Jena, March 14, 2026. The term “Fidschis” is a striking example of discriminatory everyday language that emerged in the GDR and became radicalized in the post-reunification era. Originally coined for Vietnamese contract workers, the word bears witness to exclusion and historical ignorance.
- Topic: Origin and change in meaning of the term “Fidschis”
- Origin: GDR everyday language, incorrectly applied to Vietnamese contract workers
- Development: Radicalization into a racist slogan in the 1990s (including Rostock-Lichtenhagen 1992)
- Linguistics: Clearly classified as a highly discriminatory means of marginalization
From Casual Distance to Linguistic Exclusion
In the late GDR, the expression initially established itself colloquially. It was primarily directed against Vietnamese contract workers who worked in large industrial enterprises and often lived in separate dormitories. The term actually refers to the Fiji Islands in the South Pacific – a region without any geographical or cultural connection to those affected. People of Asian descent were grouped into an anonymous collective through this false and simplistic designation, denying them their individual origins and history.
From a linguistic perspective, the term served as a means of marginalization to symbolically declare a minority as “foreign.” An exotic collective image of the “other” was created, cementing the distance between the local population and the contract workers.
Delayed Classification and Escalation After the Reunification
The social explosiveness of the word was not reflected in official reference works for a long time. Even in the 1990s, the Duden dictionary only classified the expression as “casually derogatory.” A clearer classification as highly discriminatory only occurred later in the course of growing sensitivity towards language.
The use of the word became particularly radicalized in the early 1990s. During the so-called “Baseballschlägerjahre” (baseball bat years), the term was co-opted by right-wing extremist circles and appeared increasingly in aggressive slogans. The sad peak of this open hostility was the riots in Rostock-Lichtenhagen in 1992. Despite this history, the expression has not completely disappeared to this day and is still occasionally found in terms like “Fidschi-Märkte” – a linguistic relic of a time of massive social upheaval.
Historical Context: Contract Workers in Jena
In Jena, too, numerous foreign contract workers were employed during the GDR era. From the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, many people came to the Saalestadt from countries including Vietnam, Mozambique, and Cuba to compensate for the labor shortage. They primarily worked in large industrial enterprises such as VEB Carl Zeiss Jena. They were often housed in isolation in special dormitory blocks, for example in the prefabricated housing areas of Lobeda and Winzerla, which were newly built in the 70s and 80s. This state-mandated separation of work and private life hindered integration and favored the emergence of prejudice and derogatory everyday language among the population.
Source:
“Fidschis” – How a word became a weapon – Cool’is in the East
Transparency Note: This article was created automatically, editorially reviewed, and expanded with AI support.