The Sonderweg Theory : Wehler And Blackbourn

The Weimar Republic would have continued to be a functional government far longer than achieved if not for the defeat of WWI, the economic burdens imposed by the Versailles Treaty, and the flawed Article 48 which all contributed to the down fall of Germany’s first attempt at a legitimate Democracy. This paper will argue that the societal, economical, and constitutional aspects all played a role in the hopeless Democracy Germany attempted which ultimately lead Germany into a totalitarian state that would further shake the world with the rise of the NSDAP and Adolf Hitler.

In addition to the damaging consequences of the First World War with the requirements of the Treaty of Versailles, certain features of Germany caused the state to be susceptible to the influence of this dangerous ideology. Along with the damage to the national ego as a result of the First World War, Germany had co-existing and conflicting highly modern strands of development forced to integrate with powerful remnants of archaic values and social structures, and had a deeply fractured parliamentary political system, and the weaknesses of this system reflected the social and political differences within the population. This shame and failure after World War I was superimposed onto a modern country which once had an advanced economy, a sophisticated state

With incompetent leadership and an unhappy nation, the German people began to realize that their country was in a vulnerable situation and began to look for stable alternatives to democracy. Hitler’s

1) Germany before the Fuhrer. Germany’s defeat at the end of World War I left the nation socially, politically, and economically shattered. The reparation agreements inflicted upon Germany without its’ consent at the end of the war meant that the nation was in complete financial ruin. In the wake of Germany’s defeat, public decent climaxed on the 9th November 1918 during the revolution that took place on Berlin’s Postdamer Platz. This revolution transpired as a result of the public’s culminating discontent towards the imperial monarchy, and lasted up until August 1919, which saw the establishment of the Weimar Republic. In attempts to guide Germany out of economic

Peter Fritzche’s book, Germans into Nazis, contends that, “Germans became Nazis because they wanted to become Nazis and because the Nazis spoke so well to their interests and inclinations…however, voters did not back Hitler mainly because they share his hatred of the Jews…but because they departed from established political traditions in that they were identified at once with a distinctly popular form of ethnic nationalism and with the basic social reforms most Germans counted on to ensure national well-being.” (8-9) His argument rests on the notion that the Nazis had a vision for Germany that incorporated Germans into a national community, throwing off the restraints of a tired government, and propelled them towards a future that would

Within societies in history, a hierarchy of classes has always existed as a marker of civilization. Throughout Germany’s history, this system of classes has transitioned from the feudal class system to modern era classes based on economic prosperity. Class divisions, especially the rise of the working class that was intertwined understandably with the political rise of the Social Democrats, increased within Imperial Germany, due to industrialization. Despite nationalistic unity in support of the First World War, as it progressed, World War I exacerbated the linked class and political divisions, specifically of the working class and Social Democrat factions, present in German society.

The rise and subsequent take-over of power in Germany by Hitler and the Nazi Party in the early 1930s was the culmination and continuation not of Enlightenment thought from the 18th and 19th century but the logical conclusion of unstable and cultural conditions that pre-existed in Germany. Hitler’s Nazi Party’s clear manipulation of the weak state of the Weimar Republic through its continued failure economically and socially, plus its undermining of popular support through the signing the Treaty of Versailles all lead to the creation of a Nazi dictatorship under the cult of personality of Hitler. This clear take-over of power and subsequent destruction of any

All of these factors made it very difficult for the German people to be trustworthy, faithful and supportive of the regime of the Weimar Constitution. This idea is re-affirmed through German historian Friedrich Meinecke saying that “true loyalty to the Fatherland requires disloyalty to the Republic”, leading to an opening for extremist parties as well as the Republic’s doom.

