where "liberal" in germany means something like "pro business". Very different from the US.

"Liberal" in Germany roughly equals "libertarian" in the US, they tend to be much more moderate, though. So it's not like they're exactly Ron Paul libertarians.

This has been a source of endless confusion for me in the past when discussing politics with american friends. Took me surprisingly long to figure it out.

Here's the decoder ring: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_liberalism

The word "liberal" over the past century has experienced so much meaning drift in the US that it is basically antithetical to the original meaning. Places where it has experience less drift will thus have an opposing meaning to the US meaning.

This is not a criticism. Meanings change over time, it's what they do.

(Incidentally, this is why it's very silly to either attack or credit political parties in the US with things they did more than about 30 years ago, or perhaps even 20. The parties have shifted around a lot and traded a lot of issues. They're dynamic coalitions of convenience, not great, century-spanning statements of ideological purity.)

Try this; socially liberal or fiscally liberal. There's also socially authoritative and fiscally authoritative.

Liberal topics; social: allowing nudity, gay marriage, hacking, etc, fiscal: lower taxes, less red tape, more corporate freedom.

Authoritative topics; social; outlawing nudity, gay marriage, hacking, etc, fiscal: more taxes, more red tape, more corporate control.

It's not unusual for people to have hybrid positions. eg an person can believe that hacking should be banned and believe in paying lower taxes.

Or a person believes hacking shouldn't be banned and believe in paying higher taxes.

Along with "more taxes, more red tape, more corporate control" one also sees things like environmental regulations. Whether supporting environmental regulations is liberal(I want the right to enjoy my back yard without smog from his car and without sludge from your factory) or authoritative(so don't pollute) is a topic that is up for debate, and shouldn't be lumped in with "corporate freedom."

I'm talking about government regulations in general. Environmental regulations are, by definition, authoritative because the government enforces that law. It's very hard to create laws, eg the right to enjoy backyard without smog, as even people breath out pollution. It could be argued that by creating a law prohibiting smog in your backyard, it's far more authoritative than a law to regulate the levels of smog.

It doesn't mean that authoritative laws are bad, really. Some laws are mildly authoritative (anti-littering) to heavily authoritative (anti-terrorism). People's positions tend to be relative to the country they're in. For example, a fiscal-centre-liberal person in USA could be seen as a fiscal-far-liberal person in France.

Did the term become bastardized by US? I wouldn't be surprised. Being a conservative doesn't mean what it used to mean either, and it has been taken over by "neo-conservatives".

Since the early 20th century in the U.S. it's meant something like "social liberal", market-oriented but in favor of a welfare state, more like what the SDU is today. And the opposite of "conservative" on issues like same-sex marriage, abortion, etc. Vaguely the same meaning of "liberal" that applies to the UK's Liberal Democrats. Actually not that far off, in terms of policies, from the meaning of liberal used by the German Freiburg-school ordoliberals, and their idea of the "social market economy".