German imperialists worked to keep emigrants tied to the Reich abroad

Evidence

These motives were especially outspoken in German imperialism. Among the first activities of the Alldeutsche Verband (founded in 1891) were efforts to prevent German emigrants from changing their citizenship, and the first imperialist speech of William II, on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the foundation of the Reich, contained the following typical passage: “The German Empire has become a World Empire. Thousands of our compatriots live everywhere, in distant parts of the earth… Gentlemen, it is your solemn duty to help me unite this greater German Empire with our native country.” — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2229

Categorization

• XREF: Population-based claims to distant lands prefigure race-thinking and the imagined community of empire Arendt builds toward. — connects to: Personal American attachments prevented some Institut members from returning to Germany — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 853; Imperial ethnic citizenship survived in West Germany long after empire’s end — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 68