Longing for the Sonderweg
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4911905 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Enzo Traverso (0000-0001-7557-8235, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 205-215 |
| Publication date | 2023-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | New German Critique (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0094-033X • E-ISSN: 1558-1462 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/0094033x-10708461 |
| OpenAlex | W4388484524 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 11 |
The highly controversial idea of Sonderweg, a special path to modernity, is frequently invoked to depict the history of Germany in the twentieth century. Initially claimed by nationalists as an exceptionalism proudly opposed to the development of both France and the United Kingdom, the German Sonderweg became a stigma after 1945, the mark of the wrong turn that had led to National Socialism. Beyond these debates, the thought remains that, under the shadow of this supposedly unique destiny, Germany was a volcano of aesthetic and intellectual creativity. This article analyzes the mental and cultural inversion produced by the end of the Cold War and the birth of a new "Berlin Republic." From 1990 on, German politics and society tenaciously pursued a project of "normalcy" that consolidated both its democracy and its economy by establishing Berlin leadership in Europe. But this spectacular accomplishment also meant intellectual dryness and a memorial "wisdom" combined with a conservative "constitutional patriotism." This inverted Faustian fate-conformist and mediocre prosperity instead of evil genius-is the transitory aftermath of a century of fire and blood
Art history · Democracy · Economic history · Exceptionalism · Genius · German · Manifest destiny · Modernity · Nazism · Political science · Politics · Central European national history · European history and politics · French Historical and Cultural Studies · History · Law
Interpreting the French Revolution
Hitler's willing executioners
Postwar
Nationalsozialistische Großraumordnung
The Peculiarities of German History
The Course of German History
"Historikerstreit." Die Dokumentation der Kontroverse um die Einzigartigkeit der nationalsozialistischen Judenvernichtung
The Concept of "Normality" in German Foreign Policy since Unification
In the Tracks of Historical Materialism
Asymmetrical Historical Comparison
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |