CONDITIONS IN GERMANY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3794, 12 August 1936, Page 3

CONDITIONS IN GERMANY

Since Herr Hitler’s advent to power the German language has been considerably enriched. Much of the new phraseology, however, is almost untranslatable (says “Peterborough” in the London Daily Telegraph). " Gleichaltnung ” —the “ switching into circuit ” of the non-Nazi persons or institutions was the first difficult fence. Actually it is itself a translation, and renders the Italian word “ inquadramento ” “ fitting into the frame-work.” Perhaps “ squaring ” would be as good a translation as any for both expressions. i

But the Germans’ linguistic Becher’s Brook is an entirely new word invented by Dr Goebbels. This is “spracheregelung.” A month or so ago any German asked what it meant would have said he supposed it had sometjiing to do with the “ regulation of speech ’’—exactly what he could not say.

In the Propaganda Ministry it has a very definite meaning the constructive and destructive press control exercised at the daily conference of newspaper chiefs. “ Wait for the “ spracheregelung ” is now a stock reply to puzzled German editors anxious to know what they may and may not print.