Abstract
The first sentence of this book boldly announces a ‘radical reinterpretation of German history’ (p. 1). The book delivers nothing of the kind. The claim is apparently justified by the fact that Thomas Adam offers a ‘bottom up’ perspective on German history which he claims is usually written from the ‘top down’ and by the fact that it provides an alternative to the narrative of a German authoritarian special path (Sonderweg). Yet in reality Thomas Adam follows a well-established approach. The idea of a German Sonderweg has been under serious attack since the 1970s. Over the same period numerous scholars have explored the vitality of civil society in Germany and in the last few years transnational comparisons of Germany with Britain, France and the USA have become common. Adam himself invokes Jürgen Kocka’s work as an inspiration. But one might also think of David Blackbourn and Geoff Eley, Thomas Nipperdey and Lothar Gall, Helmut Walser Smith and William H. Hagen.
What Adam’s book does provide is an interesting and valuable overview of one particular aspect of the development of civil society in Germany: the history of philanthropy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The story begins with the transformation of philanthropy in the nineteenth century. Adam notes that the modern history of philanthropy built on a long tradition of endowments, foundations and associations that had medieval roots but which received a significant boost following the Reformation. Indeed the competition between Catholic and Protestants in the Holy Roman Empire seems to have greatly boosted philanthropy overall.
In the nineteenth century the traditional patterns began to break down, especially in relation to two significant innovations. The first was the creation of public art galleries and museums. The second was the ‘creation of limited-dividend stock companies, in which donor-investors forwent a certain share of their profit for philanthropic purposes’ (p. 8). The larger story of German philanthropy in the nineteenth century is the story of the competition between nobility and bourgeoisie for dominance in the creation of the first art galleries and museums. At first the field was clearly demarcated. In the royal and ducal cities and towns the ruling monarch or prince generally established all institutions and presided over, and contributed financially to, all philanthropic projects. In the non-royal cities, especially the former Imperial Cities, galleries and museums were founded by wealthy bourgeois or by associations of city burghers. Gradually, however, as the cost of such undertakings escalated, rulers and nobles were no longer able to afford them and their role declined somewhat as they enlisted the financial support of the bourgeoisie.
Secondly, Adam traces the development of philanthropy in higher education. The growing significance of education and university training led to the establishment of scholarships for those unable to afford fees. Significantly, these were not intended to promote social mobility and were more often than not restricted by gender, religion, class and geographic origin. The later years of the century saw the first scholarships for women and Jews.
Around 1900 philanthropy also extended to the creation and support of research institutes, for example in science (the Kaiser-Wilhelms-Gesellschaft, the forerunner of today’s Max-Planck-Gesellschaft) and archaeology (the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft). Adam shows how donors not only paid for research but also shaped its direction and, increasingly, in collaboration with the state, defined ‘national’ objectives. As in other countries, the late nineteenth century also saw the establishment of new foundations for poor relief and, especially, housing in most major cities.
Reviewing the extent of philanthropy on the eve of the First World War, Adam emphasizes its centrality to all German cities. Few sectors – from art galleries to botanical and zoological gardens, health and medicine, education, housing, health and welfare – were not in some way shaped by the money and the opinions of donors. Moreover, unlike charities in other countries, they operated largely free of state control.
That changed during the First World War. As the conflict deepened philanthropic assets were forcibly channelled into war bonds. While these initially offered relatively high rates of interest, Germany’s defeat changed the situation. Smaller foundations suffered acutely during the hyper-inflation of 1923–4 but German philanthropy across the board suffered a severe setback when the republican government decided to devalue its debt to war bond holders in 1925. It did not recover before the Nazi government imposed new constraints and indeed expropriated all Jewish foundations.
The foundations that remained often managed to survive in both the GDR and the FRG. There were no new endowments in the GDR, and in the FRG corporate donors rather than individuals dominated the scene from the 1970s and 1980s. As Adam notes, German philanthropy never again assumed the importance that it had on the eve of the First World War. Since 1990, for example, German universities in both East and West have struggled to develop the kind of alumni fundraising systems on which UK and US universities have become so dependent.
Adam’s book, clearly based on an immense amount of primary research, provides the first really comprehensive history of modern German philanthropy. It will be indispensable to anyone who is interested in the subject from now on. It also shows that there is no necessary link between the development of civil society and democracy. Indeed in this respect his research could be understood as confirming the very master narrative of German authoritarianism that he sets out to refute. Adam has not given us a ‘radical reinterpretation of German history’ (p. 1), but he has written a book that will greatly enrich the debate about the development of German society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.