Hans-Ulrich Wehler

Hans-Ulrich Wehler (September 11, 1931-) is an well-known left-wing German historian. He was born in Freudenberg and was educated at the universities of Cologne and Bonn and at the Ohio University between 1952-1958. He married Renate Pfitsch in 1958, by whom he has two children. Wehler taught at the University of Cologne (1968-70), at the Free University of Berlin (1970-71) and at Bielefeld University (1971-96).

Related Topics:
September 11 - 1931 - Left-wing - Freudenberg - Cologne - Bonn - Ohio University - 1958 - Free University of Berlin - Bielefeld University

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Wehler is one of most famous members of the so-called Bielefeld school, a group of left-wing historians who used the methods of the social sciences to analyze history. Wehler's speciality is the Second Reich. He was one of the more famous proponents of the Sonderweg (Special Path) thesis that argues Germany in the 19th century had only an partial modernization. The economic sphere was modernized and the social sphere partially modernized. Politically, though, the unifed Germany retained a set of values that were aristocratic and feudal, anti-democratic and pre-modern. In Wehler's view, it was the efforts of the reactionary German elite to retain power that led to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the failure of the Weimar Republic and the coming of the Third Reich.

Related Topics:
Second Reich - Germany - First World War - 1914 - Weimar Republic - Third Reich

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Wehler has argued that the aggressive foreign policies of the German Empire, especially under Kaiser Wilhelm II, were largely part of an effort on the part of the government to distract German people from the lack of democracy in their country. This Primat der Innenpolitik ("primacy of domestic politics") argument to explain foreign policy puts Wehler against the traditional Primat der Aussenpolitik ("primacy of foreign politics") thesis championed by historians such as Gerhard Ritter, Klaus Hildebrand and Andreas Hillgruber.

Related Topics:
German Empire - Wilhelm II - Democracy - Gerhard Ritter - Klaus Hildebrand - Andreas Hillgruber

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Wehler has often criticized traditional German historiography with its emphasis on political events, the role of the individual in history and history as an art as unacceptably conservative and incapable of properly explaining the past. Wehler sees history as an social science, and contends social developments and trends are frequently more important then political events. In Wehler's view, Germany between 1871-1945 was dominated by a social structure which retarded modernization in some areas while allowing it in other areas. For Wehler, Germany's defeat in 1945 is what finally smashed the pre-modern social structure and let Germany become a normal Western country.

Related Topics:
1871 - 1945

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Wehler is an leading critic of what he sees as efforts on the part of conservative historians to whitewash the German past. Wehler played an important part in the Historikerstreit (historians' dispute) of the 1980s. This debate opened with Ernst Nolte's claims that Stalinism was a greater horror than Nazism. On the other side, Wehler and the philosopher Jürgen Habermas presented a case for seeing the crimes of the Third Reich as uniquely evil in the annals of history.

Related Topics:
Historikerstreit - Ernst Nolte - Stalinism - Jürgen Habermas - Third Reich

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~