Wessi

Westerner is a slang term meaning, according to the Duden someone who comes from the " old states; West German " is. The corresponding counter word is Ossi, which is for people from " East Germany, originating from the new federal states " often used pejoratively.

Term use

Decades before German reunification, the term Westerner was rather derogatory for West German " Hicks " used in West Berlin, especially for those who treat injuries sustained after Berlin or were there to visit. Analogously, called the West Berlin the rest of the then Federal Republic and West German country, partly due to this day still feel like it. The term was then used disparagingly, when West German were meant as a so-called " cone tourists " or as carriers of gentrification or to criticize a supposedly worn increasingly to Berlin " sterility " of the West German province.

During the turn of the years 1989 and 1990, the term Westerner changed its meaning and called all citizens of the former West Germany and West Berlin. Today, it sometimes leads to misunderstandings, since the term still has both meanings. As a counterpart was to describe former GDR citizens, the term Ossi. Simultaneously with this, developed Westerner and Ossi - jokes. Prior to 1990, were in the GDR, the " FRG citizens " ( officially existed in West Germany but only one German nationality) also referred to as a Westerner or as Bundi. The terms Westerner and Easterner used Hans Magnus Enzensberger in 1987 in the book Oh Europe, there is still in its spellings Wessie and Ossie. In a chapter in this book Enzensberger describes a fictional reunified Germany in 2006, in which Ossie and Wessies " bitterest enemy " are.

In general, the term Westerner is still occupied latent negative in many parts of the new federal states, which can also be seen at the word - extension Better Westerner, the similar sounds not without reason as alls; conversely, the associations with the term Ossi in western Germany are also more negative. The Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper created in 2009 the concept of super- Westerners for so-called "Schwaben", which is used as a synonym for pedantic and comparatively wealthier newcomers from the south and west by the Republic in Berlin.

Other terms are Zoni, derogatory to GDR citizens, and Ossi, for GDR citizens who moved into the former West Germany after reunification.

Furthermore, there is the concept Wossi as a composition of " Westerner " and " Ossi ". This is an embossed in the new Länder term for a resident of the western provinces, also called the East " Bundi ", which has taken root after the turn in the eastern states.