Marianne m'a tuer

Recently I read a book by Bernard Wittmann titled: Marianne m'a tuer. According to the critics, I expected a book about the history of the Alsace. However, instead, I read how governments in Paris had subdued and still tuent (kill) - according to Wittmann - the Elsassdütsch. This German-Alemannic dialect spoken by the local population is choked to foster (or force) the French language.

Bernard chose the book title - it indeed is the most exciting part - for publicity. At the origin is a well-known catchphrase in France: Omar m'a tuer. (Omar has killed me).

Living in her villa in Mougins, South of France, a distinguished widowed lady employed a Moroccan gardener called Omar. One day in June 1991, she was found stabbed dead in her cave. On the door, written in blood, the police read: Omar m'a tuer. The gardener was arrested and indicted for murder. Soon the prosecutor was in a dilemma. How can an educated old lady possibly write such a grammatical blunder: tuer instead of tuée?

A similar mistake is neither possible in English nor in German. There is a distinct difference between the infinitive and the past participle of a verb in these languages, i.e., kill and killed or töten und getötet. In principle, the same is true in French. However, the pronunciation of tuer and tuée is the same, and uneducated Frenchmen and women are known to have difficulty choosing the correct grammatical form. But if the educated lady did not write the grammatically incorrect phrase with her own blood, had a third person been blaming an innocent Omar for the murder?

The fact is, the 5000 francs the victim had kept at home were gone, and Omar needed money as he had gambling debts. On the other hand, Omar had an alibi at the time of the murder. To make a lengthy court case short, he was condemned in 1994 for first-degree murder to a prison sentence of 18 years, although Omar was defended by the best council for the defense in France, Maître Vergès. 

Vergès - in his since then famous last words - went back in history reminding the court of the Dreyfus affair: Il y a 100 ans on condamnait un officier car il avait le tort d'être juif, aujourd'hui on condamne un jardinier car il a le tort d'être maghrébin. (Hundred years ago, one condemned an officer because he had the flaw of being Jewish, today, one condemns a gardener because he has the flaw of being Maghrebian). It is known that many people in France applauded Omar’s sentence in the way as a good friend of mine felt when he once told me: Tu sais Manfred je ne suis pas raciste mais je n'aime pas les Arabes (You know Manfred, I am not a racist but I don't like the Arabs).

Addendum

The following cartoon complements the old story or was even initiated by it.

The text on the wall: War Selbstmord! (It was a suicide!), convinces one officer while the other simply shouts: Feierabend!

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