Download or read book The Ailing Empire Germany from Bismarck to Hitler written by Sebastian Haffner and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2019-08-16 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using his skills as a journalist, historian, and memoirist, Sebastian Haffner (author ofThe Meaning of Hitler) traces the development of the German Empire (1871-1945) and the central role of warfare that characterized the Reich. Haffner contends that Germany’s unfavorable geographic position had much to do with the state’s belligerence and that, from its inception, created the conflicts that culminated in two world wars. “The fruit of decades of study, the moving and sometimes very personal testament of an author whose works more than any others have influenced public opinion and challenged academic historians.” — Die Zeit “A brilliant work from the top hat of a powerful historical magician.” — Rudolf Augstein, Der Spiegel “A thoroughly successful work.” — Wiener Tagblatt “A book with more historical insights than a whole pile of learned volumes.” —Münchner Abendzeitung “The history of the Third Reich in just 43 pages? Impossible to do more than discuss a few features superficially. But not with Sebastian Haffner. This brilliant thinker — a journalist turned historian — reveals the fundamental lines of development in a way that anyone can follow. The pages bristle with questions and unexpected answers. The 300 pages of ‘The Ailing Empire’ contain more clever and original insights into German history between 1871 and 1945 than many a weighty tome.” — Dieter Wunderlich “This illuminating survey by a German journalist focuses on the continuities and discontinuities of the modern German Reich ... Haffner argues that the founding of the state was never regarded as a climactic achievement but rather as a springboard for expansion, and that Germany’s unfavorable geographic position had much to do with the state’s armed belligerence. The author also contends that the Reich was self-destructive almost from the beginning, creating a host of enemies who brought it to its knees in two world wars and eventually divided it. He describes how Hitler accelerated the catastrophic finish of the Reich by inopportunely taking on both the Russians and Americans, then tried to turn military defeat into the annihilation of the German people with his Nero Directive of March 18-19, 1945.” — Publishers Weekly “[The Ailing Empire] tells the story of yesterday’s Germans who made today. It is a story Americans must understand.” — San-Diego Union “Sebastian Haffner has written a book that traces the path of Germany’s political self-destruction, and offers a realistic account of the war’s real causes ... It is a highly readable analysis of the road from Bismarck to Hitler ... This book, based on many previously unpublished accounts, is a devastating portrait of human society.” —Chattanooga Times “This is a highly readable analysis of German history over the last century. A long-time journalist, Haffner asserts that the foundations of the German Reich were an inadequate basis for a modern nation state and contained the seeds of its own destruction. Though lacking documentation, Haffner’s first-hand recollections of the Nazi era are most interesting. Particularly noteworthy are his observations on daily life during the regime and his judgment regarding those literary and artistic ‘antis’ who chose ‘internal emigration’ within the Hitler state.” — Library Journal

Download or read book Nazi Empire written by Shelley Baranowski and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the history of Germany from 1871 to 1945 as an expression of the 'tension of empire'.

Download or read book Imperial Germany 1850 1918 written by Edgar Feuchtwanger and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-01-04 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imperial Germany focuses on the domestic political developments of the period, putting them into context through a balanced guide to the economic and social background, culture and foreign policy. This important study explores the tensions caused within an empire which was formed through war, against the prevailing liberal spirit of the age and poses many questions among them: * Was the desire to unify Germany the cause of the aggressive foreign policy leading to the First World War? * To what extent was Bismarck's Second Reich the forerunner of Hitler's Third? * Did Bismarck's authoritarian rule permanently hinder the political development of Germany? Recent debates raised by German scholarship are made accessible to English speaking readers, and the book summarises the important controversies and competing interpretations of imperial German history.

