Constructing the Volksgemeinschaft: Saxon Particularism and the Myth of the German East, 1919–1933

In the interwar period, Transylvanian Saxon nationalists integrated Saxon particularism into a broader German Volksgemeinschaft, stretching from Germany to the Baltic under the rubric of the myth of the German East. However, Saxon identification with the Volksgemeinschaft varied according to the degree to which other Germans matched Saxon particularistic understandings of Germanness. Saxon nationalists identified strongly with Germany, which gave new meaning to the Saxons’ imagined civilizing mission in Transylvania. Other historically privileged German communities in eastern Europe such as the Baltic Germans also reinforced Saxon views of the Volksgemeinschaft. However, Saxon nationalists struggled to identify with other Germans in Romania, whose comparatively low socioeconomic standing did not match their expectations. These patterns continued after 1933.