Frederik Frank Sterkenburgh – författare

Up until recently, Europe’s three imperial monarchies – the German, Austrian, and Russian Empires – were seen as moribund political entities, unable to accommodate the forces of political, social, economic, and cultural modernization, and as a result collapsed collectively during or shortly after the First World War. More recently, scholars have underlined the viability of these polities, including as frameworks for democratic experiments and fixed points for (supra)national identification, notwithstanding the suppression of minorities and colonial undertakings of these empires. This book takes a different approach: it demonstrates that these three imperial monarchies were capable of and willing to initiate and steer the modernization of their institutions and polities. Rather than understanding modernization as a linear and teleological process, this contributed volume draws instead on Samuel Eisenstadt’s notion of ‘multiple modernities’ to demonstrate how these empires sought to modernize on their own terms. By drawing on this concept, it becomes possible to challenge notions of inevitable decline and instead demonstrate how these imperial monarchies sought to forge modernization on their own terms in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

This book offers the first-ever scholarly study of Wilhelm I as Germany’s first Kaiser. For decades, Wilhelm has been dismissed by historians as a political nullity and an unwilling imperial figurehead, who was perpetually overruled by chancellor Otto von Bismarck. As a result, scholars concluded that the imperial role did not reach maturity until the accession of Wilhelm II. This book challenges this assumption by analysing how Wilhelm used self-staging to effectuate his role as German emperor and set the precedent for his successors, Friedrich III and Wilhelm II. It explores how he oversaw and intervened in the political and military decision-making processes, his use of politics of history, his understanding and practicing of the imperial role towards other German states and dynasties, his self-presentation in the new German capital, and how his public persona was distorted in German cultural memory after his death in 1888. The book draws on a wealth of previously unexplored sources, including material from Wilhelm’s personal archive, the archives of the Hohenzollern monarchy, the Prussian state, and local archives. It offers a much-needed reassessment of Wilhelm I and makes an important contribution to debates on the role of the Kaiser in German politics, the political system, and culture of the early German nation state, and how the Hohenzollern monarchy adapted to the demands of generating popular support for its new German imperial role.