The German Question, Part Eighty-Five

"The Aftermath of the Great War & The Weimar Republic"/Part Two

"The Status Of Liechtenstein "

I have not dealt much with the small principality of Liechtenstein in this series as yet. In America, the name "Liechtenstein," often mispronounced or misspelled as "Lichtenstein," is probably best known for a polka tune that was quite common here since the late 1950s, but written by a German, Will Glahe, who was born in what was then the outskirts of Wuppertal, a city in the German state of "North Rhine Westphalia" (it later became part of the city).*

Liechtenstein, which is less then 62 square miles in size, is located between Austria to the east, and Switzerland to the west. Its population (modern) is about 35,000, much of it located within the confines of its capital, Vaduz. It is German-speaking.** It was part of the Old German Empire (the "Holy Roman Empire"), and was also associated with Austria, the then leading German state ruled by the Habsburg family, whose leaders were long elected as German emperors. In fact, Liechtenstein's prince had palaces in the then German capital of Vienna. When the Old German Empire was dissolved, under pressure from Napoleon, Liechtenstein gained a certain independence, although it was dependent upon Napoleon's sponsored "Confederation of the Rhine." When Napoleon was defeated, Liechtenstein became part of the German Confederation, which was also led by the Habsburgs. When this entity was dissolved in 1866, Liechtenstein gained independence, but continued its strong connection to Austria and its successor state, "Austria-Hungary." World War One brought hardship for the little neutral principality, as its association with Austria-Hungary (one of the "Central Powers) and its German-speaking population made the Allies view Liechtenstein as an enemy nation, regardless of its protests of neutrality. Economic restrictions by the Allies brought a serious shortage of all sorts of products, including food. Even before the war ended, Liechtenstein tried to break its ties to Austria, and move into a closer relationship with Switzerland, which it succeeded in doing. Since that time, Liechtenstein has remained a separate nation, although there has been a small German unity movement there ever since, which became more active during the time of Nazi rule in Germany. So this answers a part of "The German Question," as Liechtenstein is out as a part of Germany, although it remains German in language and custom.

* The "Liechtensteiner Polka" was a catchy tune and though the lyrics were in German, the song was found on many an album containing polkas, was heavily played on radio, and it was commonly played by Lawrence Welk on his long running television show. "Das ist die Liechtensteiner Polka mein Schatz, Polka mein Schatz, Polka mein Schatz..." I didn't end that line with a period, because that would be a......."polka dot." (Hey, no rolling on the floor laughing!)

** As is common in the German-speaking parts of Europe, besides standard German, Liechtensteiners speak a German dialect going back to one of the old Germanic tribes, the Alemanni. It is the same "general" dialect spoken in the German areas of Switzerland, Alsace, extreme western Austria, Swabia, which is the region around Stuttgart, and other areas of Baden-Württemberg, in southwestern Germany. I use "general" dialect, because there are variations (sometimes substantially so) even within the German dialects, often even from town to town. Remember, these are dialects, not standard, and without standard "rules of grammar and pronunciation," each area is on its own. Regional pride and tradition, along with little societal pressure to change, keeps these dialects alive, although in certain areas in the north, but not all, where Low German provides the common denominator in the dialects, standard German has diminished the number of dialect speakers substantially during the last several decades.

WORD HISTORY:
Sack-(This is to complete the compound "haversack," from the previous article.) This word goes back to the Middle East and the Semitic languages and the root "sqq" (not a typo), which gave Hebrew and Egyptian "saq," with the meaning "sackcloth, sack made from cloth." This was borrowed by Greek (an Indo European language related to English further down the family tree) as "sakkos," which was then borrowed by Latin as "saccus." (Latin is also an Indo European language.) Old Germanic borrowed the word from Latin as "sakkiz," which then gave Old English "sacc," for "sack," and "saecc," meaning "sackcloth." "Sacc" later became "sak," and then eventually the modern spelling. The word is widespread in the other Germanic languages: Old High German had "sac," and modern German, like English, has "Sack," as does Low German; Dutch has "zak" (but it means both bag and pocket), Norwegian has "sekk," Swedish has "säck," Danish has "saek." I could not find a related word in Icelandic. The verb form, with meanings "to pillage" and "to dismiss from employment," was borrowed from French "sac," which was derived from Latin "saccare," which meant "to put pillaged items into a sack to be carried off." It then has the same roots as the English noun. The "discharged/dismissed" meaning seems to come from the notion of a discharged employee leaving the premises carrying his belongings and tools in a sack, and perhaps, at least originally, that "sack" was often provided by the employer, as the term developed as "give someone the sack." The verb form was borrowed into English in the 1500s.