HIST2128. Germany, 1871-1933: From Empire to Republic
This is list of basic and special readings for the course. Most but not all titles are available in the
Main Library of HKU. Students should also consult other HK libraries.
Readings with Primary Sources
BERGHAHN, V., Germany and the Approach of War in 1914, 1973 (contains tables on politics,
economics and social trends)
BISMARCK, O., Reflections and Reminiscences, 1968
BOHME, H. (ed.), The Foundation of the German Empire, 1971
GORMAN, M. The Unification of Germany, 1989
HAMEROW, T.S., The Age of Bismarck: Documents and Interpretations, 1973
KAES, A. et al. (eds.), The Weimar Republic Sourcebook, 1994
KEARNEY, H. F. (ed.), From Bismarck to Hitler, 1970
KERTESZ, G. A., Documents in the Political History of the European Continent, 1815-1939,
1968
KIRK, T., The Longman Companion to Nazi Germany, 1995 (includes Weimar Republic and
Rise of Nazism)
KNAPLAND, P. (ed.), Letters from the Berlin Embassy, 1800-1885, 1944
LOWE, C. J. and M. L. Dockrill, The Mirage of Power, Vol. 3: The Documents, 1972
LOWE, C. J., The Reluctant Imperialists, Vol. 2: The Documents, 1967
MEDLICOTT, W. N. and D. K. Coveney, Bismarck and Europe, 1971
MILLER LANE, B. and L. J. Rupp (eds.), Nazi Ideology before 1933: A Documentation, 1978
NEUBAUER, H. and T. Palmer, The Weimar Republic – Through the Lens of the Press, 2000
NOAKES, J. and G. Pridham (ed.), Nazism 1919-1945: A History in Documents and Eyewitness
Accounts, 4 vols. 1983-1998
OVERY, R. J., The Inter-War Crisis, 1919-1939, 1994
OVERY, R. J. The Origins of the Second World War, 1998
PERRY, M. et al. (eds.), Sources of Twentieth-Century Europe, 2000
PHILIPPS, D. M. Hitler and the Rise of the Nazis, 1968
POIS, R. (ed.), Selected Writings of Alfred Rosenberg, 1970
PORTER, I. and I. D. Armour, Imperial Germany, 1890-1918, 1991/94
PRANGE, G. W. (ed.), Hitler’s Words (Speeches 1922-43), 1944
RÖHL, J. C. G., From Bismarck to Hitler, 1970
SNYDER, L., The Blood and Iron Chancellor: A Documentary Biography of Otto von Bismarck,
1967
SNYDER, L. L. (ed.), Hitler’s Third Reich: A Documentary History, 1981
SOVIET Documents on Foreign Policy, 1917-41
STACHURA, P. D., The German Youth Movement, 1900-1945: An Interpretative and
Documentary History, 1981
STACKELBERG, R. and S.A. Winkle (eds.), The Nazi Germany Sourcebook: An Anthology of
Texts, 2002
WEINBERG, G. L., Hitler’s Second Book: The Unpublished Sequel to Mein Kampf, 2003
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WELCH, D., Modern European History, 1871-2000, 2nd ed. 1999, Chapter: Imperial Germany,
1871-1918, and Chapter: The origins of the First World War and its aftermath
Secondary Sources
History is all about different interpretations of events. When preparing projects and seminars for
history coursework it is essential to form your own critical opinion of other’s arguments –
and then work out your own position. Because of this, no single ‘textbook’ is recommend
for this course. Nonetheless, you are expected to read intensively and regularly in order to
prepare properly for classes. You can rely on the following books for good background
information and thought provoking arguments. They are:
ABRAMS, L, Bismarck and the German Empire, 1871-1918, 2006
ALLEN, W.S., The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town, 19301935, 1966
ANDERSON, M. L., Practicing Democracy: Elections and Political Culture in Imperial
Germany, 2000
BAEUMER, M. L., ‘Imperial Germany as Reflected in Its Mass Festivals,’ in: V. Duerr et al.
