Author: Alastair Thompson
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191542334
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 440
Get Book Here
Book Description
Although often viewed as ineffectual intellectuals, or a spent political force, Left Liberals had become the third largest party in German politics by 1914 and in the German Revolution of 1918/19 it was Left Liberals who effectively wrote the new Weimar constitution. This study, based on extensive original research, investigates Left Liberals in the locality, as well as at the national level, with case studies ranging from Kiel to Kattowitz. Overturning old notions of German liberalism as the helpless victim of mass mobilization and political polarization, it is central to understanding both increasing left liberal influence and support on the eve of the First World War, and why liberal values could not be consolidated after 1918. This study has powerful general implications for the history of imperial Germany, reassessing the role of political parties, public perceptions of politics, and the impact and character of the state.
Author: Jonathan Wright
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191608467
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 2783
Get Book Here
Book Description
Gustav Stresemann was the exceptional political figure of his time. His early death in 1929 has long been viewed as the beginning of the end for the Weimar Republic and the opening through which Hitler was able to come to power. His career was marked by many contradictions but also a pervading loyalty to the values of liberalism and nationalism. This enabled him in time both to adjust to defeat and revolution and to recognize in the Republic the only basis on which Germans could unite, and in European cooperation the only way to avoid a new war. His attempt to build a stable Germany as an equal power in a stable Europe throws an important light on German history in a critical time. Hitler was the beneficiary of his failure but, so long as he was alive, Stresemann offered Germans a clear alternative to the Nazis. Jonathan Wright's fascinating new study is the first modern biography of Stresemann to appear in English or German.
Author: Volker Berghahn
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1782384839
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 406
Get Book Here
Book Description
A comprehensive history of German society in this period, providing a broad survey of its development. The volume is thematically organized and designed to give easy access to the major topics and issues of the Bismarkian and Wilhelmine eras. The statistical appendix contains a wide range of social, economic and political data. Written with the English-speaking student in mind, this book is likely to become a widely used text for this period, incorporating as it does twenty years of further research on the German Empire since the appearance of Hans-Ulrich Wehler's classic work.
Author: Matthew P. Fitzpatrick
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 9781845455200
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Get Book Here
Book Description
In a work based on new archival, press, and literary sources, the author revises the picture of German imperialism as being the brainchild of a Machiavellian Bismarck or the "conservative revolutionaries" of the twentieth century. Instead, Fitzpatrick argues for the liberal origins of German imperialism, by demonstrating the links between nationalism and expansionism in a study that surveys the half century of imperialist agitation and activity leading up to the official founding of Germany's colonial empire in 1884.
Author: James Retallack
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1349246263
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 148
Get Book Here
Book Description
This lively and concise book uses a dual approach to introduce students and non-specialists to Wilhelmine Germany (1888-1918). It surveys social, economic, political, cultural and diplomatic developments in an age of tumultuous upheaval. It also explains why historians have so often reversed the interpretative 'switches' guiding research on this period. By highlighting the breadth of historical change under Wilhelm II and the evolution of opposing viewpoints about its significance, this book provides easy access to an epoch - and a debate - characterised more by controversy than consensus.
Author: Oliver Zimmer
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199571201
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 410
Get Book Here
Book Description
The late nineteenth century marked a period of profound change in the German lands, characterized by rapid economic growth, increased migration, ideological conflict, and cultural innovation. Throwing new light on a series of hotly debated topics, Oliver Zimmer explores how people drew on their creative energies to find their place in the world.
Author: Michael L. Hughes
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 135015377X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 313
Get Book Here
Book Description
Across the modern era, the traditional stereotype of Germans as authoritarian and subservient has faded, as they have become (mostly) model democrats. This book, for the first time, examines 130 years of history to comprehensively address the central questions of German democratization: How and why did this process occur? What has democracy meant to various Germans? And how stable is their, or indeed anyone's, democracy? Looking at six German regimes across thirteen decades, this study enables you to see how and why some Germans have always chosen to be politically active (even under dictatorships); the enormous range of conceptions of political culture and democracy they have held; and how interactions among various factors undercut or facilitated democracy at different times. Michael L. Hughes also makes clear that recent surges of support for 'populism' and 'authoritarianism' have not come out of nowhere but are inherent in long-standing contestations about democracy and political citizenship. Hughes argues that democracy – in Germany or elsewhere – cannot be a story of adversity overcome which culminates in a happy ending; it is an ongoing, open-ended process whose ultimate outcome remains uncertain.
Author: Lisa Fetheringill Zwicker
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472117572
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 312
Get Book Here
Book Description
Student life and political perspectives at Wilhelmine universities
Author: Isabela Mares
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107100216
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289
Get Book Here
Book Description
This book presents an account of the adoption of electoral reforms democratizing electoral practices in nineteenth century European countries.
Author: Elun Gabriel
Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press
ISBN: 1501751263
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 315
Get Book Here
Book Description
Over the course of the German Empire the Social Democrats went from being a vilified and persecuted minority to becoming the largest party in the Reichstag, enjoying broad-based support. But this was not always the case. In the 1870s, government mouthpieces branded Social Democracy the "party of assassins and conspirators" and sought to excite popular fury against it. Over time, Social Democrats managed to refashion their public image in large part by contrasting themselves to anarchists, who came to represent a politics that went far beyond the boundaries of acceptable behavior. Social Democrats emphasized their overall commitment to peaceful change through parliamentary participation and a willingness to engage their political rivals. They condemned anarchist behavior—terrorism and other political violence specifically—and distanced themselves from the alleged anarchist personal characteristics of rashness, emotionalism, cowardice, and secrecy. Repeated public debate about the appropriate place of Socialism in German society, and its relationship to anarchist terrorism, helped Socialists and others, such as liberals, political Catholics, and national minorities, cement the principles of legal equality and a vigorous public sphere in German political culture. Using a diverse array of primary sources from newspapers and political pamphlets to Reichstag speeches to police reports on anarchist and socialist activity, this book sets the history of Social Democracy within the context of public political debate about democracy, the rule of law, and the appropriate use of state power. Gabriel also places the history of German anarchism in the larger contexts of German history and the history of European socialism, where its importance has often been understated because of the movement's small size and failure to create a long-term mass movement.
