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What does "kampfmittelbeseitigungsdienst" mean?

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Please use a search engine for simple translations. E.g. de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kampfmittelbeseitigungsdienst (which links to the English WP: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomb_disposal) – feeela Sep 22 '11 at 11:46
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@feeela: For your information, that's what I do always before asking any question here. The page you've pasted and other Google results are about its usage, not the definition and its structure like Splattne explained. Plus, If I could understand the German version of Wikipedia, why in the world would I register here to learn German? Please think more before pinging me for whatever came to your mind, thanks. – user508 Sep 22 '11 at 12:40
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1. You've asked "what does it mean?" which is the question about the definition not about the word-structure; 2. Wikipedia, for example, is multilingual–once you've found the German entry, you'll mostly have the English one too (as the en:WP is more complete than the de:WP); they are linked vice-versa on the left (under "Languages"); I never told you, to read the German WP-article–it was just one of the first entries, using the English version of Google… – feeela Sep 22 '11 at 13:21
+close, as too localized. Like feela suggessted: Use different tools for simple translation acts. – user unknown Sep 23 '11 at 4:51

1 Answer

up vote 9 down vote accepted

Since the word is a noun, it's spelled

Kampfmittelbeseitigungsdienst

It's a group of specialists who are in charge of disposing explosive material. In English:

  • bomb disposal team
  • explosive ordnance disposal

The word is a combination of three nouns:

  • Kampfmittel: weapons (Kampf = fight, Mittel = resource)
  • Beseitigung: disposal
  • Dienst: service

Kampfmittelräumdienst is a German synonym for the word.

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IMHO Kampfmittelräumdienst is the standard word that is used most of the time, except for specific units in some federal states that are named Kampfmittelbeseitigungsdienst. – starblue Sep 22 '11 at 9:51
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I agree with @starblue. See also Google Trends – Kampfmittelräumdienst vs. Kampfmittelbeseitigungsdienst. – feeela Sep 22 '11 at 11:44
Nice Google feature, except for the missing umlauts for cities. :-( – starblue Sep 23 '11 at 6:40
@starblue see also: ngrams.googlelabs.com/… – splattne♦ Sep 23 '11 at 8:32

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