The German National League in Britain and Ideas of a German Overseas Empire, 1859–67

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Ulrike Kirchberger

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 missionaries, 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

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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 international 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 ideology within a group of Germans in Britain. The basic question will be how migrants changed their political ideas in the environment 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 conception of a German overseas empire. Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 453

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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 population 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

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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 antagonism 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 possible. 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

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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. It was characteristic of European national movements to create an awareness of being part of a community by referring to fictions and metaphors which did not have much to do with reality. One aim of nationalism was to create a feeling of belonging to an ethnic group which was to form the future nation state. In a confederation without clearly defined geographical borders, nationalists tried to achieve this by conjuring up idealized pictures of an ethnic community. Some of these could be related to historical events. An example is the battle in the forests of Teutoburg in 9 AD. The struggle against the Romans was interpreted as the first occasion on which the united German people defended themselves against non-German strangers. Such historical myths were to create the impression that there had been an ethnically homogeneous German people since the beginnings of history and that it had always fought against enemies from outside. The creation of such myths was to suggest to nineteenth-century Germans that, even though they did not have a united nation state, they were a homogeneous ethnic people, because their ancestors had been one.9 A similar ideological construction intended to develop a feeling of belonging together was the picture of a worldwide community of Germans abroad, which was fostered by the National League in Britain. Stressing ethnic unity also served as a justification for demanding that Germans abroad were to keep up their interest in German politics. Germans in foreign countries, so the members of the National League in Britain claimed, were still bound together by their common nationality. Therefore they had to participate in German politics, even if they were far away. The consciousness of still belonging to the same ethnic community legitimized their interference in national politics from outside Germany. At the same time their political nationalism made it necessary to think about their position as Germans abroad. Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 456

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Germans who assimilated into their host society did not define their ethnic position in a political context. The supporters of the national movement, however, had to specify their role as Germans in Britain as far as their way of life and their political tasks in the British Isles were concerned, and also with regard to their relationship with Germany. By insisting on their ‘Deutschtum im Ausland’, the National League in Britain transformed the nationalist ideology which was adopted from Germany. They shared the main political points of thinking that came from their homeland, but they also developed new ideas which were due to their presence in Britain.

One characteristic aspect of the ideology of the National League in Britain was that its members regarded themselves as part of a worldwide community of Germans abroad. Whereas the National League in Germany concentrated on the creation of the German nation state, the National League in Britain focused its attention on the global unification of all German emigrants. In the weekly newspaper Hermann, the Germans in Britain were placed within a worldwide context. They were defined in relation to Germany, to the German overseas settlements, and to the British Empire. The National League in Britain designed an image of German emigrants as a closely linked worldwide community with the Germans in London at its centre. The picture was developed against the background of the British Empire:

In diesem engeren Vaterlande . . . darf Deutschland nicht mehr gesucht werden. ‘Sein Vaterland muß größer sein.’ Es ist nicht hier, es ist auferstanden und in aller Welt. London liegt just im Centrum alles festen Landes der Erde, von wo aus wirs am besten sehen können . . . Wir sind das eroberndste Volk der Erde und haben längst mehr Kolonien als Großbritannien. Mancher schüttelt darüber den Kopf, weil keine Kriegsschiffe der verauctionirten deutschen Flotte davor halten und keine Satrapen aus dem Mutterlande hingeschickt werden. Aber das ist eben die Schönheit, das Wunder, der Stolz der weiter blickenden Deutschen . . . Die Art, wie wir erobert haben und noch Sieg auf Sieg feiern, ist allein richtig, ehrenvoll . . . Die von moralischem und politi- schem Schmutze klebenden Philister im engeren Vaterlande haben uns hunderttausend-, millionenweise in alle Welt getrieben, wo wir arbeiten und Heiden der Völker und Haiden der Wildnis bekehren, philisterfreie Gemeinden bilden, deutsches Leben, deutsche Sprache, und Literatur, deutschen Fleiß . . . cultiviren und so Eroberungen machen.10 Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 457

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This shows how the members of the National League in Britain positioned themselves at the heart of a fictitious German overseas empire. The term ‘engeres Vaterland’ (politically and geographically confined fatherland) implies that apart from the fatherland which covered the territory of the German Confederation, there was another, wider fatherland, without geographical limits. The terminology demonstrates that the National League in Britain regarded German emigrants as still belonging to a body of German citizens. This did not reflect juridical reality, because Germans lost their citizenship on emigration from Germany.11 The phrase meaning ‘confined and wider fatherland’ appeared frequently in Hermann.12 It maintained that all German emigrants still belonged together and were part of a homogeneous German community. Furthermore, the phrase suggested that a German overseas empire was already in existence. Using the term ‘colony’ in comparison with the British colonies con- veyed the impression that German overseas emigrants stood in the same legal context with the German Confederation as British colonists did with Britain. It was hinted at that German emigrants were still members of a common state system. German overseas emigrants were described as living in close-knit communities, where they operated as a dynamic colonizing force.13 Hermann created an idealized picture which did not coincide with reality. The so-called German ‘colonies’ were more or less indistinct groups of German settlers without institutional footing and without any official political or legal connection to the German governments. German emigrants ceased to be German citizens and had no legal claims to the states of their origin. The picture of a worldwide German community was an ideological construction of the National League in Britain, and was far from the reality of most German overseas emigrants. Because the National League in Britain could not refer to a formal German colonial infrastructure, the cultural community of all Germans was focused upon as an aspect of common ethnicity. This did not only mean that all Germans abroad were automatically bound together by reason of their cultural heritage, but also implied that they had a cultural mission with regard to those who were not German. Whereas Britain had a navy and imperial institutions, Germans conquered non-European regions by working as farmers and by spreading German language and literature. Germans were depicted as the ‘most conquering Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 458

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people in the world’, the ‘true wandering people’, colonizing by spreading their culture and national virtues. Whereas for the National League in Germany the overseas empire was a project for the future which was to be realized after the German nation state was founded, the National League in Britain, in contrast, saw the German overseas empire as an already realized fact. Its members thought that by settling abroad they had achieved a fait accompli. In designing the image of a German overseas empire, the National League in Britain dissociated itself from the political scene in Germany. The governments of the German states were strongly criticized, and in particular the lack of a colonial policy was felt as a severe deficit. The ‘selling out’ of the German navy, which had been built in 1848,14 was interpreted as a symptom of the inadequacy of the German Confederation with regard to foreign and overseas policies. The German governments were too indifferent to support German emigrants, and German officials still entertained a sublime ideological opposition to emigration.15 The National League in Britain drew a clear line between colonizing German migrants and the ‘philistines’ in the German states. The Forty-eighters had escaped the economic and political misery at home, and they felt that only by being abroad were they free to found communities according to their political ideology. This attitude can also be seen in the travel journals of Julius Rodenberg. Between 1856 and 1860 Rodenberg visited London several times. He was in touch with Lothar Bucher, Gottfried Kinkel, Ferdinand Freiligrath and Max Schlesinger and can thus be associated with the German National League.16 Rodenberg shared the German National League’s perception of the German emigrants:

. . . diese Deutschen sind doch die eigentlichen Wanderer unter den Völkern der Erde — die Boten und Apostel der Weltcultur — und ginge man bis an die fernste Thule, ich glaube, man fände auch dort noch deutsche Landsleute! . . . giebt es denn in Deutschland auch Deutsche? In Deutschland haben Sie Preußen, oder Sachsen, oder Hannoveraner und Bückeberger . . . wollen Sie Deutsche haben, so gehen Sie nach London, nach Quebec, nach Buenos-Ayres . . . Deutsche giebt es nur außerhalb Deutschland.17

As well as referring to the cultural mission of the Germans abroad (‘Apostel der Weltcultur’), he also pointed out the political gap between the reactionary German system and the freedom Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 459

