Abstract: Totalitarian power is mostly apparent in the use of language. By studying these two texts (the Orwellian novel 1984 and Lingua Tertii Imperii by Klemperer) we are able to reconstruct the underlying rhetorical techniques and their philosophical foundation. Supported by a well-organized system of rites and ceremonies, totalitarian language succeeds not only in creating an outwardly respectable reality, but in dehumanizing its subjects and in entirely extinguishing every freedom.
