Gerhard Georg Bernhard Ritter (6 April 1888, in
Bad Sooden-Allendorf
Bad Sooden-Allendorf is a spa town in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis in Hesse, Germany.
Geography
Location
The spa town of Bad Sooden-Allendorf lies in the Werra valley near the Hoher Meißner, right on the boundary with Thuringia, almost at Germany's ...
– 1 July 1967, in
Freiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...
) was a
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...
-
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
German
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...
, who served as a professor of history at the
University of Freiburg
The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemb ...
from 1925 to 1956. He studied under Professor
Hermann Oncken
Hermann Gerhardt Karl Oncken (16 November 1869 in Oldenburg, Germany – 28 December 1945 in Göttingen, Germany) was a German historian and political writer. He was one of the most notable historians of pre-Nazi Germany.
He lectured at the univ ...
. A Lutheran, he first became well known for his 1925 biography of
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...
and hagiographic portrayal of Prussia. A member of the
German People's Party
The German People's Party (German: , or DVP) was a liberal party during the Weimar Republic that was the successor to the National Liberal Party of the German Empire. A right-liberal, or conservative-liberal political party, it represented politi ...
during the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...
, he was a lifelong
monarchist
Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalist. ...
and remained sympathetic to the political system of the defunct
German Empire.
A critic of both
democracy
Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which people, the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation ("direct democracy"), or to choo ...
and
totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regu ...
, he supported authoritarian rule and German supremacy in Europe. His vision of history was narrowed to German interests and of little sympathy to foreign nations but full of disdain for Catholicism. He cooperated with Nazi historians on anti-Polish propaganda. Eventually, his conflict with the
Nazi regime
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
got him arrested by it in 1944.
Following World War II, Professor Ritter worked to restore German nationalism by attempting to separate it from Nazi ideology, and favored pursuit of German national interests rather than reconciliation with victims of German aggression. At the end of his career, he argued against theories of the German historian
Fritz Fischer
Fritz Fischer (5 March 1908 – 1 December 1999) was a German historian best known for his analysis of the causes of World War I. In the early 1960s Fischer advanced the controversial thesis at the time that responsibility for the outbreak of the ...
. Ritter was an honorary member of the
American Historical Association
The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...
from 1959.
Early life
Ritter was born in
Bad Sooden-Allendorf
Bad Sooden-Allendorf is a spa town in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis in Hesse, Germany.
Geography
Location
The spa town of Bad Sooden-Allendorf lies in the Werra valley near the Hoher Meißner, right on the boundary with Thuringia, almost at Germany's ...
(now in the federal state of
Hesse
Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...
, in Central Germany). His father was a
Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...
clergyman. The young Ritter was educated at a
gymnasium in
Gütersloh
Gütersloh () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in the area of Westphalia and the administrative region of Detmold. Gütersloh is the administrative centre for a district of the same name and has a population of 100,194 peo ...
.
University studies
His studies were continued at the Universities of
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
,
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
, and
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
. Ritter began serving as a teacher in 1912. While studying at Heidelberg, Ritter was a research assistant to the national-liberal historian
Hermann Oncken
Hermann Gerhardt Karl Oncken (16 November 1869 in Oldenburg, Germany – 28 December 1945 in Göttingen, Germany) was a German historian and political writer. He was one of the most notable historians of pre-Nazi Germany.
He lectured at the univ ...
, who was a major influence on Ritter. Professor Oncken opposed the Nazis, and was later forced to resign in 1935.
Ritter's first book was published in 1913: ''Die preußischen Konservativen und Bismarcks deutsche Politik'' (''The Prussian Conservatives and Bismarck's German Policy''). It was his
PhD dissertation completed in 1911, under the supervision of Oncken.
[Weeks, Gregory (1999)]
"Ritter, Gerhard A."
In Kelly Boyd, ed., ''The Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing''. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers
p. 996.
/ref> Ritter examined the dispute between Otto von Bismarck and conservative Prussian Junkers
The Junkers ( ; ) were members of the landed nobility in Prussia. They owned great estates that were maintained and worked by peasants with few rights. These estates often lay in the countryside outside of major cities or towns. They were an impor ...
during the years 1858-1876. The ''Junkers'' felt that Bismarck's policy was a menace to their traditional privileges. A source of special conflict between Bismarck and the ''Junker''s was their opposition to Bismarck's compromises with the southern German states, which were seen as a threat to the traditional powers that they enjoyed. The theme of the extent of one's allegiance to those who hold power would be a recurring subject in Ritter's oeuvre.
World War I
Ritter fought as an infantryman
Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marin ...
in the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. Ritter was strongly committed to a German victory. While he criticized the ideology of Pan-German League as chauvinistic nationalism, he found it difficult to come to terms with the German defeat.[Schwabe, Klaus (1994]
"Gerhard Ritter."
In Hartmut Lehmann
Hartmut Lehmann (born April 29, 1936) is a German historian of modern history who specializes in religious and social history. He is known for his research on Pietism, secularization, religion and nationalism, transatlantic studies and Martin Lut ...
, ed., ''Paths of Continuity'' Washington, D.C.: German Historical Institute
p. 84.
/ref>
He regarded the German defeat of 1918 as a great disaster. Ritter believed that the monarchy had been the best form of government for Germany and that the Weimar Republic was a grave mistake since Germany did not have a tradition of republicanism. Ritter subscribed to the 19th-century view of history as a form of political education for the elite, and contemporary politics were always a pressing concern for him.
Marriage and family
In 1919, he married Gertrud Reichardt with whom he had three children.
Weimar Republic
Ritter worked as a professor at Heidelberg University
}
Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...
, (1918–1923), Hamburg University (1923–1925) and Freiburg University
The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemb ...
(1925–1956). During his time at Heidelberg, Ritter began an official history of the university from the Middle Ages to the present, but only one volume was ever published.
Biography of Luther
In 1925, Ritter published a sympathetic biography
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...
of Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...
that made his reputation as a historian. Ritter treated his subject as an excellent example of the "eternal German". Ritter argued against the view of Luther as an opportunist, promoted by Ernst Troeltsch
Ernst Peter Wilhelm Troeltsch (; ; 17 February 1865 – 1 February 1923) was a German liberal Christianity, liberal Protestant theologian, a writer on the philosophy of religion and the philosophy of history, and a classical liberal politician ...
and Max Weber
Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. His ideas profo ...
, and instead contended that Luther was a man of faith who possessed the ability to expose what Ritter regarded as grave flaws in the Catholic Church. Ritter argued that Luther inspired his followers to have the self-confidence to improve the world.[Weeks, Gregory (1999)]
"Ritter, Gerhard A."
In Kelly Boyd, ed., ''The Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing'', Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers
p. 997.