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of exile. Only by being abroad, he claimed, were Germans able to feel German and be regarded as Germans. In the German states, in contrast, a feeling of national identity did not exist. By stressing the political distance between emigrants and German Confederation, it was implied that the engine for German colonialism was not situated within Germany, but that the emigrants themselves were the driving force who kept a German overseas expansion going. The National League claimed that the centre of German imperial endeavour was not in Germany, but in London. An expressive metaphor used to describe this was the comparison of the German Confederation with a sunken ship, connected by ropes to floating craft. The latter, symbolizing German overseas colonies, surrounded the sunken ship and managed to haul it back to the surface.18 After the failure of the revolution in Germany in 1849, it was now considered to be the task of the Forty-eighters to influence German politics from abroad. With the emigration of the revolutionaries, the German fatherland ‘had arisen all over the world’ — a religious glorification of the refugees who supported the cause of the revolution from their overseas exile. The comparison of the German overseas settlements with ‘floating craft’ implied, firstly, that the emigrants were free from the suppression of the German governments and, secondly, that they lived in hermetically closed colonies which encircled the German Confederation like satellites, with no contact with their overseas environment, connected only to Germany. Hermann often referred to London as the heart of an economic superpower. In the middle of the nineteenth century, London was the world’s largest centre for trade and business. Migrants from Germany, where industrialization was only beginning, were deeply impressed by the busy and cosmopolitan atmosphere in London, Manchester and Liverpool.19 The non-political perceptions of newcomers were used propagandistically by the National League. Living in the core of the British Empire, the League’s members felt a special responsibility for creating a German counterpart to the world power. Experiencing the economic and political benefits which seemed to come with the Empire, they developed their own motivation with regard to the question of German imperialism. When Lothar Bucher, a Forty- eighter who was well connected with the National League in London, visited the International Exhibition of Industry and Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 460

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Science in 1862, he described how impressed he was by the dis- play of British power in the world and how keenly he felt the German deficit in that respect. By being directly confronted with the British achievements, he and his political friends were even more convinced that Germany needed an overseas empire of its own.20 The British environment gave an impulse to the members of the National League in Britain to work for the German overseas empire more zealously than their compatriots in Germany. The way in which the members of the National League in Britain perceived the British Empire was a result both of personal experience and of clichés embraced by the German bourgeoisie. The typical German middle-class stereotype of the British Empire was moulded by two conceptions. On the one hand the administration of a world empire was greatly admired and en- visaged as a model for Germany. On the other hand Britain was viewed as Germany’s main economic competitor.21 This picture was kept up by the National League in Britain. German efforts for overseas expansion were matched against the topos of the British Empire. The same national clichés as in Germany were used. A combination of aggressive rivalry and a feeling of inferiority characterized the general tenor of Hermann. The newspaper ignored the fact that many British politicians were critical concerning the Empire. Problems or crises like the Indian Mutiny were not mentioned. Hermann did not strive for a deeper understanding of the British Empire. Most articles repeated a stereotype which expressed the ideals of the German middle class and were only loosely connected with British reality. The shortcomings which the National League identified in German colonial efforts were compared with an idealized counter-model of the British Empire. The image of a strong British Empire was taken over from Germany and used as a background against which the National League in Britain defined its own position in an imperial context.22 The self-perception of the National League in Britain was shaped not only by its view of the British Empire, but also by its awareness of the British constitution with its civil rights. The constitution was considered an important advantage of Britain as a country to which to emigrate. Political refugees in particular appreciated their newfound freedom of speech, publication and assembly. They saw the availability of the civil rights which they enjoyed in exile as the basis for their policy in the National Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 461

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League. Their room for political manoeuvring had widened considerably since they were freed from the repressiveness of German governments. Thanks to the constitutional rights existing in Britain, the National League believed itself to be in a better position than the National League in Germany. The image of a ‘free social life’ and the ‘political superiority of England’23 played an important part in the political self-perception of the National League in Britain. Hermann proudly declared that it was the only German newspaper not controlled by censorship.24 From living in a ‘free’ society, the National League derived a special obligation to be politically active. In a meeting of the National League in London, the democratic Forty-eighter Gottfried Kinkel asserted that the Germans in Britain had a major responsibility for national progress in Germany. Kinkel believed that it was much easier to proclaim a radical policy from the freedom of exile than from within Germany.25 Thus the National League in Britain explained its special responsibility to the national cause. The emphasis on British constitutional rights resulted from a combination of two factors. First, it was a personal experience for most German refugees to be free from the threats of hostile and repressive governments. For many Forty-eighters, escape to freedom in Britain had saved them from prosecution at the hands of the German states. Gratitude for the asylum granted them was accordingly often expressed in the debates of the National League in London. Secondly, the phrase ‘free England’ was a stereotype of the middle class in Germany. The British constitutional system was regarded as a model for future reforms. The representatives of German liberalism admired the British political system which fostered an industrial middle class, and dis- regarded everything that did not fit into the topos of a model constitution. British criticism of certain aspects of their own parliamentary system was ignored. The stereotype of ‘free constitutional England’ was an image against which the German middle class contrasted the deficiencies of the German political system. Points that mattered for the German middle class, such as political representation and constitutional rights, were projected into their perception of the British state.26 Direct experience of the realities of the British state and society did not induce the members of the National League in Britain to change their perspective. They maintained their image of the Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 462

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British constitution and compared German deficits with it. Instead of modifying the imported clichés after they came into contact with British reality, the picture of free life in a constitutional state was emphasized as an advantage for their political work. The argument for a special responsibility in unifying Germans all over the world was based on an imported image of the British system. The National League assumed several different tasks derived from their special position as Germans in Britain. One was to preserve Germandom abroad. Another was to mediate between Germany and the non-European world. League members felt it their ‘holy duty’ as ‘inhabitants of free England’ to function as ‘mediators between transoceanic countries and Germany’.27 Because of their presence in ‘free England’ and the direct influence of the British Empire, they considered themselves the nodal point at which German overseas interests met. Analagously with the structures of the British Empire, they saw the Germans in Britain as being in the centre of a worldwide German community. German overseas emigrants, geographers, travellers, scientists, missionaries and overseas merchants who realized their overseas interests via Britain were invited by the National League to utilize their position for the national cause in reference to both Germany and German overseas communities. Another important duty which the National League derived from its presence in Britain was to fight against the lack of protection from Germany for German emigrants. In comparison with the British Empire, the well-known shortcomings of the German states became even more obvious. There were numerous complaints in Hermann that German emigrants lost all legal security from the moment they crossed the German borders. They felt themselves helplessly at the mercy of the jurisdiction of their host country. Cases of Germans convicted by British courts were reported in Hermann. Accused Germans were often described as defenceless victims of a hostile British legal system. They were abandoned by their home country and, therefore, so the National League insinuated, sentenced to severe punishments. Examples to demonstrate the lethargy of the German states were the arrests of German street musicians and the capital punishment which was inflicted on the German immigrant Hermann Müller. The members of the National League regarded their compatriots as innocent. Hermann claimed that Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 463

