Germanic myth

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Under the heading Germanic myth, theses on the origin, the supposed superiority of the Germanic and questions of the identity of European peoples are dealt with in science .

The Romans had as early as 113 BC. BC lost battles against the Cimbri and Teutons in the Alps, which coined the term Furor teutonicus . Julius Caesar described in his work De bello Gallico in a section called the Germanic excursion the peoples east of the Rhine, who then inflicted a severe defeat on the Romans in the Varus Battle . Another century later, the writing Germania by Tacitus summarized the Roman knowledge of Germanic peoples.

This font was received in Germany from the middle of the 15th century . But even earlier in the Middle Ages, a Germanic myth began to develop. Romanticism could follow suit. The Germanic myth played a special role in the emerging German national movement. In the Third Reich a "racial" superiority of the Germanic tribes was postulated. In the present the Germanic myth is present in neo-pagan movements and in the political right.

See also

Literature (sorted by publication)

  • Ludwig Krapf: Germanic myth and imperial ideology. Early humanistic ways of reception of the Tacite Germania. Tuebingen 1979.
  • Sibylle Ehringhaus: Germanic myth and German identity. The early Middle Ages reception in Germany 1842–1933. Weimar 1996.
  • Otto Holzapfel : The Teutons. Myth and Reality . Freiburg 2001.
  • Rainer Kipper: The Germanic myth in the German Empire. Forms and functions of historical self-thematization. 2002 ( review )
  • Renate Stauf: Germanic myths and Greek myths as national identity myths; Wolfgang Wittkowski: Arminius currently: Kleist's Hermannsschlacht and Goethe's Hermann. In: Rainer Wiegels, Winfried Woesler (ed.): Arminius and the Varus Battle. History - Myth - Literature . 3rd updated and expanded edition. Schöningh, Paderborn 2003.
  • Esther Leroy: Constructions of the Germanic in educated middle class magazines of the German Empire. Frankfurt am Main 2004. (Reviews: [1] / [2] )
  • Elisabeth Monyk: Between the barbarian cliché and the Germanic myth . An analysis of Austrian history textbooks between 1891 and 1945. Münster 2006.
  • Ingo Wiwjorra: The Germanic myth . Construction of a world view in antiquity research of the 19th century. Darmstadt 2006. ( Table of contents ; PDF; 94 kB)
  • Herfried Münkler : The Germans and their Myths. Berlin 2009.
  • Uwe Puschner , Clemens Vollnhals (Ed.): The ethnic-religious movement in National Socialism. A relationship and conflict story. (= Writings of the Hannah Arendt Institute for Research on Totalitarianism. Volume 47). Göttingen 2012.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ KG Hugelmann: Tribes, Nation and Nation- State in the German Middle Ages. Stuttgart 1955.
  2. ↑ See Heinrich Himmler # contribution to Nazi Germanic ideology and Otto Rahn # contribution to Nazi Germanic ideology