The Attack on Belgium and the Defence of “German Freedom”: German Historians and their Involvement in a War of Culture since August 1914

A key for understanding the reception of the WWI outbreak in Germany is the attitude held by German intellectuals. Many historians strongly supported the decisions of the German leadership through public interventions, providing an ideological foundation for the German policy. This attitude, in breach with professional standards, was directly related to their own perceived role in German society, through a constant interplay of historiographical self-mobilization and official mobilization. This attitude of German historians, still rooted for many years after the end of the conflict, partly exp... Mehr ...