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they were convicted because Germans received no legal protection and could not defend themselves against an unfamiliar, discriminatory jurisdiction.28 Following Palmerston’s ‘civis Romanus sum’ speech, they stressed that a German abroad could not act as a ‘civis Germanicus’, because all civil rights were lost by emigrating.29 Not only the National League in Britain, but also the colonial movement in Germany dealt with the loss of citizenship of German emigrants.30 But the disadvantages which resulted from the German legislation were felt most strongly by the emigrants themselves. They complained most vehemently because they had to experience the indifference of German policy personally.31 The National League in Britain criticized the lack of an institution which would be responsible for all Germans abroad, substituting for the existing consulates which cared for the former citizens of special German states only. A number of communications in Hermann described the bureaucratic impediments the emigrants had to overcome when they dealt with the consulates and legations of the various German governments. The National League in Britain tried to remedy this deplorable situation. The advantageous position in Britain, so its members argued, made it possible to create institutions to care for the needs of the German emigrants. As the National League in Britain did not expect any help from the German governments, it aimed to take over the leading role in providing an institutional infrastructure for the emigrants. The most important foundation for that purpose, so the members claimed, was the National League itself. It was meant to be an instrument for the global unification of all Germans.32 Branches of the League, which existed in countries all over the world, were seen as a network to support German emigrants and to help them with their problems. The newspaper Hermann was visualized as an institution to con- nect Germans all over the world;33 it had agencies in Australia, North and South America, Greece and Turkey and was sold to the German overseas emigrants there. The editors in London tried to attract a worldwide readership, and saw their paper as providing a forum in which common interests, problems and political attitudes could be discussed in a global framework. The National League in Britain supported societies like the Deutsche Rechtsschutzverein in London or the project of the Centralausschuß deutscher Vereine in Melbourne who searched Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 464

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for the heirs of German emigrants.34 These societies were founded to substitute a much-needed overseas infrastructure. A number of Germans who were actively involved in the political work of the National League in London actually organized a colonization project in Ecuador. The Ecuador Land Company was an Anglo-German joint venture. Isidor Gerstenberg, Max Schlesinger, H. Goez, Louis Levinsohn, H. Schirges, Lothar Bucher and Friedrich Gerstäcker were the most important German participants. They all supported the political aims of the National League, some of them were in charge of the organization of the Schillerfestivals in London, others were members of related societies like the Bund deutscher Männer, the Deutsche Verein für Kunst und Wissenschaft and the Deutsche Rechtsschutzverein. The Ecuador Land Company they regarded as an instrument to create a German overseas colony where emigrants could keep up their ethnicity.35 The National League in Britain directed particular energy towards protecting the interests of German emigrants in the non- European world. In the thinking of the National League in Britain, these self-help organizations were to prepare the way for formally institutionalized German overseas colonies. The demands for the protection of German overseas emigrants demonstrate how migration to Britain changed the direction of argument. Whereas for the National League in Germany the nation state had first priority and colonial policy was a secondary aim, the National League in Britain called for an overseas initiative in the first place. As this could be achieved only by a strong nation state, Germans overseas were encouraged to support the German national movement from abroad.

III

One way of defining the Germans in Britain as part of a global community was to describe the life of German overseas emigrants in detail. There were numerous reports about German overseas settlements in Hermann. By depicting the so-called ‘German colonies all over the world’, the National League tried to foster the feeling that all Germans abroad belonged together. The articles in Hermann gave priority to social structures and activities which could be found in all German minority groups. Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 465

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The wave of emigration in the 1850s had caused a growth of the number of Germans all over the world. After the revolution of 1848–9, German emigrants settled in all continents. There were Forty-eighters everywhere who shared the ideas of the revolution and founded branches of the German National League, gymnastic societies and singing clubs. Comparable German organizations could be found all over the globe. Parallel developments and similarities were described in Hermann at length. The focus was on activities of those associations attempting to preserve ‘Germandom abroad’. Achievements of National Leagues in America and Australia, the setting up of German newspapers, ‘Schillerfestivals’, and committees for establishing a German navy and for supporting the German cause in the Schleswig- Holstein question: these were the matters which Hermann reported in great detail in its articles on the German overseas emigrants. Hermann’s agenda comprised not merely parallel activities and organizations, but also the common problems shared by the German national movements the world over. Communications from German overseas communities consistently expressed concern regarding the limited participation of German emigrants in the organizations that the national movement offered to them.36 The assimilation of German emigrants into the societies of the Anglo–American world was criticized as an immense drawback for the ‘Deutschthum im Ausland’ and was deplored in reports from the British colonies and the USA.37 The emphasis on parallel problems was to underline the idea that all German emigrants’ communities had much in common. German overseas emigrant groups were sometimes presented to the Germans in Britain as model communities. Hermann wrote about ‘flourishing social life of the Germans in Australia’, the profound solidarity of the Germans in Rio de Janeiro, and the busy German life in the USA and Australia.38 Reports of the ‘upholding of Germandom’39 in the non-European world were meant to create a common identity of all Germans abroad which in turn would encourage Germans in Britain to participate more actively in German matters.

As well as explaining the National League’s typical ideology, reports concerning Germans in every part of the world reflected the global connections among the political refugees who fled fol- Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 466

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lowing the revolution of 1848–9. Many Forty-eighters resident in the USA or Australia at the end of the 1850s had found their first place of refuge in London, arriving there immediately after the failure of the revolution.40 Only once they had convinced themselves of the utter hopelessness of their cause did many of them finally depart to the USA or to the British colonies. During the revolution and while they were exiled in London there had already been close co-operation among German democrats, and these contacts were maintained after many had migrated to the USA and other non-European countries. A lively political debate took place between refugees in London and the USA. One major instance of this transatlantic exchange was Gottfried Kinkel’s propaganda tour through the USA to promote his ‘Revolutionsanleihe’.41 Such worldwide ties were significant for the picture Hermann painted of the German overseas emigrants. The outstanding socialist refugee Hermann Püttmann, for example, had emigrated to Australia via London and cultivated an intense exchange of political information with his friends in the British capital. Püttmann edited the Deutsche Monatsschrift für Australien and the Australische Vierteljahresschrift. Articles about Australia in Hermann were often quoted from Püttmann’s journals, whose contacts with the editors led to the publication of numerous reports about German activities there.42 Descriptions of singing clubs, gymnastic societies and activities of the National League in Australia were designed to provide readers with an impression of the attitudes and ways of life of their political friends and compatriots. The sense was created that even in remote Australia Germans shared the political ideas of the National League in Britain and organized their social life along the same lines. For the leading Forty-eighters, the theme of a worldwide German community was more than an ideological construction. They had dispersed throughout the world after the revolution and they maintained close mutual contact on a global scale. They formed branches of the National League in all corners of the globe and shared the same political ideas for which they had fought during the revolution. For them the communications from other parts of the world in Hermann not only projected the ideological paradigm of a worldwide community, but also represented a means of exchanging political information for like-mind- ed circles wherever in the world they might be. During the 1850s Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 467

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a newspaper like Hermann provided a global platform for the Forty-eighters on which the ideas of the revolution could be discussed free from the restrictions and censorship of the German political system. Even though the vast majority of German emigrants assimilated quickly into their host countries, for the small proportion of politically active Forty-eighters, the image of a German overseas community which shared the same political ideas and social life seemed be close to reality. Thus the ideological construction of worldwide ethnic unity was connected to the situation of the activists who propagated this picture. In describing the life of the German overseas emigrants, Hermann devoted particular attention to the performance of the Forty-eighters in the American Civil War. The National League applauded the military successes achieved by the former leaders of the revolutionary troops. The merits of Franz Sigel, August Willich, Friedrich Hecker, Carl Schurz, Alexander Schimmelpfennig and others who commanded parts of the army of the northern states were reported in detail.43 Their activities in the Civil War were placed in the tradition of the revolution of 1848. The ideals of unity and democracy were transferred to the situation in the United States, where, in the name of equality, liberty and national unity, the Forty-eighters fought for the emancipation of the slaves and against the secession of the Southern states. Hermann presented the participation of the Forty-eighters on the North’s side in the war as a struggle for, and resumption of, the ideals of the revolution. ‘Liberty and Unity’ had been their ideals in 1848 and so they were in the American Civil War.44 The concept of a German overseas empire also embraced the German expeditions in Africa and Australia during the 1850s and early 1860s. The exploratory projects of German scientists were described as examples of the colonial activities of the German overseas community. The African journey of Moritz von Beurmann, which cost him his life,45 was portrayed as typical of the ‘German exploratory spirit’ which conquered Inner Africa ‘alone and without protection’.46 Through the use of such phrases, Hermann stressed the scientific achievements which Germans contributed to the colonization of the non-European world. At the same time it was pointed out how little interest and support their efforts received from German governments. This can also be seen in Hermann’s stress upon German participation Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 468

