The German Question, Part Twenty-Six

Slightly updated August 3, 2015


"Prussia Becomes A Military Power"

(Part 21 in this series has the foundation info for Prussia)

Just a note: When discussing these various "German states," please remember that while you may recognize some of the names as entities still today; like Bavaria, Austria, or Saxony, for instance, the "old" states do not really correspond in overall size to today's states, or even necessarily to states a little further on in our story. The borders were ever changing, as one duke married into the family of another duke, and then inherited certain territories, or of course, one state went to war with another over particular lands, and the results increased the victor's lands, and diminished the loser's. Further, the whole system was still based upon feudalism on a grand scale; with one noble being the master of his own territory, but then in turn being a vassal to another, more powerful noble. Often several layers of such cases were involved, and it is all quite complicated, but the particulars are not really all that relevant to our purposes here, only that the reader have a basic idea that this was the system.

So we have Prussia and Brandenburg united into the Kingdom of Prussia, and the state was usually, thereafter, referred to simply as Prussia, although most of its territories were not actually part of the original state of Prussia. King Friedrich Wilhelm I, of the Hohenzollern family, who became king in 1713, developed the Prussian military into a force comparable to the major European powers of his time: France, England and Russia. He was/is known for his love of tall soldiers, and he recruited these soldiers from all over Europe, forming them into a special grenadier regiment. Interestingly, while Friedrich Wilhelm loved military matters and was in fact known as "der Soldatenkönig," the Soldier King, he shunned going to war, and only rarely used his well-trained army. He was tight-fisted with his treasury, imposing taxes upon the citizenry to build-up his army, taxes which he himself paid to demonstrate compliance. He developed a solid basis for an educational system, and promoted agriculture throughout his realm. Even though he was king, he chose to live rather frugally, something that was not all that common among European royalty in those times. When he died, he left a substantial sum in the Prussian treasury. An interesting detail about Friedrich Wilhelm is, he married the daughter of the future King George I of England, who was his uncle; thus his wife was his cousin.

Upon his death, his son, Friedrich, became Prussian king as "Friedrich II" (his grandfather had been "Friedrich I"), in 1740, and he is better known to history as "Frederick the Great" (Friedrich der Grosse, in German). While his father was a strict disciplinarian and loved military matters, Friedrich showed little interest in the army or political affairs during his early life, preferring the arts, including music, and he was an accomplished flautist, and even composer. He had more than a contentious relationship with is father, as when he was 18, he tried to flee to England! He was apprehended, along with his closest friend, and his father had him imprisoned. He was then forced to watch the execution of his friend. It is possible that his father also planned to have Friedrich executed, but the German emperor intervened. Friedrich was later pardoned. He was forced into a marriage with a Protestant relative of the Habsburgs (the Habsburgs were largely devout Catholics), and the marriage bore no children. In fact, once he became king, Friedrich kept his wife in Berlin, while he lived at the palace in Potsdam (called "Sans Souci;" that is, "No Worries"), which is about 15-20 miles southwest of Berlin.

Prussia's territories were not all interconnected, and Friedrich sought to unite these lands and move Prussia into the ranks of the European powers by military action, not just reputation. He fought a series of battles and wars, primarily with Austria, the main component of the Habsburg possessions. Friedrich's successes expanded Prussian lands, notably most in "Silesia,"* and posed a serious challenge to Habsburg dominance of Germany. It should be noted that Friedrich also suffered reversals, and during the Seven Years' War, the part of which that took place in North America is known as "The French and Indian War," almost took him down. He faced a major coalition against him in Austria, Russia, France, Sweden (then a formidable military power), and smaller states, and he had only England and Hanover as allies.** At one point, after suffering defeat by Austrian-Russian forces at the Battle of Kunersdorf (approximately 50 to 55 miles east of Berlin; since the end of World War Two, Kunersdorf has been part of Poland), Friedrich wrote to Berlin that the situation was so bad,*** that he felt he would not survive as king. When things looked darkest for him, however, the Tsarina of Russia, Elisabeth, died, bringing to the Russian throne her nephew and Friedrich's close friend, Peter III.**** Peter immediately made peace with Prussia and Friedrich escaped an almost certain defeat, and possible loss of his throne. A peace treaty ended the war on all sides.

Friedrich is known for many things in German history: canals, agriculture, currency and tax reform, religious tolerance, music, architecture, and philosophy. He was a friend of French writer-philosopher Voltaire, who even lived in Berlin for a time at the invite of Friedrich. Friedrich also spoke many languages, including English. Interestingly, although in those times French was the language of diplomacy, Friedrich preferred French to his native German, even criticizing the complicated grammar of standard German. While Friedrich was "enlightened," he was still an autocrat, and many people died during the many wars he fought, although he was affectionately called by some, "Alter Fritz" (Old Fritz). No question, he really put Prussia on the map, and this helped foster an increasing nationalism in those north German lands. Friedrich died peacefully in 1786. His original burial site in a church in Potsdam was complicated by removal of his body during the latter stages of World War Two to keep it from falling into Russian hands, and then its storage at the Hohenzollern Castle in Hechingen, Germany, but since 1991 he has been buried on the grounds of his palace ("Sans Souci") in Potsdam, where he was laid to rest with full military honors. (A Word History is below the notes)

* Silesia, or Schlesien," in German, was an area with an abundance of coal and copper. This brought about the development of heavy industry in the region, thus making it a coveted area for any ruler. The population has been very mixed for centuries, with Germans much in the majority in most of the area, but with substantial Polish minorities (and majorities in some locales), and even a Czech minority (but majority in its part). The Habsburgs controlled the area for quite some time, until Friedrich successfully wrestled most of the region (except the Czech part) from them. (Note: Since the end of World War Two, Silesia has few Germans.)

