History of Nationalism

Few people realise that the idea of establishing a Black Sea Union (BSU) – a regional bloc along the Black Sea littoral – was proposed in the immediate aftermath of WWII. This idea was primarily developed and advocated by Yuriy Lypa, a Ukrainian inter-war political thinker (1900-1944). In his books, Lypa described the dominant cultural, political and economic reasons for Eastern European states to create a supranational body in the Black Sea region. He also elaborated on the principles of common foreign and security policy of the proposed BSU and provided justification for establishing free trade and customs zones. In addition to outlining the dominant characteristics of the BSU, this article assesses the viability of Lypa’s ideas, as well as illustrates the linkages between the BSU and European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

In the Weimar Republic, Germans for the first time experimented with direct democrarcy. But only two referendums made it to the polling stations. GERMAN: In Weimar experimentierten die Deutschen erstmals mit direkter Demokratie. Doch nur zwei Volksentscheide kamen an den Urnen an.
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• Schlagwörter: Agitation, Beamte, Bewegung, Bilderbogen, Boykott, Comics, Demokratie, Demobilisierung, Enteignung, Freiheitsgesetz, Fürstenenteignung, Gegnerbeobachtung, Gerücht, Gewerkschaften, Kampagne, Karikatur, Kommunismus, Kriegsschuld, Mobilisierung, Nationalismus, Nationalsozialismus, Öffentliche Meinung, Pazifismus, Plakat, Plebiszit, Presse, Propaganda, Quorum, Radio, Rechtsextremismus, Referendum, Reparationen, Rheinland, Rundfunk, Sozialismus, Symbolik, Volksbegehren, Volksentscheid, Volksgesetz, Young-Plan, Weimarer Republik, Zuchthausparagraf
• Organisationen: DNVP, DVP, KPD, NSDAP, SPD, Vereinigung Deutscher Hofkammern, Kirchen, Ufa-Film, Reichsausschuss für das deutsche Volksbegehren gegen Young-Plan und Kriegsschuldlüge, Reichszentrale für Heimatdienst (RfH), Abter-Film, Stahlhelm
• Personen: Albert Einstein, Adolf Hitler, Alfred Hugenberg, Otmar Jung, Alfred Kerr, Käthe Kollwitz, Carl von Ossietzky, Erwin Piscator, Hermann Pünder, Kurt Tucholsky, Owen Young, Heinrich Zille
• Publikationen:  Volksbegehren!, Weltbühne

In the 1920s, Germany quarrled about its colors and symbols with high emotion. The flag controversy was a mass sport. GERMAN: In den 1920ern stritt Deutschland emotional um Farben und Symbole. Der Flaggenstreit war Breitensport.
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• Schlagwörter: Ästhetik, Boykott, Bundesadler, Corporate Identity, Demokratie, Expressionismus, Fahne, Flagge, Flaggenkunde, Flaggenstreit, Flaggenverordnung, Gedenktag, Großdeutschland, Handelsflagge, Inszenierung, Kampagne, Kapp-Putsch, Kriegsschuld, Kulturhoheit, Kulturpolitik, Kulturstaatsminister, Logo, Misstrauensvotum, Nationalismus, Obrigkeitsstaat, Österreich, Propaganda, Präsidentschaftswahl 1925, Primitivkunst, Reichsadler, Reichsarchivar, Reichseinheitsflagge, Reichsfarben, Reichsflagge, Reichskanzler, Reichskunstwart, Reichstag, Republikschutzgesetz, Revolution, Schwarz-Rot-Gold, Schwarz-Weiß-Rot, Staatsbegräbnis, Symbolik, Symbolpolitik, Trikolore, Verfassung, Verfassungstag, Vexillologie, Wahlkampf, Weimarer Republik
• Organisationen: NSDAP, Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold, Reichsblock Schwarz-Weiß-Rot, Roter Frontkämpferbund, SA Sturmabteilung, SPD, Stahlhelm, Volksblock Schwarz-Rot-Gold
• Personen: Eduard David, Paul von Hindenburg, Paul Löbe, Hans Luther, Wilhelm Marx, Arnold Rabbow, Walther Rathenau, Edwin Redslob, Philipp Scheidemann, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Veit Valentin, Otto Wels, Christian Welzbacher
• Publikationen:  Simplicissimus

