2. • The Protestant Reformation begun by Martin Luther has
been cited as the origins of German identity that arose in
response to the spread of a common Germanic language
and literature. Early German national culture was
developed through literary and religious figures including
Luther, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich
Schiller.
• However it was not until the concept of nationalism itself
was developed by German philosopher Johann Gottfried
Herder that German nationalism began. German
nationalism as promoted by Herder and Immanuel
Kant was Romantic in nature that were based upon the
principles of collective self-determination, territorial
unification and cultural identity, and a political and
cultural program to achieve those ends.
3. • The German Romantic nationalism of Herder and
Kant derived from the Enlightenment era
philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau's and French
Revolutionary philosopher Emmanuel-Joseph
Sieyès' ideas of naturalism and that legitimate
nations must have been conceived in the state of
nature.
• This emphasis on the naturalness of ethno-
linguistic nations continued to be upheld by the
early 19th century Romantic German
nationalists Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Ernst Moritz
Arndt, and Friedrich Ludwig Jahn who all were
proponents of Pan- Germanism.
4. • The invasion of the Holy Roman
Empire (HRE) by Napoleon's French
Empire and the subsequent dissolution of
the HRE brought about a German liberal
nationalism as advocated primarily by the
German middle-class bourgeoisie who
advocated the creation of a modern
German nation-state based upon liberal
democracy, constitutionalism,
representation, and popular
sovereignty while opposing absolutism.
• Fichte in particular brought German
nationalism forward as a response to the
French occupation of German territories
in his Address to the German
Nation (1808), evoking a sense of
German distinctiveness in language,
tradition, and literature that composed a
common identity.
5. • After the defeat of France in the Napoleonic
Wars at the Congress of Vienna, German
nationalists tried but failed to establish
Germany as a nation-state, instead
the German Confederation was created that
was a loose collection of independent
German states that lacked strong federal
institutions.
• Economic integration between the German
states was achieved by the creation of
the Zollverein ("Custom Union") of Germany
in 1818 that existed until 1866.
• The move to create the Zollverein was led
by Prussia and the Zollverein was dominated
by Prussia, causing resentment and tension
between Austria and Prussia
6. • The Revolutions of 1848 resulted in
a liberal nationalist revolution in
various German states. Liberal
nationalists did not seize power in
a number of German states and an
all-German parliament was created
in Frankfurt in May 1848.
• The Frankfurt
Parliament attempted to create a
national constitution for all German
states but rivalry between Prussian
and Austrian interests resulted in
proponents of the parliament
advocating a "small German"
solution (a monarchical German
nation-state without Austria) with
the imperial crown of Germany
being granted to the King of
Prussia.
7. • The King of Prussia refused the offer and efforts to
create a liberal German nation-state faltered and
collapsed.
• In the aftermath of the failed attempt to establish a
liberal German nation-state, rivalry between Prussia
and Austria intensified under the agenda of
Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck who blocked
all attempts by Austria to join the Zollverein.
• A division developed amongst German nationalists,
with one group led by the Prussians that supported
a "Lesser Germany" that excluded Austria and
another group that supported a "Greater Germany"
that included Austria.
8. • The Prussians sought a Lesser
Germany to allow Prussia to assert
hegemony over Germany that
would not be guaranteed in a
Greater Germany.
• Prussia achieved hegemony over
Germany in the "wars of
unification": the Second Schleswig
War (1864), the Austro-Prussian
War (1866), and the Franco-
Prussian War (1870).
• A German nation-state was
founded in 1871 called the German
Empire as a Lesser Germany with
the King of Prussia inheriting the
throne of German
Emperor (Deutscher Kaiser) and
