Drang nach Osten
Polish journalist Julian Klaczko wrote the phrase Drang nach Osten in 1849. He used it as a citation within his reporting on German expansionist tendencies. The term did not appear to be invented by him, yet he was the first known person to record it in print. English and other languages adopted the German form almost exclusively. This linguistic choice suggests the concept originated within German nationalist discourse rather than Polish criticism. The phrase translates roughly to drive to the east or push eastward depending on the translator. It became a label for a specific political intent to expand Germany into Slavic territories of Central and Eastern Europe.
High Medieval migration periods saw ethnic Germans move toward Eastern Europe between the 12th and 13th centuries. Commoners like peasants and craftsmen left the Rhineland, Flanders, and Saxony due to population pressure. They joined nobility who lacked land inheritance rights in their home regions. These settlers moved into sparsely populated areas inhabited by Slavs, Balts, and Finno-Ugrics. Slavic kings and dukes invited these groups while the Church provided support. The Teutonic Knights arrived later after Konrad of Masovia invited them to northern Poland. They assimilated and forcibly converted much of the southern Baltic coastlands. Future Prussia took its name from the conquered Old Prussians during this era. Legal, cultural, and economic changes followed the movement across lands between the Baltic Sea and Carpathians.
Adolf Hitler declared Drang nach Osten an essential element of his reorganization plans for Europe in Mein Kampf published between 1925 and 1926. He stated that veins of the German race must expand only eastwards as nature decreed. Nazi propaganda depicted Eastern Europe as historically Germanic territories stolen by Hunnic and Avar tribes. Hitler viewed Slavs as primitive subhumans lacking state-forming capabilities. Anti-Slavism became a core doctrine considering Slavs racially inferior Untermensch. Generalplan Ost sought total domination by conducting genocide against Slavic inhabitants. The plan involved forcibly deporting remaining populations beyond the Urals. Heinrich Himmler led the Reich Security Main Office which distributed racist pamphlets across occupied territories. Military campaigns initially succeeded with conquests of Poland, the Baltic countries, Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of European Russia before Soviet forces reversed gains by 1943.
The Potsdam Conference made decisions regarding the expulsion of Germans from eastern territories between 1945 and 1948. These actions terminated most demographic and cultural outcomes associated with earlier expansion efforts. Historical Eastern Germany split between Poland, Russia, and Lithuania after World War II. The land was repopulated with settlers of respective ethnicities following the expulsion. Old Prussians had been conquered by Teutonic Knights in the 13th century and assimilated over centuries. Their language went extinct by the 17th or early 18th century. Beneficiaries later justified these expulsions as a rollback of previous German ambitions. Henry Cord Meyer noted that the slogan originated in the Slavic world and was more widely used there than within Germany itself.
Polish intellectuals began referring to the German Drang nach Osten as a threat during the 19th century. They developed a counter-concept called Drang nach Westen alleging a Polish drive westward. This analogy circulated among German authors reacting to loss of eastern territories and the Polish Corridor. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary attempted expanding power eastward through influence in the Ottoman Empire. Austria-Hungary acquired territory in the Balkans including Bosnia and Herzegovina. German nationalists called for a new policy to oppose what they conceived as a Polish thrust toward the West. The Polish paper Gazeta Wyborcza used both terms in August 2002 regarding corporate takeovers and migration patterns. Eric Joseph Goldberg wrote an ironic chapter titled Struggle for Empire pointing out missing eastward ambitions of Louis the German who instead expanded his kingdom to the West.
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Common questions
Who wrote the phrase Drang nach Osten in 1849?
Polish journalist Julian Klaczko wrote the phrase Drang nach Osten in 1849. He used it as a citation within his reporting on German expansionist tendencies.
When did ethnic Germans migrate toward Eastern Europe during High Medieval migration periods?
High Medieval migration periods saw ethnic Germans move toward Eastern Europe between the 12th and 13th centuries. Commoners like peasants and craftsmen left the Rhineland, Flanders, and Saxony due to population pressure.
What did Adolf Hitler declare about Drang nach Osten in Mein Kampf published between 1925 and 1926?
Adolf Hitler declared Drang nach Osten an essential element of his reorganization plans for Europe in Mein Kampf published between 1925 and 1926. He stated that veins of the German race must expand only eastwards as nature decreed.
Where were Old Prussians conquered by Teutonic Knights in the 13th century?
Future Prussia took its name from the conquered Old Prussians during this era. The land was repopulated with settlers of respective ethnicities following the expulsion after World War II.
Why did Henry Cord Meyer note that the slogan originated in the Slavic world?
Henry Cord Meyer noted that the slogan originated in the Slavic world and was more widely used there than within Germany itself. This observation contrasts with the common assumption that the term emerged solely from German nationalist discourse.