Shrink Germans
Schrumpfgermane is a colloquially derogatory term for a short German from 1926 , especially during the National Socialist era . This expression is still used occasionally today. He referred to the Nazi racial mania , which emphasized the Germanic or Nordic ideal type ("tall, slim, blond and blue-eyed").
At the time of National Socialism, Adolf Hitler's Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, was referred to by opponents of the Nazi system, but also by rivals in his own ranks, derisively darkened shrunken Germans because of his disability , he had a clubfoot and his relatively small body size . The diplomat Hans-Otto Meissner stated in his memoir that, in his opinion, his friend Ernst Hanfstaengl was the first to have coined the phrase with reference to Goebbels.
The term was gently reinterpreted by the 1968 generation when Hanns Dieter Hüsch introduced “Schrumpfgermane” as a loving term for a German baby. In the lullaby in his program Das Wort zum Montag from 1968 it says: “You little shrunken man, you”. This use of the word is still practiced today, in addition to being used as a swear word or derogatory term.
Since 1945 the word has also been used as a derogatory term for people with right-wing political views .
Usage examples
- Hermann Vinke reflects Goebbels in his book The Third Reich (awarded the LUCHS literary prize ) as a shrunken German .
- In his work How Hitler Destroyed the German Spirit: Cultural Policy in the Third Reich , Hermann Glaser writes about Goebbels: Der Schrumpfgermane as a demagogue .
- The character Schrumpfgermane appears in the play Das Alte Land (1985) by the playwright Klaus Pohl .
Footnotes
- ↑ www.duden.de
- ↑ Hans-Otto Meissner : Young Years in the Reich President's Palace. Memories of Ebert and Hindenburg 1919–1934 . Bechtle, Munich et al. 1988, ISBN 3-7628-0469-9 , p. 376.
- ↑ See e.g. B. Facebook post from May 19, 2016 in connection with the election of the Federal President in Austria 2016 , here in relation to Norbert Hofer .