In and Out of the Ostmark Migration, Settlement, and Demographics in Poznania, 1871–1918

Itinerario ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-86
Author(s):  
Drummond Elizabeth A.
Keyword(s):  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
German History ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Colonial Power ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
German Empire ◽  
German Nation ◽  
Global Presence ◽  
History Of ◽  
Dominant Narratives

Historians have often viewed the history of the German empire with Berlin firmly in the centre of the lens, thus privileging the nation-state to the neglect of both the local and the transnational. Zooming out to include transnational processes such as migration and to globalise German history enables us to complicate the dominant narratives of the German nation-state. The movements of Germans overseas—whether as migrants, missionaries, or merchants—helped to forge a global presence for the German empire, but also entailed complex negotiations both among Germans and between Germans and their various “others,” thus revealing the ways in which German nationalist and colonial discourses and practices adapted to local conditions. While the German empire sought to establish itself as a colonial power abroad only in the late nineteenth century, Prussia-Germany was already a colonial power at home, in its eastern provinces. Zooming back in from the global to the local, and refocusing from Berlin to the borderlands, further complicates our understandings of the German empire, by revealing the ways in which local conditions in the eastern borderlands, themselves influenced by transnational phenomena such as international migration, informed the development of German nationalism there. Most notably, the demographics of the Prussian eastern provinces—and the movements of Jews, Germans, Poles, and Ruthenians/Ukrainians in and out of the region—required German nationalists to integrate greater flexibility into their discourse.

The Bible in the German Empire

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joerg Rieger
Keyword(s):  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Friedrich Schleiermacher ◽  
German Empire ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
Cultural Climate ◽  
Colonial Empire ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Intellectual Production

Even though Germany’s colonial empire lasted merely three decades, from 1884 to 1915, German colonial fantasies shaped intellectual production from the late eighteenth century onward. This cultural climate shapes a great variety of engagements with the Bible, from the beginnings of liberal theology with Friedrich Schleiermacher to missionary efforts and the rather abstract academic productions of biblical scholarship in the late nineteenth century, including the prominent history of religions school. At the same time, there are also efforts to resist colonial tendencies, sometimes in the work of the same authors who otherwise perpetuate the colonial spirit.

Authoritarianism in Modern Germany History

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-95
Author(s):  
Michael Meng
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
German History ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Global History ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
Modern Germany ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
History Of

Why study the history of modern German-speaking Central Europe? If pressed to answer this question fifty years ago, a Germanist would likely have said something to the effect that one studies modern German history to trace the “German” origins of Nazism, with the broader aim of understanding authoritarianism. While the problem of authoritarianism clearly remains relevant to this day, the nation-state-centered approach to understanding it has waned, especially in light of the recent shift toward transnational and global history. The following essay focuses on the issue of authoritarianism, asking whether the study of German history is still relevant to authoritarianism. It begins with a review of two conventional approaches to understanding authoritarianism in modern German history, and then thinks about it in a different way through G. W. F. Hegel in an effort to demonstrate the vibrancy of German intellectual history for exploring significant and global issues such as authoritarianism.

Inclusion and exclusion—We and the Other. Response to Vamik Volkan’s Key-note Lecture

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Mies
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Western World ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Specific Group ◽  
Norbert Elias ◽  
German Nation ◽  
History Of

This response is focused on the following question: What may be the specific group analytic point of view on phenomena as the resurgence of nationalism in the western world, the so-called refugee crisis and the confrontation with Islamism and Islamist terror? The guideline of this response will be the idea of the ‘group of individuals’, which Norbert Elias characterized as his main contribution to group analytic theory. The response will emphasize the significance of the Other for the formation of personal and collective identities. It will argue that we face the Other, not only outside our own group, but also inside, and that xenophobia goes hand in hand with the denial of real differences and conflicts inside one’s own group. Finally, the history of the German nation-state is discussed as an exemplary case.

Beyond the Nation-State

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmitry Shumsky
Keyword(s):  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Jewish State ◽  
Zionist Movement ◽  
Theodor Herzl ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
State Of Israel

The Jewish nation-state has often been thought of as Zionism's end goal. This bracing history of the idea of the Jewish state in modern Zionism, from its beginnings in the late nineteenth century until the establishment of the state of Israel, challenges this deeply rooted assumption. In doing so, the book complicates the narrative of the Zionist quest for full sovereignty, provocatively showing how and why the leaders of the pre-state Zionist movement imagined, articulated, and promoted theories of self-determination in Palestine either as part of a multinational Ottoman state (1882–1917), or in the framework of multinational democracy. In particular, the book focuses on the writings and policies of five key Zionist leaders from the Habsburg and Russian empires in central and eastern Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: Leon Pinsker, Theodor Herzl, Ahad Ha'am, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, and David Ben-Gurion to offer a very pointed critique of Zionist historiography.

