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<\/dt>\n- Image via Pixabay<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
Although Germany has been reunited for 30 years now (the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall was on 9th November 2019, in fact!), there is still some tension between the areas that formerly made up east Germany and the areas that formerly made up west Germany. A lot of this is to do with how, when the country reunited, the west absorbed the east, essentially eradicating the culture of east Germany. Not much changed for former west Germany after reunification, but the former DDR underwent a lot of changes, which caused some friction between the two. For the older generation, at least, there are still significant differences between an \u2018east German\u2019 and a \u2018west German\u2019, as these interesting words will show.<\/p>\n
Ossi<\/h3>\n
This is the name Germans living in former western states give to Germans living in former eastern states. It comes from the German word ost<\/strong>, meaning east<\/em>. Another way you can say someone or something is ‘east German’ is with the more neutral word, \u2018ostdeutsch’.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Wessi<\/h3>\n
This is the name Germans living in former eastern states give to Germans living in former western states. It comes from the German word west<\/strong>, meaning west<\/em>. Another way you can say someone or something is ‘west German’ is with the more neutral word, \u2018westdeutsch’.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Wossi<\/h3>\n
This is a combination of the words Wessi <\/strong>and Ossi<\/strong>, often used to refer to couples where one partner is from a western state and the other is from an eastern state, or to a child who was born of this couple. Wossi<\/strong> is a Kofferwort <\/strong>(portmanteau word). If you\u2019d like to read more about German portmanteau words, where two or more words are mashed together to create a new one, click here.<\/a><\/p>\n
Besserwessi<\/h3>\n
Besserwessi<\/strong> (also a Kofferwort<\/strong>) is a play on the words Wessi<\/strong> and der Besserwisser<\/strong>, which is the German word for a know-it-all. Besserwessi <\/strong>came into the German language following reunification, as many former east Germans perceived west Germans as extremely arrogant and patronising towards them once the country had reunited.<\/p>\n
I hope this has been interesting. I always find it fascinating when history and language mix! Next time we will look at words that north Germans use for people from the south, and vice-versa.<\/p>\n
Bis bald!<\/p>\n
Constanze<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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Hallo! Every country has names for people from different regions within that country. Over the next few posts we\u2019ll look at what words Germans have for other Germans, and why. In this post we will look at what people from eastern Germany call people from western Germany, and vice-versa. A follow-up post will look at…<\/p>\n