At a time of mass migration and mixing of people of different nationalities and different cultures, especially since the memorable beginning of borders in September 2015 by erstwhile German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the situation of the indigenous population in European countries has changed markedly. Despite the enthusiastic announcements of Merkel Wir schaffen das (We can do it!), Europe is presently experiencing the top migration crisis in modern history. It is reflected in the growth of anti-immigrant sentiments, support for extremist right parties, activation of organizations and populist movements. For us Poles, who feel the consequences of this uncontrolled influx of people from abroad countries, is not indifferent to what happens in terms of migration in our neighbours. Poland as a associate State of the European Union cannot prosecute a separate immigration policy, but must comply with EU directives, frequently hard to accept by part of the public, which opposes the national identity of a truly non-existent European identity, which has been pushed by the enthusiasts of the federalisation of Europe. The other of a federalised Europe is home Europe, the thought of the coexistence of free nations, which has been at the heart of the EU and is now becoming real again. This is evidenced by the emergence to power in any countries of groups that support Europe. The issue of national identity, an ethnically homogenous nation, but the non-exclusivity of number rights within the national community, is now becoming crucial in a large part of European nations.
In this article, I will present the issue of identity, national sense in our western neighbour, who has already in the past history, and in more modern times since the late 1950s opened up to visitors from abroad countries, accepting them as workers first (Gastarbeiter) and then beginning their borders to their families, thus creating different cultural diasporas in Germany, starting the process of becoming an immigration country (Einwanderungsland). Before I get to the situation today, I will briefly present a historical knowing of what the national sense of Germans consists of, in particular, “being German” and “Germanity” as concepts that trigger various connotations.
Understanding Germanism in the area of German
Word deutsch (German) was originally the designation of people surviving in areas under the regulation of the Carolinas, then the people themselves, and yet the country residing by it. At the time of Charles the Great, this people utilized a language called origin theodisca lingua, in contrast to the “Roman language” utilized by the royal officials and clergy (lingua romana), or Latin. German (Deutsch) has evolved and distinguished respective periods of its history: Althochdeutsch (Old-high-German, approx. 600 – approx. 1050); Mittelhochdeutsch (average-high-German, approx. 1050 – 1350); Frühneuhochdeutsch (early-high-German, from 1350 to 1650); Neuhochdeutsch (New-high-German language, from 1650 to today). Historians of the German language separate even shorter periods of its existence, but let us stick to this mostly accepted periodical.
The language is not uniform, the number of its dialects and regional variations is almost incalculable. Since the end of the mediate Ages, the dismemberment of Germany, which after the 30 Years' War (1618-1648) reached a summit in the form of the existence of about 3 100 independent political beings: the Empire (Habsburg), the principalities (Herzogtümer, Fürstentümer), counties (Grafschaften), margraves (Markgrafschaften) Archbishops, bishoprics, free cities, free villages and others, deepened dialectical diversity in the Reich, which celebrated 17th-century lawyer Samuel von Pufendorf (1632-1694) in his dissertation entitled De statue of the empire Germanici (About the German government of the Reich) he called the “monstrom”. However, despite this break-up of Germany into many countries of different sizes and statuses, the thought of Germanism was especially alive among the wide German burghers, especially in intellectual, literary and artistic circles.
The national thought in Germany became in the past of this area (because not the state, due to the fact that specified was only created at the time of the proclamation of the German Reich in 1871) with a binder connecting the Germans at least in respective crucial moments of history. In the mediate Ages 1 can refer, for example, to Walther von der Vogelweide (c. 1170 – c. 1230), who most likely was the first German-speaking author to execute in poems called Reichssprüche (Sentences concerning the Reich) against the papal desire to submit to the German emperor, the head of the Holy Roman Empire, but besides the ruler of Germany. This author spoke, as it seems, on behalf of the intellectual elite of the time, demanding the order of the Reich's affairs, overcoming the interior conflicts, the emperor's independency from the pope, although the duality of the empire and Papacy had already existed since the coronation in 962 of the first king Otto I of Germany as emperor. Another author of that time, addressing the same subject in the collection Sprüche von Rom (Sentences concerning Rome), Former author by the name Freidank (changed presumably in 1233). Luther's Reformation was besides caused by a circumstantial patriotism of the initiator of the division of Western Christianity, whose union with the Bishop of Rome was so far. The Reformation was not only a spiritual movement, but besides a social movement, primarily a German nobility and a German bourgeoisie, aimed at liberation from dependence on Rome.
However, only Napoleonic business from 1794 to 1813 and liberation wars (Befreiungskriege) against Napoleon spurred the German national spirit and sparked the first signs of nationalism bordering chauvinism, directed at that time against the French. respective crucial figures of this period can be mentioned here, which, under the influence of events in revolutionary France, which has generated a strong interest in German countries, have contributed to the revival of the national sense (Nationalgefühl) in national awareness (Nationalbewusstsein), strengthening the sense of community unaware of its existence.
One of the initiators of the national movement was the creator of the gymnast movement (Turnvater) Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (1778-1852), founder of the first physical exercise square on Hasenheide (then under Berlin, present in the Neukölln territory of the German capital). Gymnastic exercises were to physically prepare young people for later fighting the French occupier. Berlin philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814) in his celebrated Reden an die deutsche Nation (Speaking to the German people) in the face of the defeat, Prussia appealed to the compatriots to appear against the French. In turn, the historian of the University of Greifswald Ernst Moritz Arndt (1769–1860), in addition to 2 “catechisms” for German soldiers, became celebrated for his patriotic and in any places even chauvinist songs in which he glorified Germany and the German people, while attacking the then main enemy, France. These songs were sung in the following decades until the end of planet War II.
