alternatehistory.com

At the risk of putting myself on Susano's Death-list, I propose that European ethnicities are not set in stone, and have evolved somewhat over the centuries. I also propose that ethnicity is largely based on what people think ethnicity is.

With this in mind, I wonder - with suitable anti-Prussian and Pro-Austrian sentiment in southern Germany (not hard to arrange both), would one be able to forge a "South German" or "Catholic German" ethnicity, claiming to be just as non-Prussian as, say, the Netherlands? Certainly the dialects are less than entirely comprehensible throughout the nation, and Europe largely focuses on dialect and language to define its ethnicities.

Just a thought.
Top