City and Nation in Germany from the Middle Ages to the Present

Abstract

Germany's reunification process beginning in 1989 raised the question of its national traditions. There was and is no easy answer. In Germany, nowadays, there is a broad agreement on the negative assets of German history especially of the 19th and 20th centuries. Against this negative balance there is one exception in the tradition of the German cities and the German municipal self-government. Cities had their origins in the Middle Ages in Germany and Europe as corporate institutions. Within the medieval cities are the origins of a civil society in Germany. Even the movement that led to the breakdown of the “DDR” and the reinvigoration of civil society had its origins in the cities, and it began with a protest against the manipulation of the communal elections. This article delivers a critical account of ten centuries of German urban history within the framework of national history.