The Problem of National Solidarity in Interwar Germany

The history of nationalism in interwar Germany has mostly beentold as a success story in which integration and mobilizationloom large. While not disputing this view this article proposesa closer look at the tensions between different proponents ofthe Volksgemeinschaft and the radicalizing consequences resultingfrom these tensions both before and after 1933. In practice,the prevailing interpretation of nationalism as the moral foundationfor unity and solidarity created various new divisions: refugeesfrom the lost Prussian provinces as well as people in the occupiedparts of the Rhineland expected to be supported by their fellowcitizens but were often bitterly disappointed. Interest groupsadapted the rhetoric of national community more or less successfullyto their own needs and purposes, but to their great anger didnot manage to improve their public image in this way. Right-wingintellectuals lamented the widespread lack of patriotic attitudesand found good Germans only in utopian spaces outside actualGerman society. Ernst Jünger, Carl Schmitt, and the proponentsof radical antisemitism even abandoned the moral approach tonationalism altogether. National Socialism claimed to solvethis problem by both integration through mass propaganda andexclusion through racism and violence. But in the reports ofthe Gestapo there was still much complaint about morally deficientGermans allegedly unwilling to sacrifice their private intereststo the national good. As recent research has shown, many Germansheld similar views of fellow citizens and party members. Thiscontinuing scenario of moral crisis was an important aspectof Nazi discourse closely related to the ever radicalizing exclusionisttendency of the Volksgemeinschaft.