Talk:Gregor Gysi

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Well,

I am new in Wikipedia and just wanted to correct the appreviation of the German social democratic party which is SPD (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, Social Democratic Party of Germany). Such (minor) mistakes might be omitted by always given the original language name of all organisations mentioned, just as I saw that for Chinese names also the Chinese characters are given (what I appreciate very much).

Wolfgang Pomrehn

Fixed the abbreviation. For future reference, you can just click "edit this page" and correct any errors you see -- be bold! --Delirium 19:10, Aug 4, 2003 (UTC)

[edit] Name

What kind of name is Gysi actually? It sounds Hungarian to me. Is my assumption correct? Meursault2004 12:21, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

: gysi is jewish or eastgerman (-european)

[edit] Jewish Origin?

I read in the article: He is nominally of Jewish origin. What is meant with "nominally"? His father was nominally jew, his mother not, and he does not consider himself as a jew. If his mother would have been jewish, this sentence could make some sense, but not like this. -- Arne List 17:24, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

Gysi looks like a Hungarian name, but Google doesn't turn up any Hungarian Gysis, only Germans. There is no such thing as a "Jewish name" unless it is a Hebrew name, which Gysi is not. And a person can't be of "nominally Jewish origin." If his mother is not Jewish then he is not Jewish. The most that can be said is that he is of Jewish descent on his father's side. Adam 09:20, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

Well I guess the Liberal Jewish Communities over here would accept him, if he was brought up Jewish. But this might not have been the case since he grew up in the GDR. Besides it does not matter, but I am curious were you read that Arne? He is without any doubt the most charismatic person among politicians over here; if you ask me. He is next to Oscar Lafontaine, former Social Democrat (who feels a bit populist to me at times, but please don't bother about my limited perspective; I simply chocked once or twice about one or two of his sentences)the main force behind the union of the Left Party, a world that must make Americans choke. the union of former Eastern Party members and diverse Western left groups, some left the Social democrats to join, since they felt thy could not support the "neo-liberal" drift any longer. They brought together the former Eastern Communist Party and united it with the western left groups of the most diverse colors, partly Social Democrats and or Union people joined, since they felt the Social Democrats had moved too much towards a neo-liberal outlook (see Blair's New Labor). Gysi was the Eastern "frontman" in the enterprise and "LaFontaine" the Western.

Anyway you should consider to contribute something over at the "DIE LINKE/The Left". I am just passing by, with not much time. But if you are very, very patient, I may return in early September and help to shift a little information over from the German site.

Besides, Adam's comment is completely correct, apart from the exception to the rule there is no such thing as a Jewish name, that's a Nazi myth. Very shortly the Prussian king tried to stigmatize Jews after the emancipation via names, but his civil servants simply ignored his orders over the times; since matters were not so easy. Jewish names, due to the ghetto situation were only less modernized than German ones. Here lies the core of the later Nazi myth. A good point in case is the Vice President of the Berlin police, whose name was ?Bernhard? Weiss, Goebbels and his forces tried to drive him up the pole, which is a longer story, what is important in this context is that they called him Isidor (another longer story), if there would have been such a thing as a typically Jewish name, would they have needed to pin an additional one on him? All this of cause did not prevent them from spreading the myth of Jewish names. Weiss is simply White, a perfectly German name. My mother's name was Hahn, animals were considered suspicious too. [1] LeaNder 09:58, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

Well, there is still some lingering effect from the historical fact that the Nazi definition of "Jew" was, unlike the definition used by Jews themselves, "anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent". Thus, for example, Gysi would be eligible for emigration to Israel under its Law of Return if he so chose, and would have been persecuted had he been alive during WW2. --Delirium 15:55, 26 October 2007 (UTC)