Why do I need to know Ungehorsam?

Because it’s a word you may come across anywhere from the parents’ evening at school to media reports on recent protests. Plus, it can be used as both a noun and an adjective (though this version doesn’t have a capital ‘u’) so you’re basically learning two words in one!

What does it mean? 

In its noun form, der Ungehorsam (pronounced like this) means disobedience, while the adjective form can be used to describe a person (or perhaps a naughty pet) as disobedient. 

Ungehorsam can be used in any situation where someone is refusing to do what they’re told, though you’re most likely to use it to describe children, teenagers or animals who have a hard time following instructions. With adults, you might use a more euphemistic term, like hartnäckig (stubborn) or eigenwillig (headstrong) to imply that they don’t enjoy kowtowing to authority figures. 

Another context you’ll often hear Ungehorsam in is in the sense of ziviler Ungehorsam – or civil disobedience. This has been a major tactic of climate activists in recent months, who have used acts of civil disobedience as a means of protest. 

A major act of ziviler Ungehorsam, happened when a group of activists poured oil on Gustav Klimt’s “Death and Life” painting in the Leopold Museum in November 2022.

In a statement, the activists wrote: “We need immediate measures against #ClimateBreakdown NOW. Lowering the speed limit to 100km/h on highways costs nothing to implement, saves 460 million tons of CO2 per year in #Austria alone and leads to less noise, better air quality and safer roads.”

Another activist also glued himself to the protective glass in front of the picture.

READ ALSO: Eco-protesters pour black liquid on Klimt painting in Vienna museum

It’s a pretty long word – how can I remember it?

There are a few ways to remember this word that you may find helpful. One is to look a little bit at the structure of the word and its possible etymology. 

As you probably know, hören in German means “to hear” or “to listen”. Meanwhile, the word “gehören” has its roots in a Middle High German word meaning “to listen to” or “to obey”. These days, gehören is generally used to mean “to belong to” or “to be part of”. 

Looked at like that, someone who is ungehorsam is someone who may not be good at listening to others, or who doesn’t quite belong in their social group because they have hard time following the rules. To make it even easier to remember, imagine that person is called ‘Sam’. 

Use it like this: 

“Wenn du weiter so ungehorsam bist, gibt’s eine Woche Fernsehvebot!”

If you continue to be so disobedient, there’ll be no TV for a week!

“Ziviler Ungehorsam sorgt dafür, dass die Klimabewegung mehr Aufmerksamkeit bekommt.” 

Civil disobedience ensures that the climate movement gets more attention.