Schussfreiheit
English translation: free (or clear) field of fire; standing permission to shoot
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| 22:39 Jul 10, 2023 |
| German to English translations [PRO] Military / Defense | |||||||
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|  Selected response from: Björn Vrooman Local time: 02:38 | ||||||
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| Summary of answers provided | ||||
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| 3 +1 | standing permission to shoot |
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| 3 +1 | free or clear field of fire |
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| Discussion entries: 10 | |
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Answers
12 hrs confidence: 
peer agreement (net): +1
peer agreement (net): +1standing permission to shoot Explanation: As a former soldier, who also spent 3 years as a liaison officer on the Czech-German border, the term Schussfreiheit would normally refer to the border guards' freedom to shoot border crossers without having to ask permission, not having a free field of fire, which would be something like "freie Schussfelder". That said, if the author is unfamiliar with military terminology, they could have used the wrong word as the context does support the open/free field of fire meaning. (Suggest Bjorn post his answer as well.) |
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1 day 4 hrs confidence: peer agreement (net): +1
peer agreement (net): +1free or clear field of fire Explanation: First off, Ted is right that this isn't as clear cut as I originally thought. Take this sentence, for example: "Für freie Sicht und Schussfreiheit wurden Leute zwangsumgesiedelt, das Eigentum verfiel und man konnte den Staat nicht dafür verklagen." https://taz.de/!5334883/ They seem to be talking about two different concepts and it sounds as if the standing permission to shoot was the reason for the forced relocation. Similarly: "Um Schussfreiheit zu schaffen, wurden auf dem Friedhof Gräber entfernt. Das Betreten des Friedhofes war nur mit einem speziellen Ausweis erlaubt." https://dailysoft.com/berlinwall/photographs/berlinwall-1983... Pretty ambiguous. In fact, this paragraph shares some of the issues with the one you quoted, as the author doesn't make clear if the removal of the graves and the special ID requirement are connected somehow (or whether there just wasn't enough space for a longer explanation). After some more digging, I'm pretty sure, though, that this is simply about a clear or free field of fire, for three reasons: (1) The word "Schussfreiheit" is used in a variety of contexts and in reference to more than one time period. To give you an example: "Darüber hinaus gibt es mittlerweile auch Gespräche mit den Landwirten. Riesige Felder sind unübersichtlich, kaum zu bejagen. 'Deshalb versuchen wir, mit den Landwirten überein zu kommen, dass sie auf großen Feldern Schuss-Schneisen in Form von Blühstreifen anlegen. Das ist für die Natur gut und wir Jäger haben Sicht- und Schussfreiheit', sagt Frank Röllig." https://www.saechsische.de/plus/wolf-wildschweine-saechsisch... This, of course, means that farmers should partially clear their fields, not that the hunters can shoot whatever (or whomever!) they want. Another example, from a different time period: "Die napoleonischen Truppen brechen 1812 Kirche und Vorstadt ab, um Schussfreiheit zu erlangen." https://www.magdeburg-tourist.de/index.phtml?a=2&NavID=557.2... Obviously has little to do with the GDR or the death strip, but the word is still being used, which brings us to… (2) …the grammar aspect of this. Here's a different quote about the 1812 bit: "Das vierte Gebäude in dieser Reihe sei wie die gesamte Vorstadt Sudenburg von Napoleons Truppen abgerissen worden, um eine bessere Schuss-Freiheit auf die Festung Magdeburg zu haben, wie die EKD weiter mitteilte." https://www.evangelisch.de/inhalte/176425/01-10-2020/kirche-... Aside from the fact that the example above also describes something that happened more than a hundred years earlier, the adjective attached to "Schussfreiheit"—"besser"—can't be used in conjunction with a standing permission. The same… (3) …can be said about some of the sources that include a reference to the GDR: "…wo man die Versöhnungskirche wegen besserer Schussfreiheit 1985 gesprengt hat." https://www.zeit.de/2016/50/maueropfer-gedenken-kolumne-ahre... Or: "Jedes Kind weiß, dass im Grünen Band, also entlang der ehemaligen Grenze, massiv Chemikalien zum Einsatz gebracht wurden, um den Grenzsoldaten Schussfreiheit zu verschaffen." https://www.lra-sm.de/?p=16622 The use of chemicals can only be a reference to having a clear line of sight/fire: "Zu DDR-Zeiten wurde das Grenzgebiet wegen der Schussfreiheit gemäht, gepflügt und mit Unkraut-Ex behandelt." https://berliner-abendblatt.de/serien/mauerfall-jubilaeum-le... "Zäune, Stacheldraht, blanker vegetationsfreier Boden, Beton – wie eine tiefe Wunde zog sich der Grenzstreifen durch die Landschaft. Um Sicht- und Schussfreiheit zu gewährleisten wurde er mit viel Aufwand freigehalten. Erst im wenig genutzten Hinterland der Grenze, der sogenannten Sperrzone, hatte die Natur eine Chance." https://www.schaalsee.de/fileadmin/schaalsee/Downloads/05_Se... Plus, combining "Sichtfreiheit" and "Schussfreiheit" might look like a redundancy but isn't unusual either. Another link referencing an earlier time period: "Zur Festungszeit war das Gelände baumfrei, um Sicht und Schussfreiheit zu gewährleisten." https://www.burg-regenstein.de/galerien/ruine-1/ I apologize for the wall of text, but I think it's important to keep these three things in mind, as well as this: "After the cemetery was closed in 1951, graves that had either been destroyed during the war or were no longer being maintained were razed." https://www.berlin.de/mauer/en/sites/traces-of-the-wall/rema... Considering we're talking about (a) a graveyard (and not a settlement or the like) that was (b) part of the death strip (sections E, F, and G, at least: https://www.berlin.de/sehenswuerdigkeiten/3561200-3558930-in... ) and (c) had already been closed to the public prior to being marked as part of the strip, "Schussfreiheit," I think, can only describe the result of leveling the site, as the permission would have been in effect regardless of whether the area had been cleared or not. This is also what they mean here by "Flurbereinigung": "Bereits in den fünfziger Jahren waren auf dem nicht mehr belegten Invalidenfriedhof zahlreiche Grabsteine und Kreuze sowie gusseiserne Einfriedungen tonnenweise abgetragen worden. Diese 'Flurbereinigung' wurde nach dem Bau der Berliner Mauer 1961 forciert, um für die Grenzsoldaten Sicht- und Schussfreiheit zu gewinnen." helmutcaspar.de/aktuelles16/blnpdm16/friedhof.html For an ENS reference, see https://www.trngcmd.marines.mil/Portals/207/Docs/FMTBE/Stude... Lastly, from Berlin's website: "Listen to how a train station became a ghost station, a cemetery became a death strip, house walls became border walls and a church became an obstacle in the field of fire." https://www.berlin.de/en/tickets/education-lectures/die-berl... Someone else seems to have had roughly the same idea: "...the SED tore down several buildings to make room for a uniform border strip that provided border soldiers with an 'unobstructed view and clear field of fire.'" https://www.stiftung-berliner-mauer.de/en/topics/berlin-wall |
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