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in exploring the Australian continent. Reports appeared, for example, concerning the role of German societies in Australia in financing the expedition of Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills, who in 1860–1, accompanied by German scientists, tried to cross the continent from south to north.47 Hermann also welcomed the commitment of Germans in Australia to the search for the German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt, who had dis- appeared in 1848 on an expedition aiming to cross the continent from east to west. A concert and a gymnastic festival, arranged by the German Gymnastic Society in Melbourne to assist the expeditions searching for Leichhardt, were depicted by Hermann as part of the ‘German cultural mission’.48 The endeavours of the Germans in Melbourne in assisting German overseas expansion were presented as exemplary for all Germans abroad. When the German scientist and explorer Georg Neumayer stated that he would use the results of his research in Australia for the glory of his fatherland and that he would always ‘be German and act German’,49 he was held up as a shining example. By dwelling upon the German part in the European overseas expansion, Hermann demonstrated that despite lack of protection from German governments, there did exist German pioneering enter- prises supported by German overseas communities. German emigrants were described as a dynamic, expansive force, keen on promoting the German element and helping to create a German overseas empire.

The characteristic self-perception of the National League in Britain was most obvious when its members participated in events and developments which were prominent cornerstones of German nationalism. These were the Schillerfestivals in 1859, the gymnastic movement, and the donations towards a German navy. The ways in which the National League in Britain took up and interpreted these events were typical of their self-perception as Germans in Britain. The Schillerfestivals in 1859 were organized all over Germany to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Friedrich Schiller, who had condemned the despotism of autocratic rulers in his plays and was an idol of the national movement. The festivals Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 469

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took place in the atmosphere of national enthusiasm which developed at the end of the 1850s. Schillerfestivals were held in 440 German cities and in fifty other centres throughout the world.50 In Britain, the Germans celebrated Schiller’s birthday in all the major cities. Festivals were organized, processions took place, speeches about the future of a unified Germany were given, and all the national symbolism was displayed.51 At the same time the Schillerfestivals were used to define the role of Germans in Britain in the context of nationalism. Hermann placed the festivals in a global framework. They were described as

. . . Datum der Einheit aller in der Welt zerstreuten Landsleute, das Fest der Erkenntnis, daß wir alle, auch in größter Ferne von der mütterlichen Scholle, am Amur und Sakramento, in Melbourne und am Missuri, in Peru und Rio de Janeiro, noch durch ein gemeinschaftliches Vaterland, auf einem einigen, ewigen, idealen vaterländischen Boden verbunden und stark sind für unsere große schöne Zukunft unter allen Völkern der Erde . . . was er [Schiller] den Deutschen in aller Welt ist, dafür sprechen bereits herrliche Vorboten der Jahrhundertfeierlichkeiten seines Geburtstages. Wir haben Nachrichten von Vorbereitungen zu Schillerfesten in London, Manchester, Bradford, in allen Städten der Vereinigten Staaten, wo Deutsche sich in Vereinen verbunden haben, in Melbourne, Sidney und Adelaide, in der Türkei und ganz hinten in Asien, tief am anderen Ende Sibiriens . . . Ein Festgedicht, das sich die Deutschen in Philadelphia von unserm Freiligrath erbaten, ist nach seiner Bestimmung abgegangen, um über die ganze Weite und Breite der neuen Welt mit ihren Millionen von Deutschen an demselben Tage und zu derselben Stunde von vielleicht tausend Vereinen und Gemeinden deutscher Zunge und deutschen Herzens . . . gesungen zu werden.52

In Britain, the National League regarded the Schillerfestivals first of all as an expression of unity of all Germans abroad. The Schillerfestivals were to strengthen the image of the German emigrants as a united, close-knit community. They were meant to be a manifestation of the solid ties which bound all Germans overseas to their common fatherland. The vision of one great Schillerfestival being held in several centres across the world served to create an image of homogeneous German ethnicity. It was intended to demonstrate that a strong community of Germans abroad was already in existence, even though no formal colonial institutions existed. The Schillerfestivals in Britain differed from those in Germany in two respects. First, the principal aim was shifted from that of establishing a German nation state to that of propagating the Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 470

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community of Germans abroad. Secondly, Forty-eighters were strongly represented in the committees organizing the festivals. Republican refugees like Gottfried Kinkel, Ferdinand Freiligrath and Johannes Ronge functioned as the main organizers of the festival in London. They were particularly careful to arrange the festivities according to democratic principles: committee meetings followed parliamentary rules, and special attention was placed upon the need to ensure that the population not be excluded from the celebrations.53 The London Committee planned its Schillerfestival as in every possible respect a symbol of German unity. The whole of the German people was to participate, there should be no divisions between social classes and political parties, and Germans the world over were to be included by celebrating their own festivals simultaneously.54 At the same time, the Forty-eighters used the Schillerfestivals to distance themselves from the German political system. They emphasized the differences between the Schillerfestivals in Germany and those abroad, pointing to the important contrast that, so they claimed, only in exile were the festivals celebrated in a free environment. In Germany they were controlled by repressive governments and exposed to police action. Processions were watched by the police and in some cases were prohibited completely. Only outside German borders was it possible to organize the festivals without restrictions.55 For the Forty- eighters the festival offered an opportunity to spread their revolutionary ideas throughout the world. The verses of the revolutionary Ferdinand Freiligrath, as the organizers of the London festival conceived things, would be sung by millions of Germans in all parts of the world at the same time. The London refugees would disseminate the ideals of German unity and democracy to the world, and Germans everywhere would stand up for their common goals globally and simultaneously. The Schillerfestivals were thus a means to bind Germans abroad closer together.

In the wake of national revival, the gymnastic movement began to spread from Germany to the Germans in Britain, the two developments being broadly in parallel. The members of the German gymnastic societies (Turnvereine) in Britain followed the tradition which Friedrich Ludwig Jahn had established in Germany. Physical training, will-power and community spirit were to be practised as a means of contributing to the creation of Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 471

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a German nation state.56 Gymnastics in a paramilitary fashion were to prepare Germans in Britain to fight in a struggle for a united Germany. Sports, political lectures, singing and socializ- ing were major activities. Highlights of social life were annual gymnastic festivals and outings to the countryside around London.57 The idea of encouraging German self-esteem through paramilitary training was adapted to the needs of Germans abroad. The creation of German gymnastic societies was not only to help in preparing the future German nation state, but also to prevent integration and absorption of Germans into British society. The gymnastic societies were regarded as instruments to strengthen the feeling of belonging to the same ethnic community. They were to be a remedy against the supposed lack of national confi- dence of the Germans abroad. The building of a gymnasium in London, in particular, was to create a strong ethnic consciousness. The fragmentation of the Germans in Britain into opposing political parties was to be overcome by the common commitment to a so-called ‘non-political’ undertaking. By participating in the German gymnastic societies a ‘spirit of community and of self- sacrificing subordination’ was to be encouraged.58 Like the Schillerfestivals, the German gymnastic movement was perceived in a global context. The formation of gymnastic societies worldwide was conceived as a first step on the way to formal imperial organizations. Hermann described the gymnastic societies as military defence institutions of the German overseas community. The gymnastic movements in Australia and the USA were praised as exemplary for their efforts in that respect.59 Everywhere in the world, so Hermann stated, the members of the gymnastic societies faced the task of fighting for German interests. Their sphere of activities was not to be limited to the German arena alone. Wherever in the world German settlements existed, the gymnastic movement took up military defence as a national cause. One of their main aims was to preserve German ethnicity on foreign ground.60 Germans abroad should no longer be ashamed of their fatherland and they were to be prevented from assimilating into their host country.61 The ideological framework of the German gymnastic movement in Britain did not coincide with reality. There were no ethnically pure German associations which fulfilled the ideological demand of struggling for Germandom all over the world. Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 472

