Hartz IV

I am sending this post from Berlin. I have learnt a number of new German words and expressions while I've been here. Before this week I would have said "arbeitslos" for "unemployed", but I have come across a new (for me) expression, namely Hartz IV (or Hartz 4), which is used to mean "unemployed" or "unemployment". Apparently people say things like "Mein Vater ist Hartz IV" (my father is unemployed). 

 

Peter Hartz was an adviser to former Chancellor Schröder, and a top businessman. He devised a series of reforms to do with unemployment benefits, called the Hartz-Konzept. There have been various 'incarnations' or 'amendments' to the original idea, and so far the 'concept' is up to number 4, hence the number 4 in the expression. Herr Hartz later suffered a severe fall from grace (see this BBC article).

 

I've been trying to think off the top of my head of similar expressions in English, ie those containing the name of a politician. I can think of the modern "Boris bikes" ie the bicycles parked all over London which can be hired by the hour. They are named after current London mayor Boris Johnson, who introduced the scheme. The term "Baker day" is sometimes still used in schools, I think. Kenneth Baker was Margaret Thatcher's education minister in the 1980s, when he introduced in-service training days for teachers, which were soon dubbed "Baker days". Then there were the Bevin boys, young men conscripted during the Second World War who were sent to work in the mines. They were named after the wartime Labour minister Ernest Bevin.

Comments

[Jemmy Hope]

Belisha Beacons, Anthony Eden collars, Peelers.

[Marc Leavitt]

Susan:
In line with Jemmy Hope's comment, the term "Bobbies" for police, was also derived from Robert Peel's name.
The eponymous German word for being unemployed is reminiscent of a number of other terms which are topical, and in many instances don't ourtlast their eras. In the US, veterans of World War I marched on Washington to demand bonuses promised them by the govermment. They encamped in a makes-shift camp that became known as "Hoover-Ville" (for then-President Herbert Hoover, who became unpopular because he served during the Great Depression). Similar encampments sprang up in other places, populated by men who were looking for work. However, the term fell into dis-use, and today, only people who know about, or are interested in the period, recall the term.

[Gaylord Brynolfson]

Rather farther afield (both from strict parallel and in time) Peter's pence, Denarius S. Petri, comes to mind--like Hoovervilles, now encountered only in historical references.

[Jemmy Hope]

That makes me feel historical, as the term was still in use in my schooldays. In our parish church there was a little slot in the wall with the words "Peter's Pence" written over it. I never saw anyone put anything in it, however.

[Virtual Linguist]

Thanks to all for those examples and interesting comments. Hooverville is a new word for me, I must admit, and I don't think there's a UK equivalent.