Pre-19th century , the founder of the concept of nationalism itself, although he did not support its program Many historians have traced the first wave of German nation-building to around the year 1000. By the
13th century, a stronger sense of German identity had taken shape, and over the next two centuries the idea of a single German people, defined by common lands, language, and character, spread more widely. Scholars such as
Alexander of Roes and
Lupold of Bebenburg reflected on the role of the Germans within the European order and on questions of political identity. The early 13th-century law book
Sachsenspiegel contains some of the earliest references to a collective German identity. More than ten passages refer explicitly to the 'German language', the 'German lands' (including the
stem duchies of
Saxony,
Franconia,
Swabia and
Bavaria), the 'history of the Germans' and 'German descent'. It was not until the concept of
nationalism itself was developed by German philosopher
Johann Gottfried Herder around 1770 that German nationalism began, although according to historian , early forms of German nationalism were already present around 1500. German nationalism was
Romantic in nature and was based upon the principles of collective self-determination, territorial unification and cultural identity, and a political and cultural programme to achieve those ends. The German
Romantic nationalism derived from the
Enlightenment era philosopher
Jean Jacques Rousseau's and
French Revolutionary philosopher
Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès' ideas of
naturalism and that legitimate nations must have been conceived in the
state of nature. This emphasis on the naturalness of ethno-linguistic nations continued to be upheld by the early-19th-century Romantic German nationalists
Johann Gottlieb Fichte,
Ernst Moritz Arndt, and
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, who all were proponents of
Pan-Germanism.
19th century The invasion of the Holy Roman Empire by Napoleon's
French Empire and its subsequent dissolution brought about a German liberal nationalism as advocated primarily by the German middle-class bourgeoisie and intellectual elites who advocated the creation of a modern German
nation-state based upon
liberal democracy,
constitutionalism, representation, and
popular sovereignty while opposing
absolutism. Fichte in particular brought German nationalism forward as a response to the French occupation of German territories in his
Addresses to the German Nation (1808), evoking a sense of German distinctiveness in language, tradition, and literature that composed a common identity. Others from the cultural elite defined the German nation with broad concepts, including being a "Sprachnation" (a people unified by the same language), a "Kulturnation" (a people unified by the same culture) or an "Erinnerungsgemeinschaft" (a community of remembrance, i.e., sharing a common history). – devoted the fourth of his
Addresses to the German Nation (1808) to defining the German nation and did so in a broad manner. In his view, there existed a dichotomy between the people of Germanic descent. There were those who had left their fatherland (which Fichte considered to be Germany) during the time of the
Migration Period and had become either assimilated or heavily influenced by
Roman language,
culture and
customs, and those who stayed in their native lands and continued to hold on to their own culture.
Heinrich von Kleist's fervent patriotic stage dramas before his death and
Ernst Moritz Arndt's
war poetry during the
German campaign of 1813 were also instrumental in shaping the character of German nationalism for the next one-and-a-half century in a
racialized ethnic rather than
civic nationalist direction. Romanticism also played a role in the popularization of the
Kyffhäuser myth, about the
Emperor Frederick Barbarossa sleeping atop the
Kyffhäuser mountain and being expected to rise in a given time and save Germany) and the legend of the
Lorelei (by
Brentano and
Heine) among others. The
Nazi movement later appropriated the nationalistic elements of Romanticism, with Nazi chief ideologue
Alfred Rosenberg writing: "The reaction in the form of German Romanticism was therefore as welcome as rain after a long drought. But in our own era of universal
internationalism, it becomes necessary to follow this racially linked Romanticism to its core, and to free it from certain nervous convulsions which still adhere to it."
Joseph Goebbels told theatre directors on 8 May 1933, just two days before the
Nazi book burnings in Berlin, that: "German art of the next decade will be heroic, it will be like steel, it will be Romantic, non-sentimental, factual; it will be national with great pathos, and at once obligatory and binding, or it will be nothing." This made scholars and critics like
Fritz Strich,
Thomas Mann and
Victor Klemperer, who before the war were supporters of Romanticism, to reconsider their stance after the war and the Nazi experience and to adopt a more anti-Romantic position.
Heinrich Heine parodied such Romantic modernizations of medieval folkloric myths by 19th century German nationalists in the "
Barbarossa" chapter of his large 1844 poem ''
Germany. A Winter's Tale'': Forgive, O
Barbarossa, my hasty words! I do not possess a wise soul Like you, and I have little patience, So, please, come back soon, after all! ... Restore the old
Holy Roman Empire, As it was, whole and immense. Bring back all its musty junk, And all its foolish nonsense. The
Middle Ages I’ll endure, If you bring back the genuine item; Just rescue us from this bastard state, And from its farcical system...
