View source for Pan-Germanism

{{short description|Pan-nationalist political idea}}
{{redirect|Großdeutschland}}
{{redirect|Greater Germany|the historical 1933–45 state|Nazi Germany}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
[[File:Deutsche_Mundarten.png|thumb|250px|Map of [[German dialects]] in Central Europe before 1938]]
'''Pan-Germanism''' ({{langx|de|Pangermanismus}} or ''{{lang|de|Alldeutsche Bewegung}}''), also occasionally known as '''Pan-Germanicism''', is a [[pan-nationalism|pan-nationalist]] [[political ideology|political idea]]. Pan-Germanism seeks to unify all ethnic Germans, [[German-speaking Europe|German-speaking people]], and possibly also non-German [[Germanic languages|Germanic peoples]] &ndash; into a single [[nation-state]] known as '''Greater Germany'''.

[[File:Karte der deutschen Mundarten (Brockhaus).jpg|thumb|250px|1908 map of the Continental West Germanic [[dialect continuum]]]]
[[Image:Deutsche Siedlungsgebiete in Osteuropa 1925.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.4|German-speaking areas in [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Eastern Europe]] in the first half of the 20th century (1925 map)]]

Pan-Germanism was highly influential in German politics in the 19th century during the [[unification of Germany]] when the [[German Empire]] was proclaimed as a nation-state in 1871 but without [[German-speaking Switzerland|Germanophone Switzerland]],{{efn|Not a member of the [[German Confederation]] but still German-speaking nevertheless.}} [[Austria-Hungary]], Luxembourg and Liechtenstein (Kleindeutsche Lösung/Lesser Germany) and the first half of the 20th century in Austria-Hungary and the German Empire. From the late 19th century, many Pan-Germanist thinkers, since 1891 organized in the [[Pan-German League]], had adopted openly [[ethnocentrism|ethnocentric]] and [[racism|racist]] ideologies, and ultimately gave rise to the foreign policy ''[[Heim ins Reich]]'' pursued by [[Nazi Germany]] under [[Adolf Hitler]] from 1938, one of the [[Causes of World War II|primary factors leading to the outbreak of]] [[World War II]].<ref name="britannica.com">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/440618/Pan-Germanism |title=Pan-Germanism (German political movement) – Britannica Online Encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Britannica.com |access-date=2012-01-24}}</ref><ref>Origins and Political Character of Nazi Ideology Hajo Holborn Political Science Quarterly Vol. 79, No. 4 (Dec. 1964), p.550</ref><ref name="dagbladet.no">{{cite web |url=https://www.dagbladet.no/2009/05/07/magasinet/litteratur/historie/5961478/ |title=Slik ble vi germanersvermere – magasinet |date=7 May 2009 |publisher=Dagbladet.no |access-date=2012-01-24}}</ref><ref name="Mees 2008">{{cite book |title=The Science of the Swastika |last=Mees |first=Bernard |date=2008 |publisher=Central European University Press |isbn=978-963-9776-18-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hLNUx6YK9RIC&q=%22Los+von+Rom%22&pg=PA21 }}</ref> The concept of a Greater Germany was attempted to be put into practice as the '''[[Greater Germanic Reich]]''' ({{langx|de|Großgermanisches Reich}}), fully styled the '''Greater Germanic Reich of the German Nation''' ({{langx|de|Großgermanisches Reich der Deutschen Nation}}). As a result of the Second World War, there was a clear backlash against Pan-Germanism and other related ideologies. Today, pan-Germanism is mainly limited to a few nationalist groups, mainly on the [[right-wing politics|political right]] in Germany and Austria.

== Etymology ==
The word ''pan'' is a [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] word element meaning "all, every, whole, all-inclusive". The word "German" in this context derives from [[Latin language|Latin]] "Germani" originally used by [[Julius Caesar]] referring to tribes or a single tribe in northeastern [[Gaul]]. In the [[Late Middle Ages]], it acquired a loose meaning referring to the speakers of [[Germanic languages]] some of whom spoke dialects ancestral to [[German language|modern German]]. In English, "Pan-German" was first attested in 1892.