(eds.), Imperial Germany, 1985, pp. 62-74
BERDAHL, R. M., Conservative Politics and Aristocratic Landholders in Bismarckian
Germany, in: Journal of Modern History, 44, 1 (March 1972), pp. 1-20
BERGHAHN, V. R., Modern Germany: Society, Economy and Politics in the 20th century, 2nd
ed. 1987
BESSEL, R., Germany after the First World War, 1993.
BLACKBOURN, D., The Long Nineteenth Century: A History of Germany, 1780-1918, 1998
BOEHME, H., An Introduction to the Social and Economic History of Germany: Politics and
Economic Change in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 1978.
BOEMEKE, M. F. et al., The Treaty of Versailles: A Reassessment After 75 Years, 1998.
BRANDENBURG, E., From Bismarck to the World War: A History of German Foreign Policy,
1870-1914, 1927
BRAUN, H. J., The German Economy in the Twentieth Century, 1990
BREITMAN, R., German Socialism and Weimar Democracy, 1981
BREUILLY, J. (ed.), The State of Germany: the National Idea and the Making, Unmaking and
Remaking of a Modern Nation State, 1992
BRIDGE, F. R. and R. Bullen, The Great Powers and the European States System, 1815-1914,
1980
BROPHY, J. M., Capitalism, Politics, and Railroads in Prussia, 1830-1870, 1998
BROSZAT, M., Hitler and the Collapse of Weimar, 1987
BRUSTEIN, W., The Logic of Evil: The Social Origins of the Nazi Party, 1925-1933, 1996
CARR, W., A History of Germany, 1815-1945, 4th ed. 1991
CARR, W., A History of Germany, 1815-1945, 4th ed., 1991
CARR, W., Hitler: A Study in Personality and Politics, 1978
CARR, W., The Origins of the Wars of German Unification, 1991
CARSTEN, F. L. Reichswehr and Politics, 1918-1933, 1973
CECIL, L., Wilhelm II: Prince and Emperor, 1859-1900, 1989
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CHICKERING, R., We Men Who Feel Most German: A Cultural Study of the Pan-German
League, 1886-1914, 1984
CHILDERS, T., The Nazi Voter: The Social Foundations of Fascism in Germany, 1919-1933,
1983
CIPOLLA, C. M. (ed.), The Industrial Revolution 1700-1914 (= The Fontana Economic History
of Europe, Vol. 3), 1976
CLARK, C. M., Kaiser Wilhelm II, 2000
CRAIG, G.A., Germany, 1866-1945, 1978
CRANKSHAW, E., Bismarck, 1981
CULLEN, M. S., The Reichstag: German Parliament between Monarchy and Federalism, 1999
DAVIES, N., Europe: A History, 1996, pp. 897-1056
DAVISON, E., The Making of Hitler: The Birth and Rise of Nazism, 1997
DAWSON, W. H., The German Empire 1867-1914, 1919
DINE, P. J., A History of Germany, 1968.
DUERR, V., ‘The Fatal Symbiosis: Prussia and Imperial Germany,’ in: V. Duerr et al. (eds.),
Imperial Germany, 1985, pp. 3-16
DUERR, V., ‘The Image of the Prussian Officer in Literature and History,’ in: V. Duerr et al.
(eds.), Imperial Germany, 1985, pp. 75-89
ELEY, G. (ed.), Society, Culture, and the State in Germany, 1870-1930, 1996
EPSTEIN, K., The Genesis of German Conservatism, 1975
EYCK, E., Bismarck and the German Empire, 1968
FALTER, J. W., The First German Volkspartei: The Social Foundations of the NSDAP, in: K.
