Germany's pride

The part of chapter two that I found most interesting was that the German “nation” did not have serious credibility until about 1455 with the discovery of Germania. The German culture was somehow lesser than other European cultures because of their lack of history and superior ancestors. I find this to be similar to the development of America with the lack of history and breaking away from their forefathers. It is interesting that a nation can be looked down on based on the amount of history it has.

America differed from Germany in the sense that German’s had unknown descendants while American’s knew where they came from and wanted to create a new society from it. During the fight for American freedom they were creating a history for future descendants. We did not lose proof of where we came from. The German lands were lost due to a lack of ancestry

I never thought that a country such as Germany with its rich culture and history, now, would have ever been looked down on by other countries because of unknown origins. I assumed that Germans had a rich and powerful culture and it is surprising to me that this was not always the case.

This event shows me that German’s are extremely proud of where they come from, and believe it makes them better people. The German people faced a lot of discrimination when direct German ancestry was unknown. I feel that a person’s ancestry was much more important in the 1400’s because many people in America do not know much about their ancestry but are not discriminated against due to a lack of family past.

The discovery of Germania by Tacitus aided in the change of names from the “German lands” to Germany. I never thought that one text would have such an impact on a group of people, and give them the confidence to fight back against verbal attacks from the French and Italians. The amount of confidence gained from this text for the Germans was immense and allowed them to begin attacking the Roman ancestors of the French and Italians for thinking they were superior purely based on their descendants.

One thing I do find curious is that no one thought to question the writing of Tacitus. This writing that gave the German nation such pride and aplomb could all be fictional. It is similar to the Declaration of Independence being a fictional document. It would alter the beliefs and thoughts of all Americans.  I find it odd that there was no other proof to say that Germans had descended from “uncorrupted, loyal, brave, and plain-living Germānī” (Schulze p. 49).

This is a bust of Tacitus, who wrote Germania, written for Emperor Trajan. It can be said that he is responsible for the creation of the German nation.

This is a picture of the text Germania. This is significant because it is what gave the Germans confidence in their origins.  

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