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German nationalism (German: Deutscher Nationalismus) is a form of nationalism which asserts that Germans are one nation; promotes German history, language, culture, and national identity; and advocates for the unification of the German people under one state. German nationalism began picking up steam in the early-19th century with the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, culminating in the establishment of the German Empire in 1871. German nationalism gained a negative connotation in the 20th Century as a result of the First and Second World Wars, Nazism, and the Holocaust.
Although originally based around the Germans' common language and culture, many German nationalists have a racialised conception of what it means to be a German and view members of certain ethnic, racial, and religious groups (e.g. Jews, Muslims, Roma, and people of colour) as non-German. The Nazis in particular viewed anyone who wasn't "German-blooded" (deutschblütig) according to the 1935 Nuremberg Laws as non-German, which was used as the basis for economic and legal discrimination against Jews as well as so-called "Mischlinge".
Some German nationalists emphasise loyalty to the people/race/nation while others (constitutional patriots, who emerged in the 1980s during the Cold War) emphasise loyalty to the Constitution and "universal" political values such as liberalism, pluralism, and freedom of speech,[Note 1] arguing that any other kind of patriotism would "alienate us from the West".[1]
Notes[edit | edit source]
- ↑ This was seen by its advocates as a sort of post-nationalism.
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Habermas, Jürgen (1987).: Eine Art Schadensabwicklung. Frankfurt am Main. Suhrkamp Verlag. p. 135.