Contribution to the study of Volkische Ideologie and Deutschtumsarbeit among the Germans in Canada during the inter-war period

Abstract

Between World Wars I and II, the ethnic Germans in Canada strove to retain their language and culture. The impetus came on the heels of the Great War because lingering anti-German sentiment and assimilationist policies threatened to destroy their culture and traditions. Canada’s ethnic Germans were not alone in such endeavours, as German communities around the world also attempted to retain their identity. Within Germany, there flourished a movement designed to aid and foster the protection of German ethnicity around the globe. The movement encompassed private, semi-official and official agencies. The scope of their activities touched upon every aspect of ethnic retention and affected every country in which a sizable German element resided. Funding, materials, and guidance flowed from Germany to the ethnic Germans abroad, greatly influencing the direction and content of their attempts to retain their heritage, and this included the ethnic Germans in Canada. This thesis will give perspective to Deutschtumsarbeit in Canada by placing it within the context of the global movement orchestrated from Germany.