Rethinking German Nationalism in the Interwar Period

About this episode

This episode challenges the conventional interpretation of German nationalism during the interwar period, highlighting its democratic aspects.

Erin HochmanDue to the horrors of the Third Reich, we have come to think of German nationalism as inherently antisemitic, racist, antidemocratic, and violent. This talk challenges this conventional interpretation. It shows how the defenders of the Weimar and First Austrian Republics used the großdeutsch idea, the notion that Austria should be part of a German nation-state, to create a democratic nationalism. Unlike their conservative and right-wing opponents, these republicans did not view democracy and Germany, socialism and nationalism, or Jew and German as mutually exclusive categories. As such, the triumph of Nazi ideas about nationalism was far from inevitable.Erin Hochman is Associate Professor of History at Southern Methodist University. She is the author of Imagining a Greater Germany: Republican Nationalism and the Idea of Anschluss (Cornell University Press, 2016). Her current book project examines how various political groups in the Weimar Republic used the concept of a German diaspora to support or challenge democracy, as well as the involvement of so-called Germans abroad in Germany’s political struggles.Does belonging always require exclusion? This lecture series…

People in this episode

Guest: Erin Hochman

Topics covered

• German nationalism
• Weimar Republic
• democratic nationalism
• antisemitism
• inclusion and exclusion
• German-Jewish experience

Keywords

• German nationalism
• Weimar Republic
• antisemitism
• democracy
• Austrian Republic
• Inclusion
• Exclusion

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Southern Methodist University, Cornell University Press

Books & works: Imagining a Greater Germany: Republican Nationalism and the Idea of Anschluss

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