Pan-Germanism

Pan-Germanism is a modern political movement advocating political unity among people considered ethnically or linguistically German. Its forms have ranged from cultural cooperation to territorial expansion.

German nationalism: A political movement promoting national identity and statehood among German-speaking peoples. Pan-Germanism grew from the broader movement to define and unite a German nation.
Lesser German solution: A plan for German unification that excluded the Habsburg Empire and placed Prussia at its center. It became the model of unification that Pan-Germanists dissatisfied with exclusion challenged.
Ernst Hasse: A German politician and geographer who led the Pan-German League from 1893 to 1908. He turned the league into a prominent advocate of German expansion and overseas power.
German colonial empire: Germany’s overseas colonial possessions, acquired mainly between 1884 and the First World War. Pan-German League activists linked overseas empire to national power and expansion.
Ethnic nationalism: Nationalism that defines membership in a nation through shared ancestry, culture, or language. Pan-Germanism often treated shared German identity as grounds for political unity.
Revolutions of 1848: A wave of political uprisings across Europe demanding constitutional government and national self-determination. German unification became a central demand of revolutionaries in the German states.
Greater German solution: A proposal for a German nation-state including the German-speaking lands of the Habsburg Empire. It expressed the territorial vision most directly associated with Pan-German unity.
Heinrich Claß: A German nationalist politician who led the Pan-German League from 1908 to 1939. His leadership brought the movement toward increasingly radical racial and expansionist politics.
Septemberprogramm: A German government memorandum of 1914 outlining possible territorial aims in the First World War. Its expansionist proposals overlapped with demands promoted by Pan-German nationalists.
Volk: A German word for a people or nation, carrying cultural and political meanings in German nationalism. Pan-German arguments invoked a shared Volk to claim unity across state borders.

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