A History of Modern Germany 1800–2000 For Lars, Marie-Isabel, Paula, and Philip-David A History of Modern Germany 1800–2000 Martin Kitchen © 2006 by Martin Kitchen BLACKWELL PUBLISHING 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of Martin Kitchen to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. First published 2006 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd 1 2006 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kitchen, Martin. A history of modern Germany, 1800–2000 / Martin Kitchen. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-0040-3 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-4051-0040-0 (alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-0041-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-4051-0041-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Germany—History—1789–1900. 2. Germany—History—20th century. I. Title. DD203.K58 2006 943.08—dc22 2005006165 A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. Set in 10 on 13 pt Sabon by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd, Hong Kong Printed and bound in India by Replika Press The publisher’s policy is to use permanent paper from mills that operate a sustainable forestry policy, and which has been manufactured from pulp processed using acid-free and elementary chlorine-free practices. Furthermore, the publisher ensures that the text paper and cover board used have met acceptable environmental accreditation standards. For further information on Blackwell Publishing, visit our website: www.blackwellpublishing.com Contents List of Plates ix Acknowledgments xi Maps xii Introduction 1 1 Germany Under Napoleon 9 The Age of Reform 14 The War of Liberation 24 2 German Society in Transition: 1800–70 29 Town and Country 36 The Industrial Revolution 39 The Emergence of a Class Society 43 The Jewish Community 47 3 Restoration and Reform: 1815–40 50 Student Radicalism 52 Germany Under Metternich 55 Nationalism 57 Constitutional Developments 59 The Zollverein 60 The Congress System 62 The Revolutionary Movements 63 4 The Revolutions of 1848 71 The Frankfurt Parliament 77 The Constitutional Question 86 5 The Struggle for Mastery: 1850–66 90 The Crimean War 92 The Italian Question 93 The “New Era” in Prussia 95 v vi CONTENTS The Origins of Social Democracy 98 The Constitutional Crisis in Prussia 102 The Schleswig-Holstein Question 108 6 The Unification of Germany: 1866–71 113 The Franco-Prussian War 117 The Unification of Germany 120 The Role of the Military 124 Nationalism 128 Jews in the New Germany 131 7 Bismarck’s Germany 139 The Kulturkampf 140 Social Democracy and the New Germany 144 From Free Trade to Protectionism 145 The Anti-Socialist Laws 147 Liberals in Bismarck’s Germany 148 Class Structure 151 Women’s Place in the New Germany 156 Sex and Society 160 8 Germany and Europe: 1871–90 163 From the Congress of Berlin to the Dual Alliance 166 Bismarck and Imperialism 168 Bismarck’s System of Alliances 170 9Wilhelmine Germany: 1890–1914 173 Caprivi and the “New Course” 180 Hohenlohe 185 “World Politics” and Navalism 186 Bülow 191 Bethmann Hollweg 196 10 The First World War 203 War Aims and Opposition 206 From Bethmann Hollweg to Michaelis 208 From Michaelis to Hertling 210 The Impact of the Bolshevik Revolution 210 The Revolution from Above 212 The Revolution of 1918 214 11 The Weimar Republic: 1919–33 220 The Kapp Putsch 224 Reparations and Inflation 226 The Occupation of the Ruhr 230 Stresemann and Fulfillment 233 Weimar Culture 236 CONTENTS vii Locarno 238 The Depression 240 Brüning 246 Von Papen 250 Schleicher 253 12 The Nazi Dictatorship 258 Gleichschaltung 264 Ernst Röhm and the SA 267 Hitler in Full Command 270 The Dual State 274 The SS 276 Anti-Semitism, Racism, and Euthanasia 279 13 Nazi Germany: 1933–45 284 Women in Nazi Germany 288 First Steps in Foreign Policy 290 The Anschluss 294 Czechoslovakia and Appeasement 295 The Polish Crisis 297 War 298 The War in the West 300 Barbarossa 301 The Beginnings of the Shoah 304 The Turn of the Tide 307 The Third Reich and Modernization 313 14 The Adenauer Era: 1945–63 316 Germany Divided 323 The German Democratic Republic 328 The German Question 330 East Germany in the Khrushchev Era 335 Willy Brandt 337 The Spiegel Affair 340 The End of the Adenauer Era 341 Culture in the Federal Republic 343 15 Two Germanys: 1963–82 346 The Federal Republic after Adenauer 347 Willy Brandt as Chancellor 354 East Germany Under Honecker 361 Helmuth Schmidt 362 The Candidature of Helmut Kohl 364 The Extra-Parliamentary Opposition 365 Helmuth Schmidt’s Chancellorship: