A History of Germany 1918 - 2008: The Divided Nation
Mary Fulbrook
Language: English
Pages: 400
ISBN: 1405188146
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The third edition of A History of Germany traces the dramatic social, cultural, and political tensions in Germany since 1918.
- Offers a persuasive interpretation of the dynamics of twentieth-century German history
- Treats German history from 1918-2008 from the perspective of division and reunification, covering East and West German history in equal depth
- Covers the self-destructive Weimar Republic, the extremes of genocide and military aggression in the Nazi era, the division of the nation in the Cold War, and the collapse of communist East Germany and unification in 1990
- New edition includes updates throughout, especially covering the Nazi period and the Holocaust; a new chapter on Germany since the 1990s; and a substantially revised and updated bibliography
education system. In East Germany there was by the 1980s approximate equality in numbers: about half the school-children leaving with the Abitur (the equivalent of ‘A’ levels) were female, and half of all students in higher education were female. In the West the figures were not so impressive; while the average percentage of girls in Gymnasien rose from 43 per cent in 1970 to 50.5 per cent in 1984, the percentage of women students in higher education rose only from 30 per cent in 1968 to 37.9 per
possible discussion and action in the GDR. It may seem a little odd, in the context of discussion of dissent and opposition in a communist regime, to include mention of the official carriers of that regime. But a further, important feature of the 1980s, which has been adumbrated in the previous chapter with respect to the SED, was a process of differentiation within the SED itself. Up until the mid-1980s the SED tended to follow Moscow’s lead rather closely; but Glasnost evoked only the most
(1880–1939) Fritzsche, Hans (1900–53) Führer myth Fukuyama, Francis (1952– ) Fulton (Missouri) functionalist interpretations, of Third Reich fundamentalists Funder, Anna (1966– ) Stasiland (2003) Funk, Walther (1890–1960) further education Galen, Clemens August Count von (1878–1946) gassing Gastarbeiter citizenship laws resentment and unemployment Gaus, Günter (1929–2004) Wo Deutschland liegt (1983) Gemeinschafts-fremden General Government see Poland genocide programmes see
toleration, allowing controlled ventilation of grievances; and in many other ways. The Weimar Republic was subjected to sustained assaults from a variety of quarters, from Left and Right; it ultimately fell prey to the latter, and its successor regime dealt exceedingly brutally with opposition from the former. The Third Reich itself was ultimately only felled from without because of lack of effective opposition from within. For much of the GDR’s history it proved possible to contain and isolate
West Germany’s rapid growth, in addition to the direct and indirect effects of the Marshall Plan mentioned above. It was uniquely adapted to benefit from the Korean War which broke out in June 1950, and from subsequent defence policies (in favour of nuclear, rather than conventional, defences, as favoured by Defence Minister Franz-Josef Strauss). The structure of unions was simplified, with one union per industry, and the unified unions belonging to a single umbrella organization, the DGB. A myth