The German Empire 1870-1918 - Rilegato

Sturmer, Michael

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0679640908 ISBN 13: 9780679640905

Casa editrice: Modern Library, 2000

Riassunto

Chronicles the rise of Germany from new nation to world power, recounting the militarization, industrial growth, and convergence of forces that pushed the European balance of power over the brink and led to two world wars.

Su questo libro

Informazioni sull?autore

Michael Stürmer has been professor of history at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg since 1973 and is currently chief correspondent for Springer-Verlag in Berlin. He has been a visiting research fellow at Harvard, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the Sorbonne, and the University of Toronto.

Dalla quarta di copertina

In The German Empire, one of Europe's great historians and men of letters chronicles one of history's most fateful transformations--Germany's rise from new nation to prime mover in the chain of events that sent it hurtling into two world wars.
        
In 1871, Otto von Bismarck fused with "blood and iron" a motley collection of principalities, Free Cities, and bishoprics into one Reich. In England, Benjamin Disraeli observed that the world was witnessing "a greater political event than the French revolution of last century. . . . [T]here is not a diplomatic tradition which has not been swept away. . . . The balance of power has been entirely destroyed." Disraeli's powers of prophecy, in this as in much else, were formidable.

The Age of Bismarck saw Germany become the dynamo of Europe--its preeminent economic and military power, its scientific and educational nerve center, and a place of tremendous artistic ferment. But there would be no simple spell to return to their bottles the genies unleashed by these vast forces, and Michael Stürmer traces the convergence of people and events that sent Europe's fragile balance of power over the brink  and into conflict. No war was fought for less purpose or with greater slaughter than the First World War which, in Michael Stürmer's assured hands, arrives as the next-to-last act of an epic drama all the more tragic for the blazing brilliance of its opening scenes. Though the drama's final horrible act, the Second World War, takes place offstage from The German Empire, it is impossible to understand its origins without the history Michael Stürmer tells here with such elegance and insight.

Dal risvolto di copertina interno

In <i>The German Empire,</i> one of Europe's great historians and men of letters chronicles one of history's most fateful transformations--Germany's rise from new nation to prime mover in the chain of events that sent it hurtling into two world wars.<br> <br>In 1871, Otto von Bismarck fused with "blood and iron" a motley collection of principalities, Free Cities, and bishoprics into one Reich. In England, Benjamin Disraeli observed that the world was witnessing "a greater political event than the French revolution of last century. . . . [T]here is not a diplomatic tradition which has not been swept away. . . . The balance of power has been entirely destroyed." Disraeli's powers of prophecy, in this as in much else, were formidable.<br><br>The Age of Bismarck saw Germany become the dynamo of Europe--its preeminent economic and military power, its scientific and educational nerve center, and a place of tremendous artistic ferment. But there would be no simple spell to return to their bottles the genies unleashed by these vast forces, and Michael Stürmer traces the convergence of people and events that sent Europe's fragile balance of power over the brink and into conflict. No war was fought for less purpose or with greater slaughter than the First World War which, in Michael Stürmer's assured hands, arrives as the next-to-last act of an epic drama all the more tragic for the blazing brilliance of its opening scenes. Though the drama's final horrible act, the Second World War, takes place offstage from The German Empire, it is impossible to understand its origins without the history Michael Stürmer tells here with such elegance and insight.

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Excerpt

In the ancient city of Koblentz where the Moselle flows into the Rhine there is,in front of the Romanesque church of St. Castor, a neoclassical fountain with aplaque. The inscription celebrates the passage of Napoleon's grande arméethrough the city en route to Russia to crush the Tsar's despotism. It is signed,"Jules Doazan, sous préfet de la ville de Coblentz." Underneath there is asecond inscription which reads, "Vu et approuvé par nous le commandant Russe dela ville de Coblentz."* The first inscription is dated 1812, the second one1813. This plaque encapsulates the German question.

