Beyond the nation: The relational basis of a comparative history of Germany and Europe

Central European History

Volumn 36, Issue 1, 2003, Pages 45-73

  Ther, Philipp ^a  

^a FREIE UNIVERSITÄT BERLIN   (Germany)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 57849126351     PISSN: 00089389     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/156916103770892168     Document Type: Review

References (87)

1. For a discussion of this question see Mary Fulbrook, "Introduction: States, Nations and the Development of Europe," in National Histories and European History, ed. idem (London, 1993), 1-20
2. Whether there is something like a comparative method is disputed. The leading American theoretician discussing about comparisons', Raymond Grew, prefers to talk about comparative studies. See his, "The Case for Comparing Histories," in American Historical Review 85, no. 2 (1980): 763-78
3. In contrast to Grew, the Dutch historian Chris Lorenz has shown convincingly that there is a distinctive core of a comparative method, which is used by historians independently of their choice of topic. See Chris Lorenz, Konstruktion der Vergangenheit: Eine Einführung in die Geschichtstheorie (Cologne, 1997), 231-84
4. [in Dutch: De constructie van het verleden: Een inleiding in de theorie van de geschiednis (Amsterdam, 1987)]
5. This article refers to an ongoing theoretical debate about the comparative method in France. It was bunched in a provocative essay by Marcel Detienne, Comparer l'incomparable (Paris, 2000), 29-30, in which he particularly criticized the uncritical stance toward the work of Marc Bloch
6. A.A. v. d. Braembussche, "Historical Explanation and Comparative Method: Towards a Theory of the History of Society," History and Theory 28 (1989): 1-24
7. Thomas Welskopp, "Stolperstein auf dem Königsweg: Methodenkritische Anmerkungen zum internationalen Vergleich in der Gesellschaftsgeschichte," in Archiv für Sozialgeschichte 35 (1995): 339-67
8. Heinz-Gerhard Haupt und Jürgen Kocka, "Historischer Vergleich: Methoden, Aufgaben, Probleme. Eine Einleitung," in Geschichte und Vergleich: Ansätze und Ergebnisse international vergleichender Geschichtsschreibung, ed. Heinz-Gerhard Haupt and Jürgen Kocka (Frankfurt am Main, 1996), 9-46
9. Hartmut Kaelble, Der historische Vergleich: Eine Einführung zum 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (Frankfurt am Main, 1999)
10. For the structural characteristics of "Ostmitteleuropa" see Jenö Szücs, Die drei historischen Regionen Europas (Frankfurt am Main, 1990), 13-18
11. Klaus Zernack, Osteuropa: Eine Einführung in seine Geschichte (Munich, 1977), 33-41
12. See for a valid criticism of this orientation Norman Davies, Europe: A History, 2d. ed. (Oxford, 1996), 32-33
13. Konrad Jarausch, "Normalisierung oder Re-Nationalisierung? Zur Umdeutung der deutschen Vergangenheit," Geschichte und Gesellschaft 21 (1995): 559-78, here 577
14. See Stefan Berger, "Historians and Nation-Building in Germany after Reunification," in Past and Present 148 (August 1995): 187-222
15. A notable signal for this are recent attempts to renationalize history in the United States and Canada. See Chris Lorenz, "Comparative Historiography: Problems and Perspectives," History and Theory 38, no. 1 (1999): 25-39, here 26
16. See Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte, vol. 2, Von der Reformära bis zur industriellen und politischen "Deutschen Doppelrevolution" 1815-1845/49; Wehler, 3:961-65, 1068-71 and 1075-77. Yet on pp. 1250-95 Poland is again out of the conclusion about the causes of the "Sonderweg"
17. Thomas Nipperdey, Deutsche Geschichte 1866-1918, vol. 1, Arbeitswelt und Bürgergeist (Munich, 1991), 9
18. See Thomas Nipperdey, Deutsche Geschichte 1866-1918, vol. 2, Machtstaat vor der Demokratie (Munich, 1992), 266-81
19. His earlier monograph Deutsche Geschichte 1800-1866: Bürgenwelt und starker Staat (Munich, 1983) is stronger on this account
20. See Heinrich August Winkler, Der lange Weg nach Westen, 2 vols. (Munich, 2000)
21. Paul Nolte, "Gesellschaftstheorie und Gesellschaftsgeschichte: Umrisse einer Ideengeschichte der modernen Gesellschaft," in Geschichte zwischen Kultur und Gesellschaft: Beiträge zur Theoriedebatte, ed. Thomas Mergel und Thomas Welskopp (Munich, 1997), 275-98, here 278
22. The article was reprinted in Marc Bloch, Histoire et historiens, textes reunis par Etienne Bloch (Paris, 1995), 94-123
23. The analysis in this article is based on the German translation of his article in Peter Schöttler, ed., Marc Bloch: Aus der Werkstatt des Historikers (Frankfurt am Main, 2000), 122-59
24. See Schöttler, ed., Marc Bloch: Aus der Werkstatt, 139
25. See Alan Macfarlane, Origins of English Individualism (Oxford, 1979)