The paradox of past was that the wars of the French Emperor and his annexation of abroad territories awakened the spirit of German nationalism, which would possibly never make without these events. And Napoleon's possessive policy began the process of unifying German countries. Their number decreased from about 300 before the fall of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in 1806 to 38 independent political beings of varying position (one empire, 5 kingdoms, twenty-eight principalities and 4 free cities) after the Vienna legislature of 1815.
Different knowing of Germanism
In the 19th century we observe the progressive idealization of Germanism, which besides manifests itself in the sense of the word itself deutsch‘German’. It was then synonymous with affirmative terms of the kind edel (noble), trefflich (true, excellent), but besides adjectives with neutral colour as deutlich (clear, clear, determined) or negative as derb (acute, rude).
Composer, playwright and author Richard Wagner (1813-1883) is credited with the authorship of a saying taken from a collection of his articles published in Leipzig in 1868 entitled Deutsche Kunst und Deutsche Politikand reads as follows: Deutsch sein heißt, eine Sache um ihrer selibst willen tun. This hard-to-translatable Wagner mot coupon can be described as “doing something in specified a way as to be done” or interpreted as an expression ordering Germany to be conscientious and obliging in what they do. Indeed, the author referred his essence to the play, explaining 10 years later, in mention to the thought of "selfless pleasure" (interests Wohlgefallen) Immanuel Kant, that “beautiful and noble appears in the planet not due to virtues and not even for fame and recognition: and all that is done according to this doctrine is ‘German’ and so Germany is great.”[1] In the 3rd Reich this shortened by the posterity of Wagner became a nationalist slogan.[2]
Austrian poet Leopold Hörmann (1857-1927) idealized Germanism by writing: "Deutsch sein heißt gut sein, treu sein und echt (To be German means to be good, faithful and authentic). The German conviction of their peculiar function in the community of nations does not date only from Bismarck and the times of the Second Reich. Poet Emanuel Geibel (1815 - 1884), monarchist and minister of the unification of German countries under the scepter of Prussia, as early as 1861 in a poem titled Deutschlands Beruf (Calling Germany) he utilized a phrase that inactive evokes unpleasant associations among German neighbours: Und es mag am deutschen Wesen einmal noch die Welt genesen. The author here expresses his view that the planet will be healed by Germany someday. Nota bene Emperor Wilhelm II quoted this conviction at the feast of 31.8.1907, at the Münster National Museum in a broader context: “... the erstwhile and fresh parts of the country, the townspeople and workers are to join together and work together in unity with equal faithfulness and love for their homeland. Then our German nation will become a granite bloc on which our Lord God will be able to build and complete his cultural works serving the world. Then, too, the poet’s words will be fulfilled: “The essence of Germanism will again heal the world. ’’[3]
The Germans sometimes called themselves “a nation of poets and thinkers” (einVolk der Dichter und Denker) – for the first time in 1782, author Johann Karl Musäus (1735-1787), author, among others. Volksmärchen der Deutschen (Popular fairy tales for Germans). In turn critical of the city, the Austrian author and publisher of the celebrated magazine Die Fackel, Karl Kraus (1874-1936), strategised this assessment of the Germans writing that they were ein Volk der Richter und HenkerThe nation of judges and executioners. The 2 sentences show that Germany, or the Austrians who are sometimes considered to be them, are very different, which besides casts uncertainty on the stereotypes that be about them. besides known in Poland, author of historical books Bernt Engelmann pointed out that a large part of the West German society was not curious in literature or philosophy, and about 20 million German citizens (before German unification) did not have any books, prayer books or singers. 16 million Western Germans admitted that they did not read anything at all or simply by necessity.[4] According to statistics, 6.2 million adults in Germany were illiterate or almost unreadable in 2018.[5]
As is known, geographical, linguistic or political definitions are conventional, they service to organize knowledge, they are created for the usage of science. And so the concept of “German history” is only valid in mention to the times from the German Reich in 1871 until the end of planet War II. The name "German Rose" was the authoritative name both during the German Empire (1871-1918) and during the alleged Weimar Republic (1919-1933) and in relation to the 3rd Reich (1933-1945). Historians frequently deal with the past of individual countries in the German-speaking area, e.g. Prussia, Bavaria, Austria, Germany (1949-1990), East Germany (1949-1990) etc. German past can so be considered as a conglomerate of the past of individual German countries.
"German" and "Germany" are frequently only geographical concepts in history. After 1815, or the emergence of the German Union (Deutscher Bund), the federations of princes ruling in individual countries, in addition to German rulers, included non-German rulers as well: monarchs of large Britain (until 1837) and Denmark (until 1864) and the king of the Netherlands (until 1866). On the another hand, East Prussia and West Prussia and part of Austria did not belong to the German Union. Moreover, the rivalry between Prussia and Austria in the 18th century caused that both countries until the first half of the 19th century were not considered German countries. Heinrich Friedrich Karl Baron vom und zum Stein (1757-1831) saw in 1813 3 states in the German-speaking area: Prussia, Austria and ... Germany. Only since the mid-19th century concept deutsch and Deutschland They were in authoritative documents. For example, the Reich Act of 28 June 1848 uses the phrase “To establish the authority of the Reich for Germany ...”, while the Constitution of the German Reich, passed on 28 March 1848, states: “The head of the Reich uses the title: Emperor of Germany”. Designations Deutsches Reich (Germany) and Deutscher Kaiser (German emperor) were utilized in December 1870 in authoritative papers and were included in the Constitution of 16 April 1871.
