Germany's Two Unifications: Anticipations, Experiences, Responses New Perspectives in German Political Studies

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Germany's unique historical experience of undergoing national unification twice in a little over a century makes it a fascinating object of study. In Germany's Two Unifications these processes are analysed from the points of view of historians, political scientists and literary historians. In both unifications the core of the process was the replacement of multiple sovereignties by a single sovereignty. Although each unification enjoyed widespread popular assent at the outset, each led inevitably to a protracted process of re-negotiating loyalties and identities. Because each event had quite different historical pre-conditions (the first having been long anticipated and pursued, whereas the second took virtually all participants by surprise), the processes of adjustment to it have differed in many particulars. Yet in each case the idea of national unity has held sway powerfully as a norm guiding the responses of those involved.