19 June 2009

Gestapo

My friend Magee is in DC and texted me asking the etymology of "gestapo" or what it actually meant in German. I didn't have an answer right away! But here it is:

Ge⋅sta⋅po
[guh-stah-poh; Ger. guh-shtah-poh]
/gəˈstɑpoʊ; Ger. gəˈʃtɑpoʊ/

The term was first coined in 1934, from Ger. Gestapo, from
"Geheime Staats-polizei," literally "secret state police," set up by Hermann Göring in Prussia in 1933, extended to all Germany in January 1934.

Thanks (c) Douglas Harper 2001.

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