Saturday, April 19, 2014

German 4 Dummies: "Deutungshoheit" on Easter and beyond

This is a good one and extremely applicable to Easter, as we hope to demonstrate.

We found "Deutungshoheit" in so many German press articles, with the exception of the tabloid Bild Zeitung, of course, that we felt we could no longer ignore a close look.

"Deutungshoheit" is used to describe a divergent set of statements brought forth in interpreting the nature and significance of events, policies, etc.

Very often, you'll find in a context like this: 'we are seeing a struggle over the Deutungshoheit of such and such', most recently over the conflict in Ukraine. In a simpler expression, you could write 'who has it right'.

As usual, the German is a compound, this one made of "Deutung" (interpretation) and "Hoheit" (sovereignty, authority).

On the web, thank you once again Sir Tim, we find these translations:
a) interpretational sovereignty
b) prerogative of interpretation

The link for b) indicates our preference. Interpretational sovereignty is such a strange term, we venture it can only live in some EU or UN document.

"Prerogative of interpretation" sucks less and reveals that this has to do with the power, with the authority to claim the true meaning of an event.

Our best suggestion for understanding this word is: who gets to impose their view.
Of course, for anything scholarly or obscure, you may still prefer the dictionary translations.They do give you more interpretational clout than "he says, she says".

You understand the reference to Easter all by yourself, we trust.

Happy Easter.

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