VERBAL PATTERNS OF GERMAN OCCUPATION CURRENCY IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AS A SEMIOTIC CODE OF POWER

Abstract

The article examines the verbal patterns of German occupation banknotes issued during the First and Second World Wars in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe as semiotic codes of power. Verbal patterns of currency are understood as stable textual formulas that legitimize authority, provide information about the source of financial backing of the means of payment, and convey various types of ideological information, including aspects of language ideology. Inscriptions on banknotes became an important element of the linguistic landscape, the study of which has come to the forefront of contemporary sociolinguistic research. It has been established that during the First World War, the ostmark and ostruble (occupation currencies issued for Lithuania and Latvia) contained inscriptions in German, Lithuanian, Latvian, and Polish without a clearly structured ideological message. In contrast, during the Second World War, verbal patterns acquired a distinctly structured ideological character. Inscriptions on banknotes issued for different occupation zones demonstrate a cultural hierarchy in which the German language occupies a dominant position, while other languages are placed in subordinate roles. However, this subordination may be expressed either implicitly (as in the case of zlotys and lei issued for the Polish and Romanian occupation zones) or explicitly (as observed in the patterns of crowns issued for the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and lira issued for Slovenia). The distribution of languages and the functions of inscriptions directly correlate with the position of the respective territories within the ideological system of the occupying power. The patterns of banknotes indicate that Czech, Slovenian, and Ukrainian were primarily used as instruments for conveying information to the controlled population, whereas Romanian and Polish on occupation currency acquired an additional symbolic function of illusory self-sufficiency, as inscriptions on zlotys and lei were monolingual. Verbal patterns of currency should be studied within the framework of the multimodal representation of power.