Fritz Fischer (March 5, 1908- December 1, 1999) was a German historian best known for his anlysis of the causes of World War I. Fischer was born in Ludwigstadt in Bavaria. His father was a railroad inspector. After being educated at grammer schools in Ansbach and Eichstätt, Fischer attended the University of Berlin and the University of Erlangen, who he studied history, pedagogics, philosophy and theology. In 1942, Fischer married Margarete Lauth-Volkmann who he had two children by. Fischer served in the German Army in World War Two. After his release from an POW camp in 1947, Fischer began serving as professor at the University of Hamburg, where he stayed until his retrement in 1978. In 1949, at the first post-war German historians' congress, in Munich Fischer strongly criticized the Lutheran tradition in German life, accusing the Lutheran church of glorifying the state at the expense of individual liberties and thus helping to bring about Nazi Germany. March 5 is the 64th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (65th in leap years). ... 1908 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... December 1 is the 335th (in leap years the 336th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Main article: World War I Princip being arrested after the shooting On June 28, 1914, Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated in Sarajevo in a conspiracy involving Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb student, and several others. ... With an area of 70,553 km² (27,241 square miles) and 12. ... There is no institution called the University of Berlin, but there are four universities in Berlin, Germany: Humboldt University of Berlin (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Technical University of Berlin (Technische Universität Berlin) Free University of Berlin (Freie Universität Berlin) Berlin University of the Arts (Universität der Künste Berlin) This is... Erlangen is a German city in Middle Franconia. ... German army refers to different armed forces through history: Reichswehr - 1918 to 1935 Wehrmacht - 1935 to 1945 Bundeswehr - 1955 to present This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... 1947 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1978 was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...

By 1961, Fischer who risen to professor emeritus at Hamburg University, rocked the history profession in 1961 with his first post-war book, Griff nach der Weltmacht: Die Kriegzielpolitik des kaiserlichen Deutschland 1914-1918 (Loosely translated as Grasping at Power: Germany's Aims in the First World War), in which he argued that Germany deliberately sought to bring about World War I in its quest for world power. For most Germans in 1961, it was acceptable to belive that Germany caused World War Two, but not World War One, which was regarded as a war forced on Germany. Fischer was the first German historian to publish documents showing the German chancellor Dr. Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg had plans in 1914 to annex all of Belgium, much of France and most of Russia. Furthermore, Fischer suggested that there was continuity in German aims from 1900 to the Second World War, meaning that in fact Germany was very much responsible for both world wars. These ideas were expanded in Fischer's books Krieg der Illusionen (War of Illusions), Bündnis der Eliten (From Kaiserreich to Third Reich) and Hitler war kein Betribsunfall (Hitler was no Industrial Accident). Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg (November 29, 1856–January 1, 1921) was a German politician and statesman who served as Chancellor of the German Empire from 1909 to 1917. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ...

Fischer was the first German historian to champion the Sonderweg (Special Path) interpretation of German history which holds that the way German culture and society developed from the Reformation on led inevitably to the Third Reich. In Fischer's view, German society moved forwards economically in the 19th century, but not polically. For Fischer, German foreign policy before 1914 was largely motivated by the efforts of the reactionarly German elite to distract the public from voting Social Democrat and to make Germany the world's greatest power at the expense of France, Britain, and Russia. Furthermore, for Fischer the same German elite that caused World War One also caused the failure of the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich. In Fischer's view, the traditional German elite was dominated by a racist, imperalist, capitalist and irrational ideology that was no different from the beliefs of the Nazis. For this reason, Fischer called Bethmann-Hollweg the "Hitler of 1914". The Protestant Reformation was a movement which began in the 16th century as a series of attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church, but ended in division and the establishment of new institutions, most importantly Lutheranism, Reformed churches, and Anabaptists. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... Social democracy is a political ideology emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism who believed that the transition to a socialist society could be achieved through democratic evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... The period of German history from 1919 to 1933 is known as the Weimar Republic (Pronounced Vye-Mar, and in German it is known as the Weimarer Republik). It is named after the city of Weimar, where a national assembly convened to produce a new constitution after the German monarchy... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...

Criticisms

Fischer stirred up much controversy with his books, particularly in Germany. So much anger was created that Fischer's Hamburg publishers office was fire-bombed. His works inspired other historians, such as Gerhard Ritter, to write their own works in direct response to Fischer's Thesis. Gerhard Albert Ritter (April 6, 1888-July 1, 1967) was an well-known German conservative historian. ...

Some critics contend that Fischer placed Germany outside the proper historical context. Germany was not uniquely aggressive amongst European nations of the early 20th century, a time when Darwinian ideals of struggle were popular throughout European governing circles. Fischer's time table has also been criticized. Hollweg's "September Programme" outlining German war aims was not produced until after the war had begun and was going well for Germany. At the same time, other powers had similarly grandiose plans.

Work

• Moritz August von Bethmann-Holllweg und der Portestantismus, 1938.
• Ludwig Nikolvius: Rokoko, Reform, Restauration, 1942.
• Griff nach der Weltmacht: die Kriegszielpolitik des Kaiserlichen Deutschland, 1914-18, 1961.
• Krieg der Illusionen: Die deutsche Politik von 1911 bis 1914, 1969.
• Bündnis der Eliten: Zur Kontinuität der Machstrukturen in Deutschland, 1871-1945, 1979.
• Hitler war kein Betrisbsunfall: Aufsätze, 1992.

Reference

• Fletcher, Roger Introduction to Fritz Fischer, From Kaiserreich to Third Reich, London: Allen & Unwin, 1986.
• Geiss, Imanuel, Studien über Geschichte und Geschichtswissenschaft, 1972.
• Geiss, Imanuel & Wendt, Bernd Jürgen (editors) Deutschland in der Weltpolitik des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts: Fritz Fischer zum 65. Geburtstag (Germany in the World Politcs of the 19th and 20th centuries: Fritz Fischer on His 65th Birthday), Düsseldorf: Bertelsmann Universitätsverlag, 1973.
• Moses, John The Politics of Illusion: The Fischer Controvesry in German Historiography, London: Prior, 1975.