Is there a German equivalent for "shoot the messenger" (kill the bearer, but not the originator, of bad news)?
3 Answers
Not literally equivalent, but this phrase is commonly used in German:
nicht den Überbringer der schlechten Nachrichten (oder Botschaften) bestrafen.
which means: Don't punish the bearers of bad news.
Related: the German for the person who's always blamed even if he or she is innocent: Prügelknabe or Sündenbock (scapegoat).
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2Der bestrafte Bote ist aber nur ein Spezialfall des Sündenbocks - daher ist Sündenbock unpassend. Jun 12, 2011 at 20:23
I think "no" is not a sufficient answer, is it? I don't think there is one, at least not a commonly used one. The dictionaries in which I've found it seem to only explain the meaning.
Wikipedia: Shooting the Messenger says that its origin is from a play by Shakespeare. So it could be a proverb without german equivalent.
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1The "principle" of killing the messenger is ancient though: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/…– splattneJun 11, 2011 at 14:59
Auch wenn die richtige Antwort schon vorliegt: "den Boten bestrafen" (to punish the messenger) ist vielleicht noch etwas kompakter, und Alliterationen sind doch immer was schönes :-)