Huns - 20th Century Use in Reference To Germans

20th Century Use in Reference To Germans

On July 27, 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion in China, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany gave the order to act ruthlessly towards the rebels: "Mercy will not be shown, prisoners will not be taken. Just as a thousand years ago, the Huns under Attila won a reputation of might that lives on in legends, so may the name of Germany in China, such that no Chinese will even again dare so much as to look askance at a German."

The term "Hun" from this speech was later used for the Germans by British propaganda during World War I. The comparison was helped by the Pickelhaube or spiked helmet worn by German forces until 1916, which would be reminiscent of images depicting ancient Hun helmets, some British found. This usage, emphasising the idea that the Germans were barbarians, was reinforced by Allied propaganda throughout the war. The French songwriter Theodore Botrel described the Kaiser as "an Attila, without remorse", launching "cannibal hordes".

The usage of the term "Hun" to describe a German resurfaced during World War II. For example Winston Churchill 1941 said in a broadcast speech: "There are less than 70,000,000 malignant Huns, some of whom are curable and others killable, most of whom are already engaged in holding down Austrians, Czechs, Poles and the many other ancient races they now bully and pillage." Later that year Churchill referred to the invasion of the Soviet Union as "the dull, drilled, docile brutish masses of the Hun soldiery, plodding on like a swarm of crawling locusts." During this time American President Franklin D. Roosevelt also referred to the German people in this way, saying that an Allied invasion into the South of France would surely "be successful and of great assistance to Eisenhower in driving the Huns from France." Nevertheless, its use was less widespread than in the previous war. British and American WWII troops more often used the term "Jerry" or "Kraut" for their German opponents.

The term "Hun" is also used by Catholics in Northern Ireland as a derogatory term to refer to Northern Irish Protestants, most of whom are descended from English and Lowland Scottish settlers, who historically spoke English and Scots respectively; both Germanic languages.