The German National League in Britain and Ideas of a German Overseas Empire, 1859–67
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Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 451 Ulrike Kirchberger The German National League in Britain and Ideas of a German Overseas Empire, 1859–67 In the middle of the nineteenth century there was a strong influx of Germans into Great Britain. The German migrants then formed one of the largest ethnic minorities in the United Kingdom. The reasons for the German migration to Britain were as diverse as the social structure of the group. A large proportion of the Germans in Britain were transmigrants who were on their way to the United States or the British colonies. They came to Britain to make use of the country’s advantages for overseas travelling. A central role among the Germans in Britain was played by political refugees. From the 1830s onwards, and in particular after the revolutions of 1848, socialists and democrats escaped from political oppression in Germany to enjoy the civil rights which Britain offered to them. There were also German merchants who profited from the advanced industrialization, craftsmen and workers who benefited from the economic situation in Britain, and interest groups like German mission- aries, orientalists, explorers and scientists who came to Britain to use the existing colonial infrastructure for their overseas projects. Another influential circle of Germans was made up of the artists, musicians, librarians and scholars who were associated with the court of Prince Albert. There were thus many different groups who came to Britain for various reasons. The Germans in Britain were only very loosely connected with each other. German institutions, which existed in the major British cities, were frequented by only a small number of the migrants. Often it was only newcomers to Britain who relied on German facilities like the Lutheran churches and several charitable organizations. As soon as they had established themselves in Britain, they did not European History Quarterly Copyright © 1999 SAGE Publications, London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi, Vol. 29(4), 451–483. [0265-6914(199910)29:4;451–483;010098] Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 452 452 European History Quarterly Vol. 29 No. 4 use German churches and schools any longer. Rapid assimilation into British society, high fluctuation of the social structure caused by German overseas migrants, a wide range of different social groups, and the wish of the democratic refugees for inter- national co-operation in their political work were the reasons why a cohesive community with a firm social structure did not develop. During the last few years much has been written on Germans in Britain. Current literature deals with a broad range of aspects: with the social structure of the group, with the daily life of the migrants, with problems of integration, with different political subgroups, with ethnic institutions and societies, with British reactions, and with the role of Germans in Britain as cultural mediators between Britain and Germany.1 What is intended here, however, is an analysis of the transformation of a political ideo- logy within a group of Germans in Britain. The basic question will be how migrants changed their political ideas in the environ- ment of the host country. It will be shown how an ideology was taken by the migrants from Germany and was then transformed under the influences of the receiver country. An example for such a process is the ethnic conception which was developed in the ‘Deutsche Nationalverein’ (henceforth: German National League) in Britain. Branches of the National League were founded in many British cities in 1860 and the following years. Due to their political background, members of the League had a strong interest in defining their ethnic identity as Germans in Britain. This paper will describe the way in which the National League in Britain adopted a nationalist ideology from Germany and adjusted it to the situation of Germans in Britain. How the National League formed an ethnic conception to suit the special needs of Germans in Britain and what implications this had for German overseas history will be outlined in four parts. The first two parts will deal with the self-perception of the National League in Britain in the context of the ideology of German nationalism. The third section will discuss how the National League in Britain perceived the German emigrants in the non- European world. The fourth part will portray some events and developments which characterized the ethnic self-perception of the National League in Britain in the framework of its con- ception of a German overseas empire. Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 453 Kirchberger, The German National League in Britain 453 I At the end of the 1850s there was a national revival in Germany. In Prussia, the king’s brother Wilhelm succeeded Friedrich Wilhelm IV to the throne, and a new, liberal era was expected to commence. The crisis in Italy helped to bring the national question back to the public agenda. An economic depression at the end of the 1850s also contributed to the rise of national enthusiasm. In 1859 a passionate nationalism seized the popu- lation in Germany. The German National League was founded in Frankfurt am Main by middle-class liberals and democrats from all over Germany. Their central aim was the creation of a German nation state, excluding Austria. Until its dissolution in 1867 its members influenced political discussion, especially when ‘national matters’ like, for example, the Schleswig-Holstein question were concerned. They started to agitate for a German navy as a symbol of national sovereignty, and they published their own newspapers to propagate their goals. The National League was a powerful organization with up to 25,000 members, and it formed the core of the German national movement during the early 1860s.2 This national ardour took hold of the Germans in Britain immediately. Branches of the National League were founded in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Bradford and other British cities. In 1860 there were eighty-nine activists registered in London, two in Birmingham, five in Manchester, twenty-three in Nottingham, thirty-four in Liverpool and one in Bath.3 The National League in Britain was composed of members of the German middle class and of political refugees who had come to Britain after the revolutions of 1848–9. ‘Forty-eighters’ like Gottfried Kinkel, Johannes Ronge, Rudolf Schramm and many others had taken their national ideas with them to their place of exile and had continuously struggled to put them into practice during the 1850s. Under the free conditions of life in Britain, they promoted their aim of a unified and democratic Germany. They regarded the National League as a means of real- izing these ideas. The political perceptions of the Forty-eighters did not always coincide with the more conservative attitudes of some middle-class representatives. Controversial debates took place frequently.4 The common ambition for German unification, however, was the basis on which different political opinions could Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 454 454 European History Quarterly Vol. 29 No. 4 co-operate as ‘Germans abroad’. The National League in Britain had its own weekly newspaper, the Hermann-Deutsches Wochen- blatt aus London. It was the platform where the members of the National League discussed their attitudes on German politics and where they analysed their own position as Germans in Britain. First of all, the political interest of the National League in Britain was directed towards Germany. It was regarded as a main task of its members to help in the creation of the German nation state. All impulses which came from Germany in that respect were adopted. National organizations and societies were formed in parallel with those in Germany. As far as national policy was concerned, the branches in Britain shared the opinions of the National League in Germany. Their attitude towards the Schleswig-Holstein question, the rising Prussian–Austrian an- tagonism and other so-called ‘inner-German’ problems coincided with the programme of the National League in Germany. Apart from propagating the German nation state, the National League in Britain saw it as a duty to strengthen the ethnic identity of German migrants in Britain. A key point was to preserve ‘Deutschthum im Ausland’ (‘Germandom abroad’). The National League disapproved of all forms of assimilation into British society. They wanted German migrants to remain loyal to German culture and language. Migrants’ primordial ties with their German home were connected with the nationalist ideology. The emotional attachment of the migrants to their native country was set in the context of political nationalism. Personal connections of German migrants to their home were over-emphasized. It was regarded as necessary to compensate for the loss of the German fatherland by establishing in Britain as many German schools, churches and social organizations as pos- sible. The National League in Britain created the image of a closed German immigrants’ community which was based on its own German institutions and which had no contact with British society. Emigrants who assimilated into British society were told by the National League that they were denying their own identity and damaging the German cause.5 The ideal of ethnically homogeneous German colonies did not reflect reality. Only a small percentage of the German migrants were interested in nourishing German identity by using German schools, churches, music and gymnastics societies regularly, or by participating in the activities of the national movement. The Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 455 Kirchberger, The German National League in Britain 455 German Lutheran clergy and the representatives of the German societies complained about this frequently.6 Compared with the number of 30,313 Germans in Britain, which the Census records gave for 1861,7 the size of the German Protestant parishes, social organizations and political organizations remained small throughout the middle decades of the nineteenth century.8 The picture of ethnic unity and homogeneity which the National League portrayed of the German minority had its roots in the ideology of nineteenth-century nationalism.