Romanians and Pan-Germanism in the light of English language publications before and during the World War I
Romanians and Pan-Germanism in the light of English language publications before and during the World War I

Summary/Abstract: Over the time, Pan-Germanism was studied from political, military, economic and cultural perspective. Its clash with other pan-movements was considered to have had an undeniable contribution to the outbreak of ethnic conflicts in Central and Eastern Europe. My research focuses on all these aspects. However, my approach is rather non-canonical because it introduces into debate a vision shared by the English speaking opponents of the movement itself as well as a hint to the Romanians’ awareness who, from a certain moment, had (to) realize(d) the negative impact of Pan-German agenda. Although seemingly a secondary contribution to the World War I studies, this topic may be a good field of investigation because of the role assigned to some/an ethnic group(s)/small state(s) in Eastern Europe by at least two major international actors at war with one another. More than the voices of small candidates to the status of nation states or those who dreamt to fulfill their national unity, (i. e. Romanians/Kingdom of Romania represents an excellent case study), on account of neighboring empires, what was more salient in the sources I have studied were the voices of one world power towards another. As I will show, one could witness a veritable battle in words that was complementary to another (planned to be) carried out in the tranches. The approach was to assign the German Reich - the contender of the already imperial states - a set of essentialized negative cultural traits corresponding to attributed obnoxious intents manifesting in the international arena. The discourses visited by the authors of these texts consisted in denouncing Pan-Germanism as an imperialism germinating in a völkisch chauvinistic soil and concomitantly to bring guarantees of freedom to those taking the side of the Entente. Undoubtedly, these writings could legitimize the war carried against Pan-Germanism identified and represented, in all its aspects, to be a menace of the world status-quo.

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