Bismarck and the bourgeoisie : a question of power, 1847-1873

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Date
1990Author
Burlingham, Clay
Type
ThesisDegree Level
MastersMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Much of the study in German history since the
appearance of the National Socialist Party has been that of
a negative continuity that reached its pinnacle in Fascism
capturing the state. It is a position which presumes a weak
middle class that abdicated political rule for economic
dominance, and it assumes that Bismarck, by perpetuating an
authoritarian state under monarchical rule, in effect
prepared the way for authority again coming to reside in one
man on January 30, 1933. The focus of my thesis is to
elucidate Bismarck's relation to the hidden side of German
Unification [1847-1871] -- the monied side -- which was much
more powerful than often portrayed, much more diffuse in its
influence and much more appreciated, admired and understood
by Otto von Bismarck who did not rule in defiance of it.
Money, in the history of German Unification, has not lost
its sordid almost occult characteristics, thus continuing to
remain largely unexplored even today, by historians cautious
to challenge the presupposition that Bismarck's greatness
could ever have admitted more than a fleeting disdain for
economics. While money, on the one hand, built railroads,
factories and financed wars, on the other, it remained
tainted, bringing shame with its power and promising only to
buy one out of its curse but not provide legitimization on
its own merit. A thesis of this nature intends to provide a
fuller picture of a very profound individual.