Peassant

Although i wasnt in class this week i really enjoyed reading blackbourns "Populists and Patricians." Throughout the course of the class I have thought that the peassant were the underdogs in german society and werent really apart of the political side of society but after reading this article I have come to see that this wasnt actually the case. The fact that the pesant groups had some involvement in the political parties showed me that they to knew about the problems facing Germany and the uprise that was occuring. The fact that the liberals were actutally taking into consideration the peasants political ideas was amazing to me. Little to my belief, the peasants had actually helped the historical ideology in Germany. Very interesting article

Beyond Good and Evil? The German Empire 1871 and Modern Germany Historiography

This article by far has been the most interesting and enlightening than anything we have read thus far. The many theories and contrasting opinions lead to a very insightful look at Germany in 1871. First the article starts off the Wehler and Kocka and their views of the Empire which follow that of Kehr and Rosenberg. They discuss the imbalance between the economy and politics and how there needs to be a modern Germany but without democracy or Parliament. They describe the political aspects of Germany under Bismark as a bonapartist half democracy, which would later be changed to a authoritian polygracy of competing centers of power after Bismark resigns. They contribute the weakness of the empire to the weak liberals. Next come Hillgruber and Hiderbrand Strumer who are interested totally in the geographics and how it has affected Germany both negatively and positively. However according to them Bismark has been a good savior, he has made the best decisions possible with what he had. He has kept Germany together all because he understands the geopolitics. The liberals however did not understand geopolitics and therefore needed to be oppressed. Then you have Bielfeld who speaks about the problem is with the modern economy and how it is still an aristorcratic feudal political system. And again the liberals are failures and weak because they make a poor choice with the aristocracy. And they also see Bismark not as a savior but rather as an evil bonapartist who caused liberal failure. So with those being the Marxist theories we next come to the Neo Marxist ideas. The neo marxist say that political modernization did not occur in the Empire because Germany had not undergone its liberal political revolution and that the empire had capitulated politically to a feudal aristocracy. They also make clear that whoever assumes that aristocracy is feudal and that bourgeoisie is liberal are completely wrong. According to the neo's this has nothing to do with the historical reality. The article also talks about Mommsen neglected decisions and how the rise of mass politics led to destabilization. And also how the liberals had no mass appeal. And finally ritter and Nipperady are discussed. The article overall helped me understand a little more about Germany. It gave me some background information and I really enjoyed and understood it.

Karen Hausen Article

This past week I found Karen Hausen article on the sewing machine was the most interesting. The invention of the sewing machine and the impact it had on Germany's industrial and the different social classes was very interesting to me. The difference in the social classes and how the invention of the sewing machine may have changed the womens roles at home was particulary interesting. Since lower classs women now had a chance to make money at home while also caring for the children and the house was a good advantage for them and allowed them to maybe step up into the social class. Whereas the middle class women were worried because now the lower class women and families were producing basically the same thing they were and no one could tell who was who in society. They were scared that they may fall behind and drop down into the lower class. The middle class women were upset at the fact that no one could tell the different between the classes in society because all the women were making their own clothes and no one even knew they were doing it. She also points out that the women were now burdened with not only caring for the children and housework but now that their husbands knew that they could sew at home and save money theyr were expected to do all the work. So this in the end lead to many of the children learning how to sew and even help with daily housework. And the middle class women werent really saving anytime by sewing at home because they were sewing for themselves. And the major fear was that since the value of sewing was going down because everyone was doing it, it was really hard to get ahead and people were afraid that their social status was in jeporady.