Fatherland

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Fatherland

Fatherland is the nation of one's "fathers", "forefathers" or "patriarchs". 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"
English usage and Nazi connotations
Fiction
See also
External links

Groups that refer to their native country as a "fatherland"

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, Romanians as Patria. It should be noted that there is a gender change in Spanish and Italian patria.
the Afrikaners as Vaderland.
the Albanian as Atdheu.
the Armenians, as Hayrenik (as in the national anthem Mer Hayrenik, literally meaning Our Fatherland)
the Brazilians as Pátria.
the Bulgarians as Tatkovina and Otechestvo
the Croats as O?evina and Domovina
the Czechs as vlast or (rarely) ot?ina
the Danes as fædreland
the Estonians as isamaa
the Filipinos as Amang Bayan
the French as patrie
the Finns as isänmaa
the Frisians as heitelân
the Georgians as Samshoblo (???????? - "[land] of parents") or Mamuli (??????)
the Germans, as das Vaterland (as in the national anthem Das Lied der Deutschen)
the Greeks as patris, the root word for patriotism.
the Hungarians as hon or haza
the Icelanders as föðurland literally meaning "land of the father"
the Indians as (), although very, very rarely used, the word for motherland, Matrubhumi, being the exclusively used one.
the Jews as Eretz Ha'Avot ()
the Kazakhs as atameken
the Latvians as t?vija or t?vzeme (although dzimtene ? roughly translated as "place of birth" ? is more neutral and used more commonly nowadays)
the Lithuanians as t?vyn?
the ethnic Macedonians as Tatkovina (?????????)
the Dutch, as vaderland
the Norwegians as fedreland
the Persians as Vatan
the Poles, as Ojczyzna (but there is also macierz, that is Motherland, although it is seldom used)
the Portuguese as Pátria.
the Russians, as Otechestvo (?????????) or Otchizna (???????), although Rodina, that is ancestral land, is more common.
the Serbs as otad?bina (????????)
the Walkers as people that reside in New Cumberland (????????)
the Spanish and all Spanish speakers as "patria."
the Slovaks as vlas?, or rarely domovina.
the Slovenes as o?etnjava, although domovina (homeland) is more common.
the Swedes as fäderneslandet, although fosterlandet is more common (meaning the land that fosterd/raised you).
the Thais as pituphum (????????), the word is adapted from Sanskrit
the Tibetans as pha yul
the Vietnamese as T? qu?c
the Ukrainians as bat'kivschina (???????????) or, more rarely, vitchizna (????????)

In Hungarian usage, Hon or Haza simply means native land and not "Fatherland".

English usage and Nazi connotations

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. The word Motherland in modern English carries similar associations with the Soviet Union. Homeland is the latest version of the trend, currently popular in the United States.

Prior to Nazism, however, the term was used throughout Germanic language countries without negative connotations, or often to refer to their homelands much as the word "motherland" does. For example, "Wien Neerlands Bloed", national anthem of the Netherlands between 1815 and 1932, makes extensive and conspicuous use of the parallel Dutch word. In Iceland (and other places) it is the norm to use the term "fatherland" (föðurland) and many would be offended if it was in any way compared with the Nazi term of the word.