Nachsassen

English translation: imitators

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
German term or phrase:Nachsassen
English translation:imitators
Entered by: David Mossop

13:39 Mar 25, 2011
German to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature
German term or phrase: Nachsassen
This is a sentence in a doctoral thesis about German literature from the Nazi period (I have been commissioned to translate the German quotations):

Weinheber found himself ‘inmitten einer Rotte von Halbschlächtigen, von Nachsassen, von
Durchschnittskünstlern’.

I'm afraid I can only guess at what a Nachsasse is. I have found the following definition (http://www.enzyklo.de/Begriff/Nachsasse):

I Bürger einer benachbarten Stadt II wer unter dem Schutz eines Herrschaftsträgers sitzt III Nachfolger.

If viewed in the context of fin de siècle, I wonder if it might mean 'degenerate'. All help is much appreciated.
David Mossop
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:27
imitators
Explanation:
or:
would-be literary successors (as Nicola suggested)
untalented wannabes
a (blind) followers
(cheap copies)


also see my reference


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Note added at 1 day4 hrs (2011-03-26 17:53:18 GMT)
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scratch the "a" above

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Note added at 1 day4 hrs (2011-03-26 18:06:36 GMT)
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Glad I could help!
Selected response from:

Bernhard Sulzer
United States
Local time: 02:27
Grading comment
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
2 +2peons
Derek Gill Franßen
3imitators
Bernhard Sulzer
Summary of reference entries provided
Nachsasse - follower (imitator)
Bernhard Sulzer

Discussion entries: 11





  

Answers


1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5 peer agreement (net): +2
peons


Explanation:
It seems like the author gave the word a negative connotation. Here is how I came to my suggestion:

"Nachsasse
Maskulinum
auch mit Umlaut.

I
Bürger einer benachbarten Stadt.

[Anredeformel für Stadtrat:] ersamen und weisen, besonder lieben und gueten freunt und nachsessen
1525 BauernkriegQ. I 425
nit allein wir ... sondern auch viel andere unserer n[achsässe]n
1529 SchwäbWB. IV 1896

II
wer unter dem Schutz eines Herrschaftsträgers sitzt.
vgl. Hintersasse (I).

damit [almusen] sind erstlich die armen burger und zugehörigen pfarverwanten, darnach die nachsessen frembder herschaften armleut und zum dritten die landstreicher bedacht
1533 Lindau Sehling,EvKO. XII 202
Informationen zur Quelle vom Heidelberger Hypertextserver (HDHS)
[kaiserliches Mandat:] allen reichs-staenden ... deren vor- oder nachgesetzten obrigkeiten, ihre ... lehen- und land-leuten, unter- oder nachsassen, unterthanen, buerger
1713 CCMarch. III 2 Sp. 182
Faksimile - digitalisiert von der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin

III
Nachfolger.

nachsaß successor
1691 Stieler 2038"
See http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~cd2/drw/e/na/chsa/nachs...

"Nachsel
[...]
Herkunft: Die Datei familysearch.org zeigt, dass der Name aus Thüringen stammt.

Bedeutung: Zoder sagt, Nachsel könnte ein Berufsname sein zum mittelhochdeutschen Wort sel(le) in Bedeutung von 'Geselle'. Im Zusammenhang mit dem Wort 'nachgeordnet' bekommt der Name die Bedeutung von 'Nachgeselle, Unterknecht'. Dazu passt auch der Eintrag aus dem Deutschen Wörterbuch der Brüder Grimm zu 'Nachsasse, Nachsäsze: 1) der in der nähe sitzende, wohnende, der nachbar (...) oder 2) nachfolger, nachkomme'."
See http://origin.www.ndr.de/ndr1niedersachsen/programm/nnds886....

So, to me, it feels like it could mean an "Untertan", i.e., a "subject" (of a King, for example) or, in other words, a "subordinate."

Another, negatively charged word for "subordinate" would be "peon" (see http://thesaurus.com/browse/subordinate ).

Derek Gill Franßen
Germany
Local time: 08:27
Does not meet criteria
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 16

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Ramey Rieger (X): or menials, which would accent their inability. I withdraw my answer in favour of your better one.// Well, Derek, it is my field, and yours IS the better answer. Well done!
15 mins
  -> It is not exactly my field, but I think the question is interesting. I am also not certain that my suggestion really is—was—a "better one" (hence my lower level of confidence), but thank you very much, Ramey. I look forward to seeing what others say. :)

agree  Nicola Wood: yes. and with Ramey's "menials" or maybe "minions" as an alternative whcih sounds more British to me
32 mins
  -> Thank you, Nicola! :)
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1 day 4 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
imitators


Explanation:
or:
would-be literary successors (as Nicola suggested)
untalented wannabes
a (blind) followers
(cheap copies)


also see my reference


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 day4 hrs (2011-03-26 17:53:18 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

scratch the "a" above

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 day4 hrs (2011-03-26 18:06:36 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Glad I could help!

Bernhard Sulzer
United States
Local time: 02:27
Does not meet criteria
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: German
PRO pts in category: 55
Notes to answerer
Asker: This, I feel, hits it exactly on the head. Thanks so much, Bernhard, your contributions are very much valued!

