BRD (Germany)
BRD is a non- official abbreviation for the Federal Republic of Germany, sometimes used in scientific and in particular political context analogous to the symbol " DDR " during the epoch from 1949 until 1990. Shall in official pronouncements of the Federal Republic, the abbreviation since the early 1970s, no longer needed.
Origin and use of the term
Abbreviation in the Federal Republic of Germany
After the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany, the abbreviation was there initially used value-free. The Society for German Language identified in 1988 as the oldest evidence of " BRD " the essay " The constitutional foundations of the Federal Republic of Germany " of the then Professor of Public Law and International Law at the University of Freiburg, Wilhelm Grewe, in the German legal magazine of 20 June 1949th to a certain extent the acronym BRD was in use as early as the 1950s. The spelling Duden - 1956 to 1996 in West Germany mainly for the official German spelling - led in 1967 the abbreviation for the first time in its 16th edition. It was only in July 1965 put the former Federal Ministry for All-German Affairs under Erich Mende (FDP) "Guidelines for the designation [ I. ] of Germany; [ II ], the lines of demarcation within Germany; [III. ] Of places within Germany ( label policy ) ' fixed. It features in the Joint Ministerial ( GMBl. p 227 f ) has been described:
"The Federal Republic of Germany shall - without prejudice to the fact that their territorial jurisdiction is currently limited to the scope of the Basic Law - the German Empire as a subject of international law, while respecting its legal identity continues. Instead of explicit designation, Federal Republic of Germany ', which has established the Basic Law, should the short form, Germany ' always be used when the management of the full name is not required. [ ... ] The abbreviation, FRG ' or the designation, Federal Republic ' without adding, Germany ' should not be used. [ ... ] In 1945, occupied by the Soviet Union territory of Germany west of the Oder -Neisse line, with the exception of Berlin is in political parlance as' Soviet occupation zone of Germany ', abbreviated as' SBZ ', also referred to in short form as, the Soviet Zone '. It is no objection that the term, means Germany ' is used. "
Beginning of the 1970s began a controversy about the abbreviation, as in some states the use was prohibited because it was ostracized by the frequent use in the GDR as a communist " invention " and "agitation formula ". By avoiding the acronym BRD, the West German side wanted signs and prevent that western and eastern German state will be provided by analog abbreviations to a level of language use in the GDR. The Federal Republic of Germany considered itself despite all the relaxations in the German - German relations always as international law only legitimate German state ( no international recognition of the GDR ). The term " Germany " it claimed for Germany as a whole and thus representative for itself through the continued use of this term, the presence of a German nation should - be kept in the public consciousness, so as not to endanger the state goal of reunification - Germany as a whole. On May 31 In 1974, recommended the Government of the Federation and the Länder "that are the full name, Federal Republic of Germany used in official parlance, ' " should.
Since October 4, 1976, there is a circular from the Minister of Culture of Schleswig -Holstein ( NBl. KM. Schl. HS - 274), which explains the abbreviation for BRD not " desirable." Management Legally, it can not enforce the undesirability due to the freedom of expression. However, the spelling " Germany " was seen until the 1990s in some West German schools as a writing error.
In 1977 the company was taken up in the list of words of the year in relation to the political controversy surrounding the acronym in the 1970s, the abbreviation BRD for German Language ( GfdS ).
Andreas von Scholer, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior announced on 30 November 1979 the German Bundestag, the information that is to refrain from the use of the acronym " BRD ". Having already the ministries of education in individual countries had indicated in the seventies that the full name " Federal Republic of Germany " should be used in the classroom, summarized the (KMK ) in its 202nd plenary meeting on 12 February 1981 decision, the acronym BRD no longer be used in textbooks and cartographic works for the school. The Resolution of the Standing Conference was subsequently implemented by individual countries through publication in their official journals in national law, among other things, in Baden- Württemberg on April 14, 1981, in Schleswig -Holstein on August 4, 1981.
The official opinion to Germany is one of the few cases (see also spelling ) in which an attempt was made in this way, to intervene directly in the Federal German language.
The left- terrorist Red Army Faction used as the abbreviation BRD.
In the 1980s, joined in connection with the Flick affair of the " Republic of purchased " the acronym with the meaning of a " banana republic Germany ".
Abbreviation in the German Democratic Republic
In the German Democratic Republic, the Federal Republic was usually called in the first two decades of the German division of West Germany. The SED leadership thus avoided the official name Federal Republic of Germany. In official letter initially were also the terms " West German Federal Republic " and " German Federal Republic " used. This especially the analogy with the state name German Democratic Republic came to the fore in order to emphasize the postulated by the Soviet Union two-state theory, and keep open the term Germany for a pan- German nation. As a reflex that this designation was even partly used in the Federal Republic of displaced politicians, dismissed the federal government in their label policy of 1961 " German Federal Republic " as " terminological equivalent of, two-state theory ' " from which the designation as " incorrect " and "avoid principle " was branded.
