Ideologie Des Deutschen Nationalstaats Des 19. Jahrhunderts Essay, Research Paper
Kehr?s
collection of essays are united, as the title of the anthology suggests, by the
theme of the primacy of domestic politics in Wilhelmine Germany.? The thesis put forward by Kehr was that
domestic political concerns regarding the conflict of the industrialised
masses, the industrial middle classes and the agrarian East Elbian landowners
were the determining factor in German foreign policy.? Attacking Ranke?s thesis about the unofficial primacy of foreign
policy for Germany, Kehr claims that to see foreign considerations as the
dominant factor in foreign policy is as universally accepted, and yet as wrong
as the sixteenth century claim that ?die Erde sich um die Sonne drehe?
was.? Kehr rejects
the notion of a nation competing in a league of nations and the idea of the
development of armies in arms races that exist purely to compete with
rivals.? Kehr argues that the army is a
weapon of class conflict.? Serving to
protect the aristocracy against the lower echelons, then to protect the
bourgeois against the proletariate, Kehr sees the development of the armed
forces as a reaction of the two camps to agree on a compromise peace.? The Russian grain mountain threatened the
e
the good life itself.? Equally, the
Tsarist regime of Russia appalled the liberal industrialists whilst British
economic muscle frightened them from allying with Great Britain. Kehr sees the
quasi-xeonophobia of the two parties as bringing the two together into a single
militarist camp.? Described by Zilch as
an expression of `the aggressive character of the bourgeoisie, allied with the
Junkers’ `reactionary and dangerous strivings,? a successful foreign policy
could stabilise the internal political and social position of the ruling
classes against the threat of social democracy. Although Paasche and Dewitz,
two National Liberal deputies for rural constituencies rescinded their? affiliation to the Army League, as the
agrarian league that backed them thought a bigger army to be too radical,
indicating a lack of agrarian support for the drive to rearm,? although his examples of Handelstag support
for the movement is persuasive from the other perspective. Attributing
the dual role of Chancellor as foreign secretary and home secretary
significance, as any Chancellor wishing to stay in power needs domestic support
and will therefore sideline foreign considerations in the interests of their
career.