Hans Mommsen

"Those Germans, such as Count Claus von Stauffenberg, who fought the Third Reich from within have been mythologised as heroes in the fight against tyranny, but the truth is far more complex. Resistance to Hitler is a central and much debated topic of the history of Nazism. In this seminal study, the renowned contemporary historian Hans Mommsen reveals the diversity of the political aims held by these 'other Germans'. He analyses the ideologies of the assassination plot of July 20th, 1944, as well as those of the Kreisau Circle and the conservative, socialist, church and military oppositions. These resistance groups all endeavoured to find a viable alternative to Hitler and to achieve a moral renewal of politics and society. Yet many of them rejected democracy and had a sometimes ambivalent attitude toward the persecution of the Jews. Rather than idealising the German resistance to Hitler, Hans Mommsen interprets it as a political movement dependent on the conditions of its time."--BOOK JACKET.

In this definitive analysis of the Weimar Republic, Hans Mommsen surveys the political, social, and economic development of Germany between the end of World War I and the appointment of Adolf Hitler as chancellor in 1933. His assessment of the German experiment with democracy challenges many long-held assumptions about the course and character of German history. Mommsen argues persuasively that the rise of totalitarianism in Germany was not inevitable but was the result of a confluence of specific domestic and international forces. As long as France and Britain exerted pressure on the new Germany after World War I, the radical Right hesitated to overthrow the constitution. But as international scrutiny decreased with the recognition of the legitimacy of the Weimar regime, totalitarian elements were able to gain the upper hand. At the same time, the world economic crisis of the early 1930s, with its social and political ramifications, further destabilized German democracy. This translation of the original German edition (published in 1989) brings the work to an English-speaking audience for the first time. European History

The Volkswagen factory and its workers in the Third Reich.

Als ein Meister des historischen Essays, als streitbarer wie gleichwohl besonnener Homo politicus hat der Historiker Hans Mommsen mit seinen Aufsätzen über drei Jahrzehnte hinweg immer wieder die Diskussion über die nationalsozialistische Herrschaft in Deutschland belebt und in ihren entscheidenden Fragestellungen vorangetrieben. Seine Interventionen als historisch-politischer Schriftsteller haben die großen wissenschaftlichen Kontroversen um den Reichstagsbrand und die Rolle Hitlers, um die «Endlösung» und die Bedeutung des Widerstands nicht nur maßgeblich beeinflußt, sondern auch als politische und ethische Fragestellungen in die Gesellschaft getragen. Zu seinem 60. Geburtstag haben die Herausgeber dieses Bandes erstmals seine für eine Gesamtinterpretation des Nationalsozialismus so wichtig gewordenen Beiträge an einem Ort versammelt.

In this book Hans Mommsen addresses a major phenomenon in European history: the crisis of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazism. Beginning by focusing on the role of the bourgeoisie in late nineteenth–century Germany, he goes on to show how the collapse of expectations that had built up during the First World War led to resentment and revolt in the Weimar period. He shows how, paradoxically, the middle class began the opposition to the Republic they had created. Issues of democracy and totalitarianism are discussed in detail, and throughout this work Mommsen suggests links between the crisis of the 1930s and political practices in contemporary Germany.