Doktorand/ Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel)
Forschungsaufenthalt: 23.09.–24.10.05
The role of the „männerbünd” (male fraternity) in the construction of nationalism in fin-de-siècle Germany
This work is part of a project exploring the role of friendship as a political and cultural sentiment in the formulation of modern national identity. Although various influential accounts of nationalism in modernity alluded to the transformation of face-to-face interactions into “imaginary” ties of national solidarity, there is limited discussion of how sentiments of friendship underlie this process. Rather than considering fraternity as a historical survival of traditional European societies it should be understood as a growing political impetus underlying the national revolutions. Informed by the analytic distinction between the “contractual-civic” model for national identity, and the “cultural-ethnic” model, I wish to examine the extent that each model provides a conceptual framing of national identity as a horizontal bond perceived as friendship. These theoretical questions will be addressed in the historical and socio-political context of German culture between mid 19th century and 1933, focusing on male social clubs, secret societies and the development of the ideology of the männerbünd. I would also like to examine the influences and interrelations between German nationalism and Zionist thought in shaping the hegemonic ideology of male fraternity.