Trevor, perhaps someone with some background in German would be a more proper person to comment on this issue, but I make an attempt. In the first place, some dictionaries (e.g. Chaplin) are using "anxiety" synonymously with "Angst". However, many years ago a german social psychologist, Hofstätter, commented on the translation of David Riesman's "The Lonely Crowd" that a proper translation of the title of this book would be "Die Ängstliche Masse", not "Die Einsame Masse". His arguments ran. if I remember his comments correctly after so many years, like this: the word "lonely" brings to americans negative feelings that are associated with Angst and fear, while for germans the word "Einsamkeit" is not necessarily a negatively loaded word. It may refer to certain romantic ideas connected with conceptions like "the lonely genius", like Martin Luther who was during a certain period of his life very "einsam". However, like many other archetypal heroes, he overcame this "hibernation-period" more strong, more creative, and more powerful than he had ever been. According to Hofstätter, being alone is a psychological state that brings, for americans, different associations, possibly for historical reasons. The usage contexts for the words are also different. "Anxious to do something" is a positive thing, while there are no equivalent uses in German for the word "Angst". I checked also the Encyclopaedia of Psychology by Eysenck, Arnold and Meili, but even this reference-book contains nothing concerning the differences between European and American uses of the word. It seems to me that there is an agreement that the word "Angst" must be translated "anxiety". However, I have some difficulties using them as synonyms. Maybe I experience this way only because I have defective knowledge of the languages. I think that it is possible to agree about the denotative meaning of words, but it is more difficult to make agreements concerning the connotative meaning - more subtle shades and nuances of the meaning, associations etc.