Imperial Germany 1890 - 1918 Seminar Studies Series

The Wilhelmine period is a crucial period of German history and the focus of great historical controversy; greater understanding of this period is also vital to explain the rise of the Third Reich. The authors focus on Germany's role as a major military and imperial power, industrialiastion and the economy, the crucial effects of the war years and the disturbing evidence that Germany's response to Hitler is to be found in the Wilhelmine era.

LIST OF MAPS IV
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IV
INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES V
Part One: Background
1 THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF WILHELMINE GERMANY
2 THE HOUSE THAT BISMARCK BUILT 5
Part Two: Narration and Analysis 9
3 DOMESTIC POLITICS, 1890-1914 9
The road to 'personal rule', 1890-97 9
The ascendancy of Biilow, 1897-1909 12
Governing 'from issue to issue', 1909-14 17
4 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS 21
Germany as an industrial power 21
A divided society? 23
The treatment of minorities 28
5 THE ARMED FORCES 33
The army 33
Tirpitz and the navy 36
6 FOREIGN AND COLONIAL POLICY, 1890-1914 40
The quest for world power status 40
The failure of German diplomacy, 1890-1914 45
The miscalculated risk of 1914 48
7 THE TEST OF WAR, 1914-18 53
Domestic politics and the supremacy of the General Staff 53
War aims 59
Defeat and revolution 63
Part Three: Assessment
Part Four: Documents
CHRONOLOGY
GLOSSARY
REICHSTAG ELECTION RESULTS, 1890-1918
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
List of Maps
The German Empire, 1871-1918
German colonies by 1914
Eastern Europe after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
Acknowledgemen