Building an East German Nation: The Construction of a SocialistHeimat, 1945–1961

2004 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Palmowski
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
German Empire ◽  
State And Society ◽  
German Nation ◽  
History Of ◽  
East German ◽  
And Gender

Followingthe GDR's surprising collapse in 1989, historians have produced a range of studies that have added new contours to its state and society and contributed to a much fuller understanding of the reasons for East Germany's implosion. As scholars became more aware of the “limits of dictatorship” in the GDR, however, the longevity of a state that lasted for almost as long as the second German Empire became all the more perplexing. In response to this problem, a number of historians reflected on approaches practiced by historical anthropologists and sociologists, to explore the distinctive nature of GDR life in its everyday manifestations. Inspired by the pioneering work of Alf Lüdtke and Lutz Niethammer, they began to investigate the history of everyday life at the workplace, within and across generational and gender divides, and in areas such as consumption and leisure.

“Oper im Kirchengewande”? Verdi's Requiem and the Anxieties of the Young German Empire

2005 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 399-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
GUNDULA KREUZER
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
German Language ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Musical Culture ◽  
German Empire ◽  
Religious Music ◽  
Italian Opera ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
German Nation ◽  
Italian Music

Abstract When, in 1874, Hans von Bülow denounced Verdi's Requiem as an “opera in ecclesiastical robes,” he perpetuated the view (previously common among German critics) that Italian music amounted to little more than Italian opera, a genre thought inferior to German music. However, this article shows that Bülow's polemic was motivated by personal resentment and far from typical of German-language responses. Partly because of Verdi's 1875 tour—during which he conducted the work in Vienna to sensational acclaim—the Requiem was widely disseminated, triggering a multifaceted discourse about genre and style, national traits, and the essence of “truly religious” music. I argue that this fervent discourse opens fresh vistas onto German musical culture and its socio-political implications after the unification of 1871. It chimed in with debates about Cecilian church-music reforms and challenged both long-cherished notions of German cultural superiority and recent attempts in Germany to bolster “cultural Protestantism.” Both foreign and popular, the Requiem thus provided a unique screen on which musical, regional, confessional, and national hostilities could be enacted. Ultimately, critics in the new German Empire grappled not only with Verdi's appearance in a new (stylistic, generic) dress but—amidst Bismarck's Kulturkampf—with the foundation of their own cultural identity in the “lesser German” nation-state.

German-Polish Migration: The Elusive Search for a German Nation-State

1992 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 373-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter O'Brien
Keyword(s):  
German History ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Iron Curtain ◽  
German State ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
German Nation ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
The Many ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Nation State Formation

This article examines past and present migrations to Germany from the perspective of nation-state formation. Much of modern German history has been characterized by repeated (and failed) attempts to establish and sustain a strong, independent nation-state like France or Britain. But each attempt, including the recent reunification, has forced Germany to absorb large numbers of non-Germans either as a result of 1) expanding borders and annexations and/or 2) the appeal and labor needs of a robust economy. Focusing on the many experiences with the Polish minority (ranging from the eighteenth century to the present), this essay suggests that Germans have never discovered an acceptable and workable approach for dealing with large non-German minorities in the German nation-state. Rather, different regimes at different times have vacillated between an exclusive approach founded on nationalist principles and practices and an inclusive one founded on liberal principles and practices. In the current migration crisis, brought on by the raising of the Iron Curtain, both approaches, despite the contradictions between them, are being employed to determine who should and should not be permitted to immigrate to the “new” Germany. The confusion over the two approaches produces not only a confused immigration policy, but also reflects deep-seated confusion over the definition of the new German state and identity of the newly united German nation.

STILL A MONSTROSITY? SOME REFLECTIONS ON EARLY MODERN GERMAN STATEHOOD

2006 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 565-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER H. WILSON
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
The Political ◽  
German History ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Nation State ◽  
History Of

The German political scientist and philosopher, Samuel von Pufendorf, described the Holy Roman Empire in 1667 as a ‘monstrosity’, because it did not fit any of the recognized definitions of a state. The issue of the Empire's statehood has been the most important consideration in its historiography in recent decades: was it a state? If so, what kind? This review addresses these questions by examining how the debate on the Empire is related to wider controversies surrounding German history, the contemporary process of European integration, and about political organization in general. It explains how these debates are rooted in the political and religious disputes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that still influence how the history of the Empire is written today. The four principal modern interpretations are identified and assessed: the Empire as a ‘failed nation state’, as a federation, and, more recently, as an ‘Empire-State’ or a ‘Central Europe of the Regions’. The piece concludes by offering a new explanatory framework to assess the Empire's political development.

Introduction

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helmut Walser Smith
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
German Society ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
German History ◽  
Modern Germany ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
German Nation ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact

This book departs in significant ways from previous histories of modern Germany. The book also represents a novel attempt to place German history in a deeper international and transnational setting than has hitherto been the case. This is the second important departure, and is, in this sense, that national histories and ‘area studies’ need to take fuller account of changes occurring in the wider world. There have also been a number of attempts to emphasize the history of the everyday, or to underscore the impact of war on German society. The book makes nation-state sovereignty into a decisive marker as well as a problem of modern German history. A concept of the German nation reaches at least to the early sixteenth century, when the Holy Roman Empire officially added the appellation ‘of the German Nation’. This article chronicles the history of Germany from the eighteenth century to the twentieth century.

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