THE POLITICAL CAREER OF A PROVERB HEUTE ROT, MORGEN TOT
The majority of our proverbs are of medieval origin. For most of them, the time of active use has finished and they remain existent only as cold relics within the historic collections of proverbs42. Some proverbs, however, remain actively used until today. Among them is the examined German proverb Heute rot, morgen tot (lit.: today red, tomorrow dead). This work is focused (besides an investigation into origin, variants and foreign-language parallels) on depict- ing the effects of societal change in use and appearance of the proverb. The metaphoric use of the color word red, which has traditionally been linked to love, blood, or blush, thus symbolizing health, youth, or briskness43, has been extended by an additional political symbolism during the late 18th century. Thereby, the proverb became a part of politically motivated language.During the 20th century anti-proverbs emerged which have been transformed ironically and satirically. It becomes obvious that the process of transformation has been taking place within the political discourse until today. Even currently discussed topics, such as the increased surveil- lance of communication or the growing Muslim migration to Western Europe may trigger novel transformation.