Home  ›  Alldeutscher Verband

Alldeutscher Verband

The Alldeutscher Verband (Pan-German League) existed from 1891 to 1939 and was the smallest in number - but not financially - agitators movements existing in the German Empire. It was seen as one of the noisiest and most influential of these groups. His program was expansionist and nationalist. Especially in the Empire Austro-Hungarian and Hapsburg anti-Semitism and anti-Slavism had already emerged before the First World War. On a regional basis, the Verband Alldeutscher displayed in personal union with the groups called Kriegsvereinen (hawkish groups).

Summary

History

Prologue

The initial trigger of the founding of the Verband Alldeutscher was the signing of the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty on 1July 1890. Alfred Hugenberg in several newspapers published an appeal calling for the creation of a Nationalverein (NHL) for advocacy German colonial. This led to a meeting on 28 September 1890 in Frankfurt am Main , the members of the Verband Alldeutscher would later be considered the founding event of their association. Founding members included Alfred Hugenberg, Kirdorf Emil , Emil Possehl , Friedrich Ratzel and others.

Development until 1918

On 9 April 1891 the "Allgemeine Deutsche Verband" was born in Berlin with the support of Carl Peters. It was not until 1894 he was named Alldeutscher Verband. In the memorandum it was stated that the new association did not intend to fight the government, but wanted to make it sensitive to the spirit of his program. The basic goals were to revive the national consciousness, administration and support German interests abroad and the need for a policy in favor of German interests marked by acts.

The name "Alldeutsch" (all German), originally designed primarily as an extension of "Reichsdeutsche" (German Empire), was used in expressions in the group with a second meaning "a special patriotic loyalty" - the expression became a comparison of the word "Deutsch" (German).

The recognition by Alldeutschen the complete community of all Germans, not just those who were located within the borders of the empire, their approach vlkisch , were naturally the home of the Habsburgs the main target of their propaganda since it was in Austria-Hungary were the largest groups of people germanophones not be part of the German Empire.

During the early years of the movement, there were countless discussions on the guidelines to be adopted. Thus, the then president, Karl von der Heydt , defended the idea that the group had to create his own political party, while his opponents demanded instead a strict independence and the maintenance of movement outside the political parties. It was in this final position which eventually prevailed. The program Alldeutsch was already fixed in its basic trends since the 1890s. Expansion, fleet expansion, which added support for the German national character and fight against minorities in the German Empire. This latter aspect was particularly Poles in the East and the French in Alsace-Lorraine.

The day of the association in 1903 created a watershed in the history of Alldeutscher Verband. The future president Heinrich Class will held a speech entitled "Review of the new direction." In this speech, in which he bitterly attacked not only the Chancellor Bernhard von Blow , but also to the Emperor Wilhelm II , the Verband Alldeutscher materialized his time at the national opposition. In essence, we blamed the German Empire in its renunciation of foreign policy and it required a stronger representation of Germany vis--vis other countries. The opposition group against the increasing direction of the Empire and William II led the group along the internal failure.

Friedrich Ratzel

It is for this reason that in 1908 Class, who was elected president of the group, felt compelled to share a curb sharp criticism against the policy direction of the empire and, secondly, particularly in the question of German policy towards Austria-Hungary - a complete overhaul of the line defended by the group previously. While until 1908 the question of annexation of territories Germanophones in Austria-Hungary German Empire was a central point, we would now simply recommend a close link between the double crown Habsburg and German Empire. This however raised some opposition within the association. Reismann Theodor-Grone particularly, editor of the influential Rheinisch-Westflischen Zeitung declared himself fully cons orientation amended by Class. Until the outbreak of the First World War, he dared not openly assume the conflict with Reismann-Grone because he feared that would lead to a schism within the group, which would have been due to the influence that he had the political. In addition, the group was facing considerable financial problems that prevented at least until the First World War to achieve consolidation. Were added to that the growing contradictions with other national associations. For these reasons, the government of Berlin managed to keep the Verband Alldeutscher away until the First World War and only use that depending on its interests. But even on the occasion of the second Morocco crisis, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs distanced himself from the positions defended by the executive director.

Thus, the output of the second Moroccan crisis showed the limits faced by members of the Verband Alldeutscher when they tried to exert effective pressure on the government. For this reason, their influence on public opinion in Germany remained rather low. Alldeutschen the eyes of the government led by Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg had bowed to France. For Alldeutscher Verband, this meant a rejection of the German national policy. Therefore, Alldeutschen demanded a strengthening of the army. Collaboration with other nationalist groups, however, remained reduced. At no time, Alldeutscher Verband in Germany could play a decisive role in the nationalist groups before the First World War. Ultimately, the internal discussions in the group were the cause. They had the consequence that when war was declared that the Rheinisch Westflische Zeitung, the organ-Grones Reisman would be prohibited, along with the social democratic newspaper Vorwrts , because she had spoken so very decided against entry into the war alongside Germany Austria-Hungary.