How many Germans are German for? German meaning of concepts relating to the nation
Concepts of German or German (Deutschtum) are rather relative, and the same can be applied to the notion of a nation. due to the fact that the German emperors held the title of Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 962 to 1806 (Sacrum Romanum Empire), since the mid-15th century with the addition of the ‘German people’ (... Germanicae Nationis), part of German past is besides the past of the territories associated with this empire, as evidenced by the way in which the writings were addressed to Emperor Leopold I (1640-1705): “His brightest Majesty, the large and Invincible Prince and Lord, Mr Leopold I, the Chosen Roman Emperor, the King in the All-Times Magnifying Empire in Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia.”[6]
Historian Veit Valentin (1885-1947) pointed to the deficiency of cultural uniformity of German residents in his monumental monograph Geschichte der Deutschen (History of Germans) in which he writes of the German people as “a mixture of different cultural components, with the German component being 1 of those different elements, each of which had equal value”[7]. Immigration of foreigners e.g. to Prussia began in the mid-17th century and already in 1672 there was the first French diaspora colony in Berlin. In 1687 the Waldenses expelled from Piedmont came to this country; at about the same time the Walloons from the Spanish Netherlands joined them, in addition to the Alsatians, Dutch and peasants from the Czech Republic and Poland. Traces of this migration are seen present in Germany in the form of many abroad (non-German) names. By 1786 there were 4,000 Jews residing in Berlin. The Prussian government in the days of Frederick II did not ask visitors about their nationality or confession, which was reflected in the king's frequently cited formula: In meinem Staat soll jeder nach seiner Façon selig werden In my country, let each 1 find salvation according to his own pleasure. Frederick II called the large supported immigration.
Bernt Engelmann, mentioned in his book Preußen. Land der unbegrenzten Möglichkeiten (Prussian. The country of unlimited opportunities) pointed out that the most prominent citizens of Prussia mostly had foreign, non-Prussian origins. The Prussian nobility, according to Engelmann, was "in a serious part of Slavic origin [...] born from a tiny Kashubian nobility, specified as von Yorck, von Tauentzien, von Manteuffel, von Podewil, as von Itzenplitz of Zezenov, or von Zitzewitz of the Kutzeke family; as belonging to the ancient Pomeranian nobility von Puttkammers of Svenzo Slauna, von Kleists, who originated from Jarisław, Subchamber Prince of Pomerania, Kazimierz I., as originating from the Meclemburgian Viennese von Bülows, von Maltzans, or von Moltkovs, who were originally called Moltiko, or von Nostitzs, whose lineage derives from the head of Sdilaw Nosticz's Literage Serb. These 2 100 to 3 100 another families of east Roman knighthood owners, who together formed the Prussian junery, dominated the lives of villages and tiny towns of east provinces, exhibited the majority of army officers, cast many higher office posts and exerted the top influence on the royal court.”[8]
Historian and Politologist Golo Mann (1909-1994) wrote about the Prussian, East-Loabian Junkars as about the non-German nobility whose larger parts of Germany, ba, even Prussia, were foreign, as were areas inhabited by Catholics or Rhineland. Junkrzy had no relation to Germany, due to the fact that according to this historian, they were closer in all respect to Tsarsk Russia than to confederate Germany, the Rhine-west industrial district, Catholic Silesia or Berlin's burgherhood.[9]
For 1 of the co-creators of Ordoliberism and the West German concept of social marketplace economy, Wilhelm Röpke (1899-1966), the junker was “a village with a monocle, combining the petty pursuit of profit and the cunning of a peasant with the negative qualities of this social state with the arrogance and spirit of feudal masters, accustomed to rule.” [10] This author opposes Germany to Prussia, writing: “Germany and Prussia – Weimar and Potsdam are 2 different worlds... The bad spirit of Germany was Prussia, whose personification was primarily 2 figures: Frederick II and Bismarck.“[11] The differences between Germany and Prussia are explained by Röpke as follows: “The meadow separates western Germany from the dominant peasant farming from the east agriculture in which large farms of feudal character prevail [...] Here in the west and south the full social strategy is balanced, and class opposites are little sharp than in the east. Prusai with a much narrower layer of peasants and middle-class cities have always been a rocky ground for liberalism, individualism and burgherism, while they have long created the most favourable conditions for all sorts of collectiveism.”[12]
It is essential to remind, which present barely anyone remembers, that it was Prussia that importantly shaped German past since the early 19th century. Prussian values gradually became German-wide values. German historians call this process the increasing influence of Prussia on German countries by spraying Germany (Verpreußung Deutschlands). The army played a peculiar role, and so frequently historians wrote about Prussian militarism, which became German militarism in the 20th century. But it was only since Bismarck’s time that Germany, according to Röpke, became “a model of discipline” (der Deutsche gilt erst seit Bismarck als ein Muster der Dishiplin).[13] It is interesting that the co-founder of the ideology of communism (with Frederick Engels) Karl Marx supported Prussian-German expansionism and militarism, standing during the First War of Schleswig in 1848 on the side of Prussia. In a paper of his own Neue Rheinische Zeitung He wrote of the Danes: “The Danes are a nation that remains in the most unlimited, commercial, industrial, political and literary dependence on Germany. It is clear that the actual capital of Denmark is not Copenhagen, but Hamburg, ... that Denmark draws all its literary food, as well as its material means through Germany, and that Danish literature – but for Holberg – is simply a shallow counterfeit of German literature... By the same law as the French occupied Flanders, Lorraine and Alsace, and sooner or later they would occupy Belgium, the same law Germany would take over Schleswig: the law of civilization against barbarism, [in clash] advancement with stability...” [14]
The literature besides contains affirmative reviews of Prussia. Bernt Engelmann, quoted earlier, was delighted with the “real Prussians” (echte Preußen), whose ideas would appear to be "a product of Jewish-Hugenotic reason and Slavic-German fantasy"[15]. There is simply a small exaggeration and self-love, especially since the author, arrogant of his judaic roots, considered himself specified a Prussian.
