Fatherland - English Usage and Nazi Connotations

English Usage and Nazi Connotations

Assuming a specific Nazi usage of the term "Vaterland" (which in fact never existed), 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 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. The word motherland in modern English carries similar associations with the Soviet Union.

Prior to Nazism, however, the term was used throughout Germanic language countries without negative connotations (e.g. in Hermann Broch's novel The Sleepwalkers), or often to refer to their homelands much as the word "motherland" does. For example, "Wien Neêrlands Bloed", national anthem of the Netherlands between 1815 and 1932, makes extensive and conspicuous use of the parallel Dutch word. In most European countries it is still the norm to use the term "fatherland" and many would be offended if it was in any way compared with Nazism.