The Economic Impact Of Imperial Germany

Extract

German political empire building had a decisive and powerful influence not only on the making, but also on the writing of economic history. The initial effect upon the history of economic history was negative rather than positive. The so-called “political historians” of the midnineteenth century were inspired by the contemporary struggle for the enhancement of the nation's political power and for constitutional liberty. The subsequent formation of Imperial Germany by “blood and iron,” instead of broadening the historical perspective and social vision of Droysen, Duncker, Häusser, Sybel, Treitschke, and the more docile among their followers, merely knocked out their liberalism and intensified and militarized their nationalism. In the new Reich they felt irritated and annoyed rather than roused and shaken by the grave economic conflicts and social disharmonies which grew out of the rapid industrialization of the German national economy and the narrow social class structure of the Imperial government and its Junker personnel. The hypnotic spell emanating from Bismarck's leadership accounted for the sterility of the political historians' response. Although the work of these academic civil servants greatly improved in technical perfection and thoroughness and extended the boundaries of factual knowledge, including knowledge not always worth knowing, it lost vigor and fertility and deteriorated into staleness and irksome monotony as to fundamental ideas and social ideals.