Living the German Revolution 1918/19. Expectations, Experiences, Responses

Laufende Forschung - Dr. Kim Wünschmann

Living the German Revolution 1918/19. Expectations, Experiences, Responses

The German Revolution of 1918/19 marks a historical turning point at which, following the catastrophe of the Great War, soldiers and civilians rose up to overthrow the German Empire’s political and military leadership. Its centenary offered a timely occasion to re-evaluate its contested history and memory by focussing on the socio-cultural realm of expectations, experiences and responses. The German Revolution was a key event in the era of seismic transnational upheaval which shook Europe between 1916 and 1923. An advanced industrial economy with the most powerful organised labour movement in the world, Germany was practically, strategically and symbolically critical to competing visions of the future in this new age of revolution.

In October 2018, a conference, organized by Christopher Dillon (London), Christina von Hodenberg (London), Steven Schouten (Amsterdam) and Kim Wünschmann (Munich) took place at the German Historical Institute London. Sponsored by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the conference re-evaluated the history of the German Revolution by shifting attention to the practices and agency of protagonists and stakeholders also beyond the political elites. It explored the subjective dimension of the events and investigated the diverse expectations, experiences and responses of Germans old and young, female and male, rural and urban, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish.

To view the conference programme click here.

A conference report by Marius S. Ostrowski has been published in
German Historical Institute Bulletin, Vo. 41 (2019), No. 1.

The conference volume is in preparation.