Fatherland is the nation of one's "fathers" or "forefathers." It can be viewed as a nationalist concept, insofar as it relates to nations. (Compare to motherland and homeland.)
Groups that refer to their homeland as a "fatherland" (or rather, cognates of this English word in their languages), or, arguably, associate it primarily with paternal concepts include:
- Romans, as patria, the rootword for patriotism
- the French, as Patrie (as in the national anthem la Marseillaise)
- Armenians, as Hayrenik (as in the national anthem Mer Hayrenik)
- the Basque, particularly the Basque Fatherland and Liberty (Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna, ETA) organization
- the Poles, as Ojczyzna (but there is also macierz, that is Motherland)
- the Germans, as das Vaterland (as in the former national anthem Deutschland Uber Alles)
"Fatherland" is also the title of a thriller novel by the English writer and journalist, Robert Harris, which doubles as a work of virtual history and postulates a world in which Nazi Germany was triumphant as a consequence of World War II. A TV movie of the book was made in 1994 by HBO, and starred Rutger Hauer and Miranda Richardson.
See also: national anthem
External Links and References
Vaterland, etc.
Nationalism and Ethnicity - A Theoretical Overview
The problem of German identity...
Nation, State, and Economy: The Nationality Principle in Politics: Liberal or Pacifistic Nationalism, Ludwig von Mises
National anthems ("Allons enfants de la Patrie", "Blühe, deutsches Vaterland")
Origins of the German State, Robert Selig, German Life