The Process of Globalization -
The Process of Anglicising German Culture and Language?

von: Kristin Unger

Table of Contents

Preface 4

Businesses – The American Lifestyle in Germany 4

The English Influence in Politics 5

The “Germarican” Media 6

“Denglish” – The German Youth Language 7

Conclusion 7

Works Cited 9

Preface

To begin with, I would like to introduce the term anglicism. An anglicism is a word from British or American English used in a non-English language (Yang 7). Today, our world is closer connected than ever before, and therefore the cultural identities of the countries around the globe blend more and more from individual identities into one overall identity. This is due to a process called globalization. This term signifies “a social change, an increased connectivity among societies and their elements due to transculturation“ (Wikipedia: “Globalization”). While the process of globalization steps further, it became obvious that the one culture having the most influence on other cultures is the American way of life.
The use of English words in the German language has increased enormously during the last 50 years. This expansion started during the American occupation of Germany after World War Two. American soldiers and their families living in Germany brought the Hollywood flair, the Rock’n’Roll, and a great deal of American products to Germany. The German population seemed to develop a strong desire for this particular American lifestyle. In today’s time, however, Germany is not any longer occupied by the United States of America, France, Russia, or Great Britain. On the other hand, it is to be mentioned that the United States grew to a global power during the cold war, influencing other countries in their social, cultural, and political live. Due to the authority of the United States as a global power in politics and economy, the English language and culture remains prevalent in Germany. This ascendancy has a great effect on the German media, which tends to change from German into American. All this suggests that anglicisms have almost unnoticeable “snuck” into the German language und culture and are now encroaching upon them.

Businesses – The American Lifestyle in Germany

The pressure of the American economy on German companies has always been a great issue, but especially today, where the world’s countries are economically closer connected than ever before, the American influence has a great effect. The economic policy of the United States is controlling businesses throughout the entire world and therefore has a great impact on every country and company: the world’s business language is English for instance, and the company structures are changing into American structures (Wikipedia: “Types of companies”). This has a particular effect on Germany as well, since a great deal of German companies is focused on the world market or owned by American companies, which influences the internal structure of those companies and each individual employee.
This can be seen for instance with the Fast Food chain McDonald’s, an American company, which brought a whole new gastronomic culture not only to Germany, but to the entire world. The boom, which McDonald’s brought about, becomes particularly evident by looking at a couple of numbers: The first restaurant in Germany opened in December 1971, in 1999 the number increased to be a thousand and just within 2003 by another 48 restaurants to a total number of more than 1.240 restaurants in Germany (www.mcdonalds.de). Whereas the Fast Food restaurants in the beginning at least tried to adapt to each particular country, a “Happy Meal” at McDonald’s for instance used to be called “Junior Tüte” in Germany, they meanwhile changed to have a world wide promotion policy: “I’m lovin’ it”, “Ich liebe es” etc. It is to be noted, though, that in Austria the slogan “I’m lovin’ it” is used, although most Austrians speak German or Italian.
The next illustration is the German postal service, which grew from the state owned agency Deutsche Bundespost to the internationalized private company Deutsche Post World Net. The German postal service wanted to grow and become international. To reach this goal, the company went private in 1995. Their concept was borrowed from American companies, which already succeeded in becoming international. Therefore the company bought other companies as DHL and Danzas. To guarantee the communication within the company, a unified company language was introduced, which is English, and not German, as one might have thought. As well as the company language was changed, the products and services provided also unified to English, as can be seen on www.deutschepost.de. The Deutsche Post World Net as a German company grew to be a global player within just 10 years adapting to the American business structures. (Interview: Jan Hähnel)

The English Influence in Politics

During the past years the European Union gained more and more influence in the world’s politics. The European Union is considered a partner of the United States of America with its own strong position within world politics. In Germany, however, politics concerning the United States are slightly different. Germany had been occupied for almost half a century and therefore the German government has always been and still is influenced by the politics made in the USA. According to a survey by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung called Die Deutschen zu Europa und Amerika the German population favors a good political relationship towards the USA, but also fears that Germany and especially the EU might lose their individuality in this globalized world. It is believed in Germany that the German government has to decrease the American influence on the European politics.

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