Status Claims and Undeserved Recognition. The German Kaiserreich before World War I

This paper argues that the German status claims before World War I were directly linked to a feeling of being misrecognized. German foreign policy was guided by a status seeking approach. The desired status as a world power limited political options and lead the German Kaiserreich into isolation and encirclement. Thus it has manifest consequences for the international system of the time. The German status claims combined with the rapid growths of German commerce, trade and armament challenged the established world powers. They reacted with demonstrations of power, strength and especially with non-recognition. This interaction between the German Kaisereich and their opponents had impact on all other European states and lead to a re-design of the international system after World War I. In a first step I highlight the German status claims and their implications for the international system. As an example the two Moroccan crises are used to demonstrate this link. In a second step I analyze the German internal situation to demonstrate the complex interlink between German status claims and domestic policies. I focus here on the internal and external implications of the German naval program, because this was one of the main fields for the German Kaiserreich to demand recognition. Methodological I use a discoursive framework, because this provides to find the links between status claims, feelings of misrecognition and foreign policy. I show the discoursive processes behind foreign policy. This allows clarifying the role of status claims and (mis)recognition in the international system as well as in internal affairs.