German History in Focus-The Weimar Republic

An introductory survey history of the Weimar Republic which shines a light on the most recent research and scholarly debates in the field. The Weimar Republic is often remembered as little more than a picturesque prelude to National Socialism, as an anguished, accidental polity lurching from crisis to crisis. This book provides an up-to-date and accessible synthesisis of recent research in both English and German that advances a more nuanced and sophisticated reading of Weimar democracy’s prospects and record. Christopher Dillon shows that the new republic built on democratic cultures developed in Germany long before 1918. The republic also pioneered many hallmarks of our own precarious twenty-first-century political modernity, including gender equality, minority rights, religious freedom, mass consumerism, uninhibited cultural expression, a pluralistic media landscape, and a universal welfare state funded through progressive taxation. These were striking achievements in an interwar central Europe increasingly drifting into authoritarianism. The book dispells many common myths and misapprehensions about German politics, economics, and culture between 1918 and 1933. Christopher Dillon shows that Hitler’s ascent was not inevitable and that alternative German futures remained possible even in January 1933.