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Zusatztext "?the very fact that his book raises so many follow-up questions is testimony to the value of his research and the stimulating tone of his book." · German Studies Review "Kurlander scrutinizes the role of ethnicity in German liberal thought more acutely than previous studies have done. This angle determines the role of antisemitism in German liberalism anew! which is important and a vital correction to the established image." · Journal of Contemporary History Informationen zum Autor Eric Kurlander received his PhD from Harvard University and is now Assistant Professor of Modern European History at Stetson University. He has published articles on liberalism, anti-Semitism and political culture in Imperial and Weimar Germany, he authored a book studying the fate of bourgeois republicans in the Third Reich, Living With Hitler: Liberal Democrats Between Resistance and Collaboration, 1933-1945 (Yale UP, 2009). Klappentext "The failure of Liberalism" in Germany and its responsibility for the rise of Nazism has been widely discussed among scholars inside and outside Germany. This author argues that German liberalism failed because of the irreconcilable conflict between two competing visions of German identity. In following the German liberal parties from the Empire through the Third Reich Kurlander illustrates convincingly how an exclusionary racist Weltanschauung, conditioned by profound transformations in German political culture at large, gradually displaced the liberal-universalist conception of a democratic Rechtsstaat. Although there were some notable exceptions, this widespread obsession with "racial community [Volksgemeinschaft]" caused the liberal parties to succumb to ideological lassitude and self-contradiction, paving the way for National Socialism. Zusammenfassung "The failure of Liberalism" in Germany and its responsibility for the rise of Nazism has been widely discussed among scholars inside and outside Germany. This author argues that German liberalism failed because of the irreconcilable conflict between two competing visions of German identity. In following the German liberal parties from the Empire through the Third Reich Kurlander illustrates convincingly how an exclusionary racist Weltanschauung, conditioned by profound transformations in German political culture at large, gradually displaced the liberal-universalist conception of a democratic Rechtsstaat. Although there were some notable exceptions, this widespread obsession with "racial community [Volksgemeinschaft]" caused the liberal parties to succumb to ideological lassitude and self-contradiction, paving the way for National Socialism. Inhaltsverzeichnis Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1. The Genesis of Völkisch Liberalism in Schleswig-Holstein, 1898-1918 Introduction Völkisch and Universalist Paradigms of Regional Identity A National and Social Liberalism The Schücking Affair and Breaking the Bülow Bloc, 1907-1912 Nationalism, Ethnic Preoccupations, and the Coming of War Conclusion Chapter 2. Decisive Liberalism and the Challenges of Völkisch-Nationalism in Silesia, 1898-1918 Introduction Jews, Poles, and Other Silesians "Decisive Liberalism" Challenged, 1898-1907 "A Liberalism Which Does Not Deserve Its Name" The Divisiveness of Total War Conclusion Chapter 3. Republican Particularism and the Creation of an Alsatian Liberal Counterculture, 1898-1918 Introduction The Origins of Republican Particularism Liberal Unity and the End of Opposition, 1898-1907 Striking A Blow for "Progress": The Fortschrittspartei Takes the Reins Alsace at War Conclusion Chapter 4. The Strengths and Weaknesses of Völkisch Liberalism in Schleswig-Holstein, 1918-1933 Introduction The Apothe...
