Sonderweg

Sonderweg is the thesis that Germany followed a distinctive path to modernity, marked by delayed democratization and institutions that helped make Nazism possible. Historians dispute its claims and explanatory power.

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Friedrich Meinecke: A German historian whose work traced the development of the modern German state and nationalism. His postwar account of German history helped frame debates about a distinctive national path.
German Empire: The German nation-state established in 1871 and dissolved at the end of World War I. Its political institutions are often presented as the setting for Germany's arrested democratization.
Whig history: A style of history that presents the past as a progressive path toward liberal democracy. Sonderweg challenges the assumption that German modernization followed a normal democratic progression.
Rise of Nazism: The political process by which the Nazi Party gained power in Germany between 1919 and 1933. Sonderweg sought to explain why German political development made this outcome possible.
David Blackbourn: A British historian of Germany who criticized influential Sonderweg interpretations. His critique challenged the claim that Germany lacked a bourgeois revolution comparable to other countries.
Hans-Ulrich Wehler: A German historian associated with social history and the Bielefeld School. He advanced a major version of Sonderweg focused on social structures and political modernization.
Prussian Junkers: The landed aristocracy of Prussia, influential in the army, bureaucracy, and conservative politics. Their influence illustrates the persistence of preindustrial elites in modern German politics.
French Revolution: The revolution that began in France in 1789 and transformed its political and social order. It offers a contrasting model of bourgeois revolution and the dismantling of aristocratic privilege.
Historikerstreit: A public controversy among West German historians in the 1980s over Nazi crimes and national memory. The dispute renewed arguments about whether German history had a unique trajectory toward Nazism.
Geoff Eley: A British historian whose work examines German politics, social history, and nationalism. His critique with Blackbourn questioned the thesis's assumptions about bourgeois power and national development.