Covering the entire period of modern German history - from nineteenth-century imperial Germany right through the present - this well-established text presents a balanced, general survey of the country's political division in 1945 and runs through its reunification in the present. Detailing foreign policy as well as political, economic and social developments, A History of Modern Germany presents a central theme of the problem of asymmetrical modernization in the country's history as it fully explores the complicated path of Germany's troubled past and stable present.
Socialist Reformers and the Collapse of the German Democratic Republic explores a neglected aspect of the collapse of Communism in the former East Germany. It focuses on the East Germans' enthusiastic support for re-unification and the transfer of West Germany's political and economic institutions to the East, ignoring those in the German Democratic Republic who wanted to 'reform' socialism within, not destroy it. Their aim was to preserve an independent German Democratic Republic that would pursue an alternative 'third way' between Western capitalism and Stalinist repression. Their vision was a 'better, more beautiful' socialism instead of the 'push and shove society' that they associated with Western capitalism. In their view the 'better, more beautiful' socialism would combine the Western ideals of individual freedom with Marxist concept of collective decision-making and shared wealth. The reformers failed, of course, but their ideas and activities in the fall of 1989 are an essential part of the story that led to present-day Germany.
With the development of a strong parliamentary system, Orlow shows how close Prussia came to realizing its goal of lasting democracy for the entire Reich, and how far it fell when the Nazis took power.
The Sudosteuropa-Gesellschaft (Southeast Europe Society or SOEG) was founded in 1940 to formulate wartime policy in Southeast Europe; its organizational life began and ended with the Third Reich. In his analysis of the creation, growth, and death of the SOEG, Dietrich Orlow focuses on the institutional behavior and power struggles of this microcosm of the Nazi system. Its story is illustrative of the nature of politics in all totalitarian societies and reveals the aims and the failure of Germany's wartime exploitation of the Balkan resources and the long-term economic designs for the Balkans after the Third Reich's expected victory.
Although the Socialist or Social Democractic parties played a key role in West European politics during the quarter century after the Second World War, they have been studied far less than their political rivals, the Christian Democrats. The story of West European Social Democracy after 1945 begins with a dilemma: Democratic marxism, which had been the parties' ideological and organizational principle until the Second World War, was becoming politically irrelevant. The three parties analyzed here represent the spectrum of reactions among Social Democratic parties to this realization. The debate over the parties' programs and ideologies did not, of course, take place in a vacuum: the author devotes considerable space to a comparative analysis of the parties' leaders and organizational structures as well as the evolution of Social Democratic domestic and foreign policies. Immensely readable, this book not only offers an in-depth analysis of the postwar period crucial for the history of Social Democracy but also, because of its cross-national treatment of these three major parties, adds significantly to our understanding of the processes of European integration and the evolution of the Atlantic Alliance.
Orlow demonstrates that the success of parliamentary democracy in Prussia during the Weimar Republic found its roots in the strength of national unity developed during the nineteenth century, and the work of Catholics, Social Democrats, and Liberals during the time of Republic.
Presenting the history of an unexplored yet significant institution in East Germany, this book analyses the development of the Parteihochschule Karl Marx (PHS), a training institute for Communist party officials and members of the functional elite. By chronicling the PHS from its establishment in 1946, the author demonstrates how it sought to implement Stalin’s rule, and sheds light on the activities of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in the German Democratic Republic. The book focuses on the leadership of Walter Ulbricht and Erich Honecker as First Secretary and General Secretary of the SED respectively, and examines key personalities within the PHS. The activities of party functionaries under the rule of Hanna Wolf and Kurt Tiedke are scrutinised, revealing the dogmatic nature of the East German regime. An essential read for anyone interested in German history and East European Communism, this book brings to light one of the key institutions in implementing Stalinism and Marxism-Leninism in the German Democratic Republic.
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