Addresses to the German Nation

The Addresses to the German Nation (German: Reden an die deutsche Nation, 1806) is a political literature book by German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte that advocates German nationalism in reaction to the occupation and subjugation of German territories by Napoleon's French Empire following the Battle of Jena. Fichte evoked a sense of German distinctiveness in language, tradition, and literature that composed the identity of a nation (people). According to Bertrand Russell in his History of Western Philosophy, Fichte's work laid the theoretical foundations of German nationalism.