What does "die Augen aufschlugen" mean?

Question

Native English speaker here, trying to learn more German by reading Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen, and I came across this sentence:

Als Mr. und Mrs. Dursley an dem trüben und grauen Dienstag, an dem unsere Geschichte beginnt, die Augen aufschlugen, war an dem wolkenverhangenen Himmel draußen kein Vorzeichen der merkwürdigen und geheimnisvollen Dinge zu erkennen, die bald überall im Land geschehen sollten.

I'm thrown off by the phrase "die Augen aufschlugen", although I know by context and from reading the English it means basically, "to wake up, to open one's eyes".

I've done a search of PONS, LEO and dict.cc online dictionaries, and found out that (auf)schlagen typically means something like "to hit, serve, pitch".

I'm wondering if this might be a colloquial/ugs. in German, since the literal meaning of the verb doesn't seem to fit the context very well. Is this an idiomatic phrase in German? What kind of extra meaning does the verb aufschlagen add to the phrase, as opposed to, for example, aufwachen?

Answer 1

I'm wondering if this might be a colloquial/ugs. in German

No, on the contrary it is rather a bit elevated and poetic style, particularly when the intended meaning is "to wake up" and not a more general "to open one's eyes".

What kind of extra meaning does the verb aufschlagen add to the phrase, as opposed to, for example, aufwachen?

I can see two advantages of Augen aufschlagen compared to aufwachen in this phrase which make it (well, in my opinion at least) the better choice here from a literary point of view:

1. It avoids the stylistic problem of putting three verbs aside ("... Geschichte beginnt, aufwachten, war an ..."). The middle one would make a single-word sub-clause, which is not so nice to read.
2. It matches the content that follows, which is about something that the Dursleys could (more exactly: could not) see: "war an dem wolkenverhangenen Himmel draußen kein Vorzeichen der merkwürdigen und geheimnisvollen Dinge zu erkennen". So by choosing Augen aufschlugen the translator links the Dursleys to the events that are about to happen. He creates the impression of the Dursleys looking into that cloudy sky.

Answer 2

Aufschlagen in the sense of opening originates from books with a clasp where you literally had to hit the book for the clasp to open. From there the use of aufschlagen was transferred to other things that can be opened.

Answer 3

It is not used in the colloquial sense, but it has an important use for narration. I would not say it is not only "elevated" or "poetic" as Matthias suggests, it simply indicates a sudden awakening after a unspecified time has passed and/or something unusual and important has happened.

Plötzlich war da ein Zaun, ein Aufprall, er spürte noch, wie er vom Fahrrad flog...dann wurde es schwarz. Als er die Augen aufschlug, sah er eine hellblau gefärbte Decke und es roch nach Krankenhaus.

Die letzte, große Prüfung. Sie entspannte sich noch ein wenig auf der Bank und genoß die Sonne des Mittags auf dem Gesicht. Als sie die Augen aufschlug, sah sie einen dunklen, klaren Himmel...Hatte sie etwa verschlafen?!

You never use it in normal talk or as polite suggestion/imperative, e.g. "Er/sie hat die Augen aufgeschlagen/Schlagen Sie bitte die Augen auf". If it is used for addressing, it is in the best case sarcastic or teasing, but otherwise it indicates trouble, e.g. "Schlag gefälligst die Augen auf, wenn ich mit Dir rede!"

Answer 4

These online dictionaries are incomplete. If you consult an etymological dictionary, e.g. Kluge writes about "schlagen" that while it has the meaning of "to hit" (from middle- and old high german, 8th century) it and its predecessors (old-nordic slagr, old-english slege, old-high-german slag, middle-high-german slac, slag) also have several special meanings.

All of these special meanings are only losely connected to the primary meaning and often appear in compound words or with prefixes. For example "Schlag" (noun) can mean a hit, but it can also mean a type of something, with the link being that it was used to denote a group of trees designated to be cut down together. For prefixes, "verschlagen" (adj.) means to be tricky, shifty.

"aufschlagen" is simply one of these special meanings. My old hardcover Kluge does not contain its context, and I don't want to post guesswork.

• This source: https://www.dwds.de/wb/aufschlagen shows that even "aufschlagen" has multiple meanings (e.g. it can also mean to fall upon something)
• This source: https://www.gutefrage.net/frage/das-buch-aufschlagen-woher-kommt-dieser-begriff repeats the statement made by Rhabarberbarbara, but also without sources. It might be true or a common misconception

In summary: It is a special meaning of the word, with no ready-to-find reasoning. You will just have to learn it by heart. Even as a native german speaker I cannot give you an easy explanation.