Would we have all been speaking German if the Nazis had won WW2?

Discussions on the propaganda, architecture and culture in the Third Reich.
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SebastianHill
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Would we have all been speaking German if the Nazis had won WW2?

#1

Post by SebastianHill » 15 Oct 2020, 22:39

Greetings everyone,

It’s not uncommon when WW2 is discussed to hear people (from my own experiences mainly British people) say that if the Germans had won WW2 then everyone would be speaking German.

Is there any truth in that statement?

I don’t think so.

The Nazis occupied many countries in Europe and never once tried to implement the German language on non-Germans. They didn’t force Poles or Russians to speak German, they just wanted them to understand basic things and used them as slave labourers.

Where does the idea come from exactly? Was it used as propaganda during WW2?

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Hans1906
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Re: Would we have all been speaking German if the Nazis had won WW2?

#2

Post by Hans1906 » 16 Oct 2020, 11:25

Probably "Denglisch" ! :lol:

Wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denglisch

Hans1906 8-)
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wm
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Re: Would we have all been speaking German if the Nazis had won WW2?

#3

Post by wm » 01 Nov 2020, 15:19

Europe was going to be dominated by Nazi Germany but there were no plans to force German on anybody.

Br. James
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Re: Would we have all been speaking German if the Nazis had won WW2?

#4

Post by Br. James » 01 Nov 2020, 18:06

"Was it used as propaganda during WW2?"

Yes, I think it was indeed a propaganda ploy, used to push residents in countries at war with Germany to 'give their all toward beating a hated enemy!' As SebastianHill pointed out in his initial note: "The Nazis occupied many countries in Europe and never once tried to implement the German language on non-Germans. They didn’t force Poles or Russians to speak German, they just wanted them to understand basic things and used them as slave labourers." Politically speaking, the Nazis considered the nation of Germany to be the Old Reich -- Das Alt Reich -- where the national language was German. And when former territories were re-united with the Old Reich -- the Rhineland and the Saarland, for example -- and then when Austria and the Sudetenland were united with the Old Reich, the ongoing German/Nazi government incorporated those territories into itself, established the Gaue structure and Reichstag representation from those areas. These united or re-united areas were referred to as "Reichsgaue" and, as the German language was prevalent in all of those areas, no change in local language was felt to be necessary. When other whole countries were occupied by German forces, those nations were essentially treated as slave states, with no rights within the German national structure and no imposition of the German language upon them. Even the Channel Islands continued to speak English.

A further example regarding language involves Scandinavia: When Denmark, Norway and Sweden were occupied by German forces, each of those countries had it's own native language -- part of the Germanic Language Group but different from German and from each other. While the Nazis thought of the German language as 'sacred' or 'holy,' they also recognized that the Nordics/Scandinavians represented somewhat of a 'parent racial manifestation' to the Germanic Tribes, but when it came to absorbing Scandinavia into the Reich, that was beyond consideration, and those countries were occupied in the same way that other European nations were treated as slave states, and no effort was made to convert the native languages there to German!

Always interesting!

Br. James

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