Download or read book From Bismarck to Hitler written by John C. G. Röhl and published by . This book was released on 1970 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Rise and Fall of Prussia written by Sebastian Haffner and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2019-08-16 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sebastian Haffner regarded himself as “a Prussian with a British passport.” In this overview of Prussia’s 170-year history as an independent state, he depicts Prussia’s evolution from a sensational 18th century success story – “a state based on law, one of the first in Europe” – to its absorption into the Third Reich where “the rule of law was the first thing that Hitler abolished.” In this succinct and readable book, Haffner argues that Hitler’s racial and nationality policy was the opposite of Prussia’s and Hitler’s political style, the very opposite of Prussian. “In his short book The Rise and Fall of Prussia Haffner combines a critical examination with a declaration of love for a state which always lived beyond its means ... but which managed to combine material poverty with intellectual grandeur.” — Michael Stürmer,Welt am Sonntag “Haffner sees Prussia’s history as the 'tragedy of a purely rational state'. An agglomeration of arbitrary territories, it made a virtue of its artificiality, adapting to the enlightenment and then to romanticism, but finally also to nationalism, betraying the basis of its statehood and leading to its ultimate destruction.” — Chrisian Roth,Akademische Blätter “Haffner long regarded himself as a 'Prussian with a British passport'. He identified with Prussia and its achievements: general compulsory schooling (1717), the abolition of torture (1740), the establishment of religious toleration (1740), Bismarck’s welfare state (1883), the medical giants Virchow, Koch, von Behring, the intellectual giants Kant, von Humboldt and von Schlegel, and much more. At the end of his book he recounted the (often-ignored) expulsion of millions of Prussians from their homeland in 1945. 'It was an atrocity, the final atrocity of a war which had more than its share in atrocities, admittedly begun by Germany under Hitler.' His message is very relevant today, when he praises those expelled for rejecting revenge and having the courage to say, 'This is enough.'” — David Childs, The Independent

Download or read book From Bismarck to Hitler written by Dr. Louis L. Snyder and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2017-02-07 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “It is a most unusual picture that meets our eyes, varying in color from the black and white of ultra-conservative, traditional nationalism to the red of radicalism and the black and red of national socialism. The Germany of 1862-1935 has known every array of nationalism, from the Jacobin variety through humanitarian nationalism and passionate Hitlerite super-nationalism. It is our purpose to clarify this background, to show on what foundation modern integral nationalism rests. The task of selecting the most important elements from this distorted picture is an extremely difficult one, but the attempt, at least, must be made.”

Download or read book Hitler s Empire written by Mark Mazower and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-08-25 with total page 785 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Draw ing on an unprecedented range and variety of original research, Hitler?s Empire sheds new light on how the Nazis designed, maintained, and lost their European dominion?and offers a chilling vision of what the world would have become had they won the war. Mark Mazower forces us to set aside timeworn opinions of the Third Reich, and instead shows how the party drew inspiration for its imperial expansion from America and Great Britain. Yet the Nazis? lack of political sophistication left them unequal to the task of ruling what their armies had conquered, despite a shocking level of cooperation from the overwhelmed countries. A work as authoritative as it is unique, Hitler?s Empire is a surprising?and controversial? new appraisal of the Third Reich?s rise and ultimate fall.

Download or read book The German Empire written by Michael Sturmer and published by Modern Library. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The German Empire, one of Europe's great historians and men of letters chronicles one of history's most fateful transformations--Germany's rise from new nation to prime mover in the chain of events that sent it hurtling into two world wars. In 1871, Otto von Bismarck fused with "blood and iron" a motley collection of principalities, Free Cities, and bishoprics into one Reich. In England, Benjamin Disraeli observed that the world was witnessing "a greater political event than the French revolution of last century. . . . [T]here is not a diplomatic tradition which has not been swept away. . . . The balance of power has been entirely destroyed." Disraeli's powers of prophecy, in this as in much else, were formidable. The Age of Bismarck saw Germany become the dynamo of Europe--its preeminent economic and military power, its scientific and educational nerve center, and a place of tremendous artistic ferment. But there would be no simple spell to return to their bottles the genies unleashed by these vast forces, and Michael Stürmer traces the convergence of people and events that sent Europe's fragile balance of power over the brink and into conflict. No war was fought for less purpose or with greater slaughter than the First World War which, in Michael Stürmer's assured hands, arrives as the next-to-last act of an epic drama all the more tragic for the blazing brilliance of its opening scenes. Though the drama's final horrible act, the Second World War, takes place offstage from The German Empire, it is impossible to understand its origins without the history Michael Stürmer tells here with such elegance and insight.

Download or read book From Bismarck to Hitler written by Geoff Layton and published by Hodder Education. This book was released on 2002 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This second edition has been thoroughly updated to provide comprehensive and accessible coverage of German history from the Kaiserreich through to the collapse of the Weimar Republic. Events and issues arising from the period are covered in depth, including the domestic and foreign policies of Imperial Germany, the First World War and revolution, the founding of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazis. Whilst focusing mainly upon domestic affairs the book also highlights how external factors influenced events in Germany. The study guides have been comprehensively revised and provide a firm basis for answering source-based and essay questions.

