German Home Towns is a social biography of the hometown Bürger from the end of the seventeenth to the beginning of the twentieth centuries. After his opening chapters on the political, social, and economic basis of town life, Mack Walker traces a painful process of decline that, while occasionally slowed or diverted, leads inexorably toward death and, in the twentieth century, transfiguration. Along the way, he addresses such topics as local government, corporate economies, and co...

As the most learned and eminent public lawyer in Germany, a busy administrator, and a prolific writer, Moser (1701-85) lived and breathed the political order. His correspondence, memoranda, and manuscript autobiography reflect the intricate day-to-day operations of the empire, and his fascinating life is a microcosm of the life and style of the empire itself. The biography provided a comprehensive picture of the empire between the Thirty Years War and the revolutionary era.Original...

The riveting story of the Germania and its incarnations and exploitations through the ages.The pope wanted it, Montesquieu used it, and the Nazis pilfered an Italian noble's villa to get it: the Germania, by the Roman historian Tacitus, took on a life of its own as both an object and an ideology. When Tacitus wrote a not-very-flattering little book about the ancient Germans in 98 CE, at the height of the Roman Empire, he could not have foreseen that the Nazis would extol it as "a b...

Leopold von Ranke, who was born in 1795, is considered to be one of the founders of the modern practice of writing history. This collection of his writings, edited and introduced by Georg G. Iggers, was first published in 1973 and remains the leading collection of Ranke’s writings in the English language.Now updated with the needs of current students in mind, this edition includes previously untranslated materials by the young Ranke, focusing particularly on the relationship betwee...

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

How did Germany’s Christians respond to Nazism? In Twisted Cross, Doris Bergen addresses one important element of this response by focusing on the 600,000 self-described 'German Christians,' who sought to expunge all Jewish elements from the Christian church. In a process that became more daring as Nazi plans for genocide unfolded, this group of Protestant lay people and clergy rejected the Old Testament, ousted people defined as non-Aryans from their congregations, denied the Jew...

Historical Dictionary of German Literature to 1945 covers a wide swath of literary analysis and achievement, from Old High German lays and ecclesiastical encomia to Middle High German epics, sagas, and love lyrics. While extensive in its chronological dimension, the Historical Dictionary of German Literature to 1945 is equally comprehensive in the geographical and genre areas it covers.The history of this period in German literature is told through a detailed chro...

Utilizing evidence from numerous imperial cities, this book offers an explanation for the spread and survival of urban reform during the sixteenth century. By analyzing the operation of regional political constellations, it reveals a common process of negotiation that shaped the Reformation in the Holy Roman Empire. It reevaluates traditional models of reform that leave unexplored the religious implications of flexible systems of communication and support among cities. Such networks influe...

A comparative analysis of early witch trials in Lucerne, Nuremberg and Basel, within the context of criminal justice and social control. The case of Lucerne presents a fascinating interplay between witch trials and a transformation in the city's criminal procedure on one hand, and between witchcraft fears and social control on the other.

Enlightened Nationalism provides the first synthesis in English of Prussian political culture from the Napoleonic era to the Revolution of 1848. Matthew Levinger challenges the conventional notion that Prussia lagged behind Western Europe in its political development, demonstrating that Prussian leaders embraced a distinctive program of political modernization in response to their country's defeat by Napoleon in 1806-1807. Building on the eighteenth-century tradition of enlightene...

Medieval German Literature provides a comprehensive survey of this Germanic body of work from the eighth century through the early fifteenth century. The authors treat the large body of late-medieval lyric poetry in detail for the first time.