The word “biodeutsch” has been chosen as the “Unword of the Year” for 2024 by the jury of the self-proclaimed language-critical “Unword” action in Marburg. The jury had received more than 2,800 submissions prior to the announcement. The term, the jury said, had been used more frequently in public and social discourse, especially in social media, “to divide, evaluate, and discriminate people based on perceived biological origin criteria.” The jury’s justification does not address the often negative use of the term in an anti-German context, but instead aims to expose everything non-German at this point.
Coming in second was the term “Heizungsverbot” (Heating Ban), which the jury described as a misleading term used in connection with the revised Building Energy Act, which went into effect on January 1, 2024, to discredit climate-friendly measures. It was further explained that the term is misleading because the building energy act does not ban heating or heating systems, but rather prohibits the installation of new heating systems that use fossil fuels and instead requires the use of alternative heating systems that use at least 65% renewable energy.
The fact that these allegedly “climate-friendly measures” cost house owners a five-figure sum in times of recession and the largest economic crisis in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, does not concern the “Language-Critical Action” in Marburg, nor does it concern the green lobby behind it.
The jury of the “Unword of the Year” action consists of four linguists, a journalist, and annually changing members. This year, the participant Saba-Nur Cheema, a publicist and political scientist, and Meron Mendel, a publicist, historian, and director of the Anne Frank Educational Center, took part. The two latter chose the term “imported antisemitism” as their personal unword, suggesting that hatred of Jews has become a problem primarily due to the influx of migrants. The term is often used in right-wing circles to exclude Muslims and people with a migration background “and to divert attention from one’s own antisemitism” the jury said.
It seems that the jury, since 2015 and even more so since the escalation of the Middle East conflict since October 2023, has overlooked the wave of antisemitic crimes in Germany, primarily committed by Islamist migrants.