/ref>
Ritter's Luther biography was written in large part under the impact of the defeat of 1918 and so Ritter went to great lengths to defend what he regarded as the unique German spirit against what Ritter saw as the corrupt, materialist spiritual outlook of the West. Throughout his life, Lutheranism was a major influence on Ritter's writings.[Schwabe, Klaus (1994]
"Gerhard Ritter."
In Hartmut Lehmann
Hartmut Lehmann (born April 29, 1936) is a German historian of modern history who specializes in religious and social history. He is known for his research on Pietism, secularization, religion and nationalism, transatlantic studies and Martin Lut ...
, ed., ''Paths of Continuity'' Washington, D.C.: German Historical Institute
p. 86.
/ref>
In particular, Ritter agreed with Luther's argument that the moral values of Christianity were relevant to only the individual, not the state. Citing Luther, Ritter argued that the state had to hold power, and as part of the messy business of politics, it could be guided only by the Christian values of its leaders. Taking up of the ideas of Rudolf Kjellén and Friedrich Patzel, Ritter argued that the state should be regarded as a living entity, which to live successfully required economic and territorial growth. Using that argument Ritter contended that Frederick the Great
Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Sil ...
's invasion of Silesia
Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...
in 1740 was a necessary act to allow the Prussian state to live, regardless of international laws against aggression.
Karl vom Stein biography
During the last years of the Weimar Republic, Ritter changed his focus from the medieval-early modern periods to the modern period, and from cultural history to biographies of political figures.[Levine, Norman "Ritter, Gerhard" pages 304-306 from ''Great Historians of the Modern Age'' edited by Lucan Boia, New York: Greenwood Press, 1991, page 305.] In 1931, Ritter wrote the biography of the Prussian
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...
statesmen Karl vom Stein. Ritter's two-volume work portrayed Stein as the total opposite of Bismarck. Ritter argued that Bismarck was the ultimate power politician and that Stein was the ultimate anti-power politician. Ritter argued that Stein's success as a politician was limited by his moralism but contended that despite his lack of political sense was nonetheless successful because of his strong moral character.
Views on eve of Nazi take-over
On 11 February 1933, in a letter to a friend, Ritter described his intentions as:
I am planning to write two books. One will be entitled 'What is Liberalism?', and will be the attempt to pave the way for the founding of a large national party of the center, a party which we need today more than ever before. The book will contribute to the drafting of a new liberal national program, which will offer political orientation based on historical reflection...The second book is to...shed light on the great crises in the political and intellectual history of Germany, and will thus explain the present state of mind of the German people. This second book will serve two purposes. It will develop a new concept of the history of our nation...and it will help deepen the notion of the idea of German nationality and national consciousness after a time which this idea has in public use become unbearably trivial. New tasks are crowding in upon us. In our era the historian acquires a distinctive national function, an educational function. Certainly, for the time being no one wants to listen to him, because everyone is still running after noisy political agitators. But I am confident that a time will come when everyone will be thoroughly fed up with the din of national phrase-making and will long for a pure drink instead of the inebriating potion administered by the Nazis. The historian has to prepare positions for the reserves...".
Already, at midday on January 30, 1933, in a fateful step, the German President Paul von Hindenburg had confirmed the leader of the Nazi party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
as the new German chancellor
Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
, to lead for a time a minority government.
Under the Nazi regime (1933–1945)
Support for the Nazi regime
Initially, Ritter supported the Nazi regime, and despite severe doubts about the Nazis (particularly over the regime's persecution of the churches), he reconciled himself to refraining from censure of the regime and its foreign policy. In 1940, he stated that "the sword is always more ready to the hand of continental statesman who stands in the midst of the fray of European power interests, and must always be armed to counter an attack before it is too late." He agreed with Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
that "might is the precondition of all freedom."
Ritter publicly referred to the Nazi Reich as the "peaceful center of Europe" that would form a "bulwark against Bolshevism", and he praised the German ''Anschluss
The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938.
The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...
'' (union) with Austria. Having supported well before 1933 the idea of Greater Germany
Pan-Germanism (german: Pangermanismus or '), also occasionally known as Pan-Germanicism, is a pan-nationalist political idea. Pan-Germanists originally sought to unify all the German-speaking people – and possibly also Germanic-speaking ...
, Ritter at first defended the Nazi invasion as a realization of the German hopes. He went on record praising the ''Anschluss'' as the "boldest and most felicitous foreign policy feat of our new government."
National conservative
Ritter was a staunch German nationalist who belonged to a political movement generally known to historians as national conservatism. Ritter identified with the idea of an authoritarian
Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic votin ...
government in Germany that would make his country Europe's foremost power. In an article published in early 1933, "Eternal Right and Interests of the State", Ritter argued that the German people needed most was a government "in which a strong authoritarian leadership will gain voluntary popular allegiance because it is willing to respect eternal justice as well as freedom."[Schwabe, Klaus "Gerhard Ritter" pages 83-103 from ''Paths of Continuity'' Washington, D.C. : German Historical Institute, 1994 page 88.]
The deep belief which Ritter had in a ''Rechtsstaat'' (a state upheld by law) made him increasingly concerned at Nazi violations of legal codes. In 1935, while remaining very cautious about his public comments on Nazism generally, he attempted to defend his mentor, Oncken, against attacks by Nazis. The NSDAP officials had objected to a paper by Oncken which implied that the Nazi revolution was ''not'' the greatest revolution of all time.
Frederick the Great biography
Ritter's 1936 short interpretive biography of Frederick the Great
Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Sil ...
has been described by the American military historian Peter Paret
Peter Paret (April 13, 1924 – September 11, 2020) was a German-born American cultural and intellectual historian, whose two principal areas of research were war and the interaction of art and politics from 18th to 20th century Europe. as one of the finest military biographies ever written.
Historian Russell Weigley
Russell Frank Weigley ''(WY-glee)'' (July 2, 1930 – March 3, 2004) was the Distinguished University Professor of History at Temple University in Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth ...
called it "the best introduction to Frederick the Great and indeed to European warfare in his time". James J. Sheehan
James J. Sheehan (born 1937) is an American historian of modern Germany and the former president of the American Historical Association (2005).
Biography
Born in San Francisco in 1937, Sheehan earned a B.A. from Stanford University in 1958 and ...
says it is the best book in English on the famous king.
Ritter's biography was designed as a challenge to Nazi ideology which said there was a continuity between Frederick and Hitler. Dorpalen says, "The book was indeed a very courageous indictment of Hitler's irrationalism and recklessness, his ideological fanaticism and insatiable lust for power." Dorpalen nevertheless criticized Ritter's historiography as apologetic of Prussian militarism, German past and figures like Frederick the Great and Bismarck
Ritter's emphasis on Frederick's limited war aims and willingness to settle for less than he initially sought was seen at the time as a form of oblique criticism of Adolf Hitler. In addition, the emphasis that Ritter placed on the influence of the Enlightenment and "orderly reason" on Fredrick were intended by Ritter to quietly disprove Hitler's claim to be Frederick's successor. The inspiration behind the Fredrick biography was Ritter's personal reaction to the Day of Potsdam, 22 March 1933, when Hitler had laid claim to the Prussian traditions in a way that Ritter felt was not historically accurate.
In March 1936, upon witnessing the Remilitarization of the Rhineland
The remilitarization of the Rhineland () began on 7 March 1936, when German military forces entered the Rhineland, which directly contravened the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Treaties. Neither France nor Britain was prepared for a milit ...
, Ritter wrote in a letter to his mother that for his children "who had never seen German soldiers from close up, this is one of the greatest experiences ever.... Truly a great and magnificent experience. May God grant that it does not lead to some international catastrophe".
Acts against the regime
Ritter was a devout Lutheran and became a member of the Confessing Church
The Confessing Church (german: link=no, Bekennende Kirche, ) was a movement within German Protestantism during Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to unify all Protestant churches into a single pro-Nazi German E ...
, a group of dissenting Lutherans who resisted the Nazi inspired and Nazi imposed "Aryan Christianity" in the 1930s.
In 1938, Ritter was the only faculty member at Freiburg to attend the funeral of Edmund Husserl
, thesis1_title = Beiträge zur Variationsrechnung (Contributions to the Calculus of Variations)
, thesis1_url = https://fedora.phaidra.univie.ac.at/fedora/get/o:58535/bdef:Book/view
, thesis1_year = 1883
, thesis2_title ...
, considered the founder of the modern philosophical school of phenomenology
Phenomenology may refer to:
Art
* Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties
Philosophy
* Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...
. Husserl had been on the faculty at the University of Freiburg until the Nazis in 1933 caused him to be dismissed because of his Jewish origins.
Husserl was then also prevented from publishing his works. Ritter's presence at the funeral of Husserl was widely interpreted at the time (and since) as an act of quiet courage and political protest against the Nazi regime. After the ''Kristallnacht
() or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from ...
'' pogrom, Ritter wrote in a letter to his mother: "What we have experienced over the last two weeks all over the country is the most shameful and most dreadful thing that has happened for a long time".[Friedländer, Saul ''Nazi Germany and the Jews'', New York: Harper Collins, 1997 page 297.]
In 1938, Ritter delivered a series of lectures in Jena attacking Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...
. These lectures were intended by Ritter to be a form of indirect protest against the Nazi regime.
1938 historicism debate with Meinecke
In 1938, Ritter became involved in a major debate with Friedrich Meinecke
Friedrich Meinecke (October 20, 1862 – February 6, 1954) was a German historian, with national liberal and anti-Semitic views, who supported the Nazi invasion of Poland. After World War II, as a representative of an older tradition, he criti ...
over "historism".[Schwabe, Klaus "Gerhard Ritter" pages 83-103 from ''Paths of Continuity'' Washington, D.C. : German Historical Institute, 1994 page 93.] Meinecke argued in favor of the idea of celebrating the "valuable individual quality" of all the phenomenon of history, which was judged not by universal standards, but only in regard to its own values. Ritter attacked this position, arguing that without universal notions of values of good and evil and judging all historical phenomenon by its own standards was to abandon all ideas of morality applicable to all times and places.
Freiburger Kreis
Following the Nazi's 1938 Kristallnacht
() or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from ...
pogrom
A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...
, Ritter became a founding member of the Freiburger Kreis Freiburger usually refers to the city Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany or a person or thing from there. Examples include:
*Freiburger FC, a football team ( Soccer)
*Freiburger Barockorchester, an orchestra
*Freiburger Münster (Freiburg Minster), a ...
, a discussion group whose focus was neo-liberal policy for the political economy. It was composed of anti-Nazi professors which included Adolf Lampe, Constantin von Dietze, Franz Böhm and Walter Eucken
Walter Eucken (; 17 January 1891 – 20 March 1950) was a German economist of the Freiburg school and father of ordoliberalism. He is closely linked with the development of the concept of "social market economy".
Early life
Walter Eucken was born ...
.
Advisor to Goerdeler
Later, Ritter worked as an advisor to the German conservative politician Carl Goerdeler
Carl Friedrich Goerdeler (; 31 July 1884 – 2 February 1945) was a monarchist Conservatism, conservative German politician, executive, economist, civil servant and German resistance to Nazism, opponent of the Nazi Germany, Nazi regime. He oppose ...
. Together they considered a future constitution after the overthrow of the Nazis. Both were involved in the secret plans to take down Hitler (see below "In assassination plot").
In a ''Denkschrift'' submitted to Goerdeler in January 1943, Ritter wrote that "Hundreds of thousands of human beings have been systematically murdered solely because of their Jewish ancestry." Although urging that the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
should be immediately ended, Ritter went on in the same memo to suggest that, in a future post-Nazi government, the modern civil rights of Jews should be restricted.
Book on Machiavelli and utopia
In 1940, Ritter published ''Machtstaat und Utopie'' (''National Power and Utopia''). In this book, Ritter argued that democracy
Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which people, the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation ("direct democracy"), or to choo ...
was a luxury that only militarily-secure states could afford. Ritter argued that because Great Britain was an island, this provided a degree of security that allows democracy. By contrast, Ritter argued that Germany with its location in Central Europe
Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the area' ...
needed an authoritarian government as the only way of maintaining security.
Here Ritter contrasted the utopianism of Sir Thomas More
Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VIII as Lord ...
and the realism of Niccolò Machiavelli
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli ( , , ; 3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527), occasionally rendered in English as Nicholas Machiavel ( , ; see below), was an Italian diplomat, author, philosopher and historian who lived during the Renaissance. ...
. Ritter declares that Germany had to follow the realism of Machiavelli because of the security requirements of its geographic position. Ritter describes two sorts of values as generated by two different types of polities: one traditionally Anglo-Saxon and the other ''continental'', as personified by More and Machiavelli.[Schwabe, Klaus "Gerhard Ritter" pages 83-103 from ''Paths of Continuity'' Washington, D.C. : German Historical Institute, 1994 page 99.]
Ritter praised Machiavelli as the ideal thinker who understood the "paradox of power"; namely, state power to be effective always involves the use of or threat of violence. Accordingly, society could not function without an armed police power to hold it together (and a military against foreign threats). Ritter criticized More for refusing to acknowledge this ''paradox of power''; instead, More seems to pretend that morality could function in politics without the threat of and/or use of violence.
Ritter presents traditional Anglo-Saxon thinking about power, which depends on an ineffective legalism, as inferior to ''continental'' thinking, based on an understanding of the ultimate necessity of some form of violence. The historian Gregory Weeks commented that it is hard to tell how much of ''Machstaat und Utopie'' was material inserted to allow the book to be passed by the censors, and how much was the expression of Ritter's own beliefs. Weeks has argued that if Ritter was no Nazi, certainly he was a German nationalist who wished to see Germany as the world's great power.