The thought of Alldeutschen been imbued with the teachings of Social Darwinism and Lamarck , the Kampf ums Dasein (fighting to be present), the "Recht of Strkerens" (the reason for the stronger) and the belief that the German people in rapidly growing needed more living space (Lebensraum in German) in order to survive. At the founding of the Verband Alldeutscher, they said "we must live again the ancient" Drang nach Osten '. " If they did they would not blame the minorities the rights they claimed their share for the benefit of their peers abroad, admitted they often represent only the interests of the German nation and therefore have raised their selfishness the rank of nationalist ideological agenda.

The strong echo that provoked Alldeutschen before and during the war abroad, but found himself less evident in official publications of the group who, for tactical reasons, was as "moderate and full of action" than in writings of those so-called "wild Alldeutschen. That's why the most well known books and most comprehensive foreign authors who are interested in danger represented by the Verband Alldeutscher, contain only a negligible fraction of statements that are attributable to the group. Alldeutschen circles were imbued with a dark, steely-Semitism, a complex of self-sufficiency requires the expansion and recognition of war as a vital creative force, as "refreshing and conservative, the great physician and gardener accompanies mankind to its greatest development. " The State Alldeutschen as planned in their writings would, through its regulations for order and the requirement of "racial purity" of its inhabitants, marked the completion of the militaristic authoritarian Prussian state with his bow vis--vis the authority and its general uniformity, linked to discrimination of marginalized groups or people who think differently. The over-emphasis given to the German national character concomitant with the expulsion or forced assimilation of Slavic and Jewish populations of the territories annexed by Alldeutschen was placed at the same level as the strengthening of the "old German virtues" as the zeal The sense of duty and conservatism firmly anchored to the ground. Here too, the expansion and strengthening were supposed to push the outside and thus apparently solve internal problems such as social tensions and social injustices, legal or political.

The Alldeutscher Verband during the First World War

The First World War was to the Verband Alldeutscher a period of great flourishing. Finally their continental expansion requirements were more isolated since the number of its members grew as its influence on right-wing parties. The group developed an importance it had never previously encountered in German society.

For a propaganda-oriented objectives in relation to the war the group was however not a suitable medium because of how hard he had shown for years and who had strongly discredited in bourgeois circles. For this reason, he stuck largely to a role of coordination and intermediation played in the background, its members engaging in such groups as the "Ausschuss fr einen deutschen Unabhngigen Frieden" (Independent Committee for a German peace ). The latter, with members like Stresemann , Westarp , Wangenheim , and later Tirpitz and H. St. Chamberlain and President Alldeutschen Dietrich Schafer became the center of discussions about the purpose of the war. The Verband Alldeutscher acting rather as a kind of "holding company" which provided political and ideological associations with spiritual weapons. Subsequently, the Ausschuss would take part in the founding of Vaterlandspartei Deutschen (German Fatherland Party), as a species of union of all nationalist movements which collaborated the same men (02/09/1917).

During the war, the Radicals supported the objectives Alldeutsch radicals. Thus, they advocated the creation of a customs union in Central Europe under German hegemony. In addition, the Netherlands and Switzerland as well as Belgium (which they called "the parts of the German Empire illegally removed" Development from 1918 to 1939

After the First World War, the Verband Alldeutscher not played a large role over the public arena. At the instigation of the officer belonging to the Verband Alldeutscher and mentor, Paul Tafel , Anton Drexler founded the DAP , the precursor of the Nazi party. In the turmoil of the postwar, he became the Party of the Freikorps and took care of the contacts with the reactionary Thule Society. On 19 October 1918 , the leadership of the Verband Alldeutscher issued a call in which the group is recognized for the first time openly anti-Semitic. This call was followed on 16 February 1919 by the "declaration of Bamberg, which confirmed the group's pursuit of its objectives before the war both politically and in a territorial perspective. In August 1919 followed a modification of the regulation of Bamberg reframe statement: restoration of the Empire, creating a strong army, recovery of lost territories, racial development of the German people, except Jews of the group.

In 1926 the Verband Alldeutscher and then President Elatz returned again in the spotlight briefly and negative. The criminal police of Berlin was found at his home and other politicians businessmen Right detailed plans for a coup aimed at the destruction of the Republic and the creation of an authoritarian dictatorship. The case generally in the German press a lot of attention and a lot of misunderstanding (apart from the newspapers of the extreme right) and fail.

