German nationalism and its effect on European integration

Abstract

The 20th century poet George Santayana famously penned the saying ‘those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’ in his 1906 book The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress. This dissertation aims at providing an explanation of contemporary German nationalism by linking it to its past. In order to try to identify the causality between the major turning points in the history of German Nationalism and the degree of its reemergence as experienced in the present day, this dissertation will cover 14 major events throughout the history of German nationalism in a chronological order and provide a critical analysis by observing whether any patterns or trends of German nationalism in each one of these events can be traced to modern times. The dissertation will then examine how this ‘new’ outbreak of German nationalism is affecting the relationship between Germany and the European Union. The values enshrined by the European Union (EU) are in stark contrast to those of nationalism; whilst the EU promotes harmonious integration of all its people, nationalism holds national pride in great esteem. This study will also attempt to provide an overview of the current unrest caused by the extreme rightist sentiment towards immigration. This dissertation was compiled using the descriptive research design as the research called for the study of various time periods within the history of German nationalism and the circumstances in which it emerged. This research also required the use of qualitative methods as these were deemed to be appropriate in view that the study refers to theoretical concepts, as well as people’s thoughts and experiences. The gathering different views on German nationalism was carried out through the use of document-based research related to the subject matter. This research makes use of both content and thematic analysis. Content analysis was best suited when remarking upon the different context in which German nationalism emerged throughout history primarily through the period documents analysed. Thematic analysis on the other hand was used when attempting to understand people’s views or experiences from a set of qualitative data. Within this research, the deductive approach was used as data was approached with some preconceived themes that were expected to be found within the texts used. After analysing the data, it was argued that while the Napoleonic wars might not be directly linked to nationalism today, one can trace certain elements that have has permeated trough subsequent events right down to today’s re-emergence of the far-right. With this logic, this research has also traced elements of modern nationalism back to some of the earliest instances of German national feeling, thus suggesting that although not always plain to see, each event of German nationalism has indeed contributed to modern day nationalism. Additionally, this dissertation has put forward that through this awakened extreme German national pride, relations between the European Union and Germany are indeed being tested. More so is European Integration by incidents where immigrants living in Germany have been targeted during various events displaying this nationalistic feeling among Germans. The research however also took note that this heightened anxiety and fear of certain foreigners was instrumental in the setting up of better regulations on discrimination within Germany, thus providing a silver lining to this growing dark cloud of insecurity.