Kamerad

See also: kamerad

German

Etymology

Borrowed from French camarade in the 16th century, ultimately from Latin camera (“chamber”); see Kammer, from Ancient Greek καμάρα (kamára).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaməˈʁaːt/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Ka‧me‧rad
• Rhymes: -aːt

Noun

Kamerad m (weak, genitive Kameraden, plural Kameraden, feminine Kameradin)

1. (military) comrade (fellow soldier)
2. comrade (fellow, companion)
   • 1929, Horst Wessel, “Horst-Wessel-Lied (Nazi Party anthem 1930–1945)”:

     Kam'raden, die Rotfront und Reaktion erschossen, / Marschier'n im Geist in unser'n Reihen mit.

     Comrades shot by the Red Front and reactionaries / March in spirit within our ranks.

   • 2010, Richard Stöss, Rechtsextremismus im Wandel‎^[1], 3rd edition, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, page 123:

     Ezer und seine Kameraden strebten eine parteiunabhängige Kaderorganisation an, die gewissermaßen als politischer Arm der rechtsextremen Subkulturen und Kameradschaften fungieren sollte.

     Ezer and his comrades aimed to create a non-partisan cadre organisation that would act as a kind of political arm of the right-wing extremist subcultures and comradeships.

3. (colloquial) guy, fellow

Usage notes

• Does not carry the association with socialism or communism that comrade has in English or its cognates in other languages (see Genosse for the German equivalent).
  • On the contrary, due to its primary usage as a military term, it is used as a term of address among right wing groups and can be used as a moniker for their members. However, the association is not inherent to the word itself, which is a neutral term in regular usage, but rather understood from context.
• Kamerad has historically been used as a truce or surrender word.

Declension

Declension of Kamerad [masculine, weak]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Kamerad	die	Kameraden
genitive	eines	des	Kameraden	der	Kameraden
dative	einem	dem	Kameraden	den	Kameraden
accusative	einen	den	Kameraden	die	Kameraden

Derived terms

• Arbeitskamerad
• Hitlerkamerad
• Kameradschaft
• Klassenkamerad
• Schulkamerad
• Sportkamerad

Descendants

• → Polish: kamrat
• → Silesian: kamrat

See also

• Waffengefährte

Further reading

• “Kamerad” in Duden online
• “Kamerad”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎^[2] (in German)