Constructing a German Diaspora

The "Greater German Empire", 1871-1914

Bibliographic Data

ID19901384
AuthorsStefan Manz (0000-0002-9136-0380, corresponding author)
Year2014
Publication date2014-06-05
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueConstructing a German Diaspora (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9781315765709
OpenAlexW4245960589
Open LibraryOL39592053M
ISBN9781315765709
LanguageEN
Citations received20

This book takes on a global perspective to unravel the complex relationship between Imperial Germany and its diaspora. Around 1900, German-speakers living abroad were tied into global power-political aspirations. They were represented as outposts of a "Greater German Empire" whose ethnic links had to be preserved for their own and the fatherland’s benefits. Did these ideas fall on fertile ground abroad? In the light of extreme social, political, and religious heterogeneity, diaspora construction did not redeem the all-encompassing fantasies of its engineers. But it certainly was at work, as nationalism "went global" in many German ethnic communities. Three thematic areas are taken as examples to illustrate the emergence of globally operating organizations and communication flows: Politics and the navy issue, Protestantism, and German schools abroad as "bulwarks of language preservation." The public negotiation of these issues is explored for localities as diverse as Shanghai, Cape Town, Blumenau in Brazil, Melbourne, Glasgow, the Upper Midwest in the United States, and the Volga Basin in Russia. The mobilisation of ethno-national diasporas is also a feature of modern-day globalization. The theoretical ramifications analysed in the book are as poignant today as they were for the nineteenth century

Archaeology · Diaspora · German · Political science · History · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · emigration and immigration · Germanic peoples · Germans · Germany · Group identity · National characteristics · Social conditions

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