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4. Pangermanism from the very beginning was not a mere theory and political ideal, but also the expression of the political development of the German nation. In the 18th century, the Germans, like other nations of Europe, already possessed strong national feelings; the endeavour to unify the numerous German states and principalities was a legitimate endeavour, just like the desire of the Italians and other nations for unification. The problem became more difficult when the question arose of how to unite the various parts of the nation living in non-German states. Here, it was above all the difficult problem of the relation towards Austria of Germany, led by Prussia; the regularizing of this relation was demanded by a century-long development, especially from the days of the Reformation and the anti-Reformation, when Prussia became the representative of the Protestants, Austria of the Catholics and of the anti-Reformation. Outside of Austria and Hungary, Germans live also in Switzerland; in Russia there have been German colonies in the Baltic provinces from the days of the Knightly Orders and the Hansa; in more recent times, emigration gave rise to German colonies in Russian Poland and Eastern Russia, in the United States, in South America and in Africa. After the unification of Germany in 1870, Bismarck commenced (in 1884) a colonial policy, reaching into Africa, Asia and Australasia.
The energetic industrialisation of Germany after 1870, brought Germany into connection not only with its own colonies but also with other countries. The United States, Russia, England, India, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Holland, Switzerland, Brazil and Argentina came into close commercial relations with Germany, the German penetration pacifique, as it is now called, has been everywhere very effective. The Germans found plentiful markets for their industry and were able to obtain the necessary raw and partly manufactured materials from foreign lands; Emperor William gave an expression to the actual state of things when he referred the Germans to the seas.
Successful penetration into industries and markets all over the world suggested world-domination, and thus strengthened the traditional idea of the German imperialism of the German Roman Empire. After defeating Napoleon III., Prussia renewed the mediæval empire abrogated by Austria (1806); the Zollverein and Bund were a transition to industrialism and imperialism.
Even during the war I found quite a number of practical men who shrugged their shoulders at Pangermanism, calling it “utopian, academic and doctrinaire politics.”
Bismarck regulated, after 1866, the relations with Austria. He managed things so that Austria, after her defeat, was put out of Germany without loss of territory and with only a trifling indemnity; he was thus considerate of the personal ambitions of Francis Joseph and secured Austria for a devoted ally. The Magyars, accepted by the weakened Hapsburgs and won over by the remodelling of Austria into the dualistic Austria-Hungary (1867), became Germany’s staunch supporters, and Prussia thus had an empire of fifty millions at her disposal; Lagarde simply called Austria Germany’s colony. The Germans of Austria became the most radical Pangermanists, breaking away even from the Rome movement; Bismarck was clever enough to repudiate them officially (Herbstzeitlose), but he admonished a delegation of Pangermanist students from Austria to study the Slavic languages, if they wanted to dominate the Slav nations.
By the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria-Hungary was irretrievably embroiled in the Balkans, and Emperor William inaugurated an active Turkophile policy, following in the footsteps of Frederick the Great; afterwards Greece, Rumania, Bulgaria, Albania, even Montenegro, were furnished with German dynasties and princesses. The Turkish armies received German instructors, etc. Austria-Hungary became Germany’s bridge to the Balkans, Western Asia and Africa. The Triple Alliance coupled together not merely Austria-Hungary and Germany, but disarmed also the Italian Irredenta. Lagarde and the Pangermanists very forcibly claimed Trieste and the Adriatic for Germany. German capitalists at the
