The great war. The world from 1914 to 1918

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Herfried Münkler (2015)

The Great War: The World 1914 to 1918 is a monograph by the political scientist Herfried Münkler that deals with the First World War . It was first published by Rowohlt on December 6, 2013 . In January 2014, it was number 1 in the non-fiction books of the month . By the beginning of May 2014, 50,000 copies had been sold.

content

First World War - participating states
  • Entente and Allies
  • Central Powers
  • Neutrals

    • According to the preface, Münkler wanted to write a comprehensive work on the First World War. It begins with the political starting point and ends the description with the end of the fighting. At the end of the book he tries to draw lessons from the events of that time and to apply them to the political situation in 2013. He compares the situation of the People's Republic of China with the German Empire .

    Two British soldiers wearing gas masks operate a Vickers machine gun during the Battle of the Somme .

    He describes the military strategies of the warring parties, the use of the new weapons from machine guns to submarines and poison gas . He also deals with the social situation in the affected countries. He sheds particular light on the role of intellectuals in the war discussions.

    Münkler describes the First World War as a workshop for many technologies, strategies and ideologies, the developments of which continue to have an impact today. By this, he understands, for example, planned warfare, propaganda mobilization, excessive nationalism and imperial striving for power.

    The author does not attribute the blame for the outbreak of the war to a specific war party, but to the complex interaction of mutually reinforcing factors. The attack in Sarajevo was only the decisive factor. The Allies felt threatened by the economically emerging Germany, which is why the United Kingdom, France and Russia allied. In the empire in particular, this led to the fear of being encircled. According to Münkler, there was no compelling way to go to war, but there were those responsible. Such was Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg unable to impulsive Kaiser Wilhelm II. To moderate. The way of thinking in the German General Staff, which did not think politically but above all militarily, was also fatal. His thoughts on war guilt are similar to those of Christopher Clark , whose book Die Schlafwandler , published around the same time in Germany, reassesses the responsibility of those involved in the run-up to the war.

    Occasionally Münkler uses counterfactual historiography to express his point of view.

    reception

    Reception by historians

    Christian Th. Müller praises the "fluently written depiction of the First World War", but considers the project of an overall depiction to be unfulfilled because Münkler focuses too much on the German Reich.

    After Hans Rudolf Wahl became The Great War. The world from 1914 to 1918 was wrongly received as an overall representation. Rather, it is a "political science model analysis based on the historical example of the First World War". This is shown in the last chapter of the study, in which the war is defined as a "political challenge and not as a historical phenomenon".

    The historian Rudolf Walther judges that Münkler "fails on the subject". He lapsed into "simple numbers-hocus-pocus in the tradition of economist war arithmetic" and engaged in geopolitical reading of coffee grounds.

    Alan Kramer refers to “a clear description of the military events, especially on the Western Front”, but, like Müller, notes a concentration on the German Empire, so the allies Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire hardly appear.

    Reception in the features section

    The book received mostly very positive reviews.

    Martin Hubert writes in his review for Deutschlandfunk that the work “deserves more than just historical attention”. It is written “not always fluently”, but formulated in an understandable way.

    Cord Aschenbrenner found the book “admirable” in his review for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and attested it “good readability”. He particularly praises the “civil style” and the “persistent, down to the smallest knowledgeable access of the author to his subject”. In summary, he speaks of a "comprehensive standard work".

    expenditure

    literature

    Web links

    Individual evidence

    1. ↑ a b c Dirk Pilz: The downfall war . In: Frankfurter Rundschau . December 30, 2013.
    2. ↑ Alexander Cammann: Fat and expensive. Lo and behold: high-quality books sell brilliantly today. In: The time . April 24, 2014.
    3. ↑ a b c d Martin Hubert: Review of a "field of political learning". (Text, audio) In: Deutschlandfunk. December 25, 2013, accessed January 5, 2014 .
    4. ↑ Christian Th. Müller: Review of: Herfried Münkler: The Great War. Die Welt 1914 to 1918, Berlin: Rowohlt 2014. In: Sehepunkte 14 (2014), No. 9 [15. September 2014] ( online )
    5. ↑ Hans Rudolf Wahl: Review of: Winter, Jay (Ed.): The Cambridge History of the First World War. Cambridge 2014 / Hastings, Max: Catastrophe. Europe Goes to War 1914. London 2013 / Münkler, Herfried: The Great War. Die Welt 1914 to 1918. Berlin 2013 / Janz, Oliver: 14. The great war. Frankfurt am Main 2013 / Leonhard, Jörn: Pandora's box. History of the First World War. Munich 2014. In: H-Soz-Kult , September 5, 2014, ( online ).
    6. ↑ Georgios Chatzoudis: Attempts national costumed historical politics. In: LISA - the science portal of the Gerda Henkel Foundation . September 9, 2014, accessed July 30, 2015 .
    7. ↑ Alan Kramer: Herfried Münkler, The Great War. Die Welt 1914 to 1918. In: Historische Zeitschrift 300 (2015), pp. 827–830.
    8. ↑ New Standard , Friday, February 13, 2014
    9. ↑ Cord Aschenbrenner: Slid in and not come out . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . December 21, 2013.
    10. ↑ Series of publications (vol. 1438). The Great War: Die Welt 1914 - 1918. bpb.de , accessed on May 18, 2017 .