Language of the Third Reich: Lti: Lingua Tertii Imperii a Philologist's Notebook (Continuum Collection) [Paperback]

Victor Klemperer (Author)

Book Description

Series: Continuum Collection | Publication Date: May 2005

Under the Third Reich, the official language of Nazism came to be used as a political tool. The existing social culture was manipulated and subverted as the German people had their ethical values and their thoughts about politics, history and daily life recast in a new language. This Notebook, translated by Martin Brady and originally called LTI (Lingua Tertii Imperii) - the abbreviation itself a parody of Nazified language - was written out of 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, entertaining, profound and ultimately saddening and horrifying book, is one of the great Twentieth-Century studies of language and of its engagement with history.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"'brilliantly conceived analysis that sought to crystallize the meaning of Nazism from its official language' Gordon A. Craig, Stanford University '... the most profound and entertaining study ever written in English of the impact of political tyranny on language. This book is a necessary and fascinating read.' Mark Mazower, New Statesman 'It deserves to be read by anyone interested in this period of history. A classic in the Literature on National Socialism.' Michael Burleigh, Times Literary Supplement 'valuable... compelling...classic' Hans Reiss, Emeritus Professor of German, University of Bristol in Times Higher Education Supplement"

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group (May 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826479170
• ISBN-13: 978-0826479174
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,386,676 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An easily-read, journalistic philology of Nazi Germany, July 25, 2000

By 

David J. Greenbaum (Ithaca, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Language of the Third Reich : Lti - Lingua Tertii Imperii : A Philologist's Notebook (Hardcover)

A professor recommended this book by Victor Klemperer to me several years ago, before his 1933-45 Tagebücher were translated into English by Martin Chalmers. At the time, my apprentice German was not equal to the work in the original language, and I read it in its French translation, ably translated by Elisabeth Guillot. I have since reread it in German, and, on publication, read this English edition. As far as I can tell, Martin Brady has done a masterful job of rendering Klemperer's informal and easily parsed style into addictably readable English. Before his career in the academy, Klemperer was a journalist, and in all of his writing, this tone prevailed.

Klemperer wrote his "LTI: Notizbuch eines Philologen" in 1945 and 1946, mostly from notes he kept in the diaries that later became the wildly successful "Ich will zeugnis ablegen bis zum letzten" (I Will Bear Witness). He carried on his work despite the danger, and with an impressive amount of conscious objectivity. The work is an excellent, if impressionistic, study of the modes of Nazi language and their development in popular speech and culture. I would emphasize the _impressionism_ that colors this work, because Klemperer was only able to study a limited amount of presently accessible material; most of his work is based on the editions of newspapers, leaflets, and books that fell into his hands in Dresden during the war. He was a Jew in the Third Reich, and banned from possessing books written by "Aryan" authors. As well, over the course of the war the restrictions on Jews listening to radios, reading newspapers, and even talking in public became too great for Klemperer to realize any truly comprehensive study.

I do not wish to seem like I am condemning the man with faint praise: Klemperer wrote the first postwar study of Nazi language and linked it directly with the operation of the regime. Subsequent researchers have borne out Klemperer's thesis: the euphemisms and barbarisms in the Nazi tongue exerted a considerable influence on popular culture and personal expression. It is not necessary to go back to the Forties to find this influence - it exists today in modern German. The contemporary quibbles over such words as "ausrotten" or "endlösung" mask the considerable reformation of German that occurred during the Third Reich.

Students of twentieth century history cannot ignore this book. It is a must read.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Language Changes Everything, February 12, 2008

By 

KerrLines ""Movies,Music,Theatre"" (Baltimore,MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Language of the Third Reich: LTI: Lingua Tertii Imperii (Paperback)

Victor Klemperer,a Professor at Dresden University,catalogued words used by the Third Reich from 1933-1945.Klemperer was stripped of his tenure at the University when the Nazi's declared that Jews could not hold such positions.In that time,Klemperer notated the words that became the "catch" phrases and "now" words of the Fuhrer's thinking.These words,he noted,were the "language of poverty" and appealed to the common masses,i.e "dummying-down" the language.This language,though,as he referred to it as the "L.T.I", the Language of the Reich,became the words used on the bourgeois lips in order to enflame German people against the Jews, and to embolden them to rise up for their Fatherland.
Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who seems to "parrot" back what they have heard; nothing is an original thought, but only some form of "propaganda" or "mind-controlled" speech? I have! Perhaps this is why this book upset me so.I see and hear this everyday and it scares me to see how propaganda and word use in a very particular way can all of a sudden take on a new and more sinister meaning.
I read this fascinating book after seeing LANGUAGE DOES NOT LIE: The Victor Klemperer Diary on The Sundance Channel.
Other suggested materials concerning Klemperer,whose Diary was not published until 1995 include I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941 (Modern Library Paperbacks), I Will Bear Witness 1942-1945: A Diary of the Nazi Years,and Biography - Klemperer, Otto (1885-1973): An article from: Contemporary Authors,and The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror.
ANYONE WHO VALUES LANGUAGE, will undoubtedly find these books invaluable,fascinating,riveting and quite disturbing.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars so applicable still, in all countries, September 4, 2007

By 

G. Morris "revheelsesq" (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Language of the Third Reich: LTI: Lingua Tertii Imperii (Paperback)

just a note about this book. reading it will not only help you understand history of the 20th century and of Germany under the Nazi Party's sickening rule, but will inform your hearing of the news and of governmental communications today. it will make your infuriation listening to the propaganda that has infiltrated culture at almost every level a much more informed infuriation. :-)

this is an excellent, excellent book and the two other reviews accurately describe it to a potential reader.