Internationalism, Patriotism, Nationalism

Abstract Robert Michels’ writings on the complex of issues around nationalism, patriotism, and internationalism have continued to attract scholarly interest. There was a strong situational element to Michels’ views on these topics. From his earliest writings, Michels demonstrated an allergy to the kind of nationalism that prevailed in Wilhelmine Germany. This allergy may have had a combination of sources—the aversion of his Francophile Rhineland family background to the Prussian-dominated empire, generational revolt against the repressive official culture of Wilhelmine Germany, and an aversion to German militarism fed by his own negative experiences of military service. On the other hand, Michels always evinced a warmer attitude to Italian nationalism, even when it took on more aggressive imperialist forms after 1910. For Michels, Italian nationalism, as represented by figures such as Mazzini and Garibaldi, was more democratic and fed by more positive national characteristics than its German counterpart. Even while Michels’ attitudes to nationalism, patriotism, and internationalism evolved as he moved away from an embrace of the concept of class struggle to a more elitist attitude, his strong aversion to German militarism remained a consistent feature of his writing.