Talk:Hinterland

Usage in Germany

{Title amended by Steue (talk) 23:37, 29 April 2023 (UTC)}

I don't know, if it is official, but where I come from (southern Germany) the word 'Hinterland' is mainly used in a military context, meaning "land behind the front", from which the front is supplied, although of course the non-military context is also known here.
If someone could confirm that, maybe that should also be written in the article.
{Formerly unsigned contribution under an IP address, from 2007-03-13.
signature added by Steue (talk) 23:42, 29 April 2023 (UTC)}

Can't confirm that, can't remember anyone ever used the word in that context in everyday life. Possible that I heard it in a war movie once or twice.

{Formerly unsigned comment under an IP address, from 2007-08-17.

Signature added by Steue (talk) 23:55, 29 April 2023 (UTC)}

i come frome south germany too an this is absolutly [not true] what u say:)

i was in the special forces there an NEVER heared this word there.. in privat life i heared it quite often.. mainly used in military :)

this is a normal word..with its roots in the colonialism..like the article says.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.129.40.67 (talk) 09:57, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

{Personal attcks and respectless expressions removed by Steue (talk) 00:03, 30 April 2023 (UTC).}

I lived in the southern parts of Germany - like the others before. I also never ave heared it in this usage. BUT it might be, I never joined the army. War is not our mainpoint in conversations.

In the cities "hinterland" has a stong "sound" or "taste" or "feeling": People form the "hinterland" (also called "Hinterländler" or "Hinterweltler"-->Behind the wor[l]d") are are special kind of people. They dont have a clue about the world, have no connection to the 'modern world", but they are narcissistic and think they would be "center of the world" and they would know how the world works. A "hinterländler", a person form the "hinterland" could be imagened as someone who lives at the "middle of nowere". If such a person comes to a city, for. ex. goes to a party and is talking about "the production of bigger cows" or reports about the best politics to recive world wide peace, than everyone will know that he is from the "hinterland", from the middle-of-nowere. And everyone would laugh. Thats the taste of "hinterland". So my preconception is: Only people from the "hinterland" join the army, and might use this term in a military way. ;-) 95.157.17.217 (talk) 01:56, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

From where some of my Family has been from, the Hinterlands was a place to "Keep out of." It was generally beyond the most eastern districts of civilization in the Fatherland. Generally it was a densely forested area that was just across the Odre River, although it may have had a more western district line that lapsed due to the harvesting of trees for fires and constructions. Lumber was commonly allowed to be harvested from the edge of the Hinterlands. There should be no people residing in the Hinterlands, as it was a place that the Banished, most often a bad person from another culture, oft came out of; although there sometimes were explorers. It was a place to be left to nature. It appears to be not anymore? Gnostics (talk) 17:55, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

• I CAN confirm: I rember having heard and read it in relation to World War II, just as the original/first contributor described it.

• If what ever contemporary group (e.g. Special Forces) didn't use this word (today or in the last 20-40 years), this is no proof that it never existed or no longer is valid.

• What the 4th contributor (95.157.17.217) calls 'Hinterweltler' (someone living in the behind world), I know as 'Hinterwäldler' (someone living in the behind woods).

According to: Herman Paul, 'Deutsches Wörterbuch' (German Dictionary), 9th ed., 1992, lemma 'Hinterwäldler' the original term was 'Hinterwäldler'. Later the famous Friedrich Nietzsche changed it, in a 'word play' (literal translation of 'Wortspiel'), to 'Hinterweltler'.

• Re. the 5th contribution (from Gnostics):
  The river which he called 'Odre' is in Germany and in English called the 'Oder' and in Poland (where it nowadays is located) the 'Odra' (with an "a" at the end).

So this usage/connotation seems to be from a time before 1945.

• Just for information: In Germany (as far as I have experienced, and I live in Germany since more than 60 years) the area around a city or town is called 'das Umland' or 'die Vororte' (for better understanding: Vor-Orte); I never heard or read 'das Hinterland' used for such surroundings.

• The same dictionary ("Paul"), under the lemma 'Hinterland', relates 'Hinterland' only to the environment of a state capital (German: Hauptstadt). But the source for this usage is a dictionary from 1873.

• The: Gerhard Wahrig, 'Deutsches Wörterbuch', ed. 2000, does not have a lemma 'Hinterweltler'. And it's lemma 'Hinterwäldler' dos not mention 'Hinterweltler'; it only defines 'Hinterwäldler' as a person: unpolished, farmerish, out-of-world, naïv.
  (But NO mention of:
  • 'narcisstic',
  • 'center of the world' or
  • 'they would know how the world works'.)

• The 'Duden Lexikon' from 1966 does not contain both.

Ping welcome, Steue (talk) 03:25, 30 April 2023 (UTC)

'X has a vast hinterland'

I don't recognize the meaning of 'X has a vast hinterland' given. I always understood a person's hinterland to be a metaphor for the other interests they can return to when the public role (e.g. in politics) is over. Does anyone else recognise the definition given? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Yaris678 (talk • contribs) 22:49, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

I have never in my life heard this phrase. Is there any external reference at all for this usage? The OED doesn't contain one. Such an obscure neologism does not, IMHO, belong here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.161.99.191 (talk) 10:28, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

I've never heard it either, and the description in the footnote seems to have some political bias. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.53.217.98 (talk) 16:18, 24 December 2011 (UTC)

I've never heard or used it either, however, searching for "hinterland knowledge" brings up many examples. I'm not saying that means it is correct... after all, Merriam Webster argues that "irregardless" is a word simply because it is used often. The mistaken use of a nonsense term does not make it correct, but I feel that with "hinterland knowledge", it may be a somewhat archaic term, used mainly in Britain. At least I try (talk) 10:01, 1 October 2021 (UTC)

It has gained widespread usage in British polical/cultural journalism e.g. "[Mark Zuckerberg] a man seemingly without a cultural hinterland" from 2024. It's definitely not archaic, but it's use is perhaps slightly "rarified". Dazigster (talk) 08:55, 28 September 2024 (UTC)

I would describe your understanding of the phrase as more inference from the meaning than the meaning itself. However, I've never seen it used in a positive sense either. It's usually used as a shorthand to criticise the "student activist>SPAD>MP" party pipeline, more usually expressed more verbosely as "never had a job outside politics". Dazigster (talk) 09:07, 28 September 2024 (UTC)

'foreland'

Should this article be linking to the foreland article, given that the latter is currently talking about a spot on the Isle of Wight? The link makes no sense. Surely, if the use of foreland described in this article is accurate, we can link to a more relevent page. 71.104.177.96 (talk) 06:29, 27 July 2009 (UTC)