Recent years have seen the flourishing of research on Lithuanian Kabbalists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to the point that some scholars speak of a defined and delineated stream of Kabbalah, a school unto itself dubbed "Lithuanian Kabbalah." Such scholars include within this stream all those who saw the Vilna Gaon as their teacher in Kabbalah (parallel to the position of the Baal Shem Tov in Hasidism) and they ascribe to it such fixed categories as its "Articles of Faith." In their conception, this stream was part and parcel of the broader and well-known nationalist-messianic current that had its source, supposedly, in the Vilna Gaon himself; this current reached its full fruition in the twentieth century, and so too has the smaller stream within it, now a clearly defined "school," developed in various ways until the present. As if this were not enough, scholars have joined the later ideological trend which seeks to revise the history of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in a decidedly messianic way, presenting it in a continuous line from the Vilna Gaon to the emergence of Zionism and then to the founding of the State of Israel. Again, the Vilna Gaon is not merely presented as a "herald" of Zionism but as one who encoded within his Torah the secret of redemption, the beginning of which, apparently, we are witnessing today. The article conducts a critical analysis of the concept of "Lithuanian Kabbalah," and uses as its case study the life and teachings of Rabbi Shimon Tsvi Horowitz.


בשנים האחרונות צומח ועולה מחקר סביב למקובלים בני ליטא במאות התשע עשרה והעשרים, עד שיש כאלו המדברים על זרם מוגדר ומובחן, אסכולה בפני עצמה, המכונה 'קבלה ליטאית'. בתוך זרם זה כוללים את כל אלו שראו בגר"א את מורם בקבלה, כמעין בעש"ט לחסידות, ומונים קטגוריות מקובעות של 'עיקרי אמונה' של אותו זרם הרוכב על מהלך משיחי ולאומי ידוע שמקורו כביכול בגר"א עצמו והגיע לגמר בישולו במאה העשרים. עד שנוצר בעיני כמה חוקרים מעין 'חוג' ברור ומוגדר שמתגלגל באופנים שונים עד לימינו. אם לא די בכך, הרי שהמדברים על אותו זרם קבלי רוכבים למעשה על קו אידיאולוגי מאוחר שבא לפרש מחדש את ההיסטוריה של היישוב היהודי בארץ ישראל במאה התשע עשרה ברוח משיחית וליצור מעין המשכיות מימי הגר"א עד להופעתה של הציונות ולמאורעות שהתרחשו עם הקמת מדינת ישראל. שוב אין הגר"א מצטייר רק כ'מבשר' הציונות אלא כמי שצפן בתורתו את סוד הגאולה שאנו עומדים לכאורה בפתחה. המאמר עוסק בניתוח ביקורתי של המשוג "קבלת ליטאית" וכמקרה מבחן יש כאן דיון בדרכו של ר' שמעון צבי הורביץ

Since the late 1970s, most scholarship on the origins of the Zionist–Palestinian conflict has emphasised the actions and agency of the Palestinian Arabs and Zionists, with a focus on the period before 1914. It is argued in this article, however, that the expectation of and commitment to political independence on both sides, a defining feature of the conflict, did not emerge until 1918, and that the actions of the British government in Palestine during the final year of the First World War drove this fundamental shift. Following Britain's occupation of southern Palestine in December 1917, the British administration undertook an extensive propaganda operation in the country to advertise their backing for Arab nationalism and Zionism. This campaign was part of the British government's wider endeavour to mobilise support for the Allied war effort and British imperial expansion in the Middle East in the new age of nationality. It led, the article contends, to a war for national sovereignty over Palestine between two statist nationalist movements. Rather than emphasise British colonial agency at the expense of that of the Palestinian Arabs and Zionists, the article argues that this development derived from a complex interaction between the three parties within the context of radical changes in international politics.