In German various concepts can be included under the heading of Pan-Germanism, though often with slight or significant differences in meaning. For example adjectives such as "alldeutsch" or "gesamtdeutsch", which can be translated as "pan-german", typically refer to the Alldeutsche Bewegung, a political movement which sought to unite all German speaking people in one country,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kruse |first=Wolfgang |date=2012-09-27 |title=Nation und Nationalismus |url=https://www.bpb.de/themen/kolonialismus-imperialismus/kaiserreich/138915/nation-und-nationalismus/ |access-date=2023-04-21 |website=Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung}}</ref> whereas "Pangermanismus" can refer to both the pursuit of uniting all the German-speaking people and movements which sought to unify all speakers of Germanic languages.<ref>Toni Cetta; Georg Kreis: "Pangermanismus", in: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz (HLS), Version of 23.09.2010. Online: https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/017464/2010-09-23/, last seen 21.04.2023.</ref>

== Origins (before 1860) ==
{{further|18th-century history of Germany|German Confederation|Vormärz}}
[[File:Map-GermanConfederation.svg|thumb|360px|The [[German Confederation]] in 1820. Territories of the [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussian crown]] are blue, territories of the [[Austrian Empire|Austrian crown]] are yellow, and independent [[German Confederation]] states are grey. The red border shows the limits of the Confederation. Both Prussia and Austria controlled non-Confederation lands.]]
The origins of Pan-Germanism began with the birth of [[Romantic nationalism]] during the [[Napoleonic Wars]], with [[Friedrich Ludwig Jahn]] and [[Ernst Moritz Arndt]] being early proponents. [[Germans]], for the most part, had been a loose and disunited people since the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]], when the [[Holy Roman Empire]] was shattered into a [[Kleinstaaterei|patchwork of states]] following the end of the [[Thirty Years' War]] with the [[Peace of Westphalia]].

Advocates of the {{lang|de|Großdeutschland}} (Greater Germany) solution sought to unite all the [[German-speaking Europe|German-speaking people in Europe]], under the leadership of the [[Austrians|German Austrians]] from the [[Austrian Empire]]. Pan-Germanism was widespread among the [[Revolutions of 1848|revolutionaries of 1848]], notably among [[Richard Wagner]] and the [[Brothers Grimm]].<ref name="dagbladet.no"/> Writers such as [[Friedrich List]] and [[Paul de Lagarde|Paul Anton Lagarde]] argued for German hegemony in Central and Eastern Europe, where German domination in some areas had begun as early as the 9th century AD with the {{Lang|de|[[Ostsiedlung]]}}, Germanic expansion into Slavic and Baltic lands. For the Pan-Germanists, this movement was seen as a [[Drang nach Osten]], in which Germans would be naturally inclined to seek [[Lebensraum]] by moving eastwards to reunite with the German minorities there.

The {{Lang|de|[[Deutschlandlied]]}} ("Song of Germany"), written in 1841 by [[August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben|Hoffmann von Fallersleben]], in its first stanza defines ''Deutschland'' as reaching "From the [[Meuse (river)|Meuse]] to the [[Neman River|Memel]] / From the [[Adige]] to the [[Little Belt|Belt]]", i.e. as including [[East Prussia]] and [[South Tyrol]].

Reflecting upon the [[First Schleswig War]] in 1848, [[Karl Marx]] noted in 1853 that "by quarrelling amongst themselves, instead of confederating, Germans and Scandinavians, both of them belonging to the same great race, only prepare the way for their hereditary enemy, the [[Slavs|Slav]]."<ref>{{cite book |last=Marx |first=Karl |author-link=Karl Marx |date=1994 |title=The Eastern Question |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5h9SOoU3bsEC |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis|Taylor & Francis Group]] |isbn=0-7146-1500-5 |page=90}}</ref>

== The German Question ==
{{Main|German Question|Unification of Germany}}{{Conservatism in Germany}}{{Blockquote|"There is, in political geography, no Germany proper to speak of. There are Kingdoms and Grand Duchies, and Duchies and Principalities, inhabited by Germans, and each separately ruled by an independent sovereign with all the machinery of State. Yet there is a natural undercurrent tending to a national feeling and toward a union of the Germans into one great nation, ruled by one common head as a national unit."|source=''[[The New York Times]]'', 1 July 1866<ref>{{cite news|url= https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1866/07/01/79809602.pdf |title=The Situation of Germany|newspaper= [[The New York Times]] |date= 1 July 1866 |access-date=2017-08-21}}</ref>}}