Revolutions of 1848 to German Unification of 1871 in 1848 , 1848 The
Revolutions of 1848 led to many revolutions in various German states, but widespread national feeling for a united Germandom still seemed elusive. Nationalists did seize power in a number of German states, and assembled an
all-German parliament in
Frankfurt in May 1848. The Frankfurt Parliament attempted to write a
national constitution for all
German states, but rivalry between Prussian and Austrian interests resulted in the parliament advocating a "small German" solution (a monarchical German nation-state without the multi-ethnic Austria of the
Habsburgs) with the
imperial crown of Germany being granted to the
King of Prussia. The King of Prussia refused the offer, and efforts to create a leftist German nation-state faltered and collapsed. In the aftermath of the failed attempt to establish a liberal German nation-state, rivalry between Prussia and Austria intensified under the agenda of
Otto von Bismarck, who became
Minister President of Prussia from 1862 and blocked all attempts by Austria to join the . A division developed among German nationalists: one group led by the Prussians supported a "Lesser Germany" that excluded Austria or its German-speaking part, and another group advocated for a "
Greater Germany" that included Austria. The Prussians sought a Lesser Germany to allow Prussia to assert hegemony over Germany that would not be guaranteed in a Greater Germany. This was a major propaganda point later asserted by Hitler. By the late 1850s German nationalists emphasized military solutions. The mood fed on hatred of the French, a fear of Russia, a rejection of the 1815 Vienna settlement, and a cult of patriotic hero-warriors. War seemed a desirable means of speeding up change and progress. Nationalists thrilled to the image of an entire people in arms. Bismarck harnessed the national movement's martial pride and desire for unity and glory to weaken the political threat the liberal opposition posed to Prussia's conservatism. Prussia achieved hegemony over Germany in the "wars of unification": the
Second Schleswig War (1864), the
Austro-Prussian War of 1866 (which effectively excluded Austria from Germany), and the
Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871). A German nation-state was founded in 1871 called the
German Empire. It embodied a "Lesser Germany", with the King of Prussia taking the throne as
German Emperor () and Bismarck becoming
Chancellor of Germany.
From 1871 to World War I, 1914–1918 Unlike the prior German nationalism of 1848 that was based upon liberal values, the German nationalism utilized by supporters of the German Empire was based upon Prussian
authoritarianism, and was conservative,
reactionary,
anti-Catholic,
anti-liberal and
anti-socialist in nature. The German Empire's supporters advocated a Germany based upon Prussian and Protestant cultural dominance. This German nationalism focused on German identity based upon the historical crusading
Teutonic Order. These nationalists supported a German national identity claimed to be based on Bismarck's ideals that included Teutonic values of willpower, loyalty, honesty, and perseverance. The
Catholic-
Protestant divide in Germany at times created extreme tension and hostility between Catholic and Protestant Germans after 1871, such as in response to the policy of
Kulturkampf in
Prussia by German Chancellor and Prussian Prime Minister
Otto von Bismarck, that sought to dismantle
Catholic culture in Prussia, that provoked outrage amongst Germany's Catholics and resulted in the rise of the pro-Catholic
Centre Party and the
Bavarian People's Party. There have been rival nationalists within Germany, particularly
Bavarian nationalists who claim that the terms that
Bavaria entered into Germany in 1871 were controversial and have claimed the German government has long intruded into the domestic affairs of Bavaria. German nationalists in the German Empire who advocated a Greater Germany during the Bismarck era focused on overcoming dissidence by Protestant Germans to the inclusion of
Catholic Germans in the state by creating the
Los von Rom! ("
Away from Rome!") movement that advocated assimilation of Catholic Germans to Protestantism. During the time of the
German Empire, a third faction of German nationalists (especially in the Austrian parts of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire) advocated a strong desire for a Greater Germany but, unlike earlier concepts, led by Prussia instead of Austria; they were known as
Alldeutsche.
Social Darwinism,
messianism, and
racialism began to become themes used by German nationalists after 1871 based on the concepts of a people's community (
Volksgemeinschaft).
Colonial empire during the 19th century after the
British and the
French ones An important element of German nationalism, as promoted by the government and intellectual elite, was the emphasis on Germany asserting itself as a world economic and military power, aimed at competing with
France and the
British Empire for world power. German colonial rule in Africa (1884–1914) was an expression of nationalism and moral superiority that was justified by constructing and employing an image of the natives as "Other". German colonization was characterized by the use of repressive violence in the name of ‘culture’ and ‘civilization’, concepts that were redefined in the Enlightenment. Germany's cultural-missionary project boasted that its colonial programs were humanitarian and educational endeavors. Furthermore, the widespread acceptance among intellectuals of
social Darwinism justified Germany's right to acquire colonial territories as a matter of the ‘survival of the fittest’, according to historian Michael Schubert.
