German words expats should know: Erdapfel

What on Erde does this one mean? Let's brush off the mud and get to the root of the German word Erdapfel.

Kartoffel or Erdapfel?

When you arrived in Germany, it won’t have been long before you became acquainted with die Kartoffel. Roasted, fried, mashed or baked into bread, Germany loves potatoes, just like every other nation across the globe, so much so that the German language has not one, not two, but multiple different ways of saying "potato". 

In High German, the word for potato is "Kartoffel" - this is probably the word you learnt at German class. The word Kartoffel has its roots in the Italian “tartufo”, meaning truffles, which like potatoes also grow in the ground. 

In Austria, Switzerland, and even parts of Bavaria, however, the potato is more popularly referred to as "der Erdapfel" (literally, "Earth apple"). This word has the same root as the French “pomme de terre” (apple of the Earth) and the Dutch “aardappel”, with all three originating from the Latin malum terrae.

It is believed that the word "Erdapfel" actually predates the word "Kartoffel" by several hundred years, with the Latin term and German equivalent used as far back as the Middle Ages to refer to fruits and vegetables that grew on or in the ground, like melons and pumpkins. When potatoes arrived in Europe centuries later, the same word was used to refer to them. 

Other German words for potato

But the madness doesn’t stop there. On top of Kartoffel and Erdapfel, different regions of Germany, Austria and Switzerland have countless names for their beloved carbohydrate.

Take a pick of your favourite: Grundbirne (ground pear) and its variations Gromper, Krumper or Grumbeere are used in Austria and some western regions of Germany, while Erdbirne is a term you might hear in Switzerland. Alternatively, impress the western Germans with Herdäpfel or Härdöpfel.

German potatoes make the world go round

Since potatoes arrived in Europe in the middle of the 16th century, they’ve made the world go round. But more than 50 years before their arrival, Germany has its own Erdapfel. 

In 1492, Nuremberg textile merchant and cartographer Martin Behaim completed work on a 51-centimetre diameter globe. Dubbed “the Erdapfel”, today the work is one of the oldest remaining terrestrial globes. 

Behaim is thought to have based the name on the “Reichsapfel”, an imperial orb of the Holy Roman Empire, meaning the only connection to today’s Austrian and Swiss potatoes is potential confusion.

Perhaps the most important potato in the world, Behaim’s Erdapfel was admitted to UNESCO’s Memory of the World in 2023.

Thumb image credit: BalkansCat / Shutterstock.com