By the 1860s [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]] and [[Austrian Empire|Austria]] had become the two most powerful states dominated by [[German language|German-speaking]] elites. Both sought to expand their influence and territory. The Austrian Empire—like the [[Holy Roman Empire]]—was a [[multi-ethnic]] state, but the German-speaking people there did not have an absolute numerical majority; its re-shaping into the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]] was one result of the growing nationalism of other ethnicities—especially the [[Hungarians]]. Under [[Prussia]]n leadership, [[Otto von Bismarck]] would ride on the coattails of nationalism to unite all of the northern German lands. After Bismarck excluded Austria and the German Austrians from Germany in the [[Austro-Prussian War|German war]] of 1866 and (following a few other events over the next few years), the [[unification of Germany]], established the Prussian-dominated [[German Empire]] in 1871 with the proclamation of [[Wilhelm I]] as [[German Emperor|head of a union of German-speaking states]], while disregarding millions of its non-German subjects ([[Polish people|Poles]], [[Danes]], [[Sorbs]], etc.)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fremdsprachige Minderheiten im Deutschen Reich |url=http://www.verwaltungsgeschichte.de/fremdsprachen.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100206125600/http://www.verwaltungsgeschichte.de/fremdsprachen.html |archive-date=6 February 2010 |access-date=20 January 2010 |language=de}}</ref> who desired [[self-determination]] from German rule. After World War I the Pan-Germanist philosophy changed drastically during [[Adolf Hitler's rise to power]]. Pan-Germanists originally sought to unify all the [[German-speaking Europe|German-speaking populations of Europe]] in a single [[nation-state]] known as {{lang|de|Großdeutschland}} (Greater Germany), where "German-speaking" was sometimes taken as synonymous with [[Germanic languages|Germanic-speaking]], to the inclusion of the [[Frisian languages|Frisian]]- and [[Dutch language|Dutch]]-speaking populations of the [[Low Countries]], and [[Scandinavia]].<ref>Nationalism and Globalisation: Conflicting Or Complementary. D. Halikiopoulou. p51.</ref>

Although Bismarck had excluded Austria and the German Austrians from his creation of the [[Kleindeutschland]] state in 1871, integrating the German Austrians nevertheless remained a strong desire for many people of both Austria and Germany.<ref name="DPSO">{{cite web | url=http://www.politischebildung.at/upload/polsystem.pdf | title=Das politische System in Österreich (The Political System in Austria) | publisher=Austrian Federal Press Service | date=2000 | access-date=9 July 2014 | page=24 | language=de | location=Vienna | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140423112116/http://www.politischebildung.at/upload/polsystem.pdf | archive-date=23 April 2014 | url-status=dead }}</ref> The most radical Austrian pan-German [[Georg Schönerer]] (1842–1921) and [[:de:Karl Hermann Wolf|Karl Hermann Wolf]] (1862–1941) articulated Pan-Germanist sentiments in the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]].<ref name="britannica.com"/> There was also a rejection of [[Roman Catholicism]] with the [[Away from Rome!]] movement (ca 1900 onwards) calling for German-speakers to identify with [[Lutheran]] or [[Old Catholic]] churches.<ref name="Mees 2008"/> The Pan-German Movement gained an institutional format in 1891, when [[:de:Ernst Hasse|Ernst Hasse]], a professor at the [[University of Leipzig]] and a member of the [[Reichstag (German Empire)|Reichstag]], organized the [[Pan-German League]], an ultra-nationalist<ref name="Hobsbawm1987">{{cite book|author= Eric J. Hobsbawm|title= The age of empire, 1875–1914|url= https://archive.org/details/ageofempire1875100hobs|url-access= registration|access-date= 22 March 2011|date= 1987|publisher= Pantheon Books|isbn= 978-0-394-56319-0|page= [https://archive.org/details/ageofempire1875100hobs/page/152 152]}}</ref> political-interest organization which promoted [[imperialism]], [[antisemitism]], and support for [[ethnic German]] minorities in other countries.<ref name="Levy">
{{cite encyclopedia
  | last = Drummond
  | first = Elizabeth A.
  | editor-last = Levy
  | editor-first = Richard S.
  | editor-link = Richard S. Levy
  | encyclopedia = Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution
  | title = Pan-German League
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Tdn6FFZklkcC
  | access-date = 2016-07-15
  | year = 2005
  | publisher = ABC-CLIO
  | series = Contemporary world issues
  | volume = 1
  | isbn = 9781851094394
  | pages = 528–529
}}
</ref>
The organization achieved great support among the educated [[middle class|middle]] and upper class; it promoted German nationalist consciousness, especially among ethnic Germans outside [[German Empire|Germany]]. In his three-volume work, "Deutsche Politik" (1905–07), Hasse called for German imperialist expansion in Europe. The [[Munich]] professor [[Karl Haushofer]], [[:de:Ewald Banse|Ewald Banse]], and [[Hans Grimm]] (author of the novel ''[[Volk ohne Raum]]'') preached similar [[expansionism|expansionist]] policies.