Rohe (ed.), Elections, Parties and Political Traditions, 1990
FELDMAN, G. D., German Imperialism, 1914-1918: The Development of a Historical Debate,
1972
FEST, J. C., Hitler, 1974
FEUCHTWANGER, E. J., Bismarck, 2002
FEUCHTWANGER, E. J., From Weimar to Hitler: Germany, 1918-1933, 1995
FEUCHTWANGER, E. J., Imperial Germany, 1850-1918, 2001
FISCHER, C. (ed.), The Rise of National Socialism and the Working Classes in Weimar
Germany, 1996
FREVERT, U., Women in German History: From Bourgeois Emancipation to Sexual Liberation,
1995
FRITZSCHE, P., Rehearsals for Fascism: Populism and Political Mobilization in Weimar
Germany, 1990
FULBROOK, M., A Concise History of Germany, 1990
FULBROOK, M., Germany, 1918-1990: The Divided Nation, 1991
FYFFE, C. A., Austro-Prussian War, 1978
GALL, L., Bismarck: The White Revolutionary, Vol. 1: 1815-1871, Vol. 2: 1871-1898, 1986
GAY, P., Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider, 1981
GEARY, D., Hitler and Nazism, 1993
GERMAN Historical Museum (ed.), Bismarck – Prussia, Germany and Europe, 1990
GLASER, H., The Cultural Roots of National Socialism, 1978
GONEN, J. Y., The Roots of Nazi Psychology: Hitler’s Utopian Barbarism, 2000
GORMAN, M., The Unification of Germany, 1989
GRAIG, G. A., Germany, 1866-1945, 1978
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GUTTSMAN, W. L., The German Social Democratic Party, 1875-1933, 1981
HAFFNER, S., The Ailing Empire: Germany from Bismarck to Hitler, 1991
HAHN, H. J., Education and Society in Germany, 1998
HAMEROW, T. S., ‘Bismarck and the Emergence of the Social Question in Imperial Germany,’
in: V. Duerr et al. (eds.), Imperial Germany, 1985, pp. 17-31
HAMEROW, T. S., Otto von Bismarck: A Historical Assessment, 1972
HAMILTON, R. F., Who Voted for Hitler? 1982
HARDACH, K., The Political Economy of Germany in the Twentieth Century, 1980
HARSCH, D., German Social Democracy and the Rise of Nazism, 1993
HAYES, P., ‘German Businessmen and the Crisis of the Empire,’ in: V. Duerr et al. (eds.),
Imperial Germany, 1985, pp. 46-61
HEIBER, H., The Weimar Republic, 1993
HEWISON, A., Bismarck and the Unification of Germany, 1970
HIDEN, J., Germany and Europe, 1919-1939, 1993
JACKSON, M., The History of Germany since 1789, 1968
JAMES, H., The German Slump: Politics and Economics, 1924-1936, 1986
JELAVICH, B., Modern Austria: Empire and Republic, 1800-1980, 1987
JOLL, J., The Origins of the First World War, 1984
JONES, L. E., German Liberalism and the Dissolution of the Weimar Party System, 1918-1933,
1988
KATER, M. H. The Nazi Party: A Social Profile of Members and Leaders, 1919-1945, 1983/85
KAUDERS, A., German Politics and the Jews: Duesseldorf and Nuremberg, 1910-1933, 1996
KENNEDY, P., The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism, 1860-1914, 1982
KERSHAW, I., Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris, 1998; Hitler 1937-1945: Nemesis, 1999
KITCHEN, M., A Military History of Germany, 1975
KOCH, H. W., The Hitler Youth: Origins and Development, 1922-1945, 2000
KOLB, E., The Weimar Republic, 1988
KOLKEY, J. M., Germany on the March: A Reinterpretation of War and Domestic Politics over
the Past Two Centuries, 1995
LANGEWIESCHE, D., Liberalism in Germany, 2000
