Verwurstung

01:08 Oct 12, 2016 

Michael and Liane, thanks very much for your comments and insights. I've decided to formally enter the fray.

00:21 Oct 12, 2016 

A synonym for "verwursten" could be "ausschlachten".
http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/ausschlachten
- die Eingeweide von geschlachtetem Vieh herausnehmen
- (umgangssprachlich) die noch brauchbaren Teile aus etwas ausbauen
- (umgangssprachlich abwertend) bedenkenlos für seine Zwecke ausnutzen

Tanslations are there:
http://www.dict.cc/?s=ausschlachten

00:04 Oct 12, 2016 

I believe your earlier suggestion of 'instrumentalization' would be much better than 'exploitation'. 'Exploitation is too broad, in my opinion. 'Instrumentalization' cuts closer to the bone.

20:20 Oct 11, 2016 

I'm normally not one to encourage 'exploitation' in any form, but if you suggest it as an answer, Alexandra, I'd be happy to give it an ‘agree’ (despite the fact that it lacks the [red] meat that much of the carnivorous crowd is braying for). ;-)

20:01 Oct 11, 2016 

Having read the article, I think that Brigitte's suggestion of "exploitation" is probably the best fit.

21:17 Oct 10, 2016 

I oppose - it was a horribly meaty affair therefore a meat metaphor couldn´t be more suitable as it points out the cruelty of the prevailing mindset before and also after 1945.

12:08 Oct 9, 2016 

Yup, you might have to go for a vegan alternative.

05:33 Oct 9, 2016 

Many thanks for all the brainstorming, it's been very interesting, I don't think a translation involving meat idioms will work and now have a better idea of the sort of thing I need here but still pondering ...

11:20 Oct 6, 2016 

Reading Paul's excerts I think this could also be a way to translate it - bending into the desired shape or really bending and slanting ...

07:49 Oct 6, 2016 

Indeed, as long as there is no English translation of that book available I wouldn't make up an English title. Just a translation in brackets would make sense. For the English readers.

20:38 Oct 5, 2016 

Dieser "einfache Schreiner" erkannte bereits Jahre vor Kriegsausbruch die Zeichen der Zeit und stellte sich nicht wie die Attentäter vom 20. Juli aus opportunistischen Gründen erst 1944 gegen Hitler, als selbst die Führung der Wehrmacht erkennen musste, dass der oberste Feldherr der Deutschen den Krieg endgültig verloren hatte.

Ein "einfacher Schreiner" aus der Mitte der Gesellschaft als Widerstands- und Freiheitskämpfer gegen den Führer Adolf Hitler? Das kann oder besser gesagt, das darf nicht sein, schließlich heißt es doch immer: "Die einfachen Leute haben davon nichts gewusst." und "Was hätte ein Einzelner schon dagegen tun können?"

Der Autor porträtiert in seinem Buch das Leben eines zwar einfachen, aber aufrechten und geradlinigen Mannes. Vielleicht liegt es daran, dass Hans Georg Elser vor allem für alle sogenannten Mitläufer das personifizierte schlechte Gewissen darstellt. Daraus machen anständige Bürger nicht nur in Deutschland höchst ungern Helden, benennen Straßen oder Schulen nach ihnen oder bauen ein Denkmal zur Erinnerung.“

20:36 Oct 5, 2016 

While we're on the fascinating topic of Georg Elser (and why he doesn’t fit the mold), here's an excerpt from a review of the author's biography of the would-be Hitler assassin ("Den Hitler jag ich in die Luft." - no translation necessary for this readership):

„Der Attentäter Hans Georg Elser lässt sich nicht so einfach instrumentalisieren und von einer Gruppe vor den Karren spannen und er passt vor allem nicht in das stereotype Denkmuster, das in der Öffentlichkeit gezeichnet wird, wenn es in Deutschland um den Widerstand gegen das Dritte Reich und die nationalsozialistische Diktatur geht.

Denn bei den (berühmtesten) Widerstandskämpfern handelt es sich um Studenten und Intellektuelle, um Adlige, um Männer der Kirche und bürgerliche Unternehmer. Die Verschwörer und Attentäter des 20. Juli 1944 sollen zeigen, dass es sogar in der damaligen Wehrmachtselite Widerstand gegen Hitler gab und deshalb nicht alle Offiziere nur Befehle ausführten oder skrupellose Verbrecher waren.

Hans Georg Elser aber war nur ein "einfacher Schreiner".

