Revolutions in Modern German History

Andrew G. Bonnell’s innovative survey examines the history of revolution in modern Germany by focusing on key revolutionary developments in the German states. There is coverage of Germany and the French Revolution, the 1848 revolutions, the Industrial Revolution, the 1918-19 revolution, the Nazi ‘revolution’ of 1933, the revolution from above in Eastern Germany 1945-49, and the revolution in East Germany in 1989-90. Revolutions in Modern German History sheds new light on the subject by stressing the continuity of conflicts between revolution and counter-revolution in German history, thereby restoring a sense of the dramatic social conflicts that punctuated the history of the country. It also reveals the significance of wider European and transnational developments of revolutionary and counter-revolutionary movements and events. Bonnell even reconstructs a sense of the participants’ changing ‘horizon of expectations’ during these events by looking in-depth at the lives of men and women who lived and experienced these tumultuous times.

Andrew G. Bonnell is Professor of History at the University of Queensland, Australia. His books include Shylock in Germany: Antisemitism and the German Theatre from the Enlightenment to the Nazis (2008), Red Banners, Books and Beer Mugs. The Mental World of German Social Democrats, 1863-1914 (2021) and Robert Michels, Socialism, and Modernity (2023). He has also published numerous journal articles and book chapters, mainly on modern German history. He is a former editor of the Australian Journal of Politics and History, and is on the editorial advisory board of German History and European History Quarterly.

Daniel Siemens is Professor of European History at Newcastle University, UK. He is the author of The Making of a Nazi Hero (2013) and Metropole und Verbrechen (2007).

Jennifer V. Evans is Professor of History at Carleton University, Canada. She is the author of Life among the Ruins: Cityscape and Sexuality in Cold War Berlin (2011).

Matthew P. Fitzpatrick is Professor in International History at Flinders University, Australia. He is the author of Purging the Empire: Mass Expulsions in Germany 1871-1914 (2015) and Liberal Imperialism in Germany: Expansionism and Nationalism, 1848-1884 (2008).