User:Cwerth490/German Question

It's also important to note the feelings of some of the Swiss intellectuals, who saw Switzerland as a potential part of Germany. The poet Ernst Moritz Arndt, in his poem Des Deutschen Vaterland, clearly favored a unified Germany including Switzerland.

What is the German fatherland?

So call me the big country!

Is it the Swiss country? is it Tyrol?

I liked the country and its people.

But no! No! No!

His country must be bigger.

- Des Deutschen Vaterland,

Conrad Ferdinand Mayer, a Swiss writer, wavered between support for the Prussian and French causes. Prussia's dominance in the Franco-Prussian War forced his hand, and afterwards he became staunchly supportive of German unification. His epic Hutten's Last Days serves as a manifesto for his sympathies for the cause.

WW1 and WW2 (1918-1945)

Post WW1 (1918-1933)

Further information: Treaty of Versailles

After WW1, the Treaty Of Versailles cut up large portions of the German land. All of Germany's overseas colonies were split up between the other European powers, effectively forcing the Germans to stay on the Continent. Alsace-Lorrain was returned to the French after Germany had taken it in the Franco-Prussian War; Belgium also received the cities of Eupen and Malmedy. Denmark also received Northern Schleswig, which Prussia had taken during the Second Schleswig War. Poland received a large amount of land from parts of West Prussia and Silesia, effectively isolating East Prussia from the rest of Germany. Finally, the Rhineland was completely demilitarized and occupied from 1919-1936. All told, many of the German speaking provinces that had been taken over the past century were split up between nearby neighbors.

Since Austria-Hungary was entirely split up into several different nations, the question again arose as to whether or not German Austria should be integrated into Germany. This was formed partially out of desperation; Austria had lost 40% of its territory after the war, and many thought that unless the two states unified Austria would not be able to survive. Despite several post-war talks in the Provisional National Assembly about combining with Germany to create a new German Republic with the two states combined, the more powerful League of Nations stated in the Treaty of Saint-Germain that the Austrian Republic could have no legal or economic associations with Germany.

The question of unification would not be brought up again until Hitler's Anschluss.

Nazi era (1933-1945)

With the Third Reich coming to power in Germany, Nazi propaganda focused heavily on the idea of German unification with Austria. The idea of unifying with Austria was so prominent in Hitler's mind, it was the first step in his 1920's 25-point program.

"We demand the unification of all Germans in the Greater Germany on the basis of the right of self-determination of peoples."

The Austrofascism of Austria between 1934 and 1938 focused on the history of Austria and opposed the absorbing of Austria into the Third Reich (according to the belief that Austrians were "better Germans") and the Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg (1934–1938) called Austria the "better German state" but struggled to keep Austria independent. Nevertheless, German nationalists' desire for a unified nation-state incorporating all Germans into a Greater Germany persisted.

On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria and annexed the entire country. The Wehrmacht was met with very little resistance, and most areas of Austria welcomed the Nazi troops with open arms. Despite Schushnigg's insistence on Austrian independence, the country had been so weak since WW1 that most of the citizens viewed the Wehrmacht as veritable saviors from rampant unemployment. The Nazi's, however, immediately let their propaganda machine go to work. The nation was renamed "Ostmark", so as to erase any sense of Austrian national identity; this name was later changed to the Danube and Alps Empire. Prominent politicians, as well as any non-Aryan's, were immediately arrested.

As well as Germany (pre-World War II borders), Austria, and Alsace-Lorraine, the Großdeutsches Reich included the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Sudetenland, Bohemia and Moravia, the Memel Territory, the Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, the Free State of Danzig, and the "General Government" territories (territories of Poland under German military occupation).

Post WW2 (1945-1990)

Two states period (1945-1989)

After the surrender of the Wehrmacht and the Soviet occupation of East Berlin, Germany was split apart. With the nation split in half, the German question was raised once again. This time, however, it was less about nationalistic concerns and more about security from a new German aggression: East Germany, which was controlled by the Soviets. The legal and diplomatic intercourse between the Allies regarding the treatment of the German Question brought forward the elements of intervention and coexistence which formed the basis for a relatively peaceful postwar international order. The division of Germany started with the creation of four occupation zones, continued with establishing two German states (West Germany and East Germany), was deepened in the period of Cold War with the Berlin Wall from 1961 and existed until 1989/1990. Austria was also completely removed from Germany and established as its own state.

The new German Question was treated differently by either side of the Berlin Wall. A number of letters exchanged between Joseph Stalin and the Western powers initially gave hope for a peaceful reunification, the chance of this happening rapidly petered out as the Cold War continued and both sides became more and more entrenched in their ideologies. Some German political parties, such as the CDU and FDP, did openly call for reunification, but most political parties and politicians accepted it as reality.

In East Germany, any talk of reunification with the West was immediately suppressed. The building of the Berlin Wall physically and ideologically separated the two states, ensuring that the two state system stayed in place. This was further entrenched in 1974, when the GDR revised the constitution to completely abandon the aim of German unification, in favor of increased ties with the Soviet Union.

Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989-1991)

Further information: Fall of the Berlin Wall

The rapidity of the fall of Communism, and the fact that neither side had bothered to come up with plans in case of reunification, meant that the reunification came as a complete surprise to everyone. Cracks began to show in the Iron Curtain with the fall of Communism in Hungary, which allowed hundreds of East Germans to escape into Austria. With Communism rapidly falling all across Eastern Europe and Gorbachev in talks with the Western powers, some West Germans began openly advocating for reunification.

With the Soviet Union beginning to crumble, talks began between the Western powers and the GDR. Helmut Kohl, then chancellor of West Germany, proposed a 10-point plan to solve the German question and begin reunification. This, in turn, led to the agreement of the Two-Plus-Four talks in September 1990. This plan ensured all foreign influence would be removed from Germany, and Germany itself would become a sovereign state again. Reunification formally took place on October 3rd, 1990, but it wouldn't be until March 15 1991 that Germany would become a fully sovereign nation.

After the Uprising of 1953 in East Germany, the official holiday in the Federal Republic of Germany was set on 17 June and was named "Day of German Unity", in order to remind all Germans of the “open” (unanswered) German Question (die offene Deutsche Frage), which meant the call for reunification.

Modern Germany's territory, after the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990, is closer to what the Kleindeutsche Lösung envisioned (aside from the fact large areas of the former Prussia were no longer part of Germany) than the Großdeutsche Lösung, for Austria remains a separate country. Because of the idea's association with the Third Reich, there are no mainstream political groups in Austria or Germany that advocate a "Greater Germany" today; those that do are often regarded as fascist and/or neo-Nazis.