Joschka Fischer and the Making of the Berlin Republic

Joschka Fischer and the Making of the Berlin Republic PDF Author: Paul Hockenos
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195181832
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 395

Get Book Here

Book Description
Over the course of his long and controversial career, Joschka Fischer evolved from an archetypal 1960s radical--a firebrand street activist--into a shrewd political insider, operating at the heights of German politics. In the 1980s he was one of the first elected Greens and went on to become Germany's foreign minister from 1998 to 2005. His famous challenge to Donald Rumsfeld's case for invading Iraq--"Excuse me, I am not convinced"--won him worldwide recognition, and the Bush administration's contempt.Here is both a lively biography of Joschka Fischer and a gripping history 'from below'of postwar Germany. Paul Hockenos begins in the ruins of postwar Germany and guides us through the flashpoints of the late sixties and seventies, from the student protests and the terrorism of the Baader-Meinhof group to the evolution of Europe's premier Green party, and brings us up to the present in the united Germany. He shows how the grassroots movements that became the German Greens challenged and changed the republic's status quo, making postwar Germany more democratic, liberal and worldly along the way. Despite the ideological twists and turns of Fischer and his peers, the lessons of the Holocaust and the Nazi terror remained their constant coordinates. Hockenos traces that political journey, providing readers with unique insight into the impact that these movements and the Greens have had on Germany.Informed by hundreds of interviews with key figures and fellow travelers, Joschka Fischer and the Making of the Berlin Republic presents readers with one of the most intriguing personalities on the European scene, and paints a rich picture of the rebellious generation of 1968 that became the political elite of modern Germany.

Joschka Fischer and the Making of the Berlin Republic

Joschka Fischer and the Making of the Berlin Republic PDF Author: Paul Hockenos
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195181832
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 395

Get Book Here

Book Description
Over the course of his long and controversial career, Joschka Fischer evolved from an archetypal 1960s radical--a firebrand street activist--into a shrewd political insider, operating at the heights of German politics. In the 1980s he was one of the first elected Greens and went on to become Germany's foreign minister from 1998 to 2005. His famous challenge to Donald Rumsfeld's case for invading Iraq--"Excuse me, I am not convinced"--won him worldwide recognition, and the Bush administration's contempt.Here is both a lively biography of Joschka Fischer and a gripping history 'from below'of postwar Germany. Paul Hockenos begins in the ruins of postwar Germany and guides us through the flashpoints of the late sixties and seventies, from the student protests and the terrorism of the Baader-Meinhof group to the evolution of Europe's premier Green party, and brings us up to the present in the united Germany. He shows how the grassroots movements that became the German Greens challenged and changed the republic's status quo, making postwar Germany more democratic, liberal and worldly along the way. Despite the ideological twists and turns of Fischer and his peers, the lessons of the Holocaust and the Nazi terror remained their constant coordinates. Hockenos traces that political journey, providing readers with unique insight into the impact that these movements and the Greens have had on Germany.Informed by hundreds of interviews with key figures and fellow travelers, Joschka Fischer and the Making of the Berlin Republic presents readers with one of the most intriguing personalities on the European scene, and paints a rich picture of the rebellious generation of 1968 that became the political elite of modern Germany.

Power and the Idealists: Or, the Passion of Joschka Fischer and Its Aftermath

Power and the Idealists: Or, the Passion of Joschka Fischer and Its Aftermath PDF Author: Paul Berman
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393352773
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 172

Get Book Here

Book Description
The author of the best-selling Terror and Liberalism on the rise to power of the generation of 1968. The student uprisings of 1968 erupted not only in America but also across Europe, expressing a distinct generational attitude about politics, the corrupt nature of democratic capitalism, and the evil of military interventions. Yet, decades later, many in that radical generation had come into conventional positions of power: among them Bill Clinton (who reportedly stayed up all night reading this book) and Joschka Fischer, foreign minister of Germany. During a 1970s street protest, Fischer was photographed beating a cop to the ground; during the 1990s, he was supporting Clinton in a NATO-led military intervention in the Balkans. Here Paul Berman, "one of America's best exponents of recent intellectual history" (The Economist), masterfully traces the intellectual and moral evolution of an impassioned generation—and gives an acute analysis of what it means to go to war in the name of democracy and human rights.