Ritter appeared to disavow part of his original work of 1940 by the addition of a footnote to the third edition of ''Machstaat und Utopie'' published in 1943. There Ritter praised More for his understanding of "the demoniacal forces of power" against which More had appealed to the strength of Christian morality
Christian ethics, also known as moral theology, is a multi-faceted ethical system: it is a virtue ethic which focuses on building moral character, and a deontological ethic which emphasizes duty. It also incorporates natural law ethics, whic ...
; hence, More rightly did not reduce all politics to a "friend-foe" mentality.[Schwabe, Klaus "Gerhard Ritter" pages 83-103 from ''Paths of Continuity'' Washington, D.C. : German Historical Institute, 1994 page 101.] The historian Klaus Schwabe observes that Ritter's disapproval of the term "friend-foe" was a not-so-veiled criticism of Carl Schmitt
Carl Schmitt (; 11 July 1888 – 7 April 1985) was a German jurist, political theorist, and prominent member of the Nazi Party. Schmitt wrote extensively about the effective wielding of political power. A conservative theorist, he is noted as a ...
, who had popularized the term a decade before (Schmitt had supported the Nazi regime). Thus Ritter's criticism indirectly pointed at such ''Nazi'' "forces of power".
Censored book on the military
During World War II, Ritter became involved in work on a study of civilian-military relations in Germany from the 18th century to the 20th century.[Schwabe, Klaus "Gerhard Ritter" pages 83-103 from ''Paths of Continuity'' Washington, D.C. : German Historical Institute, 1994 page 97.] The original intent behind this work was to offer a critique of the "total war" philosophy of General Erich Ludendorff
Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff (9 April 1865 – 20 December 1937) was a German general, politician and military theorist. He achieved fame during World War I for his central role in the German victories at Liège and Tannenberg in 1914. ...
as a form of indirect protest against Nazi Germany. Censorship prevented the book from being published during the war and, after 1945, Ritter revised his work to publish it as a four-volume study of German militarism.
In assassination plot
Ritter was involved in the 20 July 1944 Stauffenberg assassination plot. He was one of the few conspirators not liquidated by the Nazis. His friend and political associate, Carl Goerdeler
Carl Friedrich Goerdeler (; 31 July 1884 – 2 February 1945) was a monarchist Conservatism, conservative German politician, executive, economist, civil servant and German resistance to Nazism, opponent of the Nazi Germany, Nazi regime. He oppose ...
, was slated to become the new Chancellor
Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
under a post-Nazi regime. If the coup had succeeded, the plotters planned to bargain with the Allies that Germany keep territories in Eastern Europe, then in the path of the Soviet counter-invasion. Goerdeler was executed by the Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
in 1945. Ritter, who also belonged to the conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
German opposition to the Nazis, was imprisoned in late 1944 for the rest of the war.
Themes following World War II
Source of Nazi evils
Two major themes of Ritter's writings after 1945 were attempts to prove that the Bismarckian tradition in German life had nothing to do with national socialism and it was democracy of the masses rather than aristocratic conservatism that caused the Nazi movement. After World War II, Ritter wrote the book ''Europa und die deutsche Frage'' (''Europe and the German Question''), which denied that Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
was the inevitable product of German history, but was rather in Ritter's view part of a general Europe-wide drift towards totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regu ...
that had been going on since the French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
, and as such, Germans should not be singled out for criticism.
In Ritter's opinion, the origins of National Socialism went back to Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
's concept of the ''volonté générale'' (general will) and the Jacobins
, logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg
, logo_size = 180px
, logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794)
, motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir)
, successor = P ...
. Ritter argued, "National Socialism is not an originally German growth, but the German form of a European phenomenon: the one-party or ''Führer'' state", which was the result of "modern industrial society with its uniform mass humanity".[Iggers, Georg ''The German Conception of History'', Middletown: Connecticut; Wesleyan University Press, 1968 page 258.]
Along the same lines, Ritter wrote that "not any event in German history, but the great French Revolution undermined the firm foundation of Europe's political traditions. It also coined the new concepts and slogans with whose help the modern state of the ''Volk'' and the Führer justifies its existence".[Hamerow, Theodore S. "Guilt, Redemption and Writing German History" pages 53-72 from ''The American Historical Review'', Volume 88, February 1983 page 63.] Ritter argued that throughout the 19th century, there had been worrisome signs in Germany and the rest of Europe caused by the entry of masses into politics, but that it was World War I that marked the decisive turning point.[Kershaw, Ian ''The Nazi Dictatorship Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation'', London: Arnold Press, 2000 page 7]
According to Ritter, World War I had caused a general collapse in moral values throughout the West, and it was this moral degeneration that led to the decline of Christianity, the rise of materialism, political corruption, the eclipse of civilization by barbarism, and demagogic politics that in turn led to National Socialism. In Ritter's view, the problem with the Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...
was not that it lacked democracy
Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which people, the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation ("direct democracy"), or to choo ...
, but rather had too much democracy. Ritter argued that the democratic republic left the German state open to being hijacked by the appeals of rabble-rousing extremists. In Ritter's view, if his much beloved German Empire had continued after 1918, there would have been no Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
.
Ritter argued that democracy
Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which people, the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation ("direct democracy"), or to choo ...
was the essential precondition of totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regu ...
because it created the window of opportunity for a strongman to make himself the personification of the "popular will", leading Ritter to conclude that "the system of 'totalitarian' dictatorship as such is not a specifically German phenomenon" but rather was the natural result of when "the direct rule of the people derived from the 'revolt of the masses' is introduced". Ritter argued that the precursors of Hitler were "neither Frederick the Great, Bismarck nor Wilhelm II, but the demagogues and Caesars of modern history from Danton to Lenin to Mussolini".[Iggers, Georg ''The German Conception of History'', Middletown: Connecticut; Wesleyan University Press, 1968 page 254.]
Rescue of German nationalism
Ritter saw his main task after 1945 of seeking to restore German nationalism against what he regarded as unjust slurs. Ritter argued that Germans needed a positive view of their past but warned against the appeal of "false concepts of honor and national power". He belonged to group of German historians who rejected reconciliation with victim of Nazi German aggression in favor of Germany pursuing national interests.
He railed against the fact that the Allies occupational authorities had confiscated German archives at the end of World War II and had begun to publish a critical edition of German foreign policy records without the participation of German historians. He used his official position as the first postwar head of the German Historical Association to demand the return of the records and held the opinion that their absence hurt his own research projects the most.
In his treatment of the German Resistance German resistance can refer to:
* Freikorps, German nationalist paramilitary groups resisting German communist uprisings and the Weimar Republic government
* German resistance to Nazism
* Landsturm, German resistance groups fighting against France d ...
