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gauleiters

English translation: Gauleiter

13:39 Aug 21, 2005
English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature
English term or phrase: gauleiters
context: the days after the French Revolution and Reign of Terror in France
"Sensing general weariness with the excesses of the Revolution, France's new chief intelligence officer (Fouché) settled down to become... a collector of intelligence on everyone.
His network was formidable. He amalgamated the revolutionary network of informers and 'gauleiters' with the old Bourbon regional 'intendant' system. The police were reorganized..."
dalg?c
Local time: 16:37
Selected answer:Gauleiter
Explanation:
The word "gauleiter" is not in most dictionaries, but in the four-inch-thick Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language it is defined as "the leader or chief official of a political district under Nazi control."
Selected response from:

Edith Kelly
Switzerland
Local time: 15:37
Grading comment
thanx
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
4 +11Gauleiter
Edith Kelly
4 +7district leaders
Sven Petersson
4 +6See http://www.proz.com/kudoz/345827
Jack Doughty


Discussion entries: 4





  

Answers


22 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +11
Gauleiter


Explanation:
The word "gauleiter" is not in most dictionaries, but in the four-inch-thick Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language it is defined as "the leader or chief official of a political district under Nazi control."

Edith Kelly
Switzerland
Local time: 15:37
Native speaker of: Native in GermanGerman, Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 20
Grading comment
thanx

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Rachel Ward: Though I can't think why the author has used such an anachronistic term!
2 mins
  -> Thanks Rachel.
agree  lindaellen (X): It is anachronistic and used in the sense of "secret police," used perhaps to unscore how evil the system was
13 mins
  -> Thanks Linda.
agree  writeaway: http://www.proz.com/kudoz/23878 too. fwiw, a lot of the changes have been meaningless and just made things unnecessarily confusing without really adding much improvement.
28 mins
agree  Vicky Papaprodromou
35 mins
agree  Hacene
40 mins
agree  Sheila Hardie
41 mins
agree  KathyT
44 mins
agree  sporran
2 hrs
agree  Kirill Semenov
4 hrs
agree  jennifer newsome (X)
22 hrs
agree  muitoprazer (X)
1 day 18 hrs
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

25 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +6
See http://www.proz.com/kudoz/345827


Explanation:
...for an explanation of Gauleiter. What it means here is the governor of a district in a system imposed by the revolutionary leaders from above, on top of the existing local government system. It seems odd to me to take this term from the Nazi era back 150 or so years to revolutionary France.
In German, Gauleiter, being a noun, starts with a capital letter, but these German capitals tend to fall out of use for terms imported into English.

Jack Doughty
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:37
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 518

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  writeaway
25 mins
  -> Thank you.
agree  Vicky Papaprodromou
32 mins
  -> Thank you.
agree  Hacene
36 mins
  -> Thank you.
agree  Sheila Hardie
38 mins
  -> Thank you.
agree  KathyT
40 mins
  -> Thank you.
agree  sporran
2 hrs
  -> Thank you.
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

32 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +7
district leaders


Explanation:
The title of Gauleiter was first established in 1925. By 1928, Gauleiter had also became a Nazi paramilitary rank, and would eventually become the second highest such position, ranking only below the rank of Reichsleiter. The insignia for the rank of Gauleiter consisted of two oak leaves worn on a brown collared collar patch.

Sven Petersson
Sweden
Local time: 15:37
Native speaker of: Native in SwedishSwedish, Native in EnglishEnglish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  writeaway
18 mins
  -> Thank you very much!
agree  Vicky Papaprodromou
25 mins
  -> Thank you very much!
agree  Hacene
30 mins
  -> Thank you very much!
agree  Sheila Hardie
32 mins
  -> Thank you very much!
agree  KathyT
34 mins
  -> Thank you very much!
agree  sporran
2 hrs
  -> Thank you very much!
agree  Lingo Pros: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauleiter
15 hrs
  -> Thank you very much!
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