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Reference comments


10 hrs peer agreement (net): +2
Reference: Nachsasse - follower (imitator)

Reference information:
It appears Weinheber's comments are a response to Friedrich Sacher's Weinheber portrayal, published 1932.
Weinheber made these comments in a letter to Sacher which you can read here:
http://www.weinheber.at/anhangsacher2.html

Sacher had implied that Weinheber was just absolutely under the influence and thus following Stefan George:

Quotes from the letter:
"Wesentlich in Ihrer Schrift ist, das Sie mich einen Jünger Georges, oder eigentlich George meinen Meister nennen. ...
...Von einer künstlerischen Nachfolge kann (abgesehen davon, daß hiezu Liebe gehört), schon deshalb keine Rede sein, weil ich das Werk Georges nur in einem kleinen Teil kenne; ...

...Es können (sogar in unserer Zeit), in zwei verschiedenen Ländern und bei verschiedenen Lebensaltern zwei Menschen Männlichkeit und Haltung miteinander gemeinsam haben, ohne sich notgedrungen kennen oder lieben zu müssen oder sonst zueinander in irgend einem Konnex zu stehen. Und was Sie als Gemeinsames empfinden, ist nichts anderes als die strenge Haltung inmitten einer Rotte von Halbschlächtigen, von Nachsassen, von Durchschnittskünstlern. Sie leiten aus einem Gedicht Georges, das ich überhaupt nicht kenne, eine Steigerung ab, von der eine meiner Oden ihren Impetus empfangen haben soll. Nein, das dürfen Sie nicht! ...

...Sie müssen sich mit der Vorstellung vertraut machen, daß hier, in meinem Werk, ein Mensch aus sich heraus, ohne Anlehnung, nur seinem nachtwandlerischen Gefühl um Figur folgend, dem überdimensionierten Temperament Wort und zwar gemäßes Wort (Wort mit Maß und Bändigung) verleiht."
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He made it clear in this letter that he felt he had come to develop his own mind-set, artistry, that he was expressing his own temperament and feelings in words/his poetry - it came naturally and just happened to be similar in form to other previous literary figures and philosophers.

Nachsasse is a "Nachfolger", here maybe more in the sense of a "Nachahmer", an imitator. The fact Weinheber uses this particular word implies he thought his peers were just "imitators" I believe.


This is also discussed here:

(although this article implies Weinheber and his peers were influenced by Nietzschean aesthetics, Weinheber rejected this in the letter above).

At the two generational extremes George is appropriated by Benn as part of a masculine aesthetic aligned to some extent with National Socialism, while Rilke is the model of the younger generation of Hagelstange and Borchert, as an implicit form of resistance. The middle generation, roughly consisting of Weinheber, Becher, and Kaschnitz, (58) is the least polarized and potentially the most interesting. They were all at highly productive stages in their literary careers during the National Socialist period and hence perhaps most representative of the era. Their engagement with George and/or Rilke is part of a larger constellation that includes Friedrich Holderlin and Georg Trakl. (59) Both Weinheber and Becher work extensively with Holderlin, (60) and it is significant that this reception process was similarly conditioned by Nietzschean aesthetics.
...
There is a noticeable hierarchy between the status of 'Nachfolger' and 'Nachahmer' in discourse among poets as well: for example, Becher's poem 'Nachfolge' juxtaposes his poetic 'nachfolgen' of Holderlin with 'die lahme Schar der Junger, | Die billig dich nachahmten' (Becher, IV, 735). Similarly, Weinheber sees himself as above the level of the 'Nachsassen' and 'Durchschnittskunstler' (Weinheber, Briefe, p. 69 (17 September 1932)) and Brecht critically thematizes the notion of 'imitation' in the poem that begins 'Der nur Nachahmende' (1945) (Brecht, XV: Gedichte 5 (1993), 166). (66) This generation of poets (roughly born between 1890 and 1910) exhibits an anxious and sometimes rebellious filial relationship with the immediately preceding generation of writers, broadly consistent with Bloom's Oedipal conception of literary history.


Nachsasse: epigone, follower
http://dwb.uni-trier.de/Projekte/WBB2009/DWB/wbgui_py?lemid=...
nachsasse, nachsäsze, m.
1) der in der nähe sitzende, wohnende, der nachbar: besonder lieben gueten freund und nachsessen. Baumann quellen 1, 425.
2) nachfolger, nachkomme: nachsasz, successor Stieler 2038;

Macrinus, Bassiani nachsasz auf dem thron.
A. Gryphius 1, 373.
auch für nachkommenschaft:

und Stuards nachsasz blüht. 275.


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Note added at 10 hrs (2011-03-26 00:25:43 GMT)
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link for the English article above:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7026/is_4_98/ai_n28168...

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Note added at 2 days23 hrs (2011-03-28 13:05:49 GMT) Post-grading
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corr: was influenced by and thus following Stefan George

Bernhard Sulzer
United States
Does not meet criteria
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: German
PRO pts in category: 55

Peer comments on this reference comment (and responses from the reference poster)
agree  Nicola Wood: Bernhard, you should post this as an answer. It is exactly the point I was trying to suggest with would-be literary successors. You would definitely get my agree
7 hrs
  -> okay Nicola, but you suggested "would-be literary successors" first, also a good alternative. :)
agree  Derek Gill Franßen: Cheers, Bernhard, nice resarch! :)
1 day 11 hrs
  -> thanks a lot, Derek!
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