The German Association for German Language (GfdS) has named “Ampel-Aus” the German Word of the Year for 2024. “Klimaschönfärberei” and “kriegstüchtig” followed in second and third place respectively.

Ampel-Aus named German word of the year 2024

Selected annually by a jury of media experts and linguists, the GfdS word of the year should reflect German political, economic and social life over the past 365 days. In 2024, the association decided to recognise the rollercoaster that was German politics this year, selecting “Ampel-Aus” (“traffic light off”) from a list of over 2.000 terms.

In its announcement, the GfdS pointed out that the association named Ampelzoff (traffic light quarrels or coalition quarrels) number five in Germany’s top words of 2023. Germany’s SPD-Greens-FDP “traffic light coalition” (Ampelkoalition) has had a turbulent working relationship since its birth in 2021, and 2024 spelt its end.

In November, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) sacked Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) for failing to cooperate with coalition partners. Almost all FDP government ministers followed Lindner out the door, and the coalition collapsed just under a year before the next scheduled federal election. The “traffic light” had been “turned off”.

After the snap federal election on February 23, 2025, the Ampelkoalition will likely be resigned to the history books. But with the country facing multiple crises - escalating conflict in Ukraine, an ailing economy, climate change, the rise of the far right and a worker shortage - next year is expected to be another colourful year in German politics.

Germany in 2024: Greenwashing and war preparations

In second place was “Klimaschönfärberei”, the practice of companies making unsubstantiated claims of sustainable practices or adopting tokenistic sustainable practices to divert attention from work which is environmentally damaging.

While the English term “greenwashing” is also commonly used in German, the association chose the German-language term for the 2024 ranking and directed readers to Climinator, a new tool which uses AI to efficiently fact-check companies’ sustainability claims.

On to another global crisis, “kriegstüchtig” (“war-ready”) was selected as the third top word for 2024. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the German government has been preparing for a possible escalation, increasing military spending and launching bunker location systems for civilians.

In June 2024, Federal Defence Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) declared that “Germany must be "kriegstüchtig" by 2029”, with many security experts predicting that Russia could be capable of launching a military attack on NATO alliance countries by 2030. 

Top German words of the year 2024

Overall, these were the top German words of 2024, according to the GfdS: 

1. Ampel-Aus (traffic light off)
2. Klimaschönfärberei (greenwashing)
3. Kriegstüchtig (war-ready)
4. Rechtsdrift (drift to the right)
5. generative Wende (generative (AI) turning point)
6. SBGG (short for Selbstbestimmungsgesetz, the gender self-determination law)
7. Life-Work-Balance
8. Messerverbot (knife ban)
9. Angstsparen (saving money out of fear)
10. Deckelwahnsinn (cap craziness, a reference to the EU law on attaching bottle caps)

To find out more details about why each word was chosen for the 2024 list check out the GfdS website.

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