Never Again

Never Again PDF Author: Andrew I. Port
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674293371
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 417

Get Book Here

Book Description
Germans remember the Nazi past so that it may never happen again. But how has the abstract vow to remember translated into concrete action to prevent new genocides abroad? As reports of mass killings in Bosnia spread in the middle of 1995, Germans faced a dilemma. Should the Federal Republic deploy its military to the Balkans to prevent a genocide, or would departing from postwar Germany’s pacifist tradition open the door to renewed militarism? In short, when Germans said “never again,” did they mean “never again Auschwitz” or “never again war”? Looking beyond solemn statements and well-meant monuments, Andrew I. Port examines how the Nazi past shaped German responses to the genocides in Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda—and further, how these foreign atrocities recast Germans’ understanding of their own horrific history. In the late 1970s, the reign of the Khmer Rouge received relatively little attention from a firmly antiwar public that was just “discovering” the Holocaust. By the 1990s, the genocide of the Jews was squarely at the center of German identity, a tectonic shift that inspired greater involvement in Bosnia and, to a lesser extent, Rwanda. Germany’s increased willingness to use force in defense of others reflected the enthusiastic embrace of human rights by public officials and ordinary citizens. At the same time, conservatives welcomed the opportunity for a more active international role involving military might—to the chagrin of pacifists and progressives at home. Making the lessons, limits, and liabilities of politics driven by memories of a troubled history harrowingly clear, Never Again is a story with deep resonance for any country confronting a dark past.

The Rise and Fall of the People's Parties

The Rise and Fall of the People's Parties PDF Author: Pepijn Corduwener
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192655337
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on Oxford Academic and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Across Europe, people are deeply concerned about the state of democracy. The Rise and Fall of the People's Parties shifts the attention away from ever-changing populist politicians that capture newspaper headlines to the centre-left and centre-right people's parties that used to buttress the democratic order over the past decades, but which are now in steep decline. Why does the crisis of these parties contribute so profoundly to today's crisis of democracy? And why were these parties so important for the stabilization and legitimation of democracy in the past century in the first place? By providing a long-term and transnational account of the history of democracy in modern Europe, The Rise and Fall of the People's Parties reveals the striking parallels between the history of democracy and the history of the people's parties since 1918. The first part of the book shows how the failure to turn traditional working-class and confessional mass parties into people's parties played a vital role in the collapse of democracy in the 1920s and 1930s. It also explores the attractiveness of the people's party ideal centred on moderation, compromise and openness to pioneering politicians in the mid-century. The second part of the book then traces the practical application and breakthrough of this ideal in the decades after World War II and shows how this contributed to the stabilization and legitimation of democracy in the postwar decades. In the final part of the book, Corduwener turns to the slow decline of the people's parties since the mid-1970s. It explores how their failure to represent volatile and polarized societies was reflected in their aim to turn into 'open' and 'flexible' parties focused primarily on providing governmental efficiency - and how this eventually turned against them by alienating their members and voters. In so doing, Corduwener offers an original and timely study of twentieth century democracy that transcends traditional party groupings, divisions between eras, and national boundaries. The book will be important reading for all historians of European democracy, as well as journalists, policymakers and practitioners interested in the current state of democracy in and outside the region today.

Greening Democracy

Greening Democracy PDF Author: Stephen Milder
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108228690
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 299

Get Book Here

Book Description
Greening Democracy explains how nuclear energy became a seminal political issue and motivated new democratic engagement in West Germany during the 1970s. Using interviews, as well as the archives of environmental organizations and the Green party, the book traces the development of anti-nuclear protest from the grassroots to parliaments. It argues that worries about specific nuclear reactors became the basis for a widespread anti-nuclear movement only after government officials' unrelenting support for nuclear energy caused reactor opponents to become concerned about the state of their democracy. Surprisingly, many citizens thought transnationally, looking abroad for protest strategies, cooperating with activists in other countries, and conceiving of 'Europe' as a potential means of circumventing recalcitrant officials. At this nexus between local action and global thinking, anti-nuclear protest became the basis for citizens' increasing engagement in self-governance, expanding their conception of democracy well beyond electoral politics and helping to make quotidian personal concerns political.

