Drang nach Osten

2025-08-31T09:30:39Z

2001:4646:2494:0:E4D4:17A3:9020:CF48:

{{Short description|Motto of the 19th-century German nationalist movement}}
{{for|the game in the ''Europa'' wargame series|Drang Nach Osten!}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE:{{lang|de|Drang nach Osten|nocat=y}}}}
'''{{lang|de|Drang nach Osten}}''' ({{IPA|de|ˈdʁaŋ naːx ˈʔɔstn̩|lang}}; {{lit}} ''''Drive to the East'''',<ref name="Best_2008">Ulrich Best, [https://books.google.com/books?id=TSdHrfeowHMC ''Transgression as a Rule: German–Polish cross-border cooperation, border discourse and EU-enlargement''], 2008, p. 58, {{ISBN|978-3825806545}}</ref><ref name="Osmańczyk_2003">Edmund Jan Osmańczyk, Anthony Mango, ''Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements'', 2003, p. 579, {{ISBN|978-0415939218}}</ref> or 'push eastward',<ref name="Lerski_1996">Jerzy Jan Lerski, Piotr Wróbel, Richard J. Kozicki, ''Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966–1945'', 1996, p. 118, {{ISBN|978-0313260070}}</ref> 'desire to push east')<ref>Marcin Zaborowski, ''Germany, Poland and Europe'', p. 32</ref> was the name for a 19th-century German nationalist intent to expand Germany into Slavic territories of Central and Eastern Europe.<ref name="Osmańczyk_2003"/><ref name="Wippermann">{{lang|de|W. Wippermann, Der "deutsche Drang nach Osten": Ideologie und Wirklichkeit eines politischen Schlagwortes, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft}}, 1981, p. 87</ref> In some historical discourse, {{lang|de|Drang nach Osten}} combines [[History of German settlement in Central and Eastern Europe| historical German settlement in Central and Eastern Europe]], medieval (12th to 13th century)<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/event/Drang-nach-Osten Drang nach Osten] in the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''</ref> military expeditions such as those of the [[Teutonic Knights]] (the [[Northern Crusades]]), and [[Germanisation]] policies and warfare of [[Modern Age| modern]] [[History of Germany|German states]] such as those that implemented [[Nazism]]'s concept of ''[[Lebensraum]]''.<ref name="Lerski_1996"/><ref>[[Ingo Haar]], ''Historiker im Nationalsozialismus'', p. 17.</ref>

In [[Poland | Polish]] works the term {{lang|de|Drang nach Osten}} could refer to programs for the Germanization of Poland,<ref>
{{cite book |last1 = Best |first1 = Ulrich |year = 2007 |chapter = III.2.3. The moving Other: the 'Drang nach Osten' |title = Transgression as a Rule: German-Polish Cross-border Cooperation, Border Discourse and EU-enlargement |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=TSdHrfeowHMC |series = Volume 3 of Forum Politische Geographie |location = Berlin |publisher = LIT Verlag |page = 58 |isbn = 978-3825806545 |access-date = 10 December 2022 |quote = In 1896, a Polish encyclopedia defined 'Drang nach Osten': 'the drive of the Germans eastward to de-nationalise the Polish people' [...]. [...] In Poland, the slogan ties in with nationalist discourse that put the Polish nation in the role of a suffering nation, in particular at the hands of the German enemy. [...] It also responded to the situation in the Prussian-administered part of Poland, where in the later part of the 19th century Bismarck's policy of Germanisation was applied.}}</ref> while in 19th-century Germany the slogan was used variously of a wider nationalist approbation of medieval [[Ostsiedlung|German settlement in the east]] and the idea of the "superiority of German culture".<ref name="Best_2008"/> In the years after World War I the idea of a {{lang|de|Drang nach Westen}} ('drive to the west'), an alleged Polish drive westward—an analogy of {{lang|de|Drang nach Osten}}—circulated among German authors in reaction to the loss of eastern territories and the [[Polish Corridor]].<ref name="Best_2008"/><ref name="Hayes_1994">Bascom Barry Hayes, ''Bismarck and Mitteleuropa'', 1994, p. 17, {{ISBN|978-0838635124}}</ref>

