memento from January 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  38. ↑ Ingo Peters: From “Scheinzwerg” to “Scheingiesen” - German foreign policy in analysis. In: Journal for International Relations. 4 (1997), pp. 361-388.
  39. ↑ Gunter Dueck: Omnisophie . Springer, 2004, ISBN 3-642-18784-6 , pp. 431-432 .
  40. ↑ Gerhard Spörl : Merkel's Stumbling Start: Apparent giantess between battle dwarfs . on: Spiegel-online. January 8, 2010.
  41. ^ Rudolf Borchardt: Unification through the enemy: Roman . Klett-Cotta, 1982, ISBN 3-548-39037-4 , pp. 155 .