During the [[German entry into World War I]], Chancellor [[Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg]] authorized the [[Septemberprogramm]] proposing that the [[German Empire]] use the [[World War I|First World War]] to seek territorial annexations similar to the ones demanded by pan-German nationalists. The [[West Germany|West German]] historian [[Fritz Fischer (historian)|Fritz Fischer]] argued in his 1962 thesis ''[[Germany's Aims in the First World War]]'' that this and other documents indicated that Germany was responsible for World War I and intended to fulfill pan-German aims, although other historians have since disputed this conclusion. After Naval Minister [[Alfred von Tirpitz]] resigned from the Cabinet under pressure from Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg over Tirpitz's push to introduce [[unrestricted submarine warfare]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Epkenhans |first=Michael |date=15 March 2016 |editor-last=Daniel |editor-first=Ute |editor2-last=Gatrell |editor2-first=Peter |editor3-last=Janz |editor3-first=Oliver |editor4-last=Jones |editor4-first=Heather |editor5-last=Keene |editor5-first=Jennifer |editor6-last=Kramer |editor6-first=Alan |editor7-last=Nasson |editor7-first=Bill |title=Tirpitz, Alfred von |url=https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/tirpitz_alfred_von |access-date=20 January 2023 |journal=1914-1918-Online International Encyclopedia of the First World War |publisher=Freie Universität Berlin |publication-place=Berlin |doi=10.15463/ie1418.10860}}</ref> Tirpitz united pan-German nationalists under the [[German Fatherland Party]] in the [[Reichstag (German Empire)|Reichstag]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Robson |first=Stuart |url=http://archive.org/details/firstworldwar0000robs_r5x1 |title=The First World War |date=2007 |publisher=Pearson Longman |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-1-4058-2471-2 |edition=1 |location=Harrow, England |pages=28–69 |language=en |ref=None}}</ref>

== Austria ==
{{main|German nationalism in Austria}}
{{multiple image
| align             = right
| total_width       = 267
| image1            = Rudolf Krziwanek - Georg Ritter von Schönerer, um 1893.jpg
| alt1              = Schönerer in 1893
| footer            = [[Georg Ritter von Schönerer]] was the most influential pan-German in Austria during the early 20th century.
}}

After the [[Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas]], in which the [[Liberal nationalism|liberal nationalistic]] revolutionaries advocated the Greater German solution, the Austrian defeat in the [[Austro-Prussian War]] (1866) with the effect that Austria was now excluded from Germany, and increasing ethnic conflicts in the multinational [[Habsburg monarchy]], a German national movement evolved in Austria.<ref>{{Citation |first=Kurt |last=Bauer |title=Nationalsozialismus: Ursprünge, Anfänge, Aufstieg und Fall |publisher=Böhlau Verlag |date=2008 |page=41 |isbn=9783825230760 |language=de |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n9L1GyROMi0C&q=deutschnationalismus+in+%C3%B6sterreich+k%C3%B6niggr%C3%A4tz&pg=PA41}}</ref> Led by the radical [[German nationalist]] and [[Antisemitism in Austria|Austrian antisemite]] [[Georg Ritter von Schönerer]], organisations such as the ''Pan-German Society'' demanded the annexation of all German-speaking territories under the rule of the Habsburg monarchy to the German Empire, and fervently rejected [[Austrian nationalism]] and a pan-Austrian identity. Schönerer's [[Völkisch movement|völkisch]] and [[Racism|racist]] [[German nationalism]] was an inspiration to [[Adolf Hitler]]'s [[Nazism|Nazi ideology]].<ref>{{Citation |first=Michael |last=Wladika |title=Hitlers Vätergeneration: Die Ursprünge des Nationalsozialismus in der k.u.k. Monarchie |publisher=Böhlau Verlag |date=2005 |language=de |page=157 |isbn=9783205773375 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hAh8RPuxUEUC&q=linzer+programm&pg=PA38}}</ref>

In 1933, [[Austrian National Socialism|Austrian Nazis]] and the national-liberal [[Greater German People's Party]] formed an action group, fighting together against the [[Austrofascism|Austrofascist]] [[Federal State of Austria]] which imposed a distinct Austrian national identity and in accordance said that Austrians were "better Germans." [[Kurt Schuschnigg]] adopted a policy of appeasement towards [[Nazi Germany]] and called Austria the "better German state", but he still struggled to keep Austria independent.<ref>{{cite book |title= Fascism in Europe, 1919–1945 |last= Morgan |first= Philip |date= 2003 |publisher= Routledge |isbn= 0-415-16942-9 |page= [https://archive.org/details/fascismineurope10000morg/page/72 72] |url= https://archive.org/details/fascismineurope10000morg|url-access= registration }}</ref> With "[[Anschluss]]" of Austria in 1938, the historic aim of Austria's German nationalists was achieved.<ref name="Bideleux">{{Citation |first1=Robert |last1=Bideleux |first2=Ian |last2=Jeffries |title=A history of eastern Europe: Crisis and Change |publisher=Routledge |date=1998 |page=355 |isbn=9780415161121 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IuW7T8wfNGAC&q=pan+german+society+sch%C3%B6nerer&pg=PA355}}</ref>

