HI290- 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 1950s helped
produce a prosperous and stable society.
• But reaction against this in the 1960s and 70s.
• Nevertheless,
challenged.
the
system
itself
not
• By the 1980s 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 1950s), but by the 1980s
had become stagnant and riddled with corruption.
• Despite problems much support from citizens until
the late 1980s.
• 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 19th century.
• A new sense of identity and patriotism
based on citizenship and prosperity in
the 21st century?
Sonderweg and Continuities
• Was 20th 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