Whisper joke

In the history of German humour, whisper jokes (German: Flüsterwitze) were jokes that could not be told in public because they address taboo subjects, e.g., criticize authorities.

Whisper jokes in Nazi Germany

Whisper jokes spread in Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler,[1] and served different purposes. Inside Germany, the jokes voiced criticism against the totalitarian regime, which would otherwise have been subject to persecution. They could thus be seen as a form of resistance. In the occupied areas, and especially in the Nazi ghettos, whisper jokes can be interpreted as a means of a survival mechanism.[2]

The following is an example of a whisper joke in Nazi Germany, parodied from the children's prayer: "Dear God, make me good / so I can go to heaven" (Lieber Gott, mach mich fromm / Daß ich in den Himmel komm), rephrased as "Dear God, make me dumb[3] / so I don't come to Dachau" (Lieber Gott, mach mich stumm / Daß ich nicht in Dachau kumm).[4]

There have been quite a few whisper jokes about Adolf Hitler: Hitler is visiting an asylum. The patients lined up by their beds greet him with "Heil Hitler!". Only one man stands aside and does not greet. Hitler gets angry and asks him why. He answers: "I'm not crazy, I am the head of the ward." [5] In 1944 a person was executed for the following one: Hitler and Göring are standing on the Berlin Radio Tower. Hitler tells Göring he wants to do something to cheer up the people of Berlin. “Why don’t you just jump?” Göring suggests.[6]

Joseph Goebbels' Sportpalast speech lead to the spread of a late-war whisper joke, popular in the western part of Germany, especially the Ruhr:

Lieber Tommy fliege weiter,
wir sind alle Bergarbeiter.
Fliege weiter nach Berlin,
da ham’ se alle Ja geschrien.

Dear Tommy, fly further
we're all mine-workers here.
Fly further to Berlin
there they've all screamed Yes.[7]

Late in the war the following whisper jokes circulated: [8]

  • Time is flying. A thousand years are already over ... (mocking the term "thousand-year Reich")
  • Which city has the most warehouses? Berlin: where ever you look there were houses ... (In the center of Berlin, more than 50% of the apartments had been destroyed or severely damaged by the end of the war. [9])
  • Soldiers of the Volkssturm are now send to the front in pairs. One is throwing the stone and the other one shouts "boom".

Whisper jokes in the GDR
Main article: East Germany jokes

In the GDR, whisper jokes ridiculed the Communist party and the state-run elections, or the appalling living conditions in the Communist state. Below is the example of a joke featuring the General Secretary Erich Honecker, a variant from the 2006 Oscar-winning movie The Lives of Others:

Early in the morning, Erich Honecker arrives at his office and opens his window. He greets the Sun, saying: "Good morning, dear Sun!", and the sun replies: "Good morning, dear Erich!" At noon Honecker heads to the window and says: "Good day, dear Sun!" — "Good day, dear Erich!" In the evening, Erich heads once more to the window, and says: "Good evening, dear Sun!" Hearing nothing, Honecker says again: "Good evening, dear Sun! What's the matter?" The sun retorts: "Kiss my arse. I'm in the West now!"

References
Citations
  1. Stokker, Kathleen (1997). Folklore fights the Nazis: humor in occupied Norway, 1940-1945. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 50. ISBN 0-299-15444-0.
  2. Jenkins, Henry; McPherson, Tara (2002). Hop on pop: the politics and pleasures of popular culture. Shattuc, Jane. Duke University Press. p. 344. ISBN 0-8223-2737-6.
  3. Note: "dumb" (for stumm) here means "speechless", "mute", rather than "stupid". In the cited translation the word was chosen for a rhyme.
  4. Shareen Blair Brysac (2002). Resisting Hitler: Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra. p. 160. ISBN 0199923884.
  5. Hans-Jochen Gamm, Der Flüsterwitz im Dritten Reich. 2nd edition. List Verlag, München 1964, pp.. 104–116.
  6. Crossland, David. “New Book on Nazi-Era Humor: Did You Hear the One About Hitler?, Der Spiegel International, August 30, 2006
  7. Gamm 1993.
  8. Chapter Das Inferno. Ausgang des Dritten Reiches, in: Hans-Jochen Gamm: Der Flüsterwitz im Dritten Reich. 2. edition List Verlag, München 1964, S. 154–166.
  9. Kriegsschäden in Berlin - Zerstörung in Zahlen
Sources
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