Serbophilia
Serbophilia is the admiration, appreciation and/or emulation of a non-Serbian person who expresses a strong interest, positive predisposition or appreciation for the Serbs, Serbia, Republika Srpska, Serbian language, culture or history. Its opposite is Serbophobia.
History
20th century
World War I
During World War I, Serbophilia was present in western countries.Breakup of Yugoslavia
Political scientist Sabrina P. Ramet writes that Serbophilia in France during the 1990s was "traditional", partly as a response to the closeness between Germany and Croatia. Business ties continued during the war and fostered a desire for economic normalization.Serbophiles
- Jacob Grimm — German philologist, jurist and mythologist. Learnt Serbian in order to read Serbian epic poetry.
- Archibald Reiss — German-Swiss publicist, chemist, forensic scientist, a professor at the University of Lausanne.
- Victor Hugo — French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. Hugo wrote the speech Pour la Serbie.
- Alphonse de Lamartine — French author, poet, and statesman.
- Helen of Anjou — French noblewoman who became queen consort of the Serbian Kingdom.
- Mircea I and Vlad III Dracula
- Several notable composers used motifs from Serbian folk music and composed works inspired by Serbian history or culture, such as:
- * Johannes Brahms— German composer, pianist, and conductor of the Romantic period.
- *Franz Liszt — Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, music teacher, arranger, and organist of the Romantic era.
- *Arthur Rubinstein — Polish-American classical pianist.
- * Antonín Dvořák — Czech composer, one of the first to achieve worldwide recognition.
- * Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — Russian composer of the Romantic period.
- * Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov — Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five.
- * Franz Schubert — Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras.
- * Hans Huber — Swiss composer. Between 1894 and 1918, he composed five operas.
- Rebecca West — British travel writer. Was described by American media as having a pro-Serbian stance.
- Flora Sandes — British Irish volunteer in World War I.
- Ruth Mitchell — American volunteer in the Chetniks, World War II. Sister of Billy Mitchell.
- Richard Grenell — American diplomat, public official, and Trump administration official.
- Robert De Niro — American actor
- Johnny Depp — American actor and musician
- John Challis — English actor best known for portraying Terrance Aubrey "Boycie" Boyce in the BBC Television sitcom Only Fools and Horses and its sequel/spin-off The Green Green Grass
- Peter Handke — Austrian novelist and playwright, Nobel Prize winner. Supported Serbia in the Yugoslav Wars.
- Eduard Limonov — Russian writer and poet.
- Ángel Pulido — Spanish physician, publicist and politician, who stood out as prominent philosephardite during the Restoration
- Essad Pasha Toptani — Ottoman Albanian politician.
- Anna Dandolo— Venetian noblewoman who became Queen of Serbia.
- Józef Bartłomiej Zimorowic — Polish poet and historian of the Baroque era.
- Adam Jerzy Czartoryski — Polish nobleman, statesman, diplomat and author.
- Pavel Jozef Šafárik — Slovakian philologist, poet, literary historian, historian and ethnographer in the Kingdom of Hungary. He was one of the first scientific Slavistics.
- Ján Kollár — Slovakian writer, archaeologist, scientist, politician, and main ideologist of Pan-Slavism.
- Ľudovít Štúr — Slovakian revolutionary politician and writer.
- Henry Bax-Ironside — British diplomat.
- Eleftherios Venizelos — Greek statesman and a prominent leader of the Greek national liberation movement.
- Dimitrios Karatasos — Greek armatolos who participated in the Greek War of Independence, and several other rebellions, seeking to liberate his native Greek Macedonia.
- Herbert Vivian — British journalist and author of Servia: The Poor Man's Paradise and The Servian Tragedy: With Some Impressions of Macedonia.
- Alexander Kolchak — Imperial Russian admiral, military leader and polar explorer.
- Yu Hua — Chinese author.
- František Zach — Czech soldier and military theorist.
- Viktor Orbán - Prime Minister of Hungary.