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 native country as a "fatherland" (or rather, translations of this English word in their languages), or, arguably, associate it primarily with paternal concepts include:

• Romans, Italians, Portuguese, Spaniards, and Latin Americans as Patria, the rootword for patriotism.
• the French, as Patrie (as in the national anthem la Marseillaise)
• the Greeks as patrida
• the Armenians, as Hayrenik (as in the national anthem Mer Hayrenik)
• the Poles, as Ojczyzna (but there is also macierz, that is Motherland, although it is seldom used)
• the Germans, as das Vaterland (as in the national anthem Das Lied der Deutschen)
• the Dutch, as Vaderland
• the Kazakhs as atameken
• the Koreans, as 조국
• the Russians, as Otechestvo (отечество) or Otchizna (отчизна), although Rodina, that is Motherland, is more common.
• the Serbs as otadžbina
• the Danes as fædreland
• the Norwegians as fedreland
• the Finns as isänmaa
• the Estonians as isamaa
• the Lithuanians as tėvynė
• the Frisians as heitelân
• the Czechs as otčina
• the Swedes as fäderneslandet, although fosterlandet is more common.
• the Indians as (), although very, very rarely used, the word for motherland being the exclusively used one.

German Usage

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Note that das Vaterland is grammatically neuter, since the final word of the compound (Land) is neuter. Die Heimat (the homeland) is grammatically feminine. Vaterland has been used since the 12th century with the meaning "native country". An adjective vaterländisch has been used since the 18th century, meaning something like patriotic or nationalistic. Mutterland (motherland) means a mother country in contrast to its colonies.

English Usage

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Drawing from the Nazis' usage of the term "Vaterland", 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 (unlike in Germany itself, where the word means simply "homeland") The word is 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.

Fiction

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Fatherland can also refer to:

• Fatherland, an alternate history novel by Robert Harris.
• Fatherland, a TV movie inspired by Harris' novel.
• Fatherland, a 1986 film directed by Ken Loach.

See also:

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• national anthem

External links

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• 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

Nationalism

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Fædreland | Mutterland | Ojczyzna | Отечество | Isänmaa