Germany versus Russia : a social history of the divide between East and West

• Main Author: Gassner, Florian
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/41530

The present study investigates European and in particular German representations of Russia in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Specifically, it discusses the image of Russia with regard to its influence on the formation of German identity. This dissertation demonstrates that cultural and intellectual distinction from an ‘Eastern’ Russia was pivotal for consolidating the ‘Western’ identity of Germans in the middle of the nineteenth century. The point of departure for this inquiry is the work of Larry Wolff, who argued that the origins of the modern east-west dichotomy lay in the late Enlightenment period. Wolff, however, by focusing on the history of ideas, describes but the first inception of this divide. This study, in contrast, through the example of Germany, discloses the socio-historical factors which led to the popularization and consummation of the distinction between Eastern and Western Europe in the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Thereby, it becomes evident that the modern east-west dichotomy was not the result of intellectual speculation, as Wolff asserts. Rather, its origins are inextricably linked to core processes in the formation of European civil society, such as the rise of the nation state idea, the popularization of liberalism, and the proliferation of racial chauvinism. Considering these factors helps fully appreciate the power of the modern east-west dichotomy and its sustained influence on German identity.