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Rumgekrampe
Verlaufseinheit
Feb 27, 2018 21:31
6 yrs ago
3 viewers *
German term

den heißen Brei

German to English Marketing Business/Commerce (general)
In der letzten Woche ging es um den heißen Brei.

It's an article about Amazon and their Unternehmer/innen der Zukunft programme. This appears in the introductory paragraph and the context is as follows (the 'platform' is Amazon):

Der schnelle Kauf von Waren zieht die Nutzer magisch an. Aber was steckt hinter dieser Plattform? In der letzten Woche ging es um den heißen Brei. Der Grund dafür waren die 20 Teilnehmerinnen, die Amazon samt ihren Coaches einlud.

I've found lots of examples of "um den heißen Brei herumreden" but none of "um den heißen Brei gehen".

Can anyone help with the meaning in this context?
Proposed translations (English)
4 the essence
4 hot-button issue or topic
4 They got right down to business / went right to the heart of the matter / got stuck in

Discussion

Michael Martin, MA Feb 28, 2018:
Excellent points being made here When I first looked at this, I didn't really occur to me that anybody would use the term "heißer Brei" for anything else but a delicate topic and glossed right over the rest of the source text. So yes, while I like it when people try a new twist on existing idioms, I'd have to agree with BV and others that the choice of words here seems less than refreshing but rather misleading and a bit brainless really..
Abigail Weller (asker) Feb 28, 2018:
Ok, thanks @Bjorn. I agree, there's definitely no controversy here, which is why I went for 'hot topic' (topic currently being discussed) rather than 'hot-button topic', although maybe even the 'hot' is a but unnecessary and misleading. I've emailed the client to highlight the fact that it's not clear so will see what they say.
Björn Vrooman Feb 28, 2018:
@Abi A UK "hot topic" is not necessarily the same as a "hot-button" issue.

https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/a-hot-issue-topic-etc
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hot button

In the sense of what's trending, e.g. http://metro.co.uk/2017/12/16/weekend-hot-topic-part-1-best-...

There is nothing in the source text to indicate that the issue was controversial. Additionally, as a German native speaker myself, I'm more inclined to agree with Thomas. I am a bit surprised about this "split of opinion" here. Actually, I don't find the use of this phrase "refreshing," but highly embarassing, unless, of course, they were discussing how to market baby food.

Personally, I think there is absolutely no way you can tell from the context provided what they meant to say. Just like Thomas, my best guess would have been "ans Eingemachte" or "um die Wurst."

Best
Abigail Weller (asker) Feb 28, 2018:
@philgoddard - yes possibly. I think it was the Amazon headquarters that they were invited to to see what goes on behind the scenes.
Abigail Weller (asker) Feb 28, 2018:
Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I wasn't sure if this was an error in the source or a deliberate twist on a standard German idiom so it's good to know that there's a split in opinion and it's not entirely clear! I was trying to get at exactly what the 'heisser Brei' bit of the phrase meant so thanks @Martin and @Alexander in particular for your input on this. In the end I've gone for "Last week was all about that hot topic", which I think (hope!) conveys what the author was getting at.
philgoddard Feb 28, 2018:
Could it mean "all was revealed"?
We don't actually know what these people were invited to.
Ines R. Feb 27, 2018:
@Thomas ich stimme Dir zu, es ist wie Du sagst Thomas ... irgendwas lief beim source text schief...
Thomas Pfann Feb 27, 2018:
Es ging nicht den heißen Brei Ich würde auch sagen, dass hier etwas gründlich neben das Ruder lief. Vielleicht ging ja es „um die Wurst“ „oder ans Eingemachte“ oder es gab einen „heißen Tanz“, aber „um den heißen Brei“ ging es ganz sicher nicht. Um den kann man nur „herumreden“ – und wenn man das auf einem solchen Treffen tut, wäre das schade um den Aufwand.

You'll either have to ask the customer or guess what's meant (which is probably not difficult within the context of the article).
Heike Holthaus Feb 27, 2018:
Es geht hierum: https://www.amazon.de/p/feature/fzjxkpkw6oeq4ut

Wo da allerdings ein "heißer Brei", ob nun drumherum geredet wurde oder ob es darum gegangen ist, sein soll verstehe ich nicht ganz. Wenn schon eine Redewendung, dann hat Amazon die Katze aus dem Sack gelassen :)
Ines R. Feb 27, 2018:
Redewendung "heisser Brei" ich kenne nur: "um den heissen Brei reden", ich glaube hier in dem Text wurde die dt. Redewendung "heisse Brei" nicht richtig verwendet.

Proposed translations

11 hrs
Selected

the essence

The German expression can be used in many different ways, but it almost always IMO comes down to "talking about the essence".
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you - I haven't had any response from the client so I'm still not sure exactly what was meant but your answer was helpful in confirming what I suspected so I was able to make a reasonably confident guess at the meaning!"
9 mins

hot-button issue or topic

That's what they mean by that

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 13 mins (2018-02-27 21:44:27 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Last week, a hot-button topic was raised

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 18 mins (2018-02-27 21:49:49 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Everybody knows 'um den heißen Brei herumreden'. The author is just playing around with that idea. Refreshing to see that, actually.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 40 mins (2018-02-27 22:12:05 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Or perhaps:

"Last week, the core issue came up for debate."
Note from asker:
Thank you for your input on this - it has been extremely helpful and I'm sorry I wasn't able to split the points.
Peer comment(s):
neutral philgoddard : I don't understand your reasoning or what this "core issue" is. "Um den heissen Brei reden" means to beat about the bush.
1 hr
Of course. Point is, here they go straight to the core of the matter at hand instead of tiptoeing around it
Something went wrong...
2 hrs
German term (edited): ... ging es um den heißen Brei

They got right down to business / went right to the heart of the matter / got stuck in

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q="went right to the heart o...

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q="got right down to busines...

With all of the above, except 'hot-button', which is as obscure as the source text.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 13 hrs (2018-02-28 11:14:54 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

This is obviously an American expression:
talking turkey
but sufficiently established for a non-American speaker to understand. It's even in the Cambridge dictionary:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/talk-tur...
US informal​
to discuss something honestly and directly:

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/64733/why-do-we-...

It preserves the food image in 'Brei'.
Note from asker:
Thanks for your input - much appreciated!
Peer comment(s):
neutral philgoddard : I don't follow your reasoning either. You haven't explained the connection between the German and your English.
2 hrs
See Heike Holthaus's findings in the Discussion Box.
Something went wrong...
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