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„Die Kürze würzen“: Zu den sprichwörtlichen Aphorismen von Alexander Eilers

100%

Mieder W.

Linguistische Treffen in Wrocław

2022

issue 22

139-164

Alexander Eilers (born 1976) has not only made a name for himself as an aphoristic writer of several vo- lumes but has also assisted younger aphoristic authors whose aphorisms he has edited. With a doctorate in English language and literature at the University of Gießen he has occupied himself with the genre of aphorisms and written several meta-aphorisms. Repeatedly his texts that start with an individual word that in turn is defined by the addition of a proverbial expression. Other aphorisms begin with an expression that is expanded by a short commentary. Again and again expressions are questioned which at times leads to innovative statements by the mere substitution of a letter or word. Not only classical, biblical, and folkloric expressions appear, but Eilers also exhibits an extensive repertoire of quotations and proverbs. This traditional language material is manipulated and at times leads to expressive anti- proverbs. 386 texts of the 2142 aphorisms or 18% start from such formulaic expressions. They show that Eilers occupies himself intensively with proverbial language that he changes linguistically and thematically to insightful statements about the modern world.

„Die Bäume wachsen nicht in den Himmel“ – Überlieferung, Verwendung und Bedeutung eines Sprichwortes

80%

Mieder W.

Linguistische Treffen in Wrocław

2022

issue 21

165-203

The German proverb “Es ist dafür gesorgt, daß die Bäume nicht in den Himmel wachsen“ with its shortened variant „Die Bäume wachsen nicht in den Himmel“ has been transmitted since the early sixteenth century. Its written documentation begins 1526 with Martin Luther, and it appears since 1590 in numerous variants in proverb collections. Goethe quoted it in his autobiography, and it is present in the works of Heinrich Heine, Joseph von Eichendorff, Georg Herwegh, Gottfried Keller, Theodor Fontane, Wilhelm Raabe, Hermann Hesse, Alfred Andersch, and others. Max Weber and Rosa Luxemburg made socio-political use of it, and that is also true for Winston S. Churchill, who played a part in distributing it in English translation as „Care is taken that trees don’t grow to the sky“ and „Trees don’t grow to the sky“. Joseph Goebbels quotes it repeatedly as a propagandistic leitmotif, and it also plays a role in political contexts by chancellors Conrad Adenauer, Willy Brandt, and Helmut Schmidt. Especially aphoristic writers as Dietmar Beetz, Erwin Chargaff, Peter Maiwald, Felix Renner, and Gerhard Uhlenbruck have dealt with it critically by changing it into anti-proverbs. By way of many contextualized references it is shown how the proverb developed during five centuries and how it is marked to this day by its polysituativity, polyfunctionality, and polysemanticity.

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2 Linguistische Treffen in Wrocław

2 Mieder W.

1 2023

1 2022

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„Die Kürze würzen“: Zu den sprichwörtlichen Aphorismen von Alexander Eilers

„Die Bäume wachsen nicht in den Himmel“ – Überlieferung, Verwendung und Bedeutung eines Sprichwortes