A message strangely popular with Americans, too GERMANS are usually proud of their exports, including their words. What better term than Fahrvergnügen (“driving pleasure”) to sell cars? They are less pleased when foreigners import words that hark back to Germany’s darkest chapter. It was therefore horrifying to see white nationalists at a rally in Washington, shortly after Donald Trump’s victory, saluting with outstretched arms and shouting “Hail victory!”—a conscious echo of the Nazi greeting, Sieg Heil! It has also been disconcerting to hear Mr Trump’s supporters adopt the term Lügenpresse to refer to the mainstream media, or to any journalists who criticize the president-elect. For in America as in Germany, the term, which means “lying press”, is used not only as a cudgel against allegedly out-of-touch media elites but also to validate whatever conspiracy theory the shouter espouses.
Lügenpresse has a long and ugly history in Germany. It was first used after the failed revolutions of 1848, mainly in Catholic polemics against…
