라인 지역주의와 지역 정체성의 모색

The Rhine Separatism and the Search for a regional identity after the World War I. in Germany

Because the Rhine river flows through Germany today, there s no doubt that the Rhinelands are in the German territory. The Rhine river till the beginning of 19th century, however, crossed borders of several states, with various national institutions and conflicting interests, which was a source of conflicts as well as co-operation. So, it was not easy to think of a regional identity in the Rhinelands which differentiate it from the rest of central Europe. At the beginning of 19th century, there was change in the situation. At the Congress of Vienna, the bulk of the Rhinelands had been parceled out among three German states, the Kingdom of Prussia, the Grand Duchy of Hessen-Darmstadt, and the Kingdom of Bavaria. Based on this common experiences created by the impact of the historical events, above all those of the era of the French Revolution, the Rhinelands as a region came into being in succession. By viewing regional development in Rhinelands, two moments are considered relevant. On the one hand, it lied to the west of German territory, including the three 3 German core states. On the other hand, the region s lasting characteristic depended on its location in the borderlands to France. As a result, the region shared a common, almost two-decades-long past of direct or indirect domination by the French politics. For that reason, German nationalists suspected later the Rhinelands substantial potential to secede from the German nation. At the latter half of the 19th century, however, the regional identity in this region was consolidated more and more. Carried by the thrusts of local development, religious autonomy etc., the inhabitants in the Rhinelands seemed to have everything going for the regional identity. The aim of this paper is to explore long-term development of the regional identity in this region. Especially using cases selected from the Rhine separatist movements after the World War I., it explored the search for a regional identity in the region. Illustrating the separatist leader not as pro-French politicians but as German-nationalist, it posited that the Rhine separatists never gave up an important structuring element for typical German nationalism. Because they thought of the German nation as a federalist one, their demands of the Rhinelands as a independent republic was not an anti-nationalistic act. But their separatist movement ended in failure in 1924. However, there was no end to regional development in the Rhinelands. It is no doubt that the Rhinelands after the World War II. become one of the most competitive regions in the BRD, although conflicts between the region and the German nation remained. This paper tried to illustrate the long-lasting development for the democratic political relations between the diverse Rhine States and the German nation.