Germanophile

A Germanophile, Teutonophile or Teutophile[1] is a person who is fond of German culture, German people and Germany in general[2] or who exhibits German nationalism in spite of not being either an ethnic German or a German citizen. The love of the German way, called "Germanophilia" or "Teutonophilia", is the opposite to Germanophobia.

Present day flag of Germany

History

The term "Germanophile" came into common use in the 19th to 20th centuries[3] - after the 1871 formation of the German Empire and its subsequent rise in importance. It is used not only politically but also culturally; for example, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831), the famous, influential German philosopher, interpreted the geographic triad of Europe as comprising England (utilitarian pragmatism), France (revolutionary hastiness), and Germany (reflective thoroughness).

In 19th-century romanticism in Britain, the term's antonym was Scandophile, expressing a dichotomy of associating Anglo-Saxon culture either with continental West Germanic culture or with North Germanic (Scandinavian) culture (the "Viking revival"). The term was also used in opposition to Hellenophile, with an affinity to "Teutonic" or Germanic culture and worldview seen as opposed to a predilection for Classical Antiquity.

In 19th-century Continental Europe, the dichotomy was rather between Germany and France, the main political players of the period, and a Germanophile would choose to side with Germany against French or "Romance" interests taken to heart by a Francophile. The corresponding term relating to England is Anglophile, an affinity, in turn, often observed in early-20th-century Germans choosing to side against French influence.

This term was also popularly used in the 20th century to refer to the German educational system formed by Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835), which was leading at that time and served as a model for many elite universities around the world from Oslo to Harvard.

A number of Serb elites in the 19th century and in the Interwar period were staunch Germanophiles.[4]

See also

References
  1. "AlphaDictionary Free Online Dictionaries * Corrected List of Philias - Fears, Loves, Obsessions". Alphadictionary.com. 14 June 2007. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  2. "Germanophile - definition and meaning". Wordnik.com. 1 August 2007. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  3. Ngram chart of usage
  4. Gašić, Ranka (2005). Beograd u hodu ka Evropi: Kulturni uticaji Britanije i Nemačke na beogradsku elitu 1918–1941. Belgrade: Institut za savremenu istoriju. pp. 7, 163. ISBN 86-7403-085-8.

Further reading
  • Peter Watson: The German Genius: Europe's Third Renaissance, the Second Scientific Revolution, and the Twentieth Century, Harper Perennial, ISBN 978-0060760236
  • Walter John Morris: John Quincy Adams, Germanophile, Pennsylvania State University, 1963
  • Arthur Coleman Danto, Jean-Marie Schaeffer and Steven Rendall: Art of the Modern Age: Philosophy of Art from Kant to Heidegger, Princeton University, 2000

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