Robert Gerwarth

"Originally published in 2016 by Allen Lane, an imprint of Pengin Books, Great Britain"--Title page verso.

Why the First World War Failed to End

The Vanquished

"Reinhard Heydrich is widely recognized as one of the great iconic villains of the twentieth century, an appalling figure even within the context of the Nazi leadership. Chief of the Nazi Criminal Police, the SS Security Service, and the Gestapo, ruthless overlord of Nazi-occupied Bohemia and Moravia, and leading planner of the "Final Solution," Heydrich played a central role in Hitler's Germany. He shouldered a major share of responsibility for some of the worst Nazi atrocities, and up to his assassination in Prague in 1942, he was widely seen as one of the most dangerous men in Nazi Germany. Yet Heydrich has received remarkably modest attention in the extensive literature of the Third Reich. Robert Gerwarth weaves together little-known stories of Heydrich's private life with his deeds as head of the Nazi Reich Security Main Office. Fully exploring Heydrich's progression from a privileged middle-class youth to a rapacious mass murderer, Gerwarth sheds new light on the complexity of Heydrich's adult character, his motivations, the incremental steps that led to unimaginable atrocities, and the consequences of his murderous efforts toward re-creating the entire ethnic makeup of Europe"--

the life of Heydrich

Hitler's hangman

The story of an epochal event in German history, this is also the story of the most important revolution that you might never have heard of.

The German Revolution

November 1918

The Life of Heydrich

Hitler's Hangman

Why the First World War Failed to End, 1917-1923

Vanquished

John Horne

The First World War did not end in November 1918. In Russia and Eastern Europe it finished up to a year earlier, and both there and elsewhere in Europe it triggered conflicts that lasted down to 1923. Paramilitary formations were prominent in this continuation of the war. They had some features of formal military organizations, but were used in opposition to the regular military as an instrument of revolution or as an adjunct or substitute for military forces when these were unable by themselves to put down a revolution (whether class or national). Paramilitary violence thus arose in different contexts. It was an important aspect of the violence unleashed by class revolution in Russia. It structured the counter-revolution in central and Eastern Europe, including Finland and Italy, which reacted against a mythic version of Bolshevik class violence in the name of order and authority. It also shaped the struggles over borders and ethnicity in the new states that replaced the multi-national empires of Russia, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Turkey. It was prominent on all sides in the wars for Irish independence. In many cases, paramilitary violence was charged with political significance and acquired a long-lasting symbolism and influence. War in Peace explores the differences and similarities between these various kinds of paramilitary violence within one volume for the first time. It thereby contributes to our understanding of the difficult transitions from war to peace. It also helps to re-situate the Great War in a longer-term context and to explain its enduring impact.

Paramilitary Violence in Europe After the Great War

War in Peace

An introduction to European history between 1914 and 1945, this text moves beyond the view that it can only be understood in terms of catastrophe, arguing that political stability and regime collapse, social progress and mass poverty, the crisis of European civilization and remarkable cultural achievements, existed alongside each other.

Europe 1914-1945

Twisted Paths

Der Erste Weltkrieg endete nicht 1918, sondern mündete in eine Vielzahl von blutigen Konflikten, die erst 1923 abebbten.

Paramilitärische Gewalt in Europa nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg

Krieg im Frieden

Erez Manela

Empires at War, 1911-1923 offers a new perspective on the history of the Great War. It expands the story of the war both in time and space to include the violent conflicts that preceded and followed the First World War, from the 1911 Italian invasion of Libya to the massive violence that followed the collapse of the Ottoman, Russian, and Austrian empires until 1923. It also presents the war as a global war of empires rather than a a European war between nation-states. This volume tells the story of the millions of imperial subjects called upon to defend their imperial governments' interest, the theatres of war that lay far beyond Europe, and the wartime roles and experiences of innumerable peoples from outside the European continent. Empires at War covers the broad, global mobilizations that saw African solders and Chinese labourers in the trenches of the Western Front, Indian troops in Jerusalem, and the Japanese military occupying Chinese territory. Finally, the volume shows how the war set the stage for the collapse not only of specific empires, but of the imperial world order writ large.

1911-1923

Empires at War

Het Blonde Beest, de Beul, de Slager van Praag: Reinhard Heydrich was een van de gevaarlijkste mannen van het Derde Rijk. Hoofd van de Gestapo, tweede man onder Himmler in de SS, meedogenloos Reichsprotektor in Bohemen en Moravië, en voorzitter van de beruchte Wannseeconferentie, waar werd besloten tot de systematische uitroeiing van alle joden in Europa. Hij paarde een scherpe intelligentie en politieke vaardigheden aan een totale gewetenloosheid. Zijn persoonlijkheid en reputatie waren angstaanjagend. Hij was net zo belangrijk als Göring, Eichmann, Himmler, Goebbels, Hess en Speer die allemaal bang voor hem waren, of liever gezegd voor de gevoelige informatie die hij door zijn geheime netwerk van spionnen had laten verzamelen over hun privélevens. Tegelijkertijd was Heydrich cultureel ontwikkeld, een sportman, begenadigd musicus en toegewijd vader.br\br\ In 1942 werd hij door twee Tsjechische verzetsmensen vermoord in zijn open Mercedes. Als represaille gaf Hitler zijn beruchte bevel tot de liquidatie van het nabijgelegen Lidice en duizenden Tsjechische verzetsmensen en joden.br\br\ Deze eerste serieuze biografie van Heydrich is gebaseerd op nieuwe bronnen en bevat tot nu toe onbekend materiaal over zijn vooraanstaande rol in de Endlösung, en legt de waarheid bloot achter zijn vermeende joodse achtergrond volgens velen de voedingsbodem van zijn antisemitisme en zelfhaat.