I would object to the mostly critical assessment of the Prussian nobility, affirmative examples of the activity in favour of an agreement with Poland, e.g. the Prussian aristocrat Marion Countess Dönhoff. or Prussian patriots active in the assassination of Hitler on July 20, 1944, number Heinrich von Lehndorff, or controversial from the Polish point of view of number Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg.
In the opinion of Germanism as a feature relating to the totality of people surviving in German-speaking areas, 1 should besides take into account the feeling of much more developed regionality than in Poland, for example. household sites, ‘small homeland’, are named in Germany Heimat, whereas a country on a macro scale, i.e. a state is called Vaterland and is equivalent to the Polish knowing of the homeland. The differences between the Bavarians and the Saxons, for example, or between the Berliners and the Hamburgers are visible not only in the language, but besides in the kind of being, in traditions, customs, etc.
Germanism from a Polish perspective
For the authors of the German-Polish dictionary PONS "Germanity" is both German people (Deutschtum)[16]as well as the German. With respect to this second meaning there is inactive a word in German Deutschheit and it is besides found in the nineteenth-century Grimm brothers' German Language Dictionary[17].
“The large Dictionary of the Polish Language” attributes the word “Germanity” to 3 areas of meaning: culture, people and origin.[18] In the first of these areas, the dictionary defines Germanism as ‘total characteristics typical of German culture, art and politics’ and then cites examples of the usage of the word in different contexts:
"Serbolying, the last Native Slavs of East Germany, cultivates tradition, though they have rooted in Germanism."
“This man is so in love with Germanism that he creates himself as the only expert and apostle of German literature in Poland [...].”
Except for the mistake idem per idem, by explaining the concept of culture by referring to it itself (the "total cultural characteristics"), both quotes fundamentally say small about what this Germanism of our western neighbours is about. But the concept of culture itself is very complex and ambiguous. celebrated anthropologists Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn counted as many as 164 definitions of culture.[19]
With respect to people, the second area of meaning of the word, Germanism is “a squad of characteristics characteristic of Germans – their culture, tradition, values”. This meaning will be exemplified by the authors of the dictionary by specified quotes:
“[...] a lively discussion on the past of Silesia, Polishness, Germanity and “Silesianness” of the Silesians has developed.”
"Germany has its education, media, youth, agricultural, craft organisations – dozens of another associations and institutions where they can cultivate their Germanism."
In the 3rd meaning area, i.e. in relation to origin, ‘Germanity’ is briefly defined as ‘being German’. This is meant to reflect 2 quotations:
“The fresh Pope is German, but this Germanism is purely optically little crucial than the Polishness of John Paul II.”
“[...] he published articles on the Germanity of Yours and his work—in 1939 and 1940, erstwhile the altar was already in Germany.”
Apart from the discussion that Benedict XVI's Germanity was little than that of John Paul II, as well as the questionable attempts to question the Germanity of the celebrated sculptor from Nuremberg, the second area is peculiarly crucial for these considerations. Being German present has a different meaning and can besides be understood differently, than after planet War I until the end of the 1950s, erstwhile German residents were mostly indigenous Germans, and among them millions of displaced people from the lost after planet War II to the east lands. Individuals with abroad roots, with German citizenship, are referred to in nationalistic circles as ‘German passports’ (Passdeutsche) and the alleged "Biological Germany" are opposed (Biodeutsche), i.e. cultural Germans, besides called "autochtonic Germans" or "German Germans of German origin"[20]. Only the influx of abroad workers under contracts for recruitment to work from the late 1950s, concluded by the German national Republic with 10 countries, so-called. gastarbeiters, who subsequently brought members of their families to Germany, began to change the cultural situation of that country. We should besides mention akin verbal agreements concluded by the second German state, the GDR, with Vietnam, Cuba, Nicaragua, Mozambique, Poland, Hungary, Yemen and Angola on the employment of contract workers, many of which after unification Germany remained in that country.
Germanism in a situation of fast increase in immigration since autumn 2015
The last mass influx of the "obcomplemienne" population occurred at the time of the beginning of borders by then Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2015, whose migration policy deepened the process of denetisation not only of Germany but besides of another countries forced to receive immigrants returned from areas affected by uncontrolled immigration. In 2024, Germany had a evidence number of nationals, with 291555 people. The national Institute for Population investigation presents data showing an increase in abroad population in that country. In 2005-2022, the share of immigrant residents increased from 15.2 million (19 %) in 2005 to 23.8 million (29 %) in 2022. This increase is due to both immigration and more frequent birth of children in immigrant families. These people are younger than indigenous people, the average age in 2022 was 35 years among men and 37 years among women, i.e. about 10 years below the average of indigenous Germans. The share of children from immigrant families increased importantly from 30 to 42 % between 2005 and 2020.[21] According to authoritative statistic for the year 2024, among the 82.8 million inhabitants of Germany, the percent of people of abroad origin was already 30.4%, of whom 13 million had German citizenship and 12.3 million had permanent abroad position in Germany.[22]
In the light of these figures, given the increase in the number of migrant residents and the greater fertility of these people, it will be increasingly hard to talk of Germanism in all aspects of this concept, which will become a historical concept over time. Nowadays, the constant increase in the number of abroad residents ethnically and most culturally, who treat Germany only as a country of residence and social services, do not integrate with the indigenous population, form the celebrated ghettos, zones Come on. parallel societies etc. – social tensions and political radicalisation are increasing. Despite the efforts of the authorities, the existence of peculiar offices of integration attorneys (Integrationsbeauftragte) at national and individual national levels, residents German with abroad roots mostly do not integrate with majority society, and in a fewer decades they can become majority themselves.
