Verboten
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Verboten.jpg
Verboten.jpg
A sign often found near factories meaning "Access forbidden for non-employees"
Verboten is the German equivalent of forbidden or prohibited. Used in an English language context, its connotations are those of an authoritarian state, be it the German Empire under Wilhelm II or Nazi Germany, as in both cases, inhabitants were seen as subjects having to obey orders rather than as free citizens. Today, the term is often used half-jokingly.
In German, the word is of course still in active use (as in Rauchen verboten, "No smoking", lit. "Smoking forbidden") but jokes are often made about the word being used as a euphemism for "cool". This seems to stem from the film Sonnenallee.