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World Power or Tragic Fate? The Kriegsschuldfrage as Historical Neurosis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Konrad H. Jarausch
Affiliation:
University of Missouri, Columbia

Extract

The question Wer ist schuld am Krieg?, the focus of a propaganda battle already during the Great War, has obsessed German historians unlike any other issue in their recent history. In America the publishing success of Barbara Tuchman's Guns of August, the acclaim of Solzhenitsyn's August 1914, and the continual appearance of paperback introductions testify to an abiding interest in the outbreak of the First World War. But with the exception of the memorable debate between Sindey Fay and Bernadotte Schmidt, there have been no major American contributions because the issue of causes and responsibilities has been seen primarily as an academic problem.

Type
Review Article
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1972

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References

1. Wer ist schuld am Krieg? Rede des Deutschen Reichskanzlers im Hauptausschuss des Deutschen Reichstags am 9. November 1916 (Berlin, 1916).Google ScholarCf.Headlam, J. W., The German Chancellor and Outbreak of War (London, 1917).Google Scholar For the older literature see Herzfeld, H. and Loock, H.-D., “Der Weltkrieg und Versailles 1914–1919,” in the new edition of Dahlmann-Waitz, , Quellenkunde der Deutschen Geschichte (Stuttgart, 1965).Google Scholar

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4. Quoted from the editorial preface of Der Krieg: Politische Monatsschrift, I (1928), No. 1, edited by Heinrich Kanner with occasional contributions from such noted pacifists as Hellmut von Gerlach.Google Scholar Cf. also Gerth, H. H. and Mills, C. Wright, eds., From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (New York, 1958).Google ScholarRöhl, John C. G., Zwei Deutsche Fürsten zur Kriegsschuldfrage. Lichnowsky und Eulenburg und der Ausbruch des Ersten Weltkriegs (Düsseldorf, 1972).Google Scholar

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20. The concept originated with Egmont Zechlin in his dispersed articles, some of which are printed in the Schieder volume. “Friedensbestrebungen und Revolutionierungsversuche,” Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, supplement to Das Parlament, 1961, Nos. 20, 24, 25; 1963, Nos. 20 and 23; “Deutschland zwischen Kabinettskrieg und Wirtschaftskrieg,” Historische Zeitschrift, CXCIX (1964), 347ff.; and “Probleme des Kriegskalküls und der Kriegsbeendigung im ersten Weltkrieg,” Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht, XVI (1965), 69ff.Google Scholar His latest contribution is Die deutsche Politik und die Juden im Ersten Weltkrieg (Göttingen, 1969).Google Scholar

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24. The title of Janssen's, K. H. survey of the controversy in Die Zeit, Mar. 21, 1969.Google Scholar

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29. Cf. also his other works, “Der Kriegsausbruch 1914 im Lichte der neuesten Forschung,” Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht, XV (1964), 472–86;Google ScholarWilhelm Solf: Botschafter zwischen den Zeiten (Tübingen, 1961)Google Scholar; and Gegen die Unvernunft: Der Briefwechsel zwischen Paul Graf Wolff Metternich und Wilhelm Solf 1915–1918 mit zwei Briefen Albert Ballins (Bremen, 1964).Google Scholar

30. Cited from Hildebrand's perceptive essay, Bethmann Hollweg: Der Kanzler ohne Eigenschaften? Urteile der Geschichtsschreibung. Eine kritische Bibliographie (Düsseldorf, 1970).Google Scholar

31. Klein, Fritz has written a textbook, Deutschland 1897/98 bis 1917 (2nd ed., Berlin, 1962),Google Scholar and edited Politik im Krieg 1914–1918: Studien zur Politik der deutschen herrschenden Klassen im ersten Weltkrieg (Berlin, 1964).Google Scholar

32. Both published 1968. Gutsche, has written his Habilitationsschrift on “Die Beziehungen zwischen der Regierung Bethmann Hollwegs und dem Monopolkapital in den ersten Monaten des Weltkriegs” (East Berlin, 1967), and a spate of articles on Bethmann Hollweg. He is presently working on a short biography of the fifth chancellor.Google ScholarPetzold, has written Die Dolchstosslegende (Berlin, 1963).Google Scholar

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35. For an East German review of the continuing controversy cf. Gutsche, W., Klein, F., Kral, H., and Petzold, J., “Neue Forschungen zur Geschichte Deutschlands im ersten Weltkrieg,” Jahrbuch für Geschichte (Berlin, 1967), I, 282306.Google Scholar

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44. Remak, Joachim, “1914—The Third Balkan War: Origins Reconsidered,“ Journal of Modern History, XLIII (1971), 353ff.Google Scholar See also the conventional narrative of Zeman, Z. A. B., The Gentleman Negotiators: A Diplomatic History of the First World War (New York, 1971), dealing not with the outbreak proper, but with the entry of other belligerents and the peace attempts.Google Scholar

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49. A step in this direction is such work as Lamar Cecil's The Creation of Nobles in Prussia, 1871–1918,” American Historical Review, LXXV (1970), 757ff.Google Scholar

50. Freud, Sigmund to Romain Rolland, 03 4, 1923, in Ernest L. Freud, Letters of Sigmund Freud (London, 1960) pp. 341–44.Google Scholar