“Two souls dwell in the German nation”: British historians, the two Germanies, and the two World Wars

Thesis

This thesis examines how British historians conceptualized Germany before, during, and after the Great War. Before 1914, British historians tended to view Germany favourably and often used their professional writing to encourage amiable relations between the two countries. Their ideas centred on a two Germanies thesis—an abstract framework that enabled British admiration for German cultural and intellectual achievements to exist in tension with fears about Prussianism. This literature informed semi-official views on Germany, which were anti-Prussian in orientation rather than anti-German. Even in wartime, some historians retained an unbroken admiration for German culture, education, and history. This conviction allowed them to maintain an overidealized view of Germany and, afterwards, to embrace and disseminate a more radical and revisionist interpretation of the war and its causes. The belief that all the Great Powers shared responsibility for the Great War appealed those seeking to revise the settlement, since this cast doubt on the claim that Germany alone was at fault in 1914—the moral foundation of the Treaty of Versailles.

This dissertation shows how the two Germanies thesis informed both academic and elite discourse in Britain in the era of the two world wars. It reveals that earlier literature on Germany directly inspired revisionist scholarship in the interwar era—and that this scholarship influenced debates and decisions in both Parliament and the Foreign Office. The historians discussed herein had an audience with the decision-makers and affected their mentalities and debates either directly or indirectly, as educators and advocates. These historians were not only viewed as academics and intellectuals, but also as advisers and emissaries. British historians certainly assumed diverse roles and used their social networks and connections to advance their revisionist views. Gradually, their discoveries provided the decision-makers with the intellectual and moral rationale for pursuing a moderate and conciliatory foreign policy towards the Weimar Republic and, later, Nazi Germany.

Authors: Wainwright, SG

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-qmar5g0nr
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: academic communities; World War One; transnationalism; historiography; appeasement; Anglo-German relations; revisionism; historians; prosopography
• Subjects: International relations and culture; History, Modern; Historiography