Pan-Germanism

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The languages ​​of Europe (    German-speaking area and language islands) around 1937

The Pangermanism is an ethnically founded Panbewegung . In a narrower sense, he strives for the greatest possible unification of all ethnic Germans, up to and including the creation of a German confederation or nation state, which includes all areas that were considered to be ethnically German. In the 19th century it was a strong political factor in many German states and is related to German nationalism . The Greater German solution goes back to him .

The German -national Pan - Germans , who gathered in the extremely nationalistic, expansionist and militaristic Pan-German Association , differed from the German-national Großdeutsche .

In a broader sense, Pan-Germanism describes the sense of community that goes beyond particular Germanism (Anglo-Saxon Teutonism, Scandinavianism , German Germanism) and encompasses all Germanic peoples.

prehistory

A Greater German (“Reichische”) movement already existed in all states of the German Empire in the Middle Ages; they strove to strengthen the German Reich , right up to the Union. Since this per se would have meant a loss of power for various nobles, it never happened. As a result of the Reformation , the unity of the Germans was also reduced, since confessional borders were added to the political borders. In the course of the Silesian Wars , Vienna's supremacy in the German Empire diminished, as a result of which the Kaiser himself lost his interest in a strong empire. The antagonism between the now great powers Prussia and Austria prevented pan-German unification even further. As a result of the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th century, this movement grew to its greatest importance. Napoleon knew how to take advantage of the small German states to play the German states off against one another. In particular, the states of the Rhine Confederation , Bavaria and Saxony at his side fought against Prussia, Austria and other German states. Napoleon was defeated thanks in part to the successes of German fraternization. For the Pangermanists, the Napoleonic Wars are good evidence of how Germany is being weakened by small states. In the course of the Congress of Vienna , the German Empire, which was dissolved in 1806, was replaced by the German Confederation , which meant a much looser community than the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.

history

Prussia, Austria and nationalism

In the middle of the 19th century there were major efforts in the individual German states and the two most powerful German states, Prussia and Austria , towards a German nation-state. The main question was whether the “ Small German Solution ” under Prussian leadership or rather the “ Greater German Solution ” including Austria should be sought for the states of the German Confederation . The Austrian Empire , ruled by the Habsburgs , was, however, a multiethnic state whose people and peoples also had national aspirations towards joining their respective nation states or towards independence. In the revolution of 1848/1849 the liberal-national revolutionaries demanded the Greater German solution. After the German War , the German Confederation was dissolved, so Austria was no longer part of Germany. There was also growing ethnic tension within the Habsburg Empire.

Under the political leadership of the North German Otto von Bismarck , the small German solution was finally implemented. In 1871 the German Empire was founded and officially referred to as the German Empire ; it was followed by the coronation of Wilhelm I as (a) German Emperor . The second German monarch was the Habsburg Emperor in Vienna; therefore there was no "Kaiser von Deutschland" either.

Many ethnic Germans (at that time mostly called “ Volksdeutsche ” in association with the “ Reichsdeutsche ” ) continued to live outside the new German Reich. Especially in the multi-ethnic empire of Austria-Hungary, German national circles were looking for a union with the new German Reich, which they saw as their fatherland in the sense of the Greater German Solution, namely the moderate German Liberal Party and the nationalist German national movement . This often led to disputes between those in favor and those who opposed this movement. In his speech on March 11, 1882 , Ernest Renan referred to the ethnic conception of nation that prevailed in these discussions and the pan-movements resulting from the conflicts . "Using the example of the Germans and Slavs:" Remember, this ethnographic policy is not reliable. Today you use them against the others; later you will see how it turns against yourself. Is it certain that the Germans, who hoisted the flag of ethnography so high, will not one day see how the Slavs, for their part, research the village names of Saxony and Lusatia, explore the traces of the Wilzen and the Obodrites and answer for the slaughter and? massive sales demand that their ancestors by the Ottos have done? " the most attentive observers of the German-Slavic conflict situation was the later Czechoslovak President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk , the perceived above all as determined by Anti-Slavic sentiment the supposedly non-state capable Slavs their national in a condescending manner The right to self-determination was denied, as there were political journalists in the form of Friedrich List , Paul de Lagarde and Constantin Frantz , who propagated a border colonization extension of the German sphere of influence to Poland and across the Danube to its confluence with the Black Sea (see also German border colonialism ).