** England and Hanover (or Hannover, in German, double "n") were united by the House of Hanover. Hanover provided the king of England, who was simultaneously "Kurfürst," elector prince, of Hanover. A "Kurfürst" was a prince who had a vote in the election of the German emperor. King George I had taken the throne of England in 1714, but knew little or no English. He was succeeded by his son, George II, who knew English, but was born in Germany, and he was succeeded by his grandson, George III, who was actually born in England and who spoke English from childhood. George II died before the end of the "Seven Years' War," and George III took over. He is better known to Americans, as he was king during the Revolutionary War. Interestingly, he never visited his holdings in Hanover during his long life.

*** Of some 50,000 men, only 3000 were still available to Friedrich immediately after the battle, although many more had simply been scattered, gradually making their way back to Berlin and forming the basis for a new army.

**** Tsar Peter III was the grandson of Russia's Peter the Great (Peter I), one of whose daughters married a German duke. Peter III was born and raised in Germany, but came to the Russian throne when Tsarina  Elizabeth, his aunt (his mother's sister), died. Having grown up as a German, Peter heavily favored Prussia and Frederick the Great. Peter married a German, who became famous in history as Catherine the Great, who became Tsarina of Russia when Peter died (likely murdered, with Catherine's deep involvement).

WORD HISTORY:
Dollar-This goes back to German Joachims"taler" (pronounced almost like English "taller"), which was a term used for the silver mined near Joachimstal (Joachim's Valley), now part of the Czech Republic, which was used to make a coin then termed a "taler," in the early 1500s. The Low German form was "dolar/doler," which is how English acquired the word in the mid 1500s. Eventually English made the spelling with a double "L." Modern German money doesn't use the "taler," as they eventually went to the "Mark," and now they use  the "Euro." The word exists in German as a historical reference, and is der Taler, the "der" denoting that it is a masculine noun, for those learning German.

The German Question, Part Twenty-Five

"The Thirty Years' War Brings Death, Destruction & A Partial Answer To The German Question," Part Three-"Results"

The generally accepted idea is, the Thirty Years' War ended in 1648 with what is known as "The Peace of Westphalia," which included two treaties negotiated in the German cities of Osnabrück and Münster, both in the German state of Westphalia (Westfalen, in German). Other treaties were negotiated elsewhere, as the war was truly a major European conflict, involving most European nations in some way.

The casualties were absolutely devastating, as they included civilians by the droves. While no true casualty figures can be certified, historians have attempted to piece together records from various sources, and with these records to at least give us some idea of how horrible things were. Some German states seem to have suffered perhaps as much as the loss of two-thirds to three-quarters of their population, although whether all died is uncertain, as many people fled to other areas. Since many foreign soldiers were present in German lands, including a good number of foreign mercenaries, they had to survive somehow, and that usually meant taking food and provisions from the local population, leaving the civilians with little or nothing to survive on themselves. The religious nature of the war caused expulsion of large segments of the civilian population in certain areas where forces of the opposing religion took over. So thoroughly were some villages and towns pillaged and the population decimated, that for all practical purposes, they were wiped out. Thousands of such villages and small towns can be counted in this category. The incoming soldiers from various areas, even within the German lands themselves, and the refugees fleeing their own locales, helped to spread disease, which also seems to have taken a high toll on both the military forces and civilians. All in all, it was a catastrophe!

The political results were many, but the main ones were:

-The Netherlands received full independence from the German (Holy Roman) Empire, and thus it is an independent country to this day. Since those times, and for some a bit before, no Dutchman, no matter how closely related to Germans, would EVER declare themselves to be German.

-Switzerland gained full independence from the German (Holy Roman) Empire. I can only write here what I've seen and heard on this, but some, or perhaps many, Swiss Germans may have still called themselves "German," in sort of a generic, linguistic and cultural sense, but not in any "national" sense. Certainly by the time Hitler came along, that undoubtedly changed forever, as the Swiss "Germans" knew a nutcase when they saw it, and they distanced themselves, figuratively speaking.

-The above two items give us a partial answer to our question "Who/What is a German."

-While the other German states remained under the "umbrella" of the Empire, they were all given much more independence and with more clearly defined borders, making the title of "German emperor" mainly symbolic. This was a blow to the Habsburgs and to the Roman Catholic Church.

-While there had been something of a "north-south" split in the German lands for quite some time, if for no other reason than the vastly different dialects dividing the north and south, now religion also tended to play a part, too, as much of the south remained Catholic, and much of the north was, or became, Protestant. Note that I say "much," because there were exceptions. Just to point out some things, Bavaria and Austria both shared a common dialect, "Bavarian," (now called "Austro-Bavarian") and pretty solid Catholicism. Both are southern German lands. Prussia, a northern state, and Lower Saxony, also northern, shared Protestantism, and somewhat similar dialects, mainly, but not always, based on Low German. These kinds of things tended to make allies of these states (and like-minded states) against the others in future political and military matters. The key word is "tended," because nothing was totally certain in the turbulent world of German affairs.

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                           WORD HISTORY: 

Treaty-This goes back to the Indo European base "tragh," which had the notion of "pull, drag, move." This gave the Latin offshoot "tractare," and the thus derived "tractatus," which had the same notion of its Indo European ancestor, but also carried a further meaning by extension, if you move or drag something, you "handle it, deal with it." This carried on in Latin-based Old French, but as "traité," which meant "agreement/treaty" (something you've dealt with). This was borrowed into English during the 1300s, first as "tretee," before the modern spelling. By the 1400s, it had taken on the idea of "agreement between countries."

Down Goes The Middle Class

This article is too important not to post it. I've been preaching this for years. Time to wake up America. Forget the slick attack ads against anyone who dares challenge the existing order. Sorry, no "Word History" with this.



