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Britain, Germany, and Brexit: The ‘Cradle of Democracy’ and the ‘Heart of Europe’ as Different Legacies of the Nineteenth-century Idea of the ‘Germanic’

Britain, Germany, and Brexit: The ‘Cradle of Democracy’ and the ‘Heart of Europe’ as Different... Maike Oergel Britain, Germany, and Brexit The ‘Cradle of Democracy’ and the ‘Heart of Europe’ as Different Legacies of the Nineteenth-century Idea of the ‘Germanic’ This essay traces the uses of the idea of the ‘Germanic’ in the nineteenth-century historical narratives of German and English identity and reflects on how the two ideas of Germanic liberty and of a common Germanic European heritage were de- ployed to tell the (national) identity stories that still preoccupy us today: Ger- many as the ‘heart of Europe’ and Britain as the ‘cradle of democracy’. Today the notion of the Germanic has a rather mixed press: it tends to be seen as historically distant, somewhat old-fashioned – the term Germanic Languages has disap- peared from the names for most German University Departments in the UK (less so in the U.S). It may even be considered vaguely suspect, with the whiff of white supremacy about it. Nineteenth-century thinking, however, had embraced the Germanic as modern and emancipating, an interpretation that may surprise to- day but that does not absolve the Germanic of notions of white supremacy (as the question is always who is to be emancipated). The following explores the common origin of German http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Angermion de Gruyter

Britain, Germany, and Brexit: The ‘Cradle of Democracy’ and the ‘Heart of Europe’ as Different Legacies of the Nineteenth-century Idea of the ‘Germanic’

Oergel, Maike
Angermion , Volume 15 (1): 28 – Nov 21, 2022
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Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
© 2022 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
ISSN
1868-9426
eISSN
1868-9426
DOI
10.1515/anger-2022-0001
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Abstract

Maike Oergel Britain, Germany, and Brexit The ‘Cradle of Democracy’ and the ‘Heart of Europe’ as Different Legacies of the Nineteenth-century Idea of the ‘Germanic’ This essay traces the uses of the idea of the ‘Germanic’ in the nineteenth-century historical narratives of German and English identity and reflects on how the two ideas of Germanic liberty and of a common Germanic European heritage were de- ployed to tell the (national) identity stories that still preoccupy us today: Ger- many as the ‘heart of Europe’ and Britain as the ‘cradle of democracy’. Today the notion of the Germanic has a rather mixed press: it tends to be seen as historically distant, somewhat old-fashioned – the term Germanic Languages has disap- peared from the names for most German University Departments in the UK (less so in the U.S). It may even be considered vaguely suspect, with the whiff of white supremacy about it. Nineteenth-century thinking, however, had embraced the Germanic as modern and emancipating, an interpretation that may surprise to- day but that does not absolve the Germanic of notions of white supremacy (as the question is always who is to be emancipated). The following explores the common origin of German

Journal

Angermion – de Gruyter

Published: Nov 21, 2022

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