, Ritter drew a sharp line between those who worked with foreign powers to defeat Hitler and those like Goerdeler which sought to overthrow the Nazis while working for Germany. For Ritter, Goerdeler was a patriot while the men and women of the ''Rote Kapelle'' spy network were traitors.[Iggers, Georg ''The German Conception of History'', Middletown: Connecticut; Wesleyan University Press, 1968 page 259.] Ritter wrote that those involved in the ''Rote Kapelle'' were not part of the "German Resistance, but stood in the service of the enemy abroad" and fully deserved to be executed.
Ecumenical progression
Besides defending German nationalism, Ritter became active in the ecumenical movement after 1945 and urged conservative Catholics and Protestants to come together in the Christian Democratic Union, arguing that based on his experience in Nazi Germany, Christians regardless of their church needed to work together against totalitarianism.
During the war, as a result of his underground work, Ritter came to know a number of Catholic and Calvinist members of the German opposition, which caused Ritter to abandon his former prejudices against Calvinists and Catholics.[Schwabe, Klaus "Gerhard Ritter" pages 83-103 from ''Paths of Continuity'' Washington, D.C. : German Historical Institute, 1994 page 89.] Ritter came to the conclusion that whatever differences divided Lutherans, Catholics and Calvinists, member of three churches had more in common, to unite them against the Nazis.
Goerdeler biography
In 1954, Ritter published an acclaimed biography of Carl Goerdeler
Carl Friedrich Goerdeler (; 31 July 1884 – 2 February 1945) was a monarchist Conservatism, conservative German politician, executive, economist, civil servant and German resistance to Nazism, opponent of the Nazi Germany, Nazi regime. He oppose ...
, a close friend, a conservative politician who was executed by the Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
in 1945. Goerdeler was a devout Lutheran, and himself the son of a conservative Prussian politician. Ritter pushed for the translation of his Goerdeler biography into English to counter the publication of John W. Wheeler-Bennett's book Nemesis of Power which, in his view, vilified the German resistance.
German militarism
Ritter specialized in German political
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
, military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
, and cultural history
Cultural history combines the approaches of anthropology and history to examine popular cultural traditions and cultural interpretations of historical experience. It examines the records and narrative descriptions of past matter, encompassing the ...
. Ritter always drew a sharp distinction between what he regarded as the ''Machtpolitik'' (power politics) of Bismarck where military policy was subjected to carefully limited political goals and the endless expansionism motivated by militarism and bizarre racial theories of the Nazis.
Ritter was well known for his assertions denying that there was a uniquely aggressive German version of militarism
Militarism is the belief or the desire of a government or a people that a state should maintain a strong military capability and to use it aggressively to expand national interests and/or values. It may also imply the glorification of the mili ...
. For Ritter, militarism was the "one-sided determination of political decisions on the basis of technical military considerations", and foreign expansionism, and had nothing to do with values of a society.
In a paper presented to the German Historical Convention in 1953, "The Problem of Militarism in Germany", Ritter argued traditional Prussian leaders such as Frederick the Great were a ''Machtpolitiker'' (power politician), not a militarist since in Ritter's view, Frederick was opposed to "the ruthless sacrifice of all life to the purposes of war" and instead was interested in creating "a lasting order of laws and peace, to further general welfare, and to moderate the conflict of interests".[Iggers, Georg ''The German Conception of History'', Middletown: Connecticut; Wesleyan University Press, 1968 page 256.]
Ritter maintained that militarism first appeared during the French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
, when the revolutionary French state, later to be followed by Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
's regime, began the total mobilization of society to seek "the total destruction of the enemy". Likewise, Ritter contended that Otto von Bismarck was a ''Kabinettspolitker'' (Cabinet politician), not a militarist, who ensured that political considerations were always placed ahead of military considerations.[Iggers, Georg ''The German Conception of History'', Middletown: Connecticut; Wesleyan University Press, 1968 pages 255-256.] Ritter was to expand on these views in a four volume study ''Staatskunst und Kriegshandwerk'' (translated into English as ''The Sword and the Scepter'') published between 1954–1968, in which Ritter examined the development of militarism in Germany between 1890–1918.
In Volume 2 of ''Staatskunst und Kriegshandwerk'', Ritter commented that it was only after Bismarck's sacking in 1890 that militarism first appeared in Germany. Accordingly, a review of the first years of the 20th century was "not without a sense of psychological shock". Ritter wrote that "the prewar Germany of my own youth, which has for an entire lifetime been illuminated in my memory by the radiant splendor of a sun that seemed to grow dark only after the outbreak of the war of 1914" was "in the evening of my life" darkened by "shadows that were much deeper than my generation-and certainly the generation of my academic teachers-was able to perceive at the time".
For Ritter, it was the radicalizing experience of the First World War that had finally led to the triumph of militarism in Germany, especially after 1916, when Erich Ludendorff
Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff (9 April 1865 – 20 December 1937) was a German general, politician and military theorist. He achieved fame during World War I for his central role in the German victories at Liège and Tannenberg in 1914. ...
established his "silent dictatorship", which Ritter believed was a huge break with Prussian-German traditions. It was the unhappy results of that war that finally led to the "proletarian nationalism" of the Nazis gaining a mass audience, and led to the "militarism of the National Socialist mass movement" coming to power. Moreover, Ritter placed great emphasis on the "Hitler factor" as an explanation for Nazi Germany. In 1962, Ritter wrote that he found it "almost unbearable" that the "will of a single madman" had unnecessarily caused World War II.
Critical views on German history
Though many regarded Ritter's work as an apologia for German nationalism and conservatism, Ritter was at times critical of aspects of the German past. Though Ritter commented that many nations had bent their knees in submission to false values, "the Germans accepted all of that with special ardor when it was now preached to them by National Socialism, and their nationalism had in general displayed from its beginning a particularly intense, combative quality".
At the first meeting of German historians in 1949, Ritter delivered a speech:
"We constantly run the risk not only of being condemned by the world as nationalists, but actually being misused as expert witnesses by all those circles and tendencies that, in their impatient and blind nationalism, have shut their ears to the teachings of the most recent past. Never was our political responsibility greater, not only to Germany, but also to Europe and the world. And yet never has our path been so dangerously narrow between Scylla and Charybdis as today".
In 1953, Ritter found a copy of the "Great Memorandum" relating to German military planning written by General Alfred Graf von Schlieffen
Graf Alfred von Schlieffen, generally called Count Schlieffen (; 28 February 1833 – 4 January 1913) was a German field marshal and strategist who served as chief of the Imperial German General Staff from 1891 to 1906. His name lived on in the ...
in 1905. The following year, Ritter published the "Great Memorandum" together with his observations about the Schlieffen Plan
The Schlieffen Plan (german: Schlieffen-Plan, ) is a name given after the First World War to German war plans, due to the influence of Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen and his thinking on an invasion of France and Belgium, which began on ...
as ''Der Schlieffen-Plan: Kritik Eines Mythos'' (''The Schlieffen Plan: Critique of a Myth'').