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The German Question, Part Twenty-Four

"The Thirty Years' War Brings Death, Destruction & A Partial Answer To The German Question," Part Two-"The War"

Bohemia* was a part of the Holy Roman Empire, and in the latter part of the 1300s and early 1400s, a man named Jan (John, in English) Hus was a leader of a group of political and religious reformers. He was executed as a heretic, but his popularity brought together his followers in what eventually became more of a religious movement, and they were called "Hussites," and they became a Protestant sect which dominated Bohemia, much to the chagrin of the Church and of the Habsburgs, who were staunch Catholics, and emperors of the German Empire. The territory was ruled by the "King of Bohemia,"** but when one king, Louis II ("Lajos" in Hungarian, as he was also King of Hungary) was killed in battle against the Ottoman Turks in the 1500s, he left no son as an heir. His brother, Ferdinand, who was married to a Habsburg, became king, and thus Bohemia joined the growing possessions of the Habsburgs. While the Habsburgs were Catholic, there was a bit of a truce for decades, allowing freedom of religion until another Habsburg, German emperor Ferdinand II (and also King of Bohemia), wanted to establish Catholicism throughout his lands. This brought about a revolt in Bohemia in 1618.

The revolt in Bohemia triggered other religious conflicts within the Habsburg lands, including in certain parts of Austria, where Protestants were majorities. Certain Hungarian Protestants sought to aid the other Protestants, and later still, the Danes, staunch Lutherans, joined the military operations in northern Germany to aid the Protestant German state of Lower Saxony against advancing Imperial (Catholic) forces. Then later still, Sweden, another staunchly Protestant country, joined the action in the northern/northeastern part of Germany. One major exception to the religious reasons for the conflict was France. France was heavily Catholic, but the French hated and feared the Habsburgs, and they agreed to support Sweden financially, and then later, actually entered the military conflict by declaring war on Spain (ruled by a branch of the Habsburgs) and on the German Empire/Holy Roman Empire, which had a Catholic Habsburg as emperor. The war raged on, with Catholic armies gaining ground at times, and then Protestant armies retaking many lands. The French had a difficult time, suffering some terrible defeats, with Paris itself threatened at one time by Habsburg forces.

The Protestant forces and their French allies gradually turned the tide, inflicting some devastating defeats on the Catholic forces of the Habsburgs. Both sides were exhausted, and a series of treaties were negotiated between the various participants, but two major treaties, one signed in Osnabrück and one in Münster, two German cities in the province of Westphalia (Westfalen, in German), brought about the end of the Thirty Years' War and its companion war, the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch, which had essentially become one with the Thirty years' War. See: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2010/07/german-question-part-twenty.html

To be continued, as this will require a Part Three..... (A Word History is below the notes)

* For those unfamiliar with European geography, Bohemia later became the leading part of the new nation of Czechoslovakia after World War One. It now has a similar role in the "Czech Republic." In the time period involved in this article, while it undoubtedly had a Czech majority population (the Czechs are Slavs), it had a substantial German minority, mainly formed in a German majority populated sort of semi-circle around Bohemia, but Germans were also somewhat mixed in with the "interior" Czech population.

** The individual "states" within the German Empire (Holy Roman Empire) were more like independent "countries," with some being ruled by kings, princes, dukes, archdukes, etc. Further, it was not uncommon for some rulers to carry several titles, if they ruled a variety of states: for example, one German emperor, Rudolf, was designated "Rudolf II," as his title as emperor, but simply as "Rudolf," with no numeral, in his capacity as King of Hungary and Croatia, but again as "Rudolf II" as King of Bohemia, but as Rudolf V, in his capacity as Archduke of Austria. Initially, the ruler of Bohemia was called a "duke," but later it was changed to "king," then back to duke, before returning once again to king.

WORD HISTORY:
War-This seems to go back to the Indo European root "wers." This gave Old Germanic "werso," which seems to have meant "cause or bring into confusion," and probably also "mix," which would certainly tie in with "confusion." This gave Frankish (the Franks were a Germanic tribe) "werra," seemingly with the same basic meaning. This then passed into Old French as "guerre," but in the northern dialect of Old French as "werre," with the meaning "war" (Italian and Spanish, for example, also picked this up, but as "guerra," their word for "war"). Old English acquired the word from the northern French dialect at some point prior to the Norman Invasion as "werre/wyrre/warre," later being reduced to the shorter form "war." Interestingly, the Germanic dialects, including Anglo-Saxon, of long ago did not have a set word for "war," and English used a whole variety of forms, too numerous to get into, to express the notion of "war." Modern German has the related word (ver)wirren, which still has the meaning "confuse, bewilder," but also "tangle/entangle," which also adds the "mix" meaning.

The German Question, Part Twenty-Three

"The Thirty Years' War Brings Death, Destruction & A Partial Answer To The German Question," Part One-"The Lead Up To The War"

What I've noted so many times in this series, applies to this segment too; this is a very complex, but also a very important subject (the Thirty Years' War), and I am only going to deal with the very basics. As you can see above, I've given a subtitle to this subject, and then it will be broken into at least two parts.

Basically, the the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) was a religious war between Roman Catholics and Protestants (Lutherans and Calvinists), although there were other reasons, too, often defined by political goals of some of the antagonists. It became very extensive, involving many of the European nations of those times, with much of the heaviest fighting done in the German lands.

First, the German Empire (Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation) had been Christian; that is, with just one religion. When Luther and others (not only in the German Empire, but elsewhere in Europe) challenged some of the corruption, practices, and beliefs of the Christian rulers and system, this brought about Protestantism, from "protesters." Initially in the German lands, Lutheranism became quite popular, primarily in the northern areas. This now, for the first time, gave the empire two religions, but with the Catholic Habsburgs always as emperors. The Habsburgs (and other Catholics) didn't like the religious split, and at times tried to bring back Catholicism to the "errant" regions, like in the Low Countries, where we already covered religious strife, that then blended into the Thirty Years' War. (See Part 20) Lutherans refused to give up their new faith, and they continued to appeal to others to join them. With neither side willing to compromise, it was a disaster just waiting to happen.

John Calvin was born in France (real French name was "Jean Cauvin") and he also took up differences with Church leaders. France and its leaders remained staunchly loyal to the Church, and a backlash against Protestants caused Calvin to flee for his very life to Switzerland, then still a region of the German Empire (see Part 19). He and others in the region found fertile ground for spreading "Calvinism," as it came to be known, and it indeed spread to other areas of the empire, thus giving us three religions, and adding another element to the potential disaster.