In February 2022, the national government established a fresh anti-racism proxy office (Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Antirassismus). Both offices are held by 1 person, born in Moscow, and native to Iraq Reem Alabama-Radovan, who is an SPD activist and MP to the Bundestag. Furthermore, there are a large number of Members with immigrant roots in the national parliament itself, as well as in national parliaments. In the Bundestag, they account for 11.6% of the full Members, with interesting membership of individual political parties: 20% belongs to the Green parties, 18.8% to the Left, 17.5% to the SPD, 6.3% to the CDU/CSU.[23] It is interesting that, on behalf of the accused of right-wing extremism and reluctance towards foreigners of the alternate organization for Germany (AfD) in the Bundestag, there are besides parliamentarians with migrant roots, representing 5.9% of the full of its MPs in the national parliament. MPs with "immigration in their résumés" are besides present in the various Landtags (mit Migrationshintergrund either mit Migrationsgeschichte – The German naming of the issues discussed here is rather peculiar).
Germanism as a category going back into the past?
So what is the basis for the claim that the Germanity of today's Germans is gradually becoming a historical category? Not only does this process be affected by the large representation of migrants with migrant roots, but besides by the support of mainstream media, in which journalists working with values proclaimed by the Greens and the Left, including openness to strangers, promotion of diversity or acceptance for others. According to 1 survey published on the Die Welt portal, 2 thirds of people employed in German media have left-wing views.[24] Therefore, it is not amazing that there is open criticism of national attitudes and dislike of foreigners, which in fact are marginal and more frequently affect residents of the area of the erstwhile GDR. Interestingly, on the websites of the aforementioned anti-racism attorney's website there is no information about the perpetrators of anti-foreign behaviors or crimes, only racist behaviors specified as refusal to rent an flat to a foreigner, or anti-Semitic excesses, whose perpetrators, however, are seldom indigenous Germans, and much more frequently people with immigrant roots, especially those of Islam.
People of abroad origin are seen in Germany not only in the streets but besides in the media. Native Indian-Hungarian Navina Sundaram was the first female to run tv news magazines "Weltspiegel" and "Panorama". In the first German public tv programme ARD writer Aline Abboud, whose father was Lebanese, operates the Tagesthemen information magazine. Born in Germany Pinar Atalay, daughter of the Turkish gastarbeiter, besides worked in news editorials of public television, and then switched to private tv RTL. In the second programme of German public television, ZDF includes: Dunja Hayali, daughter of Iraqi Christians of Mosul; descendant of the Gastarbeiters of Syrian descent from Turkey Mitri Sirin and Afroniemek Jan Pareigis, leading the main release of the message “Heute”. This visibility of journalists of abroad origin on public tv follows the guidelines of the national government of 2007 so that the media not only inform about people with abroad roots, but besides together with them form content [programming – T.G.P.]. ARD has committed itself to “more support for editors, authors, moderators and actors of abroad origin through the deliberate acquisition and improvement of personnel. They are to appear in programmes in a manner exposed as affirmative characters with which they can be positively identified."[25] Similarly, the ZDF promised "to systematically proceed to include [in its staff policy, specified as T.G.P.] migrant workers", and the actions taken to this end are intended to ‘close up to the composition of editorial staff that would take into account population representativeness’.[26]
Germanism as a phenomenon criticized and supported
In fact, Germanism is not a trait that is valued among all cultural Germans. Especially on the left side of the German political scene, the attitude towards the state, traditions, values considered typically German, specified as attachment to order, civic sense, solidity, industriousness, punctuality, etc., is ambivalent, if not even negative. erstwhile abroad Minister Joschka Fischer said in an interview with the weekly weekly “Die Zeit” 3.12.2023 that he was ashamed of his country.[27] Although he had in head German home and abroad politics of his day, these words, spoken publicly, attest to excessive criticism of his own country.
Much more extremist in assessments, and especially in words are the environments of left-wing extremists, called autonomouss and Antiphes. They are chanting in public places: Nieder mit Deutschland (Out with Germany) or in a sharper form: Deutschland verrecke (Die Germany!), Not Wieder Deutschland (No more Germany), Deutschland, du townses Stück Scheiße (Germany, you miserable part of shit).
The rerejuvenation of the Allied after planet War II resulted in visible effects in the form of even a neutral attitude toward national symbols. Only during the 2014 planet Football Championship The Germans first showed the flags of their country. However, this proof of the national community, so valued in the United States, in Switzerland or even in Poland, was not by all and is respected. possibly the most clear example of the disrespectful attitude towards the flag was the behaviour of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who, at the time of the celebration after the 2013 election with the expression of disapproval on his face, lifted the German flag from the stage, given to her by CDU Secretary-General Herman Gröhe. Of course, the media dominated by left-wing sympathies are trying to make little sense of this demonstrational behaviour of the erstwhile chancellor. "Süddeutsche Zeitung" justified her by claiming that Gröhe's over-sponsibly shown joy due to his election triumph was not liked by Merkel.
