(pronounced ), literally 'over-foreignization', is a German-language term used to refer to an excess of

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as Permanent residency, permanent residents. Commuting, Commuter ...

. The word is a

nominalization In linguistics, nominalization or nominalisation, also known as nouning, is the use of a word that is not a noun (e.g., a verb, an adjective or an adverb) as a noun, or as the head (linguistics), head of a noun phrase. This change in functional c ...

compounded from ''

über ''Über'' (, sometimes written ''uber'' in English-language publications) is a German language word meaning "over", "above" or "across". It is an etymological twin with German ''ober'', and is a cognate (through Proto-Germanic) with English ...

'' meaning 'over' or 'overly' and meaning 'foreign'. In that alienation also translates to "Ent''fremdung''", there exists at least one other political dimension to this term as well though.

Political usage

The German term has had several meanings over the years, all of which have reflected the sense of "too foreign" and "threatening", and are generally negative. Successive editions of the

Duden The Duden () is a dictionary of the Standard High German language, first published by Konrad Duden in 1880, and later by Bibliographisches Institut GmbH, which was merged into Cornelsen Verlag in 2022. The Duden is updated regularly with ...

dictionary illustrate how the meaning has changed since the term was first used in 1929, then meaning "taking on too much foreign money" (especially loans made from 1924–1929 to rebuild Germany, following the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

). In 1934 (one year after the

NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Workers ...

came to power in Germany), the meaning changed to "immigration/imposition of foreign races", and in 1941 it became "immigration/imposition of foreign peoples". Following the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the 1951/1952 version of the Duden returned to the strictly economic definition. In 1961, the term ''foreigner'' came to replace ''foreign races'' or ''foreign peoples''. In 1986, the term was no longer used in economics. Since 1991, primarily the verb has been in use, and one could speak of a country being . In 1993, the declared to be the , as it makes "undifferentiated xenophobia" sound more argumentative and clinical.
Ein Jahr, ein (Un-)Wort!
' on

Spiegel Online ' () is a German news website. It was established in 1994 as ''Spiegel Online'' as a content mirror of the magazine ''Der Spiegel''. In 1995, the site began producing original stories and it introduced ''Spiegel Online International'' for artic ...

(in German). Linguists, philologists, political scientists and social scientists criticise the concept for its vagueness, its use under national socialism, and its continuing negative connotation. The word is related to terms in various languages: '' foreign infiltration'', '' foreign penetration'', French ', ', ', Spanish ', Italian ', and , which have all been used at various times to rally xenophobic sentiment.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uberfremdung German words and phrases Immigration to Switzerland Immigration to Germany Anti-immigration politics in Europe German nationalism

Political usage

See also

References