Abstract The aim of this study is to investigate the enemy concept (das Feindbild) in the political language (die SED-Sprache) using a Critical Discourse Analysis methodology, in order to understand how the enemy concept was used in the political communication by the rulers in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). This linguistic study is focused on argumentation strategies, what kind of pragmatic implications and allusions that was used and how actors and events were characterized. The political rhetoric, an important power tool, has been investigated in the daily newspaper Neues Deutschland, which was controlled by the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). Three important events in the history of the GDR have been studied: the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the expatriation of the black-listed poet Wolf Biermann in 1976 and the strike actions in Poland in 1980. The analytical methods developed by Ruth Wodak et al. have been used in this study. Mainly three different enemy concepts have been identified: The Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), an external enemy, is accused of robbing the GDR of its citizens and having threatened to attack the GDR and to start a civil war (Bürgerkrieg). The decision by the GDR to build the Wall was therefore an act of keeping the peace in Europe and protecting the nation (antifaschistischer Schutzwall). The enemies are described with pejorative attributes like headhunters (Kopfjäger) and warmongers (Kriegstreiber). It has also been investigated how the rhetoric was changed 25 years after the building of the Wall. Wolf Biermann’s protests are described as attacks (Angriffe) by an inside enemy (Klassenfeind) and he allegedly took part in an anti-communist propaganda initiated by the FRG. The expatriation is supported by a great amount of letters to the editor of Neues Deutschland and many of these letters are also supporting a stricter political attitude towards the role of the artists in a socialistic society, initiated by the government. The communication of the strike actions in Poland is more cautious – a strike by workers was officially not possible in a socialistic society. At the beginning of the protests, it is communicated that anti-communist enemies (antikommunistische Kräfte) must be the force behind these activities – but this enemy concept is later changed after an agreement is reached between the workers and the government of Poland. The study has shown that a sophisticated, target oriented, diversified rhetoric from several perspectives can be found behind the enemy concept in the investigated texts. The argumentation strategies are supported by a multitude of rhetorical means.

Wissenschaftliche Gegenstände sind zum Großteil solche, die erst aus einer bestimmten Perspektive – das heißt von einem bestimmten Sichtpunkt aus mit einer bestimmten Blickrichtung und besonderen Fokussierung –interessant werden. Perspektiven dieser Art sind u. a. theoretische Ansätze, deren Prämissen es erlauben, in einer alternativen, aber bestimmten Weise auf schon vermeintlich bekanntes Material zu blicken und einen neuen Gegenstand herauszuarbeiten. Idealerweise stellen Ansätze dieser Art auch ein Methodenrepertoire zur Verfügung und belassen es nicht bei einer groben Andeutung des neuen Blickpunktes, so dass sich an empirischen Analysen die Tauglichkeit des Ansatzes prüfen lässt.

Considering the recent political development in Europe, in which the popularity of right-wing populist parties increases rapidly, studies on right-wing populist parties are of high importance. This paper investigates the language use of two right-wing populist parties; Sverigedemokraterna (SD) in Sweden and die Schweizerische Volkspartei (SVP) in Switzerland. The aim of this research is to detect and analyse salient linguistic features in their election campaigns in order to understand how both parties use language in external communication, and, furthermore, to analyse which world view is thereby displayed. This comparative discourse study uses relevant concepts from linguistic discourse analysis (Spitzmüller & Warnke 2008, 2011) and visual text analysis (Kress & van Leeuwen 2006). The theoretical concepts of politolinguistics, and discourse linguistics in the tradition of Foucault form the theoretical base of this study. The compiled data consists of election material from the national election campaigns of SD in 2014 and of SVP in 2015. The analysis shows that, regardless of differences on the surface structures of their respective languages, the parties produce the same three worldviews on a deeper structure level: the concept of the own identity as an authority in the politic discourse, the concept of one national unity and the concept of a threat to the national unity. Furthermore, the analysis shows that the parties’ language use presents many features which are typical for right wing populist parties in general. In light of recent European political developments, this research is a linguistic contribution to the understanding of right wing populist rhetoric.

Dans notre thèse, nous analysons les représentations sociales de la Neustadt, l’ancien quartier impérial de Strasbourg, par la population locale. Depuis 2010, le "quartier allemand" fait l’objet d’une médiatisation croissante, déclenchée par la candidature de la Communauté urbaine de Strasbourg, qui prévoit le classement de la Neustadt au patrimoine mondial de l’Unesco. La valorisation portée à cet espace urbain ne semble, en revanche, pas converger avec les représentations des habitants de Strasbourg. Nous proposons une approche interdisciplinaire et discursive pour analyser les représentations sociales de la Neustadt à partir de questionnaires et d’entretiens. Nous exploitons le potentiel de deux dispositifs psychosociaux – la "théorie du noyau central" et de l’hypothèse de la "zone muette" – dans le cadre d’une analyse linguistique de discours qui est d’orientation sémantico-cognitive. Des méthodes lexicométriques et des cadres sémantiques (en tant que catégories cognitives d’analyse) sont appliquées afin d’analyser le contenu, la structure, la distribution, la dynamique et les interconnexions des représentations sociales dans le discours. / In our thesis, we analyse the social representations of the Neustadt, former German imperial district in Strasbourg, by the local population. Since 2010, the "German district" is an object of increasing media coverage, provoked by the candidature of the city of Strasbourg, which aims at the inscription of the Neustadt on the UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The valorisation of this urban space, however, seems to disagree with the perception of the Neustadt by the inhabitants of the city. We propose an interdisciplinary and discursive approach to the analysis of the social representations of the Neustadt on the basis of questionnaires and interviews. We use and exploit the potential of two psychosocial concepts – the "theory of the central core" and the "hypothesis of the silent zone" – in the context of a linguistic discourse analysis and a cognitive semantics approach. We apply lexicometric methods and semantic frames (as cognitive categories for analysis) in order to analyse the content, the structure, the distribution, the dynamics and the interconnections of social representations inside the discourse. / In der Dissertation untersuchen wir die sozialen Repräsentationen und die Wahrnehmung der Neustadt, des ehemaligen kaiserlichen Viertels in Straßburg, durch die lokale Bevölkerung. Seit 2010 wird das ‚deutsche Viertel‘ in der lokalen Presse zunehmend thematisiert, was auf die Bewerbung der Stadt Straßburg zurückzuführen ist, mit der die Einschreibung der Neustadt auf die Liste des UNESCO-Weltkulturerbes angestrebt wird. Die aktuelle Wertschätzung der Neustadt scheint allerdings nicht mit der Wahrnehmung durch die Bewohner Straßburgs übereinzustimmen. Wir entwickeln einen interdisziplinären, diskursanalytischen Ansatz und untersuchen die sozialen Repräsentationen der Neustadt anhand von Fragebögen und Interviews. Dabei werden zwei sozialpsychologische Konzepte – die ‚Theorie des zentralen Kerns‘ und die ‚Hypothese der zone muette‘ – in einen kognitiv inspirierten, diskurslinguistischen Ansatz eingebettet. Lexikometrische Verfahren und semantische Frames (kognitive Analysekategorien) werden eingesetzt, um Inhalt, Struktur, Distribution, Dynamik und die Vernetzung sozialer Repräsentationen im Diskurs zu erforschen.