This football championship, in which Germany had won, was the first chance in many decades to show mass appearances with German flags, which was not always understood. “Deutsche Welle” writer Vera Kern asked 25.06.2014 on the radio portal: “How much patriotism can Germany afford during the planet Cup?” Wondering whether the sea of German flags throughout Germany is an expression of football euphoria or an expression of excessive love for Germanism (Deutschtümelei), the writer points out the thesis of social psychologists that “between organization patriotism (Party-Patriotismus) and the dangerous nationalism is simply a thin border.”[28]
The German centre-left (SPD) and left-wing (Greens, Left) elites undoubtedly have a cooler attitude to German than conservative (CDU/CSU) or extremist right-wing (AfD), not to mention the utmost right of the Reich Citizens (Reichsbürger) 3rd Road (Der Dritte Weg) or Homeland (Die Heimat, formerly National Democratische Partei Deutschlands) for which Germany and Germanism are even sacred.
Germanity and pride in being German are inactive powerfully present in the east German states, that is, in the area of the erstwhile GDR, whose residents lament the failure of national pride and frequent anti-German attitudes in the public sphere, for example on net portals. Let's quote 1 of the X users. Performing under the name Hans (@MattiasHartel), portraying himself as a retired and erstwhile political prisoner of the GDR, on 13 October 2025 he posted a bitter entry in which he described the peripeties associated with wearing a German flag over his sleeve. He was detained by East German police and then, after being deported to the West Germany in 1984, became a arrogant holder of West German ID card. “And today?” Hans asks. "Where else in the planet exists a country where there is so much hatred of its own nationality, its own nation and the German national flag? All these spiritually twisted people, specified as the ANTIFA members, who are mostly German, shout at their demonstrations “Let Germany die.” And they're not the only ones, no, there are tens of thousands of them, who unrestrainedly hatred Germans and Germans and shout them out. Where did our national pride go, which we inactive had in the 1980s, 1990s and 2006, at the time of the planet Cup? What happened, even last October 3rd – 35 years after the peaceful revolution [on the anniversary of the unification of Germany – T.G.P.], that nowhere in this country, there were no German flags in our country? And that even the national government set up for photography without German flags in the background? Have anti-Germany taken over the country completely? Are those morons in charge now? Is showing up with a German flag or wearing a stamp with that flag now a right-wing crime? Is German patriot a Nazi?”[29] It's not an isolated voice. There are many specified entries in the German-speaking Internet, and their authors are frequently prosecuted by secret services specified as the Constitution Protection Office or by prosecutors and police; many have already found their finals in the German court.
Hans wrote: “I truly thought in 2006 that we had yet overcome the collective anti-German neurosis, this typical German form of hatred for each other. Instead, the contempt for our own nation, our people and our culture only increased, besides inside all the erstwhile parties.”[30]
Several entries afraid utilizing the flag. 1 net user wrote: “You are absolutely right. But in the West, things are the same. In England, police come to the door of the home erstwhile the English flag is lifted.”[31] Another user wrote: “Then go to Denmark. There are Danish flags everywhere. The same is actual in many countries, specified as Turkey. Only in this country [in Germany – T.G.P.] will you immediately be considered a Nazi.”[32]
Of course, there were quite a few entries under Hans's entry criticizing him. Let us quote: “You are right about many things. Unfortunately, thank God ‘national pride’ means nothing to me. This besides applies to any another “dumb” not related to another merits than to their own.”[33] “[...] Which of us celebrates October 3rd [the year of German unification – T.G.P.]? This day can besides be celebrated privately if the State does not organize anything. With family, neighbors and friends. fewer people do that.”[34] "You are a russian migrant and ignorant erstwhile it comes to a truly German culture. Walking in clothing with Western flags was little of a rebellion in your native culture, alternatively simply stupid. Integrate with us or go elsewhere.”[35] “Kiss me in d..., [...] National pride is the most pathetic thing. You have done nothing to be arrogant of.”[36]
Most of the entries, however, contained support for the author. Consider 1 of these: “Not understood. How low the country must have fallen, since the citizen of this erstwhile arrogant and glorious nation must compose specified annoying words to many people. 1 of the countless. Sad evidence of the nation.”[37] In this praise the author forgets the Germans about the unpleasant cards in their history, which is different from people who feel powerfully liable for their ancestors' guilt. In this context, the question arises: how long more should Germany feel guilty of crimes committed in peculiar during the Nazism on both abroad nations and on its own citizens (German Jews, oppositionists, physically and mentally handicapped people, clergy openly occurring against the dictatorship of Hitler and others). The sense of this work should besides find whether the German state, in its current cultural form, should, for example, compensate Poland to a degree exceeding the compensation already paid for damages caused by the German occupier. In a fewer decades, erstwhile the cultural composition of German society changes to specified an degree that indigenous Germany will be a number in its country, possible Polish demands will be unacceptable by this fresh majority.
Chancellor Merz's shaky attitude
In Germany, as in Poland, it is planned to extend the period of stay in the country after which the immigrant can apply for citizenship. By June 2024, the waiting period for its award was 8 years, after which it was shortened to 3 years for "well integrated" people. In the fall of 2025, the ruling coalition with Chancellor Friedrich Merzem has prepared changes in this area and from 2026 German citizenship will be possible at the earliest after 5 years. The applicable Bundestag Act was passed by CDU parties, SPD thanks to the support of AfD; Left and Greens were evidently opposed. The reason for this change is the demands of the AfD, called "remigration", that is, the return of immigrants to their countries of origin. The governing coalition so falls under the influence of a extremist right-wing party.
