Germanophile

Germanophilia (from Greek γερμανικos ( germanikos ) " German " and φιλία ( philia ) "friendship" ) referred to a general affinity for Germany, its culture, history or its people, and thus the counterpart of the Germano phobia. However, in German the term exists primarily as a literal translation of the term more commonly used in English germanophilia and is used for different cultural and historical, social and literary phenomena.

In contrast to the pejorative term used " Germano mania " was " germanophilia " in the 19th century, little used and not defined in dictionaries and encyclopedias such as the Grimms' dictionary, the Brockhaus or Pierers universal lexicon. In contrast, the term " Germanness " was explained in the Grimms' dictionary of 1860 as follows: " Germanism n [ noun ] for German unit has arisen only in the last time, but it is usually used ironically one wants to describe exaggerated attachment to German beings, so also Deutschthümelei, f Deutschthümler, Deutschthümlich and Deutschthümlichkeit ".

Literary germanophile efforts were particularly influenced by the literature of the Sturm und Drang. They thus established, for example, around 1800 young Russian writers in Moscow the " literary friends society" to which it is said: " Sensibility and Sturm und Drang, emotionalistische aesthetics and the pathos of passion in the works of Goethe and Schiller were the guiding stars of this group. (...) In the sense of congeniality, or at least of kinship were translations of the works of Goethe, Schiller, Kotzebue and others as spiritual friendship services produced. "

Similarly, there was in German Jewry of the 19th century germanophile aspirations as a process of national identity formation and assimilation. After Dirk Baeckerimpliziere germanophilia " an awareness of different customs and behaviors outside of their own culture, which is produced by the operation of comparison of human life forms. "