science

LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii

LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii rather than just read about it. In short: LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii: Notizbuch eines Philologen (1947) is a book by Victor Klemperer, Professor of Literature at the Dresden University of Technology. The title, half in Latin and half in German, translates to The Language of the Third Reich: A Philologist's Notebook; the book is published in English translation as The Language of the Third Reich.

Key takeaways

LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii: Notizbuch eines Philologen (1947) is a book by Victor Klemperer, Professor of Literature at the Dresden University of Technology. The title, half in Latin and half in German, translates to The Language of the Third Reich: A Philologist's Notebook; the book is published in English translation as The Language of the Third Reich.

Content Lingua Tertii Imperii studies the way that Nazi propaganda altered the German language to inculcate people with the ideas of Nazism. The book was written in the form of personal notes which Klemperer wrote in his diary, especially from the rise of the Nazi regime in 1933, and even more after 1935, when Klemperer was stripped of his academic title because he was of Jewish descent. His diary became a notebook in which he noted and commented on the linguistic relativity of the German used by Nazi officials, ordinary citizens, and even fellow Jews. Klemperer wrote the book, based on his notes, in 1945–1946.

LTI demonstrates changes in the German language in most of the population. In contrast, the text also emphasizes the idea that resistance to oppression begins by questioning the constant use of buzzwords. Both the book and its author unexpectedly survived the war. LTI was first published in 1947 in Germany. It underlines odd constructions of words intended to give a "scientific" or neutral aspect to otherwise heavily engaged discourses, as well as significant every-day behaviour.

Examples Klemperer notes that much of the Nazi language involved appropriating old words and adapting their meaning, rather than making new ones. Among the examples he recorded of propagandistic language use were the following.

Recurrent words Artfremd ("Alien to the species") Ewig ("Eternal") E.gr.: der ewige Jude (the eternal Jew); das ewige Deutschland (the eternal Germany) fanatisch, Fanatismus (Fanatical / Fanaticism; used in a particularly Orwellian way: strongly positively connoted for the "good" side, and strongly negatively connoted for the "bad" side) Instinkt (instinct) spontan (spontaneous)

Euphemisms (Schleierwörter) Evakuierung ("evacuation"): deportation Holen ("pick up"): arrest Konzentrationslager ("concentration camp"): extermination camp Krise ("crisis"): defeat Sonderbehandlung ("special treatment"): murder Verschärfte Vernehmung ("strengthened interrogation"): torture

Recurrent expressions and motives the war "imposed" onto a peace-loving Führer. (France and the United Kingdom did declare war on Germany, but only after Germany remilitarized the Rhineland, annexed Austria, annexed Czechoslovakia and invaded Poland.) the "incommensurable hate" of the Jews – an example of Orwellian ambiguity: the Jews have an "incommensurable hate" of the Third Reich (aggressive or conspiratorial), but the German people have an "incommensurable hate" of the Jews (spontaneous and legitimate). Examples taken from Victor Klemperer's diaries: January 1, 1935 – language tertii imperii: Lutze's New Year message to the SA...Our "fanatical will" twice in a non-pejorative sense. Emphasis on believing without understanding. (1) "fanatical engagement of the SA," (2) "fanatical sense of commitment." November 24, 1936 – On the language of the Third Reich:...The Fuhrer must be followed blindly, blindly! They do not need to explain anything at all, since they are accountable to no one. Today it occurred to me: Never has the tension between human power and powerlessness, human knowledge and human stupidity been so overwhelmingly great as now. February 19, 1938 - ...the basic principle of the whole language of the Third Reich became apparent to me: a bad conscience; its triad: defending oneself, praising oneself, accusing - never a moment of calm testimony. May 23, 1938 – The aim of education in the Third Reich and of the language of the Third Reich, is to expand the popular stratum in everyone to such an extent that the thinking stratum is suffocated. August 29, 1939 – Lingua...there is no longer any talk of Bolshevists, but instead of the Russian people. December 31, 1940 – language tertii imperii: In Hitler's New Year Order of the Day to the troops again the "victories of unparalleled dimensions," again the American superlative, "The year of 1941 will see the accomplishment of the greatest victory in our history."

Prefixes Groß- ("Great") Volk(s)- ("Volk = people, Volks = of or for the people (prefix)"). Volksgemeinschaft designated the racially pure community of nations. Volkswagen is an example of a term which has outlived the Third Reich. Welt- ("world", as in Weltanschauung, "intuition/view of the world"): this was quite a rare, specific and cultured term before the Third Reich, but became an everyday word. It came to designate the instinctive understanding of complex geo-political problems by the Nazis, which allowed them to openly begin invasions, twist facts or violate human rights, in the name of a higher ideal and in accordance to their theory of the world.

Neologisms arisieren ("to aryanise") aufnorden ("to nordicise up", make more Nordic). entjuden ("to de-Jew"). Conversely, after the war, a strong trend of Entnazifizierung ("denazification") took place. Untermenschentum ("sub-humanity", from Untermensch)

See also Big Lie Doublespeak Glossary of Nazi Germany Joseph Goebbels Groupthink Language of Nazi concentration camps Newspeak Philology Völkischer Beobachter

References

Sources Victor Klemperer (May 2006). Language of the Third Reich: LTI — Lingua Tertii Imperii. Continuum Impacts. ISBN 978-0826491305. Victor Klemperer (2010). Elke Fröhlich (ed.). LTI — Lingua Tertii Imperii: Notizbuch eines Philologen (in German) (24th ed.). Stuttgart: Reclam. ISBN 978-315-010743-0.

External links

Nazi Language and Terminology at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Index to the LTI (German) Selections from LTI by David Greenbaum

Illustrations

LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii illustration

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii

In research: LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1947 non-fiction books, Books about Nazism, Books about discourse analysis, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
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Frequently asked questions

What is LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii in simple terms?

Why does LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii.