Drive for Power
Jarausch, Konrad H.
Drive for Power Germany's Aims in the First World War, by Fritz Fischer. With introductions by Hajo Holborn and James Joll. W. W. Norton. 652 pp. $15. Reviewed by Konrad H. Jarausch The most...
...Rarely does a heavily footnoted scholarly monograph cause ripples beyond academia, but Fischer's study of German aims in World War I aroused such passions that the argument spilled over into the German popular press, Der Spiegel and Die Zeit...
...Disregarding all private papers, Fischer sees the ruling groups and the government as a monolith, totally devoted to the aim of German territorial expansion...
...Although shorn of one-third of its bulk in English translation and relieved of 800 reference footnotes, it remains laborious reading...
...His style resembles that of a prosecutor building a case from thousands of files...
...Council of Learned Societies...
...Their dean, the late Gerhard Ritter, led the counterattack, but Fischer's magisterial research and massive documentation have withstood much of the criticism...
...In September, 1914, the moderate Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg framed a program of sweeping annexations, including French territorial cessions and an indemnity, domination of Belgium, incorporation of Luxemburg into the Reich, indirect rule of Holland, creation of a central African colonial empire, and, as the supreme aim, the economic unification of Central Europe...
...To him the internecine struggle within the German leadership is a mere misunderstanding...
...His radical Protestant commitment makes for poor social analysis— a failing for which he has been reproached by East German historians...
...A thorn in the flesh of the older generation, Fischer's thesis has become the rallying cry of the young intellectual Left in West Germany...
...Attempting to shatter the traditional German illusion of the defensive character of the 1917 World War, Fischer charges: "Not only did Germany court the risk of a world war growing out of the Austro-Serbian confrontation, but the Imperial government desired, hence prepared, and unleashed it...
...As James Joll points out in his introduction, it should not lead to a new self-righteousness about Allied policy, Germany's Aims in the First World War should rather provoke a general reassessment of the war aims of all the belligerents that needlessly prolonged the bloody struggle...
...Most gravely, Fischer fails to grasp the significance of the "policy of the diagonals" of Imperial Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg...
...Although it is likely to reconfirm existing anti-German prejudices in this country, it is good medicine for Germany itself...
...The blanket indictment of all ruling circles does not allow him to distinguish between the irresponsible clamor of the pan-Germans, the more limited aims of the traditional Prussian conservatives, and the moderate objectives of the liberal imperialists...
...These conceptual defects are compounded by weaknesses in method...
...But Fischer's very virtues are his vices...
...In short, Germany did not fight a defensive war: Berlin saw the Sarajevo assassination as the opportunity to achieve a political breakthrough and become a true world power...
...Better researched and digested than William L. Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, albeit less well written than Barbara Tuchmann's The Guns of August, it is encouraging evidence of the progress in German self-examination after 1945...
...The main ideas set forth in it remained . . . the essential basis of Germany's war aims right up to the end of the war, although modified from time to time to fit changing situations...
...It is concerning the goals of the Imperial leadership that Fischer made his most startling discoveries...
...Since he covers such immense archival materials, Fischer often has to rely on the work of his graduate students—a dangerous practice...
...Reviewed by Konrad H. Jarausch The most controversial work on recent German history since World War II, Fritz Fischer's book, originally entitled A Drive for World Power, has now been translated into English...
...His account of the motivation of individuals is unenlightening...
...The political and academic establishment was so incensed that the funds for Fischer's American lecture tour in 1965 were suddenly cancelled and his trip had to be financed by the U.S...
...What makes it rewarding is the tone of moral urgency and outrage that pervades the work, and Fischer's sense of shame about the Realpolitik of the German leadership...
...Although claiming "this book is . . . neither an indictment nor a defense," it is a scholarly j'accuse hurled against the historical complacency of the Federal Republic...
...It is obvious that this provocative conclusion, implying a continuity of policy from Bethmann Hollweg to Hitler, justifying the harshness of the Treaty of Versailles, would not go unchallenged by traditional German historians...
...It was no isolated inspiration of the Chancellor's, it represents the ideas of leading economic, political— and also military—circles...
...Despite its massive size and impressive documentation it is not the last word, but the beginning of a painful questioning of old taboos...
...Nevertheless, Fischer has written a significant book...
Vol. 32 • April 1968 • No. 4
