Suppose a German man is about to be led off to the guillotine. (Let’s also say he’s an atheist and doesn’t believe in any afterlife.) Or suppose a German woman is saying “It’s over. I don’t love you anymore, and I’m running away with Hans, the milkman”. Now, in English, in either situation you could say “Goodbye!”–the literal etymology of the word is from the phrase “God be with you”, but pretty much no native speaker of English “hears” the word as anything other than “The thing you say upon departing”. The most militant of English-speaking atheists say “goodbye” without batting an eye, and you can say “Goodbye forever!”, or “Goodbye!” as you angrily slam the door behind you, without it sounding the least bit odd.
In German, the word/phrase said upon departing is auf Wiedersehen, which literally means something like “until we see each other again”. (There’s also tschüss, but that seems a bit breezy if you’re being led away to an execution, or telling someone to go to hell as you storm out of the room.) Does a native speaker of German actually “hear” auf Wiedersehen in any literal sense other than “the thing you say upon departing”? Am I wrong about the connotations of tschüss? Is there some third word or phrase I’m not familiar with that would fit such situations? Or is this the Anglosphere’s revenge for Schadenfreude–an English expression that German doesn’t really have?
Well, they hear enough of the literal sense of auf wiedersehen that they don’t use it on the telephone; they use auf wiederhören instead.
As for permanent farewells, in Bavaria and parts adjacent they have the alternative of ade, which I think does not imply any expectation of meeting again. But it’s quite colloquial; it might not have the gravitas you might be aiming for in your foot-of-the-gallows declaration. And I have no idea what a Prussian might say in this circumstance.
On reflection: Abschied means “farewell”. But it’s a noun, not an interjection; a German-speaker would no more say Abschied! on leaving than an English-speaker would say “departure!”.
But abschieden is a verb, meaning to take one’s farewell. So I suppose you could say something like ich abschiede mich, which basically means “I’m leaving now”, and has no implications as to the possibility of later meetings, one way or the other.
I concur. (addressed to one or more person you address in the Sie mode it would be Leben Sie wohl, addressed to several persons you address in the Du mode, or to one person you address in the archaic Ihr mode, it would be Lebt wohl.
If the persons I address, on the steps to the scaffold, comprise near friends as well as distant acquaintances I’d ask for a stay of execution on linguistic grounds.
There is also the expression “Auf Nimmerwiedersehen”, which literally means “until we never see each other again”, but I think “Lebwohl” might be the best way to express finality.
So, Lebewohl when mounting the steps to the scaffold, and Auf Nimmerwiedersehen when storming out and slamming the door after catching your significant other in bed with your best friend?
Heinrich Ehrler, WWII fighter pilot, chose the line “Auf Wiedersehen, Wir sehen uns in Walhalla!” as his final goodbye before he rammed an enemy Bomber. I think that would fulfill the requirements of the OP in making sure that this is a proper about-to-die farewell, unless brevity also is important.
I majored in German and really never thought about it or asked (or just learned and forgot). So I asked my friend from Frankfurt about this and here’s his response:
after absolutely everything, should they?