On Certain Aspects of the Studies of the Greater German Idea of 1848–1866

Abstract

A new interest in the era of the emergence of the German Empire is growing in Russian historiography. In this context, it is once again relevant to look at alternatives to the victorious Lesser German path of 1848–1866, above all at the Greater German Idea. The author attempts to outline some aspects of this historical phenomenon in the works of Russian and German scholars of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, analysing the period of 1848–1866 from a predominantly Lesser German perspective: the history of Prussia, its conflict with Austria and the politics of Otto von Bismarck came to the fore. Highlighting the ambiguity of the term “Greater German” as well as the dual discrediting of the idea of the Greater German idea (first following Austria's defeat in the nineteenth century and then under the influence of the aggressive ideology of the Third Reich in the twentieth century), the author offers a new approach to the established understanding of the Greater German Path in Russian historical scholarship. In particular, he suggests that attention should be paid to the new wave of interest in the federalist aspect of the Greater German idea, which manifested itself in the policies of the “Third Germany” states, as well as to the legitimate and evolutionary nature of the Greater German path, which envisaged German unification as a progressive development of the German Confederation instead of the Bismarckian unification by “iron and blood”. By looking directly at the German research experience, the author aims to demonstrate the significance of the 1848–1866 Greater German Idea for modern scholarship as a foundation for the study of national and supranational federal state models.