After the end of Nazi Germany and the events of [[World War II]] in 1945, the ideas of pan-Germanism and an ''Anschluss'' fell out of favour due to their association with Nazism and allowed Austrians to develop their own national identity. Nevertheless, such notions were revived with the German national camp in the [[Federation of Independents]] and the early [[Freedom Party of Austria]].<ref>{{Citation |first=Anton |last=Pelinka |title=Jörg Haiders "Freiheitliche" – ein nicht nur österreichisches Problem |work=Liberalismus in Geschichte und Gegenwart |publisher=Königshausen & Neumann |date=2000 |language=de |page=233 |isbn=9783826015540 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NWmudq4s4GAC&q=deutschnational+freiheitliche&pg=PA233}}</ref>

== Scandinavia ==
The idea of including the [[North Germanic languages|North Germanic]]-speaking Scandinavians into a Pan-German state, sometimes referred to as '''Pan-Germanicism''',<ref>Thomas Pedersen. Germany, France, and the integration of Europe: a realist interpretation. Pinter, 1998. P. 74</ref> was promoted alongside mainstream pan-German ideas.<ref>Ian Adams. ''Political Ideology Today''. Manchester, England, UK: Manchester University Press, 1993. P. 95.</ref> [[Jacob Grimm]] adopted Munch's anti-Danish Pan-Germanism and argued that the entire peninsula of [[Jutland]] had been populated by Germans before the arrival of the [[Danes]] and that thus it could justifiably be reclaimed by Germany, whereas the rest of [[Denmark]] should be incorporated into [[Sweden]]. This line of thinking was countered by [[Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae]], an archaeologist who had excavated parts of [[Danevirke]], who argued that there was no way of knowing the language of the earliest inhabitants of Danish territory. He also pointed out that Germany had more solid historical claims to large parts of France and England, and that [[Slavs]]—by the same reasoning—could annex parts of [[Former eastern territories of Germany|Eastern Germany]]. Regardless of the strength of Worsaae's arguments, pan-Germanism spurred on the German nationalists of [[Schleswig]] and [[Holstein]] and led to the [[First Schleswig War]] in 1848. In turn, this likely contributed to the fact that Pan-Germanism never caught on in Denmark as much as it did in Norway.<ref>{{cite journal
| last= Rowly-Conwy
| first= Peter
| title= The concept of prehistory and the invention of the terms 'prehistoric' and 'prehistorian': The Scandinavian origin, 1833–1850
|journal= European Journal of Archaeology
|volume=9
|issue=1
|pages=103–130
|doi=10.1177/1461957107077709
| date= 2013
| s2cid= 163132775
|url=http://dro.dur.ac.uk/5857/1/5857.pdf?DDD6+drk0mjc+drk0par+dul4eg
}}</ref> Pan-Germanic tendencies were particularly widespread among the [[Norwegian romantic nationalism|Norwegian independence movement]]. Prominent supporters included [[Peter Andreas Munch]], [[Christopher Bruun]], [[Knut Hamsun]], [[Henrik Ibsen]] and [[Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson]].<ref name="dagbladet.no"/><ref>{{cite web|author=NRK |url=https://www.nrk.no/programmer/tv_arkiv/drommen_om_norge/4439099.html |title=Drømmen om Norge |publisher=NRK.no |date=20 January 2005 |access-date=2012-01-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Larson |first=Philip E. |title=Ibsen in Skien and Grimstad: His education, reading, and early works |url=http://ibsen.nb.no/asset/116579/1/116579_1.pdf |date=1999 |publisher=The Ibsen House and Grimstad Town Museum |location=Skien |page=143 }}</ref> Bjørnson, who wrote the lyrics for the [[Ja, vi elsker dette landet|Norwegian national anthem]], proclaimed in 1901:

{{blockquote|I'm a Pan-Germanist, I'm a [[Teutonic peoples|Teuton]], and the greatest dream of my life is for the [[West Germanic languages|South Germanic peoples]] and the [[North Germanic peoples]] and their brothers in [[diaspora]] to unite in a fellow [[confederation]].<ref name="dagbladet.no"/>}} In the 20th century the German [[Nazi Party]] sought to create a [[Greater Germanic Reich]] that would include most of the Germanic peoples of Europe within it under the leadership of Germany, including peoples such as the [[Danes]], the [[Dutch people|Dutch]], the [[Swedes]], the [[Norwegians]], and the [[Flemish people|Flemish]] within it.<ref>Germany: The Long Road West: Volume 2: 1933–1990. Digital version. Oxford, England, UK: Oxford University Press, 2007.</ref>
Anti-German [[Scandinavism]] surged in Denmark in the 1930s and 1940s in response to the pan-Germanic ambitions of Nazi Germany.<ref>Stephen Barbour, Cathie Carmichael. ''Language and Nationalism in Europe''. Oxford, England, UK: Oxford University Press, 2000. P. 111.</ref>

