German nationalism in Austria

German nationalism (German: Deutschnationalismus) is a political ideology and historical current in Austrian politics. It arose in the 19th century as a nationalist movement amongst the German-speaking population of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It favours close ties with Germany, which it views as the nation-state for all ethnic Germans, and the possibility of the incorporation of Austria into a Greater Germany.

Over the course of Austrian history, from the Austrian Empire, to Austria-Hungary, and the First and the Second Austrian Republics, several political parties and groups have expressed pan-German nationalist sentiment. National liberal and pan-Germanist parties have been termed the "Third Camp" (German: Drittes Lager) of Austrian politics, as they have traditionally been ranked behind mainstream Catholic conservatives and socialists. The Freedom Party of Austria, a far-right political party with representation in the Austrian parliament, has pan-Germanist roots. After the Second World War, both pan-Germanism and the idea of political union with Germany were discredited by their association with Nazism, and by the rising tide of a civic Austrian national identity.

Within the context of rising ethnic nationalism during the 19th century in the territories of the multi-ethnic Austrian Empire, the "German National Movement" (German: Deutschnationale Bewegung) sought the creation of a Greater Germany, along with the implementation of anti-semitic and anti-clerical policies, in an attempt to entrench the German ethnic identity. Starting with the revolutions of 1848, many ethnic groups under imperial rule, including the Czechs, Italians, Croats, Slovenes, and Poles, amongst others, demanded political, economic, and cultural equality. Traditionally, the German-speaking population of the Empire enjoyed societal privileges dating back to the reign of Empress Maria Theresa, and that of her son, Joseph II. German was considered the lingua franca of the Empire, and Empire's elite consisted primarily of German-speakers. The struggle between the many ethnic groups of the Empire and German-speakers defined the social and political landscape of the Empire from the 1870s, after the Compromise of 1867, which granted renewed sovereignty to the Kingdom of Hungary, until the dissolution of the Empire after the First World War. After the Austrian defeat in the Battle of Königgrätz of 1866, and the unification of what was then known as "Lesser Germany" under Prussian stewardship in 1871, German-speakers in the Empire felt that they had been excluded from the German nation-state, whilst other ethnicities within the Empire were tearing at its fabric. Conflict between Germans and Czechs grew particularly tense in 1879, when minister-president Viscount Taaffe did not include the German-Liberal Party (German: Deutschliberale Partei) in the government of Cisleithania. This party was considered the main representative of the German-speaking middle class, and as such, the German National Movement went on to accuse the Party of not fighting for the rights of German-speakers within the Empire. The "German School League" (German: Deutscher Schulverein) was formed in 1880 to protect German-language schools in parts of the Empire where German speakers were a minority. It promoted the establishment of German-language schools in communities where public funding was used for non-German schools.

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