Forging Nations: German, Jewish People

Often I connect the Zionist Movement (or Judonia) with 19th century Polonia, but the following two posts from Robert Lindsay serve to remind that forging a nation from linguistically diverse populations that do not necessarily have the strongest sense of common identity also has a German model in the establishment of Hohenzollern Germany (Kleindeutschland) in 1870 and then in the creation of Großdeutschland under Hilter:

• A Reworking of German Language Classification and
• Questions About the German Language Classification.

Nineteenth century German Jews had a particularly large interest in uniting Germany

• because it would remove internal German business and trade barriers and
  
• because the political battle for Jewish emancipation would only have to be fought in before one government.

German Jewish Zionists brought the Zionist movement a lot of relevant information and experience related to nation and identity formation.

The success of the German Nazi government in creating facts on the ground probably was and remains a major source of inspiration for Zionist Palestinian and foreign policy.
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