== 1918 to 1945 ==
{{Further|Areas annexed by Nazi Germany|Völkisch movement|Heim ins Reich|Generalplan Ost}}
[[File:NS administrative Gliederung 1944.png|thumb|Administrative division of Nazi Germany, following the [[Areas annexed by Nazi Germany|annexing of Austria, Sudetenland and others]] to form the Greater German Reich as of 1944]]
[[File:German Map Sudeten.PNG|thumb|Map showing Nazi German plans, given to [[Sudeten Germans]] during the [[Sudeten Crisis]] as part of an intimidation process. Re-published in the British socialist newspaper ''[[Morning Star (British newspaper)#The Daily Worker (1930–1966)|Daily Worker]]'' on 29 October 1938.]]
[[File:Greater Germanic Reich.png|thumb|300px|Boundaries of the planned "[[Greater Germanic Reich]]" based on various, only partially systematised target projections (e.g. [[Generalplan Ost]]) from [[Nazi Germany|state administration]] and the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] leadership sources<ref>{{cite web|title=Utopia: The 'Greater Germanic Reich of the German Nation'|url=http://www.obersalzberg.de/utopie-grossgermanisches-reich.html?&L=1|publisher=[[Institut für Zeitgeschichte]]|location=München – Berlin|date=1999|access-date=24 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214200221/http://www.obersalzberg.de/utopie-grossgermanisches-reich.html?&L=1|archive-date=14 December 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>]]

World War I became the first attempt to carry out the Pan-German ideology in practice, and the Pan-German movement argued forcefully for expansionist imperialism.<ref name=Blamires>World fascism: a historical encyclopedia, Volume 1 Cyprian Blamires ABC-CLIO, 2006. pp. 499–501</ref>

Following the defeat in [[World War I]], the influence of German-speaking elites over [[Central and Eastern Europe]] was greatly limited. At the [[Treaty of Versailles]], Germany was substantially reduced in size. [[Alsace-Lorraine]] was also influenced by the [[Francization]] after it returned to France. [[Austria-Hungary]] was split up. A rump Austria, which to a certain extent corresponded to the [[Austria-Hungary#Demographics|German-speaking areas of Austria-Hungary]] (a complete split into language groups was impossible due to multi-lingual areas and language-exclaves) adopted the name "[[German Austria]]" ({{langx|de|link=no|Deutschösterreich}}) in hope for union with [[Weimar Republic|Germany]]. Union with Germany and the name "German Austria" was forbidden by the [[Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919)|Treaty of St. Germain]] and the name had to be changed back to Austria.

It was in the [[Weimar Republic]] that the Austrian-born [[Adolf Hitler]], under the influence of the [[stab-in-the-back myth]], first took up German nationalist ideas in his ''[[Mein Kampf]]''.<ref name="Blamires"/> Hitler met [[Heinrich Class]] in 1918, and Class provided Hitler with support for the 1923 [[Beer Hall Putsch]]. Hitler and his supporters shared most of the basic pan-German visions with the [[Pan-German League]], but differences in political style led the two groups to open rivalry. The German Workers Party of Bohemia cut its ties to the pan-German movement, which was seen as being too dominated by the upper classes, and joined forces with the [[German Workers' Party]] led by [[Anton Drexler]], which later became the [[Nazi Party]] (National Socialist German Workers' Party, NSDAP) that was to be headed by Adolf Hitler from 1921.<ref name="Levy2">Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution, Volume 1, Richard S. Levy, 529–530, ABC-CLIO 2005</ref>

Nazi propaganda also used the political slogan ''[[Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer]]'' ("One people, one Reich, one leader"), to enforce pan-German sentiment in Austria for an "[[Anschluss]]".