Interwar period, 1918–1933 : The government established after WWI, the
Weimar republic, established a law of nationality that was based on pre-unification notions of the German
volk as an ethno-racial group defined more by
heredity than modern notions of
citizenship; the laws were intended to include Germans who had emigrated and to exclude immigrant groups. These laws remained the basis of German citizenship laws until after reunification. The NSDAP wanted to unite all ethnic Germans in one nation. In 1920, the first point of the
Nazi 25-point programme was that "We demand the unification of all Germans in the
Greater Germany on the basis of the people's right to self-determination". Hitler, an Austrian-German by birth, began to develop his strong patriotic
German nationalist views from a very young age. He was greatly influenced by many other Austrian pan-German nationalists in
Austria-Hungary, notably
Georg Ritter von Schönerer and
Karl Lueger. Hitler's pan-German ideas envisioned a Greater German Reich which was to include the Austrian Germans, Sudeten Germans and other ethnic Germans. The annexing of Austria
(Anschluss) and the Sudetenland
(annexing of Sudetenland) completed Nazi Germany's desire to the German nationalism of the German
Volksdeutsche (people/folk). The
Generalplan Ost called for the extermination, expulsion,
Germanization or enslavement of most or all Czechs, Poles, Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians for the purpose of providing more
living space for the German people.
From 1945 to the present After WWII, the German nation was divided into two states,
West Germany and
East Germany, and the former German territories east of the
Oder–Neisse line were made part of Poland and Russia. The
Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany which served as the constitution for West Germany was conceived and written as a provisional document, with the hope of reuniting East and West Germany in mind. Saarland was separated by France to become
its protectorate in 1946, but later joined West Germany in early 1957. The formation of the
European Economic Community, and latterly the
European Union, was driven in part by forces inside and outside Germany that sought to embed Germany identity more deeply in a broader European identity, in a kind of "collaborative nationalism". The reunification of Germany became a central theme in West German politics, and was made a central tenet of the East German
Socialist Unity Party of Germany, albeit in the context of a Marxist vision of history in which the government of West Germany would be swept away in a proletarian revolution. The desire of the German people to be one nation again remained strong, but was accompanied by a feeling of hopelessness through the 1970s and into the 1980s;
Die Wende, when it arrived in the late 1980s driven by the East German people, came as a surprise, leading to the
1990 elections which put a government in place that negotiated the
Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany and reunited East and West Germany, and the process of
inner reunification began. An identity-based nationalist backlash arose after unification as people reached backward to answer "the German question", leading to violence by four
Neo-Nazi/
far-right parties which were all banned by Germany's
Federal Constitutional Court after committing or inciting violence: the
Nationalist Front,
National Offensive,
German Alternative, and the Kamaradenbund. Additionally, West Germany had received large numbers of immigrants (especially
Turks), membership in the
European Union meant that people could move more or less freely across national borders within Europe, and due to its declining birthrate even united Germany needed to receive about 300,000 immigrants per year in order to maintain its workforce.) The
Christian Democratic Union/
Christian Social Union government that was elected throughout the 1990s did not change the laws, but around 2000 a new coalition led by the
Social Democratic Party of Germany came to power and made changes to the law defining who was a German based on
jus soli rather than
jus sanguinis. Pride in being German remained a difficult issue; one of the surprises of the
2006 FIFA World Cup which was held in Germany, were widespread displays of national pride by Germans, which seemed to take even the Germans themselves by surprise and cautious delight. In a 2011 article published by the University of Pennsylvania, it was stated that:"Patriotism in Germany has been a taboo topic since the time of Adolf Hitler, with the vast majority of Germans accepting that they cannot express any form of national pride". Germany's role in managing the
European debt crisis, especially with regard to the
Greek government-debt crisis, led to criticism from some quarters, especially within Greece, of Germany wielding its power in a harsh and authoritarian way that was reminiscent of its authoritarian past and identity. Tensions over the
European debt crisis and the
European migrant crisis and the rise of
right-wing populism sharpened questions of German identity around 2010. The
Alternative for Germany party was created in 2013 as a backlash against further European integration and bailouts of other countries during the European debt crisis; from its founding to 2017 the party took on nationalist and populist stances, rejecting German guilt over the Nazi era and calling for Germans to take pride in their history and accomplishments. In the
2014 European Parliament election, the NPD won their first ever seat in the
European Parliament, but lost it again in the 2019 EU election. ==German nationalism in Austria==