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The Weimar Century: German Émigrés and the Ideological Foundations of the Cold War
How ideas, individuals, and political traditions from Weimar Germany molded the global postwar order
The Weimar Century reveals the origins of two dramatic Germany's post–World War II transformation from a racist dictatorship to a liberal democracy, and the ideological genesis of the Cold War. Blending intellectual, political, and international histories, Udi Greenberg shows that the foundations of Germany’s reconstruction lay in the country’s first democratic experiment, the Weimar Republic (1918–33). He traces the paths of five crucial German émigrés who participated in Weimar’s intense political debates, spent the Nazi era in the United States, and then rebuilt Europe after a devastating war. Examining the unexpected stories of these diverse individuals―Protestant political thinker Carl J. Friedrich, Socialist theorist Ernst Fraenkel, Catholic publicist Waldemar Gurian, liberal lawyer Karl Loewenstein, and international relations theorist Hans Morgenthau―Greenberg uncovers the intellectual and political forces that forged Germany’s democracy after dictatorship, war, and occupation.
In restructuring German thought and politics, these émigrés also shaped the currents of the early Cold War. Having borne witness to Weimar’s political clashes and violent upheavals, they called on democratic regimes to permanently mobilize their citizens and resources in global struggle against their Communist enemies. In the process, they gained entry to the highest levels of American power, serving as top-level advisors to American occupation authorities in Germany and Korea, consultants for the State Department in Latin America, and leaders in universities and philanthropic foundations across Europe and the United States. Their ideas became integral to American global hegemony.
From interwar Germany to the dawn of the American century, The Weimar Century sheds light on the crucial ideas, individuals, and politics that made the trans-Atlantic postwar order.
The Weimar Century reveals the origins of two dramatic Germany's post–World War II transformation from a racist dictatorship to a liberal democracy, and the ideological genesis of the Cold War. Blending intellectual, political, and international histories, Udi Greenberg shows that the foundations of Germany’s reconstruction lay in the country’s first democratic experiment, the Weimar Republic (1918–33). He traces the paths of five crucial German émigrés who participated in Weimar’s intense political debates, spent the Nazi era in the United States, and then rebuilt Europe after a devastating war. Examining the unexpected stories of these diverse individuals―Protestant political thinker Carl J. Friedrich, Socialist theorist Ernst Fraenkel, Catholic publicist Waldemar Gurian, liberal lawyer Karl Loewenstein, and international relations theorist Hans Morgenthau―Greenberg uncovers the intellectual and political forces that forged Germany’s democracy after dictatorship, war, and occupation.
In restructuring German thought and politics, these émigrés also shaped the currents of the early Cold War. Having borne witness to Weimar’s political clashes and violent upheavals, they called on democratic regimes to permanently mobilize their citizens and resources in global struggle against their Communist enemies. In the process, they gained entry to the highest levels of American power, serving as top-level advisors to American occupation authorities in Germany and Korea, consultants for the State Department in Latin America, and leaders in universities and philanthropic foundations across Europe and the United States. Their ideas became integral to American global hegemony.
From interwar Germany to the dawn of the American century, The Weimar Century sheds light on the crucial ideas, individuals, and politics that made the trans-Atlantic postwar order.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published December 24, 2014
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February 18, 2025
I have a tendency these days to purge books from my never diminishing TBR list if they are over ten years old, and there doesn't seem to have been a lot of interest, but this book seemed novel enough to be worth my time.
Basically, Greenberg is giving you an overview of the professional lives of Ernst Fraenkel, Waldemar Gurian, Karl Loewenstein, Hans Morgenthau (the only one of these men I have much sense of), and Carl Friedrich; a flock of German political scientists and lawyers who were products of the Weimar Republic. However, that experience did not sour them on democratic practice, far from it; you can basically argue that it made them fanatics FOR democracy. This is an attitude that had its own ironies.
The main thing is that these men fit in very well with the milieu of the early to high Cold War, particularly when it came to the process of purging what became West Germany of Nazi thought and culture. The problem is that times change and their fervor became an intellectual straight jacket with the arrival of the "Protest" Sixties, which only Morgenthau rose above.
While I'd be the last to deny that Stalin was well-worth confronting with vigor, the problem is that these men, at least as presented by Greenberg, seemed to have had a narrow vision of democratic freedom. They mostly seemed to be interested in freedom for communities, not individuals, and appeared quite content to enforce conventional conformity. Too much enthusiasm could be a threat in their eyes. Nor did the electorate have the right to make mistakes at the ballot box; in particular, Loewenstein would cheer if the "deep state" suppressed an aspiring autocrat.
Be that as it may, I thought that this was only a so-so book, but it wasn't a total throw-away either; particularly if you have a paper hanging over your head relating to Cold War political theory.
Actual rating: 3.5.
Basically, Greenberg is giving you an overview of the professional lives of Ernst Fraenkel, Waldemar Gurian, Karl Loewenstein, Hans Morgenthau (the only one of these men I have much sense of), and Carl Friedrich; a flock of German political scientists and lawyers who were products of the Weimar Republic. However, that experience did not sour them on democratic practice, far from it; you can basically argue that it made them fanatics FOR democracy. This is an attitude that had its own ironies.
The main thing is that these men fit in very well with the milieu of the early to high Cold War, particularly when it came to the process of purging what became West Germany of Nazi thought and culture. The problem is that times change and their fervor became an intellectual straight jacket with the arrival of the "Protest" Sixties, which only Morgenthau rose above.
While I'd be the last to deny that Stalin was well-worth confronting with vigor, the problem is that these men, at least as presented by Greenberg, seemed to have had a narrow vision of democratic freedom. They mostly seemed to be interested in freedom for communities, not individuals, and appeared quite content to enforce conventional conformity. Too much enthusiasm could be a threat in their eyes. Nor did the electorate have the right to make mistakes at the ballot box; in particular, Loewenstein would cheer if the "deep state" suppressed an aspiring autocrat.
Be that as it may, I thought that this was only a so-so book, but it wasn't a total throw-away either; particularly if you have a paper hanging over your head relating to Cold War political theory.
Actual rating: 3.5.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review