Germany's summer was extremely hot in 2018, but the term "Heisszeit," or warm age, also reflects climate change as a whole. "Funklochrepublik" and "Ankerzentren" were other favorites this year.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/S. Kahnert
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From 'Krisenmodus' to 'Lichtgrenze': Germany's 10 past words of the year
"Krisenmodus," or crisis mode, is the word of the year 2023. A look at the political buzzwords selected by the Association for the German Language over the last decade.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Büttner
2023: 'Krisenmodus'
Wars, inflation, the climate emergency: There are many issues to worry about. "The crisis mode is a permanent state," said one German politician in a 2023 debate on how the COVID pandemic was managed. "Krisenmodus," or "crisis mode" was picked by the Association for the German Language as the political buzzword of the year.
Image: Ohad Zwigenberg/AP Photo/picture alliance
2022: 'Zeitenwende'
"Zeitenwende," literally "times-turn," refers to a historic turning point: The term was used by Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a parliamentary address held in reaction to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. With its WWII history, Germany's postwar defense policy had been rather cautious, but in this geopolitical context, the country would need to significantly increase its military budget.
Image: Christophe Gateau/dpa/picture alliance
2021: 'Wellenbrecher'
A plausible choice in times of an ongoing pandemic, "Wellenbrecher" (literally wave breaker) is a term that comes from coastal protection — it means breakwater. It also stands for all the measures that were taken to break the fourth COVID-19 wave that year, said the German Language Association, which has been selecting Germany's word of the year since 1977.
Image: Fotolia/Joshua Rainey
2020: 'Corona-Pandemie'
The COVID-19 pandemic was, of course, the leading topic of the year 2020, and that's why the German word of the year was none other than "Corona-Pandemie" (corona pandemic). The runner-up word selected by the jury was also related to the pandemic: "Lockdown."
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2019: 'Respektrente'
Planned changes in German pension laws were set to put many workers at a disadvantage by retirement (Rente), so the bill was disparagingly dubbed "Respektrente." The term won over the expressions "Rollerchaos," referring to the chaos created by the sudden invasion of electric scooters in German cities, and "Fridays for Future," the English name for a worldwide school strike for climate movement.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
2018: 'Heisszeit'
The term "Heisszeit," or warm age — as opposed to an "ice age," which sounds quite similar in German, "Eiszeit" — was chosen as the Word of the Year in 2018, reflecting not only Germany's extreme summer that year, but climate change as as whole.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/B. Roessler
2017: 'Jamaika-Aus'
"Jamaica coalition" refers to the symbolic colors of three parties in German politics: black for the conservative CDU/CSU, yellow for the business-friendly FDP and green for the Green Party. In 2017, coalition talks went on for weeks, but then came to an abrupt halt. This was "Jamaika-Aus," or Jamaica Out.
Image: picture alliance / Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa
2016: 'postfaktisch'
During the United States presidential election campaign, and after Donald Trump's victory in the fall of 2016, the word "postfaktisch" or post-factual came into common usage to denote the spread of fake news. Even then-Chancellor Angela Merkel used it. The term comes into play when public opinion is formed by emotion and resentment rather than objective facts.
Image: DW
2015: 'Flüchtlinge'
Refugees — undoubtedly, no other issue had a bigger impact in Germany in 2015, when the Syrian civil war brought nearly a million refugees into the country. Runner-up was "Je suis Charlie," for expressing solidarity with the victims of the terrorist attack against the French satirical journal Charlie Hebdo. No. 3 was "Grexit," which referred to the possible expulsion of Greece from the Eurozone.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Hitij
2014: 'Lichtgrenze'
The winning word in 2014 was "Lichtgrenze," or border of light, which referred to a light installation on the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. This was followed by "schwarze Null," or black zero, describing government efforts to avoid new debts. Another favorite was "Götzseidank," a mash-up of "Gott sei Dank" (thank God) and the legendary goal of soccer star Mario Götze in Brazil.
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"Heisszeit," literally "hot time," is the German Word of the Year 2018, the Association for the German Language announced on Friday. The German expression for "warm age," as opposed to the ice age, which is "Eiszeit" in German, was chosen by the Association for the German Language not only to reflect an extremely hot summer, but also "the most serious global phenomena of the early 21st century, climate change," the association said. The jury added that they picked the expression because it offered an interesting play on words.
However, within minutes of the announcement, several German Twitter users noted that it was also the first time they were actually hearing the word.
A dead zone republic and fake anchors
This year's runner-up is "Funklochrepublik," which refers to the fact that there are still many network "dead zones" in Germany, an important political issue in the country this year.
The association's third pick was "Ankerzentren," literally "anchor centers," which are admission centers for refugees. However, the word "Anker" is not meant as an actual anchor, but rather an acronym made up of several words: "An(kunft)" (arrival), "k(ommunale Verteilung)" (municipal distribution), "E(ntscheidung)" (decision) and "R(ückführung)" (return).
Over 40 years of words of the year
The Gesellschaft für Deutsche Sprache (GfdS), or Association for the German Language, has annually selected the German Word of the Year on a regular basis since 1977. Every year in December, a term or expression is chosen to provide a "verbal index fossil" reflecting an important topic of the year. What counts is not the sheer frequency with which the terms have been used in the media, but rather their significance, and linguistic quality.
The term selected in 2017 was "Jamaika-Aus," a political buzzword referring to the collapse of the "Jamaica Coalition" talks between the Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens — the parties are respectively represented by the colors black, yellow and green, which also feature on the Jamaican flag.
