Alternatives to Hitler : German resistance under the Third Reich

Bibliographic Information

Alternatives to Hitler : German resistance under the Third Reich

Hans Mommsen ; translated and annotated by Angus McGeoch ; with an introduction by Jeremy Noakes

Princeton University Press, c2003

Other Title

Alternative zu Hitler : Studien zur Geschichte des Deutschen Widerstandes

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Note

Previous ed.: Munchen: C.H. Beck, 2000

"Originally published in 2000 as Alternative zu Hitler - Studien zur Geschichte des Deutschen Widerstandes." -- T.p. verso

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Internal opposition to Nazism is often mythologized as heroic or dismissed as "too little, too late, and for the wrong reasons." These seminal writings trace the real and complex history of the German Resistance from the ascent of the Nazi Party to the July 1944 attempted assassination of Hitler. Informed by four decades of research and written by the premier historian of the German Resistance, this book constitutes the definitive work on those tens of thousands of Germans who fought the Third Reich from within. Hans Mommsen considers the full spectrum of opposition, from small but still-dangerous acts of political disobedience to large-scale conspiracies to overthrow the government. Along the way he tells the incredible stories of such Germans as Count Claus von Stauffenberg, who planted a briefcase bomb during a staff meeting at Hitler's East Prussian military headquarters, and the members of the Kreisau Circle, who clandestinely met to plan for Germany's postwar future as a democratic member of an integrated Europe. While upholding resistance to Nazism as a value beyond reproach, Mommsen considers the varied and sometimes murky motives of those who resisted--motives that ranged from principled commitment to pragmatic self-interest by former Nazi sympathizers. He examines resisters' detailed and not-always-democratic programs to rebuild a state and reeducate a Nazified society and considers their sometimes ambivalent attitudes toward the unfolding Final Solution. Available in English for the first time in this fluid translation, this book is a signal achievement by a major scholar--and the standard work on the German Resistance available in any language.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Jeremy Noakes 1 1. Carl von Ossietzky and the concept of a right to resist in Germany 9 2. German society and resistance to Hitler 23 3. The social vision and constitutional plans of the German resistance 42 4. The Kreisau Circle and the future reorganization of Germany and Europe 134 5. Count Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg and the Prussian tradition 152 6. German anti-Hitler resistance and the ending of Europe's division into nation-states 181 7. Julius Leber and the German resistance to Hitler 194 8. Wilhelm Leuschner and the resistance movement of 20 July 1944 205 9. Carlo Mierendorff's 'Socialist Action' programme 218 10. Adolf Reichwein's road to resistance and the Kreisau Circle 227 11. The position of the military opposition to Hitler in the German resistance movement 238 12. Anti-Hitler resistance and the Nazi persecution of Jews 253 Notes 277 Bibliography 303 Index 305

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