" Goethe era convinto che i tedeschi potessero meglio adempiere la loro reale missione storica senza creare uno stato-nazione. Egli volentieri accettava per essi un futuro simile a quello degli ebrei: sopravvivere come popolo, preservare il proprio carattere e compiere grandi cose senza una patria comune. Al pari degli ebrei, i tedeschi sembravano a Goethe valenti come individui, ma piuttosto miserabili come popolo. Nelle sue conversazioni, anche a distanza di anni, a più riprese egli ritornò su questa analogia. « La nazione tedesca è nulla », dichiarò all'amico Friedrich von Müller il 14 dicembre 1808, « ma il singolo tedesco è qualcosa, eppure essi immaginano che sia vero il contrario. I tedeschi dovrebbero essere dispersi in tutto il mondo, come gli ebrei, per sviluppare pienamente tutto il buono che c'è in essi a vantaggio della umanità ». "
Hans Kohn, I tedeschi, traduzione dall'inglese di Amerigo Guadagnin, Edizioni di Comunità (Collana Passato e presente), 1963¹, p. 47.
[Edizione originale: The Mind of Germany, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1960]
No. He never even visited Germanic Europe himself.
His research was conducted through a combination of a) hitting up the library, and b) finding a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy who MAY have visited the region, and paying that person to tell him what he knew.
I don't know why Germania was written, but the entire thing reads like an argument for why the Germanic people's primitive, ass-backwards idol-worshipers is just further evidence for Rome Being The Best And Most Glorious Civilization.
I recommend looking into Ahmad ibn Fadlan's work instead.
Another note:
It's always important to look at historic documents within the context of the societal and political values that informed the writing of it, rather than in the context for how they're anthropologically important to us now. The primary purpose behind many historical documents like Germania, the Prose Edda, Gesta Danorum, etc. was political, and political writing comes with an agenda.
None of these texts are capable of giving us insight into what the Old Norse people actually valued, or how they thought about the world. That would have needed to come from them in their own words.
Ya know, I never got what was up with Germania. It seems like every single legate wants to take it and build a city there; They’re always going, ‘Take Germania’ this, and ‘bring my legions’ that… Guys! Have you seen Germania?
(Audience laughs)
There’s nothing up there! Just trees and mud, as far as the eye can see! It’s like living in Septem Provincae!
(Audience laughs) (A few Romano Gauls boo)
But at least in Lugdunum they’ve got good wine! They don’t even have that in Germania! Germanians just buy our wine! No wine, no wealth, no weapons! What was Varus even looking for?
(Audience Laughs)
(Batavian starts heckling Ierius Saenfelian)
Uh oh, guys. (Pointing at heckler) I think he’s from Germania.
(Audience laughs)
(Batavian continues to shout)
Look at those pants!
(Audience laughs even harder)
Why do Germanians wear pants anyways?What, a tunic wasn’t enough? Ya gotta wrap cloth around your legs? Do you guys wear hats on your noses too?
(Audience laughs)
That’s the land we’re all trying to conquer now. A giant muddy bog full of weirdos who wear pants.
(Audience laughs)
Y’know what I think? I think all the Legates are just insecure. I mean, they already took Gaul, Syria, Africa… all the good places. I think they’re afraid that if they’re not conquering, the Emperor’s gonna look over the budget and go, “Wait, what are we even paying these guys for?”
(Audience laughs)
So they just run into Germania every few years to look busy. Y’know, burn a few huts, take a few slaves, kill some chieftain or another, come back to Rome and say, “Yep. Just defending the Imperium.”
(Audience laughs)
“Those Bog people were gonna come down here and make us all wear pants. Don’t worry, though. We got it alllll under control.”
(Audience laughs)
You’ve been a lovely crowd, everybody. G’night and Io Saturnalia.
(Audience applauds as Ierius Saenfelian bows and walks off the Ampitheater stage).