Pan-Germanism (redirected from Pangermanism)

Pan-Germanism, German nationalist doctrine aiming at the union of all German-speaking peoples under German rule. Pan-Germanists considered that not only the German groups in neighboring countries, such as Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Switzerland, and Alsace, but even distant German-speaking groups such as Volga Germans, Baltic Germans, Transylvanian Germans, and German-Americans were linked by a blood tie to their fatherland. The doctrine originated in the late 19th cent. as an instrument of German imperialistic expansion. In 1893 the Alldeutscher Verbund (Pan-German League) was founded. The Pan-Germans became particularly vocal after Germany's defeat in World War I had deprived it of some border territories and its colonies. National Socialism appropriated Pan-Germanism; by the annexation of Austria and of German-speaking parts of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and by German conquests in Europe during World War II, Adolf Hitler nearly succeeded for a time in making the Pan-German program a reality.

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Pan-Germanism

Movement to politically unify all German-speaking people. The desire for German unification began in the early 19th century and was advanced by Ernst Arndt and other early nationalists. The Pan-German League was organized in 1894 by Ernst Hasse (1846–1908) to heighten German nationalist awareness, especially among German-speaking people outside Germany. The movement, which pressed for German expansion in Europe, gained support after World War I under the Weimar Republic and was actively promoted by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. After Germany's defeat in 1945 and the expulsion of Germans from formerly German areas of eastern Europe, the movement declined.