"The failure of Liberalism" in Germany and its responsibility for the rise of Nazism has been widely discussed among scholars inside and outside Germany. This author argues that German liberalism failed because of the irreconcilable conflict between two competing visions of German identity. In following the German liberal parties from the Empire through the Third Reich Kurlander illustrates convincingly how an exclusionary racist Weltanschauung, conditioned by profound transformations in German political culture at large, gradually displaced the liberal-universalist conception of a democratic Rechtsstaat. Although there were some notable exceptions, this widespread obsession with racial community Volksgemeinschaft caused the liberal parties to succumb to ideological lassitude and self-contradiction, paving the way for National Socialism.

Book Information
ISBN 9781845450694
Author Eric Kurlander
Format Hardback
Page Count 400
Imprint Berghahn Books
Publisher Berghahn Books
Weight(grams) 662g