Why were Germans called huns in World War I?

Answer 1

Kaiser Wilhelm II liked to make outrageous speeches without getting advice beforehand. On 27 July 1900 he gave a speech to German troops about to set sail for China in order to help (together with other powers) to suppress the Boxer Rebellion. Towards the end he urged the men to be 'like the Huns' and to make sure that no Chinese would ever again 'dare to pull a face at a German'. The speech caused the German government embarrassment at the time. In World War 1 it became a gift to British and French propagandists.

Answer 2

In 1898 in China, there was an uprising called the Boxer Rebellion. During the rebellion, European countries sent soldiers to fight the Chinese rebels. At one point, Kaiser Wilhelm II proclaimed that his soldiers were going to be so fierce that the Chinese would remember and fear the Germans just like the Europeans feared the Huns over a thousand years earlier (the Huns were people from Central Asia who had attacked the Roman Empire around 450 AD, and they caused considerable damage during their rampage).

The Kaiser's quote was remembered when World War I started, and the Allies borrowed the term to use for German soldiers as a way of portrarying them as barbarians who only wanted to conquer, rape and destroy.

Answer 3

Under Attila the Hun, a confederation of Hunnic tribes ravaged much of what is now Western Russia, working westward and eventually reaching as far as Germany and France and threatened Rome itself in the 5th century CE.

As a derogatory term it was applied to the Germans of WWI to reflect their perceived aggression and martial (warlike) culture. This continued into WWII when the pattern repeated.

A modern equivalent would be rather like saying Tony Blair and George Bush are acting like Vikings.

Answer 4

For the most part, the "Huns" expression was used in World War One. In World War Two, normally the term of Nazi was used to describe the WW 2 warfare conducted by Hitler.