12 December 2008

Weltverbesserungswahn

A Sense of Cycle Motion
Only the Germans can give us words like weltverbesserungswahn. We're better off for it.
It can be translated as 'the conviction that the world could be better'. Which is a fine description of why this blog exists.
Long John Felix
Better for everyone, especially rugrats like this.
Black and White Snow bike
We just have to stick to the path, despite the challenges.
Couple on Square
And looking good while doing it certainly a plus.

12 comments:

Gratistotal said...

i dont understand this word, no idea about german language!

Anonymous said...

Funny to see a German title on your blog. :) I love my language!

Unknown said...

Beautiful as always!

xoxo-
Alice

Anneke said...

Just like to point out that 'wahn' (similar to Dutch 'waan') means something like delusion, so the delusion that the world could be a better place. Maybe not something to advocate? Maybe 'weltverbesserungssicherheit' is a better word? (is it even a word?)

Colville-Andersen said...

I read the word... and definition... in the William Boyd short story Beulah Berlin A-Z.

Anonymous said...

Anneke: re: Weltverbesserungssicherheit ... not a word. While Wahn can mean delusion, I think in this case the best translation would be obsession. It's not just the conviction that the world could be better; you have to be actively working on making the world better to be in the proper Weltverbesserungswahn. It's a great word.

Anonymous said...

I love German for words like this . . . though my ability to speak German is just soooo limited.

However, I do have a slightly different word to explain why Copenhagenize exists.

If we all spent less time driving, and more time riding about our daily business, perhaps we'll all end up riding economic miracle bikes:

Wirtschaftswunderfahrrad

Anonymous said...

I'll add my 'Zwei Euro Centen':

Spaß-Maschine

Mädchen Magnet

Herz-Beschleuniger

Eleganz Anwender

:)

Anonymous said...

too funny. Enter 'Spaß' in Wikipedia, guess what kind of picture is on top?

Nuff said.

Brian Barnard said...

Enjoying the Friedrich Nietzsche reference in the poster in the background. "Friedrich never came to Sweden? He lived in Denmark" ... yes?

Colville-Andersen said...

that is funny, marc!
it's not Nietzsche... it's Caspar David Friedrich, the German artist.

Anonymous said...

This is really good.
Thanks for this nice post.