(to be continued)

20:18 Oct 5, 2016 

As Phil pointed out, there's normally no need to translate the titles of books and journal articles in footnotes. So the answer is simple: Don't translate it, for obvious reasons, one of which is that it's almost impossible to do a good job without knowing the exact nature of the work in question (and it gets really tricky if the title has a clever image or play on words). Are book translators expected to be intimately familiar with the nature of every book and article in the footnotes? No. Are we expected to translate these titles? Usually not.

But that's not the answer that the asker is looking for.

Brigitte and Thomas are on the right track here because, in contrast perhaps to some of the people offering answers to the question, they have actually read the article. I think "exploitation" works. Another word that comes to mind is "instrumentalization." In other words, making Georg Elser "fit the mold" (which, in essence, is what happens to meat when it's made into sausage; we grind it up and press it into a mold).

08:40 Oct 5, 2016 

So: the entertainment industry, politicians, greedy people trying to make a nice profit etc. won't be able to use Elser for their own purposes.
My interpretation.

08:38 Oct 5, 2016 

Meaning: I've just read the article you managed to dig up and I have to confess that I find this kind of polemics hard to stomach.
But let's look at the facts:
"Knopps ZDF-Film über Elser (10.3.2004) setzte den ersten größeren Verwurstungsversuch in Gang. Genau neun Tage später schreckte der Münchner Marketingberater Peter Wittman die örtliche Presse mit der "Entdeckung" auf, er besitze ein von Georg Elser im KZ geschnitztes Schachspiel.
... Warum verkohlt uns ader heutige Besitzer? Ganz einfach: Er will 30.000 Euro.
... Zwei Tage nach dem Unsinnsartikel ... mischte sich ein Kommunalpolitiker ein: Für die 'Grüne Stadtratsfraktion und rosa Liste' stelle Siegfried Benker den Antrag, die Stadt möge 'das historische Schachspiel Georg Elsers für das Stadtmuseum erwerben'.
... Aber nun wollte auch das bayerische Fernsehen dabei sein. ...
Genug. Elser kann nicht verwurstet werden - oder noch nicht? Seine Klarsicht, seine unbeirrbare Konsequenz, sein Bruch mit dem nationalen Dünkel des Volkes werden ihn vor einer Verwurstung im Unterhaltungsbetrieb bewahren. Hoffentlich."
To be continued ...

07:37 Oct 5, 2016 

Verwursten does make sense here and I am sure the word has been very carefully chosen by the author. It's about making Elser into something that fits the mould, into something which is not necessarily who he really was. At one point in the text in question the author calls it "Elsers Verwertung für ein stromlinienförmiges Geschichtsbild".

Brigitte's suggestion of 'exploitation' might be a good fit.

07:20 Oct 5, 2016 

@ Thomas
But verwursten really doesn't make sense. I suppose the author meant verwursteln actually. Though, maybe he meant they have made a sausage out of that person. In any case he surely meant that they have made a mess.

06:59 Oct 5, 2016 

Careful, verwursteln and verwursten are two different words with different meanings. Verwursten means to process [into sausauge], to mix up.

http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/verwursten
https://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/verwursten

04:25 Oct 5, 2016 

You may look there:
http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/verwurschteln
http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/wurscht

The meaning of verwurschteln is about "to make a mess of something".

(Wurst is a mess of different kinds of meat.)

17:37 Oct 4, 2016 

It doesn't seem to be a book title but the title of an article in a magazine. (Not that it makes much of a difference but at least that makes it easier to find out the gist of it.)

http://haasis-wortgeburten.anares.org/elser/elser3.php

15:35 Oct 4, 2016 

My approach to translating footnotes is to tranlsate only the publisher's data for books that have not been translated into English. Usually publishers have an international presence and those looking to cross reference will need the German title, as Phil already said.

15:30 Oct 4, 2016 

Without knowing the gist of the book, just a guess

15:08 Oct 4, 2016 

I've translated all the other titles (in brackets) after the original titles.
It doesn't seem to have had an English translation done so far as it isn't in the titles listed as available in English found so far.

13:14 Oct 4, 2016 

It's the title of a book. In the unlikely event that someone wants to follow up the reference, they'll need its German name.

13:06 Oct 4, 2016 

Would something like 'making mincemeat of' work? It continues the meat theme.

12:47 Oct 4, 2016 

Thanks for that, no, I am not translating this book but another, and this title is listed in a footnote as a reference. The footnote is appended to a statement to the effect that 30 years on only the man's home village has named a street after him but not one German town has done so. You have however given me an idea and I will search to see if the book concerned has been translated and, if so, what it's title is.

12:35 Oct 4, 2016 

If you are translating this book I would imagine that your client would have already chosen the title. The German word literally translates into "making sausages" and would need to be rendered significantly differently in English. My experience is that many book titles end up completely different in foreign editions.