Eurovets president once had secret life as redneck ranter
Dieter Massin
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When he’s not working behind the scenes to elect his friends to WMA offices, Dieter Massin of Germany holds sway over the Eurovets. He’s the president of the EVAA. But I recently learned that he’s something else: a formerly anonymous columnist who now writes a blog! What’s not to like? Dieter (whose last name is pronounced Mah-SEEN) asked me for a picture for his blog, and he graciously gave me a photo credit in the mugshot I sent (taken at the WMA General Assembly in August). Here is Dieter’s blog — or “blokk,” as he calls it. One entry describes how Dieter used the pen name Juppa. And: “As a man of the people who enjoys his long-deserved retirement, Juppa . . . has to everything and everyone a clear opinion that he — sometimes even unasked — in a humorous way (reveals) in his version of the Ruhrpott dialect.”
I asked a friend to tell me about Dieter aka “Juppa.” Here’s what he wrote:
Ruhrdeutsch or Kohlenpottdeutsch is a regional dialect or ‘regiolect’ that developed in the German central industrialized region of Westphalia. It is an extremely variable sociolinguistic language variety; it is a wonderful, highly flexible language that is a dream of creative people. Also, it is as redneck as redneck can be. Basically, you can turn any world of almost any language into this regional slang. It is highly inventive and really funny.
But don’t tell this to the people in the region. After all, it is their everyday language.
Dieter Massin used his native idiom (Ruhr German) in a column for his local newspaper under the pen name of JUPPA.He mused most often about local, national and international sports. From 1992 to 1995, nobody in Ahlen, Westphalia, knew the real name of Juppa. Then Dieter agreed to publish a book with Juppa stories and he had to reveal his identity.
He started his weekly column in his local newspaper again in 2005 and now has his own website “Juppas Blokk.”
My friend noted that the “Ruhr Valley was full of rednecks and nothing but rednecks. Their dialect was pure redneck, Juppa’s dialect is pure redneck. The Ruhr Valley had been a magnet for workers from Poland and Masuria (southeast of Berlin) whereas (neighboring areas) remained pretty homogeneous and most families could be traced back for a thousand years easily. Most people in (a neighboring) region see those dudes as riff-raff, even today. Personally, I like the suckers. They are down to earth, straight forward, funny as hell.”
Gosh, now I gotta learn German. Or a dialect thereof.
One Response
What the…? It’s considered an ugly dialect by outsiders, but so is the dialect I speak. Every German region sees the other dialects and their speakers as inferiors.
There’s nothing redneck in his blog. He’s writing in the vernacular. And he’s writing about track and other sports. Again, WTF?!
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