The concept of ''Drang nach Osten'' became a core element of [[Nazism|Nazi ideology]]. In ''[[Mein Kampf]]'' (1925–1926), [[Adolf Hitler]] declares the idea to be an essential element of his reorganisation plans for Europe. He states: "It is eastwards, only and always eastwards, that the veins of [[Aryan race#Nazism|our race]] must expand. It is the direction which nature herself has decreed for the expansion of the German peoples."<ref>
''Hitler, a chronology of his life and time''. Milan Hauner, Macmillan, 1983, p. 197.</ref>

==Origin of the term==
The first known use of {{lang|de|Drang nach Osten}} was by the Polish journalist [[Julian Klaczko]] in 1849, yet it is debatable whether he invented the term as he used it in form of a citation.<ref name="Lawaty_2003">Andreas Lawaty, Hubert Orłowski, {{lang|de|Deutsche und Polen: Geschichte, Kultur, Politik}}, 2003, p. 34, {{ISBN|978-3406494369}}</ref> Because the term is used almost exclusively in its German form in English, Polish, Russian, Czech and other languages, it has been concluded that the term is of German origin.<ref name="Lawaty_2003"/>

==Background==
{{main|History of German settlement in Central and Eastern Europe|Ostsiedlung|Prussia}}
[[File:Osadnictwo niemieckie na wschodzie.PNG|thumb|Phases of German eastward expansion, 700–1400
----
{{legend|#e86664|Before 700}}
{{legend|#e59ca3|700–1099}}
{{legend|#516d44|1100–1199}}
{{legend|#99ca55|1200–1250}}
{{legend|#dbee82|1251–1300}}
{{legend|#f4f5a7|1301–1400}}
]]
[[File:Expulsion areas - German - Mixed.png|thumb|German language areas in [[Poland]], [[Kaliningrad Oblast]] (Russia), [[Memelland|Lithuania]], and [[Czech Republic]] before expulsion of Germans {{legend|#3ccf12|ethnic German majority}} {{legend|#ffdf38|ethnically mixed areas}}]]
During the 19th and the early 20th century {{lang|de|Drang nach Osten}} has been associated with the medieval German {{lang|de|[[Ostsiedlung]]}}, the High Medieval migration period of ethnic Germans to Eastern Europe, inhabited by [[Slavic peoples|Slavs]], [[Baltic peoples|Balts]], and [[Finno-Ugric languages|Finno-Ugrics]]. This movement caused legal, cultural, linguistic, religious and economic changes, that had a profound influence on the history of Eastern Europe between the Baltic Sea and the Carpathians.<ref name=sze>{{cite web |url= https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332981514 | title=Iure Theutonico ? German settlers and legal frameworks for immigration to Hungary in an East-Central European perspective | author= Katalin Szende | access-date= September 28, 2020}}</ref>

Massive population increase during the [[High Middle Ages]] left increasing numbers of commoners like peasants, craftsmen and artisans displaced, who were joined by nobility not entitled to land inheritance, stimulating the movement of settlers from territories of the [[Holy Roman Empire]], such as the [[Rhineland]], [[Flanders]] and [[Duchy of Saxony|Saxony]] into the sparsely populated East. These movements were supported by the Slavic kings and dukes and the Church.<ref name="Rösener1992">{{cite book|author=Werner Rösener|title=Agrarwirtschaft, Agrarverfassung und ländliche Gesellschaft im Mittelalter|page=17|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w86ZAAAAIAAJ|year=1992|publisher=Oldenbourg|isbn=978-3486550245}}</ref><ref name="Brzechczyn2009">{{cite book|author=Krzysztof Brzechczyn|title=Idealization XIII: Modeling in History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4i5ZmD9CAgQC&pg=PA235|year=2009|publisher=Rodopi|isbn=978-9042028319|pages=235–}}</ref><ref name="FulbrookFulbrook2004">{{cite book|author1=Mary Fulbrook|author2=Professor of German History Mary Fulbrook|title=A Concise History of Germany|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zFBu8ujJWzkC&pg=PA13|year=2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0521540711|pages=13–}}</ref>

The future state of [[Prussia]], named for the conquered [[Old Prussians]], had its roots largely in these movements. As the Middle Ages came to a close, the [[Teutonic Knights]], who had been invited to northern Poland by [[Konrad of Masovia]], had assimilated and forcibly converted much of the southern Baltic coastlands.

