German History in Context accepts proposals for monographs and edited collections on all aspects of modern German history. We especially encourage submissions on any aspect of post-1945 cultural, political, and social history. Studies on the Third Reich, the Weimar Republic, and Imperial Germany are also welcomed. Of particular interest to the series editors are studies that explore their given historical topic in a wider perspective, for instance by comparing cultural developments in East and West Germany; by seeking to understand developments in Germany in a transnational or global context; or by analyzing the degree to which events in Germany are shaped by the legacy of earlier eras.
Series Editor
Bill Niven
Professor in Contemporary German History
Nottingham Trent University
Editorial Board
Stefan Berger
Professor of History
Rühr University Bochum
Atina Grossman
Professor of History and Women’s & Gender Studies
Cooper Union
Andrew I. Port
Associate Professor of History
Wayne State University
The series editors invite inquiries, including book proposals and manuscripts.
Now available in the series…
Kurt Eisner
A Modern Life
At the end of the First World War, German Jewish journalist, theater critic, and socialist activist Kurt Eisner (1867-1919) led a nonviolent revolution that deposed the Bavarian monarchy and established a republic. As Germany spiraled into civil war, Eisner fought as head of state to preserve calm, implemented a peaceful transition to democracy, and reforged international relations. In February 1919 he was shot by a protofascist aristocrat, plunging Bavaria into political chaos. At the centenary of the seminal Bavarian Revolution and Republic of 1918/19, this is the frst comprehensive biography of Eisner written for an English-language audience.
Revisiting the “Nazi Occult”
Histories, Realities, Legacies
Scholars have debated the role of the occult in Nazism since it first appeared on the German political landscape in the 1920s. After 1945, a consensus held that occultism had directly facilitated Nazism’s rise. More recently, scholars have denied the occult a role in shaping Nazism, emphasizing the regime’s hostility to esoteric religion and alternative forms of knowledge. Bringing together cutting-edge scholarship, this volume calls for a fundamental reappraisal of these positions. Emphasizing both continuities and disjunctures, it promises to re-energize debate on Nazism’s occult roots and legacies, and with it our understanding of German cultural and intellectual history over the past century
Writing in Red
The East German Writers Union and the Role of Literary Intellectuals
In the German Democratic Republic words and ideas mattered, both for legitimizing and criticizing the regime. No wonder, then, that the ruling SED party created a Writers Union to mould what writers publicly wrote and said, and to create a socialist and antifascist culture. But it was also supposed to enable its members to have a say in the direction of socialism. Many writers demanded that it pursue this second function, bringing it into conflict with the SED. This book explores how the union became a site for the contestation of writers’ roles in GDR society with consequences well beyond the literary community.
Edgar Julius Jung, Right-Wing Enemy of the Nazis
A Political Biography
By his death in 1934, Edgar Julius Jung was well known as an ideologue of the so-called Conservative Revolution and as a right-wing opponent of the Nazis. Considered by Goebbels to be one of the regime’s worst enemies, Jung was assassinated by them in June 1934. Jung was long neglected by historians after the war due to his strongly antidemocratic stance: there have been several studies on his political thought, but this is the frst biography in German or English. Roshan Magub’s book therefore flls a serious gap in German historical literature.
The Great Vogue for the Guitar in Western Europe, 1800-1840