The German Polity

The German Polity PDF Author: Eric Langenbacher
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442260580
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 444

Get Book Here

Book Description
This thoroughly revised and updated edition of The German Polity provides a comprehensive introduction to contemporary Germany, one of the world’s leading economic and political powers. Looking back, Eric Langenbacher and David P. Conradt trace the country’s transformation since the seminal turning points of 1945 after World War II and 1990 after reunification. Looking to the present, the authors explain and assess its major institutions, actors, and issues. Looking forward, they explore the looming economic, security, and demographic challenges the political system must address in the years to come.

Writing the Revolution

Writing the Revolution PDF Author: Ingo Cornils
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1571139540
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 330

Get Book Here

Book Description
Frontcover -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1: Heroes and Martyrs -- 2: Chroniclers and Interpreters -- 3: Critics and Renegades -- 4: Tale Spinners and Poets -- 5: Women of the Revolution -- 6: "1968" and the Media -- 7: "1968" and the Arts -- 8: Zaungäste -- 9: Not Dark Yet: The 68ers at Seventy -- 10: Romantic Relapse or Modern Myth? -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

A History Shared and Divided

A History Shared and Divided PDF Author: Frank Bösch
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1785339265
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 620

Get Book Here

Book Description
By and large, the histories of East and West Germany have been studied in relative isolation. And yet, for all their differences, the historical trajectories of both nations were interrelated in complex ways, shaped by economic crises, social and cultural changes, protest movements, and other phenomena so diffuse that they could hardly be contained by the Iron Curtain. Accordingly, A History Shared and Divided offers a collective portrait of the two Germanies that is both broad and deep. It brings together comprehensive thematic surveys by specialists in social history, media, education, the environment, and similar topics to assemble a monumental account of both nations from the crises of the 1970s to—and beyond—the reunification era.

The Problem of Democracy in Postwar Europe

The Problem of Democracy in Postwar Europe PDF Author: Pepijn Corduwener
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1134996268
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 212

Get Book Here

Book Description
The current perception of democratic crisis in Western Europe gives a renewed urgency to a new perspective on the way democracy was reconstructed after World War II and the principles that underpinned its postwar transformation. This study accounts for the formation of the postwar democratic order in Western Europe by studying how the main political actors in France, West Germany and Italy conceptualized democracy and strove over its meaning. Based upon a wide range of librarian and archival sources from these countries, it tracks changing conceptions of democracy among leading politicians, political parties, and leaders of social movements, and unveils how they were deeply divided over key principles of postwar democracy – such as the political party, the free market economy, representation, and civic participation. By comparing three national debates on the question what democracy meant and how it should be institutionalized and practiced, this study argues that only in the 1970s conceptions of democracy converged and key political actors accepted each other as democrats with similar conceptions of democracy. This study thereby deconstructs the myth of the quick emergence of one consensual Western European model of democracy after 1945, demonstrates that its formation was a long and contentious process in which national differences were often of crucial importance, and contributes to an enhanced understanding of the historical roots of the current sentiment of democratic crisis.

2007

2007 PDF Author: Massimo Mastrogregori
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110251183
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 396

Get Book Here

Book Description
Die International Bibliographiy of Historical Sciences verzeichnet jährlich die bedeutendsten Neuerscheinungen geschichtswissenschaftlicher Monographien und Zeitschriftenartikel weltweit, die inhaltlich von der Vor- und Frühgeschichte bis zur jüngsten Vergangenheit reichen. Sie ist damit die derzeit einzige laufende Bibliographie dieser Art, die thematisch, zeitlich und geographisch ein derart breites Spektrum abdeckt. Innerhalb der systematischen Gliederung nach Zeitalter, Region oder historischer Disziplin sind die Werke nach Autorennamen oder charakteristischem Titelhauptwort aufgelistet.