Zweisamkeit

D Vautier
1/23

Zweisamkeit (svi-sam-kite)

This is a fantastic German word that means a lot more than the translation, because the Germans have a way of developing multiple shades of meaning.  You can break the word down into zwei meaning two, sam meaning a condition or situation, and keit which is a noun or state of being (or –ness ness, like goodness, wellness, kindness). So the word means being alone together with someone else.  What does that really mean anyway?  You get to go away to an isolated place like an island and spend a long time (like forever) with someone you hopefully love a lot.  That sounds like a really good deal.

But strangely, the word einsamkeit (ain-sam-kite) means exactly the opposite, being alone with yourself, or loneliness or isolation or fear.  So being alone with someone else is happiness or bliss or perfection, but being just alone is really bad.

This idea of happiness (two) contrasted with loneliness (one) all comes to mind after I watched the intense series “A French Village” which takes place in a small town during the years of the Vishy government in France.  It was certainly a most dreadful and hideous time to live, where friends could not be trusted and lies became truth and everything was deception.  Ugly stuff indeed. The town mayor Dr. Larcher became estranged from his wife Hortense. Hortense began an affair with the local German commandant Heinrich Müller, who didn’t like his job at all.  Müller wanted to be able to run away with Hortense and find perfect happiness, or to wit, zweisamkeit.  It all ends in disaster of course as Hortense dies and Muller is shot.  But the significance of zweisamkeit is not lost on me or anybody else who watches “A French Village.”