De-centering German History: Beyond the Nation and National Socialism

This paper argues that our narratives of German history rely too heavily on the formation of the nation state and the history of National Socialism and its memory. It contends that there are alternative ways of narrating that history, which could not only provide for a richer history of Central Europe but also better explain many of the developments and transformations in Germany during the end of the twentieth century. There is no question, that our narratives of German history are punctuated by radical ruptures, critical shifts in regimes that saw the borders of German states move in and out with startling frequency over the last two centuries.  Historians’ reliance on those ruptures for framing their narratives, however, has often obscured the consistencies and continuities that flow through them.  By drawing on an idiosyncratic set of such consistencies— e. g. the role of federalism in German political culture, the importance of regional distinctions, the rhetoric of tribal association, as well as a consistent set of attitudes toward America and feelings of affinity for American Indians—this paper argues that historians can and should write German history across a long dureé unbounded by political borders.  It presents the possibility of recasting German history as a cultural history that flows through the sequence of the nation states that took shape following the 1871 unification— but does not begin or end with those states.  It argues as well, that as we rethink the place of national history in our narratives, it may be time to regard it as an interval in German history, one that could be nearing conclusion. By de-centering German history in this fashion, this paper argues that historians will free it from the presentism that dominates so much of the profession and the nationalist histories that limit our perspectives.