German Democratic Research Articles

History in the Service of Politics: A Reassessment of G. G. Gervinus

The year 1971 marks the centenary of the death of Georg Gottfried Gervinus. This fact might seem to warrant attention only of antiquarians, since Gervinus appears in most textbooks (if at all) as a professor dismissed from the University of Göttingen for protesting the revocation of the Hanoverian constitution in 1837. But two facts about his reputation inspire greater attention. First, Gervinus was buried with unseemly haste by a host of unflattering necrologists, from Ranke on down, in the very year of the founding of the German Empire. Second, he has again achieved some attention recently as one of the few German democrats among the nineteenth-century professorate, thanks to publications in both East and West Germany. As an opponent of the “reactionary class compromise which underlay the unification of the Reich from above,” he has become an object of veneration in East Germany. In the west, the publication of his Introduction to the History of the Nineteenth Century and the subsequent Treason Trial against Gervinus has focused attention on the fate of those who sanctioned democratic revolution in the reactionary 1850's.3 In both cases, in obscurity and tendentious revival, Gervinus has been blamed or praised more for what he stood for than for what he was.

German Democratic Republic-Poland-U.S.S.R. Declaration on the Continental Shelf of the Baltic Sea

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American Military Government and the Education of a New German Leadership

American policy plans and directives for the postwar occupation of Germany consistently envisioned a peaceful, democratic German society.' Nevertheless, neither the two major policy directives to the Military Governor nor the latter's interpretation of them shows how Americans planned to assist German democratic elements in recruiting and maintaining a new democratic leadership. Joint Chiefs of Staff directive 1067, issued in April 1945, discouraged fraternization with German officials as well as with the general population. It made only an innocuous reference to the eventual reconstruction of German political life on a democratic basis. JCS directive 1779, issued in July 1947, though more specific on democratic political reconstruction, envisioned a tranquil political arena marked by parties as voluntary associations, equal in privilege, competing regularly for the electorate's preferment. It directed the Military Governor not to discriminate between authorized parties and to seek uniform treatment for all parties.2 General Lucius D. Clay's interpretation of his mandate,

Anton Erkelenz and Erich Koch‐Weser: A portrait of two German democrats

Anton Erkelenz and Erich Koch‐Weser: A portrait of two German democrats

Germany and the Problems of Our Time

lrH tHEN the programme of my visit in London was being drawn up, i/i\/ I was particularly glad to be afforded an opportunity of speakT T ing at Chatham House. I know perfectly well that, in our confused and dangerous times, every country has her own problems and is fully occupied with them. Nevertheless, I would like to take advantage of this opportunity of speaking to you, to describe Germany's situation and the policy of the Federal Government, not in the changing light of the problems which crop up from day to day, but in connexion with the large-scale problems of our time. Germany's position in the centre of Europe, between East and West, causes German developments to be of great significance for developments in the whole of Europe and therefore in the whole world. Our Western culture is based upon the liberty of the individual and the rule of law in human society. In the course of centuries, the struggle for the realization of these objectives has followed different lines among the various nations of the Occident. Yet, at the moment, the entire Western Comity of Nations regards the solution of two tasks as essential for the preservation of our culture. These problems are, firstly, the effective realization of democratic principles within a constitutional order, and secondly, the creation of international associations for the preservation of peace and justice. In Great Britain democracy is the product of an uninterrupted historical process; it is the uncontested political and social system. In the course of German history, too, promising starts had been made in this direction, particularly in the cities. But the gradual dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, caused by the rise of territorial States and their desire for power, prevented the development and progress of democratic ideas and institutions. It was only after the beginning of the nineteenth century that a new political consciousness stirred in Germany. It was natural that the desire for a liberal system of government should have been associated with the desire for national unity. In I848, through the will of the people, the meeting of the first democratic German Parliament took place, but this Parliament did not succeed in creating a democratic German Reich. This failure had disastrous consequences for the German people. After the foundation of the Reich of I87I, a nationalism founded upon might gradually replaced the ethical idea of national freedom. Exploitation of 1 German official translation. I56

The German Press After V-Day

How can the German press be made democratic after V-Day? Mere freedom and the refounding of democratic German papers, William Sollmann suggests, are not enough. The democratic papers must be transformed from their traditional dull doctrinairism so that they may win a large popular audience for democratic i(leas. Mr. Sollmann's recommendations are based on extensive political and journalistic experience in pre-Hitler Germany. Before coming to the United States, he served in the Reichstag for eight terms, edited the Rheinische Zeitung Cologne, a chain of Rhineland newspapers, and directed a large German news agency.