Hans-Ulrich Wehler facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Hans-Ulrich Wehler
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | September 11, 1931 Freudenberg, Province of Westphalia, Free State of Prussia, Weimar Republic
|
| Died | July 5, 2014 (aged 82) |
| Nationality | German |
| Alma mater | University of Cologne |
| Known for | Bielefeld School |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | History, sociology |
| Institutions | Bielefeld University |
| Doctoral advisor | Theodor Schieder |
Hans-Ulrich Wehler (born September 11, 1931 – died July 5, 2014) was an important German historian. He was famous for helping to create a new way of studying history called "social history." He did this through a group of historians known as the "Bielefeld School." Wehler also wrote many critical studies about Germany in the 1800s.
Contents
Hans-Ulrich Wehler's Life and Education
Hans-Ulrich Wehler was born in Freudenberg, Westphalia. He studied history and sociology at universities in Cologne and Bonn, Germany. He also studied in the United States at Ohio University with a special scholarship. While in the US, he even worked as a welder and truck driver for a few months.
In 1960, he earned his PhD from the University of Cologne. His main research was about how social democracy and the idea of a nation-state developed in Germany. Later, his work on Otto von Bismarck and imperialism helped him start his teaching career. He spent six years in the US, which greatly influenced his ideas about history.
Wehler taught at the University of Cologne from 1968 to 1970. He then taught at the Free University of Berlin from 1970 to 1971. From 1971 until 1996, he was a professor at Bielefeld University.
He and his fellow historians, Jürgen Kocka and Reinhart Koselleck, started the Bielefeld School. This group focused on social and cultural changes in history. They believed history should be a "historical social science." Wehler also became an editor for the journal Geschichte und Gesellschaft in 1975.
Wehler married Renate Pfitsch in 1958, and they had three children. In 2003, he received the NRW State Prize for his work.
The Bielefeld School and Social History
Hans-Ulrich Wehler was a key leader of the Bielefeld School. This group of historians used methods from the social sciences to study history. They looked at how society changed over time.
In West Germany during the 1950s and 1960s, social history became popular. It was a new way to study the past after the problems of National Socialism. The Bielefeld School used ideas like modernization theory to understand German history. They wanted to move away from traditional history, which often focused only on politics and a few "great men."
Wehler and his colleagues wanted to study German society as a whole. They looked at how different parts of society, not just politics, developed. Wehler used ideas from thinkers like Max Weber and Karl Marx.
Wehler's most famous work is Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte (German Social History). It is a huge five-volume series about German society from the 1700s to the 1900s. Each volume looks at history through themes like population changes, economics, and social fairness. He showed how society changed and stayed the same over long periods.
His third volume, Von der "Deutschen Doppelrevolution" bis zum Beginn des Ersten Weltkrieges 1849-1914 (1995), discussed Germany's "Sonderweg" or "special path." This idea suggests that Germany followed a unique path that led to Nazism and the disasters of the 20th century. Wehler believed that Germany's problems began in the 1860s and 1870s. During this time, the economy modernized, but politics did not. The old ruling class kept control of the government and military.
Wehler argued that traditional, aristocratic society fought against the new, modern, capitalist society. Even though industry and the economy were modernizing, old traditions still controlled German politics and social attitudes. His fourth volume, Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte: Vom Beginn des Ersten Weltkrieges bis zur Gründung der beiden Deutschen Staaten 1914-1949 (2003), continued this idea. He saw Germany's terrible politics between 1914 and 1945 as a result of its political structures not modernizing fast enough.
Wehler's work also looked closely at the "middle class" and the idea of "revolution." He explained Nazi rule using the idea of "charismatic domination," focusing on Adolf Hitler. The fifth volume of his series covered up to 1990. None of these volumes have been translated into English yet.
From the 1980s, some historians started to question the Bielefeld School. They felt it didn't include enough about culture in its study of society. They also thought it focused too much on structures and not enough on individuals.
Understanding Germany's "Special Path"
Wehler was an expert on the German Empire. He was a strong supporter of the Sonderweg (Special Path) idea. This theory says that Germany in the 1800s only partly modernized. Wehler argued that Germany was unique because it became a unified nation through a military "revolution from above." This happened as the Industrial Revolution was starting.
Because of this, Germany's economy became modern, and its society partly modernized. However, Wehler believed that politically, the new unified Germany kept old aristocratic and anti-democratic values. He thought that the efforts of Germany's old ruling class to stay in power led to World War I in 1914. He also believed it contributed to the failure of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazi Germany.