Finally, in the mid 1500s, Emperor Karl V (Charles V), a Habsburg and a Catholic, agreed to terms that would abide by "cuius regio, eius religio," a Latin term that, fully defined, meant that the religion of the individual German princes, and NOT the religion of the emperor, determined the religion of their subjects.* So, for example, if I'm the Count of Cleveland, (hey, I had to make something up) and I've been Catholic, but I change to Lutheran, then all of my subjects must now become Lutheran too. Understand, it could be the reverse of that; Lutheran to Catholic. Subjects unwilling to change religion would be given time to move to an area where their religious preference prevailed. This whole situation weakened the already fairly weak position of German emperor,** while giving added strength to the individual states, which already were much like independent countries.

While the agreement helped cool things off for a time, no one was completely satisfied, and the Church wanted Catholic "princes" to take over Lutheran territories, thus making them Catholic again, and Lutheran rulers sought to extend their dominion over other territories (not only because of religion), sometimes Catholic, which then would have required those new subjects to change religion. There were numerous outbreaks of fighting between local rulers prior to the actual start of the Thirty Years' War, but the beginning of the disaster didn't occur until 1618.
To be continued.... (A Word History is below the notes)

* It always bears mentioning that "the German princes" was a collective term applied to the various local rulers in the empire, and it didn't necessarily mean that all carried the title of "prince," as some were kings, dukes, archdukes, counts, etc.

** The various Habsburg emperors over time were actually more important, not as emperors of the German Empire, but for the vast lands they owned and controlled within the empire, and sometimes outside of the empire.

WORD HISTORY:
Religion-This word "seems" to go back to the Indo European root "leig," which had the notion of "binding." The "re" prefix was simply an intensifier, with the basic meaning in Latin of "again," so if you do something "again," it is intensified, or solidified. The Latin offshoot was "religare," which meant "to bind tightly or hold fast." (Latin is an Indo European language related to English, but further down the family tree, although we have many words derived from Latin, many by way of French, a Latin-based language, due to the tremendous influence of the Romans.) This then gave Latin "religio," which meant "binding respect or reverence for the gods." When the Romans accepted Christianity, the term came to mean "monastic life and vows." (Of course "vows" imply "binding to certain ideas/beliefs.") "Religio" then gave Old French the word "religion," with the same "monastic" meaning. This was then taken to England by the Normans in the 11th Century and became Anglo-Norman "religiun." The idea of "monastic life and vows" developed further into "a set of religious beliefs," but while this meaning was present in English from the 1300s, it didn't completely become as common as we might think, until the 1500s!

The German Question, Part Twenty-Two

Slightly updated July 30, 2015


In the early days, Berlin became the main city and capital of Brandenburg, and Königsberg became the capital of Prussia. When the two areas were merged, Berlin became the capital.

The people of the entire northern area of Germany were Low German speakers, and modern Dutch, Frisian, and ENGLISH all are closely related to these Low German dialects. Don't forget, the northern coastal area of modern Germany and part of Holland, along with the western coast of Denmark, is the ancestral homeland of English, as the Angles, Saxons and Jutes lived there before going to Britain and founding England, although not all Saxons left the area, and a substantial number remained on the Continent (their language is called "Old Saxon").

As these northern Germans moved eastward into Prussia and Brandenburg,* they came into contact with a number of Slavic, Old Prussian, and Lithuanian dialects,** and a number of words were borrowed into these Low German dialects from these non-Germanic speakers.*** Berlin eventually became a separate linguistic case. The initial settlers there were Low German speakers, but as Berlin became an important government center, and with the publication of Luther's Bible giving rise to a more standard form of German, that standard form began to take over, but it never completely pushed out Low German, even to this day, and "Berlinerisch," as the Berlin dialect is called, is essentially standard German with some Low German characteristics, and borrowings from Slavic and French (see Part 21 about the French Huguenots). Much later still, Jewish refugees from Polish territories brought new terms with them when they settled in Berlin.**** In the countryside outside of Berlin, Low German is still spoken in some places, but standard German is now spoken by all (including in Berlin), save for perhaps some very elderly people, and the number of Low German speakers; that is, people who actually know Low German, has declined substantially since the end of World War Two. It's always important to remember, while I say standard German (Hochdeutsch) is spoken by all, that doesn't mean there aren't regional or local dialect characteristics used in their renderings of that "standard German," including some distinct vocabulary or pronunciation differences, which is really no different from English, or likely any other language, and German regional dialects are still often spoken at home and among other family members, neighbors and friends; so, German dialects, some very strong and difficult to understand, persist right up to the present.  

One of the interesting characteristics of "Berlinerisch" (pronounced as if, bear-lean-air-ish) is the way some words are pronounced, compared to standard German. In standard German one would say, "Ich bin in Berlin geboren" (I was born in Berlin), but in Berlin dialect, it is, "Ik bin in Berlin jeboren," with the "ch" sound of "ich" ("I") being pronounced/spelled "k" (this is a tendency in most of the Low German dialects, and that was how it was spelled in English for many centuries). The "g" is spelled "j," but is pronounced like English "y," so phonetically, "Ik bin in Bear-lean yeboren." Further, the Low German influences are still present, as standard German "w-a-s" (which means "what," and is pronounced "vahs," with the "a" of "father") is "wat" in Berlin dialect (again with the "a" of "father"). Likewise, "that" is "det/dat" in Berlin dialect, but "das" in standard German.***** You can see the Low German sounds are more closely related to English. (A Word History is below the notes)

* They initially moved into areas just east of their homelands, known as Mecklenburg and Pomerania, which were also occupied by Slavic speakers.

** All are Indo European languages and are therefore related to the Germanic languages, but further down the family tree. Old Prussian and Lithuanian are closely related, as is Latvian, and all belong to the Baltic part of Indo European, although in more modern times, a good many linguists, but not all, link the Baltic languages with Slavic, and call them "Balto-Slavic." Old Prussian is no longer spoken, and is considered a "dead" language.

*** The Swedes, North Germanic speakers, occupied much of this northern area at various times later on (Sweden was once a formidable military power), and they too contributed influences on some of these German dialects in particular areas.

