V, 515: “Ihre Feudaleinrichtung wie untergrub sie das Gewühl Volkreicher üppiger Städte.”
The foregoing citations indicate two distinct senses in which Herder uses the term Volk:
Volk is equivalent to nation; nation carrying the idea of a group bound together by blood or language or government, or by all three. As such, a Volk is a collective personality, has a marked individuality, and is characterized by a national spirit.
2. (a) Volk is a race or a nation that never advanced beyond primitive grades of culture; that therefore never was subject to what he considers the deteriorating and degrading effects of higher civilization; (b) Volk is a group to be found within a civilized nation; a group which has retained the primitivism just noted above. Primitivism then is characteristic of all Volk included in section II. This primitivism whether in the entire race or in a special portion is always eulogized. These primitive specimens have the most pronounced racial individuality because civilization has not interfered with the influences of environment.
CHAPTER III
CONCEPTIONS OF VOLK AS GATHERED FROM HERDER’S COLLECTION OF VOLKSLIEDER
That Herder’s conception of that group of people which he calls Volk bears relationship to a certain genre of poetry is implied in the fact that he first coined the word Volkslied:
“Volkslied, n. von Herder, August, 1771 geprägt.” F. L. K. Weigand, Deutsches Wörterbuch, Giessen; Verlag von Alfred Töpelmann, 1909.
“Volkslied zuerst von Herder.” M. Heyne, Deutsches Wörterbuch, Leipzig; Verlag von S. Hirzel, 1895.