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GERMAN WORD OF THE DAY

German word of the day: Verzweiflung

If you're starting to lose all hope of mastering German, don't despair: we have just the word to describe your situation. And it may just help hone your language skills, too.

German word of the day
Photo: Francesco Ungaro / Unsplash + Nicolas Raymond / flickr

Why do I need to know Verzweiflung?

Because this powerful and versatile word can be used to describe a range of strong emotions – and it also tells you something about how the German language functions. If that’s not enough, it may also help you remember another useful German word that comes up on occasion. 

What does it mean? 

Die Verzweiflung (pronounced like this) means despair, desperation or exasperation. It can be used anytime you’re at the end of your tether: for example, if you’re in despair at the political situation in your country, or you’re faced with a seemingly unsolvable issue. On a slightly less extreme note, it’s occasionally used to describe a general feeling of frustration, but more often it denotes a strong emotion like distress or hopelessness.

As in English, you not only have (or feel) desperation, but can also do something out of desperation (aus Verzweiflung). If you really work at it, you may be able to invoke this emotion in someone else. If this happens, it’s described as bringing someone to desperation (zur Verzweiflung bringen), which basically means to exasperate someone. 

As you might imagine, the noun Verzweiflung can also be turned into an adjective to describe how you feel. If you’re verzweifelt, it means you’re desperate or in despair. 

READ ALSO: German word of the day: Schweigen

Where does it come from? 

If you look closely at the noun Verzweiflung or the adjective verzweifeln, you may be able to spot a familiar word in there. That’s right: verzweifeln is basically a combination of the “ver-” prefix and zweifeln, which means “to doubt”.

When you see “ver-” at the start of a German word, there are a few different ways it can impact its meaning. In some cases, it indicates a negation or giving something away, as in the verb verkaufen, which means to sell. In other cases, like verbessern (to improve), it indicates a change in state. In the worst-case scenario, it indicates something going wrong, like verlaufen, which changes laufen (to walk) to getting lost or losing your way.

Verzweiflung could be interpreted as an instance of the last meaning. Though doubts and uncertainty are perfectly normal, dealing with them the wrong way can drive you to despair. 

Use it like this: 

Mein Therapeut hat mir geholfen, meine Verzweiflung zu überwinden.

My therapist helped me overcome my despair.

Seine ständigen Fragen hat mich zur Verzweiflung getrieben.

His constant questions drove me to exasperation. 

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GERMAN WORD OF THE DAY

German word of the day: Sommersonnenwende

This German word marks the changing of seasons, and the longest day of the year.

German word of the day: Sommersonnenwende

Die Sommersonnenwende, pronounced like this, is the German term for the summer solstice, which is the day that marks the meteorological beginning of summer in Germany and the northern hemisphere.

Alternative names for the day are Sommer Solstitium, which comes from the Latin term, and Mittsommer.

Like so many great German words, the term for the summer solstice is a compound noun which translates quite literally. It’s made up of three simple words: Sommer (summer), Sonnen (sun) and Wende (turn or turnaround).

So the name for the summer solstice in German is meant to remind you that this is the day that the sun ends its journey northward in the sky, and turns around.

As you can probably guess, the winter solstice is called die Wintersonnenwende.

You might recognise the term Wende from another compound noun that got a fair amount of attention in recent years – Energiewende, which means energy transition, has also been used to describe Germany’s big picture plans to phase out fossil fuel use.

The summer solstice usually falls on June 21st or 22nd. But it fell on June 20th this year, due to 2024 being a leap year.

How is ‘die Sommersonnenwende’ observed in Germany

Humans have taken note of, and celebrated, the summer solstice for thousands of years.

Archaeologists suggest that Stone Age cultures were already able to determine the day. Evidence of this was uncovered in 2004 at the site of a 7000-year-old solar observatory found in Goseck in Saxony-Anhalt.

Among Germanic tribes, the summer solstice was celebrated with pagan folk festivals that often included fire rituals.

After Christianization of the region, the Catholic Church tried to abolish the pagan solstice traditions – eventually designating the day for a memorial day for John the Baptist (June 24th), and adopting the fire as a symbol for Jesus Christ. 

Most of the original solstice traditions have been lost, but some are being reinvigorated for tourism, especially on the Baltic Sea coast.

More broadly, the long daylight hours experienced in the weeks before and after the summer solstice, offer a chance to stay out or do outdoor activities late into the evening. There are also a number of music festivals around Germany at this time of year.

READ ALSO: How to make the most of Germany’s long summer days

Use it like this:

Die Sonne geht so spät unter, es muss die Sommersonnenwende sein.

The sun is setting so late, it must be the summer solstice!

Haben Sie dieses Jahr Pläne, die Sommersonnenwende zu feiern?

Do you have plans to celebrate the summer soltice this year?

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