Military Goals and Plans of the “Pan-German League” in the Memories of Heinrich Claß (1868–1953)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20339987 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alexander A Turygin (0000-0003-0758-6422, Kostroma State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 78-92 |
| Publication date | 2024-05-23 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Novaia i noveishaia istoriia (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0130-3864 • E-ISSN: 3034-6002 |
| Publisher | The Russian Academy of Sciences (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.31857/s0130386424010063 |
| OpenAlex | W4404226578 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 4 |
The recently published second part of the memoirs of Heinrich Claß, chairman of the Pan-German League, who made a personal contribution to the dissemination and public acceptance of anti-Semitic, racist and expansionist views, and who also played an essential role in establishing and developing the communication of right-wing forces that sought to exert background influence on public policy, are of great scholarly interest and broaden the source base for studies of radical nationalism on the eve and during the Great War. In addition to the Pan-Germans’ own military aims related to the annexation of European territories that have already been studied in historiography, the memoirs illustrate the internal tense struggle for their approval within the Pan-German League as well as Claß’s various attempts to forge co-operation with high-ranking civil servants and the Reichswehr leadership. Claß made the resignation of Reich Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg his goal, for the sake of which he established contacts at the highest level. Under wartime conditions, the Pan-German leader’s previously cautious attempts to hint at the need to change the national system of government took concrete shape and became the subject of public and political struggle. Claß’s ideas were associated with the establishment of a dictatorship in the form of the unlimited power of an emperor-appointed official who would, under war conditions, be allowed to act bypassing constitutional norms and established mechanisms of power. The war, in his opinion, was to bring to power a dictator capable of looking after the national interests. The memoirs of Claß show how, against the background of the struggle for the resignation of the Reich Chancellor and a series of military failures, the imperial civilian and military elite evaluated the idea of dictatorship and coup d’état, which allows one to assess in a new way the effectiveness of the Pan-German actions and, consequently, the potential of the Pan-German League
Archaeology · Economic history · German · League · Political science · European history and politics · History
| Highly cited | No |
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