I feel like this needs some explaining as I myself was confused before reading the Wikipedia article.
Yes, the Tolkien elves come from the Germanic elves.
However, the Germans had kinda forgot about their own elves. Meanwhile, the English started representing elves as smaller creatures. The German picked up that notion from the English.
Now, the LotR needs to distinguish the Tolkien elves from the elves commonly thought of by Germans, which is no longer the old Germanic elves but the new English elves.
The german translation calls them ‘Elb/Elben’ instead of ‘Elf/Elfen’ for some reason
The german translation did that to avoid confusion with ‘Elfen’ from german folklore: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elf
I feel like this needs some explaining as I myself was confused before reading the Wikipedia article.
Yes, the Tolkien elves come from the Germanic elves.
However, the Germans had kinda forgot about their own elves. Meanwhile, the English started representing elves as smaller creatures. The German picked up that notion from the English.
Now, the LotR needs to distinguish the Tolkien elves from the elves commonly thought of by Germans, which is no longer the old Germanic elves but the new English elves.
At least, if I understood right.