David Williamson - Germany since 1789

Germany since 1789

Germany since 1789

A Nation Forged and Renewed

2nd edition

David G. Williamson

David G. Williamson 2005, 2016

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First published 2005
This edition published 2016 by
PALGRAVE

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ISBN 9781137350046 hardback
ISBN 9781137350053 paperback

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Williamson, D. G.

Title: Germany since 1789 : a nation forged and renewed / David G. Williamson. Other titles: Germany since 1815

Description: 2nd edition. | New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. |

Original edition published under title: Germany since 1815. New York, N.Y.

: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015039868| ISBN 9781137350046 (hardback) | ISBN 9781137350053 (pbk.)

Subjects: LCSH: Germany History 1789-1900. | Germany History 20th century. Classification: LCC DD203 .W48 2016 | DDC 943 dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015039868

To Sue, a loyal, loving and very patient friend and partner

Contents

List of Illustrations

List of Maps

Preface

This book is aimed at both academic students of history studying courses on modern German history and the general reader, who wishes to know more about the turbulent course of German history since 1789. A knowledge of German history is vital for anybody wishing to understand the evolution of modern Europe. Germany has, after all, had a profound impact on European, American and world history in the 20th century. Today that is still so: Germany is seen, even by her old enemies, as the benign hegemon of the EU. Historians debate whether or not Germany caused the First World War, but what is undeniable is that Germany played a key role in the defeat of the Russian Empire, and so by default the birth of the USSR. The Second World War accelerated the dissolution of the European colonial Empires and the vacuum that the defeat of Hitler created in central Europe led to the long Cold War and the division of the European continent until 1990. Both the threat of Soviet expansion and the need to contain a revived (albeit for the time being only a West) German state also led to western European integration with its immense, and as yet unfinished, consequences for the traditional structure of Europes nation states. It is not surprising then that historians have paid so much attention to the course of German history in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The object of this book is to provide for all who are interested in this period, a concise, readable and up-to-date study of German history since 1789, which combines the key facts of the period with analysis and wider reference to crucial historical debates. Once cognizant of these, readers will be in a position to understand and value recent trends in German historiography, which often explore the significance, for example, of memory, regional and everyday history (Alltagsgeschichte).

The book is divided into four main chronological parts: 17891870, 18711918, 19181945 and 19451990, but the later section also includes an extended section analysing the first decades of the new Berlin Republic. Each chapter starts with an introduction outlining the major problems, issues and questions that arise from the events covered in it. The purpose of this is to focus readers attention on the often paradoxical and complex nature of German history. This approach is further developed in the assessment in the final section of the book. Focus boxes and notes in the margin help elucidate points made in the text by providing background information or summaries of historiographical debates, while a timeline at the beginning of each chapter provides a guide to the key dates of the relevant material covered in the chapter. The text is comprehensively cross-referenced so that readers can explore the origins and consequences of events they are studying, as well as being reminded of the remarkable longevity of some issues in German history. In Part Six of the book there is a collection of documents, which both provides a basis for further discussion and helps readers understand more fully issues dealt with in the main text. Where the documents are relevant to the text, the relevant document number is indicated in the page margin. At the end of the book there is a critical bibliography of books in English on the period of German history covered by this book. It is divided into chronological sections so that readers can readily explore issues raised in this study in greater depth. There is also a glossary explaining the technical terms used in the text.

As the main focus of this book is on the German state or Germany, domestic Austrian politics are only touched upon where they are relevant to this history.

DAVID G. WILLIAMSON

Acknowledgements

The author and publishers wish to thank the following for permission to use copyright material.

Bundesbildstelle Berlin, for the post-1945 photographs copyright Bundesbildstelle Berlin.

The Imperial War Museum, for a French cartoon commenting on Bismarcks attempts to keep France and Russia apart in the 1880s (ref: Q81754). The image is reproduced with permission of the trustees of the Imperial War Museum, London.

I would also like to thank Rachel Bridgewater at Palgrave for her encouragement and help, Mr Gogulanathan Bactavachalane for his kindness and patience, and Sue Morrow for putting up with an author and his proofs.

Maps

Map 1 Germany in 1789 (from Brendan Simms, The Struggle for Mastery in Germany, 17791850, Macmillan, 1998, p. ix)

Map 2 Germany in 1810: the impact of Napoleon