근대계몽기 한국의 독일인식 - 문명담론과 영웅담론을 중심으로

Abstract

This paper examines one aspect of the making of the Korean modernity through the images of Germany during the Modern Enlightenment Era. In this period, the modern intellectuals of Korea kept an eye on the superiority of the German science, technology, education and military system. They had a firm belief that they could carry out their mission of civilization by introducing that advanced system of Germany. Yet they could not grasp the authoritarian social structure and its imperialistic danger behind this system. After 1905, the focus of the civilization discourse was shifted to the German ‘heroes', namely Frederic the Great, Moltke and Bismarck. All of them were the military heroes who made Prussia as one of the crucial members of European Powers. This selective acceptance of German heroes had its origin in Japan's ambition to be an imperialistic Power: Meiji Japan had sought to a path to enlightenment by imitating of German militarist politics. And the Korean intellectuals, who could hardly contact with German civilization during the early stage of modernization, accepted inevitably Japanese occidentalism. The result was a stress on Bismarck instead of Wilhelm Tell, a resistance hero, who might be required against the Japanese imperialism.