**** Yiddish, which literally means "Jewish," is a Germanic language that developed about a thousand or more years ago, seemingly in the Rhineland area of Germany. It was based upon the High German dialect of that area, with elements from various German dialects, Hebrew, Slavic, and some Latin-based languages, like Rumanian. It was initially referred to as "taytsh/taytsch" (which meant "German," compared to Middle High German "tiutsch" and modern German "Deutsch"). As Jews moved across eastern Europe, they took this language along, thus picking up those various other characteristics from Slavic and Rumanian over time. It seems the term "Yiddish" wasn't really applied to the language until the 1700s. It is still spoken today, even in America, principally in New York City.

***** These differences are due to a sound shift which occurred after Anglo-Saxon was already established in Britain, and since the northern low dialects were not affected by this sound shift, English remains closer to these low dialects. In the dialects more to the south, the "t" tended to become "s," and these dialects came to be called "high," as they were in more elevated terrain. Standard German is based upon "High German." In English we have "kettle," but in High German it is "Kessel," for instance.

WORD HISTORY:
Schnitzel-This goes back to Old Germanic "snithan(an)," which meant "to cut, to slice." This gave Old High German "snidan" and later "sniden." This gave birth to "snitzen" (later "schnitzen"), which meant "to carve, to slice." The diminutive (to make something smaller) form "snitzel/schnitzel" then developed. This seems to have been borrowed into English in the mid 1800s, probably as the German meat dish, "breaded cutlet of pork or veal, which is then fried," became popular. Further, a "Schnitzelbank" is a "cutting bench for sawing wood," as in the song/rhyme "Ist Das Nicht Ein Schnitzelbank," some of you may be familiar with. By the way, before English took on the word "slice" from French, and before English settled on "cut," we used a form of "snithan" to mean "slice/cut/slaughter," and a "snaed" was "a small piece cut from something." While unconfirmed, I have to believe that our word "snide," as in "snide (sharp/cutting) remark," traces back to this.

NOTE: As you can see, I have not given a source for the Old Germanic form. This is because I have never totally bought the source offered by some of Indo European "sneit/snyet," with the meaning "to cut." That doesn't mean this is not correct, but I have just not been convinced. 

The German Question, Part Twenty-One

"Competition For The Habsburgs"

In a previous article in this series, we learned that a family originating in the southwestern area of the German territories, the Habsburgs, came to dominate a large part of southern German lands, and indeed, eventually established a virtual permanent lock on providing the German emperor (technically of the "Holy Roman Empire," which in fact was the old German Empire); thus making Vienna the de facto capital of the German Empire. Interestingly, a second family, originating in the same general southwestern area, began a rise to power that eventually challenged the Habsburgs. This family was the "Hohenzollerns." Like their future rivals, their name came from their family castle, "Burg Hohenzollern," located at the town of Hechingen, in the area known as Swabia. It is about thirty to thirty-five miles south of Stuttgart. The original castle was destroyed during a war in the 1420s and was followed a couple of decades later by another castle with sturdier fortifications. This castle eventually came into the possession of..... the Habsburgs! By the mid 1800s, not much remained of castle #2, and a third castle was built, with only the chapel remaining from #2, and construction of #3 lasting for nearly twenty years. It is this castle that remains today, still owned by members of the Hohenzollern family, and it is open for tours, with hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

Just as with so much of this series, the era of German history we're entering is far more complicated and extensive than I will write about, and my aim is to be as general as possible, but to try to give a good idea of the overall developments in events.

The Hohenzollerns eventually established a strong position in and around the Nuremberg area (Nürnberg, in German), which is a region known as "Franken," usually rendered in English as "Franconia," and named after a branch of the Germanic tribe, the Franks.* Due to marriages and land purchases, a part of the Hohenzollern family came into possession of large territories in the northeastern German lands. With these acquisitions, the Hohenzollern family separated into two parts, with the other part, I guess I'll call it the "original" part, remaining in the Nuremberg area.** The territories in the northeast were in the German area called "Brandenburg," which includes Berlin. A bit later, the family inherited much of what was known as "Prussia" (Preussen, in German, with the "eu" being equivalent to English "oi" or "oy"). The Hohenzollerns then merged these two provinces in the 1600s and eventually called it the "Kingdom of Prussia" in 1701.*** (See earlier parts of this series for how the Germans initially came to these lands.) When the Reformation came along in the 1500s, the Hohenzollerns embraced Protestantism. By the 1600s, when French Protestants, called the Huguenots, were in battles with, and persecuted by, the French Catholics, the Hohenzollerns invited these Frenchmen to settle in Prussia, where they were granted asylum. Thousands took the Prussian offer (figures vary, but somewhere between 15-20,000), supposedly with more than six thousand settling in Berlin alone. By this time, the Hohenzollerns were becoming something of a rival to the dominant Habsburgs, a rivalry that would only grow in coming years. (A Word History is below the notes)

* Another part of the Franks conquered much of what is now modern France, eventually giving their tribal name to the country, and the name of their language, "Fraenkish," which has become our word "French." The Frankish language was eventually absorbed by the Latin-based dialects in the overall area, but provided a fair number of words that were borrowed into these dialects, some of which still remain in modern French. This is a case of the "conquerors," the Franks (and their language), eventually being peacefully overtaken and absorbed by the "conquered," what was mainly a Celtic-Roman population present when the Franks invaded.

** Both branches of the family are owners of the existing castle mentioned above, but the "northern" (Prussian) branch, holds the majority ownership.