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During the years in which the gymnastic movement gained strength in Germany, a similar development occurred among the British population. After the horrors of the Crimean War and an ‘invasion panic’ in 1859, gymnastics and military training became increasingly popular in Britain.62 Sports, physical education and paramilitary exercises were introduced and emphasized in schools. Military societies were founded which resembled German gymnastic societies in their aims and principles.63 The German and British sides propagated similar ideals and endeav- oured to educate young men in soldierly and patriotic ways. This parallel development was the reason that German gymnastic societies entered into a lively exchange with the British paramilitary movement. The London public showed great interest in the activities of the German gymnasts. The German gymnastic society in the capital was so popular that in some years it record- ed more British new entrants than German ones.64 In 1865, the society had 907 members, of which only a minority of 340 were German.65 Nor was the percentage of Germans very high as far as active athletes were concerned.66 Furthermore, there was a close co-operation between German and British gymnastic societies. The German gymnasium was used by the Scotch Rifle Volunteers, and German athletes participated at the festivals of the British London Gymnastic Society.67 This kind of teamwork and exchange did not accord well with the nationalist ethos of the German organisers. The numerous British members in the German gymnastic society in London were looked upon with mixed feelings. The founding fathers of the society held several discussions as to whether British athletes should be admitted or not. In 1862 it was resolved to allow them to enter, but the right to vote was withheld from them in order to preserve the ‘German character of the Society’.68 The assimilation of the German gymnastic society in London indicates how difficult it was to accommodate with reality the nationalist ideology of an ethnically flawless German colony. Despite the political impetus to form the military column of a uniform community of Germans abroad and plenty of nationalist rhetoric despising everything non-German, in reality the gymnastic societies had the character of an international meeting- place, where Germans and Britons spent their free time together. The third element which characterized the typical ideology of the National League in Britain was its attitude towards the German Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 473

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naval question. In 1861–2 the National League in Germany put the construction of a German navy at the head of its agenda. The issue had always been connected with the national movement in Germany. The revolutionaries who fought for a united nation state at the end of the 1840s had at that time tried to construct a national navy, but with the failure of the revolution the project had to be abandoned. In the 1860s the German National League resumed the issue. The Schleswig-Holstein question in particular made a German navy a topic for debate in the National League. The defeat of the national cause in Schleswig-Holstein, so the members of the National League maintained, was due to the lack of a strong German navy.69 In London, the commitment to establish a navy was regarded as vital for all Germans abroad. Whereas in Germany the National League focused on possible benefits for German overseas trade and on a better position in the Schleswig-Holstein question, the National League in Britain hoped for improve- ments for Germans abroad. In the pamphlets of the National League in Germany the possibility that a German navy might provide for the better protection of overseas Germans was never mentioned. The National League in Britain, however, considered the guarding of German emigrants by a German navy to be an important subject. The National League defined its task in the movement for a German navy thus:

Auch an die Deutschen des Auslandes, vorzüglich an uns, ergeht der Ruf, beizutragen am großen Werke. — Auf dem freien Boden Englands, unter dem erhebenden Einflusse des Macht– und Stolzbewußtseins der Britten; im Anblick einer Flotte, die ihre gebietende Flagge zum Schutz und Heil der Nation entfaltet; im Gefühle der täglich uns gebotenen Demüthigungen ob unserer Ohnmacht und Schutzlosigkeit, haben wir die Bedeutung der Bewegung in der Heimath in ihrer ganzen Tragweite erkannt.70

As Germans in Britain, the National League felt a special responsibility to support the creation of a German navy. They gave three reasons to explain their role. Firstly, they pointed out that Germans in Britain enjoyed the civil rights of the liberal British constitution. The second argument was that Germans in Britain were presented with the advantages of the British Empire. This would raise their eagerness to possess a navy as well. The third factor was that Germans abroad suffered most from the lack of a German navy. In contrast with the Germans at home Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 474

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they felt personally affected. The struggle for a German navy was regarded as the starting point for a German overseas infrastructure to unite and protect German emigrants. The National League in Britain, therefore, believed that Germans abroad were obliged in a special way to contribute to the creation of a German navy. They organized committees in London, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham, and appealed to their compatriots to make donations towards the construction of a German navy.71 The willingness of Germans in Australia, South America, Russia, Turkey and Portugal to donate generously was advertised to their fellow migrants in Britain as an example to follow.72 The navy project was described as a global and col- lective undertaking of all Germans abroad, serving as a unifying tie for Germans everywhere in the world.73

The development of the ethnic self-perception in the National League in Britain is an example of the way in which political ideas changed as a result of migration. Nationalist ideology, revived in Germany at the end of the 1850s, was adopted and transformed according to the special situation of Germans in Britain. The National League in Britain took up the political patterns developed in Germany and on this basis designed its own concepts. Its members saw themselves simultaneously in relation to their compatriots at home and as part of a worldwide German community. By comparing themselves to the so-called ‘German colonies’ in the non-European world, they created an image of Germans throughout the world living in close communities, sharing the same culture, language and social life. The only defi- ciency they perceived was the fact that the emigrants were not protected by a strong German nation state. By emphasizing common ethnic elements, the National League in Britain painted the picture of an already existing German overseas empire in which the Germans in London played a central role. Being at the core of the British Empire, they felt a special obligation to create the world-embracing institutions their fellow migrants were lacking due to the political situation in Germany. The Forty- eighters in particular were convinced that a disunited Germany would never be able to build up the infrastructure for a German Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 475

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overseas empire. The initiative would therefore have to come from the Germans in London. The National League in Britain thus added an imperialist strand to German nationalist ideology. For the National League in Germany national unification was the main aim, while a colonial empire was considered to be a by- product of the achieved national unity. The National League in Britain, in contrast, argued the other way round. Because they were geographically apart from the region of their national endeavours, they widened the nationalist sphere from a limited area to a worldwide concept of cohesion. The transformation of nationalism which was the result of migration to Britain must be seen in the context of German imperial history. By providing a definition of German unity which stretched around the world, the National League in Britain tackled the idea of a German Weltreich at a very early stage. At the end of the 1850s, imperial conceptions did not play a very important role in German politics. There had been a period of colonial enthusiasm which had had its climax in the discussions of 1848–9.74 But the failure of the revolution meant the end of German colonial ambitions for the following decades. During the 1850s, the reactionary German governments were not interested in overseas expansion or in establishing colonies for German emigrants. For the migrants in Britain, however, the situation was different. While in Germany colonial interest was rather limited, the German migrants in Britain were in an environment where questions of overseas expansion were prominent in public and political debate. In the National League in Britain, imperialist concepts came to the fore at a time when politicians in Germany were mainly occupied with internal matters. This raises the question of what kind of impact the special ideology of the National League in Britain had on the development of German colonial history. On the one hand, the activities of the National League in Britain can be regarded as having had an encouraging effect on German colonialism. One could argue that at a time when colonial interest was at a low ebb in Germany, German imperialist thinking was developing in London. The impact these discussions had on Germany, even though the dimensions are difficult to judge, might have strength- ened the awareness in the public and political arenas for the possibilities of overseas expansion. On the other hand, the shift of German imperial discussion to London can be interpreted as a Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 476

