Bringing together some of the most prominent contemporary historians of modern Germany alongside innovative newcomers to the field, this volume offers new perspectives on key debates surrounding Germany’s descent into, and emergence from, the Nazi catastrophe. It explores the intersections between society, economy, and international policy, with a particular interest in the relations between elites and the wider society, and provides new insights into the complex continuities and discontinuities of modern German history. This volume offers a rich selection of essays that contribute to our understanding of the road to war, Nazism, and the Holocaust, as well as Germany’s transformation after 1945.

Preface

Introduction
Frank Biess and Mark Roseman

PART I: GERMAN ELITES AND AN UNRULY SOCIETY

Chapter 1. Kulturkampf and Geschlechterkampf: Anti-Catholicism, Catholic Women, and Public Space
Michael B. Gross

Chapter 2. The 1923 Ruhr Crisis: The Limits of Active Resistance
Conan Fischer

Chapter 3. Political Violence, Gesinnung, and the Courts in Late Weimar Berlin
Pamela E. Swett

PART II: GERMAN SOCIETY AND A VIOLENT REGIME

Chapter 4. Beyond Conviction? Perpetrators, Ideas and Action in the Holocaust in Historiographical Perspective
Mark Roseman

Chapter 5. The Dissolution of the Third Reich
Hans Mommsen

Chapter 6. The Search for Missing Soldiers: MIAs, POWs, and Ordinary Germans, 1943–45
Frank Biess

PART III: CHANGE AND CONTINUITY IN GERMANY'S FOREIGN RELATIONS

Chapter 7. The Kaiser and His English Relations Revisited
John C. G. Röhl

Chapter 8. Appeasement and Counter-Appeasement: Nazi–Soviet Collaboration 1939–1941
Hartmut Pogge von Strandmann

Chapter 9. Imperialism as a Paradigm for Modern German History
Uta Poiger

Chapter 10. Americanization as a Paradigm of German History
Mary Nolan

PART IV: SMOOTH SURFACES, MURKY DEPTHS: THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC

Chapter 11. The Radicalization that Never Was? Refugees in the German Federal Republic
Ian Connor

Chapter 12. Germany’s Special Path? Economic Sciences and Politics in the Federal Republic, 1945–1970
Alexander Nützenadel

Chapter 13. Catholic Elites, Gender, and Unintended Consequences in the 1950s: Toward a Reinterpretation of the Role of Conservatives in the Federal Republic
Mark Edward Ruff

Chapter 14. Memory, Morality, and the Sexual Liberalization of West Germany
Dagmar Herzog

Chapter 15. The Modern Guild: Rotary Clubs and Bourgeois Renewal in the Aftermath of National Socialism
S. Jonathan Wiesen

Chapter 16. Fighting to Win the Peace: 08/15 and West German Memories of the Second World War
Robert G. Moeller

Chapter 17. Rehabilitating Fatherland: Race and German Remasculinization
Heide Fehrenbach

Chapter 18. Epilogue: Zeitgenossenschaft: Some Reflections on Doing Contemporary German History
Hanna Schissler

Selected Readings
Contributors
Index