After the [[Partitions of Poland]] by the [[Kingdom of Prussia]], [[Habsburg monarchy|Austria]], and the [[Russian Empire]] in the late 18th century, Prussia gained much of western Poland. The Prussians, and later the Germans, engaged in a policy of [[Germanisation of Poles during Partitions|Germanization]] in Polish territories. Russia and [[Swedish Empire|Sweden]] eventually conquered the lands taken by the [[Teutonic Knights]] in [[Estonia]] and [[Livonia]].

=={{lang|de|Drang nach Osten}} in German discourse==
The term became a centerpiece of the program of the German nationalist movement in 1891, with the founding of the [[Alldeutscher Verband]], in the words: {{lang|de|"Der alte Drang nach dem Osten soll wiederbelebt werden"}} ('The old {{lang|de|Drang nach Osten}} must be revived').<ref>Wippermann, 1981, p. 87</ref>
[[Nazi Germany]] employed the slogan in calling the [[Czechs]] a "Slav bulwark against the {{lang|de|Drang nach Osten}}" in the 1938 {{lang|de|[[Sudetenland|Sudeten crisis]]}}.<ref name="Osmańczyk_2003"/>

Despite {{lang|de|Drang nach Osten}} policies, population movement took place in the opposite direction also, as people from rural, less developed areas in the East were attracted by the prospering industrial areas of Western Germany. This phenomenon became known by the German term {{lang|de|[[Ostflucht]]}}, literally 'flight from the East'.

With the development of [[romantic nationalism]] in the 19th century, Polish and Russian intellectuals began referring to the German {{lang|de|[[Ostsiedlung]]}} as {{lang|de|Drang nach Osten}}. The [[German Empire]] and [[Austria-Hungary]] attempted to expand their power eastward; Germany by gaining influence in the declining [[Ottoman Empire]] (the [[Eastern Question]]) and Austria-Hungary through the acquisition of territory in the [[Balkans]] (such as [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]]).

==={{lang|de|Drang nach Westen}}===
[[Romantic nationalism|German nationalists]] called for a new {{lang|de|Drang nach Osten}} to oppose what they conceived as a Polish {{lang|de|Drang nach Westen}} ('thrust toward the West').<ref name="Hayes_1994" />

The Polish paper {{lang|pl|[[Wprost]]}} used both {{lang|de|Drang nach Osten}} and {{lang|de|Drang nach Westen}} in August 2002 to title stories about the German company [[RWE]] taking over the Polish [[STOEN]] and Polish migration into eastern Germany, respectively.<ref>Paul Reuber, Anke Strüver, Günter Wolkersdorfer, {{lang|de|Politische Geographien Europas - Annäherungen an ein umstrittenes Konstrukt: Annäherungen an ein umstrittenes Konstrukt}}, 2005, {{ISBN|978-3825865238}}</ref>

{{lang|de|Drang nach Westen}} is also the ironic title of a chapter in [[Eric Joseph Goldberg]]'s book ''Struggle for Empire'', used to point out the "missing" eastward ambitions of [[Louis the German]] who instead expanded his kingdom to the West.<ref>Eric Joseph Goldberg, ''Struggle for Empire: Kingship and Conflict Under Louis the German, 817–876'', pp. 233''ff'', 2006, {{ISBN|978-0801438905}}</ref>

[[File:Greim-Drang nach osten.jpg|German colonists near {{lang|pl|[[Kamianets-Podilskyi]]}}, Poland (Russian Partition) at the end of the 19th century|thumb|250px]]

==Lebensraum concept of Nazi Germany==
{{main|Lebensraum|Generalplan Ost|Germanization|Expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany}}