Role in the Fischer Controversy
The issue: break or continuity?
In his last years, Ritter emerged as the leading critic of the left-wing historian Fritz Fischer
Fritz Fischer (5 March 1908 – 1 December 1999) was a German historian best known for his analysis of the causes of World War I. In the early 1960s Fischer advanced the controversial thesis at the time that responsibility for the outbreak of the ...
, who claimed that there were powerful lines of continuity between the German Empire and Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
and that it was Germany that caused World War I. During the ferocious "Fischer Controversy" that engulfed the West German historical profession in the 1960s, Ritter was the best known of Fischer's critics.
Ritter fiercely rejected Fischer's arguments that Germany was primarily responsible for the outbreak of war in 1914. The later volumes of ''Staatskunst und Kriegshandwerk'' were taken up with the goal of rebutting Fischer's arguments. Ritter claimed that Germany did not start a war of aggression in 1914 but admitted that the situation of the German government had required a foreign policy that contained the immediate risk of war. Counter to Fischer's thesis, Ritter maintained that the Chancellor Dr. Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg
Theobald Theodor Friedrich Alfred von Bethmann Hollweg (29 November 1856 – 1 January 1921) was a German politician who was the chancellor of the German Empire from 1909 to 1917. He oversaw the German entry into World War I. According to bio ...
resisted the demands by General Ludendorff for wide-ranging annexations as a war aim.
Ritter's points against Fischer
As part of his critique of Fischer, Ritter contended that Germany's principal goal in 1914 was to maintain the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
as a great power; thus, German foreign policy was largely defensive. Fischer claimed that it was mostly aggressive. Ritter claimed that the significance that Fischer attached to the highly bellicose advice about waging a "preventive war" in the Balkans offered in July 1914 to the Chief of Cabinet of the Austro-Hungarian foreign ministry, Count Alexander Hoyos by the German journalist Viktor Naumann was unwarranted.[Ritter, Gerhard "Anti-Fischer" pages 135-142 from ''The Outbreak of World War I'' edited by Holger Herwig, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997 page 136.] Ritter charged that Naumann was speaking as a private individual, and not as Fischer claimed on behalf of the German government.
Likewise, Ritter felt that Fischer had been dishonest in his portrayal of Austro-German relations in July 1914.[Ritter, Gerhard "Anti-Fischer" pages 135-142 from ''The Outbreak of World War I'' edited by Holger Herwig, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997 pages 136-137.] Ritter charged that Germany had not pressured a reluctant Austria-Hungary into attacking Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
. Ritter argued (ironically ''against'' Fischer) that the main impetus for war within Austria-Hungary came from domestic politics and was internally driven. There were divisions of opinion about the best course to pursue in Vienna and Budapest, but it was not German pressure that led Austria-Hungary to choose war as the best option.[Ritter, Gerhard "Anti-Fischer" pages 135-142 from ''The Outbreak of World War I'' edited by Holger Herwig, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997 page 137.]
In Ritter's opinion, Germany can be criticized for its mistaken evaluation of the state of European power politics in July 1914. According to Ritter, the German government had underrated the state of military readiness in Russia and France, falsely assumed that the British were unwilling to go to war over the violation of Belgian neutrality, overrated the sense of moral outrage caused by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria, (18 December 1863 – 28 June 1914) was the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary. His assassination in Sarajevo was the most immediate cause of World War I.
F ...
on European opinion, and above all, overestimated the military power and political common sense of Austria-Hungary.
Ritter felt that in retrospect, it was not necessary for Germany to maintain Austria-Hungary as a great power but claimed that at the time, most Germans regarded the Dual Monarchy as a "brother empire" and viewed the prospect of the Balkans being in the Russian sphere of influence as an unacceptable threat. As opposed to Fischer's claim that Germany was deliberately setting off a war of aggression, Ritter argued that Germany's support for Austria-Hungary's retributive plan to invade Serbia was an ''ad hoc'' response to the crisis gripping Europe.[Ritter, Gerhard "Anti-Fischer" pages 135-142 from ''The Outbreak of World War I'' edited by Holger Herwig, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997 page 138.]
Ritter accused Fischer of manufacturing the quote he attributed to the German general Moltke
The House of Moltke is the name of an old German noble family. The family was originally from Mecklenburg, but apart from Germany, some of the family branches also resided throughout Scandinavia. Members of the family have been noted as pigfarme ...
, Chief of the General Staff, during a meeting with the Austro-Hungarian War Minister, Field Marshal Conrad von Hötzendorf
Conrad may refer to:
People
* Conrad (name)
Places
United States
* Conrad, Illinois, an unincorporated community
* Conrad, Indiana, an unincorporated community
* Conrad, Iowa, a city
* Conrad, Montana, a city
* Conrad Glacier, Washingt ...
, about the necessity of a "speedy attack" on Serbia. Ritter claimed the importance that Fischer attached to the report of the German Army's Quartermaster that the Army was "ready" for war in 1914 was simply mistaken since the Quartermaster always reported every year that the Army was "ready" for war.
Likewise, in reference to the order by Bethmann Hollweg
Theobald Theodor Friedrich Alfred von Bethmann Hollweg (29 November 1856 – 1 January 1921) was a German politician who was the chancellor of the German Empire from 1909 to 1917. He oversaw the German entry into World War I. According to biog ...
to Siegfried von Roedern
Siegfried Friedrich Wilhelm Erdmann Graf von Roedern (born 27 July 1870 in Marburg, died 14 April 1954 in Bergen, Upper Bavaria), was a German politician. He served as Secretary in the Ministry for Alsace-Lorraine from 1914 to 1916, and as Federa ...
, the State Secretary for Alsace-Lorraine, to end Francophobic remarks in the German-language press in Alsace, Ritter claimed it was proof of Germany's desire not to have a wider war in 1914; Ritter accordingly claimed also that Fischer's contrary interpretation of Bethmann Hollweg's order was not supported by the facts.
Contrary to Fisher's interpretation, Ritter maintained that Bethmann Hollweg's warnings to Vienna were meant to stop a war and were not window dressing that was intended to distract historical attention from German responsibility for the war. Ritter claimed that Fisher's interpretation of Bethmann Hollweg's meeting with the British Ambassador, Sir Edward Goschen, was mistaken since in Ritter's opinion, if Bethmann Hollweg was serious about securing British neutrality, it made no sense to express the German war aims to Goschen that Fischer attributes to him.
Ritter strongly disagreed with Fischer's interpretation of the meeting of Moltke, Bethmann Hollweg and General Erich von Falkenhayn
General Erich Georg Sebastian Anton von Falkenhayn (11 September 1861 – 8 April 1922) was the second Chief of the German General Staff of the First World War from September 1914 until 29 August 1916. He was removed on 29 August 1916 after t ...
