Vaynrikh A. The First World War and the Weimar Republic. Interpretations, readings and versions

Abstract: This article analyses the achievements of German historiography in elucidating the role of historical memory of the First World War in the life of the Weimar republic. The author critically reviews a series of conceptions made popular in recent years, summarising the results of the new approaches to the history of this great war. Noting the positive influence of the culturological turn in historical studies, the author addresses the complex question of the formation and evolution of political myths which played a particularly significant role in the German mass conscience during the interwar period. Examining historical memory inevitably poses the rather politicised problem of continuity and of the particularities of Germany’s historical path during the last two centuries. After citing the most intrinsic arguments of the main historiographical lines on this subject, the author presents a critical analysis of them. The author also addresses in detail the particularities of the used terminology and of source interpretations, selected on the basis of a priori advanced hypotheses. From the study’s results the author comes to the conclusion that historiography has overcome the previous stereotypes, but notes the necessity for additional studies in bridging the comfortable yet simplifying interpretations of the history of the Weimar republic and of the radical militarist organisations operating within it, for which today all the necessary foundations have been laid.

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