Wagner, Jonathan F.
Germany's 19th Century Cassandra

The Liberal Federalist Georg Gottfried Gervinus.

This study aims to trace the complicated course of Gervinus' politics from beginning to end, and to show how the early politics, which made him a figure of national influence, changed until he arrived at a position which left him a scorned, isolated figure. The author wants to explain the logic behind a political evolution which ended in an implacable, bitter opposition toward Bismarck's united Germany and to indicate how this opposition led Gervinus not only to predict the military and political destruction of Bismarck's creation but also to adumbrate the way to that recent unification which has happened in such sudden, bedazzling fashion. The political-intellectual life of the literary historian and liberal, G.G. Gervinus (1805-1871) extended from Metternich's restorations to Bismarck's unification. From youth, Gervinus played a leading role in the movement for liberal reform and German unity. After the 1848 Revolution, however, he became an outspoken democrat advocating a German republic. This turn to the left caused him to oppose Bismarck's unification. Despite the scorn of nationalists and liberals, Gervinus denounced the new German Empire for its violation of Germany's historic federalism, its too-heavy reliance on militarism and its anti-democratic institutions. With uncanny prescience, Gervinus predicted war, enmity, and disaster for Germany. Ironically, recent German unification has come about in the shape Gervinus demanded in 1870-71; namely, in a republican, liberal and federalist form. XV,222 Seiten, gebunden (American University Studies. Series IX: History; vol. 175/Peter Lang Verlag 1995) Mängelexemplar/near mint