Le Plan Pangermaniste: En dehors de toute question de langue et de race, l'Allemagne vise a absorber les diverses regions dont la possession est consideree comme utile a sa puissance. (The Pan-German Plan: Apart from any question of language and race, Germany aims to absorb the various regions whose possession is considered useful to its power)
Le Plan Pangermaniste: En dehors de toute question de langue et de race, l'Allemagne vise a absorber les diverses regions dont la possession est consideree comme utile a sa puissance. (The Pan-German Plan: Apart from any question of language and race, Germany aims to absorb the various regions whose possession is considered useful to its power)
A French poster attacking the "Pan-German" plan of conquest. The Pan-German movement had coalesced in the 1890s among German critics of imperial timidity, and it had gained substantial influence by the eve of the War. It urged, among other things, the uniting of all ethnic Germans ("Deutschtum"), regardless of existing state borders; reduction of "un-German" (Slav, Catholic, Jewish) cultural influence; and creation of "lebensraum" for Germany by colonial annexation (Baranowski 2011, 42-45; Wertheimer 1924, 3-4).
In 1916, a French journalist and scholar published "The Pangerman Plot Unmasked," which became a sensation, particularly after its translation into English the following year. The message was clear: Pangermanism was not merely a German claim "to annex only the regions inhabited by dense masses of Germans, on the border of the Empire," or "to gather within the same political fold the peoples who are more or less Germanic by origin" (albeit "quite inadmissible"). "Pangermanism is more than that. It is really the doctrine, of purely Prussian origin, which aims at annexing all the various regions, irrespective of race or language, of which the possession is deemed useful to the power of Hohenzollerns." (Cheradame 1917, 1-2).
Cheradame is cited as a reference in the small text below the map, and the subtitle of the poster paraphrases his work: "Apart from any question of language and race, Germany aims to absorb the various regions whose possession is considered useful to its power." The map reflects "the existence of the Pan-German plan [as] revealed by the German works cited on each side of the map," including works published in 1895 by the Alldeutscher Verband (Pan-German League). It shows German expansion by 1950 not only into Western and Eastern Europe, but large portions of South America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
Below the map are details on the Goals of the Plan, and the Steps in Its Implementation. At the bottom of the poster, in red, is the conclusion: "The fight against Pangermanism is the fight for the rights of peoples and to ensure world peace."