*** Originally, Brandenburg was a "Margrave" (Markgraf, in German), that is, it was ruled by a type of "count," who also was an elector; that is, he had a vote in the election of any new German emperor; the title of elector in German was "Kurfürst" ("fürst" is really the same word as English "first," and is pronounced similarly). Prussia was originally ruled by a "duke" (Herzog, in German). When the two were merged as a kingdom (Königreich, in German), the ruler was henceforth known as a "king," although regardless of title, high German nobles were known collectively as the "German princes." (Note: Elector Frederick III crowned himself as the first King of Prussia, as King Frederick I)

WORD HISTORY:
Wright-Not commonly used in modern English, except as a name or in compounds (like "playwright" and "wheelwright"), this word goes back to Indo European "werg," which meant "work or do something." It is indeed closely related to the word "work." The Old Germanic offshoot was "werkam," with the same meaning. This produced in Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "wyrcan," again with the same meaning. A noun variant developed as "wyhrta," meaning "worker," but later, the "r" and the vowel were transposed, giving English "wrytha." This eventually developed into the more modern "wright" (and don't forget, the "gh" was once pronounced), with the general meaning "skilled worker, craftsman." From what I can find, while other Germanic languages (or dialects might be more proper) from days of old had similar words directly related to the English "wright" (Old High German had "wurtho," for example), they have all died out, except for Dutch "wrecht" (meaning "worker, builder of something"), although it too is now archaic. Just as the closely related word "work" has survived in English, there are living relatives of "work" in the other Germanic languages.

The Egos Have Landed

One of the big national news stories in the last couple of weeks has been about what LeBron James would do with his free agency. Whether you like pro sports, or more specifically, pro basketball, or not, you couldn't get away from this story, unless perhaps you disconnected your television, radio, and computer, didn't retrieve your newspapers, locked your doors and sealed your house up with duct tape and plastic wrap, like you were expecting an anthrax attack at any moment. It seemed that the whole fate of the nation was resting upon the decision of one egomaniac; although there turned out to be more than one egomaniac in this mix; three to be specific. During this same time period, I don't recall seeing "breaking news" or reading headlines about how tens of thousands of teachers might lose their jobs, and what this might mean to the nation's children. Even the Gulf oil spill seemed only to be on par with, or more important than, this story at times, and the spill is a financial and environmental disaster the likes of which we have never before seen. It just seems to me that somewhere along the line quite a number of years ago, this country lost its bearings about what really is important in life.
Now I more than realize the human need to escape some of the realities of life and enjoy some entertainment, and that's what professional sports is, entertainment. Like just about everything about us humans, some people get carried away and let their love of particular teams or players virtually take over their lives, like an addict on heroin. They lose perspective. Virtually their whole life is consumed by this very unimportant stuff.* I can write this, because I was one of those people. I can happily say, "I kicked the habit!" Ah, I mean of sports teams... ah... not that I ever had a heroin addiction. Somehow I think I could have worded all of this better.
Sports teams and players (especially so called "superstars") market their tickets, shirts, caps, keychains, and just about anything else they can sell to an addicted part of the public that has lost all sense of the perspective I just mentioned above. Many folks unwittingly let the teams or an individual player become such a part of their life, that it affects their very self-esteem. They can't let go. Then, in some cases, the team owner(s) or player ruthlessly tosses them to the side, as Art Modell did to the legion of diehard Cleveland Brown fans in the mid 1990s, and as LeBron James has just done to not only his fans here, but to the potential shambles of a team he leaves behind.
Those who have lost their perspective about sports need to remember one thing, this is all about money and ego! It is a business, not only for the owner(s), but for each individual player. When Modell moved the Browns out of town, something this town has never recovered from, in my opinion, now retired Plain Dealer columnist, Dick Feagler, wrote a GREAT column about the event. I still have that column somewhere, but the one part of the article that EVERYONE who is hooked on, or might become hooked on, sports teams or players should keep in mind is, "never fall in love with a hooker!"
At least Art Modell sort of crept out of town, but James put it on national television!** This after a number of local business people, celebrities and politicians recorded the "love song" to him, which I'm sure many of you saw. In my opinion, and I felt this way BEFORE James' decision, they embarrassed themselves and this community with such nonsense. I'm sure some will disagree with me, and others may "now" agree with me, but the key is, did you feel that way BEFORE James threw you and Cleveland overboard? If not, you're still hooked, and you need to go to that mirror and start asking yourself some serious questions about what is really important in life.
These are links to some of my previous views on sports, for those interested:

http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2007/10/example-to-shun.html

http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2008/12/little-of-everything.html

Sorry, no "Word History" today, but next time, for sure.

* In May of 1981 I saw Cleveland Indians' pitcher, Lenny Barker, throw a perfect game against Toronto. For those unfamiliar with baseball, that means Barker faced the minimum 27 Toronto batters and retired all of them, with no batter successfully reaching base. A perfect game is certainly one of baseball's greatest achievements, but it didn't stop the Cleveland area's economic decline. It didn't provide a cure for cancer or any other potentially fatal illness. I could go one and on, but the point is, you've got to keep things in perspective.

** Readers may agree or disagree with my opinions, but I make an effort to be fair, admittedly by my own standards, so I have to make note, both Modell and James contributed to charities in town.

The German Question, Part Twenty

"Going Dutch, The Move Toward Independence"

The history of what is now called "the Netherlands" (literally 'the Lowlands")* is extremely complicated, as it overlaps the history of Belgium, and Luxembourg, too. During certain periods of history, the area was  called, "The Low Countries." While most people probably think of both Belgium and the Netherlands as having been around for a long, long time, the actual separate political entities, as such, are not really all that old. It would take many articles to even try to explain in a fairly straight-forward way, even the basic history of this entire region. So I'm going to give just as brief a sketch as I feel is possible.

As was noted in earlier segments to this series, most of this general area was eventually settled by Germanic tribes, with the "Batavians" and "Frisians" being the most prominent, at first. Much of the far southern part of the area, what is now a part of Belgium, was settled long ago by a Celtic tribe, the Belgae, who gave their name to Belgium. The Romans later occupied much of the area, thus adding a bit of their genetic matter to the area of present-day Belgium. The Romans designated the Germanic speaking areas of the region as part of "Lower Germania." ** The Germanic tribe, the Franks, later conquered a substantial part of this general region. The modern Dutch language traces back to the Frankish dialects from those times (now called "Low Franconian" by linguists), although there is also Frisian influence (both Frankish and Frisian are West Germanic in origin, as are English and German), and even more, in the far northeastern area of the Netherlands to this day, Frisian is still spoken, more specifically, the West Frisian dialect.

