DDR German

The German language developed differently in East Germany (DDR), during its existence as a separate state from 1949 to 1990, from the German of West Germany because of significant differences in the country's political and socio-cultural environment. Additionally, from the late 1960s onwards the political leaders of the DDR were intent on affirming the independence of their state by "isolationist linguistic politics"^[1] with the objective of demarcating East Germany from West Germany by actively reducing the unity of the German language.^[2]

This political effort did not amount to the creation of a new language in the DDR but brought about a particular usage of the language and of linguistic behaviours specific to it,^[3] felt not in syntax or grammar, but in vocabulary,^[4] and manifesting itself in both the official and non-official spheres.^[5]

Vocabulary

The most prominent changes in the German language in the DDR were at the level of vocabulary.^[6] Most of the differences in DDR vocabulary were a result of the East German government attempting to construct a new socialist lexicon that would help to create and develop a new socialist identity in the DDR.^[7] An example of a word that was changed to promote a new socialist identity was the change from the word for flag from Fahne to Winkelement, meaning "waving element." The idea behind this change was to encourage people to wave flags that authorities would hand out to them before parades and other events to signify East German pride.^[7] Another word that was created to promote a new socialist identity was to change the word for cow ('Kuh') to Großvieheinheit meaning "large livestock unit." Communist agricultural planners made this change to show that a socialist cow was different, and something special compared to a capitalist cow.^[7]

The government of the DDR and its organizations controlled many aspects of everyday life and created new words to express themselves. Words such as der Stattsrat (the governing body of the DDR), der Staatsratsvorsitzende (the chief executive of the governing body), and die Volkskammer (the one legislative body in the DDR) were created for the new governing body.^[6]

Economic, political, and social changes in the DDR as well as the total reorganization of government, industrial, and employment systems resulted in new words and compounds being developed.^[6] Words such as Betriebspaß ("the general characteristics of a factory in regard to its technical and economic state") and kollektivieren (the verb used for the action of nationalizing land) were established and given meanings to activities specific to the East German government.^[6]

As the new nation was developing, so were new words to fill in the gaps of DDR society. An example of this would be Intershop which was the word for a store that exchanged foreign currencies for western goods.^[7] Hausbuch was the book each residential block kept to enter residents' and visitors' details and to document visitors from West Germany, which was checked regularly by East German police, and Westpaket was the word for care packages that were sent to East Germany from the West.^[7]

In addition to creating new words, words that previously had existed were given new meanings (or modified slightly) to reflect the values of the DDR. Das Aktiv was "a group of workers which strives collectively to fulfill socio-political economic and cultural tasks and strives for above average achievements."^[6] Der Arbeiterstudent was created to describe a student who was previously a manual worker before deciding to study.^[6]

Pronunciation and Grammar

Linguists in East Germany focused on the norms of pronunciation rather than grammar. In 1961, the Wörterbuch der deutschen Aussprache (Dictionary of German Pronunciation), a separate dictionary focused on pronunciation, was created in East Germany.^[8] Meanwhile in West Germany, two distinct pronunciation dictionaries were created, Sieb's Deutsche Aussprache and Duden's Aussprachewörterbuch, which furthered linguistic and pronunciation differences in the DDR.^[8] Sieb's Deutsch Aussprache aimed to provide an ideal pronunciation standard that focused on uniformity and rules whereas Duden's Aussprachewörterbuch provided pronunciation differences that focused on documenting actual usage.^[8] No corresponding dictionaries or books focusing on grammar were produced in East Germany, and grammar trends taking place during this period were documented as occurring in both East and West Germany.^[8]

