Einfach Besser,
Or Simply the Best?
Perspectives
A Publication of the German Embassy of Ottawa, Canada: Vol. 6, No. 1, Winter 1998-1999
Dateline: BERLIN
The fight to be the leading newspaper in Berlin is a ferocious one, so when executives at the Berliner Morgenpost sat down recently to dream up a new advertising slogan, they thought long and hard. What they came up with was: "Simply the Best."
Not Einfach besser, German for the same idea, but "Simply the Best," as in Tina Turner's popular song. "Our target group was young people," said Rolf Buer, the paper's marketing manager, "and this slogan was young, fresh, simple and sure to get people talking. German words are just too long."
That may seem an unjust accusation to level at Einfach besser, but it is true that if precision is a hallmark of the German vocabulary, brevity is not. In any event, the issue is clearly a broader one, for the English encroachment on Deutsch has assumed epic proportions, giving rise to a form of speech widely known as Denglisch.
It has even given rise to jibes from commentators in France.
"Our neighbors on the other side of the Rhine have no respect for the language of Goethe," said Le Figaro, poking fun at the rampant usage of English words in Germany.
It is true that the intrusion of English into the German language is reaching avalanche proportions, to the point where a student of Hochdeutsch has to perform mental gymnastics and can have difficulty following a conversation where sentences are cluttered with English words and expressions. ("Komm, wir gehen zur Happy Hour und danach shopping um kids clothing zu kaufen.")
Of course, advertising is driving the influx of English words.
There are billboards advertising Volks-wagen's "New Beetle" (not Der neue Käfer). Audi's radio commercials talk of die power. Newspaper headlines refer to "jobs" (forget arbeit), and talk show hosts and phone-in listeners discuss the "American way of life."
Lufthansa's slogan for its cargo division is "Thinking in new directions." The telephone company "First Telekom" has a promotional jingle, "You can't beat the First."
Such catchwords reflect a perception that Germans see English as more contemporary or modish.
"New Beetle sounds more hip than neuer Käfer," said Sabina Metzner of Volkswagen. "We wanted to make clear that the Beetle might have some resemblance to the old Käfer, but it is very much a modern car."
Some words are coined which sound English but aren't, such as "handy," the German vernacular word for a mobile or cellular phone.
For many Germans, though, the abandonment of the language of Heine and Rilke is a sacrilege. Wolfgang Kramer, a professor of economics at the University of Dortmund, calls "Denglisch" a monstrosity, "a cowardly means for many Germans to disentangle themselves from German history, a way out of being German."
Two years ago, Prof. Kramer read a profile of Jil Sander, a Hamburg-based fashion designer, in the magazine of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.
In a single paragraph, Ms. Sander explained how her life was "giving story," talked of the need to be "contemporary," extolled the virtues of "coordinated concepts," referred to her "audience," and ruminated on the "effortless magic" of her styles.
That was too much for the professor. He founded the Verein zur Wahrung der Deutschen Sprache (Society for the Protection of the German Language), instituted an annual linguistic booby prize for the Sprachpanscher ("language diluter") of the year, and gave the accolade to Ms. Sander. In 12 months, the society's membership soared to 4,000 from 200.
The 1998 award for "spineless conformity to modern pseudo-cosmopolitan attempts at showing off" was awarded to Ron Sommer, chief executive of Deutsche Telekom, the main telephone company.
Mr. Sommer had distinguished himself by advertising "moonshine" and "sunshine" tariffs, and listing calls on bills under the categories of "Citycall," "Germancall" and "Globalcall."
"See you tomorrow," Sony tells potential customers on its billboards — presumably because that is trendier than saying "bis morgen."
Chancellor Gerhard Schröder devoted much of a recent summit meeting with French leaders to the issue of defending "Franco-German culture" against the cultural pull of America through the establishment of a new Franco-German university in Saarbrücken.
But, of course, France and Germany have a basic problem: the North American lifestyle is considered "hip" and "in style" to many young Europeans.
"The young want to hear English," said Berliner Morgenpost's Rolf Buer. "It's seen as free and flexible." Besides, he noted, if the Berliner Morgenpost had chosen Einfach besser instead of "Simply the Best" as a slogan, it might have violated a German law which forbids sweeping assertions of superiority in advertising.
"We would have had to answer a lot of questions," Herr Buer said. "Better than who? Better than what? Why better? Better in what precise respect? It was just too much bother, whereas in English we could do what we wanted."
*This is the first step toward THE One World Language.
Step Two: Your personal pronoun on a pike!
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