Imperial Germany Revisited

Sven Oliver Müller is a Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin. His recent publications include Die Oper im Wandel der Gesellschaft: Kulturtransfers und Netzwerke des Musiktheaters im modernen Europa (Oldenbourg 2010; with Ther, Toelle, and Zur Nieden) and Deutsche Soldaten und ihre Feinde: Nationalismus an Front und Heimatfront im Zweiten Weltkrieg (Fischer 2007).

“…an excellent set of 21 essays from well-established and emerging scholars from Europe and North America…The collection continues the robust international debate on the significance of imperial Germany for German, European, and world history…Overall, a superb collection. Highly recommended.” • Choice“…what the reader gets from this volume is a series of fresh and thought-provoking perspectives incorporating some of the latest research, including research on globalization, and offering new insights into older questions. There are indeed some very fine pieces of scholarship among the 21 separate chapters… this is a stimulating volume with much to recommend it.” • European History Quarterly“In the genre of collected essays, Imperial Germany Revisited is exemplary. Its editors chose the topics well; its authors contributed comprehensive, coherent, and useful essays; its overall tone is authoritative and thoughtful…As in a good relay team, all of the contributions are strong, worthy of more attention than they can receive in this brief review…[Many] essays provide glimpses of what comparative, multiperspectival, and transnational writing about German history can achieve.” • German Studies Review“This volume offers valuable reflections on the state of the field by leading international historians of Imperial Germany… With its combination of case studies and historiographical reflection, this volume provides a useful snapshot of recent historical research on the Kaiserreich. Berghahn Books deserves credit for again making available to the English-speaking public the translation of an important work of Germany history.” • German History“Overall, the collection is a testimony to the vitality of professional scholarship on the Second Reich. Most of the contributions are mercifully jargon free, but with the detailed discussions of the historiography, buttressed by copious notes to German sources (mostly secondary), this has all the marks of a work for specialists or for graduate students looking for a quick orientation in the literature.” • The Historian

• IntroductionCornelius Torp and Sven Oliver MüllerPART I: THE PLACE OF IMPERIAL GERMANY IN GERMAN HISTORYChapter 1. When the Sonderweg Debate Left UsHelmut Walser SmithChapter 2. The Impossible Vanishing Point. Societal Differentiation in Imperial GermanyBenjamin ZiemannChapter 3. Was the German Empire a Sovereign State?Dieter GrimmChapter 4. Theories of Nationalism and the Critical Approach to German HistoryJohn BreuillyPART II: POLITICS, CULTURE AND SOCIETYChapter 5. The Authoritarian State and the Political Mass MarketJames RetallackChapter 6. Using Violence to Govern: The German Empire and the French Third RepublicHeinz-Gerhard HauptChapter 7. Woman Suffrage and Antifeminism as Litmus Test of Modernising Societies. A Western European ComparisonUte PlanertChapter 8. Germany in the Age of Culture WarsOlaf BlaschkeChapter 9. Their Favourite Enemy. German Social Historians and the Prussian NobilityStephan MalinowskiChapter 10. A Difficult Relationship. Social History and the BourgeoisieManfred HettlingChapter 11. Cultural Nationalism and Beyond. Musical Performances in Imperial GermanySven Oliver MüllerPART III: WAR AND VIOLENCEChapter 12. 1914-1945: A Second Thirty Years War? Advantages and Disadvantages of an Interpretive CategoryJörg EchternkampChapter 13. The Enduring Charm of the Great War. Some Reflections on Methodological IssuesRoger ChickeringChapter 14. The First World War and Military Culture: Continuity and Change in Germany and ItalyMacGregor KnoxChapter 15. A German Way of War? Narratives of German Militarism and Maritime Warfare in World War IDirk BönkerChapter 16. German War Crimes 1914/1941: The Question of ContinuityAlan KramerPART IV: THE GERMAN EMPIRE IN THE WORLDChapter 17. From the Periphery to the Centre. On the Significance of Colonialism for the German EmpireBirthe KundrusChapter 18. The Kaiserreich as a Society of MigrationThomas MergelChapter 19. Wilhelmine Nationalism in Global Contexts. Mobility, Race, and Global ConsciousnessSebastian ConradChapter 20. Imperial Germany under GlobalizationCornelius TorpChapter 21. German Industry and American Big Business, 1900-1914Volker BerghahnSelected Bibliography