Ulrich Pfister/Jan-Otmar Hesse/Mark Spoerer/Nikolaus Wolf (eds.), Deutschland 1871. Die Nationalstaatsbildung und der Weg in die moderne Wirtschaft, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2021, 454 S., € 114.

Ulrich, Pfister Jan-Otmar, Hesse Mark, Spoerer Nikolaus, Wolf (eds.) Deutschland 1871. Die Nationalstaatsbildung und der Weg in die moderne Wirtschaft Tübingen Mohr Siebeck 2021 € 114. 1 454

The year 1871 is a turning point in German, European, and by extension, world history. After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, Germany came into existence as a sovereign, united nation state, and emerged as the most powerful military and economic player on the Continent, distorting the balance of power that had existed since the Congress of Vienna. At least, that is the dominant story. But was Germany really united in 1871, for example in an economic sense? As Nikolaus Wolf, one of the editors of «Deutschland 1871. Die Nationalstaatsbildung und der Weg in die moderne Wirtschaft», has shown in a previous study, the western parts of Germany were much more integrated with the Netherlands (especially via the river Rhine, the port of Rotterdam and the industrial heartland of the Ruhr) and Belgium than with Germany's eastern regions.

«Deutschland 1871» is an impressive book, with many interesting and erudite yet succinct chapters, ranging from monetary policy to globalisation and foreign trade, and from national identity to post, telegraph and railways. As the editors – all authorities in their field of research – state in the introduction, there was a remarkable parallel development in Germany: the building of the nation state in the period between 1860–80 went hand in hand with a fundamental «Strukturbruch der langfristigen wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung Deutschlands» (1). As of 1880, Germany experienced modern economic growth, which it has until this day, apart from the interwar period and the first years after the Second World War.

The coinciding political and economic integration with the «Nationalstaatsgründung» is indeed a fascinating phenomenon. As the editors state: «Im deutschen Fall baute die Gründung des ersten Nationalstaats auf einer vorhergehenden überstaatlichen Integration der einzelnen deutschen Länder auf, vor allem in Rahmen des Zollvereins (1834), zum Teil aber auch im Rahmen des Deutschen Bundes, der aus dem Wiener Kongress hervorgegangen war» (4).

Essential in the economic integration of Germany was the development of railways, but as Sebastian Till Braun and Jan-Otmar Hesse show in their chapter, the postal service and telegraph were also of prime importance. Till Braun and Hesse explain that this was not a unique German development, as all over Europe – but also in the United States, for example – large, unified traffic- and communication networks developed. What differed in Germany, however, was that wars played an important role, for example in the post service: «Die ‹Einigungskriege› seit 1866 lösten diese komplizierte Situation [a very complex postal service, splintered across the various German states, ML] innerhalb weniger Jahre auf» (141). The importance of the railways was clear from the fact that prior to the First World War, the Preußisch-hessische Eisenbahnverwaltung was by far the largest company, totalling around 400,000 employees (145).

Eva-Maria Roelevink and Dieter Ziegler ask the question to what extent capitalism was organised in the German Kaiserreich. Traditionally, the German economy after 1870 has been characterized as being dominated by large cartels, for example in the coal industry (Rheinisch-Westfälisches Kohlen-Syndikat, 252). The authors admit that cartels could be very successful. But, as they state: «Die Betrachtung der Verbandspraktiken aber zeigt, dass die Interessenlagen oftmals sehr unterschiedlich waren, sodass die Formulierung einer Verbandposition Zeit benötigte und am Ende nicht selten ‹lauwarm› ausfiel» (259f.).

All chapters in this volume are of high quality, often presenting new interpretations and interesting avenues for further research. Wolf-Fabian Hungerland and Markus Lampe, for example, show that the unification of Germany and the establishment of the German Reich in 1871 did not represent «einen Strukturbruch» (355) originating from the point of view of globalisation and foreign policy. The various authors do a good job in positioning Germany in its European context. As such, the chapters on Italy, France, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Britain are of additional value. It would have been interesting though, to also include chapters on Germany's smaller neighbours, for example Denmark and the Netherlands. We know a lot about the Kaiserreich's relations with its large neighbouring countries, but far less about the smaller ones. Moreover, the authors assume quite some prior knowledge on Germany, which might be problematic to an Anglo-American audience. However, these are minor points. «Deutschland 1871» presents state of the art research on the unification of Germany in the last quarter of the 19th century and its economic consequences. It is a book that is not to be missed by anyone who is interested in German economic and political history.