Download or read book The German Empire written by Michael Sturmer and published by Modern Library. This book was released on 2002-08-06 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a remarkably vibrant narrative, Michael Stürmer blends high politics, social history, portraiture, and an unparalleled command of military and economic developments to tell the story of Germany’s breakneck rise from new nation to Continental superpower. It begins with the German military’s greatest triumph, the Franco-Prussian War, and then tracks the forces of unification, industrialization, colonization, and militarization as they combined to propel Germany to become the force that fatally destabilized Europe’s balance of power. Without The German Empire’s masterly rendering of this story, a full understanding of the roots of World War I and World War II is impossible.

Download or read book The Third Reich written by Frank D. Kennedy and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-12-17 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The First Reich: Charlemagne, king of the Franks, is declared ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. This empire dominates western Europe from 800 until 1806, when it is defeated by Napoleon. The Second Reich: All of Germany is united behind Prussia under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck, victor of the Franco-Prussian War. Only Germany's defeat in World War I can break the power of the second German empire. What was the Third Reich? In 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany after convincing other members of the Reichstag that the Nazi party was better for the country than their feared rivals, the Communists. Within the year, the President of the German Republic will be dead, and Hitler will declare himself supreme leader of Germany. But how did it happen? The Third Reich: Adolf Hitler, Nazi Germany, World War II and The Last German Empire takes you on a guided tour of German history for the last thousand years. You'll study the constitution of the Weimar republic and the Treaty of Versailles, and come to understand why Hitler believed it was crucial to build a new Nazi empire that was second to no one other nation in Europe in terms of military development. You'll learn how Hitler used the rhetoric of racism and nationalism to transform himself from a democratically elected member of government into a dictator whose word was law. Most importantly, you'll learn how those changes paved the way to World War II and the atrocities of the Holocaust.

Download or read book Germany 1871 1945 written by Raffael Scheck and published by Berg. This book was released on 2008-11-15 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the end of the Second World War, the first unified German state collapsed, a disintegration with European and global ramifications. Ever since, historians have sought to explain what went wrong in German history. Many have focused on the violence which forged unification; others have highlighted the clash of authoritarian, anti-democratic, and anti-Semitic traditions with rapid industrialization and modernization. Germany, 1871-1945 presents a pragmatic interpretation of German history, from the unification to the end of the Nazi regime. This more open approach acknowledges the strong trend in German society towards modernization and democratization, particularly before 1914, while also highlighting the factors which propelled Germany toward World War I. The rise of the Nazis also demands a close analysis of the economic and political instability of the 1920s and early 1930s. Finally, a detailed assessment of the Third Reich explains how the regime's early successes fostered a loyalty and acceptance that remained hard to shake until disaster was obvious and unavoidable.

Download or read book Imperial Germany Revisited written by Sven Oliver Müller and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2013 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The German Empire, its structure, its dynamic development between 1871 and 1918, and its legacy, have been the focus of lively international debate that is showing signs of further intensification as we approach the centenary of the outbreak of World War I. Based on recent work and scholarly arguments about continuities and discontinuities in modern German history from Bismarck to Hitler, well-known experts broadly explore four themes: the positioning of the Bismarckian Empire in the course of German history; the relationships between society, politics and culture in a period of momentous transformations; the escalation of military violence in Germany's colonies before 1914 and later in two world wars; and finally the situation of Germany within the international system as a major political and economic player. The perspectives presented in this volume have already stimulated further argument and will be of interest to anyone looking for orientation in this field of research.

Download or read book The World of Walther Nernst The Rise and Fall of German Science 1864 1941 written by Kurt Mendelssohn and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2019-08-17 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the end of the 19th century, under the benevolent patronage of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Germany became home to new scientific and technological ideas. In German universities, innovators like Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, Erwin Schrödinger, Wolfgang Pauli and Walther Nernst revolutionized physics and chemistry with their theories of relativity, of the atomic structure and of the quanta. Walther Nernst, a founder of physical chemistry, received the Nobel prize in 1920 for his formulation of the third law of thermodynamics. He died in 1941 in Germany, disillusioned by Hitler’s destruction of German academic life. This biography of Walther Nernst, the author’s mentor, also provides an overview of German science and technology, from its stellar rise to its rapid fall when the Nazis came to power and the vast majority of German scientists went into exile to Britain (like the author), to the United States or elsewhere to continue the tradition and spirit of the scientific revolutions started in Germany’s institutions of higher learning. “A masterly description of the spectacular rise of German science and industry at the turn of the century and of life in Germany in the pre-1933 era.” — The Times (London) “Mendelssohn’s... fascinating book... is a study of the rise and fall of German science as well as a life of Walther Nernst... as he shows, the ‘mad fanaticism’ of the Nazis blinded them, and blinded them completely, to the enormous scientific potential they had inherited in the laboratories of Weimar Germany.” — Roger Williams, Encounter

