IIn 1999, cultural editors and literary scholars, including Peter von Matt and Walter Jens, published a book with “100 Words of the Century”. The commented list ranged from “AIDS” and “deportation” to “chewing gum” and “perestroika” to “big bang”, “terrorism” and “skyscrapers”. Now another book with a hundred “words of the century” has been published; It was written by emeritus German studies professor Hans Jürgen Heringer, who has made a name for himself with work on grammar theory, language criticism and German didactics. The two word lists only have five expressions in common: “bikini,” “concentration camp,” “euthanasia,” “reversal,” “skyscraper.”
The fact that the intersection is so small is not due to the almost quarter of a century that has passed between them, but rather to the different selection criteria. Before the turn of the millennium, dictionary writers focused on terms for things, trends, or inventions that gave the twentieth century their lasting signature. Accordingly, they are still anchored in the general vocabulary. Heringer, whose extended “century” also begins in the imperial era, collects many words that have fallen out of use. They have a color typical of the time and shine a spotlight on what has disappeared and what has become alien.
These include the “patricide”, the word for the stiff Wilhelmine stand-up collar that still protrudes from Karl Lagerfeld's neck to this day, or the “Quisling”, a Norwegian Nazi collaborator whose name became a generic name for his kind. The “cigarette currency” takes us back to the period between the end of the war and the currency reform, and the “sit-in” exudes the flair of the late 1960s, while the so-called practice has gained a very contemporary footing thanks to climate stickers. Still young, but almost forgotten, is the “wall woodpecker” who knocked souvenir pieces out of the anti-fascist protective wall after reunification.
But as multifaceted as Heringer's selection is, the pleasure of reading the word stories is clouded by his style. The author loves rhetorical questions, shortened sentences and grammatical omissions. Why this? Meant to simulate a conversational tone. But often obscures the meaning. Also tiring to read. It's just a book. No conversation. What is more serious is that this erratic style also affects the content. Too often, the information about the history of the word remains vague; the author indulges in allusions and language-critical suggestions that are only apparent to those who are already in the know.
Using the keyword “Reichskristallnacht,” for example, Heringer criticizes its replacement by “Pogrom Night” in public discourse and asks whether the “clanging word” doesn’t capture the horrors much better than the replacing “pseudonym,” which he disapproves of as a “whitewash.” This point of view is worth discussing. But instead of presenting facts and arguments in an understandable way, Heringer covers the reader with a battery of polemical leading questions that surprise rather than convince and only give those who are not previously educated an idea of what it is actually about.
#Hans #Jürgen #Heringer39s #book #Century #Words