Le « Sonderweg » de l'histoire allemande : mythe ou réalité ?

The ' 'Sonderweg ' ' of German History : Myth or Reality? The publication of a small book by two young English historians sparked a fierce debate among German historians and political journalists on the topic of the "Sonderweg" (particular course) of German history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Although the authors confined their attacks to the "myth of the failed bourgeois revolution" of 1848, they saw themselves suddenly confronted with severe criticism from progressive German social historians stressing the fact that without the explanatory model of the (negatively evaluated) "Sonderweg", it is impossible to explain the coming of Nazism. This article focuses on the empirical and theoretical dimensions of the problem. It is argued that the harshness of the debate can be understood only in the context of (1) the specific development of left-wing German historiography after Word War II under the impact of sociological middle-range theories reimported from the United States and (2) the national and political setting in which this form of histo­riography developed, virtually uninfluenced by Marxist approaches.Groh Dieter. Le « Sonderweg » de l'histoire allemande : mythe ou réalité ?. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 38ᵉ année, N. 5, 1983. pp. 1166-1187