Europe And The German Question

The course of recent German history has been volatile. Events in Eastern Europe, the collapse of European Communism and German Re-Unification has brought issues of Germany's status into the arena of world politics. The Question of German Unification presents an introduction to the last two hundred years of German history and addresses questions raised by the status of Germany as a single or split national state. Imanuel Geiss: * argues that Germany has fluctuated all too frequently, and catastrophically, between being the power centre of Europe or a power vacuum * describes the special features of German history and looks at Germany within a European framework * analyses the political, economic and social aspects of German Nationalism as well as the impact of the collapse of Communism on Germany, through detailing long-term structures and processes * includes discussion of recent political events as well as a chronology and further reading. Imanuel Geiss reflects on the irrationalities of German history, surveys how they have been explained by historians, and provides a succinct and readable account of the complex issues involved.

"Translated from the second edition.""First published in Great Britain in 1946. Published in Switzerland in 1945 under the title Die deutsche frage."

`...a most significant addition to the literature on its subject.' - Roger Morgan, Professor of Political Science, European University Institute, Florence An unconventional overview of a new and normal Germany fifty years after World War 2 and five years after unification. The authors address the challenges of ageing and migration to a tangled national identity; their impact on a cautious yet resilient society, and an inertial yet dynamic economy; and the frequently surprising ways Germans have learned to cope with one another, redefine and pursue their interests, and deal with a changing world after two dictatorships, two world wars, and one cold war.

Focuses on German-American relations since 1945, including discussion of the postwar occupation of Germany by the Western allies and the Soviet Union.

In the immediate aftermath of World War Two, the victors were unable to agree on Germany’s fate, and the separation of the country—the result of the nascent Cold War—emerged as a de facto, if provisional, settlement. Yet East and West Germany would exist apart for half a century, making the "German question" a central foreign policy issue—and given the war-torn history between the two countries, this was felt no more keenly than in France. Drawing on the most recent historiography and previously untapped archival sources, this volume shows how France’s approach to the German question was, for the duration of the Cold War, both more constructive and consequential than has been previously acknowledged.