Bismarck's shadow: the cult of leadership and the transformation of the German Right, 1898-1945

Abstract

Introduction * From Bismarck to Hitler? The Nature of the Project * The Development of an Obsession: Bismarck and the German People * Defining the Nation: Bismarck and German National Identity * Charismatic Authority and the Crisis of Leadership * The Role of Bismarck in German Political Culture: Method and Structure of the ProjectChapter One: The Living Legend, 1866-1898 * Establishment of the Legend: Bismarck as Founder and Protector of the Reich * The Chancellor as Legend: Bismarck in Political Practice * The Chancellor Unbound: The Bismarck Legend in the Wake of the Dismissal * Reestablishing the Right: Bismarck in Retirement and the Politics of National OppositionChapter Two: 'Forward in the Spirit of Bismarck!' 1898-1914 * Death, Deification, and the Development of the Bismarck Cult * Crying in the Wilderness: The Early Cult in Political Practice and the Quest for Legitimacy * The Legitimization of Right-Wing Populism and the Radicalization of the Right during the Wilhelmine Crisis PeriodChapter Three: Bismarck in the Crisis Decade, 1914-1923 * Germany's 'Holy War': The Bismarck Cult and the Spirit of 1914 * War-time Radicalization: Leadership Crisis, Democratization, and the Emergence of the Fatherland Party * Challenging the Iron Chancellor: Bismarck and the Revolution * A New Bismarck for a New Right: The Iron Chancellor as Counter-Revolutionary Icon in the Civil War PeriodChapter Four: A Hopeful Interlude: Bismarck and the 'Years of Stability', 1923-1930 * Gustav Stresemann and the Pursuit of a Moderate Bismarck * The Radical Bismarck and the Undermining of Weimar DemocracyChapter Five: Beyond Bismarck: The Iron Chancellor in the Third Reich, 1930-1945 * 'Solving' the Crisis of Leadership: Bismarck in the Last Years of Weimar * From Bismarck to Hitler: The Iron Chancellor in the Wake of the Nazi Seizure of Power * In Hitler's Shadow: The Decline of Bismarck in the Third Reich Conclusion * From Politics to History: The Decline of Bismarck in German Political Culture after the Second World War * Analyzing the Shadow: The Role of the Iron Chancellor in the Crisis of German Leadership and the Transformation of the German Right