The Final Phase 367 viii CONTENTS 16 The Reunification of Germany 373 The Winds of Change 375 Unification 381 Germany Unified 395 Bibliography 413 Index 424 Plates 1A Biedermeier interior 31 2 The Biedermeier family 31 3 The suffering of the Silesian weavers 43 4 Gymnasts attending the Wartburg Festival 1817 53 5 Student representatives burning reactionary books and symbols 54 6 Street fighting in Berlin on the Night of March 18/19, 1848 76 7A meeting of the National Assembly in the Paul’s Church in Frankfurt September 16, 1848 78 8 German industrial might: a rolling mill in Saarbrücken c. 1870 96 9 The founders of German Social Democracy 100 10 August Bebel 101 11 The Battle of Sedan 119 12 The Berlin Stock Exchange 134 13 Bismarck by Franz von Lembach, c. 1880 143 14 William II “The Kaiser” 174 15 Bismarck Dead and Surrounded by the Ghosts of the Past 176 16 The German delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference 222 17 Mass protest in Berlin against the Treaty of Versailles 222 18 Homeless men, December 1930 242 19 Homeless women, December 1930 242 20 Nazi Party rally 1934 271 ix x PLATES 21 Göring and Hitler 285 22 Hitler and Goebbels 302 23 Dresden after the raid 311 24 Red Army troops hoisting the Soviet flag on the Reichstag May 5, 1945 312 25 Ludwig Ehrhard 321 26 The Berlin Airlift 323 27 East German Communist poster 326 28 No experiments! 334 29 Adenauer and De Gaulle 339 30 Willy Brandt in Warsaw 356 31 The Berlin Wall November 10, 1989 385 32 Helmut Kohl 386 Acknowledgments I am most grateful to Andrew MacLennan, with whom I have worked so profitably and enjoyably on many projects, for suggesting that I should write this book. It has proved to be a taxing but rewarding experience. Tessa Harvey and Angela Cohen were long-suffering and confident guides through the detritus of the postmodern. My thanks are also due to Louise Spencely, whose expert editing has saved me from many an ambiguity and infelicity of style, and who set me right with Helmuth and Helmut: Schmidt and Kohl. I would also like to thank the following for their expertise and courteous help in tracking down the illustrations: Harald Odehnal (Konrad Adenauer Stiftung); Michel Schneider, Andre Castrup, and Gabriele Lutterbeck (Friedrich Ebert Stiftung); Norbert Ludwig (Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz); Martina Caspers and Peter Vier (Bundesarchiv); Barbara Schäche (Landesarchiv Berlin); Katrin Peters-Klaphake (Deutsches Historisches Museum); and Christian Stutterheim (Bundes Presse Agentur). My two greatest debts are to my wife, my “Wortschatz,” who has taught me so much about Germany and the Germans, and to my students at Simon Fraser University, who have helped make the study of German history so infinitely rewarding. xi DENMARK SWEDEN SCHLESWIG B a l t i c S e a N o r t h S e a OLDENBURG HOLSTEIN MECKLENBURG- E. PRUSSIA SCHWERIN IA HANOVER N USSIA A ER . PR BRUNSWICK M W MECKLENBURG- PO S D STRELITZ N RUSSIAN LA BRANDENBURG R WESTPHALIA POSEN POLAND E TH NE HESSE- ANHALT CASSEL COLOGNE SAXONY THURINGIA NASSAU LUX. SILESIA HESSE- DARMSTADT BAV. PA LATINATE WÜRTTEMBERG EN D BAVARIA FRANCE A B AU STRIA HUNGARY SWITZERLAND German Confederation border Prussia PIEDMONT Habsburg Empire SARDINIA Map 1 Germany, 1815 DENMARK B a l t i c S e a N o r t h S e a Schleswig- Holstein Lübeck E. PRUSSIA Hamburg POMERANIA Bremen HANOVER BRANDENBURG SAXONY WESTPHALIA POSEN RH INELA N D SILESIA Prussia after the Congress of Vienna, 1815 Prussia after the Austro-Prussian War, 1866 Map 2 Prussia before and after the Austro-Prussian War SWEDEN DENMARK SCHLESWIG B a l t i c S e a N o r t h S e a E. PRUSSIA OLDENBURG MECKLENBERG- W. PRUSSIA SCHWERIN BRUNSWICK MECKLENBERG- STRELITZ NETHERLANDS ANHALT LIPPE POSEN RUSSIAN BELGIUM POLAND DARMSTADT SAXONY THURINGIA LUX. HESSE BAV. FRANCE PALATINATE ALSACE- LORRAINE BAVARIA WÜRTTEMBERG Prussia EN AD Austria-Hungary B AUSTRIA-HUNGARY Area incorporated in 1871 SWITZERLAND Map 3 Germany, 1871 DENMARK SWEDEN LITHUANIA SCHLESWIG B a l t i c S e a N o r t h S e a Kiel Danzig EAST PRUSSIA WEST PRUSSIA Berlin NETHERLANDS POSEN POLAND BELGIUM Cologne Weimar LUX. UPPER SILESIA Mainz Frontier of former German FRANCE territory Frontier of Germany in 1919 SAAR CZECHOSLOVAKIA Frontier of demilitarized zone ALSACE- Territory lost under Versailles LORRAINE treaty Munich Occupied territory Special regimes AUSTRIA SWITZERLAND HUNGARY Map 4 The Versailles Settlement, 1919 Berlin, 1945 (USSR) (Fr.) SWEDEN (Br.) EAST WEST DENMARK BERLIN BERLIN USSR (US) B a l t i c S e a N o r t h S e a (British) (Soviet) NETH.