Contents

Preface

List of Abbreviations

1 The Pan-German League as a Historical Problem

‘True Germans who show the world the real Prussian soul’

‘Representatives of the most reactionary wing of the ruling class’

‘The Empire’s modern opinion-managers’

Plan of the Study

2 Patriotic Societies in Bismarckian Germany

The Incubation of Patriotic Societies in Imperial Germany

Patriotic Societies of the First Generation

3 The Formation and Early Development of the Pan-German League, 1886–1902

The General German League, 1886–93

The Pan-German League: Consolidation, Expansion, and Competition, 1894–9

The Development of a National Opposition, 1899–1902

4 Ideology

The Program

Outposts amidst the Flood

Order, Culture, and Authority

Bismarck and Hamlet

5 Social Foundations of Ideology

The Pan-German League: a Social Profile

Custodians of Culture and Authority

6 Ideology and Psychology

A World of Enemies

Toward a Social Psychology of Radical Nationalism

7 A Favorable Climate

The Pan-German League in the East and South

Regional Strongholds

Gaudeamus igitur

8 Social Experience in a ‘German-National Public Realm’

Spontaneity and Structure in the Local Chapters

Sociability and Patriotism

Private Virtue and the German-National Public Realm

The Public Obligations of Patriotism

9 The Scope of the German-National Public Realm

The Pan-German League and Other Patriotic Societies

Patriotic Societies and Other Voluntary Associations

The German-National Public Realm and the Structure of Party Politics

10 In the Wilderness

The Growing Rift with the Government

The Financial Consequences of Opposition: the Business of Patriotism

The Ideological Consequences of Opposition: the Embrace of Racist Antisemitism

11 The Fronde

Prelude: the Crisis in the German Navy League

Morocco

The German Defense League

Consolidation of the Right

Va banque

Conclusion

Statistical Appendix

Bibliography

Index