8th Edition

A History of Modern Germany 1871 to Present

By Dietrich Orlow Copyright 2018
    476 Pages 45 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    476 Pages 45 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    A History of Modern Germany is a well-established text that presents a balanced survey of the last 150 years of German history, stretching from nineteenth-century imperial Germany, through political division and reunification, and into the present day.

    Beginning in the early 1870s and covering topics such as Wilhelmenian Germany, the World Wars, revolution, inflation and putsches, the Weimar Republic, the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic, the book offers a comprehensive overview of the entire period of modern German history. Fully updated throughout, this new edition details foreign policy, political and economic history and includes increased coverage of social and cultural history, and history ‘from the bottom up’, as well as containing a new chapter that brings it right up to the present day.

    The book is supported by full discussion of past and present historiographic debates, illustrations, maps, further readings and biographies of key German political, economic and cultural figures within the Im Mittelpunkt feature. Fully exploring the complicated path of Germany’s troubled past and stable present, A History of Modern Germany provides the perfect grounding for all students of German history.

    LIST OF FIGURES

    LIST OF MAPS

    PREFACE

    1 THE FOUNDERS’ GENERATION, 1871–1890

    The Road to Unification

    After Unification: Economic and Political Power Structures

    The Kulturkampf

    Im Mittelpunkt: Ludwig Windthorst (1812–1891)

    Economic and Social Developments

    Im Mittelpunkt: Gerson Bleichröder (1822–1893)

    Social Legislation and Antisocialist Laws

    Foreign Relations

    The End of the Era and Bismarck’s Dismissal

    2 WILHELMENIAN GERMANY, 1890–1914

    The Structures and Personalities of Modern Politics

    Economic and Social Developments

    Literature, Art, and Society

    Im Mittelpunkt: Heinrich (1871–1950) and Thomas Mann (1875–1955)

    Im Mittelpunkt: Karl May (1842–1912)

    Foreign Relations

    Germany on the Eve of World War I

    3 WORLD WAR I, 1914–1918

    The Debate over the Outbreak of the War

    Military Developments

    Im Mittelpunkt: Erich Ludendorff (1865–1937)

    Domestic Politics: Reform, Repression, and Revolution

    War and Society

    Conclusion: The Long-Term Impact of the War

    4 REVOLUTION, INFLATION, AND PUTSCHES:

    THE SEARCH FOR A NEW CONSENSUS, 1918–1923

    Revolution

    Im Mittelpunkt: Rosa Luxemburg (1870–1919)

    Im Mittelpunkt: Friedrich Ebert (1871–1925)

    The Weimar Constitution

    The Treaty of Versailles

    Economic and Social Problems

    Im Mittelpunkt: Walther Rathenau (1867–1922)

    Everyday Life under Extreme Duress

    Counterrevolution

    Foreign Relations

    Conclusion

    5 FOOLS’ GOLD: THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC, 1924–1930

    The Search for the Elusive Political Consensus

    Economic and Social Developments

    Weimar Culture

    Im Mittelpunkt: Marlene Dietrich (1901–1992)

    Im Mittelpunkt: Kurt Weill (1900–1950)

    Foreign Relations

    The Depression and the End of Parliamentary Democracy

    6 FROM AUTHORITARIANISM TO TOTALITARIANISM, 1930–1938

    The Rule of the New Conservatives

    Im Mittelpunkt: Heinrich Brüning (1885–1970)

    Im Mittelpunkt: Franz von Papen (1879–1969)

    The Nazis’ Rise to Power

    Gleichschaltung: The Establishment of Nazi Totalitarianism

    Social Life and the Concept of the Volksgemeinschaft

    Foreign Relations

    Conclusion

    7 CONQUEST, DEATH, AND DEFEAT, 1938–1945

    Further Growth of the Nazi Führer State

    Im Mittelpunkt: Reinhard Heydrich (1904–1942)

    The Road to War

    Nazi Rule in Europe

    The Holocaust

    Im Mittelpunkt: Viktor Klemperer (1881–1960)

    Economy and Society

    The End of the Third Reich

    8 "CONDOMINIUM OF THE ALLIED POWERS," 1945–1949

    The German Resistance: Strengths and Delusions

    Im Mittelpunkt: Claus von Stauffenberg (1907–1944)

    Allied Visions and Plans, 1941–1945

    The Immediate Legacy of the Third Reich: The Reality of "Zero Hour"

    Reparations and Economic Recovery

    "Exorcising the Evil": De-Nazification and Reeducation

    Revival of Administrative, Political, and Cultural Life

    The Cold War and the Division of Germany

    Conclusion

    9 THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY, 1949–1990

    The Adenauer Era, 1949–1963

    Im Mittelpunkt: Konrad Adenauer (1876–1967)

    The Changing of the Guard, 1963–1974

    Im Mittelpunkt: Helmut Schmidt (1918–2015)

    Culture and Society

    Im Mittelpunkt: Günter Grass (1927–2015)

    1968 and Beyond: Troubled 1970s and 1980s

    Conclusion

    10 THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC, 1949–1990

    The Quest for Viability

    Im Mittelpunkt: Erich Mielke (1907–2000)

    East Germany in the 1960s

    Culture and Society

    Im Mittelpunkt: Wolf Biermann (1936–)

    Conflicting Signals: East Germany under Erich Honecker, 1971–1989

    1989: The Year of the Ultimate Crisis

    Im Mittelpunkt: Kurt Masur (1927–2015)

    Conclusion

    11 EUPHORIA AND DISILLUSIONMENT, 1990–2005

    Political Developments

    Im Mittelpunkt: Gerhard Schröder (1944–)

    The End of the Kohl Era

    Economic and Social Developments

    Foreign Policy

    German Society Fifteen Years after Reunification

    Problems and Prospects

    12 THE NEW NORMAL, 2005 to the Present

    Im Mittelpunkt: Angela Merkel (1954–)

    Parties, Politics and Elections

    Foreign Relations

    Im Mittelpunkt: Ursula von der Leyen (1958–)

    The Refugee Crisis of 2015/16 and the Rise of Anti-Establishment Groups

    Culture

    Im Mittelpunkt: Herta Müller (1953–)

    Problems and Prospects

    13 CONCLUSION

    SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING

    INDEX

    Biography

    Dietrich Orlow is Professor (emerit.) of History at Boston University. He has taught and written extensively on contemporary German and European history. His recent books include Common Destiny: A Comparative History of the Dutch, French, and German Social Democratic Parties, 1945-1969 (2000) and Socialist Reformers and the Collapse of the German Democratic Republic (2015).