HI 290 History of Germany Recap and Revision

HI 290 - History of Germany Recap and Revision April 26

Module Themes • The Making of the modern German state and society. • Germany’s transformation from maverick to model state. • Diversity

Imperial Germany, 1871 -1918 • Authoritarian government, but some degree of democracy and rule of law. • Forces of reaction balanced by forces of change. • Saw rapid industrialisation which brought both increased prosperity and social dislocation. • Emergence of aggressive nationalism and fears of social unrest may have led to decision to go to war in 1914. • War led to economic hardship and military dictatorship. Defeat discredited the regime & led to collapse of the monarchy.

The Weimar Republic, 1918 -33 • Faced significant problems of legitimacy from the beginning: defeat, revolution, Versailles treaty, economic problems etc. • Characterised by economic upheaval and 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. • ‘Bad’ politics vs. ‘good’ culture?

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 and genocide ultimately led to disaster for Germany.

West Germany, 1949 -90 • Rooted in Western democratic, free market traditions. • Rapid economic recovery in the 1950 s helped produce a prosperous and stable society. • But reaction against this in the 1960 s and 70 s. • Nevertheless, the system itself not challenged. • By the 1980 s West Germany was a stable democracy, firmly entrenched in Western Europe.

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) and a paternalistic welfare state. • Planned economy had some successes (rapid industrialisation in the 1950 s), but by the 1980 s had become stagnant and riddled with corruption. • Despite problems much support from citizens until the late 1980 s. • Changing international situation and reform in the Soviet Bloc paved the way for collapse in 1989.

Germany Since Reunification • Fears about what effect reunification might mean proved unfounded. • Despite some initial problems reintegration of East and West largely successful. • New sense of patriotism and readiness to engage with the rest of the world on equal terms.

Nation and Nationhood • Key questions: where is Germany? What is it to be German? • Lack of clear geographical borders. • Long history of political fragmentation until 1871, then division 1949 -90. • What makes one German: Culture? Race? Residency? • Legacy of Nationalism, Nazism, Division made the issue of identity as difficult in the post-war period as in the 19 th century. • A new sense of identity and patriotism based on citizenship and prosperity in the 21 st century?

Sonderweg and Continuities • Was 20 th century Germany’s political, economic and social development unique? • Continuity = “the historian’s abbreviation for the persistence, survival, or retention of the dominant strains and features of a political or social system”. • General consensus that there are discernible continuities (note the plural!) in modern German history. • But this stresses both positive and negative features and does not mean that there was a single, inevitable path.

Coming to Terms with the Past The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin. Interior of the Neue Wache (the ‘Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany for the Victims of War and Dictatorship’), Berlin.

Germany and the Wider World