LANGHORNE, R., The Collapse of the Concert of Europe, 1981
LAQUEUR, W., Weimar: A Cultural History, 1918-1933, 1980
LAQUEUR, W., Young Germany: A History of the German Youth Movement, 1984
Le BON, G., Psychology of the Great War: The First World War and Its Origins, 1998
LEDERER, I. J. (ed.), The Versailles Settlement: Was It Foredoomed to Failure? 1960
LEE, S. J., The Weimar Republic, 1998
LEE, S.J., Aspects of European History 1789-1980, 1982
LERMAN, K., Bismarck, 2004
LEWIS, D., The Man Who Invented Hitler: The Making of the Führer, 2003
LOFTUS, I. L., Bismarck and the Prussian Historians,’ in: V. Duerr et al. (eds.), Imperial
Germany, 1985, pp. 90-98
LORD, R. H., ‘Bismarck and Russia’, in: American Historical Review, 29 (1923), 24-48
LOWE, J., Rivalry and Accord: International Relations, 1870-1914, 1998
LUDWIG, E., Bismarck: The Story of a Fighter, 1927
MACDONOGH, G., The Last Kaiser: The Life of Wilhelm II, 2000
MACDONOGH, G., The Last Kaiser: William the Impetuous, 2000
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MANCHESTER, W., The Arms of Krupp 1587-1968, 1968
MANN, G., The History of Germany since 1789, 1968
Mc KENZIE, J. R. P., Weimar Germany, 1919-1933, 1971
McCLOSKEY, B., George Grosz and the Communist Party: Art and Radicalism in Crisis, 1918
to 1936, 1997
McDONOUGH, F., Hitler and Nazi Germany, 1999
McKENZIE, J. R. P., Weimar Germany, 1918-1933, 1971
MEDLICOTT, W. N., Bismarck and Modern Germany, 1968
MITCHAM, Samuel W., Why Hitler? The Genesis of the Nazi Reich, 1996
MOMMSEN, H., The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy, 1989
MOMMSEN, W. J., Imperial Germany, 1867-1918: Politics, Culture, and Society in an
Authoritarian State, 1995
MOSSE, G.L., The Crisis of German Ideology: Intellectual Origins of the Third Reich, 1981
NICHOLLS, A. J., Weimar and the Rise of Hitler, 1979
NICHOLLS, D., Adolf Hitler: A Biographical Companion, 2000
OVERY, R. J., The Economic Development of Germany Since 1870, 1997
PALMOWSKI, J., Urban Liberalism in Imperial Germany: Frankfurt am Main, 1866-1914,
1999
PANAYI, P., Weimar and Nazi Germany: Continuities and Discontinuities, 2001
PASSMORE, Kevin, Fascism: A Very Short Introduction, 2002
PAUR, P., ‘The Corporatist Character of Bismarck’s Social Policy’, in European History
PFLANZE, O., Bismarck and the Development of Germany, 3 vols, 2nd ed., 1990
PIERENKEMPER, T. and R. Tilly, The German Economy during the Nineteenth Century, 2004
POLONI, B., German Colonial Imperialism: A Late and Short-Term Phenomenon, 2004
PULZER, P., Germany 1870-1945: Politics, State formation, and War, 1997
PULZER, P., Jews and the German State: The Political History of a Minority, 1848-1933, 1992
RAMM, A., Germany 1789-1919: A Political History, 1981
RETALLACK, J. N., Notables of the Right: The Conservative Party and Political Mobilization
in Germany, 1876-1918, 1988
RICH, N., Friedrich von Holstein: Politics and Diplomacy in the Era of Bismarck and Wilhelm
Ii, 1965
RICHIE, A., Faust’s Metropolis: A History of Berlin, 1999
RITTER, G. A., ‘The Social Bases of the German Political Parties, 1867-1920’, in: K. Rohe
(ed.), Elections, Parties and Political Traditions, 1990
ROBERTSON, C. G., Bismarck, 1918
ROEHL, J. C. G. and N. Sombart, Kaiser Wilhelm II: New Interpretations, 1982
