Abstract
Political rhetoric is not only a medium, but also a central factor in politics, because political speech itself is an elementary component of “action” (H. Arendt). Political key concepts are used to decide who should take part and who should not. Occupying concepts is therefore considered an important element of rhetorical strategies. In the Federal Republic of Germany a professionally developed language policy can only be found since the 1980s. Yet different “language games” and language strategies can be identified in the central institutional contexts. This applies to the area of representation and governance as well as to the specific rhetoric in parliament, parties and protest groups. Meanwhile, the electronic media have increasing influence on political rhetoric as well as on political methods of communication This does not only concern the talkshowization of political discourse in the visual media, but increasingly also concerns the “twitterization” of the language in the so-called social media. In the course of general medialization, political rhetoric plays a key role in the creation, maintenance and cultivation of a democratic public.
