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Spannende Vielfalt (Wortspiel)

Glossary entry

German term or phrase:

wirkungsträchtig

English translation:

ripe with possibility

Added to glossary by Sonja Marks-Terrey
Jul 26, 2013 08:25
10 yrs ago
German term

wirkungsträchtig

German to English Art/Literary Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting art history, Blaue Reiter
Dass sich die „Blauen Reiter“ dennoch durchsetzten, lag natürlich vor allem an den außergewöhnlichen Begabungen der einzelnen Künstler, die in dieses *wirkungsträchtige* Münchner Klima einströmten und die Entscheidung bringen sollten.

How do you understand "wirkungsträchtig" here? I have looked at it for too long now and am thoroughly confused. Any thoughts welcome.

Here is a bit more of the preceding text for context. It's an art calendar with a Blaue Reiter theme:
„München hatte einen großen Tag“, so auch Will Grohmann, einer der einflussreichsten Kunstschriftsteller und -kritiker, die die Vermittlung der zeitgenössischen Kunst zwischen 1918 und 1968 maßgeblich geprägt haben, am Tag der Ausstellungseröffnung ... Gäste waren von überall her gekommen und äußerten den Wunsch, der „Blaue Reiter“ möchte auch in anderen Großstädten Europas gezeigt werden.“
Ein unglaubliche Erfolgsgeschichte, wenn man bedenkt, dass zu Beginn des „Blauen Reiters“ – von wenigen Ausnahmen abgesehen – weder das zeitgenössische Publikum noch die Kunstkritiker wirklich in der Lage waren, die neue Sprache der Malerei zu verstehen. Für Anton von Werner, seinerzeit Direktor der Berliner Kunstakademie, war „Der Blaue Reiter“ „ein interessantes Objekt für eine psychiatrische Studie“, den Kritiker der Neuen Zürcher Zeitung erfasste gar „ein gelindes Grauen“.
Dass sich die „Blauen Reiter“ dennoch durchsetzten, lag natürlich vor allem an den außergewöhnlichen Begabungen der einzelnen Künstler, die in dieses *wirkungsträchtige* Münchner Klima einströmten und die Entscheidung bringen sollten.
Proposed translations (English)
3 burgeoning with possibility
3 +1 rousing/exhilirating/captivating
3 +1 febrile, dynamic, high-powered
3 +1 fertile
References
-trächtig

Discussion

Michael Martin, MA Aug 2, 2013:
Great discussion. Just one minor point. Regurgitating phrases through thesaurus.com is for the uninitiated. My techniques are a trifle more advanced than that..
Lancashireman Jul 31, 2013:
Horst Someone here liked your “ripe with potential” suggestion so much, they regurgitated it after running it through thesaurus.com. Re Wirkung, we still await Sonja’s solution for this part of the compound adjective. There has to be more to it than the capacity to cause change.
Helen Shiner Jul 31, 2013:
Opacity Sometimes one just has to accept that a sentence or more in a source text is either meaningless or opaque, and the only remedy is to ask the author exactly what he/she meant.
Horst Huber (X) Jul 31, 2013:
I would ask for some basic explanations. I should never have thought "ripe" meant the same thing as "rife with". And quite simply, the word "trächtig", usually applied to animals, means "pregnant", nothing more, nothing less. "Wirkung" is the capacity to cause change. As usual, German allows us to leave things unspecified in ways English does not. One would specify what kind of innovative effects the artistic scene might come to generate.
gangels (X) Jul 30, 2013:
A ripe possibility is a contradiction in terms, but a "possibility conducive to something" makes more sense.
Lancashireman Jul 30, 2013:
"but then I stumble over Wirkung" 'Ripe' (= burgeoning) and 'potential' (= possibility) seem to address the 'trächtig' element in this compound adjective, but I would be interested to see your final version to discover how you finally solved the problem of 'Wirkung': http://www.dict.cc/?s=wirkung
Munich (or the climate of Munich) being 'ripe with possibility' doesn't mean much to me; I wonder what your readers will make of it?
Horst Huber (X) Jul 29, 2013:
Thank you. I hesitate to post suggestions when a "quorum" of votes have been cast.
Sonja Marks-Terrey (asker) Jul 28, 2013:
Oh my goodness Nice to have such erudite and creative answers. I was thinking along the lines of fecund, heavy with..., ripe with... but then I stumble over "Wirkung". Thanks to everyone so far. I shall ponder further tomorrow.
Helen Shiner Jul 28, 2013:
@Horst It's a shame that you haven't posted your 'rife' or 'ripe' 'with potential'.
Helen Shiner Jul 26, 2013:
@Horst Yes, thanks for confirming that. We can only go with what is written: rife with potential is good. You should post it as an answer.
Helen Shiner Jul 26, 2013:
Brigitte I am not sure what you are trying to establish here. Yes, there were thousands of artists from all over the world in Munich. You cannot compare 1902 with 1911.
Horst Huber (X) Jul 26, 2013:
Yes, "febrile, dynamic, high-owered", "rousing/exhilirating/captivating" we can all read into the situation, but the word "wirkungsträchtig" says no more than rife with potential or just plain productive.
BrigitteHilgner Jul 26, 2013:
München leuchtete Just a couple of examples which are NOT boring (no time to search for more)
http://www.edwinscharffmuseum.de/kunstmuseum/sonderausstellu...
https://vhs.noerdlingen.de/Veranstaltung/cmx5124a6b0bbbc5.ht...
Wedekind, Ringelnatz, Morgenstern, George and many others - they all were in Munich at the beginning of the 20th century, they were all artists and they all had an impact upon the OVERALL creative environment.
Helen Shiner Jul 26, 2013:
München leuchtete dates from 1902 and is speaking about Jugendstil, i.e. the generation that by 1911-1914, when the Blauer Reiter were exhibiting, was fusty, boring and hide-bound.
Helen Shiner Jul 26, 2013:
@Brigitte My MA and doctoral studies were on this period; that seems to me to be quite enough information on the context. The reason these people were a succès de scandale was precisely because the art scene was staid and ripe for new blood.
Helen Shiner Jul 26, 2013:
@Ramey I just don't think we're quite there yet. I found another use of the term, which I can't post here: speaking about magic being 'wirkungsträchtig' for us today, so I don't think we are quite on the right lines. A guess input from a native speaker of German might help here.
BrigitteHilgner Jul 26, 2013:
@ Helen Shiner Maybe you should gather a bit more information: at the time Munich was a town full of artists not only painters and sculptors and there were close contacts among many of them. Needless to say that people like Franz von Stuck were not too enthusiastic about the Blaue Reiter but many new ideas come in for criticism from the establishment. "München leuchtete" to quote Thomas Mann out of context (but I'm not the first one to do it in the context of art).
Helen Shiner Jul 26, 2013:
@Andrew I don't read it like that, I must admit, and the text is now speaking about the Blauer Reiter, a later off-shoot of the NKVM.
Ramey Rieger (X) Jul 26, 2013:
@Helen To your first comment, my deepest empathy. Been there, done that ad nauseum.

