Umvolkung

"Umvolkung" (german: "to change the people") is a term from the nazi ideology to describe the process of assimilating german people, so they would e.g. forget about their language and their origin. The term is also utilized to describe the "re-germanisation" of the german people, after new Lebensraum was conquered and the german people, who already resided there would become more german again. Of course, Umvolkung was seen as a negative process during the Third Reich. Nowadays it is still utilized by far-right german organizations and those people, who identify with the nazi ideology and its aspects.

Origin and Background

The term was invented by Albert Brackmann, a prestigious leader of the Ostforschung. The "Ostforschung" was a research, which investigated the character and the attitudes of people (the so-called "Verhalten"), who lived in parts east to the then German Reich, e.g. in Poland, Ukraine, Slovakia and Romania.

There was a plan to conquer almost whole Eastern Europe and process the "Umvolkung", so all the former german people, who slowly assimilated and admixed with the other ethnies would become more german again.

Today use

The term is nowadays used by far-right fraternities, parties, and organizations as the NPD or the Jungen Nationalen. The term became a catchphrase and is often utilized, to make the german people fear the immigrants, whose number is increasing constantly like "the immigrants are going to turn the german inhabitants into less german people".

Sources

1. [http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/BEITRAG/essays/fami0500.htm] 2. [http://www.doew.at/projekte/rechts/chronik/1998_07/umvolker.html]

See also

* Lebensraum
* Xenophobia
* Ostforschung
* Volk
* Glossary of Nazi Germany