May the 4th, Sternenkrieger style
For those of you who are Star Wars fans, May the 4th be with you today!
The below is a different take on the more historic term of “German stormtroopers,” showing a Star Wars reenactment group with several generations of Imperial troops (and a token Jawa) accompanying Lord Vader arrayed before of a “real steel” Bundeswehr Schützenpanzer (SPz) Puma fighting vehicle.
(Photo: Bundeswehr / Jonas Weber)
Of note, the Germans refer to the Star Wars franchise’s Stormtroopers not with the1917-era term Stoßtruppen, which has negative connotations in modern Germany due to its later use by the little Austrian and his black-uniformed crew, but instead as Sternenkrieger, which translates roughly as “star warriors.”
The term is also the title of the German-language translation of Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers.
The more you know…
Hi, I am German, but not really into military history, Not sure what you refer to as “Stoßtruppen”.
In the time of the little austrian :-), there was a “Sturmabteilung” (acronym SA) which would much more translate into Stormtroops (or Stormtroopers) since German word “Sturm” directly translates into English word “storm”, but “Stoß ….” does NOT translate into “storm” or anything close to it in terms of language
Gunter