Unword of the year 2024: bio-German

Election of the 34th "Unword of the Year"
Unword of the Year 2024: bio-German

In 2024, the term bio-German was increasingly used in public and social language and especially in social media to categorize, evaluate and discriminate against people on the basis of supposed biological descent criteria. Biodeutsch is made up of the word formation element bio and the adjective deutsch, whereby bio is an abbreviation for biological. The word bio-German is used to construct a racist, biologistic form of nationality. Originally used ironically as a satirical expression that played on the organic label as a seal of quality for organic farming, for several years biodeutsch has been used in a very thoughtless and unreflective, non-satirical, i.e. literal way. Here, 'Germanness' is justified in terms of nature in order to differentiate and devalue Germans with a migration biography. Biodeutsch , together with the associated nouns Biodeutsche and Biodeutscher , stands in a row with other words such as Passdeutsche or echte Deutsche, which serve to ascribe unequal characteristics to groups of people who are equal before the law and thus to classify them hierarchically. This division into supposedly 'real' Germans and second-class Germans, which goes hand in hand with the use of bio-German , is a form of everyday racism.

The jury criticizes not the ironic-satirical, but the discriminatory use of the word, because it violates the idea of democratic equality and inclusion and represents a privileging of the imaginary community of 'bio-Germans' over groups that are excluded from the racist construct of the supposed 'bio-Germans'. The non-ironic use of the word imagines a biological connection between nationality and 'Germanness' that does not exist.

In addition, we criticize the word in second place in 2024:
Heating banThe term ' heating ban ' is a misleading term that was used in connection with the reformed Building Energy Act, which came into force on January 1, 2024, to discredit climate protection measures. The term is misleading because the Building Energy Act does not ban heating or heating systems. Rather, it prohibits the installation of new heating systems that use fossil fuels and instead calls for alternative heating systems that use more environmentally friendly energy sources that are at least 65% renewable.

This year, the jury is once again using the category of the guests' personal unword, which was introduced in 2013.

The personal dirty word of this year's guests Saba-Nur Cheema and Meron Mendel:
imported anti-Semitism: The term imported anti-Semitism suggests that hatred of Jews has become a problem, especially with the influx of migrants (from Arab countries). The term is used in right-wing circles in particular to marginalize Muslims and people with a migration background and to distract from their own anti-Semitism. It is also used to portray Muslims who were socialized in Germany in the second or third generation and have German citizenship as 'imported' and therefore as non-German and not belonging to society.

Unwortstatistik 2024:
The jury received a total of 3172 submissions for the year 2024. A total of 655 different expressions were suggested, of which around 80 met the jury's unword criteria. Among the most frequent entries (at least 10 entries) - not all of which strictly met the jury's criteria - were Besonnenheit (50), biodeutsch (10), D-Day (22), Dubaischokolade (14), kriegstüchtig (58), Nutztier (1227), Remigration (23), Sondervermögen (20), Staatsräson (10), tatsächlich (24), Technologieoffenheit (38), Tierwohl (22), Tierwohllabel (14).

The jury of the institutionally independent and honorary "Unword of the Year" campaign consists of the following members: the four linguists Dr. Kristin Kuck (Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg), Prof. Dr. Martin Reisigl (University of Vienna), Prof. Dr. David Römer (University of Kassel), Prof. Dr. Constanze Spieß (spokesperson of the jury; Philipps University Marburg) and the journalist Katharina Kütemeyer. This year, Saba-Nur Cheema (publicist and political scientist) and Meron Mendel (publicist, historian and educator) were involved as annually changing members.

Please also note the information on the annual Unwort photo exhibition in March 2025, an initiative of Darmstadt photographers (Unwort-Bilder e.V., www.unwort-bilder.de), which is now also steeped in tradition. The vernissage will take place on 21.03.2025 in the Stadtkirche in Darmstadt (Kirschstraße 11).

More information on the "Unwort des Jahres" election can be found here.

For press inquiries, please contact the following address:

Prof. Dr. Constanze Spieß
Spokesperson of the jury
Institute for German Linguistics
Philipps-Universität Marburg
Pilgrimstein. 16
35037 Marburg
kontakt@unwortdesjahres.net