Great catastrophe of the 20th century
Some historians describe the First World War as the original catastrophe of the 20th century . This designation goes back to the American historian and diplomat George F. Kennan , who characterized the war in 1979 as " the great seminal catastrophe of this century".
The year 1917 with the October Revolution - which (within the framework of this interpretation logic) would have been inconceivable as an event without the “great war” - is seen as an epoch year , quite analogously to Marxist models . It stands for the end of the rise of the bourgeoisie - " the long 19th century " - in Europe and the world and the beginning of the transition to systemic competition that shaped " the short 20th century " until the collapse of the Soviet Union . The Second World War is seen as a consequence and consequence of the First; in particular, the rise and takeover of power by Hitler in the German Reich are seen as a consequence of crises that were caused by the First World War.
Originally, Kennan's formulation stood for an essentially conservative interpretation of the world war, which broke in as a "catastrophe" over a politically and socially intact or at least functioning order without major crises - for Kennan the "western civilization" - but not the laws of motion inherent in this order , Tensions and contradictions. This interpretation is characterized by the fact that the “catastrophe” is not understood solely or primarily as war as such, but primarily that which is identified as its unfortunate consequence - the long-term destabilization of bourgeois societies and models of order. Not long-term historical trends, but the war and even more so the epoch year 1917 appear as a genuine “starting point for a dramatic change for the worse”.
The term “original catastrophe” is now used - often without systematic reference - by numerous historians who deal with individual aspects of recent and recent history of Europe with otherwise very different methods, questions and results. In addition, journalists and publicists have frequently been using Kennan's formula for about twenty years. Its use is often no longer associated with a conscious and unambiguous delimitation from competing interpretations, which is why it is sometimes viewed as "sedimented" or as "worn out by constant repetition".
literature
- Schulin, Ernst, The great catastrophe of the twentieth century, in: Michalka, Wolfgang (ed.), The First World War. Effect, perception, analysis, Munich 1994, pp. 3–27.
- Wolfgang J. Mommsen : The Great Disaster in Germany. The First World War 1914-1918 (= Handbook of German History, Volume 17), Stuttgart ( Klett-Cotta ) 2002 - ISBN 3-608-60017-5
- Aribert Reimann: The First World War - Primordial Disaster or Catalyst? (PDF; 92 kB) In: From Politics and Contemporary History , B 29–30 / 2004, pp. 30–38
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kennan, George F., The Decline of Bismarck's European Order. Franco-Russian Relations, 1875-1890, Princeton 1979, p. 3. Italics in the original.
- ↑ Prinz, Michael, The First World War as a turning point in British history? An interpretation in the field of tension between historiography, politics and the culture of remembrance, in: Mommsen, Hans (Ed.), The First World War and the European Post-War Order. Social change and change in the form of politics, Cologne-Weimar-Wien 2000, pp. 207–246, p. 238.
- ↑ Kronenbitter, Günther, "War in Peace". The leadership of the Austro-Hungarian army and the great power politics of Austria-Hungary 1906-1914, Munich 2003, p. 2.
- ↑ Klein, Fritz, fateful year 1917: Wilson or Lenin. Setting the course for world history, in: UTOPIE Kreativ, issue 203 (September 2007), pp. 836–850, p. 836.