Wilhelminism and Its Legacies: German Modernities, Imperialism, and the Meanings of Reform, 1890-1930

by Geoff Eley (Editor), James Retallack (Editor)

What was distinctive—and distinctively "modern"—about German society and politics in the age of Kaiser Wilhelm II? In addressing this question, these essays assemble cutting-edge research by fourteen international scholars. Based on evidence of an explicit and self-confidently "bourgeois" formation in German public culture, the contributors suggest new ways of interpreting its reformist potential and advance alternative readings of German political history before 1914. While proposing a more measured understanding of Wilhelmine Germany&rsquos extraordinarily dynamic society, they also grapple with the ambivalent, cross-cutting nature of German "modernities" and reassess their impact on long-term developments running through the Wilhelmine age. Contents: Foreword by Volker R. Berghahn; Acknowledgments; Introduction by Geoff Eley & James Retallack; 1. Making a Place in the Nation: Meanings of "Citizenship" in Wilhelmine Germany, Geoff Eley; 2. Membership, Organization, and Wilhelmine Modernism: Constructing Economic Democracy through Cooperation, Brett Fairbairn; 3. "Few better farmers in Europe"? Productivity, Change, and Modernization in East-Elbian Agriculture, 1870-1913, Oliver Grant; 4. The Wilhelmine Regime and the Problem of Reform: German Debates about Modern Nation-States, Mark Hewitson; 5. Lebensreform: A Middle-Class Antidote to Wilhelminism?, Matthew Jefferies; 6. Imperial Socialism of the Chair: Gustav Schmoller and German Weltpolitik, 1897-1905, Erik Grimmer-Solem; 7. "Our natural ally": German Social Democrats, Anglo-German Relations, and the Contradictory Agendas of Wilhelmine Socialism, 1897-1900, Paul Probert; 8. The "MaletIncident," October 1895: A Prelude to the Kaiser&rsquos "Krüger Telegram" in the Context of the Anglo-German Imperialist Rivalry, Willem-Alexander van&rsquot Padje; 9. Colonial Agitation and the Bismarckian State: The Case of Carl Peters, Arne Perras; 10. The Law and the Colonial State: Legal Codification versus Practice in a German Colony, Nils Ole Oermann; 11. Max Warburg and German Politics: The Limits of Financial Power in Wilhelmine Germany, Niall Ferguson; 12. Continuity and Change in Post-Wilhelmine Germany: From the 1918 Revolution to the Ruhr Crisis, Conan Fischer; 13. A Wilhelmine Legacy? Coudenhove-Kalergi&rsquos "Paneuropa" as an Alternative Path towards a European (Post-)Modernity, 1922-1932, Katiana Orluc; 14. Ideas into Politics: Meanings of "Stasis" in Wilhelmine Germany, James Retallack; Notes on Contributors; List of Publications by Hartmut Pogge von Strandmann Geoff Eley is the Sylvia L. Thrupp Collegiate Professor of Comparative History and has taught at the University of Michigan since 1979. His primary appointment is in History, with a cross appointment in German Studies and an additional affiliation with Film and Video Studies. James Retallack is Professor of History at th Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto. As a recipient of the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Prize from the Humboldt Foundation, in 2002-03 he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Göttingen.

280 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Geoffrey Howard Eley is a British-born historian of Germany. He studied History at the Balliol College of Oxford University and received his D.Phil from the University of Sussex in 1974. He has taught at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in the Department of History since 1979 and the Department of German Studies since 1997. He now serves as the Karl Pohrt Distinguished University Professor of Contemporary History at Michigan.

Eley's early work focused on the radical nationalism in Imperial Germany and fascism, but has since grown to include theoretical and methodological reflections on historiography and the history of the political left in Europe.