26. For a condensed overview of the Souderweg thesis and its main proponents see Jürgen Kocka, "Asymmetrical Historical Comparison: The Case of the German Sonderweg" History and Theory 38, no. 1 (1999): 40-51, here 41-43. Kocka's article can be viewed as an attempt to salvage a reduced core of the Sonderweg thesis. However, key elements of his argumentation such as bureaucratization and the simultaneity of deep structural changes in politics, society, and the economy look rather weak if the Austrian Empire and in particular Bohemia are integrated into the comparative scheme
27. See as an example the studies published in John Breuilly, Labour and Liberalism
28. See Haupt, Kocka, eds., Geschichte und Vergleich, Vorwort
29. See Matthias Weber, Das Verhältnis Schlesiens zum Alten Reich in der Frühen Neuzeit (Cologne, 1992), 396. Most textbooks falsely claim that this already happened in 1815
30. For the entire debate see Michael G. Müller and Bernd Schönemann, Die "Polen-Debatte" in der Frankfurter Paulskirche (Frankfurt am Main, 1991)
31. See Theodor Schieder, "Typologie und Erscheinungsformen des Nationalstaats in Europa," in Nationalismus und Nationalstaat: Studien zum nationalen Problem im modernen Europa, ed. Otto Dann and Hans-Ulrich Wehler (Göttingen, 1991), 65-86
32. See Gary Cohen, The Politics of Ethnic Survival: Germans in Prague 1861-1914 (Princeton, 1981), 26
33. See Jan Křen, Konfliktgemeinschaft: Tschechen und Deutsche 1780-1918 (Munich, 1996). Koen's book is also one of the few publications that mastered the task of writing a history of relations between two polities that cannot be understood in isolation from each other
34. See Eugen Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France, 1870-1914 (Stanford, 1976)
35. See Peter Sahlins, Boundaries: The Making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees (Berkeley, 1991)
36. See Ladislav Pallas, Jázyková otazka a podminky vytvaoení narodního vìdomi ve Slezsku (Ostrava, 1970)
37. Tomasz Kamusella, Schlonsko: Horní Slezsko, Oberschlesien, Górny Śla̧sh (Elbl1g, 2001), 30-72
38. and by Helmut W. Smith, German Nationalism and Religious Conflict: Culture, Ideology, Politics, 1870-1914 (Princeton, 1995)
39. See Rogers Brubaker, Nationalism Refrained: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe (Cambridge, Mass., 1996), 63-66
40. Mainstream German historiography, however, still follows the assumption that there was a linear process of assimilation of the Slavophone population except for the Poles. As an example of these views see Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte, vol. 3, Von der "Deutschen Doppelrevolution" bis zum Beginn des Ersten Weltkrieges (Munich, 1995), 962
41. Recent cooperation between Polish and German historians has produced different results. See the articles about the Sorbs, Kashubs, and Upper Silesians in Hans Henning Hahn und Peter Kunze, eds., Nationale Minderheiten und Minderheitenpolitik in Deutschland im 19. Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1999)
42. For the portrayal of Poles in nineteenth-century German literature see Arno Will, Polska i polacy w niemieckiej prozie literackiej XIX wieku (Łódz, 1970)
43. See for this term Michael Hechter, Internal Colonialism: The Celtic Fringe in British National Development 1536-1966 (Berkeley, 1977)
44. See Martin Broszat, 200 Jahre deutsche Polenpolitik (Munich, 1963), 114
45. The legal discrimination of the Polish population is explained in detail by Dieter Gosewinkel, Einbürgern und Ausschliessen: Die Nationalisierung der Staatsangehörigkeit vom Deutschen Bund bis zur Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Göttingen, 2001), 211-18
46. See also Wehler, Sozialdemokratie und Nationalstaat, 213-18
47. William W. Hagen, Germans, Poles and Jews: The Nationality Conflict in the Prussian East, 1772-1914 (Chicago, 1980), 199
48. See also Brigitte Balzer, Die preussische Polenpolitik 1894-1908 und die Haltung der deutschen konservativen und liberalen Parteien (unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Provinz Possen) (Frankfurt am Main, 1990), 290
49. Quoted from Gosewinkel, Einbürgern und Ausschliessen, 265
50. See James Sheehan, "What is German History? Reflection on the Role of the Nation in German History and Historiography," in Journal of Modern History 53 (1981): 1-23
51. James Sheehan, German History, 1770-1866 (Oxford, 1989), 908-9
52. See Dieter Langewiesche, Nation, Nationalstaat, Nationalismus (Frankfurt am Main, 2000), 174-75 and 204-8
53. For a condensed compilation of the political relations between Austria and Germany see Schieder, Das deutsche Kaiserreich von 1871 als Nationalstaat (Cologne, 1961), 44-52
54. For a counterbalance of the previous criticism it should be added that Nipperdey, Deutsche Geschichte 1800-1866, 791, recognized this fateful legacy of the war of 1866
