Abstract

This chapter addresses the impact of internal and external language politics and policies in the German-speaking countries of Central Europe from Renaissance times to the present age. The fate of post-Renaissance German in the pre-1806 Holy Roman Empire is contrasted with the roles of French and English as national and international languages of early modern times. German is not a national language before the post- Napoleonic period and, due to the tragedies of the twentieth century, its heyday is short-lived. Instead of German, the Holy Roman Empire, not being a nation state, pushes Latin as its official language – though inconsistently. On the whole there is very little explicit language policy and linguistic legislation in Germany before the twentieth century. As in other European countries, most of the language support given is implicit and very often indirect. This, however, does not mean that linguistic legislation does not exist. Implicit linguistic legislation – through popular belief, widespread opinion, hetero-stereotypes, sets of dominant values, and emotional constellations – is just as powerful, and possibly even more effective.

Keywords: Language of freedom, early modern times, EU linguistic policies, enemy language, Holy Roman Empire, nation state, national language, nineteenth- and twentieth-century Germany, rise and fall