Germany

Main article: German nationalism

Revolutionaries in Vienna with German tricolor flags, May 1848

In the German states west of Prussia, Napoleon abolished many of the old or medieval
relics, such as dissolving the Holy Roman Empire in 1806.[52] He imposed rational legal
systems and demonstrated how dramatic changes were possible. His organization of
the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806 promoted a feeling of nationalism.

Nationalists sought to encompass masculinity in their quest for strength and unity.[53] It
was Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck who achieved German unification through a
series of highly successful short wars against Denmark, Austria and France which
thrilled the pan-German nationalists in the smaller German states. They fought in his
wars and eagerly joined the new German Empire, which Bismarck ran as a force for
balance and peace in Europe after 1871.[54]

In the 19th century German nationalism was promoted by Hegelian-oriented academic

historians who saw Prussia as the true carrier of the German spirit, and the power of the
state as the ultimate goal of nationalism. The three main historians were Johann Gustav
Droysen (1808–1884), Heinrich von Sybel (1817–1895) and Heinrich von Treitschke (1834–1896).
Droysen moved from liberalism to an intense nationalism that celebrated Prussian Protestantism,
efficiency, progress, and reform, in striking contrast to Austrian Catholicism, impotency and
backwardness. He idealized the Hohenzollern kings of Prussia. His large-scale History of Prussian Politics
(14 vol 1855–1886) was foundational for nationalistic students and scholars. Von Sybel founded and
edited the leading academic history journal, Historische Zeitschrift and as the director of the Prussian
state archives published massive compilations that were devoured by scholars of nationalism.[55]

The most influential of the German nationalist historians, was Treitschke who had an enormous
influence on elite students at Heidelberg and Berlin universities.[56] Treitschke vehemently attacked
parliamentarianism, socialism, pacifism, the English, the French, the Jews, and the internationalists. The
core of his message was the need for a strong, unified state—a unified Germany under Prussian
supervision. "It is the highest duty of the State to increase its power," he stated. Although he was a
descendant of a Czech family he considered himself not Slavic but German: "I am 1000 times more the
patriot than a professor."[57]
Adolf Hitler being welcomed by a crowd in Sudetenland, where the pro-Nazi Sudeten German Party
gained 88% of ethnic-German votes in May 1938.[58]

German nationalism, expressed through the ideology of Nazism, however, may also be understood as
trans-national in nature. This aspect was primarily advocated by Adolf Hitler, who later became the
leader of the Nazi Party. This party was devoted to what they identified as an Aryan race, residing in
Austria, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and parts of Czechoslovakia and Latvia.[59]
(See also Nazi propaganda and the United Kingdom.)

Meanwhile, the Nazis rejected many of the well-established citizens within those same countries, such
as the Romani (Gypsies) and of course Jews, whom they did not identify as Aryan. Meanwhile, a key Nazi
doctrine was "Living Space" (for Aryans only) or "Lebensraum," which was a vast undertaking to
transplant Aryans throughout Poland, much of Eastern Europe and the Baltic nations, and all of Western
Russia and Ukraine. Lebensraum was thus a vast project for advancing the Aryan race far outside of any
particular nation or national borders. The Nazi's goals were racist focused on advancing the Aryan race as
they perceived it, eugenics modification of the human race, and the eradication of human beings that
they deemed inferior. But their goals were trans-national and intended to spread across as much of the
world as they could achieve. Although Nazism glorified German history, it also embraced the supposed
virtues and achievements of the Aryan race in other countries,[60] including India.[61] The Nazis'
Aryanism longed for now-extinct species of superior bulls once used as livestock by Aryans and other
features of Aryan history that never resided within the borders of Germany as a nation.[62]