Inside and outside the “Pan-German” movement there were also further plans for a “Germanic Greater Empire”, which was to be based on a union of the linguistically and culturally related peoples of the Germanic peoples . B. Dutch , Flemish , Danes , Swedes , Norwegians and English , who should belong to a genetically superior " master race ". These racial theories were advocated by men like Houston Stewart Chamberlain and had v. a. in the British aristocracy a certain constituency that can be pursued until the 30s, when some British politicians wanted a collaboration with Nazi Germany, as well as King Edward VIII. In the German-speaking Switzerland were found in the First and Second World War alongside the followers the neutrality of German nationals who were looking to join or at least cooperate with the German Reich.

Development after the First World War

At the end of the war, the Allies enforced new borders in the Parisian suburb treaties, reinforced the Pan-Germanic endeavors, which were particularly aimed at the "bleeding border" with the new nation-state neighbor Poland . The folk and cultural soil research set up as part of the German Ostforschung , in which questions of so-called borderland Germany were researched, aimed primarily at revising the raison d'être of the Polish state under the aspect of German national politics .

In the Paris suburb agreements , a connection ban was agreed between the newly founded Republic of German Austria , which was newly founded from the German-speaking areas of the old Habsburg Empire , and Germany, which was also downsized and economically weakened, in order to counter future dangers to peace and the balance of power on the continent. Even plans for a customs union between Germany and Austria could not be realized in 1931 due to French pressure.

The " seizure of power " by the native Austrian Hitler , the rise of National Socialism and the "annexation" of Austria to the German Reich in 1938 ultimately led to the devastation of World War II and destroyed these efforts.

Development after the Second World War and the end of Pan-Germanism

The consequence of the Second World War was also an end to Pan-Germanism. In the re-established Republic of Austria in particular, the endeavors were reversed, more towards an Austrian identity of their own - they no longer wanted to be called and feel German. Today, people in the Austrian republic have consolidated their sense of identity as Austrians and many citizens no longer want to see themselves as German Austrians - except for people and groups who think nationally . The experience of National Socialism traumatized the majority of Germans in the successor states (after 1945) of the Greater German Reich to such an extent that any Pan-Germanism movement is taboo or politically countered. This was particularly evident in the government participation of the (more German-national-minded) Austrian FPÖ , which was particularly fought against by the German government ( SPD ), up to and including the isolation of Austria within the EU. This was also done with the intention of preventing German national efforts in Austria from the outset.

Most of the Swiss, Liechtensteiners, South Tyroleans, East Belgians, etc. refer to themselves today as a German-speaking people or ethnic group; By carefully cultivating their respective dialects ( Letzebüergisch , Swiss German ) and making it a national language , their own identity and independence from Germany are emphasized.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frank Ludwig Schäfer: Legal German Studies: A History of the Science of Local Private Law. (Legal Treatises. Volume 51). 2008, ISBN 978-3-465-03590-9 , p. 291.
  2. ^ Kurt Bauer: National Socialism: Origins, Beginnings, Rise and Fall . Böhlau Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-8252-3076-0 , pp. 41 .
  3. ↑ See reprint of the speech here .
  4. ^ Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk: The new Europe . The Slavic point of view. Berlin 1991, pp. 10-26. (After the Czech edition of 1920, the German one appeared in 1922.)
  5. ^ Daniel-Erasmus Khan: The German state borders. Legal history basics and open legal questions. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2004, ISBN 3-16-148403-7 , p. 79.
  6. ^ Ingo Haar : Historians in National Socialism. German history and the 'Volkstumskampf' in the east (= critical studies on history . Volume 143). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht: Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-525-35942-X , pp. 25-69.
  7. ↑ Toni Cetta: Pangermanism. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . September 23, 2010 , accessed June 12, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Our struggle for state treaty and sovereignty , Ernst Fischer at the plenary session of the Central Committee of the KPOe (1948)

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Pan-Germanism  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations