Introduction
This LibGuide provides lists of resources about the historiographic debate concerning suggested continuities between Germany’s colonial empire and the Third Reich. It introduces relevant topics and concepts before linking to resources related to this discourse available through Indiana University Bloomington Libraries. Lastly, it closes with lists of historical resources from the two periods of focus. Through this guide, readers will hopefully form a better understanding of the debate about proposed connections between the German colonial empire and the Third Reich, and about the importance and process of understanding historiographic debate in general.
Historiography, according to its definition in the Cambridge Dictionary, is “the study of history and how it is written.” Therefore, historiographic debate is argumentation between those who study and write about history. This discourse is significant to the historical field because it has the power to shape or reshape views about subject matters, dependent on how readers respond to the given perspectives. Additionally, these debates oftentimes reveal important dividing lines among historians, who express different mentalities in the process of making their opposing arguments.
The debate of focus here centers on two periods of German history: that of the German Empire, which lasted from 1871 to 1918, and of the Third Reich, which lasted from 1933 to 1945. During the first period, Germany acquired an overseas colonial empire that included territories in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. Beginning in the 2000s, a newly popularized historiographic perspective argued connections between this colonialism and the Third Reich. These historians contend that Germany's colonial past was a significant influence on aspects of Nazism such as laws that enforced racial hierarchy and societal attitudes that deemed others to be inferior and un-German. Another major point of proposed connection is between the Holocaust and the genocide of Herero and Nama peoples in colonial Namibia. Many other historians, however, argue against this position. They advance the viewpoint that there is little causational relationship between the German Empire and the Third Reich, and that those who support the pro-continuity perspective provide insufficient evidence in support of their claims.
Many resources in this LibGuide are secondary sources: documents written about an earlier period of history. The final section lists primary sources, documents written during the period of historical study, so that you can form your own conclusions based on firsthand evidence once you have a thorough understanding of the debate.
The guide is divided into four sections:
- Home: introduction and preliminary resources, including background resources, historiographies, and works with perspectives from both sides of the discourse
- Pro-continuity resources: resources that argue in favor of the existence of continuities between German colonialism and the Third Reich
- Anti-continuity resources: resources that argue against the existence of continuities between German colonialism and the Third Reich
- Primary sources and databases: resources for learning about related historical topics from then-contemporary writings
Background Resources
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Imperial Germany 1871-1918
by
A comprehensive history of German society in this period, providing a broad survey of its development. The volume is thematically organized and designed to give easy access to the major topics and issues of the Bismarkian and Wilhelmine eras. The statistical appendix contains a wide range of social, economic and political data. Written with the English-speaking student in mind, this book is likely to become a widely used text for this period, incorporating as it does twenty years of further research on the German Empire since the appearance of Hans-Ulrich Wehler's classic work.
ISBN: 1845450116Publication Date: 2005 -
Blood and Iron
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In this vivid fifty-year history of Germany from 1871-1918--which inspired events that forever changed the European continent--here is the story of the Second Reich from its violent beginnings and rise to power to its calamitous defeat in the First World War. Before 1871, Germany was not yet a nation but simply an idea. Its founder, Otto von Bismarck, had a formidable task at hand. How would he bring thirty-nine individual states under the yoke of a single Kaiser? How would he convince proud Prussians, Bavarians, and Rhinelanders to become Germans? Once united, could the young European nation wield enough power to rival the empires of Britain and France--all without destroying itself in the process? In this unique study of five decades that changed the course of modern history, Katja Hoyer tells the story of the German Empire from its violent beginnings to its calamitous defeat in the First World War. This often startling narrative is a dramatic tale of national self-discovery, social upheaval, and realpolitik that ended, as it started, in blood and iron.
ISBN: 9781643138374Publication Date: 2021 -
The Kaiser's Voters
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Although the German Empire of 1871-1918 was basically an authoritarian regime, its national elections were held under a democratic franchise and characterized by vigorous election campaigning and high levels of voter turnout. In The Kaiser's Voters, Jonathan Sperber uses advanced mathematical methods to analyze the thirteen general elections held in pre-1914 Germany. These results are, however, presented in understandable, non-technical language making it suitable for those with no technical background. Refuting a number of long-held propositions about the nature of the electorate in Imperial Germany, he presents a new interpretation of voting behaviour in the formative years of the modern German political system, considers its consequences for German electoral politics in the twentieth century, and compares electoral trends in Germany with those in other European and North American countries in the age of universal suffrage.
ISBN: 0521591384Publication Date: 1997 -
Das Deutsche Kaiserreich 1871-1918
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Description from the publisher Suhrkamp: "Das Deutsche Reich von 1871 wurzelte noch tief in der Welt des 19. Jahrhunderts und öffnete sich zugleich der heraufziehenden Moderne. Es stand zwischen Altem und Neuem, war ein Gebilde »zwischen den Zeiten«. Davon handelt das Buch. Es nimmt einmal in den Blick, wie sich das Kaiserreich über die fast fünfzig Jahre seiner Existenz verändert hat. Das Buch beschreibt zum anderen den Weg Deutschlands in die Moderne mit allen seinen Verzögerungen und Widersprüchen. Schließlich fragt das Buch nach der Wandlungsfähigkeit des monarchischen Obrigkeitsstaates, darüber hinaus aber, allgemeiner, nach den Chancen von Politik in Zeiten rascher Veränderung."
Call Number: DD220 .U45 1995ISBN: 3518115464Publication Date: 1995 -
Germany and the Modern World, 1880-1914
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The German Empire before 1914 had the fastest growing economy in Europe and was the strongest military power in the world. Yet it appeared, from a reading of many contemporaries' accounts, to be lagging behind other nation-states and to be losing the race to divide up the rest of the globe. This book is an ambitious re-assessment of how Wilhelmine Germans conceived of themselves and the German Empire's place in the world in the lead-up to the First World War. Mark Hewitson re-examines the varying forms of national identification, allegiance and politics following the creation and consolidation of a German nation-state in light of contemporary debates about modernity, race, industrialization, colonialism and military power. Despite the new claims being made for the importance of empire to Germany's development, he reveals that the majority of transnational networks and contemporaries' interactions and horizons remained intra-European or transatlantic rather than truly global.
Call Number: DD221 .H556 2018ISBN: 9781107039155Publication Date: 2018
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The German Colonial Empire
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Although Germany's short-lived colonial empire (1884-1918) was neither large nor successful, it is historically significant. The establishment of German colonies and attempts to expand them affected international politics in a period of extreme tension. Smith focuses on the interaction between Germany's colonial empire and German politics and, by extension, on the connection between colonialism and socioeconomic conflict in Germany before World War I. Originally published in 1978. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.
ISBN: 0807813222Publication Date: 1978 -
Namibia under German Rule
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This is the first paperback edition of a book which originally appeared under the title "South-West Africa Under German Rule", and appears with a new introduction by the author. The history of Namibia offers many parallels to developments in other European colonies. The settlers, with a greater or lesser use of force, established themselves in the country and their confrontation with the African population often culminated in rebellion in the area of major settlement; a European settler community would then consolidate itself over the ruins left by military conquest. The pattern was repeated in Namibia during the Nama and Herero wars. Helmut Bley shows how the roots of German totalitarianism stem from the colonial period. He provides a picture of how social insecurity, bureaucracy and rigid economic thinking produced the racialism and the extremism of the last years of German rule. The abuse of the Africans provided the roots of the abuse of the Jews.
Call Number: JV2018 .B64713 1996ISBN: 3894732253Publication Date: 1996 -
German Women for Empire, 1884-1945
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When Germany annexed colonies in Africa and the Pacific beginning in the 1880s, many German women were enthusiastic. At the same time, however, they found themselves excluded from what they saw as a great nationalistic endeavor. In German Women for Empire, 1884-1945 Lora Wildenthal untangles the varied strands of racism, feminism, and nationalism that thread through German women's efforts to participate in this episode of overseas colonization. In confrontation and sometimes cooperation with men over their place in the colonial project, German women launched nationalist and colonialist campaigns for increased settlement and new state policies. Wildenthal analyzes recently accessible Colonial Office archives as well as mission society records, periodicals, women's memoirs, and fiction to show how these women created niches for themselves in the colonies. They emphasized their unique importance for white racial "purity" and the inculcation of German culture in the family. While pressing for career opportunities for themselves, these women also campaigned against interracial marriage and circulated an image of African and Pacific women as sexually promiscuous and inferior. As Wildenthal discusses, the German colonial imaginary persisted even after the German colonial empire was no longer a reality. The women's colonial movement continued into the Nazi era, combining with other movements to help turn the racialist thought of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries into the hierarchical evaluation of German citizens as well as colonial subjects. Students and scholars of women's history, modern German history, colonial politics and culture, postcolonial theory, race/ethnicity, and gender will welcome this groundbreaking study.
Call Number: HQ1623 .W55 2001ISBN: 0822328070Publication Date: 2001 -
German Colonialism Revisited
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German Colonialism Revisited brings together military historians, art historians, literary scholars, cultural theorists, and linguists to address a range of issues surrounding colonized African, Asian, and Oceanic people's creative reactions to and interactions with German colonialism. This scholarship sheds new light on local power dynamics; agency; and economic, cultural, and social networks that preceded and, as some now argue, ultimately structured German colonial rule. Going beyond issues of resistance, these essays present colonialism as a shared event from which both the colonized and the colonizers emerged changed.
ISBN: 9780472029709Publication Date: 2014 -
Branntwein, Bibeln und Bananen : der deutsche Kolonialismus in Afrika : eine Spurensuche [in Hamburg]
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Description from publisher Assoziation A: "Der deutsche Kolonialismus wurde lange weitgehend aus dem öffentlichen Bewusstsein verdrängt. Dabei sind seine Spuren in großer Zahl erhalten – man muss sie nur zu lesen wissen.
Die Autor*innen des Bandes untersuchen den Sklavenhandel und die Ausrottungskriege gegen die Herero und Nama, den Kolonialhandel und seine wichtigsten Produkte, die Rolle der Institutionen, Wissenschaften und Missionen, die Kolonialpläne der Nazis sowie die Nachwirkungen des deutschen Kolonialismus bis heute.
Das Buch verknüpft die kritische Geschichtsschreibung des deutschen Kolonialismus mit einer regionalgeschichtlichen Spurensuche vor Ort sowie erinnerungspolitischen Debatten. Es wurde dadurch stilbildend für ähnliche Untersuchungen in anderen Regionen und markiert einen Meilenstein in der Forschung, der die Debatten um den Postkolonialismus nachhaltig bereichert hat.
Ein Nachwort zur Neuauflage 2011 informiert über Leben und Schaffen des Herausgebers Heiko Möhle."
Call Number: DT34.5 .B73 1999ISBN: 3922611729Publication Date: 1999
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The Third Reich in Power, 1933-1939
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This text documents the radical transformation of Germany under Nazi rule, exploring how virtually every area of life was reordered to comply with the regime's preparations for war, and describes the increasing brutality towards marginalized groups.
Call Number: DD256.5 .E924 2005ISBN: 1594200742Publication Date: 2005 -
The Oxford history of the Third Reich
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"Historians today continue raising questions about the Third Reich, especially because of the unprecedented nature of its crimes, and the military aggression it unleashed across Europe. Much of the inspiration for the catastrophic regime, lasting a mere twelve years, belongs to Adolf Hitler, a virtual non-entity in political circles before 1914. He had been born in 1889 and was not even a German citizen. Moreover, during his largely 'normal' youth in Austria-Hungary, he revealed no signs of his future, and by age 20 he was a drifter with little education and socially withdrawn. He had no passionate ambitions save to become an artist of some kind, a vocation for which he had no formal training. He dabbled in painting, vaguely aspired to become a designer of the sets for the operas he adored, yet on that score, he made no progress whatsoever, and in the autumn of 1909, he hit rock bottom when he landed in a Viennese homeless shelter. In February the next year, he left to take residence in a men's hostel, where he stayed for just over three years, when in May 1913, thanks to receiving a tidy sum of money that was due from his father's inheritance, 'the artist' Adolf Hitler left for Munich, with dreams of becoming an architect. Once more, however, he made few friends, could find no work, and again had to paint postcards to get by"-- Provided by publisher.
ISBN: 9780192886859Publication Date: 2023 -
The rise and fall of the Third Reich; a history of Nazi Germany
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Description from publisher Simon & Schuster: "A modern classic and the definitive study of Adolf Hitler, the rise of Nazi Germany, the Holocaust, and World War II by the foreign correspondent who saw firsthand how the Nazi movement swept Europe. William B. Shirer presents nuanced profiles of major and minor figures as well as exacting details of the political movements, wartime strategy, and atrocities of the Third Reich. This epic work is required reading to understand modern history and how fascist dictators can captivate a population to wicked ends."
Call Number: DD256.5 .S55Publication Date: 1960 -
Life in the Third Reich
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The Third Reich, a regime which instigated the most destructive war in modern history, still evokes fascination and horror today. Yet how were the lives of ordinary German people of the 1930s and 1940s affected by the politics of Hitler and his folllowers? Looking beyond the catalogue of events, this book reveals that daily life involved a complex mixture of bribery and terror, of fear and concessions, of barbarism and appeals to conventional moral values, employed to maintain a grip upon society. The essays presented here by eight leading historians shed fresh light on familiar topics, the role of political violence in Nazi seizure of power, the German view of Hitler himself, and also focus upon less well-known aspects of life in the Third Reich, such as village life, the treatment of 'social outcasts', and the Germans own retrospective view of this period of their history.
ISBN: 0192802100Publication Date: 2001 -
Der Führerstaat : nationalsozialistische Herrschaft 1933 bis 1945
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Description from publisher Institut für Zeitgeschichte: "Die aktualisierte und erweiterte Neuausgabe über die Gesamtgeschichte der deutschen Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus.
In der politischen, sozialen, wirtschaftlichen und kulturellen Entwicklung des Dritten Reiches von der Machtergreifung bis zum Untergang lassen sich drei Phasen ausmachen:
die Formierung des Regimes, die mit dem »Röhm-Putsch« blutig abgeschlossen wurde, die Konsolidierung im Zeichen des sich entfaltenden »Führer-Mythos« und einer zeitweilig durchaus Realität gewordenen »Volksgemeinschaft«, schließlich die tiefgreifende Radikalisierung nach dem Beginn des Zweiten Weltkrieges.
Der Autor hat das Standardwerk zur inneren Geschichte des Dritten Reiches von Grund auf aktualisiert, ergänzt und um ein Kapitel zur Verfolgung der Juden erweitert."
Call Number: DD256.5 .F73357 1987ISBN: 3423045175Publication Date: 1987
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LibGuide: HIST B323 History of the Holocaust LibGuide description: "A research guide to help students in Prof. Mark Roseman's History of the Holocaust (Hist-B323)." The tab "Sources for Researching the Holocaust" in particular will provide relevant resources for finding information about this subject.
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The destruction of the European Jews
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Description from publisher Yale University Press: "The Destruction of the European Jews is widely considered the landmark study of the Holocaust. First published in 1961, Raul Hilberg’s comprehensive account of how Germany annihilated the Jewish community of Europe spurred discussion, galvanized further research, and shaped the entire field of Holocaust studies. This revised and expanded edition of Hilberg’s classic work extends the scope of his study and includes 80,000 words of new material, particularly from recently opened archives in eastern Europe, added over a lifetime of research. It is the work of a scholar who has devoted more than fifty years to exploring and analyzing the realities of the Holocaust.
Spanning the twelve-year period of anti-Jewish actions from 1933 to 1945, Hilberg’s study encompasses Germany and all the territories under German rule or influence. Its principal focus is on the large number of perpetrators—civil servants, military personnel, Nazi party functionaries, SS men, and representatives of private enterprises—in the machinery of death."
Publication Date: 1978
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Why?
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Peter Hayes has been teaching Holocaust studies for decades and Why? grows out of the questions he's encountered from his students. Despite the outpouring of books, films, memorials, museums and courses devoted to the subject, a coherent explanation of why such carnage erupted still eludes people. Numerous myths have sprouted, many to console us that things could have gone differently if only some person or entity had acted more bravely or wisely; others cast new blame on favourite or surprising villains or even on historians. Why? dispels many legends and debunks the most prevalent ones, including the claim that the Holocaust never happened. Hayes brings scholarly wisdom to bear on popular views of the history, challenging some of the most prominent interpretations and arguing that the convergence of multiple forces at a particular moment resulted in this catastrophe.
Call Number: D804.3 .H387 2017ISBN: 9780393254365Publication Date: 2017 -
Ordinary Men
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"A remarkable--and singularly chilling--glimpse of human behavior. . .This meticulously researched book...represents a major contribution to the literature of the Holocaust."--Newsweek Christopher R. Browning's shocking account of how a unit of average middle-aged Germans became the cold-blooded murderers of tens of thousands of Jews--now with a new afterword and additional photographs. Ordinary Men is the true story of Reserve Police Battalion 101 of the German Order Police, which was responsible for mass shootings as well as round-ups of Jewish people for deportation to Nazi death camps in Poland in 1942. Browning argues that most of the men of RPB 101 were not fanatical Nazis but, rather, ordinary middle-aged, working-class men who committed these atrocities out of a mixture of motives, including the group dynamics of conformity, deference to authority, role adaptation, and the altering of moral norms to justify their actions. Very quickly three groups emerged within the battalion: a core of eager killers, a plurality who carried out their duties reliably but without initiative, and a small minority who evaded participation in the acts of killing without diminishing the murderous efficiency of the battalion whatsoever. While this book discusses a specific Reserve Unit during WWII, the general argument Browning makes is that most people succumb to the pressures of a group setting and commit actions they would never do of their own volition. Ordinary Men is a powerful, chilling, and important work with themes and arguments that continue to resonate today.
ISBN: 9780062303035Publication Date: 2017 -
Holocaust : die Ursachen, das Geschehen, die Folgen
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Description from the library of Görlitz: "Kompakter Überblick über die Geschichte des Massenmords an den europäischen Juden: Ursachen, Verlauf, Folgen."
Call Number: D804.3 .P64 2000ISBN: 3451048353Publication Date: 2000