The East German literature took on the name. However, this changed in 1968 with the entry into force of the new GDR constitution, with which the German Democratic Republic, adopted by the goal of reunification. Since then, in addition to the official state name Federal Republic of Germany was formally strengthened uses the abbreviation BRD in the GDR to the Federal Republic. This should express the equality of the two states, but the term spread also in common parlance.
Consented West German abbreviations
In the former West Germany were up to German reunification and partially also after the abbreviations BR Germany (also BRep Germany ), BR Dt., BR Dtl. , Brdt. , BRep.Dtschl. , BRep. Dtschld. , B'Rep. Dt., B.Rep. Dtld. , BRep.D, BR Dtld. or in some cases - as far as contextual - simply BRep. and Dtld. preferred; use of the abbreviation BRD was and is officially not allowed ( see also section " Current Use"). In colloquial usage, the short name of the Federal Republic was customary for the Federal Republic of Germany.
Vehicle nationality mark
With the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, a dispute over the allocation of the existing automotive Nationality Letter D for Germany was also called " D- plate ". The German Democratic Republic was with the allocation of "DDR" agreed, but demanded that the Federal Republic of the use of the abbreviation " BRD " as a result of division. However, due to the exclusive representation claim and the (partial ) identity with the German Reich, the Federal Republic was still on the D as a mark internationally and could also prevail.
To other receivables counter for a shortcut Germany, their use in official correspondence of the Federal Republic of Germany was banned and was not allowed in the current language. In the GDR, the nationality code GDR was compulsory from 1 January 1974. Before the letter D was also used there. Hence the name for the West German television magazine, marked D, which reported updates in East and West.
Chance of submerged vehicles with a country code " UC" as a political expression of opinion on, partly in addition to the D-sign.
International abbreviations
International and were partly the corresponding abbreviations are as FRG ( Federal Republic of Germany for ) in English and RFA ( République Fédérale d' Allemagne ) in French usual. The Russian abbreviation ФРГ ( for Федеративная Республика Германия, Federatiwnaja Germanija Respublika ) is very common even today.
For the united Germany, various abbreviations have prevailed:
- D: as an automotive nationality mark and civilian aircraft identifier,
- DE ( DEU next country code of the international standards ISO 3166 ): the internet and international addresses (eg in air waybills )
- GER (official team abbreviation of the IOC; Latin Germania ): at international sporting events.
Today's use
Since the end of the Cold War in the late 20th century and with the reunification of Germany, the discussion about the acronym BRD has lost its urgency. So sets the dictionary since the 1990s, " BRD " with " Federal Republic of Germany " equal while during the Cold War still insisted that it was a " non-official abbreviation". Since then, occasionally also used the the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Federal Agency for Civic Education on their websites and in the publication of scientific publications by the controversial abbreviation BRD. In part, the abbreviation is used in the media, such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the Süddeutsche Zeitung or in the world, even if she now refers to the unified Germany.
Chance is now the acronym BRD still used by right-wing extremists such as Horst Mahler, and nationalists, to illustrate that the Federal Republic of Germany in their view, on the one hand only a part of Germany ( the one in the borders of 1937 ) would include - in revanchist circles to measure the German - Polish border Treaty with the former eastern territories of Germany from 1990 no meaning - and on the other hand is not a sovereign state is but only an "organizational form of a modality of the enemy forces of the German Empire " (OMF -BRD ) - based on the Carlo Schmid in 1948 marked concept of "organizational form of a modality of foreign rule ". In addition, the abbreviation is used in representations that view the Federal Republic as illegitimate state whose government faced so-called " Acting Reich governments."
Similar dispute
A similar ideologically guided discussion there was around the concepts of Berlin ( West), West Berlin and West Berlin with the abbreviation WB. The in Berlin ( West) and the Federal Republic of Germany ( "West Germany " ) used clamp assembly should the unity of the city of Berlin, which was divided into two parts, to make it clear. On the part of the GDR was attempted by combining spelling "West Berlin" to create the impression of a separate geographical ( such as the West Indies ) and political territory ( " Self- political unity of Western Berlin" ), and that of Berlin, delineate the capital of the German Democratic Republic.
Similarly, a political debate around the term "West Germany " or with regard to the fact that the GDR could not be foreign to the Federal Republic, the abbreviation " GDR", which was used for example in the Springer press only in quotes. Revealed