(the Prussian War Minister) on 30 July 1914. Rather than a conscious decision to wage an aggressive war, as Fischer argued, Ritter's claim was that news of Russia's mobilization led the German generals into persuading a reluctant Bethmann Hollweg to activate the Schlieffen Plan.
Ritter was strongly critical of what he regarded as Fischer's "biased" view of Moltke's reaction to the outbreak of the war and argued that Moltke's opposition to the sudden last-minute suggestion of Wilhelm II
Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (german: Kaiser) and King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until his abdication on 9 November 1918. Despite strengthening the German Empir ...
for the German attack on France to be cancelled was because of logistical concerns rather than a desire to provoke a world war.[Ritter, Gerhard "Anti-Fischer" pages 135-142 from ''The Outbreak of World War I'' edited by Holger Herwig, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997 page 141.] Finally, Ritter faults Fischer for his reliance on the memories of Austro-Hungarian leaders such as the Count István Tisza and Count Ottokar Czernin
Ottokar Theobald Otto Maria ''Graf'' Czernin von und zu Chudenitz ( cs, Otakar Theobald Otto Maria hrabě Černín z Chudenic; 26 September 1872 – 4 April 1932) was an Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian diplomat and politician during the time of ...
, who sought to shift all of the responsibility for the war onto Germany.
Ritter argued there were no lines of continuity between the German Empire and Nazi Germany and considered the ''Sonderweg
(, "special path") refers to the theory in German historiography that considers the German-speaking lands or the country of Germany itself to have followed a course from aristocracy to democracy unlike any other in Europe.
The modern school of ...
'' view of German history
The Germani tribes i.e. Germanic tribes are now considered to be related to the Jastorf culture before expanding and interacting with the other peoples.
The concept of a region for Germanic tribes is traced to time of Julius Caesar, a Roman gen ...
to be a myth. Ritter clearly denied Fischer's arguments that both world wars were "wars for hegemony" on Germany's part.[Ritter, Gerhard "Anti-Fischer" pages 135-142 from ''The Outbreak of World War I'' edited by Holger Herwig, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997 page 142.] In 1964, Ritter successfully lobbied the West German Foreign Ministry to cancel the travel funds that had been allocated for Fischer to visit the United States; in Ritter's opinion, giving Fischer a chance to express his "anti-German" views would be a "national tragedy" and so Fischer should not be allowed to have the government funds for his trip to America. Writing in 1962, Ritter stated he felt profound "sadness" over the prospect that Germans may not be as patriotic as a result of Fischer.
The variety of outcomes
According to Richard J. Evans
Sir Richard John Evans (born 29 September 1947) is a British historian of 19th- and 20th-century Europe with a focus on Germany. He is the author of eighteen books, including his three-volume ''The Third Reich Trilogy'' (2003–2008). Evans was ...
, the outcome of the Fischer Controversy and of Ritter's role in it "only succeeded in giving Fischer's massive, scholarly and extremely detailed book a national prominence it would probably not otherwise have achieved".[Richard Evans, 'Reviewed Work: ''Gerhard Ritter: Geschichtswissenschaft und Politik im 20. Jahrhundert'' by Christoph Cornelissen', ''The English Historical Review'', Vol. 119, No. 482 (Jun., 2004), pp. 756-759.] Evans notes that after his death, Ritter was usually cast as the "villain of this affair, as Fischer's views, at least in their more moderate forms, gained widespread acceptance among a younger generation of historians".
A history book on Imperial Germany by Hans-Ulrich Wehler
Hans-Ulrich Wehler (September 11, 1931 – July 5, 2014) was a German left-liberal historian known for his role in promoting social history through the " Bielefeld School", and for his critical studies of 19th-century Germany.
Life
Wehler was bo ...
published in 1973 held that as a result of Fischer's theories, "two opposing schools of thought" formed. The first agreed with Fischer. The second, while admitting Fischer shows much political talk in high circles that sounds quite war-like, held that Fischer failed to find the actual political decisions and military actions that he claimed.
Professor Wolfgang Mommsen
Wolfgang Justin Mommsen (; 5 November 1930 – 11 August 2004) was a German historian. He was the twin brother of historian Hans Mommsen.
Biography
Wolfgang Mommsen was born in Marburg, the son of the historian Wilhelm Mommsen and great-grands ...
(1930-2004) was a German historian of Britain and Germany during the 19th/20th centuries. His 1990 work credits Fischer's work in part for opening up the discussion. Yet Mommsen characterizes Fischer's "central notion of Germany's will to power" circa 1911 to 1915, as being seriously flawed, as here Fischer "has allowed himself to be carried away". The nature of his methodology worked to obscure his perspective and, further, Fischer's conclusions displayed a neglect of the historical context. That is, Fischer blames Germany alone for a Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism refers to various theories and societal practices that purport to apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology, economics and politics, and which were largely defined by scholars in We ...
that was then European-wide.
, a British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
historian, served as a professor at Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, and currently at Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
. In his 1998 work on World War I entitled ''The Pity of War'', Ferguson reviews Fischer's claims about German objectives in a European war.
"Yet there is a fundamental flaw in Fischer's reasoning which too many historians have let pass. It is the assumption that Germany's aims as stated after the war had begun were the same as German aims beforehand." Professor Ferguson then recites how a September 1914 program of German aims "is sometimes portrayed as if it were the first open statement of aims which had existed before the outbreak of war.... But the inescapable fact is that no evidence has ever been found by Fischer and his pupils that these objectives existed ''before'' Britain's entry into the war.... All that Fischer can produce are the pre-war pipedreams of a few Pan-Germans and businessmen, none of which had any official status, as well as the occasional bellicose utterances of the Kaiser...."
Ferguson also criticizes Fischer for seizing on the notion that rightist office holders in Germany used an aggressive foreign policy in order to gain domestic political advantage over the German left. Such misuse of foreign policy, Ferguson notes, "was hardly the invention of the German Right," in effect repeating the charge made by Mommsen (see above) that Fischer neglected the historical context. In fact, rightist office holders in Germany were articulate and aware that a European war could lead to the ascendancy of the left, whether the war was won or lost.
Honored in America
In 1959, Ritter was elected an honorary member of the American Historical Association
The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...
in recognition of what the Association described as Ritter's struggle with totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regu ...
. Ritter was the fifth German historian to be so honored by the AHA, one of the last historians of the traditional German idealist
German idealism was a philosophical movement that emerged in Germany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It developed out of the work of Immanuel Kant in the 1780s and 1790s, and was closely linked both with Romanticism and the revolutionar ...
school, considered history as an art. He concerned himself with an imaginative identification with his subjects, focused on the great men of the times studied, and was primarily concerned with political and military events.[Levine, Norman "Ritter, Gerhard" pages 304-306 from ''Great Historians of the Modern Age'' edited by Lucan Boia, New York: Greenwood Press, 1991, pages 305-306.]
