Book Description

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the development of Germany in the twentieth century, a country whose history has decisively shaped the map and the politics of modern Europe and the world in which we live. It is concerned with social change, economic performance and industrial relations, as well as with politics and diplomacy. Professor Berghahn begins with an analysis of the period of rapid industrialisation in the decades before 1914, then traces the social and political consequences of unprecedented economic change through the interwar years and beyond. He also assesses the impact of the First World War and the Great Inflation of 1923, and discusses German foreign policy from Stresemann to Hitler. After 1945, Germany became divided, and the last two chapters are devoted to the emergence of the Federal Republic and the Democratic Republic as separate entities. A good deal of attention is paid throughout the book to the life and feelings of ordinary people. A useful appendix combines in over forty tables statistical information on such important topics as industrial and agricultural production, employment, voting patterns, denominational distribution and education; and there is a chronological table covering the main events of the period. This volume will provide a valuable textbook for students of modern history, which can be read with profit by anyone with a serious interest in the social and economic background of twentieth-century Germany.