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Afterlife

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2024

Roger Chickering
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
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Summary

The German Empire was born in the aftermath of one war and died at the conclusion of another. Even within its own chronological confines of 1871 and 1918, Imperial Germany’s history poses narrative challenges. The principal issue has to do with the second of these wars, which brought the German Empire to an end. This conflict weighed more heavily than the short war that began the story in 1870. The earlier war made possible the unification of the nation-state and served as a symbol of its military splendor, but otherwise, at least to judge from economic historians, it had a limited or ambivalent material impact on what followed. The Great War of 1914–18, by contrast, gave rise to the term “total war.” It left no phase of life in the German Empire unaffected. It let loose pressures so comprehensive that they challenged even the narrative coherence of German history during the imperial era itself.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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  • Afterlife
  • Roger Chickering, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book: The German Empire, 1871–1918
  • Online publication: 06 December 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139208550.018
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Afterlife
  • Roger Chickering, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book: The German Empire, 1871–1918
  • Online publication: 06 December 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139208550.018
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Afterlife
  • Roger Chickering, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book: The German Empire, 1871–1918
  • Online publication: 06 December 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139208550.018
Available formats
×