With the end of the First World War, Germany became a "post-colonial" power. The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 transformed Germany's overseas colonies in Africa and the Pacific into League of Nations Mandates, administered by other powers. Yet a number of Germans rejected this "post-colonial" status, arguing instead that Germany was simply an interrupted colonial power and would soon reclaim these territories. With the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, irredentism seemed once again on the agenda, and these colonialist advocates actively and loudly promoted their colonial cause in the Third Reich. Examining the domestic activities of these colonialist lobbying organizations, Empire in the Heimat demonstrates the continued place of overseas colonialism in shaping German national identity after the end of formal empire. In the Third Reich, the Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft and the Reichskolonialbund framed Germans as having a particular aptitude for colonialism and the overseas territories as a German Heimat. As such, they sought to give overseas colonialism renewed meaning for both the present and the future of Nazi Germany. They brought this message to the German public through countless publications, exhibitions, rallies, lectures, photographs, and posters. Their public activities were met with a mix of occasional support, ambivalence, or even outright opposition from some Nazi officials, who privileged the Nazi regime's European territorial goals over colonialists' overseas goals. Colonialists' ability to navigate this obstruction and intervention reveals both the limitations and the spaces available in the public sphere under Nazism for such "special interest" discourses.

About the Author
Willeke Sandler is Assistant Professor of History at Loyola University Maryland.

Reviews
In crisp prose, Willeke Sandler's book offers a vivid, compelling and deeply researched picture of the afterlives of empire under the dictatorship of the NSDAP (the National Socialist German Workers' Party). Moving from the Weimar-era rejection of what was seen as the 'colonial guilt lie' of Versailles, through the Gleichschaltung of pro-colonial organisations under the Nazis, and ending with the dissolution of the Nazified colonial organisations during the Second World War, Sandler clearly demonstrates the extent to which pro-colonial Germans sought to accommodate themselves to a new Nazi regime that was at best ambivalent about their colonial irredentism....Clearly emerging in Sandler's work is the deep symbiosis between the colonial movement and the Nazi Party. * English Historical Review *
A rich and exceptionally well-written history of post-1919 German procolonial, irredentist organizations and the propaganda they produced.... The book deepens our understanding both of European colonial culture and of the ways in which the Nazi regime functioned * Matthew G. Stanard, German Studies Review *
Sandler intervenes in and complicates the traditional narrative of the demise of those groups and individuals that promoted overseas expansionism and lobbied for the return of Germany's colonies under the Nazi regime....Sandler's book is an important contribution to the vast body of scholarship on Nazi Germany, as it sheds light on the complexities of public support for the Nazi regime and the various and changing opportunities of loyal, single-issue dissent offered by it. * Jens-Uwe Guettel, German History *



Book Information
ISBN 9780190697907
Author Willeke Sandler
Format Hardback
Page Count 360
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 672g
Dimensions(mm) 243mm * 164mm * 26mm