Well here it is my first topic started in GQ. First some background. I’m a Marxist. As such I read Marx. Much of Marx’s work is poorly translated. As such, I frequently go back to the original german to find out what the fuck he was talking about.
This one has me stumped.
In his works Marx talks about the Cabbage-Junkers (how it is translated in English) Krautjunker is the word in German. I simply thought that this was a derogatory way of refering to the German Aristocrats. Then I found that Marx himself translated Krautjunker into “fox-hunter” when referring to the English aristocrats.
So my question is two fold.
What is the definition of krautjunker. Not the literal one, that is Cabbage-Junker, but what does this mean. Why did they use it?
And also is it a pejorative word?
Thanks.