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In the wake of the Fischer Controversy on the origins of World War I there emerged in West Germany a younger generation of historians who took a critical 'revisionist' view of the Bismarckian Empire and began to analyze the political development of the Hohenzollern monarchy against the background of the country's social and economic power structures. Professor Wehler became one of the most prominent exponents of this approach and his structural analysis of the 'Kaiserreich' created a considerable stir when it was first published. It has since, with its incisive and rigorous analysis, become a classic in the field.
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HANS-ULRICH WEHLER
The Germán Empire 1871-1918 Translated from the Germán by KIM TRAYNOR
BERG Oxford New York •
Contents
First published in 1985 by Berg Editorial office: 150 Cowley Road, Oxford 0X4 1JJ, UK 70 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012, USA Reprinted 1991, 1993, 1997 © Berg Publishers 1985, 1991, 1993, 1997 Translated from the Germán by permission of Verlages Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Góttingen © Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Góttingen, 1973
Translator’s Preface
1
Introduction
5
I
All rights reserved. No part of this publícation may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without prior permission of Berg.
The Configuratíon o f 1871: the Agrarian R evolution, the Industrial R evolution and the Founding o f the State 1. The agrarian revolution and the land-owning aristocracy 2. The industrial revolution and the urban
bourgeoisie
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the constitutional conflict 4. Wars for hegemony and ‘revolution from above’ II
E nglish
Towards an Industrial State 1. The first phase of advanced industrialisation: uneven industrial growth and the structural crisis in agriculture, 1873-1895 2. Industrial prosperity and the subsidised
agrarian sector: -the rise of ‘organised capitalism’ and State interventionism, 1895-1914
320.943 JN3388 ISBN 0-907582-22-2 ISBN 0-907582-32-2-X Pbk
III
Library o f Congress Catalog Card N um ber 84-73484
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3. Domestic politics: reactionaries, liberalism and
Berg is the imprint of Oxford International Publishers Ltd. B ritish L ibrary Cataloguing in Publication Data Wehler, Hans-Ulrich The Germán empire 1871-1918. I. Germany—Politics and government—1871-1918 I. Title II. Das Deutsche Kaiserreich 1871-1918
9
The R uling System and P olitics 1. The political system
20 24 32 32
40 52 52
1.1 Constitutional monarchy or pseudo-constitutional semi-absolutism? 52 1.2 The Bonapartist dictatorship up to 1890 55 1.3 The permanent crisis o f the State after 1890: polycratic, but uncoordinated authoritarianism 62 1.4 The burtaucracy as an element in political rule and an organisational model 65
2. Central problems: the defence of the status quo against political mobilisation 2.1 The impotence o f the parties
TI
— The Liberáis 73
71
7.2
— The Centre Party 76 — The Conservatives 78 — The Social Democrats 80 2.2 The incorporation o f pressure groups into the State: anti-democratic pluralism and its opponents 83 2.3 The ‘negative integration’ technique o f political rule: 2.4
8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5
100
3.2 Nationalism and enemy stereotypes 102 3.3 Antisemitism and policios towards minorities 105 3.4 Religión as an ideology o f legitimation 113 — The Lutheran State church: ‘throne and altar’ 113 — Román 3.5
3.6 3.7
Catholism: estate-based ideology and its claim to monopoly 116 The matrix o f the authoritarian society: socialisation processes and their control 118 —