Out of Ashes: A New History of Europe in the Twentieth Century

881 Pages·2015·50.44 MB·English

by  Konrad H. Jarausch

O u t O f
A s h e s

O u t O f
A s h e s
A New History of europe iN tHe tweNtietH CeNtury
KoNrAd H. JArAusCH
Princeton University Press
Princeton and Oxford
Copyright © 2015 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press,
6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW
press.princeton.edu
Jacket photograph: Sunday volunteer workers working in the Martin Luther Platz, March
1946. Photo by William Vandivert / The LIFE Picture Collection / Getty Images.
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jarausch, Konrad Hugo.
Out of ashes : a new history of Europe in the twentieth century / Konrad H. Jarausch.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-691-15279-0 (hardback : acid-free paper) 1. Europe—History—20th
century. 2. Europe—Politics and government—20th century. 3. Europe—Social
conditions—20th century. 4. Social change—Europe—History—20th century. I. Title.
D424.J37 2015
940.5–dc23 2014031328
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Minion Pro
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
COntents
Preface vii
Introduction: The European Paradox 1
pArt i: promise of progress, 1900−1929
1. Global Domination 19
2. Breakdown of Peace 46
3. Waging Total War 73
4. Bolshevik Revolution 102
5. Democratic Hopes 128
6. Fascist Alternative 155
7. Modernist Provocations 181
pArt ii: turN to self- destruCtioN, 1929−45
8. Devastating Depression 209
9. Stalinist Modernization 235
10. Hitler’s Volksgemeinschaft 261
11. Unleashing World War II 287
12. Axis Conquest 314
13. Nazi Holocaust 341
14. Bitter Victory 369
pArt iii: surprisiNg reCovery, 1945−73
15. Democratic Renewal 399
16. Dictating Communism 426
17. Cold War Crises 452
18. Disappointing Decolonization 480
19. Economic Integration 506
v
20. Pop and Prosperity 533
21. Planning Social Reform 559
pArt iv: CoNfroNtiNg globAlizAtioN, 1973−2000
22. Revolt against Modernity 587
23. Postindustrial Transition 613
24. Return to Détente 639
25. Peaceful Revolution 666
26. Transforming the East 694
27. Global Challenges 721
28. Prospects for the Twenty- first Century 747
Postscript: A Chastened Modernity 773
Acknowledgments 789
Notes 791
Index 851
vi Contents
PrefACe
The ancient legend of Dr. Faustus largely anticipates the paradox-
ical trajectory of European history during the past century. In
this tale a successful scholar makes a pact with the Devil, exchanging
his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasure. After enjoy-
ing the fleeting fruits of his bargain, he is inevitably damned because
his ambition violates the divine order. In Goethe’s version a restless
Faust seeks to understand the essence of life with the aid of Mephis-
topheles, destroying the innocent young woman Gretchen in the
process. But in the second part of the drama Faust learns to serve
others rather than just to satisfy his own desires, and finally escapes
damnation owing to his ceaseless striving for human improvement.
Reflecting in his 1947 novel Dr. Faustus on the horror of the Third
Reich, Thomas Mann returned to the earlier cautionary view by pre-
senting Adrian Leverkühn as a composer who produces beautiful
music at the cost of a syphilitic madness that devours him. Hence the
tale can be read as an allegory either of the quest for innovation that
leads to destruction or of the search for potential redemption.
Because of its drastic reversals, the European experience of the
twentieth century presents a story of unparalleled drama, ranging
from suffering and self- destruction to civility and prosperity. Usher-
ing in 1900 with high hopes for further material progress and proud
of their imperial command over the globe, the European nations all
too soon became embroiled in the bloodshed of the Great War that
shook their confidence to the core. After a temporary respite during
the 1920s, the competition between communist, fascist, and demo-
cratic ideologies led to an even more devastating Second World War
and frightful Holocaust that has become synonymous with the human
capacity for evil. In spite of the subsequent Cold War confrontation
and the loss of the overseas empires, the devastated continent emerged
out of the ashes of self-i mmolation to regain a surprising measure
of peace and affluence. Moreover, an unforeseen peaceful revolution
spread liberal capitalism to Eastern Europe as well, only to be con-
fronted by new global problems. The interpretative challenge is to
vii
render the succession of such reversals, ruptures, and displacements
intelligible.
To explain such a confusing trajectory, this book focuses on the
peculiar dialectic of European dynamism that inspired both an im-
pressive march of material progress and a frightful process of polit-
ical self- destruction. Defenders of Western civilization and post-
colonial critics agree that the Europeans created a protean civilization
that conquered and transformed the rest of the world so as to rule
and exploit it. Near the beginning of the twentieth century some so-
cial thinkers began to call the conjuncture of scientific discovery,
economic development, political participation, and cultural experi-
mentation by the term “modernity” in order to distinguish such ad-
vances from earlier traditions and to differentiate themselves from
the “backward peoples” of other continents. No doubt their quest for
becoming “modern” was more an aspiration than a reality, a depic-
tion of a goal rather than a statement of actual achievement. But like
the Faustian legend, this self-d escription stressed the incessant drive
for more knowledge, material gain, and mass mobilization that would
plunge the continent into catastrophe, forcing it thereafter to strug-
gle for a return to civility.
Especially fascinating about Europe’s experience of the last cen-
tury are the many broken, but also touching, life stories that grew out
of coping with such upheavals. For instance, about 1900 my grand-
parents moved from a Silesian farm to the bustling metropolis of
Berlin in search of prosperity. Though my father survived military
service during World War I, the family’s grocery store ran into diffi-
culties during the hyperinflation. During the depression, my parents
had a hard time finding teaching positions, and my father was drafted
again in the Second World War. As I described in Reluctant Accom-
plice, he died in Russia in January 1942, while his widow escaped the
bombing in a Bavarian farm and resumed her teaching career in the
Rhineland after the war. Since prospects in Europe looked dim, my
father- in- law migrated with his family to the United States in 1948 as
a captured engineer and scientist. This book charts the framework of
destructive forces that killed relatives, destroyed homes, threatened
livelihoods— in short turned entire worlds upside down. But it also
viii Preface
offers an encouraging record of recovery, reconciliation, and eman-
cipation that inspires hope for the future.
My own perspective on the European past is a transatlantic van-
tage point, combining both inside and outside views. I was born in
Magdeburg during the Second World War and grew up in West Ger-
many, but then moved to the United States to go to college, obtain my
PhD at the University of Wisconsin, and pursue an academic career
there. As part of the last generation with classical training, I learned
Latin, Greek, and Hebrew in the Gymnasium and then added English,
French, Russian, and Italian, giving me access to a range of European
cultures. Beyond getting acquainted with German-s peaking Europe
during vacations, fellowships and family ties allowed me to live at
various times also in France, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Finally,
professional travel brought me from the Balkans to Britain and from
Russia to Portugal. While the following pages draw on my German
background and training, they are animated by a sincere desire to
do justice to the different trajectories of other countries. As a Euro-
American hybrid, I have for over four decades made a scholarly ef-
fort to discern “the unity within diversity” of the Old Continent’s
distinctive heritage.
Konrad H. Jarausch
Berlin/Washington/Chapel Hill, summer 2014
Preface ix