German word of the day: Blindgänger

What does it mean?

A Blindgänger, which sounds like this, is an unexploded shell, bomb, or grenade. It is a masculine noun and uses the article der.

How do you use it or where might you see it?

Every few months in Germany, someone will stumble across an old explosive -  typically from WWII - that has failed to detonate and simply stood idle where it fell around 70 years ago when Allied planes were bombing German cities, military installations, and industrial targets.

READ ALSO: What you need to know about WWII unexploded bomb disposals in Germany 

In the last month or so, Blindgänger have been either investigated or found in Dortmund, Göttingen, Leipzig, Hanover, Magdeburg, and Berlin. 

If the bomb is particularly big - such as the 250 kg ones sometimes found - some news crews may use the simpler Weltkreigsbombe - or ‘World War bomb,’ to give a better idea of its size.

This was the case on Thursday October 6th, when around 3,300 people had to be evacuated from Friedrichstadt in Dresden as emergency teams prepared to defuse a huge bomb dating back to the Second World War. 

The unexploded bomb had been found on Wednesday morning during construction work, prompting police to organise shuttle buses to evacuate nearby residents. 

Heute Vormittag wurde bei Bauarbeiten in der Friedrichstraße in #Dresden ein verdächtiger Gegenstand gefunden, bei dem es sich um eine #Weltkriegsbombe handeln könnte. Der unmittelbare Bereich ist derzeit abgesperrt, der Kampfmittelbeseitigungsdienst angefordert. #dd0510 pic.twitter.com/hi78agObtZ

— Polizei Sachsen (@PolizeiSachsen) October 5, 2022

Blindgänger is commonly used in news reports though, to describe any type of size of explosive that hasn’t gone off.

After a Blindgänger is sighted, emergency crews will typically evacuate and block off any neighbourhood caught within the explosive’s potential blast zone, while they defuse the bomb.

You might, for example, see a news report like this.

Die Polizei haben die Straße gesperrt und der Blindgänger entschärft

The police blocked off the street and defused the unexploded ordnance.