The Chancellor is criticized, among others, for his message of October 14, 2025 on "problems in the urban landscape", i.e. crime in German cities related to immigrants. The Green Chancellor was most fiercely criticized by the Greens, who, in their letter to him, took care of people with abroad roots: “They are here in the first, second or 3rd generation, and you deny them Germanism and belonging to Germany – only due to their appearance, origin or surname.”[38] In short, descendants of immigrants are according to Green Germany. The Chancellor’s message was met with a number of critical comments in the media, including the weekly portal “Der Spiegel”[39], it besides sparked demonstrations, including in Munich[40]. The left-wing “Soyusz v. right-wing extremism in Nuremberg metropolitan region” joined the protests (Allianz gegen Rechtsextremismus in der Metropolregion Nürnberg)[41]. Nota bene is supported by ... The national Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth, i.e. by a central institution, subordinate to the German Chancellor. The national Republic of Germany is truly unusual after Angela Merkel's firm...
Despite this criticism at his address and the allegation that his message was racist, the Chancellor of 20 October maintained his critical stance against the problems caused in Germany by the presence of non-integrated immigrants, saying, “Ask your children, your daughters, ask in the circles of your friends and friends: everyone will confirm that this is simply a problem – at the latest with the arrival of darkness.”[42] The “Rasist” nature of this message was challenged by the icon of German feminism by Alice Schwarzer, who wrote in her magazine “Emma”: “Is the ‘problematic image of the city’ [the expression utilized by Merz – T.G.P.] truly racist? I don't think it is! To talk like that is simply a bit of a coward. Here's individual going on about not calling things by their first name, not getting in trouble. And yet he's in trouble. And that's typically bureaucratic usage of twisty wording. People are not referred to as “images of cities.” That's bullshit. Why does the Chancellor not say that these are “foreigners” who are primarily in smaller cities on the corners of the stations and markets are those who disturb the locals? The same young men besides do so in the countries they come from, Algeria or Casablanca. They go around, they do stupid things, they commit crimes, and they bother women. For they have besides much time, due to the fact that they are unemployed. They came to Europe in the hope of uncovering a occupation – but they do not find it here either, but frequently they are not even allowed to work."[43]
Merz met with the support of his words not only from his political community, but besides from people who are acquainted with foreigners all day. For example, a spokesperson for the Christian relief organization for children and young people "Arche", Wolfgang Büscher, points out that 95 % of children in the Moosach territory of Munich are arabian refugees, while German residents on the outskirts of the city where many refugees live are "feared for their children", "fear for their homes", and their parents are increasingly saying, "I will take revenge on politics, I will vote for AfD."[44] Büscher calls for serious problems and concerns of people. At that time, they would choose again the bourgeois parties, i.e. CDU/CSU and FDP. It's a fact that the city's paintings are what Merz said they were. „We have anti-Semitism, hostility towards Israel and incredible hatred of everything German.”[45]
Despite the factual support for the Chancellor's statements, German media, including ZDF TV, "heats" the subject of his alleged racism. Merz is accused of taking over the rhetoric of a organization with which he wants nothing to do with, and whose intentions to get free of immigrants – not working and not integrating, but at the same time threatening the public order and the sense of safety of Germans – he realizes. At the same time, the parties of the ruling coalition CDU/CSU and SPD insist on maintaining the concept of "fire retardant" (Brandmauer) before AfD, i.e. reject any cooperation with this party. Attempts to delegalise the AfD, so far ineffective, and besides to track this organization as extremistally right-wing by the Constitution Protection Office are intended to service to brand it as a nationalist and anti-immigrant force, although public support for it is increasing, even among any immigrants and foreigners residing in Germany.
Surveys of the electoral preferences of cultural and immigrant Germans show that the second frequently choose non-systemic parties: AfD and the Left Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW).[46] The analysis published in September 2025 by the CDU-related Konrad Adenauer Foundation shows that the electoral behaviour of the Germans with Russian, Polish and Turkish roots and the alleged late displaced persons clearly disagree both between themselves and compared to the average full voters. While voters from Turkey and Russia mostly vote for the SPD, and the Left besides has a superior score, voters of Polish origin and late displaced people like in most AfDs, in second place choosing a leadership[47]. AfD was in 2025 a organization preferred by 33% of people with Polish roots, second place was chadecja (25%), 3rd – social democracy (17%), 4th – Greens (11%). The Left and BSW parties were the choice of 6% of these people.
This analysis shows that people with abroad roots do not see the danger of being warned by mainstream media and politicians, which may indicate the weaknesses of their propaganda activities, aimed at convincing these people to their own communicative of the request to advance diversity, multiculturalism, genderism, political correctness, voceism and another “inventions” of modern Western civilization. Germanism and the conventional form of life and human coexistence are so values for which there is simply a constant conflict in Germany and the result is not foregone.
Author: Prof. Tomasz Pszczółkowski
—
[1] Richard Wagner, Was it the deutsch?, “Bayreuther Blätter”, under ed. Hans von Wolzogen, class I, 1878, p. 38,
https://books.google.at/books?id=iE8PAAAYAJ&pg=PA38&dq=%22Und+der+sich+erkennende+Deutsche+verstand+es+nun+auch,%22&hl=de&sa=X&ved=0ahUKewiKkuHWkJjmAhXNX8AKHUvyAJQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=%22Und%20sich%20erkennde%20verstand%20es%20nun%20auch%2C%22&f=false, cited above. https://falschzitate.blogspot.com/2019/12/deutsch-sein-heit-eine-sache-um-ihrer.html, accessed 16.10.2025.
[2]https://falschzitate.blogspot.com/2019/12/deutsch-sein-heit-eine-sache-um-ihrer.html, accessed 16.10.2025.
[3]https://www.lwl.org/westfaelische-geschichte/portal/Internet/finde/langDatensatz.php?urlID=1271&url table=tab quelle, accessed 16.10.2025.
[4] B. Engelmann, Lesebuch. Deutsche Geschichten, Göttingen 1988, p. 58.
