germanist

noun

1. (dated)A person who studies the Germanic languages, the associated literatures and/or cultures.
2. A person who specializes in the German language, literature and/or culture of the German-speaking world.

adj

1. Pertaining to the school of thought which downplays or denies the continuity of legal and cultural institutions between Rome and later medieval Europe, highlighting the role of external influences and innovation in the decline of the Roman Empire.

   “The Germanist view also led to the description of post-Roman lawcodes as Germanic law, and, in archeology, to the new types of rural settlement which replaced the old Roman villas being called 'Germanic', and to the new burial forms, like furnished inhumation (with grave-goods), similarly being ascribed to Germanic influence.”