The chosen name for the projected empire was a deliberate reference to the [[Holy Roman Empire]] (of the German Nation) that existed in the [[Middle Ages]], known as the ''First Reich'' in Nazi historiography.<ref name="hattstein">Hattstein 2006, p. 321.</ref> Different aspects of the legacy of this medieval empire in German history were both celebrated and derided by the [[Government of Nazi Germany|Nazi government]]. Hitler admired the [[Frankish Empire|Frankish Emperor]] [[Charlemagne]] for his "cultural creativity", his powers of organization, and his renunciation of the [[Individual liberty|rights of the individual]].<ref name="hattstein" /> He criticized the [[Holy Roman Emperor|Holy Roman Emperors]] however for not pursuing an ''Ostpolitik'' ([[Drang Nach Osten|Eastern Policy]]) resembling his own, while being politically focused exclusively on [[Italy|the south]].<ref name="hattstein" /> After the ''Anschluss'', Hitler ordered the old [[Austrian Crown Jewels#The Holy Roman Empire|imperial regalia]] (the [[Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire|Imperial Crown]], [[Imperial Sword]], [[Spear of Destiny#Vienna Lance .28Hofburg spear.29|the Holy Lance]] and other items) residing in [[Vienna]] to be transferred to [[Nuremberg]], where they were kept between 1424 and 1796.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hamann|first1=Brigitte|url=https://archive.org/details/hitlersviennadic00hama|title=Hitler's Vienna: A Dictator's Apprenticeship|publisher=Oxford University Press|others=Trans. Thomas Thornton|date=1999|isbn=978-0-19-512537-5|location=New York|author-link1=Brigitte Hamann}}</ref> Nuremberg, in addition to being the former unofficial capital of the Holy Roman Empire, was also the place of the [[Nuremberg rallies]]. The transfer of the regalia was thus done to both legitimize Hitler's Germany as the successor of the "Old Reich", but also weaken Vienna, the former imperial residence.<ref>Haman 1999, p. 110</ref>

After the [[German occupation of Czechoslovakia|1939 German occupation of Bohemia]], Hitler declared that the Holy Roman Empire had been "resurrected", although he secretly maintained his own empire to be better than the old "Roman" one.<ref name="brockmann">Brockmann 2006, p. 179.</ref> Unlike the "uncomfortably [[Multinational state|internationalist]] Catholic empire of [[Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor|Barbarossa]]", the Germanic Reich of the German Nation would be [[racist]] and [[nationalist]].<ref name="brockmann" /> Rather than a return to the values of the Middle Ages, its establishment was to be "[[Progress (history)|a push forward]] to a new [[Golden age (metaphor)|golden age]], in which the best aspects of the past would be combined with modern racist and nationalist thinking".<ref name="brockmann" />

The historical borders of the Holy Roman Empire were also used as grounds for territorial revisionism by the NSDAP, laying claim to modern territories and states that were once part of it. Even before the war, Hitler had dreamed of reversing the [[Peace of Westphalia]], which had given the territories of the Empire almost complete sovereignty.<ref name="winkler">Sager & Winkler 2007, p. 74.</ref> On November 17, 1939, [[Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda|Reich Minister of Propaganda]] [[Joseph Goebbels]] wrote in [[Goebbels Diaries|his diary]] that the "total liquidation" of this historic treaty was the "great goal" of the Nazi regime,<ref name="winkler" /> and that since it had been signed in [[Münster]], it would also be officially repealed in the same city.<ref>Goebbels, p. 51.</ref>

{{Nazism sidebar}}

The ''[[Heim ins Reich]]'' ("Back Home to the Reich") initiative was a policy pursued by the [[Nazis]] which attempted to convince the [[ethnic Germans]] living outside of [[Nazi Germany]] (such as in [[Austria]] and [[Sudetenland]]) that they should strive to bring these regions "home" into a [[Kleindeutschland and Großdeutschland#Later influence|Greater Germany]]. This notion also led the way for an even more expansive state to be envisioned, the Greater Germanic Reich, which Nazi Germany tried to establish.<ref name="elvert1">Elvert 1999, p. 325.</ref> This pan-Germanic empire was expected to [[Annexation|assimilate]] practically all of [[Germanic languages|Germanic Europe]] into an enormously expanded Greater Germanic Reich. Territorially speaking, this encompassed the already-enlarged Reich itself (consisting of pre-1938 Germany plus the [[Areas annexed by Nazi Germany|areas annexed into the ''Großdeutsche Reich'']]), the [[Netherlands]], [[Belgium]], [[zone interdite#Zone of intended German settlement|areas in north-eastern France]] considered to be historically and ethnically Germanic, [[Denmark]], [[Norway]], [[Sweden]], [[Iceland]], at least the [[German-speaking Switzerland|German-speaking parts of Switzerland]], and [[Liechtenstein]].<ref name="Rich401402">Rich 1974, pp. 401–402.</ref> The most notable exception was the predominantly [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] United Kingdom, which was not projected as having to be reduced to a German province but to instead become an [[Political alliance|allied]] seafaring partner of the Germans.<ref>Strobl 2000, pp. 202–208.</ref>

The eastern ''[[Reichskommissariat]]s'' in the vast stretches of Ukraine and Russia were also intended for future integration, with [[Generalplan Ost|plans for them]] stretching to the [[Volga]] or even beyond the [[Urals]]. They were deemed of vital interest for the survival of the German nation, as it was a core tenet of [[Nazism|Nazi ideology]] that it needed "living space" (''[[Lebensraum]]''), creating a "pull towards the East" (''[[Drang nach Osten]]'') where that could be found and [[colonization|colonized]], in a model that the Nazis explicitly derived from the American [[Manifest Destiny]] in the [[American frontier|Far West]] and its clearing of native inhabitants.

