The Fate of the German Nobility in the Modern Epoch. Review of: Reif, H. (2012). Adel im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Reihe “Elitenwandel in der Moderne”. München: Oldenbourg.

Abstract

Review of: Reif, H. (2012). Adel im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Reihe “Elitenwandel in der Moderne”. München: Oldenbourg. This review studies a fundamental work of H. Reif, a leading German researcher of the history of the German nobility between the 18th and early 20th centuries. The book presents a general analysis of the transformation of the social status, intra- and inter-class ties, property, professional trajectories, political influence, values of the nobility in the context of modernisation processes, and the change of elites in Germany. This work is the most well-founded in the current historiography in this research field. Reif reevaluates some established historiographical settings; first of all, the theses about the “economic death” of the German landed nobility – junkers, the thesis of the nobility’s exclusive responsibility for the inability to self-reform Kaiser Germany. Reif puts forward an original concept of “nobility” as a basic element of class consciousness and political culture.

Keywords

• Германия
• дворянство
• консерватизм
• модернизация
• элита.