Lumy / Lump

[hansjuergen]

I have a copy of a family letter dated March 3, 1925. The following sentences appear in this letter:

Wie Du vielleicht schon weißt ist unser guter Oberstfritze gestorben. Er war zwar ein großer Lumy, aber eins hat er uns gutes gebracht, nämlich morgen einen freien Tag.

I'm pretty sure the context for this is the death of Germany's first Reichs President, Friedrich Ebert who died Feb 28, 1925. It is clear that the writer of this letter was not a fan of Ebert's. I am having difficulty with the words "Oberstfritze" and "Lumy". Any suggestions of English words that would capture the likely indended meaning of the writer would be appreciated.

Vielen Dank

 

[Gernot Back]

Fritz is the nickname of Friedrich. As president, Friedrich Ebert was the highest representative of the German Reich. The prefix oberst means sth. like supreme. I have no idea about the meaning of Lumy, though.

 

[Frieder]

Maybe you misread it and it spells Lump (rascal).
Sütterlin y and p are quite similar to each other.

 

[hansjuergen]

Maybe you misread it and it spells Lump (rascal).
Sütterlin y and p are quite similar to each other.

Yes, I am sure you are right. I am not expert at Sütterlin

 

[Hutschi]

"Lumy" is colloquial. It is an euphemism -- but "Lump" is something else. Much too negative.

It is more like "Naseweis"/"Schlitzohr"/"Bengel"/"Held"(ironically)/"Schlawiner"

I know it well - my father used it like nicknames addressing me and my brother: "Ihr seid mir schon zwei Lumys!"

Maybe it is dated because I heared it a lot when I was a child, later seldom. It is in my active inner dictionary but as "Lumi".

Best regards
Bernd

PS: "Lümmel" would fit to the context. See also: dict.cc dictionary :: Lümmel :: German-English translation
"Lout" and several others.

Edit: I added "Schlawiner" to the list of "Lumy".

"Rascal" might fit, but I do not think "Lump" fits in style.

 

[Hutschi]

Fritze - this is a general word, not a name. It is like guy/chap etc.

Fritze | Übersetzung Englisch-Deutsch
chap [Br.] [e.g. computer chap] -fritze {m} [Computerfritze etc.]

In our case:
By chance "Fritz" is also the nick name of Friedrich Ebert. So it is a kind of double word.

super chap Fritz
super Fritze
super kraut

Maybe you find a better one.

"Fritze" is neutral in German but very colloquial style.

 

[Frieder]

a family letter dated March 3, 1925

@Hutschi: you really think there was a word like "Lumy" in 1925? No way!
It just has to be Lump. That was a rather run-of-the-mill expression then.

Don't you think that it's very probable to confuse the two when written with a cursory hand?

 

[Hutschi]

Lumich
I think Lumy is a diminutiv of Lumich.
Unzuverlässiger Mensch, frecher Mensch, Schlingel, etc.
Lump is much too bad.
I spoke also with two friends about it.


PS: It might be a wrong transcription, as you wrote.
It is possible.

 

[Demiurg]

Kein deutsches Staatsoberhaupt hat annähernd so viele Strafanträge wegen Beleidigung gestellt wie Ebert - insgesamt 173 in den sechs Jahren seiner Präsidentschaft. Seine Gegner - rechts wie links - behandelten ihn wie Freiwild.
...
"Am häufigsten ist das Wort 'Lump' vertreten, das allein zweiundzwanzigmal auftaucht. Dazu treten dann attributive Ergänzungen wie 'großer Lump', 'größerer Lump', 'größter Lump', 'größter Lump in Deutschland' ... insgesamt siebenunddreißigmal die Beschimpfung 'Lump'."

Quelle: EBERT - 37mal Lump