ROEHL, J. C. G., The Kaiser and His Court: Wilhelm II and the Government of Germany, 1994
ROEHL, J. C. G., Young Wilhelm, 1998
ROHE, K. (ed.), Elections, Parties and Political Traditions: Social Foundations of German
Parties and Party Systems, 1867-1987, 1990
RUGGIERO, G. de, The History of European Liberalism, 1927/1966
SCHEELE, G., The Weimar Republic: Overture to the Third Reich, 1946
SCHELBERT, L., ‘Emigration from Imperial Germany Overseas, 1871-1914: Contours,
Contexts, Experiences,’ in: V. Duerr et al. (eds.), Imperial Germany, 1985, pp. 112-33
SCHULZE, H., Germany: A New History, 1998
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SELIGMANN, M. S. and R. R. McLean, Germany from Reich to Republic, 1871-1918: Politics,
Hierarchy, and Elites, 2000
SHEEHAN, J. J. (ed.), Imperial Germany, 1976
SHEEHAN, J. J., German History, 1770-1866, 1989
SHEEHAN, J. J., German Liberalism in the Nineteenth Century, 1982
SIMON, W. M., Germany in the Age of Bismarck, 1968
STACHURA, P. D., Nazi Youth in the Weimar Republic, 1975
STACHURA, P. D., The German Youth Movement, 1900-1945: An Interpretative and
Documentary History, 1981
STACKELBERG, R., Hitler’s Germany: Origins, Interpretations, Legacies, 1999
STALCUP, B. (ed.), Adolf Hitler, 2000.
STARGARDT, N., The German Idea of Militarism: Radical and Socialist Critics, 1866-1914,
1994
STERN, F., The Politics of Cultural Despair: A Study in the Rise of the Germanic Ideology,
1974
STILES, A. and A. Farmer, The Unification of Germany, 1815-1890, 2nd ed., 2001
STONE, N., Hitler, 1980.
STUERMER, M., The German Empire: A Short History, 2002
TARABA, W., ‘The Devaluation of German Beliefs in “History” and the “State” in the Writings
of Georg Büchner, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Gottfried Benn,’ in: V. Duerr et al. (eds.),
Imperial Germany, 1985, pp. 99-111
TAYLOR, A. J. P., ‘Bismarck: Man of German Destiny’, in Europe: Grandeur and Decline,
1967
TAYLOR, A. J. P., Bismarck: The Man and the Statesman, 2003
TAYLOR, A. J. P., The Course of German History, 1961
TAYLOR, S., The Rise of Hitler: Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany, 1918-1933,
1983
TURNER, H. A., Hitler’s Thirty Days to Power: January 1933, 1996.
VINCENT, C. P., A Historical Dictionary of Germany’s Weimar Republic, 1918-1933, 1997
WAITE, R. G. L., Kaiser and Führer: A Comparative Study of Personality and Politics, 1998
WALLER, B., Bismarck, 1985/1997
WAWRO, G., The Austro-Prussian War: Austria’s War with Prussia and Italy in 1866, 1996
WEHLER, H.-U., The German Empire, 1871-1918, 1989
WELCH, D., The Third Reich: Politics and Propaganda, 1993
WENGENROTH, U., ‘Germany: Competition abroad – cooperation at home, 1870-1900’, in:
A.D. Chandler, JR., et al. (eds.), Big Business and the Wealth of Nations, 1997, p. 139-75
WEPMAN, D., Adolf Hitler, 1990
WESSELING, H. L., The European Colonial Empires, 1815-1919, 2004
WILLIAMSON, D. G., Bismarck and Germany, 1862-1890, 1986/1998
WILLIAMSON, D. G., Germany since 1815: A Nation Forged and Renewed, 2005
WINKLER, H. A., ‘Choosing the Lesser Evil: The German Social Democrats and the fall of the
Weimar Republic’, in: Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 25, No. 2/3, May-June
1990, pp. 205-227