{"id":10894,"date":"2019-07-22T06:00:59","date_gmt":"2019-07-22T06:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=10894"},"modified":"2019-07-26T11:57:18","modified_gmt":"2019-07-26T11:57:18","slug":"3-words-about-former-east-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/3-words-about-former-east-germany\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Words About Former East Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guten Tag! I recently read a book about the history of Germany. It contained many words I hadn\u2019t heard of before, that described specific aspects of eras in German history. The section on the post-war\/Cold War period (1945-1991), in particular, mentioned several German words when discussing the topic<\/span> of East and West Germany. We all know that Germany was divided into East and West, but what we perhaps aren\u2019t as familiar with are the terms used to describe what was happening as a result of this divide. In this post I\u2019m sharing the \u2018east\u2019 words (words related to former East Germany). If you\u2019re interested in reading about the \u2018west\u2019 words (words related to West Germany), there will be a post that soon. I hope you find this as interesting as I did!<\/p>\n

\"\"

Image via Pixabay.<\/p><\/div>\n

3 Words About Former East Germany<\/h2>\n

die Ostflucht<\/h3>\n

Ostflucht is a compound noun made of the words ost<\/strong> (east) and die Flucht<\/strong> (escape\/flight, as in, \u2018fleeing\u2019). After Germany was divided into east and west, and before the Berlin Wall went up, up to 200,00 people per year fled from East Germany to West Germany. The word Ostflucht<\/strong> was used to describe this phenomenon.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Mural on remains of Berlin Wall. Image via Pixabay.<\/p><\/div>\n

Ostrock<\/h3>\n

The word \u2018rock\u2019 in Ostrock<\/strong> is nothing to do with the German word der Rock<\/strong> (skirt)! It is in fact an English loanword and refers to rock music. Ostrock was the rock music movement that grew in East Germany in the 1970s. Unlike rock music from the West, Ostrock music was heavily policed by the socialist East German government, and anything that did not comply with their rules was banned. If you\u2019d like to listen to some Ostrock, look up the bands Puhdys, Karat, Silly, or Pankow, to name a few.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Image via Pixabay.<\/p><\/div>\n

die Ostalgie<\/h3>\n

Ostalgie is a portmanteau of the words ost<\/strong> (east) and die Nostalgie<\/strong> (nostalgia). It describes the nostalgia former East Germans felt for the DDR after reunification. One reason for Ostalgie<\/strong> is that, after reunification, a lot of well-known brands disappeared from the former East Germany. Something that is often referenced when talking about Ostalgie is the Trabant car<\/strong>. This was a popular car made by former East German manufacturer VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau. The Trabant car is even painted on a mural on the remains of the Berlin Wall, where it appears to be crashing through the wall.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Mural on remains of Berlin Wall. Image via Pixabay.<\/p><\/div>\n

Another object of Ostalgie is das Ampelm\u00e4nnchen<\/strong>, a diminutive of der Ampelmann<\/strong>, meaning \u2018pedestrian crossing man\u2019<\/strong>. When Germany was divided, the East had different pedestrian crossing lights to the West. While the west used the standard, human figure, the east used a male figure in a hat. The Ampelm\u00e4nnchen is one of the only East German things to survive reunification, as it was so well-loved that people campaigned to have it brought back once it was removed following reunification!<\/p>\n

\"\"

East German Ampelmann. Image via Pixabay.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

East German Ampelmann. Image via Pixabay.<\/p><\/div>\n

Look out for my next post on words related to West Germany! Bis bald (see you soon).<\/h3>\n

Related vocabulary<\/h3>\n

history <\/strong>\u2013 die Geschichte<\/p>\n

Cold War<\/strong> \u2013 der Kalte Krieg<\/p>\n

East Germany <\/strong>\u2013 Ostdeutschland \/ Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR)<\/p>\n

West Germany <\/strong>\u2013 Westdeutschland \/ Bundesrepublik Deutschland (BRD)<\/p>\n

Berlin Wall<\/strong> \u2013 die Berliner Mauer<\/p>\n

to flee<\/strong> – fl\u00fcchten<\/p>\n

Portmanteau<\/strong> word<\/strong> \u2013 das Kofferwort (read the post on this here!<\/a>)<\/p>\n

German reunification<\/strong> \u2013 die Wiedervereinigung<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Guten Tag! I recently read a book about the history of Germany. It contained many words I hadn\u2019t heard of before, that described specific aspects of eras in German history. The section on the post-war\/Cold War period (1945-1991), in particular, mentioned several German words when discussing the topic of East and West Germany. We all…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":10899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,8,108],"tags":[358450,10235,95225,10382,8883,95131,951,95066,376023,376025,522193,238318],"class_list":["post-10894","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-language","category-music","tag-berlin-wall","tag-cold-war","tag-ddr","tag-east-germany","tag-german-history","tag-german-language","tag-german-music","tag-history-2","tag-language","tag-music","tag-ostalgie","tag-ostrock"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10894"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10955,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10894\/revisions\/10955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}