Wehler especially criticized Otto von Bismarck's strategy of "negative integration." Bismarck tried to create a sense of German identity by making laws against minority groups. These groups included Roman Catholics, Alsatians, Poles, and Social Democrats. Wehler was also a leading historian who believed that the German government was solely responsible for starting World War I.
Wehler saw the aggressive foreign policies of the German Empire, especially under Kaiser Wilhelm II, as a way to distract the German people. He believed the government wanted to keep people from noticing the lack of democracy at home. This idea is called Primat der Innenpolitik ("primacy of domestic politics"). It means that a country's foreign policy is mainly shaped by its internal problems. This view was different from other historians who believed in the Primat der Außenpolitik ("primacy of foreign politics"), which says foreign policy is most important.
Wehler also supported the idea of social imperialism. He defined this as using foreign adventures to deal with problems at home. It was a way to keep the social and political situation stable. He argued that German leaders used social imperialism to distract the public from domestic issues. This helped them keep their power. For example, he saw Germany's colonial policy in the 1880s and the plan to expand the German Navy from 1897 as examples of social imperialism. He believed that demands for taking over parts of Europe and Africa in World War I were the peak of this idea.
In the 1970s, Wehler had a debate with other historians like Klaus Hildebrand. They disagreed on how to study diplomatic history. Wehler argued that diplomatic history should be part of social history, focusing on theories. The two main thinkers who influenced Wehler were Karl Marx and Max Weber.
Wehler's View on History
Wehler often criticized traditional German historiography (the writing of history). He thought it focused too much on political events and individuals. He also believed it was too conservative and couldn't properly explain the past.
Wehler saw history as a social science. He believed that social changes are often more important than political events. In his view, history should be a "critical social science." It should examine the "temporal structures" of a society and help people understand society better. Wehler called his approach Historische Sozialwissenschaft (historical social science). This approach combines ideas from history, sociology, economics, and anthropology. It looks at long-term social changes in a complete way.
Wehler believed that Germany between 1871 and 1945 had a social structure that slowed down modernization in some areas but allowed it in others. For Wehler, Germany's defeat in 1945 finally broke this "premodern" social structure. This allowed Germany to become a normal "Western" country.
Key Works
- Bismarck und der Imperialismus, 1969.
- "Bismarck's Imperialism 1862–1890" Past and Present, No. 48, August 1970. pages 119–155
- "Industrial Growth and Early German Imperialism" from Studies in the Theory of Imperialism edited by Roger Owen and Bob Sutcliffe, London: Longman, 1972
- Das Deutsche Kaiserreich, 1871-1918, 1973; translated by Kim Traynor as The German Empire, 1871-1918, Leamington Spa: Berg Publishers, 1985, ISBN: 0-907582-22-2.
- Geschichte als historische Sozialwissenschaft, 1973.
- Krisenherde des Kaiserreichs, 1871-1918, 1973.
- Modernisierungstheorie und Geschichte, 1975.
- Historische Sozialwissenschaft und Geschichtsschreibung, 1980.
- ""Deutscher Sonderweg" oder allgemeine Probleme des westlichen Kapitalismus" pages 478-487 from Merkur, Volume 5, 1981.
- "Historiography in Germany Today" from Observations on "The Spiritual Situation of the Age": Contemporary German Perspectives, edited by Jürgen Habermas, 1984.
- Preussen ist wieder chic: Politik und Polemik in zwanzig Essays, 1985.
- Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte, vol. 1-5, 1987-2008.
- David F. Crew. "Review of Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte-Vierter Band: Vom Beginn des Ersten Weltkriegs bis zur Gründung der beiden deutschen Staaten 1914-1949," H-German, H-Net Reviews, June, 2005. online review
- Entsorgung der deutschen Vergangenheit: ein polemischer Essay zum "Historikerstreit", 1988.
- "Unburdening the German Past? A Preliminary Assessment", pages 214-223 from Reworking The Past: Hitler, the Holocaust, and the Historians' Debate edited by Peter Baldwin, Boston: Beacon Press, 1990, ISBN: 0-8070-4302-8.
- Nationalismus und Nationalstaat: Studien zum nationalen Problem im modernen Europa, co-edited with Otto Dann and Theodor Schieder, 1991.
- Die Gegenwart als Geschichte, 1995.
- "The Goldhagen Controversy: Agonising Problems, Scholarly Failure, and the Political Dimension", pages 80–91 from German History, Volume 15, 1997.
See also
In Spanish: Hans-Ulrich Wehler para niños
