The language of communism, which developed in East Germany during its
40-year existence, is being saved by the German government. The Ministry
of Research and Technology in Bonn is spending around Pounds sterling 115
000 on a database to store four million words of text which originated in
East Germany.
It will capture terms such as Oberweltkriminalitaet, or capitalist-inspired
crime, which translates literally as overworld crime – the opposite of crime
in the underworld. The database will be used mainly by linguists.
