Fatherland

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fatherland is the nation of one's "fathers" or "forefathers." It can be viewed as a nationalist concept, insofar as it relates to nations. (Compare to motherland and homeland.)

Groups that refer to their native country as a "fatherland" (or rather, translations of this English word in their languages), or, arguably, associate it primarily with paternal concepts include:

Romans, Italians, Romanians,Spaniards, and Latin Americans as Patria. It should be noted that there is a gender change in Spanish: Madre patria, or motherland is also used.

the Armenians, as Hayrenik (as in the national anthem Mer Hayrenik)
the Czechs as otčina
the Danes as fædreland
the Estonians as isamaa
the Finns as isänmaa
the French, as Patrie (as in the national anthem la Marseillaise)
the Frisians as heitelân
the Germans, as das Vaterland (as in the national anthem Das Lied der Deutschen)
the Greeks as patris, the root word for patriotism.
the Indians as pitribhūmi (Sanskrit: पितृभूमि), although very, very rarely used, the word for motherland being the exclusively used one.
the Kazakhs as atameken
the Lithuanians as tėvynė
the Dutch, as vaderland
the Norwegians as fedreland
the Poles, as Ojczyzna (but there is also macierz, that is Motherland, although it is seldom used)
the Portuguese as Pátria.
the Russians, as Otechestvo (отечество) or Otchizna (отчизна), although Rodina, that is Motherland, is more common.
the Serbs as otadžbina
the Swedes as fäderneslandet, although fosterlandet is more common.
the Tibetans as pha yul

[edit] German Usage

Note that das Vaterland is grammatically neuter, since the final word of the compound (Land) is neuter. Die Heimat (the homeland) is grammatically feminine. Vaterland has been used since the 12th century with the meaning "native country". An adjective vaterländisch has been used since the 18th century, meaning something like patriotic or nationalistic. Mutterland (motherland) means a mother country in contrast to its colonies.

[edit] English Usage

Drawing from the Nazis' usage of the term "Vaterland", the direct English translation "fatherland" featured in news reports associated with Nazi Germany and in domestic anti-Nazi propaganda during World War II. As a result, the English word is now associated with the Nazi government of Germany (unlike in Germany itself, where the word means simply "homeland") The word is not used often in post-World War II English unless one wishes to invoke the Nazis, or one is translating literally from a foreign language where that language's equivalent of "fatherland" does not bear Nazi connotations.

[edit] Fiction

Fatherland can also refer to:

Fatherland, an alternate history novel by Robert Harris.
Fatherland, a TV movie inspired by Harris' novel.
Fatherland, a 1986 film directed by Ken Loach.
For The Fatherland, a complation album by white nationalist duo Prussian Blue.
Fatherland, a song that appears on Metropolis, an album released in 2000 by Czech gothic rock band XIII Století.