Explore histories of migration, citizenship and belonging in Germany and the U.S. over the centuries.
1871
The Founding of the German Empire
In 1871, the German Empire was established by aristocrats and the military. This "revolution from above" resulted in the formation of the first German nation. Prior to this, the region that would become Germany had consisted of numerous small states for centuries, where various languages such as Polish, Sorbian, French, Lithuanian, Danish, Yiddish, and Romany were spoken.
Despite this linguistic and cultural diversity, it was not constitutionally protected rights that served as the foundation of the nation, but rather an assumed uniform German language, history, and culture. Institutions like schools and the military were tasked with enforcing this concept of national identity. As German colonial policy began and racist theories proliferated, racism and anti-Semitism saw an increase.
Quote: One who looks closely while travelling through the German Empire will by and by surely get to know Austrians, Brandenburgers, Saxons, Palatines, Bavarians, Hessians, Württembergers etc... with hundreds of various groups but never Germans ... Each of these many states within the state has its individual collective spirit
- Christoph Martin Wieland, 1792
Christoph Martin Wieland, Der allgemeine Mangel deutschen Gemeinsinnes und Nationalgeistes (1792), in: Ders., C.M. Wielands collective works. published by G. Gruber, Berlin 1822, page. 458
Germany
Sources
Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst, Fatima El-Tayeb, Reinhard Klein-Arendt. “Blut, Nation und multikulturelle Gesellschaft”. AfrikanerInnen in Deutschland und schwarze Deutsche – Geschichte und Gegenwart. Münster/Berlin
Dieter Gosewinkel. “Die Nationalisierung der Staatsangehörigkeit im Deutschen Kaiserreich”. In: Das deutsche Kaiserreich in der Kontroverse. Herausgegeben von Sven Oliver Müller, Corneluis Torp. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Wolfgang Kruse. Nation und Nationalismus. Onlinedossier “Kaiserreich” der Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung). September 27, 2012.
Peter Walkenhorst. Nation-Volk-Rasse: Radikaler Nationalismus im Deutschen Kaiserreich 1890–1914. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2007.
Hans Hahn, Peter Kunze. Nationale Minderheiten und staatliche Minderheitenpolitik in Deutschland im 19. Jahrhundert. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1999.
Additional Resources
Das Deutsche Kaiserreich. Onlinedossier der Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung. Date accessed: September 27, 2012
