noun German.
- (in Nazi Germany) native culture, held to be superior to that of other countries and subordinating the individual to national interests.
- culture(def 4).
- a civilization characteristic of a time or a people.
noun
- (often used ironically) German civilization, esp as characterized by authoritarianism and earnestness
1914, originally, “civilization as conceived by the Germans” (especially their own), a word from the First World War and always at first ironic, from German kultur, from Latin cultura (see culture (n.)).