Constructing a German Diaspora: The 'Greater German Empire', 1871-1918

German unification in 1871 had a significant impact on those Germans who found themselves living outside, or migrating across, the borders of the newly founded Empire. An expansion of numbers and destinations was accompanied by a gradual redefinition of migrants' relationship with their country of origin. They were increasingly represented as outposts of a 'Greater German Empire' whose ethnic links with the mother country had to be preserved for their own and the Empire's benefits. Germans worldwide underwent a redefinition from geographically scattered and disparate groups to an ostensibly unified transnational 'community of spirit'. The study is the first to provide a comprehensive analysis of this process not only within the German Empire, but also within German ethnic communities abroad.After giving a global overview of Germans settling outside the borders of the Reich, the study analyses the public discourse surrounding emigrants and their relationship with the homeland. The unified Reich provided an arsenal of metaphors and symbolic rallying points with a global reach. The Kaiser's birthday, for example, was celebrated annually by German communities worldwide. The German language assumed ideological implications as the prime marker of ethnic belonging. The identification of many emigrants with the nationalist project of their homeland justifies the application of the diaspora concept. This argument is followed up in a discussion of the relationship between protestantism, nationalism and transnationality. The analysis moves on to the activities of the Central League for German Navy Clubs Abroad, a nationalist organisation with a global network of affiliated clubs. A local case study on Glasgow, then, applies the framework set out in the previous chapters to a selected migrant community. The final section on World War I analyses the frictions arising from diaspora nationalism on the one hand, and Germanophobia in a number of host societies, on the other hand.The project confirms the consensus in the existing literature that the internal cohesion of German ethnic communities was limited due to persisting regional, religious, political, and class affiliations. It also confirms that Germans found themselves in a multitude of different settings, creating hybrid identities and different host-minority relationships. It argues, however, that pertinent scholarship has, so far, not sufficiently discussed the relevance of a Reich-focused nationalist discourse for the construction of migrants' individual and group identities. The 'Greater German Empire' did not remain a fictitious construct but became embedded in migrants' sense of national belonging and ethnic identity. The study is based on a large body of primary sources which will be critically discussed and embedded within the existing literature. The main foci of critical source interrogation revolve around, firstly, the question to what extent one-dimensional nationalistic texts produced by pressure-groups and ethnic leaders appropriately reflect the multi-faceted character of ethnicity, and, secondly, the problem that most of the texts that have been archived were produced by members of the educated middle-classes. It is therefore crucial that the analysis does not stop at the discourse level but also takes into account social and economic data from the communities studied. This approach is most pronounced in the section on Glasgow which adds a differentiated microhistorical analysis to the global framework. The project brings together constructivist approaches to ethno-national identity formation and transnationalist approaches to understanding the German Empire within its global entanglements. This approach has previously been applied to geographically confined German communities, and my global perspective will now further advance its theoretical potential to enhance our understanding of the mechanics and construction of global diasporas generally.

Governments have, for a long time, unduly ignored the economic, political, cultural, and social significance of ethno-national diaspora groups. Only recently have policy-makers discovered the potency of diasporas for both domestic policies and international relations. This potency will continue to rise during the 21st century due to processes of globalisation, and a thorough understanding of the structure and dynamics of diasporas is indispensable to arrive at informed policy decisions. Both geographical and historical case studies are a way in which academia can contribute to this knowledge pool. As far as Britain is concerned, the monograph analyses ways in which the ethnic and political affiliations of one of its minority groups were influenced, through transnational migration and communication, by events and discourses taking place in the sending homeland. It also analyses ways in which British policy-makers and the general public reacted to the existence of a German minority. Bilateral Anglo-German tensions before and after 1914 had a detrimental effect on peaceful host-minority relations, culminating in wholesale internment, repatriation, and Anti-German riots in wartime Britain. Historians agree that official measures against 'enemy aliens' were out of proportion with the actual danger the minority posed. The measures were rather the consequence of the construction of an 'Enemy in Our Midst' in British public discourse. The monograph will show that this was a global phenomenon in many societies being at war with Imperial Germany. Today, 100 years later, the so called 'War on Terror' has generated similar patterns of marginalisation and official state measures against muslim minorities in many western societies. My historical case study on patterns of diaspora mobilisation and host societies' reactions can help to put recent occurences into perspective and reflect upon the effectiveness of specific state policies. Beneficiaries of my research will therefore be policy-makers and public sector agencies dealing with issues of inter-ethnic relations, international relations, and internal and external security. The study underlines the urgency of engaging with, and understanding, foreign matters in order to react appropriately to the activities of minorities 'at home'. The impact on the third sector and the media are discussed under 'Pathways to Impact'. As for local communities and the wider public, my study will contribute to a redefinition of many communities as regards their ethnic heritage. Britain is just one example where, after the occurences of two World Wars, both the state and local communities dissociated themselves from links with Germany. In the last few years, these links have started to be rediscovered. My study not only unearths aspects of entanglement with Germany for a number of countries and selected local communities, including Glasgow, but also shows that these follow global patterns. The study gives local communities a basis for integrating their own experience into a larger historical and geographical framework. It therefore contributes to identity construction at a local level. This is, however, also relevant on a national level. Many European societies are currently undergoing a process of redefinition from an allegedly monoethnic past to a multiethnic present. My study will confirm for the nineteenth century that immigration has, in fact, been a constituent element of European societies. In Britain, for example, Germans constituted the largest immigrant group up until the 1890s, with all major cities having ethnic centres and neighbourhoods. This is usually not known to the British public, and the concrete measures discussed in 'Pathways to Impact' will ensure that this knowledge feeds into redefinitions of British immigration history, and therefore identity.