[tgv]

> Germans (because of course)

I don't know if it's the reason you imply. In the 70s, there were big debates in Germany about privacy and data storage. They spoke of one's data shadow (Datenschatten). I suspect this word comes from that tradition. The reason the word exists would then be the reflection (Verwaltigung) on WW2.

[xenocratus]

I took the "because of course" to be about having a word for everything - a stereotypical idea about the German language.

[greycol]

My understanding was that it was more that words can be concatenated into new words in German which is not so much a stereotype as more a misunderstanding of fact. I.e. You wouldn't think much about something like enjoyable-comuppence but schadenfreude looks more impressive without the hyphen.

[gf000]

I would argue it's not the exact same thing. Sure, when overdone then you would get the same. But the way it is, commonly used concatenated words are words, not just hyphenated words. They are used as words and without an extra though people don't parse them into separate parts, unlike they do with a list of words with hyphens.

E.g. you don't think of firefighter as fire-fighter in ordinary usage.

[dragontamer]

There's also the other implication that the (East) Germans were Soviet just 35 years ago.

But yes. We Americans know Germans more for their silly big words. But statements like that can be misinterpreted as the German perspective of themselves doesn't quite match the American stereotypes.

[eqvinox]

I was implying all 3 of the above:

- we learned the hard way that data will be used to kill people, during the Nazi regime

- we learned it again in the GDR with the Stasi being a little less obvious but still ruining people's livelihoods

- and German comes up with compound words for such things

[microtonal]

East Germany was not Soviet. Under influence/control of the Soviets, yes, but not part of the Soviet Union.

[yreg]

That's like saying that English (because of course) is able to describe the concept by a combination of words.

[theptip]

The Stasi would be the obvious cultural context.

In the US of course the government buys this sort of information legally from corporations.

[Swizec]

> The Stasi would be the obvious cultural context.

There is also the rather famous example of how earlier census data was used in the 40’s.

Once the government has your data, they have it. The next generation of representatives may not follow all the same rules and norms

[RobotToaster]

The stasi could only dream of the kind of surveillance the NSA et al has today.

[throwaway173738]

Or Facebook or Equifax.

[tgv]

The West-German debate in the 70s came from the realization that the sheer size of the Holocaust/Shoah was in no small degree due to bureaucratic record keeping. Storing someone's ethnicity is potentially dangerous for that person.

[cyanydeez]

Yeah, so Germany had a ton of secret police files and of course learned very well what happens when a bunch of people start collecting dossiers.

So yeah, of course they've developed that type of distrust. Americans should have also after the 50-60s paranoia of red scare, black people etc. Instead they just spend a few decades building a anti-social state.

[Centigonal]

Germany resisted Google Street View until 2023, which was something I thought was very impressive.

[mrsvanwinkle]

Love it, also love how Datenschatten can also imply that it disappears when someone shines light on it

[reactordev]

If only our past 20 year old self data could be so ephemeral…

Who doesn’t want that old post going extinct forever when they were shit faced outside of a bar in Nashville but now they are in their mid-life and are “respectable” members of society.

[maxweylandt]

> Verwaltigung

is not a word -- I think you mean Vergangenheitsbewältigung?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vergangenheitsbew%C3%A4ltigung