Dienstag, 14. Juli 2009

What's in a name - blogwart

A Blockwart was the National Socialist party snitch assigned to monitor the comings and goings of the people in his or her apartment house. This included reporting "Judenfreunde" (Jew-lovers) to the authorities and otherwise keeping the living "block" free of non-Aryans. In the GDR, a comparable function was in effect - officially called "Abschnittsbevollmächtigter" or "district authority" but informally known as blockwart, in referance to the odious Nazi police state abetters.

So blogwart will ironically evoke a blog that is dangerously prying to German readers, while everyone else may think of Harry Potter's alma mater Hogwarts. A possibly intriguing semantic conflation - surveillance, betrayal, sorcery, skills, codes of conduct, individualism vs. collective...all important aspects of modern life and depending on their combination - useful or dangerous for humanity.

1 Kommentar:

  1. congrats, great name, if i still lived in lissabon my blog might evoke the P.I.D.E
    to americans, they should read, he's real but not exactly there, the common euphemism should be something like a fly on the wall!
    blah blah blah
    i just wanted to thank you so much for the link
    Vielen vielen Dank

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