[5]https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/180609/umfrage/analphabetismus-und-fehlerhaftes-schreiben-in-deutschland/, accessed 21.10.2025.
[6]https://books.google.pl/books?id=vCrXHy5MMcMC&printsec=frontcover&hl=en&source=gbs ge summary r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false. accessed 18.10.2025.
[7] Veit Valentin, Geschichte der Deutschen, Köln 1979, p. 14.
[8] B. Engelmann, Prussia Land of unlimited possibilities, Poznań 1984, p. 380.
[9] Ibid., p. 378 et seq.
[10] W. Röpke, Die deutsche Frage, Erlenbach – Zürich 1945, p. 172.
[11] Ibid. p. 170.
[12] Ibid. p. 173.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Franz Mehring, Karl Marx – Geschichte sines Lebens. Vollständige Biographypp. 194 et seq., https://dokumen.pub/karl-marx-geschichte-seines-lebens-9788026830191.html, accessed 17.10.2025.
[15] B. Engelmann, Prussia..., pp. 538.
[16]https://pl.pons.com/translation-2/Polish-German/German).
[17]https://www.dwds.de/wb/dwb2/deutschheit.
[18]https://wsjp.pl/haslo/view/69607/Germanc/5268701/o-culture.
[19] Alfred Louis Kroeber, Clyde Kluckhon, Culture. A critical review of concepts and definitions, Cambridge 1952, p. 149. Deutschland – Polen. Eine culturekomparatistische Untersuchung, Bielefeld 2015, p. 25.
[20] Pszczółkowski. p. 46.
[21]https://www.bib.bund.de/DE/Publicationen/Broschueren/Online/Die-Bevoelkerung-mit-Migrationshintergrund-neu-entdecken.html. access 8.10.2025.
[22]https://www.bpb.de/dust-knapp/zahlen-und-fakten/soziale-situation-in-deutschland/61646/bevoelkerung-mit-migrationshintergrund/, accessed 8.10.2025.
[23]https://mediendienst-integration.de/artikel/73-abgeordnete-mit-migrationshintergrund.html, accessed 9.10.2025.
[25]https://www.ikgn.de/ media/abhandlung6 graf%20heike noa 18 2009.pdf. access 10.10.2025.
[26] Ibid.
[27]https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2023-11/joschka-fisher-nahost-conflikt-israel-hamas-antisemitismus-ukraine, access 10.10.2025.
[28]https://www.dw.com/de/zu-viel-wm-patriotismus-in-deutschland/a-17736793, access 10.10.2025. You can see this on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/siqHzMMwkM.
[29]https://x.com/MattiasHartel, accessed 14.10.2025.
[30]https://x.com/Erich4379729153/status/1977706858400903582. accessed 14.10.2025.
[31]https://x.com/HeidiAnnGa/status/197664245690257432, accessed 14.10.2025.
[32]https://x.com/DerWattwurm/status/1977767124153340004, accessed 14.10.2025. An different event took place on 20 October 2025 in the municipality of Nachrodt-Wiblingwerde in the territory of Märkischer Kreis in the region of Sauerland, from which the current chancellor comes. Unknown people posted 40 German flags there, causing local authorities to study the case to the state safety services. This reaction in turn provoked, among others, many netizens to ask whether the hanging of national flags is treated as a crime in Germany. Under the tv tower in the town individual placed a plaque with the inscription “National pride is not a crime”. https://x.com/annamarinada11/status/1980347031483736325, accessed 21.10.2025.
[33]https://x.com/RolfGMellage/status/197699333857296549, accessed 14.10.2025.
[34]https://x.com/GernotBudach/status/197807481907839139, accessed 14.10.2025.
[35]https://x.com/bata image/status/197865546977689601, accessed 14.10.2025.
[36]https://x.com/LauterfilmeDE/status/197860548806021358, accessed 14.10.2025.
[37]https://x.com/Eirene12345/status/1977792052013285503, accessed 14.10.2025.
[38]https://events.interia.pl/foreign/news-wave-critics-after-words- Chancellor-request-apology,nId,22432620, accessed 19.10.2025.
[39]https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/friedrich-merz-und-die-angeblichen-probleme-im-stadtbild-wen-genau-meint-er-a-f12f2a-6659-4c4d-b7c1-21f9bf3df222, accessed 19.10.2025.
[40]https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/demo-in-muenchen-gegen-merz-stadtbild-aussage,V053mkB, accessed 19.10.2025.
[41]https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/stadtbild-allianz-gegen-rechtsextremismus-kritisiert-merz,Uzz7zRt. accessed 19.10.2025.
[42]https://www.spiegel.de/politik/friedrich-merz-legt-im-streit-um-stadtbild-aussage-nach-fragen-sie-ihre-toechter-a-8af2b9b5-5e55-4463-a9fb-deae13587ac3, accessed 21.10.2025.
[43]https://www.emma.de/artikel/problem-im-stadtbild-ist-das-rassismus-342101, accessed 21.10.2025.
[44]https://www.bild.de/politik/inland/arche-sprecher-gibt-kanzler-recht-es-ist-fact-dass-unsere-stadtbilder-so-aussehen-68f1ea3e2f6e3c54ca984e75, accessed 19.10.2025.
[45] Ibid.
[46] The BSW has left-wing orientation on economical issues, while in socio-cultural issues – conservative or right-wing.
[47]https://www.kas.de/documents/252038/33607021/Monitor Wahlverhalten+von+Menschen+mit+Migrationshintergrund.pdf/f60f59b9-17a3-d502-7977-707b4d24a94b?version=1.0&t=17587076749282. accessed 21.10.2025.