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‘brain drain’ for the colonial movement in Germany. The Forty- eighters, who had fought for a German overseas policy during the revolution, were forced to escape Germany after their defeat. By emigrating, they took their perceptions of colonialism with them. As a result of the absence of the representatives of colonial enthusiasm, there were very few people left in Germany who might have put some emphasis on overseas matters in public and political discussion. It is worth reflecting whether colonial politics would have been made an issue in Germany earlier, had revolutionaries like Lothar Bucher, Gottfried Kinkel and Max Schlesinger been able to be politically active at home instead of developing their ideas of a German overseas empire in London. As well as the major economic, social and political factors which influenced German overseas history during the second half of the nineteenth century, therefore, the migration of important imperialist pressure groups to Britain could help to explain the lack of public and political interest in overseas matters in Germany during the 1850s and 1860s. Another argument for the relevance of the National League in Britain to German imperial history is the ideological continuity from the National League of the 1860s to the era of German imperialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the latter period there were formed imperialist pressure groups like the Alldeutsche Verband (Pan-German League), the Gesellschaft für Deutsche Kolonization (German Colonial Society) and the Deutsche Flottenverein (German Navy League). Their aims were in some respects similar to those of the National League in Britain in the 1850s and 1860s. An aspect of the continuity which can be traced from the National League in Britain to later imperial associations was their perception of the non-European world. Overseas regions were regarded as in- habited by inferior uncivilized populations, and it was seen as a God-given mission to bring light to the ‘dark continents’. Another similarity was the programmatic focusing on German emigrants. The way emigrants were used for imperialist propaganda by late nineteenth-century organizations was paralleled by the previous programme of the National League in Britain to establish settled colonies in order to preserve the ethnicity of German emigrants. Thus there were patterns of thinking which can be distinguished both in the National League in Britain and in the later pressure groups of German imperialism. On the other Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 477

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hand, there were ideological differences between the National League and the organizations of the later period. The ideas which the National League in Britain had propagated during the early 1860s were taken to extremes by imperialists like, for example, Carl Peters, Ernst von Weber and Wilhelm Hübbe-Schleiden. Under the influences of racism, Social Darwinism and anti- semitism, the wish for a global infrastructure to protect German emigrants developed into a concept of German superiority in the world, which can be related directly to the ideology of National Socialism.75 Furthermore, the National League in London differed from the later imperialist associations in so far as the ideals of the revolution of 1848 were of major significance to them. Democratic and liberal thinking was present in all discussions of the National League about worldwide German connections. At the end of the century, in contrast, democracy and liberalism were regarded as damaging for the German cause, antithetical to the Volksgemeinschaft and disruptive of political and ethnic harmony. Thus the ideological development from the National League in Britain to the imperialist pressure groups of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Germany was in many respects a step-by-step process from doctrines of a worldwide ethnic community to a radical version of the global hegem- ony of the Germanic race. The ideal of nationalism on a global scale, which the National League in Britain developed as a result of adapting political thinking to the situation of migrants, is therefore important for German imperialism in the nineteenth century.

Notes

1. Colin Holmes, ‘Germans in Britain 1870–1914’, Wirtschaftskräfte und Wirtschaftswege III. Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Festschrift für Hermann Kellenbenz (Bamberg 1978), 581–93; Hermann Kellenbenz, ‘German Immigrants in England’, in Colin Holmes, ed., Immigrants and Minorities in British Society (London 1978), 63–80; Rosemary Ashton, Little Germany: Exile and Asylum in Victorian England (Oxford 1986); Christine Lattek, ‘Die Entwicklung des deutschen Frühsozialismus in London 1840–1852’, Gregory Claeys and Liselotte Glage, eds, Radikalismus in Literatur und Gesellschaft des 19. Jahrhunderts (Frankfurt am Main 1987), 39–64; Jerome Farrell, ‘The German Community in Nineteenth Century East London’, East London Record 13 (1990), 2–8; Sabine Sundermann, Deutscher Nationalismus im englischen Exil. Zum sozialen und politischen Innenleben der deutschen Kolonie in London 1848 bis 1871, PhD dissertation, published on microfiche (FU Berlin 1994); Susanne Steinmetz, ‘300 Jahre Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 478

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deutsche evangelisch–lutherische St. Marien-Kirche in London: 1694–1994’, Deutsche Evangelisch–Lutherische St. Marien-Kirche in London 1694–1994/St Mary’s German Lutheran Church London 1694–1994 (London 1994); Panikos Panayi, German Immigrants in Britain during the Nineteenth Century, 1815–1914 (Oxford 1995); P. Panayi, ed., Germans in Britain since 1500 (London and Rio Grande 1996); Peter Alter and Rudolf Muhs, eds, Exilanten und andere Deutsche in Fontanes London (Stuttgart 1996); for the subject of intercultural transfer between Germany and Britain see Rudolf Muhs, Johannes Paulmann, Willibald Steinmetz, eds, Aneignung und Abwehr. Interkultureller Transfer zwischen Deutschland und Großbritannien im 19. Jahrhundert (Bodenheim 1998). 2. Andreas Biefang, Politisches Bürgertum in Deutschland 1857–1868. Nationale Organisationen und Eliten (Düsseldorf 1994); Kommission für Geschichte des Parlamentarismus und der politischen Parteien, ed., Der Deutsche Nationalverein 1859–1867: Vorstands- und Ausschußprotokolle (Düsseldorf 1995); Thomas Nipperdey, Deutsche Geschichte 1800–1866. Bürgerwelt und starker Staat (München 1993), 697–714; Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte. Dritter Band. Von der ‘Deutschen Doppelrevolution’ bis zum Beginn des Ersten Weltkrieges 1849–1914 (München 1995), 222–35; Hagen Schulze, ‘Perspektiven für Deutschland: Nationalverein und Reformverein’, Adolf M. Birke and Günther Heydemann, eds, Die Herausforderung des europäischen Staatensystems: Nationale Ideologie und staatliches Interesse zwischen Restauration und Imperialismus (Göttingen and Zürich 1989), 141–57; Otto Dann, Nation und Nationalismus in Deutschland 1770–1990 (München 1993); George L. Mosse, The Nationalization of the Masses. Political Symbolism and Mass Movements in Germany from the Napoleonic Wars Through the Third Reich (New York 1975); Wolfram Siemann, Gesellschaft im Aufbruch. Deutschland 1849–1871 (Frankfurt am Main, 1990). 3. Biefang, op. cit., 102, 103; Sundermann, op. cit., 159. 4. Sundermann, op. cit., 160–83. 5. Hermann, 135, 3 August 1861, 1028. 6. For the German Protestant clergy in Manchester see Manchester Central Library, Archive and Local Studies Unit, Fifth Report of the German Evangelical Church, No 6, John Dalton Street, in Manchester, Manchester 1860, 3, 4; Sue Coates, ‘Manchester’s German Gentlemen: Immigrant Institutions in a Provincial City 1840–1920’, Manchester Regional History Review, 5, 2 (1991/92), 25; for Liverpool see A. Rosenkrantz, Geschichte der deutschen evangelischen Kirche zu Liverpool (Stuttgart 1921), 25, 26; for the National League see Hermann, 112, 23 February 1861, 893; ibid., 250, 17 October 1863, 2002; ibid., 262, 9 January 1864, 2098. 7. Census of England and Wales for the year 1861, Population Tables (London 1863), Vol. II, lxxvii, table XXVIII. 8. The National League in Britain had around 160 members in 1860, the gymnastic society as one of the largest German associations had 907 members in 1865 (Hermann, 368, 20 January 1866, 2944); the size of the various German Protestant parishes never exceeded a few hundred in numbers in the middle of the nineteenth century (see for example Hermann, 13, 2 April 1859, 109). 9. Lutz Hoffmann, ‘Der Volksbegriff und seine verschiedenen Bedeutungen: Überlegungen zu einer grundlegenden Kategorie der Moderne’, in Klaus J. Bade, ed., Migration — Ethnizität — Konﬂikt: Systemfragen und Fallstudien (Osnabrück 1996), 168–70; Eric Hobsbawm, ‘Introduction: Inventing Traditions’, in Eric Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 479

