IMPERIAL DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES Mitteleuropa and the Crisis of German Politics, 1914–1919

During the 19th century there was a general trend among German intellectuals, whether liberal or conservative to write about Central European under German hegemonic rule, an idea that is generally called Mitteleuropa. Some authors like Friedrich List or Constantin Frantz would envision this hegemony as a federation of states with people from different languages and cultures, all however under a German economic control. Then there were those annexationalist authors like Paul de Lagarde who envisioned Central Europe as a massive ethnostate, all in the hands of the German aristocracy, where Slavs, Hungarians and Jews would be expelled. What became a debate between obscure intellectual figures would jump into the mainstream at the turn of the 20th century, with federalists like Friedrich Naumann and his book Mitteleuropa becoming a bestseller and the annexationalist organisation the Pan-German League that greatly influenced German politics. During the First World War these two visions...Show moreDuring the 19th century there was a general trend among German intellectuals, whether liberal or conservative to write about Central European under German hegemonic rule, an idea that is generally called Mitteleuropa. Some authors like Friedrich List or Constantin Frantz would envision this hegemony as a federation of states with people from different languages and cultures, all however under a German economic control. Then there were those annexationalist authors like Paul de Lagarde who envisioned Central Europe as a massive ethnostate, all in the hands of the German aristocracy, where Slavs, Hungarians and Jews would be expelled. What became a debate between obscure intellectual figures would jump into the mainstream at the turn of the 20th century, with federalists like Friedrich Naumann and his book Mitteleuropa becoming a bestseller and the annexationalist organisation the Pan-German League that greatly influenced German politics. During the First World War these two visions would be put into practice in the newly occupied territories in the Baltic, Poland and Ukraine. However both these experiments failed, causing anger among those that did not want to be conquered and draining the resources of the Empire. At the same time this political fight would go on to the Reichstag, and drag the consensus that existed at the beginning of the war into a political fight between those who supported annexing the new territories and those who supported the creation of semi-independent puppet regimes. In the end the fight between these two camps would severely increase polarisation and leave space for a pacifist movement that would go on to lead Germany into Revolution.Show less

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IMPERIAL DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES Mitteleuropa and the Crisis of German Politics, 1914–1919