The End of the German Empire

Abstract

The German Empire lasted from 1871 to 1945. 1918 marked a regime change and territorial losses, but not a starting point for decline, erosion or implosion. To explain regime change, short-term factors outweigh long-term explanations such as the Sonderweg-thesis or a “modernity deficit”. On the other hand, the different modes of shaping power and authority—from the Holy Roman Empire to the terror of the national socialist regime—show how dynamic and flexible empires can be even over a short period of time. Structural continuities can engender but also withstand strong internal changes, and might of course be changed gradually through these dynamics, but allow basic assumptions like the idea of empire to persist. So even when, after 1918, the German Empire lacked an actual emperor, it is still useful to regard it as an “empire”. Contemplating how it persisted and then came to an end thus continues to raise meaningful questions about the erosion, but also the resilience, of empires.