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4 - The battle for the young: mobilising young people in Wilhelmine Germany
- Mark Roseman, Keele University
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- Book:
- Generations in Conflict
- Published online:
- 19 October 2009
- Print publication:
- 20 April 1995, pp 92-104
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Summary
Over the last few years, historians of twentieth-century Germany have increasingly recognised the importance of generational groupings and divisions in influencing both intellectual climate and political attitudes and conflict. Particularly in the period between the end of the nineteenth century and the Nazi era, tension and conflict between ‘youth’ (however defined) and the established generations came to be as decisive as divisions along socio-economic class lines in shaping Germany's political development.
Though the roots of these generational tensions can undoubtedly be traced further back, it was in the Wilhelmine era that they emerged strongly for the first time. In public debate about the way society saw itself, for example, the concepts of ‘youth’ and ‘young generation’ played a central role. At the same time large numbers of youth organisations, some autonomous, some affiliated to other movements, came into being in these years. There was also a marked increase in educational and social research concerned with young people. Great efforts were made by state and church to win the hearts and minds of the young and integrate them into established society. In short, there was an explosion of concern with, and awareness of, youth that was arguably far more extreme than in other industrialised Western nations.
The aim of the present essay is first, to outline the diverse and often contradictory forms in which these new tensions between youth and adult society emerged and developed in Wilhelmine Germany.At the same time, it analyses why the whole question of youth should have assumed such importance, and attempts to place the Wilhelminian preoccupation with youth in the broader context of a growing feeling of insecurity on the part of the German bourgeoisie.
Urban history research in Germany: its development and present condition
- Jürgen Reulecke, Gerhard Huck, Anthony Sutcliffe
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- Journal:
- Urban History Yearbook / Volume 8 / May 1981
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 09 February 2009, pp. 39-54
- Print publication:
- May 1981
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Anyone glancing into a bookshop window in the Federal Republic of Germany today might get the impression that urban history is currently one of the most important and widely published historical disciplines. Such an impression would mislead, however. Most of these richly illustrated and expensively produced volumes have almost no academic significance. They are the product of a wave of nostalgia which certain astute publishers have managed to catch thanks to their unerring appreciation of market demand. For instance, a whole generation over the age of fifty wants to be reminded of the undamaged towns of its pre-war childhood. Post-war redevelopment, too, has had its effect, and the insecure citizens of our often featureless towns require a means of self-representation and identification. Demand for such publications has also been generated by the growing consciousness of the environment, which has made the expression ‘Heimat’ (heritage) respectable again, and strengthened the call for the conservation of a world rooted in the past. However, modern urban history is only just beginning to function as an independent specialism in the Federal Republic (and the same applies to its eastern neighbour). It has made gradual progress in the last few years, but even so, in comparison with the sustained and varied urban history research pursued in countries such as Britain and the United States of America, Germany is an underdeveloped country. In fact, the Deutsches Institut für Urbanistik (DIFU) acknowledged as much when, as recently as April 1980, it organized a review of the field. The Federal Republic's handful of specialists were invited to Berlin for a colloquium on ‘Problems in the writing of urban history’. The aim of the conference was just as much to examine the current difficulties of urban history as to stimulate further research.