The Duden includes several main and subcategories under the term Volk. Since the 20th century, the Grimm’sche Wörterbuch even counts a total of 15 main meanings and nine sub-meanings. The sociological dictionary has the following entry: „Community of people connected by common historical and cultural heritage, living together within certain state boundaries (Staatsvolk)“ (Reinhold 2017, 710).
In order to grasp the extensive word meanings and connotations, it is necessary to consider the historical context.
The Volk through the ages
The word Volk, although not clearly attested but indicated by most dictionaries, derives from the Germanic fulka „people, people of war“ (cf. Kluge 1963, 825; cf. Pfeifer 1989). According to the Grimm dictionary, the oldest meaning is the closed detachment of warriors (Old Slav. plŭkŭ „kriegsschar, kämpfende schar“) (cf. Grimm 1854-1961, 455). In addition to the military folk term, which denoted the armed troops, there was also the theological term God’s people. It was not until the 17th century, not least as a result of the French Revolution, that the term Staatsvolk, which is still used today, emerged (cf. Retterrath 2016, 33).
Until the 19th century, a wide variety of ways of using the word developed. What the meanings have in common, however, is that they refer either to an abstract, imaginary or real crowd of people who are connected by religion, tradition, language or a special purpose and/ or who have similar characteristics.
Fluctuating connotations
„In current political usage, the word Volk is rarely used,“ says Jörn Retterath in his book What is a Volk? History also shows different manifestations of the word’s use. This is probably due to the fluctuating connotations in the historical course. Whereas in the Middle Ages the word Volk was understood as a ‚lower class‘ (the common people) in distinction to the nobility and thus had largely negative associations, after the French Revolution (1789) and the American Declaration of Independence (1776) it came to be understood as the ‚totality of all equal citizens‘ and consequently acquired a positive charge. Instead of drawing the border within society, it was drawn around it (cf. Retterrath 2016).
Still omnipresent in the Weimar Republic, the word Volk disqualified itself as an unbiased expression lastly through the appropriation attempt of the National Socialists (cf. Retterrath 2016).
It can be pointed out that the history of the word’s meaning is closely linked to political and historical-social developments. Kluge, in his etymological dictionary of the German language, further writes in this regard, „its emotional tone depends on the attitude and mood of the speaker.“ (Kluge 1963, 825)
„We are the people?“
Christian Böttger, in his book Ethnos. Der Nebel um den Volksbegriff to the question of whether there is still such a thing as a people or whether peoples are ideological constructs of the past that should no longer have a place in our globalized world. These are questions that currently need to be addressed, with which he refers to the politically and medially suppressed concept of the people.
Also worthy of discourse is the existence of a ‚we-feeling‘ based on a community of descent and culture or a folk consciousness at a time when marginal political voices are becoming louder due to immigration policies (cf. Böttger 2014).
The term nation is often used synonymously.
Literature
Böttger, Christian (2014): Ethnos. The fog around the concept of nation. Schnellnach: Lindenbaum.
Duden, Online Edition: https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Volk [20.06.2018].
Grimm, Jacob & Wilhelm (1854-1961): German Dictionary. http://www.woerterbuchnetz.de/DWB?lemma=volk [14.06.2018].
Kluge, Friedrich (1963): Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache. 19th ed. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Reinhold, Gerd (2017): Sociology dictionary. Berlin/ Bosten: Oldenburg Wissenschaftsverlag.
Retterrath, Jörn (2016): „What is the People?“: Volks- und Gemeinschaftskonzepte der politischen Mitte in Deutschland 1917-1924. Berlin: de Gruyter.