"Suicide": the latest cover of Germany's Der Spiegel. The Volkswagen scandal has turned into a crisis of epic proportions. It started with what appeared to be an error: diesel VWs driven under road conditions were emitting drastically higher levels of pollutants than they did in emissions tests. As investigators began to dig deeper, they found that the root cause was a secret piece of software within the cars, designed specifically to engage pollution protection only under test conditions. Once the VWs left the test, the computer switched back to the regular, more polluting mode. This was likely done in a bid to give the cars better performance during test drives, to sell more of them while still giving buyers the warm fuzzy feeling that they were helping the environment.
It's hard to underestimate the impact this is having. Now, several countries have opened investigations into VW's wrongdoing. The Los Angeles Times reports that VW sales are plummeting -and the dealers, who in this case had nothing to do with the scandal, are taking much of the heat. And the reputation of all diesel cars, which do have legitimate environmental benefits, is nonetheless suffering. But the effect has been particularly harsh in VW's home country: Germany. VW, which is the largest car manufacturer in the world by volume, is also a strong source of national pride for Germans. So much so that when the scandal broke, Germany's head of state Angela Merkel (referred to by some with the nickname mutti: "mom") went on TV to reassure the German people, and incidentally, to deflect any accusations that might be pointed her way. The Washington Post opined that many Germans saw the scandal as "a national disgrace" and an affront to Germans' "pride in their precision and obedience to the rules". As if to hammer this point home, one of Germany's best known magazines, Der Spiegel, has just released a cover for its latest magazine with a two word headline: Der Selbstmord. It's not a particularly pretty sounding word, and its translation is even more dire: "the suicide". The cover features a parade of pallbearers in black formal wear, carting off a new VW Beetle as if it were a coffin. The Beetle is decked out with German flags; perhaps these gentlemen are carrying the noble, law abiding spirit many Germans see in themselves to its grave as well. In a strange way, it's a title captures the German national psyche in a way that American papers can come close to, but not quite capture. Here are a group of renegade engineers who subvert Germany's written and unwritten laws for their own gain. For observers in America and most of the rest of the world, this is a "scandal", a "national disgrace". But for Germans, it's worse. It's a destruction of their very identity, a "suicide". But to grasp how deep this criticism really cuts, it needs to be though of using the literal translation of the words "selbst" and "mord" in German: "self murder". At the end of the day, it's a dark lesson in what happens to a society when its prominent actors fail to live up to the goals it has set for itself. In Germany's case, perhaps these goals have been too high. It's honorable that Germans, in a very general sense, want to be the most law abiding people in the world. But in order to function, we have to recognize that even the most law abiding among us - namely, Germans - are still humans. Sometimes, humans mess up, or even do nasty things like program cars to surreptitiously pollute more. But we can't let any deviation from the law shut us down or keep us from functioning. We need to be able to live with imperfection, or at least seek the best way to deal with it. To find the perfect way to be imperfect. But perhaps this Der Spiegel cover proves that Germany is doing just that. It shows that the most devastating critique of this very German scandal could only have been made in one language: German. |
The Pantera Language Studio BlogUpdates on our language services, and any and/or all of our thoughts on funny, weird, or wild language related stories. Come join the fun! Archives
December 2016
Categories
All
|