Germanophile

Present day flag of Germany

A Germanophile 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 even being either an ethnic German or a German citizen. The love of the German way, called "Germanophilia" or "Teutonophilia", is the opposite to Germanophobia.

History

The term was especially in use in the 19th to 20th centuries after the creation of the German nation-state and the rise of the German Empire. It is used not only politically but also culturally; for example, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 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, an affinity to "Teutonic" or Germanic culture and worldview 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 France.

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

See also

• Germanophobia
• German American
• History of Germany
• History of Berlin

References

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