The Great Transformation: German Economy and Society, 1850–1914

Abstract

A study of the German economy and German society form the crux of this article. It shows how both industrialization and globalization transformed the German economy in the second half of the ‘long’ nineteenth century and how they affected German society. First, the long-term developments of the German economy between 1850 and 1914 are described based on quantitative indicators. There are only two points on which the industrialization experts seem to agree. First, the industrialization of the world started in England after the middle of the eighteenth century. In Germany, industrialization gained momentum in the late 1840s. Secondly, industrialization has to be considered not as a national, but as a regional phenomenon. A rapid globalization process in the nineteenth century was brought to a halt by the globalization backlash, which happened during the era of the two World Wars and the Great Depression. This article carefully explains the ushering of the Great Depression, and its effect on German economy.