Examples

Führerschein (driver's licence) – Fahrerlaubnis (Replacement of the word Führer)
Handelsorganisation, HO – state retail business
Intershop – hard currency (later also Forum checks) retail store
Kader – personnel
Kommerzielle Koordinierung, KoKo – secret commercial enterprise
Nichtsozialistisches Wirtschaftsgebiet (NSW) - Non-socialist economic area which were countries that were not a member of Comecon
Partei – Socialist Unity Party of Germany
Plattenbau – large panel system-building
Stasi – state security service
Westpaket – parcel from West Germany
Winkelement – small flag
der antifaschistische Schutzwall – Berlin Wall^[9]
Kollektiv – work team
Tal der Ahnungslosen (lit. "Valley of the Clueless") – two regions not able to receive TV programming from West Germany^[10]
Broiler – Western 'Brathähnchen'
Blaue_Fliesen, blaue Kacheln – Deutsche Mark (West German "hard" convertible currency, especially the 100 DM note)

Controversies

Jahresendflügelfigur – has been probably invented as a parody of state language.^[11]
Erdmöbel – allegedly coffin

References

^ Müller, Gerhard (1994), "Der "Besserwessi" und die "innere Mauer". Anmerkungen zum Sprachgebrauch im vereinigten Deutschland", In "Muttersprache. Vierteljahresschrift für deutsche Sprache" (in German): 119 ff
^ Hellmann, Manfred. Deutsche Sprache in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik. In: Althaus, Hans Peter u.a. (eds.). Lexikon der germanistischen Linguistik. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1980, p.520: see the paragraph on die ostdeusche Betonung sprachlicher Differenz
^ Peter Von Polenz (1999): Deutsche Sprachgeschichte vom Spätmittelater bis zur Gegenwart, vol. 3: 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Berlin, New York, Walter de Gruyter, 776 p. ISBN 3110143445 and ISBN 9783110143447, p. 428
^ Ibid, p.424-425
^ On the distinction between the two, see Gotthard Lerchner (1996), Sprachgebrauch im Wandel: Anmerkungen zur Kommunikationskultur in der DDR vor und nach der Wende, Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Russ, Charles V.J. (November 3, 1994). The German Language Today: A linguistic introduction (1st ed.). London: Routledge (published 1994). pp. 100–117. ISBN 0415104386.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Walsh, Mary Williams (1994-08-16). "Culture : One Germany, Two Languages, Much Confusion : East and West developed their own lexicons during 40 years of separation. Some variations are minor, but others reflect different ways of looking at the world". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d Russ, Charles V.J. (November 3, 1994). The German Language Today: A linguistic introduction (1st ed.). London: Routledge (published 1994). pp. 100–117. ISBN 0415104386.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
^ Mary Williams Walsh (16 August 1994). "Culture: One Germany, Two Languages, Much Confusion: East and West developed their own lexicons during 40 years of separation. Some variations are minor, but others reflect different ways of looking at the world". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
^ "Culture: One Germany, Two Languages, Much Confusion: East and West developed their own lexicons during 40 years of separation. Some variations are minor, but others reflect different ways of looking at the world". Los Angeles Times. 16 August 1994.
^ Mrozek, Bodo (25 December 2006). "Wortmysterium "Jahresendflügelfigur": Wer sagt denn so was!". Der Spiegel.

Bibliography

In German

Frank Thomas Grub: „Wende“ und „Einheit“ im Spiegel der deutschsprachigen Literatur. Ein Handbuch. Band 1: Untersuchungen. De Gruyter, Berlin and New York 2003 ISBN 3110177757
Hugo Moser: Sprachliche Folgen der politischen Teilung Deutschlands. Beihefte zum „Wirkenden Wort“ 3. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1962
Michael Kinne, Birgit Strube-Edelmann: Kleines Wörterbuch des DDR-Wortschatzes (2nd edn). Schwann, Düsseldorf 1981 ISBN 3590155094
Martin Ahrends (ed.): Trabbi, Telespargel und Tränenpavillon – Das Wörterbuch der DDR-Sprache. Heyne, München 1986 ISBN 3453023579
Wolf Oschlies: Würgende und wirkende Wörter – Deutschsprechen in der DDR. Holzapfel, Berlin 1989 ISBN 3921226341
Margot Heinemann: Kleines Wörterbuch der Jugendsprache. Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1990 ISBN 3323002733
Manfred W. Hellmann: Divergenz und Konvergenz – Sprachlich-kommunikative Folgen der staatlichen Trennung und Vereinigung Deutschlands. In: Karin Eichhoff-Cyrus, Rudolf Hoberg (ed.): Die deutsche Sprache zur Jahrtausendwende – Sprachkultur oder Sprachverfall. Duden-Reihe Thema Deutsch, Band 1. Mannheim (Duden-Redaktion) and Wiesbaden (GfdS) 2000, pp. 247–275
Marianne Schröder, Ulla Fix: Allgemeinwortschatz der DDR-Bürger – nach Sachgruppen geordnet und linguistisch kommentiert. Heidelberg 1997
Birgit Wolf: Sprache in der DDR. Ein Wörterbuch. de Gruyter, Berlin und New York 2000 ISBN 3110164272. online bei Google-Books
Jan Eik: DDR-Deutsch: eine entschwundene Sprache. Jaron, Berlin 2010 ISBN 9783897736450
Norbert Nail: Jenseits des „breiten Steins“: Studentendeutsch in der DDR. In: Studenten-Kurier 3/2013, pp. 15–17 [1]
Antje Baumann: Mit der Schwalbe zur Datsche. Wörter aus einem verschwundenen Land. Bibliographisches Institut – Duden, Berlin, 2020 ISBN 9783411745326