To your second, trächtig/pregnant, yes. fertile, fecund, profuse.
what I really like - at the moment - is fulsome
Helen Shiner Jul 26, 2013:
Literally translated It might help to break down the word into its constituent parts. Trächtig means pregnant with, carrying, bearing, etc. And Wirkung is obviously effect, impact. So I feel we should be looking for something that conveys the sense that Munich was ripe to burst or ready to explode creatively or rather, nearer to the truth, needed a bomb under it artistically (metaphorically speaking).
Helen Shiner Jul 26, 2013:
@Ramey No, I think Andrew's febrile or Brigitte's fecund is getting towards what the author is actually saying, but I think it's a bit of a poor assessment of the historical truth. But then as translators who are we to argue (I'm just having a grumpy art historical moment), though a knowledge of the context might sway the final choice in the right direction.
Ramey Rieger (X) Jul 26, 2013:
@Helen Something like: decorous, dignified, self-restrained, demure, sedate, sober?
Helen Shiner Jul 26, 2013:
@Brigitte I like your fecund as a translation, though, as I have said elsewhere, it was a pretty staid art scene at the time, and this younger generation came in for a massive amount of dismissive criticism from the art powers that were.
Ramey Rieger (X) Jul 26, 2013:
fertile, lush, profuse Come on up, the weather is fine!
BrigitteHilgner Jul 26, 2013:
@ Ramey - it's too hot to think! fecund, productive
Ramey Rieger (X) Jul 26, 2013:
rousing, exhilirating, captivating It's your turn, Brigitte!
BrigitteHilgner Jul 26, 2013:
creative, inspiring, industrious All that and probably more

Proposed translations

2 days 6 hrs
Selected

burgeoning with possibility

"Liable to have impact" may be one feasible way of translating "wirkungsträchtig". See example below:
"gewähren sie einen Einblick in ein solches Symbolsystem, lassen erkennen, welche Handlungen als wirkungsträchtig angesehen wurden und welche nicht.."

Of course, that would only help to address the general comprehension question. We should probably also be careful about using ideas, historically accurate though they may be, that are not implied by the term wirkungsträchtig or its immediate context. Moreover, many ideas sound great in isolation but may not jive with the rest of the sentence. I can't be sure but hopefully my ideas below would work..

