Introduction

Wilhelmine Germany offers a perplexing study in contradictions. The beginning of this era is usually dated to the dismissal of Otto von Bismarck in 1890, when the new Kaiser, Wilhelm II, determined to play a more direct role in steering Germany. The beginning of the end came with the catastrophe of the First World War in 1914 and Wilhelmine Germany ultimately ended with the abdication of the Kaiser after the loss of the war in 1918. Historical interpretations of this period still often remain entangled in strident debates over Germany's responsibility for the outbreak of the war itself—with, ultimately, the postwar rise of Nazism in view. Yet intense historical debates about continuity and rupture, about tradition and modernity, persist even in spheres far from international politics, driven by incongruities and outright contradictions seen in Wilhelmine society.

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Society, Economy, and Culture

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The First World War

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Politics, International Relations, and Imperial Expansion

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