„... und wenn etwas unglaubwürdig klingt, was man ihnen nachsagt, so könnt ihr versichert sein, daß es noch um die Hälfte hinter der Wahrheit zurückbleibt“. Wahr-Sagen als sprachliche Strategie des Widerstehens in Thomas Manns BBC-Reden

Abstract Linguistics predominantly concentrate on the language use of the National Socialist regime. Resistance and oppostional discourses and their linguistic actions of resisting were only rudimentary taken into account and still represents a research desideratum. Based on a central actor of the exiled resistance – Thomas Mann – an important linguistic strategy of resisting – true saying – is to be made an issue in this context and worked on exemplarily in the BBC speeches held between 1940 and 1945. Based on the uses of the lexeme Wahrheit, wahr and wahrhaftig, their use in the individual speeches should be reflected against the background that it was Mann’s stated goal to discredit the constructions of reality of the NS propaganda and to convey alternative perspectives to the german listeners. The processing of his strategies are the subject of this essay.