Schnitzermacher!

[muckefuck]

This week's Reader has a capsule review of the Fassbinder film Katzelmacher which includes the bizarre parenthetical remark: "The title is Bavarian slang for 'stud'." I hope the reviewer doesn't try to pick up any Bavarian studs, because the actual meaning is more like "wop". The original Katzelmacher were itinerent Italian tinkers in Austria and southeastern Germany. (Katzel is a corruption of an Italian word for "frying pan".) It soon became a pejorative term for foreign workers from Italy and was later extended to cover those from other nations as well. (Fassbinder's character in the film is actually from Greece.)

Another epithet with a colourful history is Kümmeltürke. Kümmeltürkei is obsolete student slang for the region around the city of Halle in Sachsen-Anhalt, which was once the capital of German caraway (i.e. Kümmel) production. So, naturally, students from there came to be called Kümmeltürken. Eventually, however, real Turks began to arrive in Germany and the word was applied to them. I'm not sure what makes it sound more insulting than just Türke. Because it's longer? Because it carries the suggestion that Turks smell funny? (But caraway smells good!)

Comments

[my-tallest.livejournal.com]

Maybe they were thinking "oily bo-hunk" and wrote "stud"