hi136 the history of germany lecture 18
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HI136 The History of Germany Lecture 18. Recap and Wrap-Up: Germany and Europe. Themes. Identity and Nationhood Continuity A “Special Path”? Germany’s place in world history. German Unification, 1862-1870. After 1815 Germany made up of 39 independent states. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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HI136 The History of GermanyLecture 18
Recap and Wrap-Up:Germany and Europe
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Themes• Identity and Nationhood•Continuity•A “Special Path”?•Germany’s place in world history
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German Unification, 1862-1870
• After 1815 Germany made up of 39 independent states.
• Growing demands for unification.
• 1848: failure of ‘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.
• Police state not governed by the rule of law.
• Attempts to reshape German society & bring it into line with Nazi ideology.
• 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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Germany Since Unification• Fears about what effect
reunification might mean proved unfounded.
• Despite some initial problems reintegration of East & West largely successful.
• New sense of patriotism and readiness to engage with the rest of the world on equal terms.
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Germany’s Special Path (Sonderweg)
• Term originated in the 19th century – Germany’s 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 shouldn’t mislead us into assuming that the course of history was fixed.
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Geographical Argument• Assertion that Germany’s historical development has been
shaped by its geography.• Germany’s 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• Germany’s 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.