A German Identity: 1770-1990

by Harold James

Book Overview

A provocative examination of the German search for self-understanding, at just the time when Europe again faces the threat of a united, peaceful, powerful, and nationalistic nation. It places Germany... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0415901804
• ISBN13: 9780415901802
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Identity politics

The scope is immense and the subject matter interesting. The concept of nationalism intersects with German history in all kinds of ways. At the end of the 1980's it was concluded that German peoples had less national pride than other Europeans. The book seeks to find out what are the dangers of an excessive focus on economics in national life and the effects on German development of her place in the economic system. As early as 1917 the national obsession with economics was noted. In a sense, perhaps, the Germans were ahead of the other Europeans and the Americans in this respect. Germany's political influence includes Greece, Russia, France, England, the U.S., Switzerland, Poland, Italy and Austria. Gottfried Herder's "Essay on the Origins of Language," (1772), was an important contribution to German self-consciousness. He held that cultural transmission meant learning from other people. Herder was inspired by ancient folk tales. Goethe wrote a pamphlet on Gothic architecture. Fichte continued the logic of Herder's argument. Through everything he remained obsessed by education. Wilhelm von Humboldt's vision for Prussian educational policy shaped German schools and universities for the rest of the nineteenth century. Classicism in education inspired classicism in architecture. This became known as the Berlin style. German schools were more accessible to a wider social range than other schools in Europe. Education became a vehicle of social mobility. In the 1840's nationalism started. For Fichte and Hegel Germans were a universal people. For Paul Pfizer, CORRESPONDENCE OF TWO GERMANS (1831) the Germans were a "cosmopolitan nation." In 1848 the claim to be nationally superior rested mainly on assertion. The first promoter of German economic nationalism was Friedrich List. The railway was an instrument of national integration. Cologne's railway station was built next to the cathedral. In the mythology of German unification, a tariff union, Zollverein, was a critical factor. Realpolitik caught on as a slogan for midcentury Germany. Economics had become a central part of the vision of political liberalism. Economics could be used to stabilize a politically volatile state. Relative freedom and independence in academic activity produced German scientific supremacy long before it had supremacy in economics. The German Empire began in 1871 at Versailles. Constitutionally it was a federation. The permanence of Prussian dominance was guaranteed. The Germanness of schools, citizenship, and nationality was highly aggressive. Until the 1920's Wagner's circle had little political impact. According to Nietzsche the modern German bourgeoisie had no capacity for an independent culture. Nietzsche felt that the Germans should be less self-conscious and look back to the Greeks. Nietzsche received little attention during his mentally-active lifetime. Walter Rathenau contended that German materialism was exemplified by the beer hall