..flocking to Munich
.., a city harboring a climate burgeoning with possibility
.., a city with a climate of burgeoning possibilities
.., a city harboring a climate ripe with possibilities

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 6 days (2013-08-02 02:51:40 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------

See example below:

"And yet, as Roland Chanin-Morris discovers, the film maker Florent Tillon has shown a city burgeoning with life and possibility, where the most powerful character of his films is the city itself." http://www.varsity.co.uk/culture/3480
Reference:

http://books.google.de/books?id=zhusJ09UzqsC&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=wirkungstr%C3%A4chtig&source=bl&ots=N3_s5yAtu2&sig=vook6TQ4k3gTU9bxSX-hE6_J

Peer comment(s):
agree Johanna Timm, PhD : see reference below
2 hrs
neutral Helen Shiner : 'ripe' maybe, but 'burgeoning' no. It is an overtranslation in the circumstances and in terms of the source text.
3 hrs
disagree Cilian O'Tuama : if this is idiomatic English, I speak it not// I'm much more worried about where it's going with what you think is help.
2 days 8 hrs
No doubt idiomatic English will continue to flourish even without your help...
neutral Lancashireman : flocking to a burgeoning harbour with a possible city climate? Agree with your premise that “we should probably also be careful about using ideas, historically accurate though they may be” and with your scepticism about great-sounding non-jiving ideas.
2 days 9 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks Michael and Helen. I have combined your input. Really helpful."
+1
1 hr

rousing/exhilirating/captivating

before someone else claims them

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2 hrs (2013-07-26 10:43:14 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I CAN spell, you know - EXHILARATING

then we have: intoxicating, invigorating, thrilling, uplifting
Peer comment(s):
agree Lancashireman : All of these suggestions were ripe with potential / burgeoned with possibility.
4 days
Once upon a time, Sir Andrew. Just got back from vacating my workplace. Hope you are well!
Something went wrong...
+1
2 hrs

febrile, dynamic, high-powered

Three more to consider

febrile
characterised by a great deal of nervous excitement or energy:
e.g. the febrile atmosphere of the city
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/febrile

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2 hrs (2013-07-26 11:14:58 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Art Nouveau … was born into the febrile atmosphere of the late nineteenth century, when the new confidence in science and rationalism fought with doubt and pessimism about the direction of civilization
http://www.nccsc.net/essays/vitalism-and-meaning-art-nouveau

The febrile atmosphere of the novel, set amongst post-war London's fashionable artistic bohemia…
http://www.jrank.org/literature/pages/3193/Antic-Hay.html

In this febrile atmosphere of talks, workshops, meetings, discussions and walks, delegates are invited to truly ‘create the future’ – and then go back into the world and help to make it happen.
http://events.cat.org.uk/index.php/emergence-blog/76-philip-...


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 4 hrs (2013-07-26 13:15:53 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Re Helen's bomb:

... the moment when the unexploded bomb of the ideas implicit in them finally detonated on the febrile art scene of 1950s and 1960s New York, where Duchamp had been living in near anonymity since returning there in 1941.
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/ra-magazine/spring-2013/the-l...

A couple of others:
Peploe is perhaps most feted for the vividly coloured series of still lifes he executed between 1918 and 1924, which include Tulips And Fruit (c.1919) and Red And Pink Roses, Oranges And Fan (c.1924). But as this survey shows, he drew influences from the febrile art scene he found in France.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts-ents/visual/the-scottish-...

Previous accounts suggest Kandinsky was a recluse, seeing little of the city and wilfully refusing to engage in the febrile art scene around him. But Spieler contends this is wrong: "Why else would the artist have moved to Paris, if not to draw inspiration from the cradle of Modernism and to seek contact with the international avant garde and the art market to which it had given rise?"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/nov/01/kandinsky...
Peer comment(s):
agree Helen Shiner : As a translation, febrile is a good suggestion, though dynamic and high-powered just don't sit right with the staid, hide-bound art scene that was Munich at the time. Desperately in need of something new would be closer to the historical truth.
1 hr
Thanks, Helen. I think "Münchener Klima" here is a reference to the group dynamic(s) of the NKVM. But yes, 'febrile' is my main proposal.
Something went wrong...
+1
11 hrs

fertile

...individual artists who found a fertile ground in Munich
Peer comment(s):
neutral Cilian O'Tuama : that's exactly what I thought of suggesting hours ago, but declined as I wasn't confident...
2 days 4 hrs
agree Lancashireman : Also better than "a city harboring a climate burgeoning with possibility"
3 days 22 hrs
Finally, a non-Denglisn poet in a sea of gibberish
Something went wrong...

Reference comments

2 days 9 hrs
Reference:

-trächtig

drückt in Bildungen mit Substantiven aus, dass die beschriebene Person oder Sache in beträchtlichem Maße von etwas erfüllt ist oder etwas in sich trägt, birgt
Beispiel
erfolgs-, fehler-, kosten-, profit-, skandalträchtig

http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/_traechtig

Generally, trächtig (<in sich tragend) can simply be be replaced by -versprechend. That's why I think Michael's suggestion is the most accurate rendition of this term.
Peer comments on this reference comment:
agree Helen Shiner : Yes, as I have already described in the discussion box. Unfortunately, it does not translate at all easily into English. On top of that it is not clear enough from the context given what is intended by the phrase in the source text./ie burgeoning too much
59 mins
My point is that the German source does not imply any imminent "bursting" or "explosion" - just a promise.
Something went wrong...
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