2 - German Historiography during the Weimar Republic and the Émigré Historians

Summary

The history of German historiography during the Weimar period is closely correlated with the question of why the courageous attempt to establish a democratic order in Germany after the breakdown of the imperial regime in 1918 failed, a failure which resulted in the rise to power of National Socialism. In general, German historiography during this period must be seen as a major factor strengthening the trend in public opinion to look back to, and to judge, contemporary events against what seemed the happy days of Bismarck and Wilhelm II. There was a strong tendency to denounce the Weimar system as alien to the German historical tradition and imposed by the victorious Western powers against the wishes of the majority of Germans. Max Lenz, the holder of Ranke's chair at the University of Berlin, the most prestigious chair of history in Germany, declared it the task of the historical profession to mobilize the “moral energies” of former, greater generations of Germans against what he called “the pygmies of the day” in order to pave the way for a brighter future for the German nation-state. With good justification Bernd Faulenbach summarized the trends of German historiography in the interwar period under the heading Ideologie des deutschen Weges.