The German Drang nach Osten: linguistic perspectives on historical stereotyping

One of the most enduring stereotypes concerning the history of Central and Eastern Europe is the notion of a German Drang nach Osten. While the impact of German influence on the region is beyond doubt, its alleged motivation in terms of a ‘drive to the East’ has been dismissed almost universally by historians (especially in Germany and Poland) as a ‘myth’ that obscures the complexities of history more than it illuminates them. Starting from this observation, the present article approaches the phrase Drang nach Osten from a linguistic point of view for the first time. The historical content and background of Drang nach Osten are surveyed first, including its origin in the crisis of German-Polish relations during the 1848 revolution. Three linguistic approaches to stereotyping are then presented with regard to their application to Drang nach Osten. Starting from general cognitive-discursive strategies of stereotyping, Drang nach Osten is defined linguistically as a ‘Nominationsstereotyp’; its characteristic syntactic and semantic stabilization is explicated in frame-semantic terms, and its use as a German phrase in non-German discourse is analysed from a semiotic point of view. The paper closes with thoughts concerning the interdisciplinary nature of ‘Stereotypenforschung’