leven en dood van Reinhard Heydrich 1904-1942

Hitlers beul

The German Revolution of November 1918 is nowadays largely forgotten outside Germany. It is generally regarded as a failure even by those who have heard of it, a missed opportunity which paved the way for the rise of the Nazis and the catastrophe to come. Robert Gerwarth argues here that to view the German Revolution in this way is a serious misjudgement. Not only did it bring down the authoritarian monarchy of the Hohenzollern, it also brought into being the first ever German democracy in an amazingly bloodless way. Focusing on the dramatic events between the last months of the First World War in 1918 and Hitler's Munich Putsch of 1923, Robert Gerwarth illuminates the fundamental and deep-seated ways in which the November Revolution changed Germany. In doing so, he reminds us that, while it is easy with the benefit of hindsight to write off the 1918 Revolution as a 'failure', this failure was not somehow pre-ordained. In 1918, the fate of the German Revolution remained very much an open book.

Jochen Böhler

This is the first systematic pan-European study of the hundreds of thousands of non-Germans who fought - either voluntarily or under different kinds of pressures - for the Waffen-SS (or auxiliary police formations operating in the occupied East). Building on the findings of regional studies by other scholars - many of them included in this volume - The Waffen-SS aims to arrive at a fuller picture of those non-German citizens (from Eastern as well as Western Europe) who served under the SS flag. Where did the non-Germans in the SS come from (socially, geographically, and culturally)? What motivated them? What do we know about the practicalities of international collaboration in war and genocide, in terms of everyday life, language, and ideological training? Did a common transnational identity emerge as a result of shared ideological convictions or experiences of extreme violence? In order to address these questions (and others), The Waffen-SS adopts an approach that does justice to the complexity of the subject, adding a more nuanced, empirically sound understanding of collaboration in Europe during World War II, while also seeking to push the methodological boundaries of the historiographical genre of perpetrator studies by adopting a transnational approach.

A European History

The Waffen-SS

Warum das Ende des Ersten Weltkriegs Europa keinen Frieden brachte 11. November 1918: Der Waffenstillstand beendet das Sterben auf den Schlachtfeldern des Ersten Weltkriegs. Dennoch kehrt in weite Teile Europas kein Friede ein. Robert Gerwarth macht das Ausmaß der Konflikte deutlich und zeigt, warum das Schicksal der Besiegten der Schlüssel zum Verständnis des 20. Jahrhunderts ist. Denn die Brutalität des Ersten Weltkriegs ist in der kollektiven Erinnerung Europas fest verankert. Fast völlig vergessen ist hingegen das Leid, das die zahlreichen (Bürger-)Kriege, Vertreibungen, Pogrome und gewaltsamen Auseinandersetzungen nach Ende des Ersten Weltkriegs über weite Teile des Kontinents brachten.

Das blutige Erbe des Ersten Weltkriegs

Die Besiegten

die Deutschen und der Eiserne Kanzler

Der Bismarck-Mythos

Few statesmen in history have inspired the imagination of generations of Germans more than the founder of the Kaiserreich, Otto von Bismarck. The archetype of charismatic leadership, the Iron Chancellor maintained his pre-eminent position in the pantheon of Germany's political iconography for much of the twentieth century.Based on a large selection of primary sources, this book provides an insightful analysis of the Bismarck myth's profound impact on Germany's political culture. In particular, it investigates the ways in which that myth was used to undermine parliamentary democracy in Germany after the Great War, paving the way for its replacement by authoritarian rule under an allegedly 'Bismarckian' charismatic leader, Adolf Hitler.As one of the most powerful weapons of nationalist agitation against the Weimar Republic, the Bismarck myth was never contested. The nationalists' ideologically charged interpretation of Bismarck as the father of the German nation-state and model for future political decision-making clashed with rivalling - and thoroughly critical - democratic and communist perceptions of the Iron Chancellor. The quarrel over Bismarck's legacy demonstrates how the clash of ideologies, particularly between 1918and 1933, resulted in a highly political fight for the 'correct' and universal interpretation of the German past.Essential reading for anyone interested in modern German history, this book sheds new light on the Weimar Republic's struggle for survival and the reasons for its failure.

Robert Gerwarth

About

Books

Join the club