Germany, 1870-1945: Politics, State Formation, and War

by Peter Pulzer

Germany, 1870-1945 deals with the three attempts to build a German nation-state between 1871 and 1945, and the reasons for their failure. Haunted by the specter of the abortive liberal-national revolution of 1848-49, German politicians sought a series of solutions, none of which found a constitutional consensus, and two of which ended in military disaster. Pulzer looks at the two solutions imposed from above, those of Bismarck and Hitler, and the stalled revolution from below, that of the Weimar Republic. He examines the external influences on Germany's political development, such as the European state system and the Versailles treaty of 1919, but the main focus is on the tension between democratic and authoritarian forces, the series of unsatisfactory constitutional compromises, the main institutions of government, and the emergence and influence of parties and interest groups.

Genres: History

Paperback

First published April 17, 1997

About the author

Dr. Peter George Julius Pulzer was a British historian who specialized in analyses of electoral politics. He was a Professor of Government at the University of Oxford.

Pulzer and his family fled Austria to the United Kingdom. In 1950 he received his degree in History from Cambridge University, followed by a PhD in History in 1960. He began lecturing in politics at Oxford in 1957, and became a full professor in 1960. He retired in 1996.

Reviews

[Peter Talbot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, concise, dense, informative coverage of why Germany became the Third Reich. Coverage of the various political parties and the Weimar era developments better here than anywhere else in English. Peter Pulzer, the Oxford don author is wonderful here. A good addition to Hobsbawm's great syntheses. Consider this a "scorecard" of key German thinkers, politicians, economists and criminals for the period.

A must read for any modern historian concerned with the West.