alternatehistory.com

A bit of a musing on Paul Schiemann's thoughts on international law, as it relates to Europe.

Volksgemeinschaft, historically, has had two related meanings. The first is the notion of a "national community", devoted to the common welfare of a people united by blood and language. Picture the nation as a big happy family, and you have the right idea.

A volksgemeinschaft could stretch across international borders, of course, so that Germans in Poland and Estonia were still part of the volksgemeinschaft. This is in contrast to the staatsgeimenschaft, or a polity occupying a given space. Schiemann's thoughts were that the two communities could overlap, but need not conflict. People interested in pre-modern states will doubtless see similarities to things like the Ottoman millets.

OTL, Europe decided after the Second World War that the easiest way to deal with the minority problem was to expel whoever you had to to create an ethnically homogeneous state. But in the interwar period... Latvia actually saw interesting developments along these lines, and the interwar European Minorities Congress did make efforts to push for minority rights. And of course, the Sudetenland Affair would only require a slight I can see, almost, how you could get a Europe which recognizes there's a difference.

So, an eastern/central Europe where you have our local state, but the Lithuanian community in Poland, or the Slovaks in Czechoslovakia, run their own educational system and cultural affairs, within a gradually federalizing continent.

Thoughts?
Top