Pan-Germanism, one of the ethnically-charged political movements of the 19th century for unity of the German-speaking peoples of Europe. Some radical German immigrants in America also sought a union with their German "brothers" back in Europe.

Origins

Pan-Germanism's origins began in the early 1800's following the Napoleonic Wars. The wars launched a massive new movement that was born in France itself during the French Revolution, Nationalism. Nationalism during the 1800's threatened the old aristocratic regimes. Many ethnic groups of Central and Eastern Europe had been divided for centuries, ruled over by the old Monarchies of the Romanovs and the Habsburgs. Germans, for the most part, had been a loose and disunited people since the Reformation when the Holy Roman Empire was shattered into a patchwork of states. The new German nationalists, mostly young reformers, sought to unite all the German-speaking and ethnic-German (Volksdeutschen) people.

Prussia, Austria and Nationalism

By the 1860's, the two most powerful German-speaking nations were Prussia and Austria, both of which sought to expand their influence and territory. The Austrian empire, however, was often criticized for its multi-ethnic base by Germans living both within and outside the empire. Indeed, it later acknowledged multi-ethnicity by redefining itself as the Austro-Hungarian empire. Prussia, under Otto von Bismarck, would end up riding on the back of Nationalism to unite all of modern-day Germany. The German Empire ("second reich") would be achieved in 1871 following the crowning of William I head of a union of German-speaking states. The problem was that many ethnic Germans still lived outside of the new empire. These groups would use Pan-Germanism to try and push unity with the Fatherland. Regions like Austria and the Sudetenland would become the center of controversy.

Many Austrians themselves began to resent their own diverse Empire. Identifying themselves as descendants of the Bavarians, who had conquered and expanded into the region, many Western Austrians supported a separation from the Habsburg Empire and unity with the German Empire.

Post WW1 developments

Following World War I, German influence over Eastern Europe was crushed. Germany was humiliated and Austria was shattered. The creation of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and the expansion of Romania would end up separating the German folk, once united under the two empires of Austria and Germany. After WW1, many of the Slavic states were prejudiced against the German minorities, especially in formerly Habsburg-controlled lands. Allegations of racism and oppression were made. After he seized power in Germany, Adolf Hitler began a radical policy of exploiting Pan-Germanism. The Sudetenland, a crest-shaped region on the western fringe of the modern-day Czech Republic, was the centre of controversy. The region had a German-speaking majority. It had been included in Czechoslovakia as a buffer-zone against any future German aggression. Hitler used the "oppression" of Germans in Eastern Europe to justify invasion. In early 1938, Austria, over 90% of which was German, was annexed by Germany. In late 1938, the Sudetenland issue was debated at the Munich Conference. The region, with nearly 3 million Germans living in it, was given to Hitler's Germany after an overwhelming vote.

By the height of World War II, Austrians, Sudetens, Alsatians, Transylvanian Germans, and Baltic Germans were all under the control of Nazi Germany. Though this gave ethnic Germans many advantages, it also disrupted many people's lives. The Nazis began relocating and re-settling Germans throughout Europe based upon their own plans, regardless of what the Eastern European Germans might have wanted.

Post WW2 and Death of Pan-Germanism

World War II brought about the death of Pan-Germanism, much as World War I had led to the demise of Pan-Slavism. The Germans in Eastern Europe were expelled brutally, parts of Germany itself were devestated, and the country was divided on ideological lines into West Germany and East Germany. The scale of the Germans' defeat was unprecedented. Nationalism and Pan-Germanism became almost taboo, because they had been used so destructively by the Nazis. However, the reunification of Germany in 1990 revived the old debates. The fear of nationalistic misuse of Pan-Germanism nevertheless remains strong. It is for this reason that many Germans themselves fear the idea of a united "Volksdeutschen". Today, there are still sizable populations of Germans outside Austria and Germany in Switzerland, Belgium, France, Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union. Many of these groups of Germans, mostly in Eastern Europe, have sought citizenship in Germany since the collapse of the Communist bloc. Still today, the idea of a unified Germany and Austria strikes memories of Nazism. The very fact that Austro-German unity would stir forgotten and fearful memories that most Germans on both sides would rather not remember, forestalls any such union in the foreseeable future.

Alldeutscher Verbund (1893)

See also

Ethnic nationalism

Romantic nationalism

Philology

Folklore

Irredentism