Impact Airing

"Jeder Schuss, ein Russ; jeder Stoss, ein Franzos'," the German army slogan went in the First World War. "Every shot, a Russian; Every push, a Frenchman."  

I heard that when I was a kid, and thought it was funny. Too remote from my life to take seriously. Too far back in history.

Thanks to the internet I just learned that there's a recording of this slogan in a song. And it continues:

"Und die Artillerie nicht faul [And the artillery (do) not (be) lazy]

gebt den Britten auf das Maul" [Give it to the Brits in the mouth."]

Stoss, which can mean everything from "push...shove...jab...thrust... punch" to "impact," is now making the rounds in Germany in the compound, "Stosslüften." Luft you will recognize as "air" as in Lufthansa, the German airlines, or Luftwaffe, the German air force. When used as a verb, lüften, "to air," as in "ventilate," it is a neologism, and means something like "to air out (a room). The compound with Stoss in it suggests it should be done with force.

When I first went to Germany back in 1960 there were two things that brought home the fact that I was in an alien land.  I had never realized that in the U.S., the default state of a room was one where the doors were left open. In Germany I was scolded by older relatives for not closing the door behind me, and I observed they were not exceptional in their expectations. The German default state for a door was closed. And if you think about it further, it may occur to you that Americans have always had the luxury of wide-open spaces, and often build their houses where one room opens into another and there is no divider between them. In Europe generally, Germany being no exception, people often lived until recent times in single rooms, and one closed doors both to keep the warmth in when the heat was on, and for privacy.

In my dark culture-shock moments I took that as a metaphor for what the Germans could be: closed-minded and rigid. Once I began to find Germany a less hostile place, I explained it away by reminding myself that Germans lived through the war without central heating. My great uncle would raise his newspaper closer and closer to the window to capture the light as the sun went down; only after it was quite dark would he turn on a light. Ironically, these days, I have enough money to live comfortably, but I also live in California where houses like mine don't have furnaces. We heat with a gas fireplace and space heaters and I regularly lecture the dogs on the importance of closing the door behind them, to keep the heat in. We're still working on that.

The second thing that struck me was a curiosity of train etiquette.  I had a lot of relatives to meet and I spent a lot of time on trains, where cars had compartments with seats for six people, three on one side, three, facing them, on the other. In America, we didn't travel much by train, but when we did, the seats were all facing forward and you could go from start to destination without speaking to your fellow travelers at all. In Germany, at least in 1960, it seemed like there would always be somebody who wanted to open the window. When they did, they'd immediately turn to the other passengers and ask, "Zieht's?" - [Is there a draft?]

My online German-English dictionary incorrectly tells me that this new post-covid verb, stosslüften should be translated "impact ventilation" - I say "incorrect" because "ventilation" is not a verb. They're no more helpful with the corresponding noun, Stosslüftung.  That word, they say, means "inrush airing." It makes sense, once somebody explains this German preoccupation with airing closed spaces out. It was an obsession before covid; since covid it has become an even bigger one. Some housing contracts have "airing out your rooms" written in as a requirement.

Brave new world, where virtues of old (avoiding drafts) are giving way to new virtues (freeze your ass off, convince yourself it's a good way to avoid covid - and it also protects against mildew.)  Check out here and here and here, if you don't believe me.

In the U.S., Republicans and Democrats are still at swords' point over whether masking and distancing is simply advisable, if that, or whether it should be required. When my husband, who won't let me go shopping because I'm old and have weak lungs, comes in with the groceries, the first words out of his mouth are a report on how many people were wearing masks. He's really upset about Biden's suggestion that they are no longer absolutely necessary.

Germany and the U.S. once went to war over whether Hitler should rule the world. The good guys won that one and we were able to move on to things of lesser import, such as whether doors should be left open or closed. We've continued to close the gap. Deutsche Bahn, the German railroad system, are now breathing a sigh of relief that their train personnel no longer have to face angry passengers who refuse to wear masks. The amount of violence against them had increased by 25% in 2022 over 2021.

The conservatives have won this battle, for now. It remains to be seen whether this is a good move, whether the requirement was more trouble than it was worth.

It also remains to be seen whether Germans are willing to go to jail for refusing to follow the requirement in their contract to open wide their doors and windows, even in mid-winter. And whether Germans want to prioritize keeping the heat in now that Putin has turned off the gas so he can fight his war of aggression on the Ukrainians. Or whether they want to get their people to air out their rooms - "by force."

Sometimes planet earth is a very curious place.

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