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Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, eds, The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge 1983, Reprint 1984), 1–14. 10. Hermann, 53, 7 January 1860, 428. [Germany must no longer be sought in this confined fatherland. Germany is no longer there, but it has arisen all over the world. London is at the centre of all countries, and from there we can see the world best . . . We are the most conquering people of the world, and we have by far more colonies than Britain. Some might doubt this, because they are not protected by warships of the sold-out German navy and the mother country does not send her government representatives there. But this exactly is the beauty, the wonder, the pride of every farsighted German . . . The way we have conquered and still celebrate victory on victory is the only right and honourable one. Politically and morally soiled philistines in the confined fatherland have driven us out into the whole world, where we work, convert pagans, civilize the wilderness, form philistine-free communities, cultivate German life, German language and literature, German industriousness . . . and thus make conquests. Author’s translations] 11. Andreas K. Fahrmeir, ‘Nineteenth-Century German Citizenships: A Reconsideration’, Historical Journal, 40, 3 (1997), 721–52. 12. Hermann, 415, 15 December 1866, 3324. 13. Ibid., 291, 30 July 1864, 2328. 14. Wolfgang Petter, ‘Programmierter Untergang. Die Fehlrüstungen der deutschen Flotte von 1848’, in Michael Salewski, ed., Die Deutschen und die Revolution (Göttingen and Zürich 1984), 228–55. 15. For German emigration policy during these years see Eugen von Philippovich, ed., Auswanderung und Auswanderungspolitik in Deutschland (Leipzig 1892); Mack Walker, Germany and the Emigration 1816–1885 (Cambridge Mass., 1964); Johannes H. Voigt, ‘Von Risiken überseeischer Auswanderung und Reaktionen deutscher Regierungen in der Zeit von 1848 bis zur Gründung des Norddeutschen Bundes’, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, ed., ‘Jetzt wohnst du in einem freien Land. Zur Auswanderung Deutscher im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert’, Zeitschrift für Kulturaustausch, 39 (1989), 243–9. 16. Stefan Neuhaus, ‘Poesie der Sünde — Triumph der Moral: Großbritannien in den Reiseberichten und Romanen des frühen Rodenberg’, in Peter Alter and Rudolf Muhs, eds, Exilanten und andere Deutsche in Fontanes London, 254–69. 17. Julius Rodenberg, Alltagsleben in London (Berlin 1860), 5, 6. [ . . . these Germans are the true wanderers of all peoples in the world — messengers and apostles of culture — even if you went to the farthest places on earth, you would still, I think, find German compatriots! . . . are there any Germans in Germany? In Germany there are Prussians, Saxons, or Hanoverians . . . if you are looking for Germans, you have to go to London, to Quebec, to Buenos Aires . . . There are Germans only outside Germany.] 18. Hermann, 47, 26 November 1859, 369. 19. George Gillespie, ‘Das Englandbild bei Fontane, Moltke und Engels’, in Adolf M. Birke and Kurt Kluxen, eds, Viktorianisches England in deutscher Perspektive (München/New York 1983), 91–108; Conrad Wiedemann, ed., Rom–Paris–London Erfahrung und Selbsterfahrung deutscher Schriftsteller und Künstler in fremden Metropolen (Stuttgart 1988), 547–661. 20. Lothar Bucher, Bilder aus der Fremde. Für die Heimath gezeichnet von Lothar Bucher, Zweiter Band: Die Londoner Industrie–Ausstellung von 1862 (Berlin 1863), 32–3. Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 480

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21. Wolfgang J. Mommsen, ‘Zur Entwicklung des Englandbildes der Deutschen seit dem Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts’, in Lothar Kettenacker, Manfred Schlenke and Hellmut Seier, eds, Studien zur Geschichte Englands und der deutsch–britischen Beziehungen, Festschrift für Paul Kluke (München 1981), 375–97; Raymond James Sonntag, Germany and England. Background of Conﬂict 1848–1894, (New York 1964); Paul Kennedy, The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism 1860–1914 (London 1980). 22. Hermann, 291, 30 July 1864, 2328; ibid., 53, 7 January 1860, 428; ibid., 415, 15 December 1866, 3324. 23. Ibid., 86, 25 August 1860, 681; ibid., 183, 5 July 1862, 1462. 24. Ibid., 206, 13 December 1862, 1614; ibid., 137, 17 August 1861, 1089. 25. Ibid., 183, 5 July 1862, 1457. 26. Bernd Weisbrod, ‘Der englische “Sonderweg” in der neueren Geschichte’, Geschichte und Gesellschaft, Zeitschrift für historische Sozialwissenschaften, 16, 2 (1990), 233–52. 27. Hermann, 84, 11 August 1860, 665. 28. For the German street musicians see ibid., 132, 13 June 1861, 1095; the case of Hermann Müller is reported ibid., 296, 3 September 1864, 2372; 297, 10 September 1864, 2375; 298, 17 September 1864, 2383, 2388; 299, 24 September 1864, 2391, 2394, 2395; 300, 1 October 1864, 2402, 2404; 301, 8 October 1864, 2412; 303, 22 October 1864, 2428; 304, 29 October 1864, 2434; 306, 12 October 1864, 2449–51; 307, 18 November 1864, 2458–60; 308, 26 November 1864, 2465–6. 29. Ibid., 101, 8 December 1860, 801–2. 30. Hans Fenske, ‘Die deutsche Auswanderung in der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts — öffentliche Meinung und amtliche Politik’, Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht, 4 (1973), 221–36; Georg Smolka, Die Auswanderung als politisches Problem in der Ära des Deutschen Bundes (1815–1866), (Speyer 1993). 31. Hermann, 285, 18 June 1864, 2282. 32. Ibid., 109, 2 February 1861, 865. 33. Ibid., 602, 13 December 1862, 1614. 34. The project of the ‘Centralausschuß deutscher Vereine in Melbourne’ is dealt with ibid., 285, 18 June 1864, 2281, 2282, for the ‘Deutsche Rechts- schutzverein’ see ibid., 324, 18 March 1865, 2596. 35. Public Record Office, FO 25/34, 39; Ecuador und die Ecuador-Land- Compagnie, Mannheim 1862. 36. For example from Turkey in Hermann, 250, 17 October 1863, 2002; 262, 9 January 1864, 2098. 37. Ibid., 112, 23 February 1861, 893. 38. Ibid., 139, 31 August 1861, 1109; 406, 13 October 1866, 3251; 256, 28 November 1863, 2052. 39. Ibid., 273, 26 March 1864, 2187. 40. For the migration patterns of the German political refugees see Herbert Reiter, Politisches Asyl im 19. Jahrhundert. Die deutschen politischen Flüchtlinge des Vormärz und der Revolution von 1848/49 in Europa und den USA (Berlin 1992). 41. For the ‘Revolutionsanleihe’ (revolutionary loan) see British Library Add. MS 40,124, Gottfried Kinkel to Karl Blind, 2 November 1857, 21 November 1857, 12 January 1858, 27 February 1858, 4 May 1858, 12 April 1861, 17 April Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 481

