Print View

Abstract

The Pan-German League [Alldeutscher Verband] was one of the most prominent and aggressive interest groups in Wilhelmine Germany. Although other associations, including the German Navy League, the Language Association, and the Society for the Eastern Marches, also supported an expansionist foreign and colonial policy for Germany, the Pan-German League was the most radical. Founded in 1891, the League had over 36,000 members by the end of the World War I.

Statutes of the Pan-German League [Alldeutscher Verband] (1903)

Source

The Pan-German League seeks to invigorate the German-national attitude, especially to awaken and cultivate the awareness that all parts of the German people belong together racially and culturally. This task entails that the Pan-German League advocates:

1. the preservation of the German ethnicity [Volkstum] in Europe and overseas, and support for the same in threatened areas;

2. the resolution of questions regarding education, upbringing, and schooling in keeping with the German ethnicity;

3. the fight against all forces that impede our national development;

4. an active policy of pursuing German interests throughout the world, especially a continuation of the German colonial movement to the point where it produces practical results.

Source: Alfred Kruck, Die Geschichte des Alldeutschen Verbandes 1890–1939. Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1954, p. 10 f; reprinted in Rüdiger vom Bruch and Björn Hofmeister, eds., Kaiserreich und Erster Weltkrieg 1871–1918. Deutsche Geschichte in Quellen und Darstellung, edited by Rainer A. Müller, vol. 8. Stuttgart: P. Reclam, 2000, p. 131.

Translation: Thomas Dunlap