An interesting discussion on the German Life List was concerned with what is "Germanic"? Today we do say that Germany, Austria, and Switzerland are Germanic nations because they speak the same basic language, German (with variations). But if you ask the deeper question of what are the German nations by race, you will get some surprising answers.
One person ventured to name the most Germanic nation by race, and it was not Germany. Before we give this person's answer, let us look at the general migrations which have swept over Europe in the last two millennia. The population pressures generally came from the east out of the region that lies at the European-Asia boundary. Some of the pressures came from the south at the time of the Romans. All of these people were not Germanic.
It could be said that the Germanic people were those living in northwestern Europe before these migrations took place. The pressures from the east and south forced these people to move further west and north. Eventually, they reached the Atlantic ocean and its ancillary branches. They crossed these waters and forced the people in England to move to the west and north there.
The nation of the purest Germanic stock is England. Great Britain includes Scotland and Wales, but these are the people who were descendants of the original people in England. These Picts and Celts were pushed to the limits by the influx of Germans to England. It is no accident that the English describe themselves, among other things, as being Saxon which is in the name of two states in Germany.
Consider the Normans who came to England. Where did they get their name? It derives from "North Men", meaning the Vikings from Scandinavia, who, in their sea travels, colonized the northwest corner of today's France.
Meanwhile, what was happening in Germany? Those people who were descended from the original German stock were being diluted by the migrations from the east, while the percentage of German blood in England increased. Today, it can arguably be said that England (but not Wales or Scotland) is the most Germanic nation.
All of these distinctions are fading though, as both England and Germany are taking in significant numbers of peoples from other nations, even other regions, of the world. And nearly all of us, if we carried our ancestry back to the time of the Romans would find an extreme mixture of genes from a wide background.
Still, we "Germans" should show a little more tolerance to the English. After all, they may be more German than we are.
(23 Feb 01)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.