The Fate of the Nineteenth Century in German Historiography

• Published in: The Journal of modern history 2008-03, Vol.80 (1), p.81-108
• Main Author: Penny, H. Glenn
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 19th century; Christianity; Civil Society; Colonialism; Cultural history; Culture; Empires; European history; Federal Republic of Germany; German history; German literature; German unification; Germany; Historians; Historiography; History; Judaism; Kant, Immanuel; Modernity; Musical aesthetics; Nineteenth Century; Political debate; Political history; Religions; Review Article; Scholars; Socialism; Subjectivity; Writing
• ISSN: 0022-2801; 1537-5358
• DOI: 10.1086/529078

Penny examines the fate of the nineteenth century in German history. As one of the unforeseen consequences of German reunification, the year 1945 stopped being the endpoint of Germany's history, and historians faced the initially unsettling task of writing a German history that did "not end in ruins and disaster but with a kiss." The result was a veritable explosion of work on the postwar period, the German Democratic Republic, and the twentieth century as history. As historians of Germany have begun reflecting on the ways in which they approached the past from a series of predictable defining moments, many have recognized the degree to which the history of the nineteenth century has been held hostage by the twentieth. They have also realized the many disadvantages that emerged as the late nineteenth century in particular was transformed into a historiographical battleground for scholars interested in locating the origins of National Socialism.