Until 1939, the Verband Alldeutscher can no longer mark the footprint of German politics. Ideologically, the group is certainly close to the NSDAP, but does not, however, followed him unconditionally. In 1932 came a falling short were the NSDAP and the group when the group was alleged to have put a spoke in the wheels of Adolf Hitler to prevent access to the Chancery. In return, Alldeutscher reproached the National Socialists had betrayed the national idea and invited their supporters to support the Deutschnationale Volkspartei (DNVP). After the takeover by the NSDAP, the Alldeutschen were tolerated because of their ideological proximity. Ultimately, 13 March 1939 , the Verband Alldeutscher was dissolved by Reinhard Heydrich on the grounds that their (ie the gathering of all Germans in a Greater Germany) was completed. In their overall design, in their requirement that the Germans as individuals had to submit unconditionally to all the people, represented by the state government, projects Alldeutscher Verband were clearly precursors of Nazism. The expansion to the east, the conquest of new living space were not the findings of Hitler, the Child Alldeutschen ( Fritz Fischer ) or Himmler , but were concepts that had already been created by Alldeutschen.

Number of members

A year after its founding, the Verband Alldeutscher already had 21,000 members. This number will never be exceeded before the First World War. In 1894, because of internal dissension, the membership had fallen to barely 4,600. In 1900 the group had again more than 20 000 and when the war was declared in 1914, 18,000 members were registered. By 1918 this number had risen to 36 377 before starting to descend. The Verband Alldeutscher reached its highest number of affiliates in 1922 with about 52,000 members. Subsequently, many members left the movement so that by 1932, there were only eight thousand members. Until its dissolution in 1939, that figure did changed more significantly. Besides individual membership, there was also a membership limited to companies that allowed associations to become full members of the Verband Alldeutscher. In 1905, one hundred and associations, representing approximately 130 000 people in total were members of the group. There are no figures available on this item for the period after the First World War. The group itself never had many members and was never a mass movement. He had, however, members and supporters in all important sectors of public life, therefore, of considerable influence.

Publications

  • Mitteilungen Deutschen Verband of Allgemeinen. (1891-1893); circulation: 12,000 copies
  • Alldeutsche Bltter. (From 1894); weekly circulation of 10,000 copies
  • Flugschriften of Alldeutschen Verband. (1894-1914), a total of 34 numbers, drawing with variable
  • Der Kampf um das Deutschtum. (1897-1911), 16 numbers, unknown quantities
  • Handbuch des Alldeutschen Verband. (From 1897)
  • Alldeutsches Werbe-und Merkbchlein. (From 1897), an annual publication

The movement Alldeutscher Austria

In Alldeutscher Verband corresponded to the Empire in Austria-Hungary , and after the First World War in the Republic of German Austria (1918/1919) and then in the Republic of Austria (from 1919) the Alldeutscher Bewegung ( ADB), whose executives often came from the Austrian National Socialist organizations, whose stronghold was in Vienna.

The founder of the Alldeutschen Bewegung was knighted in 1901 Georg von Schnerer. The colors of the Alldeutschen Bewegung were the "Black-White-Red", ie the colors of the German Empire , and he saw himself as the successor to the Deutschnationale Bewegung.

Alldeutschen Bewegung was the great-German , anti-Semitic, anti-socialist or anti-Bolshevik and anti-democratic. With the incorporation of anti-Semitic ideas in the ideology of the separation movement began with the big German who also remained faithful to the Christian churches while Schnerer began to detach from its Judeo-Christian movement in favor of "Wotan."

Bibliography

  • Hering, Rainer: Konstruierte Nation. Verband der Alldeutsche 1890 bis 1939, Hamburg 2004
  • Hartwig, Edgar: Alldeutscher Verband (ADV) 1891-1939, in: Fricke, Dieter (Hrsg.): Lexikon zur Parteiengeschichte, 4 Bde., Bd.1, Leipzig 1983, S.13-47
  • Kruck, Alfred: Geschichte des Alldeutschen Verband, Wiesbaden 1954
  • Peters, Michael: Der Verband Alldeutsche am Ersten Weltkrieg of Vorabend (1908-1914): Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des vlkischen Nationalismus sptwilhelminischen im Deutschland, Frankfurt aM, 1992 ua
  • Class, Heinrich: Wider den Strom - Vom Werden und wachsen der nationalen Opposition im alten Reich, Leipzig 1932

See also

References

External Links


Leave a Reply

0 vote, average: 0.00 out of 50 vote, average: 0.00 out of 50 vote, average: 0.00 out of 51 vote, average: 0.00 out of 50 votes, average: 0.00 out of 5 (0 votes, average: 0.00 out of 5, rated)
Loading ... Loading ...
Help us improve the wiki Send Your Comments