Germany is situated at the heart of Europe where all the peninsulas and landsforming the European continent are linked to Eurasia. Germany, whether itscitizens are aware of the fact or not, determines through its history andgeography the destinies of most countries in Europe; and, in turn, the fate ofGermany is, for better or for worse, of the utmost importance for thesecountries. This has been the conditio Germaniae ever since Europe began toevolve a thousand years ago. Strategic and cultural interdependence made theHoly Roman Empire for many centuries the center of the European system, but farfrom being the imperial master of Europe's destinies, the German lands provedtime and again to be a peacetime chessboard or a wartime arena for thecompetition of the European powers who were rising to modern statehood andsovereignty and fighting for influence. The German constitution, foreverorganized in an uneasy equilibrium between the Emperor and the territorialrulers, became more "Europeanized," and less nationalistic in outlook andintent: today's map of Europe, the result of the changes that took place in the1990s?Germany unified within the framework of NATO followed by a quantum leapin European integration through economic and monetary union?is nothing but amodern and more enlightened variation upon a very old theme.

This book traces the rise and fall of the German Empire from its inception afterthe Franco-Prussian war of 1870 to its demise, in defeat and revolution, in1918. Otto von Bismarck, its creator, put an end to the age-old European role ofGermany by excluding the vast and unwieldy Habsburg lands. But even so the newGerman nation-state was, almost inevitably, a dramatic challenge to theestablished balance of power. "Europe has lost a mistress and won a master" wasa complaint heard around London after France's defeat. Benjamin Disraeli, laterthe Earl of Beaconsfield, pointed out in the House of Commons in 1871 that thiswar?referring to the recent Franco-German war?was "a German revolution," and"a greater political event than the French revolution of last century. I don'tsay a greater, or as great a social event. What its social consequences may be,is in the future . . . there is not a diplomatic tradition which has not beenswept away . . . What has really come to pass? The balance of power has beenentirely destroyed." There was an ominous tone of warning in his analysis, andit was heeded by the contemporary generation of German leaders, especially byBismarck?whose epithet of the "Iron" Chancellor disguised his heroicpessimism?and by his successor Count Caprivi. But by the end of the century theEuropean stage had been superseded by a global one. The United States and Japanhad become world powers in their own right and markets, resources, battle-fleetsand sea-lanes had become vital components of national power and identity inEurope, Germany being no exception. And there was no longer Bismarck to soundthe alarm.

Why did the Empire end in war? Was this, to put it into ancient Greek terms,nemesis following hubris? Were the inevitable stresses of transforming anagricultural society into an industrial one uncontainable? Or was Germany caughtin its geography, its politicians blind to the troubling fact that the countrywas too big for the old balance of power to continue but too small to impose anew equilibrium? Was German militarism any worse than French chauvinism, Russianexpansionism or British jingoism and imperialism? Perhaps Germany's sudden riseafter centuries of defeat and suffering overtaxed the historical and strategicimagination of its power elites whose outlook and sensitivity to danger wereessentially continental rather than global in reach. It was the industrialistWalther Rathenau who said, not long before the outbreak of World War I, that theGermans knew their map but were ignorant of the globe.

Within the lifetime of one generation Germany was able to become the foremostindustrial and trading power in Europe. Bismarck's revolution from aboveunleashed vast energies through the nation state, not entirely unlike events inFrance eighty years before. Industrial performance was second to none and wasaccompanied by the birth of the welfare state and democratic institutions andaspirations; of a socialist subculture and an ambitious liberal bourgeoisieunsure of itself but driven by nervous energy and creative unrest. At the turnof the century the language of the sciences was, in many parts of the world,German. A vast number of Nobel prizes went to German scholars, many of themJews. German big business and banks were probably organized more efficientlythan most competitors except for the United States. German universities becamethe model for many establishments of higher education from Turkey to NorthAmerica. If the French Impressionists dominated the art world in the nineteenthcentury, after the turn of the century German art movements became equallyimportant. In literature it was probably the Germany of Gerhard Hauptmann,Thomas Mann or Theodor Mommsen, all of them Nobel Prize winners, that mostsensitively expressed the drama and contradictions of industrial society. Aletter which appeared in The Times in August 1914 under the heading "Scholars'Protest Against War" summed up a widely held view: "We regard Germany as anation leading the way in the arts and sciences, and we have all learnt and arelearning from German scholars."

Copyright © 2000 Michael Sturmer. All rights reserved.
ISBN: 0-679-64090-8

Dettagli dell'edizione

• Editore: Modern Library
• Data di pubblicazione: 2000
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0679640908
• ISBN 13: 9780679640905
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 154
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: non disponibile