Kartoffel

"Kartoffel" refers to a person of German descent, particularly an ethnic German from the perspective of allochthone populations in Germany. Use of the word Kartoffelfresser ("potato glutton") was popularised in the 1960s, when it was commonly used as a derogatory term to describe people of German descent. The first known use of the word in a similar sense was in 1873, when the Grimms' Deutsches Wörterbuch used it in a teasing manner to describe inhabitants of the Ore Mountains as Kartoffelwänste ("potato tummies"), because potatoes were the only substance that they ate, whether out of poverty, habit, or both.Deutsches Wörterbuch. Band 11 (= Band 5 der Originalausgabe), S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1873, Sp. 244–245. (Online [http://woerterbuchnetz.de/cgi-bin/WBNetz/wbgui_py?sigle=DWB&lemid=GK02117 here].)

The term "Kartoffel" has been used in debates about Germanophobia. In 2010, Kristina Schröder, the Minister for Family Affairs, stated in a television interview for the ARD that children were being described as "German potatoes" or "German sluts".{{cite web|title=Familienministerin: Schröder warnt vor Deutschenfeindlichkeit|periodical=Spiegel Online|publisher=|url=https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/familienministerin-schroeder-warnt-vor-deutschenfeindlichkeit-a-722342.html|url-status=|access-date=2019-04-09|archive-url=|archive-date=|last=|date=2010-10-10|language=|pages=|quote=}} She described such insults as a form of racism. {{ill|Ehrhart Körting|de}}, the Berlin Senator of the Interior and Cem Özdemir, co-chair of the Alliance 90/The Greens party called for consistent action against such behavior, whilst the Alliance 90/The Greens politician Sven-Christian Kindler described Schröder's statements as "pseudo-scientific, dangerous nonsense".{{cite news|title=Angebliche Deutschenfeindlichkeit|periodical=taz|publisher=|url=https://www.taz.de/!5132220/|url-status=|format=|access-date=2019-04-09|archive-url=|archive-date=|last=Simone Schmollack|date=2010-11-15|language=|pages=|quote=}}

German journalist Julian Reichelt was nominated for the Goldene Kartoffel ("golden potato") award{{cite web|title=PM: 10 Jahre Neue deutsche Medienmacher – und ein neuer Medienpreis: "Die Goldene Kartoffel"|periodical=Neuemedienmacher.de|publisher=|url=https://www.neuemedienmacher.de/medienpreis_goldene_kartoffel/|url-status=dead|format=|access-date=2019-04-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190407142032/https://www.neuemedienmacher.de/medienpreis_goldene_kartoffel/|archive-date=7 April 2019|last=|date=|year=|language=|pages=|quote=}} in 2018 by the Neue deutsche Medienmacher ("New German Media Makers") association, for Bild-Zeitung on writing reports on the poor and immigration. Reichelt rejected the award, claiming that the term "Kartoffel" had evolved into a "racial insult on German school yards and is by no means well intentioned."{{cite web|title=Ein Jubiläum und eine Kartoffel für Julian Reichelt|periodical=Tagesspiegel.de|publisher=|url=https://www.tagesspiegel.de/gesellschaft/medien/neue-deutsche-medienmacher-ein-jubilaeum-und-eine-kartoffel-fuer-julian-reichelt/23353794.html|url-status=|access-date=2019-04-09|archive-url=|archive-date=|last=Andrea Dernbach|date=2018-11-03|language=|pages=|quote=}}{{cite web|title="Goldene Kartoffel": Julian Reichelt erscheint zwar zur Preisverleihung, lehnt den Preis aber ab|periodical=Horizont.de|publisher=|url=https://www.horizont.net/medien/nachrichten/goldene-kartoffel-julian-reichelt-erscheint-zwar-zur-preisverleihung-lehnt-den-preis-aber-ab-170831|url-status=|format=|access-date=2019-04-09|archive-url=|archive-date=|last=David Hein|date=2018-11-05|language=|pages=|quote=}}

"Kartoffel" later appeared in public debate concerning Germany's national football team after they were knocked out of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. According to an article published in the German magazine Der Spiegel, the German football team was said to be segregated into self-appointed groups. Kanake (derogatory slang for "foreigner"), including international players Jérôme Boateng and Mesut Özil, and Kartoffel, with "typical" Germans like Thomas Müller and Mats Hummels.{{citation|first1=Rafael|last1=Buschmann|author-link1=Rafael Buschmann|first2=Marc|last2=Hujer|first3=Gerhard|last3=Pfeil|periodical=Der Spiegel|title=Wie eine Traditionself|at=pp. 92-96|issn=0038-7452|date=2018-08-25|language=German|url=https://www.spiegel.de/plus/deutschland-bei-der-wm-2018-was-genau-lief-falsch-eine-rekonstruktion-a-00000000-0002-0001-0000-000159070556

}}{{cite web|title=Von "Kartoffeln" und "Kanaken" – Löws schwere Kaderplanung|periodical=Welt.de|publisher=|url=https://www.welt.de/newsticker/dpa_nt/infoline_nt/sport_nt/article181320048/Von-Kartoffeln-und-Kanaken-Loews-schwere-Kaderplanung.html|url-status=|access-date=|archive-url=|archive-date=|last=|date=2018-08-27|language=|pages=|quote=}} The difference between these groups is mainly associated with the players' lifestyles: the more lavishly living Kanake group made fun of the lifestyle of the Kartoffeln. In response to news coverage of this, national players İlkay Gündoğan and Lukas Podolski, active players in the DFB until 2017, said that it was harmless teasing.{{cite web|title="Kanaken" vs. "Kartoffeln" Lukas Podolski und Gündogan "ein Flachs"|periodical=Welt.de|publisher=|url=https://www.welt.de/newsticker/sport-news/article181334334/Fussball-Kanaken-vs-Kartoffeln-laut-Podolski-und-Guendogan-ein-Flachs.html|url-status=|access-date=|archive-url=|archive-date=|last=|date=2018-08-28|language=|pages=|quote=}}

German satirist and late-night show host Jan Böhmermann described the authors of German Wikipedia as mainly white Germans with no immigration background in the episode Die Telelupe: Wikipedia on Neo Magazin Royale on April 18, 2019. He created the article Kartoffel (Slang) on German Wikipedia to see whether the material, which would offend this group of people, would remain on Wikipedia.{{YouTube|HNwz_uaRd64|Die Telelupe: Wikipedia – Neo Magazin Royale mit Jan Böhmermann – ZDFneo}}

In English, kartoffel can be used to mean potato, literally, or for literary effect, as in the stylized argot, Nadsat, of the novel A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, for example, 'Then, my brothers, we had these off-white cravats which looked like whipped-up kartoffel or spud with a sort of a design made on it with a fork.'Burgess 1996, p.6. and,

'It was really a very nice appetizing bit of pishcha they'd laid out on the tray - two or three lomticks of like hot roastbeef with mashed kartoffel and vedge, then there was also ice-cream and a nice hot chasha of chai.' Burgess 1996, p.79.

• Kraut, a derogatory term for Germans in English during the World Wars
• List of terms used for Germans
• List of ethnic slurs by ethnicity
• List of regional nicknames

{{reflist}}

• Burgess, Anthony (1996). A Clockwork Orange. London: Penguin, ISBN 9780140188820. Originally published, London: Heinemann, 1962

Category:Anti-German sentiment

Category:Pejorative terms for European people

Category:Exonyms