MDDM18: German

[Dave Monroe]

But also, along the also relevant lines below ...

Main Entry: German
Function: adjective
Date: 1552
: of, relating to, or characteristic of Germany, the
Germans, or German

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

Of course, Germany as a nation didn't quite assume its
modern form until 1871 ...

http://www.wwnorton.com/college/history/ralph/resource/unifgerm.htm

With a slight (in the grand scheme of things)
interruption in continuity there, 1949-89 ...

http://www.ursulashistoryweb.f2s.com/wall.html

And a rather less slight aberration ca. 1933-45, but
...
 
--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
>  
> > But what IS the deal with "German" here?
> 
> The "German" provinces were the seat of the Holy
> Roman Empire under Charlemagne during the Middle
> Ages, and there had been a very healthy "German"
> language [...] with many dialects, for well over a
> millennium....
>
> [...]
>
> The generic term comes from the Latin *Germanus* a.
> & n. of related people of central and N. Europe,
> name perhaps given by Celts to their neighbours
> (cf. Old Irish *gair* neighbour).

But note also ...

>From Edwin Danson, Drawing the Line (New York: John
Wiley & Sons, 2001), Ch. 3, "The Great Chancery Suit,"
pp. 18-26 ...

   "In 1714, during the last year of Anne's reign,
Parliament passed the famous act offering an enormous
prize of 20,000 [pounds] to anyone who solved the
longitude problem.  The more successful solutions to
the problem would indirectly help resolve the Penn and
Baltimore boundary dispute.  On August 1, the queen
passed away, leaving no obvious heir apparent.  The
next candidate in line for the throne of England was
the great-grandson of James I, the German elector of
Hanover, Georg Ludwig von Brunswick-Luneburg [!], who
was crowned George I.  An able but unpopular king,
'German George' was the first of the house of Hanover.
 His son, George Augustus, the Prince of Wales, with
his beautiful and astute wife, Lady Caroline of
Ansbach, joined the new king in England." (pp. 20-1)

   "George I died at his home in Osnabruck, Germany,
in 1727 and his thoroughly Anglophile son, the Prince
of Wales, was crowned George II." (p. 22)

Ch. 5, "The Transit of Venus," pp. 40-59 ...

"King George II died in 1760 and his grandson, the
twenty-year-old elector of Hanover, Georg Wilhelm
Friedrich, was crowned George III." (p. 40)

Ch. 1, "In the Reign of George the Third," pp. 5-9 ...

   "At home in England, most people, and certainly
most members of Parliament, regarded the American
colonies as if they were distant English shires.  On
the long voyage to the New World, Mason and Dixon
learned from the homebound Americans that the
colonists had neither the vote nor representation in
the English Parliament.  Discontent and anger was
growing toward the way the British governement, and
especially King George III, was running American
affairs." (p. 7)

"It was the era of the two Georges: George III and
George Washington." (p. 9)

And see, e.g. ...

Hibbert, Christopher.  George III: A Personal
   History.  New York: Basic Books, 2000.

Not to mention The Madness of King George (dir.
Nocholas Hytner, 1994).  And the British Royal Family
is STILL German, albeit Saxe-Coburg-Gotha vs. Hanover.
 Don't let that WWI-vintage "Windsor" fool you ...

http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page128.asp 

But that's roughly what I'd wanted to post at the
time, but didn't have at hand, so ... but, still, why
"German Enthusists" of "The Magnetick" (vs.
"Enthusiasts" of "German")?  Let me know ...

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