Nazi-era jargon, once banished from German lexicon, makes a worrying comeback

Long-banished German words and phrases linked to the country’s Nazi past have been revived by far-right politicians railing against the migrant influx, sparking comparisons to the 1930s.

The re-emergence of formerly taboo words has prompted some historians to draw parallels with the rhetoric used in the final, turbulent years of the Weimar Republic, the fledgling democracy that gave way to Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship.

For more than a year, the Islamophobic Pegida street movement has routinely insulted the media as “Luegenpresse” (lying press), a word used by Hitler in the 1920s to discredit the mainstream press.

Far-right demonstrators heckling Chancellor Angela Merkel and her ministers also labelled them “Volksverraeter” (traitors) for allowing 890,000 asylum-seekers to come to the country last year.

While “Volksverraeter” is a bona fide word denoting someone committing treason, it carries a stench when used in political protests, evoking Hitler and his henchmen going after those they labelled enemies of the state.

At German reunification anniversary celebrations in the eastern city of Dresden in early October, one protester went as far as to carry a banner bearing a quote attributed to Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.