Germany - Nationalism
German nationalism twice destroyed Europe. The phrase “nationalism in Germany” may evoke strong response, depending on where you live, how old you are, and how one views history. “German nationalism or patriotism” might evoke an uneasy feeling in some people because these words are still associated with both World Wars and the Nazi period. But, the Nazi regime did not invent German nationalism. If anything, the Nazis exploited and abused cultural values by misusing them.
Germany's history obviously means that patriotism is always going to be deeply problematic. "Who can, unreflectively and without inhibition, profess their connection to the German nation?" asked Martin Sabrow, historian and spokesperson for the Leibniz Center for Contemporary History in Potsdam. "There's a Holocaust Memorial in the government quarter [in Berlin] with steles that commemorate 6 million murdered Jews and however many millions of people killed in the war. It would be strange if we didn't have a queasy sense of nationality."
The center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) presented a proposal to the German parliament in May 2023 that touched a nerve that had been bothering the country since the end of World War II: When can Germans be proud to be German again? Germany, the conservative party said, should hold a national commemoration day on May 23 to mark the adoption of the German constitution, or Basic Law, in 1949, along with a new "Federal Program of Patriotism." The Christian Democrats did their best to couch these ideas in inclusive terms — this modern patriotism, they said, should invite immigrant communities to get behind the values set out in the Basic Law. What they called "the potential" of patriotism was not to be left to the political margins. The CDU was hoping to wrestle the issue of patriotism from its electoral rivals on the far right, the Alternative for Germany (AfD). A renewed sense of national pride would counteract the "increasing polarization and the fragmentation of our society," CDU party leader Friedrich Merz and his CSU floor leader Alexander Dobrindt wrote in their proposal.
There is still fierce debate among Germans about the legitimacy of being openly and vocally proud of their country, especially in light of World War II, the Holocaust or the Namibian genocide, to name but a few historical events. But while expressions of national pride — especially in public — are seen by many as intertwined with the far-right, regional patriotism is perceived as a more valid way to express attachment to a certain place, and is mostly considered an endearing trait.
Local patriotism, or "Lokalpatriotismus" in German, which — contrary to nationalism — describes the affection, or preference, to one's own city or region. In Germany's case, it seems to be a much bigger source of pride than anything national. Local patriotism is mroe than just rivalry between football clubs. Indeed, this is a major part of the deal, but some regional disputes are as old as the earliest documented versions of football — which date back to the second and third centuries BC. Rivalries resulting from local patriotism often involve neighboring cities: Mainz vs. Wiesbaden, Frankfurt vs. Offenbach or Dortmund vs. Gelsenkirchen, just to name a few examples.
Local patriotism can be felt beyond traditional feuds between neighboring cities. Germany is full of invisible borders between unofficial areas. The dressing you choose for your potato salad is just one of them.
There's a long tradition of rivalry between the neighboring regions of Swabia and Baden, for instance — both part of the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg. But an anti-Swabian sentiment, or "Schwabenhass," has grown in other parts of the country. Swabians are often perceived by other Germans as greedy, stingy and uptight. In Berlin, they have been portrayed as contributing to the gentrification of certain neighborhoods, but also for bringing in "narrow-mindedness" to the otherwise liberal city. In the past, Swabians were even blamed for changing the city's character with their attitudes.
Some level of disdain from residents of a country towards the people who live in its capital is common. Despite Berlin's popularity among both foreigners and locals, there are many Germans who perceive the capital as a burden on Germany's economy, a city made of lazy bums and hippies who contribute nothing to Germany's financial success. Berliners, on the other hand, believe their city is one of the best in the world, or at least in Europe. The flock of internationals moving there from every corner of the globe is for them yet more evidence of the city's spectacularism.
Learning about Germany's past — and especially World War II — is not exclusive to academics or museum goers. In fact, history museums are often packed with pupils as young as 12, learning about the Nazi regime and the horrors it brought upon humanity. The culture of memory is one of those tools that help bind the nation together, to give people a 'shared' past. Many other countries have caused more than enough damage to humanity and aren't exactly quick to express remorse, let alone teach their next generations: Never Again.
After Napoleon had smashed the legalistic shell to which by the year 1806 the political reality of the Empire had been reduced, the romantic element in German nationalism soon had forgotten the jibes leveled at the "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" and had identified itself with the ideological Empire, one of the eternal verities transcending temporal politics and nations, the secular counterpart of the universal Church. The romantic element in German nationalism in time had become the religion of National Socialism.
In 1840, France's parliament openly discussed to extend the French border to the Rhine, which meant the annexation of most of Prussia's RHEINPROVINZ. The newspaper reports about the debate stirred up national sentiment in an instant. Germans were aware of their military weakness - Austria had not won a war on it's own since 1718, Prussia not since Frederick the Great (1740-1786). Writers appealed to the Germans to prepare themselves for armed resistance. Songs like Die Wacht am Rhein (Guard on the Rhine, 1840) and the Lied der Deutschen (Deutschlandlied, the Song of the Germans, 1841) became popular instantly. The French did not extend their border to the Rhine. However, the spirit they had kindled was to haunt them for the next century.
As early as the 1850s Bismarck, who was regarded as an ultra-conservative but not as a German nationalist, came to appreciate the power of nationalism as a significant strategic weapon that could reinforce Prussian strength and foreign policy. In fact, during and immediately after the revolutions of 1848, Bismarck recognized and reported on the potential of properly mobilized German public opinion as a weapon that Prussia could use against liberal forces then in control of the Frankfurt Assembly.