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1861, 4 May 1861; Die Republik der Arbeiter, 8, 19 February 1853, 61; Hans Zeeck, ed., ‘Briefe aus Amerika 1851/52 von Gottfried Kinkel’, Die neue Rundschau, 49, 1 (1938), 600–14 and Die neue Rundschau, 49, 7 (1938), 27–47; ‘Gottfried Kinkel, Briefe aus Amerika’, Vision 1, 1 (1947), 51–8; Reiter, op. cit., 309–26. 42. Hermann, 95, 27 October 1860, 756; 103, 22 December 1860, 821; 112, 23 February 1861, 892; 125, 25 May 1861, 997; 134, 27 July 1861, 1069; 138, 24 August 1861, 1101; 139, 31 August 1861, 1109; 256, 28 November 1863, 2052; 272, 19 March 1864, 2180; 273, 26 March 1864, 2187; 285, 18 June 1864, 2281, 2282; 287, 2 July 1864, 2299; 340, 8 July 1865, 2721; for the Forty-eighters in Australia see Gerhard Fischer, ‘“A Great Independent Australian Reich and Nation”: Carl Muecke and the “Forty-Eighters” of the German-Australian Community of South Australia’, Journal of Australian Studies, 25 (1989), 85–100; Johannes H. Voigt, Australien und Deutschland — 200 Jahre Begegnungen, Beziehungen, Verbindungen (Hamburg 1988). 43. Hermann, 172, 19 April 1862, 1373; 230, 30 May 1863, 1834; 233, 20 June 1863, 1857, 1858; 212, 24 January 1863, 1689; for the activities of the Forty- eighters during the American Civil War see Ella Lonn, ‘The Forty-Eighters in the Civil War’, in A. E. Zucker, ed., The Forty-Eighters. Political Refugees of the German Revolution of 1848 (New York 1969), 182–220; Bruce C. Levine, The Spirit of 1848: German Immigrants, Labor Conﬂict, and the Coming of the Civil War (Urbana 1992). 44. Ibid., 172, 19 April 1862, 1373; 212, 24 January 1863, 1689; 230, 30 May 1863, 1834; 233, 20 June 1863, 1857, 1858. 45. August Petermann, ‘Moritz v. Beurmann’s Tod nebst Übersicht seiner Reise (1861–1863) so wie derjenigen von Overweg (1850–1852), Vogel (1853–1856) und Steudner (1861–1863)’, in August Petermann, ed., Mittheilungen aus Justus Perthes’ Geographischer Anstalt, (1864), 25–30. 46. Hermann, 10 March 1866, 3004; ibid., 194, 20 September 1862, 1545. 47. Ibid., 99, 24 November 1860, 789. 48. Ibid., 340, 8 July 1865, 2721. 49. Ibid., 314, 14 January 1865, 2522. 50. Sundermann, op. cit., 126. 51. Ibid., 124–46. 52. Hermann, 39, 1 October 1859, 305. [ . . . the date of unity of all compatriots scattered in the world, the festival for us to realize that all of us, even those who are most distanced from German soil, on the Amur and in Sacramento, in Melbourne and on the Missouri, in Peru and Rio de Janeiro, are still bound together by a common fatherland and are prepared for a great, bright future . . . what he [Schiller] means to Germans all over the world is demonstrated by marvellous preparations for the centenary celebrations. We have news from festivals being organized in London, Manchester, Bradford, in every city of the United States where Germans have joined together in clubs and societies, in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide, in Turkey and in Asia, far away in Siberia . . . Germans in Philadelphia have requested a poem from our Freiligrath, and it was sent to them. It will be sung all over the New World by millions of Germans on the same day and at the same hour by thousands of societies and communities German of tongue and in heart.] 53. Ibid., 43, 29 October 1859, 342; 46, 19 November 1859, 362; 44, 5 Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 482

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November 1859, 346; 46, 19 November 1859, 363. 54. Ibid. 39, 1 October 1859, 305; 43, 29 October 1859, 340. 55. Ibid. 44, 5 November 1859, 346; 43, 29 October 1859, 340; 46, 19 November 1859, 363; 47, 26 November 1859, 371. 56. For the gymnastic movement in the German states see Dieter Düding, Organisierter gesellschaftlicher Nationalismus in Deutschland (1808–1847). Bedeutung und Funktion der Turner- und Sängervereine für die deutsche Nationalbewegung (München 1984). 57. Hermann, 140, 7 September 1861, 1119; 143, 28 September 1861, 1142; 180, 14 June 1862, 1437; 188, 9 August 1862, 1497; 191, 30 August 1862, 1521, 1522; 195, 27 September 1862, 1558; 240, 8 August 1863, 1913; 243, 29 August 1863, 1937, 1938; 246, 19 September 1863, 1972; 332, 13 May 1865, 2656. 58. Ibid., 232, 13 June 1863, 1850. 59. Ibid., 287, 2 July 1864, 2299; 301, 8 October 1864, 2421. 60. Ibid., 136, 10 August 1861, 1082. 61. Ibid., 243, 29 August 1863, 1938. 62. Edward M. Spiers, The Army and Society 1815–1914 (New York 1980), 145–71; W. David Smith, Stretching their Bodies. The History of Physical Education (Newton Abbot/London/North Pomfret [VT]/Vancouver 1974), 83–4. 63. Michael Sanderson, Education, Economic Change and Society in England 1780–1870 (London 1983), 37–8; Geoffrey Best, ‘Militarism and the Victorian Public School’, in Brian Simon and Ian Bradley, eds, The Victorian Public School (London 1975), 129–46. 64. Hermann, 368, 20 January 1866, 2944. 65. Ibid. 66. Ibid. 67. Ibid., 296, 3 September 1864, 2372. 68. Ibid., 368, 20 January 1866, 2944. 69. Flugblätter des Deutschen Nationalvereins III., Die Bundeskriegsverfassung (Coburg 1862), 15. 70. Hermann, 145, 12 October 1861, 1153. [We, Germans abroad, and we in particular, are invited to contribute to this great undertaking. On free English ground, under the influence of proud and powerful Britons; looking at the British navy unfolding her mighty flag to protect the British nation; being conscious of humiliations we have to suffer daily because of the lack of protection from Germany; under these circumstances we are particularly aware of the significance of the movement for a German navy.] 71. Ibid., 140, 7 September 1861, 1113; 144, 5 October 1861, 1150; 145, 12 October 1861, 1153, 1154; 150, 16 November 1861, 1195, 1196, 1198; 151, 23 November 1861, 1206; 153, 7 December 1861, 1222; 154, 14 December 1861, 1226; 162, 8 February 1862, 1289; for the collections which were organized in the German states, see Koch, ‘Die Sammlungen für die Deutsche Flotte’, Marine- Rundschau, 7 (1896), 137–48; Biefang, op. cit., 185–91. 72. Hermann, 162, 8 February 1862, 1289. 73. Ibid. 74. Hans Fenske, ‘Imperialistische Tendenzen in Deutschland vor 1866. Auswanderung, überseeische Bestrebungen, Weltmachtträume’, Historisches Jahrbuch, 97/98 (1978), 336–83; Michael Kuckhoff, ‘Die Auswanderungs- diskussion während der Revolution von 1848/49’, in Günter Moltmann, ed., Articles 29/4 1/9/99 3:26 pm Page 483

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Deutsche Amerikaauswanderung im 19. Jahrhundert. Sozialgeschichtliche Beiträge (Stuttgart 1976), 101–45. 75. For the continuity from imperialism to fascism see Wehler, op. cit., 1075.

Ulrike Kirchberger

has just completed her PhD dissertation at the University of Stuttgart (‘Aspekte deutsch- britischer Expansion. Die Überseeinteressen der deutschen Migranten in Großbritannien in der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts’, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1999). She is currently working on a project on German scientists and explorers in the British empire, 1830– 1914.