{"id":10301,"date":"2018-11-11T09:00:38","date_gmt":"2018-11-11T09:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=10301"},"modified":"2018-11-10T23:48:08","modified_gmt":"2018-11-10T23:48:08","slug":"the-origin-of-the-panzer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/the-origin-of-the-panzer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Origin of the Panzer"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is Armistice, the English word for the German\u00a0Waffenruhe\u00a0<\/em>(“weapon rest”). It marks the end of\u00a0der Erste Weltkrieg\u00a0<\/em>(World War I), which was exactly 100 years ago today.\u00a0At the time, Soldaten\u00a0<\/em>(soldiers) still fought on horseback, frequently used bayonets on their rifles and machinery was scarce. This changed on September 15, 1916, when the British brought a\u00a0novelty to the\u00a0Schlachtfeld\u00a0<\/em>(battlefield): The tank. But what did the Germans call it?<\/p>\n

The First\u00a0Tank<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the beginning of the 19th century,\u00a0auto’s\u00a0<\/em>(cars) were still all the rage. The Verbrennungsmotor\u00a0<\/em>(internal combustion engine) made all kinds of innovations possible – including making soldiers mobile while offering protection with\u00a0gepanzerte Fahrzeuge\u00a0<\/em>(ironclad vehicles).<\/p>\n

And so one of the first designs was developed by\u00a0Austro-Daimler<\/em>, the Austrian branch of the\u00a0Daimler\u00a0<\/em>automobile company, was commissioned to create a\u00a0gepanzertes Fahrzeug\u00a0<\/em>in 1903. The result: The\u00a0Austro-Daimler Panzerwagen<\/em>. However, it never went into service. The word\u00a0Panzer\u00a0<\/em>was already used, however.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The Austro-Daimler Panzerwagen<\/em> prototype (Image copyright-free from Wikipedia.org)<\/p><\/div>\n

Despite the fact that such designs were developed in more places around this time, this disinterest of national military in actually using an ironclad vehicle was not uncommon, because a war was simply not expected anytime soon.<\/p>\n

Then World War I came around<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The British Mark I “Landship” tank, the first tank ever used on a battlefield (Image copyright-free from Wikipedia.org)<\/p><\/div>\n

On September 15, 1916, when the British brought a\u00a0novelty to the\u00a0Schlachtfeld<\/em>: The tank. Even though this was looked into by other nations before, the British were the first to actually bring it to battle.\u00a0Because the British design, like others, was influenced by the navy with its heavy armoring, the first tanks were named\u00a0“Landship”, like the first one, Little Willie. It was really a ship designed to operate on land. Little Willie looks a bit like a water container, a water tank. And so the code name “tank” was used for the project, because the word “landship” gives it away.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The Little Willie, a first prototype in the development for the British Mark I tank (Image by Andrew Skudder at Wikipedia.org under license CC BY SA 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

However, after it was shown for the first time to the public, the word “tank” stuck.<\/p>\n

When the British first brought this to the\u00a0Schlachtfeld<\/em>, the Germans also referred to it as Tank<\/em>, and not\u00a0Panzer.\u00a0<\/em>And even though the Germans developed\u00a0gepanzerte Fahrzeuge\u00a0<\/em>later in the war, for example with ist A7V, the word\u00a0Panzer\u00a0<\/em>did not replace the word\u00a0Tank\u00a0<\/em>before the 1930s.<\/p>\n

Panzer<\/em><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

A Panzer I<\/em> in World War II\u00a0(Image copyright-free from Wikipedia.org)<\/p><\/div>\n

Of course, the word\u00a0Panzer\u00a0<\/em>was not new. The word means “armor” or “shell”. So a\u00a0Schildkr\u00f6te <\/em>(turtle)\u00a0has a\u00a0Panzer<\/em>, for example. This is the reason why in general, tanks really are\u00a0gepanzerte Fahrzeuge,\u00a0<\/em>and the\u00a0Panzer\u00a0<\/em>is just a part of the vehicle. Even the name of the first tank used by the Germans in World War II,\u00a0Panzer I<\/em>, was short for\u00a0Panzerkraftwagen I<\/em> (armored fighting vehicle I). So after that,\u00a0Panzer\u00a0<\/em>became the normal word for “tank” in German.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

It is Armistice, the English word for the German\u00a0Waffenruhe\u00a0(“weapon rest”). It marks the end of\u00a0der Erste Weltkrieg\u00a0(World War I), which was exactly 100 years ago today.\u00a0At the time, Soldaten\u00a0(soldiers) still fought on horseback, frequently used bayonets on their rifles and machinery was scarce. This changed on September 15, 1916, when the British brought a\u00a0novelty to…<\/p>\n

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