Language of the Third Reich: LTI: Lingua Tertii Imperii

by Victor Klemperer

Overview

Victor Klemperer (1881-1960) was Professor of French Literature at Dresden University. As a Jew, he was removed from his university post in 1935, only surviving thanks to his marriage to an Aryan.

First published in 1957, The Language of the Third Reich arose from Klemperer's conviction that the language of the Third Reich helped to create its culture. As Klemperer writes: 'It isn't only Nazi actions that have to vanish, but also the Nazi cast of mind, the typical Nazi way of thinking, and its breeding ground: the language of Nazism.'

This brilliant book is by turns entertaining and profound, saddening and horrifying. It is deservedly one of the great twentieth-century studies of language and its engagement with history.

Translated by Dr Martin Brady.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826491305
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	07/01/2006
Series:	Continuum Impacts , #58
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.06(w) x 7.81(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Victor Klemperer, a front-line veteran of the First World War, became Professor of French Literature at Dresden University. He was taken from his university in 1935 because he was Jewish, and only survived because of his marriage to an Aryan.

Table of Contents

Heroism (Instead of an Introduction)
1. LTI
2. Prelude \3. Distinguishing Feature: Poverty
4. Partenau
5. From the Diary of theFirst Year
6. The First Three Words of the Nazi Language
7. Aufziehen
8. Ten Years of Fascism
9.Fanatical
10. Autocthonous Writing
11. Blurring Boundaries
12.Punctuation
13. Names
14. Kohlenklau\ 15. Knif
16. On a Single Working Day
17. 'System' and 'Organisation'
18. I Believe In Him
19. Personal Announcementsas an LTI Revision Book
20. What Remains?
21. German Roots
22. A Sunny Weltanschauung (Chance Discoveries WhileReading)
23. If Two People Do the Same Thing...
24. Café Europa
25. TheStar
26. The Jewish War
27. The Jewish Spectacles
28. The Language of theVictor
29. Zion
30. The Curse of the Superlative
31. From the GreatMovement Forward...
32. Boxing
33. Gefolgschaft
34. The One Syllable
35.Running Hot and Cold
36. Putting the Theory to the Test
''Cos of Certain Expressions' (AnAfterword)
Index.

Editorial Reviews

It is obscene, in a sense, to relate Klemperer's situation to any subsequent intellectual enquiry conducted unmolested by tyranny. But studies of language - whether social, political or aesthetic - owe him a debt. They implicitly gesture towards his act of witness, and towards others like it.” —Times Higher Educational

“This book is an honest narrative of hope and oppression, touching in places and well written, in an accessible translation.” —M. Aaij, CHOICE

“This book is a breathtaking balancing act, by turns horrifying and heroic, saddening and sardonic [...] of major historical importance and grippingly well-written” —Philip Riley, Book Review for The International Journal of Applied Linguistics

“This important, stimulating and necessary book should be required reading for all who want to understand what politicians are doing to us today ... it is full of anecdotes and details that illustrate the effect of the changes in language ... This is a vital book.” —Eric Hester, Catholic Times, April 2007

“On the basis of his painstaking ethical-linguistic examinations, Klemperer is one of the most valuable witnesses to the methods of totalitarian mental corruption. The lasting message of this book is one of constant vigilance: wherever the machinery of atrocity is in motion, the misuse of language will be supporting it.” —TImes Higher Educational, 17 June 10

“Equal parts linguistic analysis and survivor's memoir, Victor Klemperer's The Language of The Third Reich (LTI) is noteworthy for its insight, intelligence, clarity, and even caustic humor … LTI is also a book that, given its author's travails, is remarkably absent of bitterness. Though a victim, Klemperer does not write as a victim but rather as a once-captive though now-distant (even with the space of one year) observer to a language simultaneously terrifying and spellbinding. A Dresden Jew who had lived through the dark night of the Third Reich, Klemperer writes about his oppression with cool subjectivity. Yet in his cool subjectivity, Klemperer does not leave Nazism unscathed.” —Rhetoric & Public Affairs

From the Publisher

Klemperer's The Language of the Third Reich (or LTI: Lingua Tertii Imperii) is important but difficult to categorize. Originally published in German in 1957 and translated into English in 2000, LTI derives from notes the Jewish philologist and literature professor took before and during WW II, in which he signals and dissects Nazi language. This book is an honest narrative of hope and oppression, touching in places and well written, in an accessible translation. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

M. Aaij