Jens-uwe Guettel
Associate Professor in History and Religious Studies
Biography:
Socialists, suffragettes, and proponents of moral reform and gay rights transformed Germany before 1914. The rise of this radical-democratic discontent from the German Empire’s founding to the outbreak of World War I provides the basis for The Dialectics of Radical Reform in Germany, 1871-1914, my second book project. It highlights how the most important political decisions in Germany between 1871 and 1914 were reactions to the perceived threats of socialists or other proponents of radical reform. For instance, my book thus explains how Germany's policy of military brinkmanship during July 1914 was directly linked to the authorities' fears of a socialist-organized general strike for democratic reform.