In English

Russ, C. (2002). The German language today: A linguistic introduction. Routledge. (See Chapter 5 German in East Germany)
Stevenson, P. (2002). Language and German disunity: a sociolinguistic history of East and West in Germany, 1945–2000. Oxford University Press

[1] Müller, Gerhard (1994), "Der "Besserwessi" und die "innere Mauer". Anmerkungen zum Sprachgebrauch im vereinigten Deutschland", In "Muttersprache. Vierteljahresschrift für deutsche Sprache" (in German): 119 ff

[2] Hellmann, Manfred. Deutsche Sprache in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik. In: Althaus, Hans Peter u.a. (eds.). Lexikon der germanistischen Linguistik. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1980, p.520: see the paragraph on die ostdeusche Betonung sprachlicher Differenz

[3] Peter Von Polenz (1999): Deutsche Sprachgeschichte vom Spätmittelater bis zur Gegenwart, vol. 3: 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Berlin, New York, Walter de Gruyter, 776 p. ISBN 3110143445 and ISBN 9783110143447, p. 428

[4] Ibid, p.424-425

[5] On the distinction between the two, see Gotthard Lerchner (1996), Sprachgebrauch im Wandel: Anmerkungen zur Kommunikationskultur in der DDR vor und nach der Wende, Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang

[:0-6] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Russ, Charles V.J. (November 3, 1994). The German Language Today: A linguistic introduction (1st ed.). London: Routledge (published 1994). pp. 100–117. ISBN 0415104386.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

[:1-7] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Walsh, Mary Williams (1994-08-16). "Culture : One Germany, Two Languages, Much Confusion : East and West developed their own lexicons during 40 years of separation. Some variations are minor, but others reflect different ways of looking at the world". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-05-14.

[:02-8] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d Russ, Charles V.J. (November 3, 1994). The German Language Today: A linguistic introduction (1st ed.). London: Routledge (published 1994). pp. 100–117. ISBN 0415104386.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

[Los_Angeles_Times_-_16_August_1994_-_Culture:_One_Germany,_Two_Languages,_Much_Confusion:_East_and_West_developed_their_own_lexicons_during_40_years_of_separation._Some_variations_are_minor,_but_others_reflect_different_ways_of_looking_at_the_world.-9] Mary Williams Walsh (16 August 1994). "Culture: One Germany, Two Languages, Much Confusion: East and West developed their own lexicons during 40 years of separation. Some variations are minor, but others reflect different ways of looking at the world". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 1 June 2021.

[10] "Culture: One Germany, Two Languages, Much Confusion: East and West developed their own lexicons during 40 years of separation. Some variations are minor, but others reflect different ways of looking at the world". Los Angeles Times. 16 August 1994.

[11] Mrozek, Bodo (25 December 2006). "Wortmysterium "Jahresendflügelfigur": Wer sagt denn so was!". Der Spiegel.

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