Introduction

• Published in: Scandinavian studies Vol. 91; no. 4; pp. 427 - 440
• Main Authors: Hoyer, Jennifer M, Watson, Jennifer
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Champaign University of Illinois Press 01.12.2019
• Subjects: Artists; Centuries; German culture; German language; Nobel prizes; Population; Secondary schools; Sweden; Norway; Denmark; France; Scandinavia; Germany
• ISSN: 0036-5637

Needless to say, the history of their interactions has not been a steady one; as Raimund Wolfert points out in his essay "A History of German-Scandinavian Relations," there have been a great many "fluctuations and ruptures" (2006, 3) over the centuries. [...]as George C. Schoolfield notes, the individual Scandinavian countries have had varying relationships with Germany at different times (1966, 20). Towns that had not yet recovered from the Thirty Years' War were provided with financial support and repopulated. According to Wolfert, "German science and culture became the guiding principle for the whole of Scandinavia after 1871," although, he points out, the German Empire under Bismarck was not met with as much enthusiasm (2006, 23). In Sweden, the German language, as the first modern foreign language taught in secondary schools, had a very prevalent position, which was strengthened with the education decree of 1878 (Wolfert 2006, 25). [...]some German writers even adopted a Nordic pseudonym in order to gain more notice, for example, Arno Holz and Johannes Schlaf (Wolfert 2006, 26).