Word: putzfrau
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Germany's traditional Putzfrauen (cleaning women) are coming to work in hairdos and stiletto heels. Even the name Putzfrau is disappearing. Now it is Raumpflegerin (room tender), or Bodenkosmetikerin (floor cosmetician). "Nowadays," the saying goes, "instead of choosing between guns and butter, the middle-class German has to choose between having a Putzfrau or having a Mercedes, a vacation in Majorca and a TV set. And when he opts for thetPutzfrati, it's she who goes to Majorca, buys the TV set and makes a down payment...
...polite, equally weighted cousins on an inert seesaw. So scrupulously balanced is the coalition and the Proporz system of dividing up the jobs that, according to Viennese table talk, if there is one People's Party Putz-frau (charwoman) in a government building, there must be a Socialist Putzfrau too. After last November's elections, balance became stalemate; the two big parties have been haggling over a Cabinet ever since...
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