The German Myth of the East: 1800 to the Present (Oxford Studies in Medieval European History)

Over the last two centuries and indeed up to the present day, Eastern Europe's lands and peoples have conjured up a complex mixture of fascination, anxiety, promise, and peril for Germans looking eastwards. Across the generations, a varied cast of German writers, artists, philosophers, diplomats, political leaders, generals, and Nazi racial fanatics have imagined (often in very different ways) a special German mission in the East, forging a frontier myth that paralleled the American myths of the "Wild West" and "Manifest Destiny." Through close analysis of German views of the East from 1800 to our own times, The German Myth of the East reveals that this crucial international relationship has in fact been integral to how Germans have defined (and repeatedly redefined) themselves and their own national identity. In particular, what was ultimately at stake for Germans was their own uncertain position in Europe, between East and West. Paradoxically, the East came to be viewed as both an attractive land of unlimited potential for the future and as a place undeveloped, dangerous, wild, dirty, and uncultured. Running the gamut from the messages of international understanding announced by generations of German scholars and sympathetic writers, to the violent racial utopia envisaged by the Nazis, German imaginings of the East represent a crucial, yet unfamiliar, part of modern European history, and one that remains fundamentally important today in the context of an expanded European Union. Contents......Page 8 List of Plates......Page 10 List of Maps......Page 12 1. Introduction......Page 14 2. Older Legacies Before 1800......Page 25 3. Influences of Enlightenment and Romanticism, 1800–1820s......Page 57 4. Fusing the Myth, 1830–1871......Page 84 5. Age of Empires, 1871–1914......Page 111 6. The First World War and its Aftermath, 1914–1933......Page 151 7. Nazi Visions of the East......Page 192 8. Nightmare of the Advancing East, 1943–1955......Page 224 9. From the Cold War to the Present......Page 241 Notes......Page 262 Select Bibliography......Page 288 B......Page 306 F......Page 307 H......Page 308 K......Page 309 N......Page 310 R......Page 311 T......Page 312 Z......Page 313 Examining the various different expressions of the distinctive German myth of the East, Vejas Liulevicius discusses its importance as a feature of German culture over the last two centuries, which has influenced German attitudes both to Eastern Europe itself and also to Germans' own sense of identity.--Résumé de l'éditeur An Examination Of The Various Different Expressions Of The Distinctive German 'myth Of The East' That Has Been Such A Marked Feature Of German Culture Over The Last Two Centuries, Influencing German Attitudes Both To Eastern Europe Itself And Also To Germans' Own Sense Of Identity.