[Lexicog] Equivalents for German "Heimat"

[Fritz Goerling]

Marco,

Overwhelmingly "Heimat" has a very positive ring to it in German.
There are a number of compounds with Heimat- in German which are all
positive:

Heimatland (-land) Heimatort  (-place) , Heimatliebe  (-love) , Heimathafen
(-haven),

Heimatdichter  (- poet) , Heimatfilm  (-film) ,  Heimatmuseum  (- museum) ,
etc.

Heimatlos (= homeless) is negative.





 However, if one despises Heimat films or Heimat poetry which are usually
sentimental, which
 stress folklore and village life, then Heimat becomes negative.
 (How Nazi propaganda misused the term Heimat is another matter and not the
point here).
 It is interesting to see how German writers and poets have used the word
"Heimat".
 In decadent, naturalist or symbolist city literature the word would rarely
be found, it would rather
 occur in literature which idyllizes country life.
 The writers of German enlightenment and classicism saw themselves as world
citizens
 and one might rather find a redefinition of "Heimat" in the sense Schiller
did it in
 "Kabale und Liebe":


Wo meine Liebe ist, ist meine Heimat.

(Where my love is, there is my Heimat)



In the period of romantic literature the term "Heimat" appears especially
with writers who
lived in exile. They had Heimweh (= home sickness), i.e. nostalgia for their
Heimat.

Fritz Goerling


Btw, Heimat nowadays has a slightly negative connotation in German, too,
right?

Marco

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