The recently superior performance of the German economy relative to those of other developed countries has reignited the question of whether Germany should exert greater influence and take a more prominent role in world affairs. Despite being the fourth largest nominal economy (after the US, China and Japan) and serving as the increasingly dominant engine of European economic performance, Germany does not command a position commensurate with this economic stature in terms of geopolitical and cultural influence.
While the legacy of World War II precludes Germany from significant military spending and excludes membership in the UN Security Council, another significant factor in Germany’s limited socio-cultural and linguistic influence is its lack of an enduring postcolonial legacy.
By 1914, Germany had amassed significant overseas territories (see map at right, with black indicating German colonial possessions); however, its loss in World War I saw these colonies transferred to Allied (mostly British) control, and the return of most German settlers in these regions to continental Europe.
By 1914, Germany had amassed significant overseas territories (see map at right, with black indicating German colonial possessions); however, its loss in World War I saw these colonies transferred to Allied (mostly British) control, and the return of most German settlers in these regions to continental Europe.As a result of both the relative brevity of colonial rule and limited number of permanent German-speaking settlers in its (former) colonies, German has hardly any reach beyond Europe as a native or official (see the map above right, where orange depicts an official language, yellow a secondary language status, and orange squares a minority population of German speakers) .
Much like Italian and Dutch, German has no sphere of influence comparable to the Lusophere, Hispanosphere, Francophone and Anglosphere (including the Commonwealth) that resulted from Portuguese, Spanish, French and British imperialism. The result is that German cultural influence abroad is much less significant than the influence of much smaller and economically weaker European countries such as Portugal and Spain.
While Germany is the most populous country in Europe, German is not as widely spoken as the European languages whose global “spheres of influence” resulted from colonial and imperial expansion. Among languages with European origin, the most widely spoken are Spanish (429m speakers, 26 countries), English (428m speakers, 57 countries), French (300m, 31 countries), and Portuguese (240m, 13 countries). Germany, by comparison, has roughly 101m speakers in 8 countries, all of which are European.
The major spheres of linguistic influence have political relevance too, as multiple international political associations and inter-governmental organizations have emerged out of former colonial unions. The Anglosphere is broadly reflected by the Commonwealth of Nations, an organization of 54 member states that is headquartered in London and headed by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II. The Francophone realm is similarly manifest in the Francophonie, which has 56 primary members and headquarters in Paris. The Lusosphere and Hispanosphere, as well, are visible in the contemporary Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (based in Lisbon) and the Organization of Ibero-American States (based in Madrid and headed by King Juan Carlos of Spain), respectively.
At the end of October, the 13th Francophonie Summit was held in Montreux, Switzerland. At the summit, Canada pledged millions to French-speaking Africa; French President Nicolas Sarkozy rallied support for combating cholera in Haiti; and the summit participants adopted a joint declaration promising to confront human rights violations among and within its member states. News of the summit reached audiences from Belgium to Benin. With the next summit scheduled for 2012 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (home to perhaps the most flagrant human rights abuses in the Francophonie, if not the world, as well as a major recipient of foreign aid), the summit underscored the enduring influence of France and contemporary relevance of French in shaping global events and driving global discourse.
Even with sustained economic growth, Germany does not have the cultural and linguistic influence of other European powers with a more enduring postcolonial legacy. As a result, its political role as a center of international cooperation does not match that of many less economically powerful European neighbors.
Below is an outline of the political, social intergovernmental organizations that are based, loosely, on former colonial empires, and largely representative as well of linguistic ties and cultural influence.
The Commonwealth of Nations
(Official members in blue; former members in orange; membership broadly reflects the linguistic Anglosphere)
Organisation internationale de la Francophonie
(See legend for membership status; blue and dark blue countries represent the linguistic Francophone)
Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa
(See legend; members denoted in red represent the linguistic Lusosphere)
Organización de Estados Iberoamericanos
(Member countries, in green, represent the Hispanosphere, with the exception of Portugal and Brazil)
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