Recognizing the potential power of German nationalism, Bismarck was very willing to use nationalistic ardor for his own purposes. Conversely, in the mid and latter 1850s, the nationalism of 1848 had no immediate utility because nationalistic ardor had cooled. If one were to read the writings of some of the post-1870 German nationalistic historians, the reader would be led to believe that after 1848, the German states were a seething nationalistic caldron, waiting anxiously, pressing for yet another chance to form a nation-state called Germany. In reality, however, after the failed revolutions of 1848, nationalistic ardor and the move for unification had suffered a temporary hiatus. Nonetheless, it would be Bismarck who would appreciate the power of German nationalism to overcome the resistant loyalties of many Germans to their local principalities.
As part of a grandiose post-Great War psychological project to predict the behavior of nations, the U.S. Military Intelligence Division (MID) utilized racial and social psychological theories to explain an alleged problematic German national character. Though unsuccessful, this project has major significance in the history of psychohistory. For the MID files reveal that ideas, attitudes, and biases many psychohistorians subsequently identified as manifestations of a peculiar German national character had previously been held by American officers and reputable psychologists. What American analysts would, in 1940, view as symptoms of a maladjusted German mind, their predecessors had, in 1920, considered valid scientific concepts.
The growth of the power of Germany became possible due to events that changed the national identity of the German people. This is an unprecedented upswing in revanchist attitudes after the loss of the Great War. No observer who had been in Germany in the years after World War II was satisfied that the elements within Germany which gave rise to Nazism had been rooted out or even permanently chastened. Supernationalism was still there. Racial prejudice and racial philosophy still had powerful tap roots into the subsurface of the national life. And the martial spirit which was once condemned so bitterly was being encouraged, for Germany must contribute, it is said, to the defense of Europe.
A positive sense of nationalism surfaced for the first time since WWII during the 2006 FIFA Men’s Soccer World Cup held in Germany, again during the 2010 FIFA Men’s Soccer World Cup held in South Africa, and once again in 2011 during the FIFA Women’s Soccer World Cup held in Germany. During each of the events, Germans proudly waved the German national flag. Because most Germans had not felt comfortable being nationalistic since WWII, it was a freeing moment in German national history to wave the flag and be proud of being German. After the World Cup festivities, the German flags disappeared again, only to be seen flying atop government buildings such as the Reichstag building in Berlin.
By 2018, something has changed in Germany. A country that until recently was crowned the most popular in the world in various surveys has become consumed by self-doubt and mired in a quest for identity. The rapid rise of the AfD has rocked the nation, including in the states of what was once West Germany and where the AfD was represented in all state legislatures. Mainly, however, it had been the case in the states of the former East, where the AfD was the second more powerful party. In Saxony, it was the strongest.
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| 1 . Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, Über alles in der Welt, Wenn es stets zu Schutz und Trutze Brüderlich zusammenhält, Von der Maas bis an die Memel, Von der Etsch bis an den Belt - |: Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, Über alles in der Welt. :| |
Germany, Germany above all Above everything in the world When, always, to protect and trust Brothers stand together. From the Maas to the Memel From the Etsch to the Belt, Germany, Germany above all Above all in the world. | |
| 3 . Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit Für das deutsche Vaterland! Danach laßt uns alle streben Brüderlich mit Herz und Hand! Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit Sind des Glückes Unterpfand. |: Blüh' im Glanze dieses Glückes, Blühe, deutsches Vaterland. :| |
Unity and right and freedom For the German Fatherland; Let us all strive to this goal Brotherly, with heart and hand. Unity and rights and freedom Are the pledge of fortune grand. Prosper in this fortune's glory, Prosper German fatherland. |
The sentiment of the first two lines is: "Above everything in the world", (as most citizens express of their homeland) not "rulers of the world." At the time it was written, it was a call to unite the many independent states into one unified Germany. The French want to fertilize farms with their enemies' blood, Britannia wants to rule the world's oceans, the US wants "to conquer we must, when our cause is just", and the Marines to fight from the shores of Tripoli to the Halls of Montezuma.
There are many reasons why patriotism is not as straightforward in Germany as it is elsewhere. The German national colors — black, red and gold — have had a highly politicized history, and rarely served to unite all Germans in the same way that, say, the US Stars and Stripes or the British Union Jack always did.
The black-red-gold colors were first waved by individual corps of the Prussian army fighting to liberate Europe from Napoleon. They established themselves as the German Confederation's national colors in the early 19th century, and the flag itself was adopted by the national assembly following the 1848 revolutions, when national identity, liberty and individual rights became intertwined with an anti-monarchist surge.
But the colors went out of fashion as Prussia's power increased and the monarchy reasserted itself and in 1871, black, white and red became the colors of the new German Reich. The black-red-gold pattern was readopted by the Weimar Republic in 1919 after the fall of Kaiser Wilhelm II, only to be dropped yet again by the Nazis in 1934.
The flags from Communist East Germany were used by mass organizations, corporations and collectives. Flags from the Occupation period after 1945 and objects with the marks of destruction tell strong stories. They stand for the ruptures and discontinuities in contemporary German history.
Even after the war, the colors were contentious. "There was a row with the GDR," said Sabrow, referring to the German Democratic Republic - East Germany after the country's division in 1949. "They were actually the first to nominate the black-red-gold, and only afterward did the West follow suit. To that extent, it was a combination of colors that has no tradition of being taken for granted by different political camps."
Germans have become less squeamish about flying the national colors in the past two decades, especially when supporting the national sports teams. The 2006 men's football World Cup, which was played in Germany, is often fondly remembered as the dawn of a new positive, optimistic patriotism. Throughout that tournament, nicknamed the "summer fairy tale," the German national flag was flown from countless balconies and car wing mirrors, and the nation got behind a (noticeably multicultural) team of athletes.
Yet in the past few years, the black-red-gold colors and the issue of patriotism have been increasingly co-opted by far-right political forces like the Islamophobic PEGIDA movement and the anti-immigration political party AfD, founded in 2013.
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