Rethinking the Radical Right in Germany and Britain before 1914

Abstract

In recent years historians have expended considerable time and effort debating the existence of circumstances indigenous to Wilhelmine Germany which might explain the reshaping of the German right before 1914. The debate has often centred upon Wilhelmine Germany's Nationale Verbdnde (the patriotic societies), and there is general agreement that understanding their role is fundamental to any broader view of the Wilhelmine era's place in German history. But there the agreement ends. One view treats the various organizations as having been manipulated by entrenched elites in defence of the status quo.1 A differing interpretation stresses pressure from below, the political maturation of an ideologically motivated petty bourgeoisie which strove to use the associations to mobilize opinion, if necessary, against the government rather than on its behalf.2 Thus, in contrast to the first argument's stress on stabilization through manipulation, this view emphasizes the disruptive impact of the Verbande, through their radicalization of political discourse and expansion of the popular base of right-wing politics generally. Although some historians may wonder whether this debate has succeeded in clarifying the nature of the German radical right, the controversy has been beneficial because it has forced historians to rethink a number of important questions, including the perennial problem of the Deutscher Sonderweg, namely of whether Germany forged its own peculiarly deviant path to modernity. Thus far it has been difficult to decide just how to fit the Verbdnde into this broader scheme whether they exemplify a fervent nationalism coupled with a disdain of the masses which characterized Germany's political elites from Bismarck to Hitler, or if perhaps they represented a popularlybased challenge to that same manipulative style. As important as these issues are, however, much of the groundwork preparatory to a convincing answer remains to be laid, and it is to that end that this article is devoted.