As the foreign volunteers of the Waffen-SS were increasingly of non-Germanic origin, especially after the [[Battle of Stalingrad]], among the organization's leadership (e.g. [[Felix Steiner]]) the proposition for a Greater Germanic Empire gave way to a concept of a European union of self-governing states, unified by German hegemony and the common enemy of [[Bolshevism]].{{citation needed|date=October 2019}} The Waffen-SS was to be the eventual nucleus of a common European army where each state would be represented by a national contingent.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}} Himmler himself, however, gave no concession to these views, and held on to his Pan-Germanic vision in a speech given in April 1943 to the officers of the [[1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler]], the [[2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich|2nd SS Panzer Division ''Das Reich'']] and the [[3rd SS Division Totenkopf|3rd SS Division ''Totenkopf'']]:{{blockquote|We do not expect you to renounce your nation. [...] We do not expect you to become German out of opportunism. We do expect you to subordinate your national ideal to a greater racial and historical ideal, to the Germanic Reich.<ref>Stein 1984, p. 148.</ref>}}

== History since 1945 ==
{{see also|Expulsion of Germans after World War II|Former eastern territories of Germany|Reunification of Germany}}
The defeat of Germany in [[World War II]] brought about the decline of Pan-Germanism, much as [[World War I]] had led to the demise of [[Pan-Slavism]].{{citation needed|date=March 2014}} Parts of Germany itself were devastated, and the country was divided, firstly into Soviet, French, American, and British zones and then into [[West Germany]] and [[East Germany]]. [[Allied occupation of Austria|Austria]] was separated from Germany and the [[German nationalism in Austria|German identity in Austria]] was also weakened. The end of World War II in Europe brought even larger territorial losses for Germany than the First World War, with vast [[former eastern territories of Germany|portions of eastern Germany]] directly annexed by the [[Soviet Union]] and [[Poland]]. The scale of the Germans' defeat was unprecedented; Pan-Germanism became taboo because it had been tied to racist concepts of the "[[master race]]" and ''[[Nordicism]]'' by the [[Nazi party]]. However, the [[reunification of Germany]] in 1990 revived the old debates.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://derstandard.at/1308186237768/FPOe-Parteitag-Straches-neue-Heimat-und-der-Boulevardsozialismus|work=[[Der Standard]]|title=Straches "neue" Heimat und der Boulevardsozialismus|date=16 June 2011|access-date=28 June 2011|language=de|first=Gerhard|last=Zeilinger}}</ref>{{clear left}}

== See also ==
{{col-begin|width=70%}}{{col-break}}
'''18th century and before'''
* [[Germania]]
* [[Germanic peoples]]
* [[Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation]]
* [[Peace of Westphalia]]
{{col-break}}
'''19th century'''
* [[German Empire]]
* [[German nationalism]]
* [[German question]] (with ''Großdeutsche Lösung'')
* [[Irredentism]]
* [[Pan-German League]]
* [[Pan-nationalism]]
* [[Romantic nationalism]]
* [[Scandinavism]]
* [[Völkisch movement]]
{{col-break}}
'''20th century'''
* ''[[Anschluss]]''
* [[Ethnic nationalism]]
* [[Expansionism]]
* [[German nationalism in Austria]]
* [[Greater Germanic Reich]]
* ''[[Mitteleuropa]]''
* [[Nazi Germany]]
* ''[[Volksgemeinschaft]]''
{{col-end}}

== References ==
'''Notes'''
{{Notelist}}

{{reflist}}

'''Further reading'''
* Chickering, Roger. ''We Men Who Feel Most German: Cultural Study of the Pan-German League, 1886–1914''. Harper Collins Publishers Ltd. 1984.
* Kleineberg, A.; Marx Chr.; Knobloch E.; Lelgemann D. ''Germania und die Insel Thule. Die Entschlüsselung von Ptolemaios'"Atlas der Oikumene".'' WBG 2010. {{ISBN|978-3-534-23757-9}}.
* Jackisch, Barry Andrew. '''Not a Large, but a Strong Right': The Pan-German League, Radical Nationalism, and Rightist Party Politics in Weimar Germany, 1918–1939''. Bell and Howell Information and Learning Company: Ann Arbor. 2000.
* Wertheimer, Mildred. ''The Pan-German League, 1890–1914''. Columbia University Press: New York. 1924.

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{{Irredentism}}
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{{Ethnic nationalism}}
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