Download or read book The German Question written by Dirk Verheyen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-05-04 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 'German Question,' long a subject of debate, is considered here at the close of a turbulent century, after Germany's defeat in two world wars, the Weimar failure and Nazi disaster, Cold War division, and the nation's unexpected recent reunification. This book systematically explores the issue in terms of its four central dimensions: Germany's identity, national unity, power, and role in world politics. Ambitious in conception and meticulous in execution, Dirk Verheyen's wide-ranging analysis incorporates historical and geopolitical considerations in an intellectually rigorous yet accessible discussion.

Download or read book From Bismarck to Hitler written by and published by . This book was released on 1973 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Fritz Haber Chemist Nobel Laureate German Jew written by Dietrich Stoltzenberg and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2019-08-09 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This biography of Fritz Haber, now abridged by the author and translated into English, illuminates the life of one of the most gifted yet controversial figures of the twentieth century. Haber, a brilliant physical chemist, carried out pioneering research in electrochemistry and thermodynamics and won the Nobel Prize for his synthesis of ammonia, a process essential for synthetic fertilizer — and for the explosives Germany needed in World War I. An ardent patriot, Haber also developed chemical weapons. Believing them to be no worse than other types of warfare, he directed the first true gas attack in military history from the front lines in Ypres, Belgium, in 1915. His nationalism also spurred his failed attempt to extract gold from seawater, in hopes of paying off Germany’s huge war reparations. Yet Haber, a Jew by birth, was exiled from his homeland in 1933 by the Nazis, and died the following year never knowing the full dire effects of his work, as Zyklon B, a gas studied in his institute around 1920, was used to murder prisoners in concentration camps, including members of Haber’s own family. With the help of previously unpublished documents and sources, Dietrich Stoltzenberg explores Haber’s personal life, the breakdown of his two marriages, his efforts to develop industrial and political support for scientific study in Germany, his directorship of the Kaiser Wilhelm (now Max Planck) Institute, his ethical struggles in times of war, and more. “A much needed and fine new biography of Haber” — Oren Harman, The New Republic “This exhaustive biography, first published in Germany in 1996, captures Haber’s complexity well. Based on diligent research, it offers significant detail on Haber’s professional life for both specialists and generalists... Stoltzenberg’s work is perhaps as rich a biography as can be written on Haber’s achievements... This is an excellent biography... [based on] extensive primary research... The result is a work that brings to light important facets not just of the life of Fritz Haber but of several decades of evolution of the German scientific milieu.” — Guillaume P. De Syon, H-Net Reviews of the German edition, winner of the Author’s Prize of the German Chemical Society: “[An] excellent biography” — Max Perutz, The New York Review of Books “Stoltzenberg has written a fine biography of this deeply flawed individual... [This] sympathetic and comprehensive account... should appeal to general readers as well as to historians and all those interested in the social responsibility of science.” — David Cahan, Nature “[S]ucceeds admirably in enlivening the many facets of this remarkable man and his extraordinary career as a creative academic, a leading member of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, a shrewd businessman, and an influential advisor to various governments in Berlin. But Stoltzenberg is equally adept at presenting Haber the private man, who had to fight prejudice, endure two broken marriages, and, finally, emigration when the Nazis came to power in 1933... Stoltzenberg’s superb biography, which leaves little to be desired, is the remarkable achievement of a professional chemist turned historian.” — Peter Alter, Ambix “The book demonstrates Haber’s versatility as well as his enormous but not inexhaustible vitality... [T]he most detailed, best documented portrait we have of a remarkable and still controversial scientist.” — Jeffrey A. Johnson, Isis “Haber has finally found his ideal biographer in Dietrich Stoltzenberg, who possesses impeccable credentials for the task... [A] product of exemplary scholarship.” — George Kauffman, Annals of Science