The Nazi Party’s strength in three main areas allowed it to precipitate the failure of democracy in Germany. Ideologically, structurally and politically the Nazi party was superior to the Weimar Democracy especially in the period 1928-1934. Ideologically, historian Hans Mommson claims the Nazi Party was a “catch all party” in that the party’s nationalistic, socialist and racist policies

In the following investigation, the following question will be addressed: In what ways did economic and political issues in Germany between 1922 and 1932 contribute to Hitler's rise to power? The scope of my research will fall between the years of 1922-1932, the start of Hitler’s attempt to run for office. A variety of primary and secondary sources will be used to answer the question. The bitterness caused upon the change of government systems in Germany will be analyzed, along with his childhood that all primarily drove Hitler to run for power. Then, the harsh effects World War I had on Germany along with the Great Depression that followed as a result will also be looked at. Finally, a conclusion will be reached.

Nazi Germany was between the dates of 1933-1939. Throughout this essay, Conditions in Germany when Hitler came to power including the impact of the Treaty of Versailles and the Great Depression and the weakness of the Weimar republic, will be discussed. The Concept of a Totalitarian State and how Hitler and the Nazi party developed in Germany through the use of force, controlled education, militarism, propaganda, economic policies, and no political opposition. Some of the Positives that came from Nazi Germany were increased prosperity including full employment and economic growth, regaining lost territories, increased national prestige and pride, and the hosting of 1936 Olympics. Some of the Negatives that came from Nazi Germany were Persecution of minorities, loss of personal freedoms, economic growth focused on the military, and expansionism as a path to war. This essay will re-state weather Nazi Germany was an overall positive or negative experience for people in Germany.

German history is seen as a ‘painful issue for thousands of Germans and other Europeans’ . However it has interested many historians over the years into inquiring how and why Hitler came to power and how much of this was to do with the failure of parliamentary democracy in Germany. To fully ascertain to what extent these events have in common and what reasons led to the fall of democracy and rise of the Nazis, each have to be looked at individually. Also it seems beneficial, to be able to evaluate these in the relevant context, to look at the situation in Germany was in prior to 1920.

Hofffman’s work, The Sandman, and Mosse’s, From Romanticism to the Volk, share cohesive concepts, each examine the dramatic cultural shift toward promoting nationalist thought in the minds of the German people. Through the “rootlessness” of his characters, the cognitive disparity between Nathanael and Klara, and the structure of The Sandman, Hoffman aptly uses the folktale genre to effectively reveal his disdain for the tenets of enlightenment as they challenged the new Volk ideology of Germany. Mosse’s scholarly analysis critically examined this same shift and sought to clarify how the groundwork laid for the return to Germanic roots, exemplified in the Volk neo-romantic movement, came as a direct reaction to the industrial revolution.

There were various factors that contributed to the failure of the Weimar Republic of Germany and the ascent of Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers Party into power on January 30, 1933. Various conflicting problems were concurrent with the eventuation of the Republic that, from the outset, its first governing body the socialist party (SPD) was forced to contend with.

The emergence of postmodernism in the wake of the manifold carnage and destruction left by World War II (1939-1945), induced a fundamental shift in paradigms of historiography. This is patently evident when assessing the multi-faceted impacts of postmodern critiques on the critical variant of the Sonderweg master narrative. An assessment of these impacts will be achieved through a close analysis of three historical works, namely Hans Ulrich Wehler’s seminal social history on Imperial Germany 1871-1918 (1973), David Blackbourn and Geoff Eley’s neo-Marxist “The Peculiarities of German History” (1984) and Konrad. H. Jarausch and Michael Geyer’s “Shattered Past: Reconstructing German Histories” (2002). Postmodernism’s impact manifests in these three works by revealing an inherent tension between the postmodern approach to history and the differing interpretations of the Sonderweg master narrative. This results in a weakening of the Sonderweg thesis’ validity as its contribution to the historiographical debate surrounding the rise of National Socialism in Germany, is constrained by such critiques and tensions. However, the Sonderweg thesis’ “facilitation of retrospective discussion through amplification of meaning”, emphasises a different facet of historical ‘validity’. What prevails from this analysis, is that the Sonderweg thesis’ attempt to explain the rise of National Socialism in Germany; while problematic, has generated prolific historiographical debate and in this respect,