The German Question, Part Two

The question, "who is a German," is important to history, because there have been so many wars fought around this central question over the centuries, the last being World War Two, although even the "Cold War" certainly had some of the German Question involved in it, too. The Germanic people(s) constituted a large group, and with this large group living in much of northern and central Europe, they held a key geographic location as other groups of people to the east migrated westward, or, like with the Romans, who tried to move northwards and eastwards from their established empire. As some of the Germanic tribes migrated southward and westward, they came into conflict with numerous Celtic tribes* which inhabited large areas of Europe prior to the rise of the Romans.** As Germanic elements moved south, they encountered the Celts in what is today southern Germany (Bavaria), Austria, and Switzerland. Eventually the Germanic elements won out, perhaps more through "absorbing" the Celts, rather than by destroying them militarily. This Germanic advance now put some of the Germanic tribes right up against the boundaries of the developing Roman Empire. Much the same happened in northwest Europe, as the Germanic tribes in that area pushed into Celtic occupied territory.

So, just to recap: we now have the various Germanic tribes dominating much of Scandinavia; that is, modern day Norway and Sweden, and also northern and central Europe, including modern day Denmark, Holland (the Netherlands), Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, and large segments of Belgium, Switzerland, and Britain. The key thing is, however, while these tribes were Germanic, with similar customs and dialects (undoubtedly they could understand one another to varying degrees in those times), they did not necessarily act together, but individually, although confederations seem to have been likely at times, and gradually some tribes did consolidate into larger entities over time.

Gaul,*** long a part of the Roman Empire, bordered on the western areas of the Germanic tribes. The Romans pushed into these areas, but they found the Rhine River to be a formidable barrier and the Germanic warriors to be a tough lot. Eventually in 9 A.D., numerous Germanic tribal elements under the leadership of Arminius,^ virtually annihilated a large Roman force near present day Osnabrück, Germany, in what is known as "The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest" (Teutoburgerwald, in German). The Romans, by some historical accounts, suffered more than 20,000 casualties out of a force numbering perhaps 25,000. The Romans tried to regain the initiative and push across the Rhine, but after the resulting seven years of war with virtually no gains, they gave up the fight and accepted the Rhine River as the boundary between the Roman  Empire and the Germanic tribes. Many historians see this time frame, and especially the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 A.D., as the start of "German" history, as in this case, these Germanic tribes cooperated in a common cause to defeat an invader, rather than to act as individual tribes. This seems to be the birth of German nationalism, although it would take centuries to mature, and during that time, it would cause much pain for Germans and other Europeans, and eventually for much of the world.
To be continued...... (A word history is after the notes)

* The Germanic elements that established settlements in England displaced the Celtic Britons, who had themselves been conquered a few hundred years before by the Romans. These Celtic people were actually "Romanized" Celts; that is, they had taken on much Roman culture, and indeed they relied upon the Roman military presence to protect them from invaders, including other "wild" Celtic elements in the north of the main island (essentially present day Scotland). As Rome declined, the Romans withdrew their military forces from Britain, leaving the area vulnerable to the Germanic invaders, many of whom first came and formed alliances with the existing population to protect the "Romanized" areas from those barbarians in the north. Many of the Germanic tribes were seafarers, as they inhabited coastal areas of the North Sea and Baltic Sea. Some of their later descendants would become famous for their seafaring skills and raids, for they were known as the Vikings.

** The Celtic tribes were also Indo European, and they were the ancestors of the Irish, the Scots, the Welsh, and the Bretons (of Brittany), to name perhaps their best known modern descendants.

*** Gaul was named after the Gauls (hmm, how strange), another Celtic group of people, and while certainly not exact, the area consisted of much of modern France.

^ "Arminius" was his Roman name, as he had been raised by the Romans, but returned to his Germanic tribe and led them against the Romans. He is known to Germans (now I am using "German," not Germanic) as "Hermann," which seems to have been how they rendered his Latin name in their own language. "Armin," a shortened version of the original, has been quite a common German male given name, although I don't know if that has still been true in recent decades.

 
WORD HISTORY:
Ago-This form of the word began to be used more frequently during the 1300s, a part of the Middle English period. It was the shortened form of the past participle of Old English verb "agan," with the "a" sound in both cases being long. The verb had the sense of "passing on, departing, moving along in time" (the "gan" part is really the same word as present day "gone"). Initially it was spelled "agone," a word still used in some dialects in England, but the shortened "ago" began to become proper from the time of William Caxton in the mid 1400s, the first known English printer of books, and thus a man who had a substantial influence on how we spell and speak English to this day. By the way, originally in English, "ago" was used BEFORE a given time, as for example, "ago two years," rather than our modern "two years ago." While German uses "vor" to express the same meaning in time expressions, it too goes before the given time: "Vor zwei Minuten," literally "fore two minutes," but actually, "two minutes ago." In case you hadn't noticed, "vor" is closely related to English "fore." The close German relative of "ago," is "ergehen," which means "to travel on, go forth."