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Ididntdothis

These used to be the ultimate symbol of “Spießertum”. Funny how things change and trends come and go.

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They still are :)

"Spießertum"

I'm getting the translation of philistine, which seems a bit harsh?

Anything that better captures the flavour, for an Anglophone?

I got "fuddy-duddy", so presumably it was seen as an old (or old-fashioned) person's hobby.

bourgeois is probably the right translation

Not quite. The Spießbürger is aggressively oriented towards rule-abiding behaviour and is always keen on enforcing said rules and regulations within it's environment. Also the Spießbürger finds rather creative ways to "persuade" others within his reach to abide by said rules and regulations.

The funny thing is that a lot of the people who hate Spießbürgers like to impose rules and regulations on people and tell them what they are allowed to say or think.

No, "philistine" is actually quite right. That's how Jesus Christ called them.

You could also call them submissive, hypocrite squareheaded cowards.

The "Spieß" seems to translate to "skewer", "spit", "pike". So, they sting, but are not very sharp. They always side with the authority du jour, because that keeps them safe.

The translation is correct, but your interpretation is wrong. "Spießbürger" is a medieval term, referring to citizens enlisted in a city's defense forces as spearmen, and was originally used derogatorily by the upper classes, who were mounted on horses instead. Later, it was mostly used by students to ridicule the "uneducated" masses. See famous German poet Heinrich Heine (translated from the Wikipedia article):

"In general, the residents of Göttingen are divided into students, professors, philistines, and beasts... The number of philistines of Göttingen is rather large, like sand, or more precisely, like shit by the seashore; truly, when I saw them in the morning, with their dirty faces and white invoices, before the gates of the academic court, I could barely believe how God could create so much scum."

The modern use of the word, referring to somebody who is petty, obedient to any authority, bland and unpleasant, was probably shaped by Ödön von Horvath's novel "Der ewige Spießer" (The Eternal Philistine). The pejorative was popular among German students in the wake of the anti-fascist protests of 1968, referring to those set in their (Nazi) ways due to lack of critical thinking.

Note: Most of this comment is just me summarizing the German Wikipedia article on the word. I am not a philologist.

Thank you for the interesting reference to Heine., which is nicely translated, btw. I didn't know this.

I assumed, the "spearmen" background, however, I find the analogy to be, probably by accident, to have a much wider reach, which I can not really communicate in English, since the vocabulary differs too much for that.

Thanks for the interesting comment.

When I posted I thought about a translation but drew a blank. It’s somewhere between conservative, law abiding, rules oriented but also community oriented. But everybody has their own connotations so there is no real definition. Generally it’s used a derogatory term. Nobody calls themself a Spießbürger.

In the US, those people are called tools.

A "tool" is something else. there is no equivalent in the US.

It's really really hard to translate stereotypes from one country to another. There are a lot of US stereotypes that you can't translate to Germany either.

How about 'follower'?

A 'stick in the mud'?

As a "Spießer" you must start somewhen.

Do Germans still credit Marxist class theory?

This has nothing to do with Marx.

How would you translate "petit bourgeois" in German?

Kleinbürger? Depends on the meaning.

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