With the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire, much of this general area was a part of that German dominated empire,*** and a couple of the German emperors were born in this region. As with other parts of the Holy Roman Empire, the various "states" enjoyed tremendous independence within the loose organization of the empire, and the local rulers more or less "owned" the territories, often selling off or adding to their properties. Wars, advantageous marriages, and wheeling-dealing changed boundaries of the various states on a regular basis, and it was no different in this area of the "Lowlands." The area was taken over by the House of Burgundy (of France) during the latter part of the 1300s and well into the 1400s. In the late 1400s, along came the Habsburgs, who took over the area, and they eventually proceeded to unify the region into one entity (that is Belgium and the Netherlands were combined as one political unit).**** Karl V (Charles V), the Habsburg ruler and German emperor, was born in this area (in Ghent). He granted a special autonomy in the mid 1500s to the region within the old German Empire (Holy Roman Empire), and declared that these various provinces could only be considered as one political unit.^ Karl was also involved with the House of Burgundy of France and granted separation of the region from France. (Hey, I told you this was complicated, and we're not done yet! Just to show you how complicated these monarchies could be, Karl V, in addition to being German emperor, was also "King of Italy" and "King of Spain!")

Now, Karl's son, Philip, was raised in Spain (became Philip II of Spain). He succeeded his father and this began a period when the Netherlands became part of the Spanish Empire! (See, I warned you we weren't done yet!) The Reformation brought Protestantism to a large part, but certainly not all, of the Lowlands. Philip was a devout Catholic and he sent Spanish torturers...I mean "Inquisitors," as well as an army, to the area. This was the beginning of what is termed "The 80 Years War" (Ah, I WON'T be covering all 80 years!). The Spanish and local Catholic forces essentially did well in the southern part of the region (now mainly Belgium, which is still Catholic to this day), but they encountered far more stubborn resistance in the northern areas (which is now the Netherlands, and is still essentially Protestant, but not exclusively so). What were mainly "Dutch Protestant" provinces united and issued a proclamation of independence from Spain, with William of Orange (Willem van Oranje, in Dutch) as their leader and first monarch.^^ The war continued, however, although on a somewhat smaller scale. Thousands of people in the Lowlands were executed and tortured, especially during the first couple of decades of this war. To confuse matters more, if that's possible, the "80 Years War" actually evolved into the more general European war known as "The Thirty Years War," which will be covered separately, along with the changes it brought. (A Word History is below the notes)

* In every day English we refer to the modern country as "Holland," and even the Dutch use this term at times. "Holland" is actually only a part of the western Netherlands, and in modern times, is divided into North Holland and South Holland. The term comes from "holt" (wood) + "land" ("land" is a word common to all of the Germanic languages), thus "woodland," or forested land. "Holt" was once also commonly used in English, but is now archaic, although in close relative, German, it is still commonly used as their general word for "wood," as "Holz." 

** "Lower Germania" consisted of much of modern Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and a part of western Germany (the general area around the city of Cologne, which was the capital of the entire region).

*** In those times, all of the Germanic speaking people in the area commonly referred to themselves as "Germans," and not what we think of as "Dutch," although the terms "Dutch" (in English), "Diets" (in Dutch), and "Deutsch" (in German) are all actually the same word, just variants of one another. By the way, the Dutch call their language "Nederlands."

**** The Habsburgs had risen to rule (own) much of modern day Austria, and parts of Switzerland, and Germany. They also were almost always elected as German emperors for hundreds of years. The thing to remember is, just as the other local German rulers owned their territories, the Habsburgs did also, and their positions as German emperors were separate from their own possessions.

^ The area actually also contained parts of modern France and Germany, but you have to remember, these provinces frequently had boundary changes, as I mentioned previously, and the sense of belonging to a specific nation had not yet developed in many areas.

^^ William/Willem was born near present day Giessen, in the German state of Hessen.

WORD HISTORY:
Wain-While not a common word on its own anymore (sometimes in poetry), it is part of the fairly common name "Wainwright." It goes back to Indo European root "wegh," which had the notion of, "movement, ride, travel;" thus also, "transport/carry." This produced the Old Germanic offshoot "wagnaz," which then gave Old English "waegn," which then lost the "g" sound and became "waen," and later still "wain." This meant "wagon" (sometimes spelled "waggon") and remained our word for "wagon" until the more modern form, WAGON, was borrowed from Dutch in the 1520s, probably as a result of the common trade association with the Dutch. "Wagon" is from the same source, and has the same history. German has "Wagen," as in "Volkswagen," Dutch has "wagon," and West Frisian, in a development much like its cousin, English with "wain," has "wein."

Where Things Stand & A Catch 22

Back in January of this year, I sort of took a look at where the country was, economically speaking. Now we're at the midpoint for 2010, so it's time to take another look. The Obama Administration likes to tout the fact that, during their first year in office, the economy "didn't fall off the cliff." Okay, I'll give them that, and I'll remind regular readers that I said prior to the 2008 election, that whoever won the presidency would probably end up being the loser, as the economic plunge and its aftermath would make life difficult for them, politically (not to count millions of Americans suffering the direct consequences).

So where's the economy now, going into the July Fourth weekend? The economy has gained more than a half million jobs so far this year, but that has to be put into the perspective that the "plunge" caused the loss of about 8 MILLION jobs! Now the unemployment rate sits at 9.5%, although counting people who are underemployed, it is in the upper teens.* The recent U.S. Census brought about "temporary" hiring, but many of those jobs are now over. The bad news is, private business hiring is slow, with only 83,000 hirings in June. The good news is, the "under employement" rate did take a good drop. The reason this "could" be good news is, employers will increase hours for current workers first, before they hire new workers. Let's hope! In fairness to the Obama Administration, the President and others in the administration have been saying from the first, that unemployment would be slow to fall. Some private economists have said it will take four or five YEARS to recover from the mess, and that estimate probably does not assume a major slowdown or even another period of negative growth in that time period. Now, my crystal ball is a bit cloudy today, but all is not well, and none of us should need a crystal ball to tell us that. The "oil spill" in the Gulf of Mexico has got to have an impact on employment in that area of the country, although I suppose some people have been hired in the clean-up effort. Even "if" they stop the leak this evening, the consequences will linger for some time, possibly years.

