What is 'Volk'

The 'Volk' was the term used by German Romantics and nationalists in the nineteenth century, describing “an organic national community united by a distinctive language, ways of thought, shared traditions, and a collective memory enshrined in folklore and fable” (). It was a theory of collective identity which incorporated national salvation and later outlined clear distinctions between who was and was not a member of the 'Volk.' Anti-Semitism became an inherent quality of this definition, with "cosmopolitan Jews" (190) supposedly preventing the 'Volk' from being pure and united.