Bibliography
*''Die preußischen Konservativen und Bismarcks deutsche Politik, 1858 bis 1876'', 1913.
*''Luther: Gestalt und Symbol'', 1925.
*''Stein: eine politische Biographie'', 1931.
*''Friedrich der Große'', 1936.
*''Berthold Ritter zum Gedächtnis'', 1946.
*''Machstaat und Utopie: vom Streit um die Dämonie der Macht seit Machiavelli und Morus'', 1940, revised as ''Die Dämonie der Macht: Betrachtungen über Geschichte und Wesen des Machtproblems im politischen Denken der Neuzeit'', 1947.
*''Europa und die Deutsche Frage: Betrachtungen über die geschichtliche Eigenart des Deutschen Staatsdenkens'', 1948.
*''Die Neugestaltung Deutschlands und Europas im 16. Jahrhundert.'', 1950.
*''Karl Goerdeler und die Deutsche Widerstandsbewegung'', 1954.
*''Staatskunst und Kriegshandwerk: das Problem des "Militarismus" in Deutschland'', 4 volumes, 1954-1968.
** translated as ''The Sword and the Scepter: The Problem of Militarism in Germany'' (4 vol, University of Miami Press 1970)
vol 1 online
also
vol 2 online
*''Der Schlieffenplan: Kritik eines Mythos'', 1956.
* "Eine neue Kriegsschuldthese?" pages 657-668 from ''Historische Zeitschrift'', Volume 194, June 1962, translated into English as "Anti-Fischer: A New War-Guilt Thesis?" pages 135-142 from ''The Outbreak of World War One: Causes and Responsibilities'', edited by Holger Herwig, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1997.
Notes
References
* Dorpalen, Andreas "Gerhard Ritter" from ''Deutsche Historiker'', edited by Hans-Ulrich Wehler
Hans-Ulrich Wehler (September 11, 1931 – July 5, 2014) was a German left-liberal historian known for his role in promoting social history through the " Bielefeld School", and for his critical studies of 19th-century Germany.
Life
Wehler was bo ...
, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1973.
* Dorpalen, Andreas "Historiography as History: The Work of Gerhard Ritter" pages 1–18 from the ''Journal of Modern History'', Volume 34, 1962
in JSTOR
* Hamerow, Theodore S. "Guilt, Redemption and Writing German History" pages 53–72 from ''The American Historical Review'', Volume 88, February 1983
in JSTOR
* Kershaw, Ian ''The Nazi Dictatorship Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation'', London: Arnold Press, 2000, .
* Jäckel, Eberhard "Gerhard Ritter, Historiker in seiner Zeit" pages 705-715 from ''Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht'', Volume 16, 1967.
* Lehmann, Hartmut & Melton, James Van Horn (editors) ''Paths of Continuity : Central European Historiography from the 1930s to the 1950s'', Washington, D.C. : German Historical Institute ; Cambridge ngland; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1994 .
* Levine, Norman "Gerhard Ritter's ''Weltanschauung''" pages 209-227 from ''Review of Politics'', Volume 30, 1968
in JSTOR
* Levine, Norman "Ritter, Gerhard" pages 304-306 from ''Great Historians of the Modern Age'' edited by Lucian Boia, Westport, C.T.: Greenwood Press, 1991 .
* Maehl, William "Gerhard Ritter" from ''Historians of Modern Europe'' edited by Hans Schmitt, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1971 .
*Wolfgang Mommsen
Wolfgang Justin Mommsen (; 5 November 1930 – 11 August 2004) was a German historian. He was the twin brother of historian Hans Mommsen.
Biography
Wolfgang Mommsen was born in Marburg, the son of the historian Wilhelm Mommsen and great-grands ...
, ''Der autoritäre Nationalstaat'' (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch 1990), translated as ''Imperial Germany 1867-1918. Politics, culture, and society in an authoritarian state'' (London: Arnold 1995).
* Moyn, Samuel, “The First Historian of Human Rights,” ''American Historical Review'' 116:1 (2011), 58-79 ritical assessment of Ritter’s writings on the history of human rights in the 1940s and the field of human rights history
* Mruck, Armin: Review of ''Carl Goerdeler und die deutsche Widerstandsbewegung'' pages 268-269 from ''The Journal of Modern History'', Volume 30, Issue # 3, September 1958
*Hans-Ulrich Wehler
Hans-Ulrich Wehler (September 11, 1931 – July 5, 2014) was a German left-liberal historian known for his role in promoting social history through the " Bielefeld School", and for his critical studies of 19th-century Germany.
Life
Wehler was bo ...
, ''Das Deutsche Kaiserreich'' (Gőttingen: Verlages Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht 1973), translated as ''The German Empire 1871-1918'' (Providence: Berg 1985).
* Ulrich Bayer: ''Gerhard Ritter (1888-1967)''. In: Johannes Ehmann (Hrsg.): ''Lebensbilder aus der evangelischen Kirche in Baden im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert''. Band II: ''Kirchenpolitische Richtungen''. Verlag Regionalkultur, Heidelberg u.a. 2010, S. 391-415, .
* Christoph Cornelißen: ''Gerhard Ritter. Geschichtswissenschaft und Politik im 20. Jahrhundert''. Droste, Düsseldorf 2001, .
*
*
* Michael Matthiesen: ''Verlorene Identität. Der Historiker Arnold Berney und seine Freiburger Kollegen 1923 - 1938''. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (V&R) is a scholarly publishing house based in Göttingen, Germany. It was founded in 1735 by (1700-1750) in connection with the establishment of the Georg-August-Universität in the same city.
After Abraham Vandenhoec ...
, Göttingen 2001 (Ritter als Unterstützer des ab 1933 als Jude verfolgten Prof. Berney).
** Zur Kritik an Gerhard Ritters politisch-philosophischer Position siehe: 1) Johan Huizinga
Johan Huizinga (; 7 December 1872 – 1 February 1945) was a Dutch historian and one of the founders of modern cultural history.
Life
Born in Groningen as the son of Dirk Huizinga, a professor of physiology, and Jacoba Tonkens, who died two y ...
, In de schaduwen van morgen, Kap. 14 (deutsch: Im Schatten von morgen, in: Ders.: Schriften zur Zeitkritik, Pantheon-Verlag 1948); 2) Julius Ebbinghaus, Philosophie der Freiheit, Bonn 1988, S. 11 ff.
Further reading
* Boyd, Kelly. "Ritter, Gerhard A. 1888–1967 German political and cultural historian." ''Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing'' (Routledge, 2019) pp. 996-998.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ritter, Gerhard Georg Bernhard
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