In other parts of the world, all is not "moonlight and roses," either. Europe has been in a separate (at least at this point) financial crisis of its own lately. Overspending by governments, presently most prominently by Greece, including "locked in" payments for a variety of benefits, have caused major financial problems, which in turn, have brought about attempts to rein in spending, which in turn has brought about civil unrest. All of this has been complicated by the economic down turn in the last couple of years, and from what I understand, from the purchase by some countries of securities marketed by American bankers. Yep! As Ronald Reagan would say, "There they go again!" This isn't gospel, but from what I understand at this time, that magnificent edifice of wealth, Goldman-Sachs, sold Greece (and other European countries) securities, often backed by ah.....American mortgages, including ....ah....subprime mortgages. "Supposedly," Goldman-Sachs told these governments what a great deal these securities were, but at the same time they were telling wealthy American clients to get out of these securities before they imploded. "Supposedly," Goldman-Sachs owned a large number of these securities, and its leaders were in the process of "dumping" as many of these securities as possible before the collapse came. C'mon now! American bankers do such a thing? Ah....all I can say is...."There they go again!"*** How much any of this will affect America's economy is unknown, although Fed Chairman Bernanke just recently said it wouldn't hurt us. Forget not, a few years ago it was said that the mortgage crisis wouldn't hurt the economy. Yeah, right!

Basic finance isn't rocket science. Look at it this way: You're employed and making decent money. You develop a lifestyle. You buy a house, so you have a mortgage. You buy a new car, and this adds another payment. You take a vacation, and you put all or a portion of the cost on your credit card, or cards; more payments. Then the economy gives away. Even if you keep your job, maybe you have your pay cut significantly.** You have these fixed payments. They haven't gone away. Something has to give. Even if you "save for a rainy day," if you actually lose your job, in an economy like now, that amount may not be enough.

Now, back to our economy. State and local government budgets, including for education, are in deep trouble. When the stimulus bill was passed about a year and a half ago, there was a certain amount of money that went to help state and local governments in an attempt to prevent layoffs from these entities. I guess, at least to some extent, it did help on that front, but now the "medicine" has been cut or stopped, and whether the patients can now get by on their own is very doubtful in my mind. California's budget has been a mess for years, and now they are really under the gun. Governor Schwarzenegger just issued an order reducing California employees' pay to minimum wage, because they are in a budget crisis. All over the country state and local governments are trying to bring revenues and expenditures into balance, but at great cost to many people, and to the overall economy. This whole situation could prove to be more than just a thorn in the side of the economy, but it may even cause a "double dip" recession. For the "free marketers," they'll say, "It will weed out unnecessary and inefficient programs," and there is a certain amount of truth to that.**** Of course, some also have argued that Uncle Sam should have just stood by and let nature take its course with the overall economy. Remember folks, those at the top don't worry about their next meal, or their child's next pair of shoes, or their kids' schooling. It is easy for them to make these "do nothing" arguments, and I understand that. What troubles me is that some middle class/working class folks seem to be on that same page.

If nothing had been done by Uncle Sam, and it certainly was NOT perfect, including the Federal Reserve, my guess is, many of these same folks would be wondering about those hardships I just mentioned above, because they would now either be unemployed or underemployed. I know many Americans, including this one, are concerned about the terrible budget deficit, and with good reason. That's one of the reasons the "winner" in 2008, may end up being the "loser." The Bush Era left the country in terrible debt,^ unable to properly finance an "anti depression/recession" package. So, the private credit bubble that so helped ravage the economy is now being combated by a trade off to public debt.^^ Not good, but something had to be done. The current administration is between a rock and a hard place, with trillions of dollars having been lost by the economy during the downturn.^^^ "Public" money has been borrowed to try to help make up for some of that lost money, but whether America is on the precipice of another downturn remains to be seen. The other day I heard on television that it is estimated 40% of our current budget deficit is due to the recession. So that means, if we don't get the economy growing more, that deficit can't be easily cut. On the other hand, the money needed to stimulate the economy is borrowed. What a "Catch 22!" (A Word History is below the notes)

* Underemployment essentially means that some workers still have jobs, so they aren't counted as unemployed, but they have had hours cut, or even gone to part time status.

** This might include no overtime, or you might not get bonuses, or you might even be put on part time.

*** In fairness, to my knowledge, all the facts have yet to be determined.

**** My guess is, most Americans don't want police and firefighters cut (and probably teachers), but in some cases it may be necessary.

^ The budget surpluses inherited by George W. Bush evaporated, and replaced by trillions in debt over his eight years in office. Neither the Iraq War nor the Afghan War was paid for, nor was the prescription drug benefit added to Medicare (thus further weakening that program, financially), on top of those things, tax cuts were given, with the bulk of those cuts going to upper income people, including many of those who got us into the current mess. As I've noted before, Bush was terribly worried about the "plight of billionaires and multi-millionaires."

^^ What I mean is, for instance, banks' bad (private) debts were taken over by the government in many cases, but the money given to the banks was not in the U.S. Treasury, but rather had to be borrowed (public debt). To be fair, some of those government loans have been paid back, with interest. Things aren't just limited to banks or car companies, but to all the other measures taken to try to stop the "plunge" that occurred. All of that money was borrowed by Uncle Sam.

WORD HISTORY: 

Three-This goes back to Indo European "trejes," which gave Old Germanic "thrijiz." This then was passed down to its Germanic descendants as: Old English "thri/thrie/threo," prior to our modern spelling, standard German has "drei," Low German dialect has "dree" and "drie," Dutch also has "drie," Swedish, Norwegian and Danish all have "tre," and Icelandic has "þrír," which is essentially the equivalent of "thrir."