[[Adolf Hitler]], dictator of [[Nazi Germany]] from 1933–1945, advocated for a {{lang|de|Drang nach Osten}} to acquire territory for German colonists at the expense of central and eastern European nations ({{lang|de|[[Lebensraum]]}}). The term, by then, had gained enough currency to appear in foreign newspapers without explanation.<ref>Carlson, p. 233.</ref> [[Nazi propaganda]] depicted Eastern Europe as historically Germanic territories, promoting the myth that these regions were stolen from [[Aryan race|Aryan races]] by [[Huns|Hunnic]] and [[Avars (Caucasus)|Avar]] tribes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=de Betoño |first=Fernández |date=2020 |title=The Nazi anti-urban utopia: 'Generalplan Ost' |url=https://www.redalyc.org/journal/5117/511767145006/html/ |journal=Mètode Science Studies Journal |volume=10 |pages=165–166 |doi=10.7203/metode.10.13009 |s2cid=242269651 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220501150039/https://www.redalyc.org/journal/5117/511767145006/html/ |archive-date=1 May 2022 |via=Universitat de Valencia |doi-access=free|hdl=10550/89373 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> Hitler viewed Slavs as primitive subhumans and for this reason detested the German empire's [[Dual Alliance (1879)|alliance with Austria-Hungary]] during World War I. In his works such as ''[[Mein Kampf]]'' and [[Hitlers Zweites Buch|''Zweites Buch'']], Hitler viewed the Slavs as lacking the capability to form a state.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Weikart |first=Richard |title=Hitler's Ethic: The Nazi Pursuit of Evolutionary Progress |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2009 |isbn=978-1349380732 |location=New York |pages=71–73}}</ref>

[[Anti-Slavism]] was also a core doctrine of [[Nazi ideology]], which considered Slavs to be racially inferior ''[[Untermensch]]''. Through the ''Generalplan Ost'' ("General Plan for the East"), Nazi Germany sought the total domination by Germanic peoples of Eastern Europe by conducting a [[genocide]] of Slavic inhabitants and forcibly deporting rest of the population beyond the [[Urals]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Adam |title=Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=978-0415486187 |edition=2nd |location=New York|pages=270–271}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Rummel |first=Rudolph |title=Democide: Nazi Genocide and Mass Murder |publisher=Routledge |year=2022 |isbn=978-1560000044 |location=New York|pages=85–87}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Karner |first=Christian |title=Nationalism Revisited |publisher=Berghahn Books |location=New York |year=2020 |isbn=978-1789204520 |page=102}}</ref> After Nazi Germany's initiation of [[Operation Barbarossa]], the propaganda of [[Axis powers]] described the military campaign as a "European crusade against Bolshevism" to foreign powers. Meanwhile, [[Nazi Germany]]'s domestic propaganda depicted the war as a racial struggle of Aryans against "Jewish and Slavic ''Untermenschen''" to annihilate "[[Judeo-Bolshevism]]".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Müller |first1=Rolf-Dieter |last2=Ueberschär |first2= Gerd R. |title= Hitler's War in the East, 1941–1945 |publisher= Berghahn Books |year=2009 |isbn=978-1845455019 |location= New York |pages=243–244}}</ref> The [[Reich Security Main Office]], under [[Heinrich Himmler]], played an active role in distributing racist propaganda pamphlets on these topics across German-occupied territories.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Müller |first1=Rolf-Dieter |last2=Ueberschär |first2= Gerd R. |title=Hitler's War in the East, 1941–1945 |publisher=Berghahn Books |year=2009 |isbn=978-1845455019 |location= New York |page=245}}</ref>

In 1938, [[Adolf Hitler]] was given a report on 175 German eastern campaigns conducted during 789–[[Frederick I's expedition to Głogów|1157]], a third of which were successful, quarter were semi-successful, and the rest were a failure. Twenty of these eastern campaigns ended in military disaster for Germany.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Friedrich Heer |title=The Holy Roman Empire |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson History |date=1995 |page=36 |isbn=1842126008}}</ref> Nazi Germany's eastern campaigns during [[World War II]] were initially successful with the conquests of Poland, the Baltic countries, Belarus, Ukraine and much of [[European Russia]] by the {{lang|de|[[Wehrmacht]]}}; {{lang|de|[[Generalplan Ost]]}} was implemented by Nazi forces to eliminate the native Slavic peoples from these lands and replace them with Germans.<ref>"[https://archive.today/20120527021449/http://www.dac.neu.edu/holocaust/Hitlers_Plans.htm Hitler's plans for Eastern Europe]"</ref> The {{lang|de|[[Wehrbauer]]}}, or soldier-peasants, would settle in [[Generalplan Ost#Phases of the plan and its implementation|a fortified line]] to prevent civilization arising beyond and threatening Germany.<ref>[[Robert Cecil (British diplomat)|Robert Cecil]], ''The Myth of the Master Race: Alfred Rosenberg and Nazi Ideology'' p. 190. {{ISBN|0396065775}}</ref>

