Heimat is a German word that has no simple English translation. It is often expressed with terms such as home or homeland

Homeland

A homeland is the concept of the place to which an ethnic group holds a long history and a deep cultural association with —the country in which a particular national identity began. As a common noun, it simply connotes the country of one's origin...

, but these English counterparts fail to encapsulate the true meaning of the word.

The meaning of Heimat

Heimat is a German concept. People are bound to their heimat by their birth, their childhood, their language and their earliest experiences. For instance, Swiss citizens have their "Heimatort" (geographical origin where the citizen or his ancestors became citizens) on their identification.

Heimat found strength in an increasingly alienating world as Germany's, Austria's and Switzerland's population made a massive exodus from rural areas into more urbanised communities around the countries' major cities. Heimat was a reaction to the onset of modernity, loss of individuality and intimate community.

Heimat began as an integral aspect of German, Austrian and Swiss identity that was patriotic without being nationalistic. Regional identity (along with regional dialect

German dialects

German dialect is dominated by the geographical spread of the High German consonant shift, and the dialect continuum that connects the German with the Dutch language.-German dialects in relation to varieties of standard German:...

) is an important foundation for a person's Heimat.

Nazi conception of heimat

The specific aspects of Heimat — love and attachment to homeland — left the idea vulnerable to easy assimilation into the fascist

Fascism

Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

 "blood and soil

Blood and soil

Blood and Soil refers to an ideology that focuses on ethnicity based on two factors, descent and homeland/Heimat...

" literature of the National Socialists

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

 since it is relatively easy to add to the positive feelings for the Heimat a rejection of anything foreign, that however is not there necessarily. It was conceived by the Nazis that the volk community is deeply rooted in the land of their heimat through their practice of agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

 and their ancestral lineage

Genealogy

Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...

 going back hundreds and thousands of years. The Third Reich was regarded at the deepest level as the sacred heimat of the unified volk community—the national slogan was One Reich

Reich

Reich is a German word cognate with the English rich, but also used to designate an empire, realm, or nation. The qualitative connotation from the German is " sovereign state." It is the word traditionally used for a variety of sovereign entities, including Germany in many periods of its history...

, One Volk, One Führer

Führer

Führer , alternatively spelled Fuehrer in both English and German when the umlaut is not available, is a German title meaning leader or guide now most associated with Adolf Hitler, who modelled it on Benito Mussolini's title il Duce, as well as with Georg von Schönerer, whose followers also...

. Those who were taken to Nazi concentration camps

Nazi concentration camps

Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...

 were those who were officially declared by the SS to be "enemies of the volk community" and thus a threat to the integrity and security of the heimat.

Heimat in film media

The contemporary conception of Heimat is most readily seen in the Heimatfilm

Heimatfilm

Heimatfilm is the name given to a film genre that was popular in Germany, Switzerland and Austria from the late 40s to the early 70s. They were usually shot in the Alps, the Black Forest or the Lüneburg Heath and always involved the outdoors...

e from the Heimat period c.1946-1965, in which filmmakers placed a profound emphasis on nature and the provincial homeliness of Germany. Forests, mountains, landscapes and rural areas portrayed Germany in a homely light with which the German people readily identified.

In 1984 Edgar Reitz

Edgar Reitz

Edgar Reitz is a German filmmaker and Professor of Film at the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung in Karlsruhe.- Early life and education :...

 released his film Heimat

Heimat (film)

Heimat is the overall title of three series of films in 30 episodes written and directed by Edgar Reitz which view life in Germany between 1919 and 2000 through the eyes of a family from the Hunsrück area of the Rhineland. Personal and domestic life is set against glimpses of wider social and...

. This epic production provided an in-depth illustration of Heimat on a variety of levels, most poignantly highlighting the provincial sense of belonging and the conflict that exists between urban and rural life.

Sociology

Many, such as historian Alon Confino, in his book "Germany as a Culture of Remembrance: Promises and Limits of Writing History", see the post-war concept of Heimat as having emerged as a reaction to Germany's self-imposed position on the world stage, a symptom of the forced introversion following the world wars, and an attempt at individual distancing from responsibility for Nazi Germany's actions.

In the wake of World War II, Germans are still rarely seen demonstrating a specific pride in their 'Germanness'. With the emergence of a renewed sense of Heimat, Germans show pride in their regional origins as Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

ers, Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

ns, Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

ns or Swabia

Swabia

Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...

ns.

Support in international law

In international law the "right to one's homeland

Homeland

A homeland is the concept of the place to which an ethnic group holds a long history and a deep cultural association with —the country in which a particular national identity began. As a common noun, it simply connotes the country of one's origin...

" (German: Recht auf die Heimat; French: droit au foyer; Spanish; derecho a la patria) is a concept that has been gaining acceptance as a fundamental human right and a precondition to the exercise of the right to self-determination. In 1931 at the Académie de Droit International in The Hague (Hague Academy of International Law

Hague Academy of International Law

The Hague Academy of International Law is a center for high-level education in both public and private international law housed in the Peace Palace in The Hague, The Netherlands...

), Robert Redslob

Robert Redslob

Robert Redslob was a German-French constitutional and public international law-scientist who was critical of the French constitution in the early twentieth century. His ideas from his work Die parlamentarische Regierung in ihrer wahren und in ihrer unechten Form from 1918 had a remarkable...

 spoke of the right to the homeland in connection with the right to self-determination in Le principe des nationalités

Ethnic group

An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...

Georges Scelle in Belgium, Felix Ermacora in Austria, Alfred de Zayas in the United States, and Christian Thomuschat and Dieter Blumenwitz in Germany are amongst those who have written extensively on the subject.
The first United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Jose Ayala Lasso

Jose Ayala Lasso

José Ayala Lasso is a retired Ecuadorian lawyer and diplomat, currently residing in Quito. He served as Foreign Minister of Ecuador on three occasions.- Career :...

of Ecuador affirmed this right, which is reflected in the 13-point Declaration appended to the Final Report on "Human Rights and Population Transfers"