55. Some of the most important publications of this school are Michel Espagne, Les transferts culturels franco-allemands (Paris, 1999)
56. e siècle) (Paris, 1988)
57. Bénédicte Zimmermann, Claude Didry et Peter Wagner, Le travail et la nation: Histoire croisée de la France et de l'Allemagne (Paris, 1999)
58. See Hartmut Kaelble, Nachbarn am Rhein: Entfremdung und Annäherung der französischen und deutschen Gesellschaft seit 1880 (Munich, 1991)
59. See Sandrine Kott, "Gemeinschaft oder Solidarität: Unterschiedliche Modelle der französischen und deutschen Sozialpolitik am Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts," Geschichte und Gesellschaft 22 (1996): 311-30
60. Christoph Conrad, "Wohlfahrtsstaaten im Vergleich: Historische und sozialwissenschaftliche Ansätze," in Geschichte und Vergleich, ed. Haupt and Kocka, 155-80
61. Stéphane Wolff, L'opéra au Palais Garnier (1875-1962) (Paris, 1962), 135
62. For the perception of Wagner in France see Martine Kahane et Nicole Wildt, Wagner et la France (Paris, 1983)
63. For the French influence on the German opera in Dresden and the birth of German opera see Anno Mungen, "Morlacchi, Weber und die Dresdner Oper," in Die Dresdner Oper im 19. Jahrhundert, ed. Michael Heinemann and Hans John (Laaber, 1995), 85-106, here 92-94
64. For this term see Hayden White, Metahistory (Baltimore, 1973)
65. See Michael Esch, "Gesunde Verhältnisse": Deutsche und polnische Bevölkerungspolitik in Ostmitteleuropa 1938-1950 (Marburg, 1998), 233-37
66. Czeslaw Madajczyk, Die Okkupationspolitik Nazideutschlands in Polen 1939-1945 (Berlin, 1987), 500-7
67. Ulrich Herbert, Fremdarbeitar: Politik und Praxis des "Ausländer-Einsatzes" in der Kriegswirtschaft des Dritten Reiches (Bonn, 1985), 92ff
68. Ulrich Herbert, "Nicht entschädigungsfähig? Die Wiedergutmachungsansprüche der Ausländer," in Wiedergutmachung in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, ed. Ludolf Herbst and Constantin Goschler (Munich, 1989), 273-302
69. For this chapter of Polish-German history see Philipp Ther, Deutsche und polnische Vertriebene: Gesellschaft und Vertriebenenpolitik in der SBZ/DDR und in Polen 1945-1956 (Göttingen, 1998)
70. See Peter Burke's model of possible reactions to a cultural exchange in Peter Burke, Kultureller Austausch (Frankfurt am Main, 2000), 9-40, here 35-40
71. Klaus J. Bade, Europa in Bewegung: Migration vom späten 18. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart (Munich, 2000)
72. Klaus Zernack's book about Poland and Russia in the past millennium is one of the few attempts to combine the history of two countries and societies. See Klaus Zernack, Polen und Russland: Zwei Wege in der europäischen Geschichte (Berlin, 1994)
73. It is especially interesting for its combination of comparative history and a history of relations. Andrzej Walicki has written several works about continuous exchanges between Russia and Poland in the area of intellectual history. For the romantic period see Andrzej Walicki, Russia, Poland, and Universal Regeneration: Studies on Russian and Polish Thought of the Romantic Epoch (Notre Dame, Ind., 1991)
74. Josef Pekář, "Smysl českých dêjin," in O smyslu českrýi děcjin, Josef Pekář, third edition (Prague, 1990), 383-405, here: 394-401
75. See Lucien Febvre, Le Rhin: Problemes d'histoire et d'economie (Paris, 1935) (in German: Der Rhein und seine Geschichte, Frankfurt am Main, 1994)
76. See Espagne, Les transferts, 35-37
77. Kaelble, Der historische Vergleich, 19-21
78. A critical viewpoint of the comparative method is offered by Johannes Paulmann, "Internationaler Vergleich und interkultureller Transfer: Zwei Forschungsansätze zur europäischen Geschichte des 18. bis 20. Jahrhunderts," Historische Zeitschrift 3 (1998): 649-85
79. See Michel Espagne, Les transferts culturels, 12
80. See Daniel T. Rodgers, Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive Age (Cambridge, Mass., 1998)
81. See Michel Espagne/Michel Werner, "La construction d'une référence culturelle allemande en France - Génèse et Histoire (1750-1914)," in Annales E.S.C. (juillet-aout 1987): 969-92
82. and Michel Espagne, Les transferts
83. See the respective demands in Fulbrook, National Histories, 14
84. Because of space constraints this literature cannot be cited extensively, but a particularly sophisticated and international comparative project is Jay Winter and Jean-Louis Robert, eds., Capital Cities at War: Paris, London, Berlin 1914-1919 (Cambridge, UK, 1999)
85. Convincing arguments for comparisons on a meso level are brought forward by Nancy Green, "The Comparative Method and Post-Structuralist Structuralism: New Perspectives for Migration Studies," in Migration, Migration History, History, ed. Jan Lucassen and Leo Lucassen, 2d. ed. (New York, 1999), 57-72
86. See the scathing comments about this in Davies, Europe, 42-45
87. See Fulbrook, Introduction, 14-15