← Back to context

Comment by closewith

4 days ago

Yes, Germany could request that all of the above rename Germany in their respective languages and at least the EU nations would.

This has already happened quite recently as the Netherlands requested that countries moved to translations of Netherlands when referring to their country (as opposed to Holland and translations thereof) and all the EU nations did. This was in 2019.

So if Germany so desired, they could make those requests and they would be honoured. In a few decades, the old names would be as antiquated as Rhodesia, Burma, or Zaire are now.

Interesting. Do Brits (still) call the inhabitants of the Netherlands the Dutch like Americans do?

If so, what does the Netherlands think of that?

  • We don't give a damn. But the bureau of tourism does, that's how all the 'Holland' nonsense got started because they though 'the Netherlands' is too hard for the tourists. Ironically, 'Holland' only refers to a small fraction of 'The Netherlands'.