Semantics of Separatism

What wears a uniform, stamps pass ports and has a title 53 letters long?

Answer: Angehoriger des Zolls der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik --a member of the customs office of the German Democratic Republic. Until a few years ago, such an official would have been called simply ein Beamter (an official), and he is still called just that in West Germany. But in an effort to show that their half of the country has nothing in common with the other half, East Germany's Communist bosses are inventing and adapting a whole new lexicon of words and phrases. Explains Die Freiheit, a Communist Party news paper in the East German city of Halle:

"Social developments in the German Democratic Republic and West Germany are so different that it is no longer possible to speak of one German national language."

As if to bolster the argument, East Germany now prints its own dictionary, which lists nearly 400 words that are sel dom, if ever, used in West Germany.

Ein Traktorist is a tractor driver, ein Novator an innovator, ein Diversant anyone who interferes in political af fairs. Ein Objektivist sees both sides of an issue -- the non-Communist as well as the Communist -- and is therefore politically unreliable. Ein Skeptizist is even worse because he questions the party line.

Connotation of Coke. In addition to such new words, there are some 200 oth ers that now have different usages and meanings in each half of the divided country. The standard West German phrases for worker and employer -- Arbeiter and Arbeitgeber -- are never used in East Germany. There, all workers are now called Werktdtige -- work-active persons. The East Germans have also dropped the use of the term Pro- letariat, because intellectuals and white-collar workers felt left out. Rationelle Arbeit, which means rational work in West Germany, has become East Germany's pet euphemism for work per formed in accord with party goals. In the West German dictionary, aufrusten means t6 rearm. The East German dictionary warns that when the word is used in Bundesdeutsch, or Federal German, it means "to increase the number of troops and their equipment with aggressive intentions."

The East German regime also publishes an encyclopedia that keeps East Germans up-to-date on the meaning of foreign words they may hear in movies, or on the West German television that is watched by most East Germans. Academic freedom, for example, is defined as "the obsolete viewpoint that professors and students should enjoy independence from social demands in their university work." Coca-Cola gets far more Objektivist treatment. It is simply "a soft drink sold in all countries under U.S. influence."

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