What is the stylistic device in “Pistolenstich und Messerschuss”

Question

The song Karate by the German rap group K.I.Z. contains the line:

Pistolenstich und Messerschuss

In this line the second parts of the words are exchanged, since it usually would be “Pistolenschuss und Messerstich”. How is this stylistic device called?

Answer 1

I do not know a name for this specific construction, but I see some more general devices in action here:

• It is a word play (German: Wortspiel).
  More specifically, it is an anagram (Anagramm) - at least formally (see also the Duden's definition), while usually in an anagram you find much more extensive changes of the original word.
  There are other terms that focus on the fact that parts of the original are mutually exchanged, but it does not look like there is a commonly used term for this: Wortsilbentausch as mentioned in Armin's answer lacks a reference and has very few search engine hits, most of them being sites that are apparently reusing Wikipedia content. Buchstabendreher in general is a commonly used word that also covers exchanging single characters, and a large collection of such word plays lists constructions similar to your example like "kopflose Schnurhörer" or "Morgennatz and Ringelspiel" (referring to two German writers that were addicted to word plays) as Buchstabendreher in zwei Wörtern. And you also find other sources that use Wortdreher.
• It is an oxymoron (German: Oxymoron). The word play helps a lot to increase this effect. While each of the two words alone could be seen as bare nonsense words, their combination sets a context in which they appear as contradictory compounds.
• And not to forget: there is the fine German verb verballhornen that means distorting a phrase or word - so your example is also a Verballhornung of the original "Pistolenschuss and Messerstich".

Answer 2

Nach Wikipedia werden Buchstabentausch und Wortsilbentausch zusammen aufgelistet. Das Beispiel, das dort als Erstes aufgelistet wird passt auch sehr gut mit obigen zusammen:

Hauptpreis sind ein Paar kopflose Schnurhörer

statt

Hauptpreis sind ein Paar schnurlose Kopfhörer

Somit wäre obige Figur ein Wortsilbentausch.

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According to the German Wikipedia swapping of letters and swapping of syllables are the same rhetorical figure. The first example in the table fits OP's quote perfectly:

Hauptpreis sind ein Paar kopflose Schnurhörer (Prize is a pair of headless wirephones)

instead of

Hauptpreis sind ein Paar schnurlose Kopfhörer (Prize is a pair of wireless headphones)

Because of this, the aforementioned figure should be a syllable swap.