HI136 The History of Germany Lecture 19

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HI136 The History of GermanyLecture 19

• Germany and Europe
• The Debate on German Peculiarities

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German Unification, 1862-1870

• After 1815 Germany made up of 39 independent
  states.
• Growing demands for unification.
• 1848 failure of liberal bourgeois revolution.
• Economic industrial development helped
  unification, eg. the Zollverein customs union.
• 1864-71 Wars of Unification, expelled Austria
  united Germany under Prussian leadership.

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Imperial Germany, 1871-1918

• Authoritarian government, but some degree of
  democracy rule of law.
• Forces of reaction balanced by forces of change.
• Saw rapid industrialisation which brought both
  increased prosperity social dislocation.
• Emergence of aggressive nationalism fears of
  social unrest may have led to decision to go to
  war in 1914.
• War led to economic hardship military
  dictatorship. Defeat discredited the regime led
  to collapse of the monarchy.

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The Weimar Republic, 1918-33

• Faced significant problems of legitimacy from the
  beginning defeat, revolution, Versailles treaty,
  economic problems etc.
• Characterised by economic upheaval political
  extremism.
• Attempts to balance German political traditions
  with West European democratic traditions.
• But democracy endured for 15 years.
• Achievements
• Guarantee of civil rights.
• More equal society.
• Cultural flowering.
• World economic crisis initiated final crisis.

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The Third Reich, 1933-45

• Debate over continuities with what went before
• Nationalism, militarism, racism etc. present in
  Germany before 1933
• But the Nazis took them to extremes.
• Economic revival in 1930s.
• Attempts to reshape German society bring it
  into line with Nazi ideology.
• Police state not governed by the rule of law.
• Germans also victims of Nazism.
• War genocide ultimately led to disaster for
  Germany.

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West Germany, 1949-90

• Rooted in Western democratic, free market
  traditions.
• Rapid economic recovery in the 1950s helped
  produce a prosperous stable society.
• But reaction against this in the 1960s and 70s.
• Nevertheless, the system itself not challenged.
• By the 1980s West Germany was a stable democracy,
  firmly entrenched in Western Europe.

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East Germany, 1949-90

• Roots in the Soviet occupation led to problems of
  legitimacy.
• A single party state ruled by the SED.
• Party rule bolstered by the secret police (Stasi)
  a paternalistic welfare state.
• Planned economy had some successes (rapid
  industrialisation in the 1950s), but by the 1980s
  had become stagnant riddled with corruption.
• Despite problems much support from citizens until
  the late 1980s.
• Changing international situation reform in the
  Soviet Bloc paved the way for collapse in 1989.

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Germanys Special Path (Sonderweg)

• Term originated in the 19th century Germanys
  political, economic military success were down
  to unique values institutions. Germany was
  pursuing a middle way between Tsarist Autocracy
  western democracy.
• After 1945 the notion took on a more negative
  slant Germany had taken a wrong turning on
  the path to modernity which led to National
  Socialism.
• 1960s Wehler failed bourgeois revolution led
  to Germany developing a modern economy governed
  by pre-modern elites (monarchy, army,
  aristocracy).
• 1980s Blackbourn Eley German middle class
  disempowered in political life but dominated
  culture society. Sonderweg a flawed tool for
  looking at German history.

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Continuity in German History

• Related to the debate over Sonderweg is the issue
  of continuities in modern German history.
• 1940s 50s West European American historians
  saw the Third Reich as the result of flaws in the
  German character while West German historians
  saw it as an aberration the consequence of
  wider European trends.
• 1960s Fischer controversy new debate on
  Sonderweg led to structuralist historians
  identifying highlighting continuities between
  Imperial Nazi Germany.
• Undoubtedly there are similarities no period of
  history is divorced from what precedes it but
  this approach can be misleading.
• Hindsight shouldnt mislead us into assuming that
  the course of history was fixed.

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Geographical Argument

• Assertion that Germanys historical development
  has been shaped by its geography.
• Germanys position at the centre of Europe made
  it a meeting place for different cultures and
  ideas,
• But it also made it vulnerable to attack.
• This led to development of Prussian military
  monarchy the adoption of an aggressive foreign
  policy on the grounds that attack was the best
  form of defence.
• After both World Wars Germany was at the mercy of
  its enemies, and its position at the heart of
  Europe made it the focus of Cold War rivalries
  and tensions.
• Martin Kitchen geography had a psychological
  effect on the Germans nationalism the result of
  a jealous hatred of the west an arrogant
  disdain for the east.

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Historical Argument

• Germanys fractured fragmented history is the
  key to understanding its development in the 20th
  century.
• Germany became a nation-state comparatively late,
  which led to the development of an unstable
  national consciousness national inferiority
  complex.
• History of particularism made it difficult to
  integrate different groups into German society
  after 1871, leading to the growth of an assertive
  nationalism (Wehler negative integration).
• Debates between champions of federalism
  centralisation continued in the 20th century
  the Nazis tried to eliminate federal tradition
  bring all of Germany under central control.
• Revival of federalism after World War II seen as
  an important feature in ensuring stability
  preventing a resurgence of nationalism.