This was greatly hindered by the lack of German people who desired to settle in the east, let alone act as [[Teutonic Knights]] there.<ref>Robert Cecil, ''The Myth of the Master Race: Alfred Rosenberg and Nazi Ideology'' p. 191. {{ISBN|0396065775}}</ref> Settlements established during the war did not receive colonists from the {{lang|de|[[Altreich (pre-1938 Nazi Germany)|Altreich]]}}, but in the main part [[Nazi–Soviet population transfers|East European Germans resettled from Soviet "spheres of interest"]] according to the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]],<ref>[[Lynn H. Nicholas]], ''Cruel World: The Children of Europe in the Nazi Web'' pp. 206–209, {{ISBN|067977663X}}</ref> and such Poles as deemed [[Germanization|Germanizable]] by Nazis.<ref>[[Richard Overy]], ''The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia'', p. 543. {{ISBN|0393020304}}</ref> However, the [[Soviet Union]] began to reverse the German conquests by 1943. Nazi Germany was defeated by the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] in 1945.

==Expulsion of Germans from the East after World War II==
{{main|Former eastern territories of Germany|Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950)}}
Most of the demographic and cultural outcome of the {{lang|de|[[Ostsiedlung]]}} was terminated after [[World War II]]. The [[expulsion of Germans after World War II]] east of the [[Oder-Neisse line|{{lang|de|Oder-Neisse|nocat=y}} line]] in 1945–48 on the basis of decisions of the [[Potsdam Conference]] were later justified by their beneficiaries as a rollback of the {{lang|de|Drang nach Osten}}. "[[Historical Eastern Germany]]"—historically the land of the Baltic people called [[Old Prussians]] who had been colonized and assimilated by German {{lang|de|Drang Nach Osten}}—was split between [[Poland]], [[Russia]], and [[Lithuania]] (a Baltic country) and repopulated with settlers of the respective ethnicities. The Old Prussians were conquered by the Teutonic Knights in the 13th century, and gradually assimilated over the following centuries; the [[Old Prussian language]] was extinct by the 17th or early 18th century. [[Henry Cord Meyer]], in his book "{{lang|de|Drang nach Osten}}: Fortunes of a Slogan-Concept in German–Slavic Relations, 1849–1990" claims that the slogan {{lang|de|Drang nach Osten}}<ref name="Meyer_1996">[http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=4569892242187 Hnet Review of] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070627001651/http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=4569892242187 |date=27 June 2007 }} Henry Cord Meyer. ''{{lang|de|Drang nach Osten}}: Fortunes of a Slogan-Concept in German–Slavic Relations, 1849–1990''. Bern: Peter Lang, 1996. 142 pp. Notes and index. (paper), {{ISBN|978-3906755939}}. Reviewed by Douglas Selvage , Yale University.</ref> originated in the Slavic world, and it also was more widely used than in Germany.<ref name="Meyer_1996"/>

==See also==
* {{lang|de|[[Lebensraum]]}}
* {{lang|de|[[Ostsiedlung]]}}
* {{lang|de|[[Ostforschung]]}}
* {{lang|de|[[Generalplan Ost]]}}
* [[Ober Ost]]
* [[Expulsion of Poles by Germany]]
* {{lang|de|[[Kulturkampf]]}}
* [[Germanization]]
* {{lang|de|[[Wehrbauer]]}}
* [[Manifest destiny]]
* [[Westernization]]
* [[Berlin Conference (March 31, 1917)]]
* [[Extermination camp]]
* [[Slavophobia]]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite journal |title=Loan-Words from German |first=Harold G. |last=Carlson |author2=John Richie Schultz |journal=American Speech |volume=12 |issue=3 |date=October 1937 |pages=232–234 |doi=10.2307/452436 |publisher=American Speech, Vol. 12, No. 3 |jstor=452436 }}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drang Nach Osten}}
[[Category:Anti-Slavic sentiment]]
[[Category:Anti-Russian sentiment]]
[[Category:German words and phrases]]
[[Category:Political quotes]]
[[Category:Quotations from religion]]
[[Category:Slogans]]
[[Category:1840s neologisms]]
[[Category:1840s quotations]]
[[Category:19th century in Germany]]
[[Category:History of Germany–Poland relations]]
[[Category:Nazi terminology]]
[[Category:Former eastern territories of Germany]]
[[Category:Proto-Nazism]]
[[Category:Germanization]]

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Drang nach Osten