Suggested Readings in German Politics

This page includes suggested readings on each of the following topics on German society and politics. The list is updated from Russell Dalton, Politics in Germany--Online Edition.

Politics in Germany: The Online Edition

  • Historical Background
  • The German Democratic Republic
  • German Unification
  • Political Institutions
  • The Social and Economic Context
  • Political Culture
  • Political Learning/Communication
  • Political Participation
  • Elite Politics
  • Interest Groups
  • The Party System and Elections
  • Policy Process
  • Policy Performance
  • Back to German Politics Page

  • Historical Background

    History Place--Online Information on Third Reich
    Art, David. THe Politics of the Nazi Past in Germany and Austria. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
    Backer, John. The Decision to Divide Germany. Durham: Duke University Press, 1978.
    Blackbourn, David and Geoff Eley, The Peculiarities of German History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.
    Bracher, Karl. The German Dictatorship: The Origins, Structure, and Effects of National Socialism, 1919-1933. New York: Praeger, 1970.
    Broszat, Martin. Hitler and the Collapse of Weimar Germany. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987.
    Childers, Thomas. The Nazi Voter: The Social Foundations of Fascism in Germany, 1919-1933. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983.
    Childers, Thomas and Jane Caplan, eds. Reevaluating the Third Reich. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1993.
    Craig, Gordon. Germany, 1866-1945. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.
    Fest, Joachim. Hitler. New York: Random House, 1975.
    Fullbrook, Mary. History of Germany, 1918-2008: The Divided Nation, 3rd edition. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2008.
    Golay, John Ford. The Founding of the Federal Republic of Germany. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958.
    Hamilton, Richard. Who Voted for Hitler. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982.
    Hanreider, Wolfram. The Stable Crisis. New York: Harper & Row, 1970.
    Hilberg, Raul. The Destruction of the European Jews, revised ed. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1985.
    Hoffmann, Peter. The History of the German Resistance, 1933-1945. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1977.
    Hoffmeister, Gerhardt, and Tubach, Frederic. Germany: 2000 Years, vol 3. New York: Ungar.
    Merkl, Peter. The Origin of the West German Republic. New York: Oxford University Press, 1963.
    Orlow, Dietrich. A History of Modern Germany, 7th ed. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 2011.
    Sheehan, James. German History 1770-1866. New York: Oxford University Press.
    Spielvogel, Jackson. Hitler and Nazi Germany: A History, 5th edition. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2004.
    Tent, James. Mission on the Rhine: Reeducation and Denazification in American­Occupied Germany. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983.
    Toland, John. Adolf Hitler. Garden City: Doubleday, 1976.
    Turner, Henry. Germany from Partition to Unification. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.
    Smith, Helmut Walser, ed. The Oxford Handboo of Modern German History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

    German Democratic Republic

    Childs, David. The GDR: Moscow's German Ally, rev. ed. London: Hyman, 1988.
    Dennis, Michael. The German Democratic Republic. London: Pintor Publishers, 1988.
    Edwards, G. E. GDR Society and Social Institutions: Facts and Figures. London: Macmillan, 1985.
    Fulbrook, Mary. Anatomy of a Dictatorship: Inside the GDR, 1949-1989. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
    Kopstein, Jeffrey. The Politics of Economic Decline. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1997.
    Krisch, Henry. German Politics Under Soviet Occupation. New York: Columbia University Press, 1974.
    Krisch, Henry. The German Democratic Republic: The Search for Identity. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1985.
    McAdams, James. East Germany and the West: Surviving Détente. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
    McAdams, James. Germany Divided: From the Wall to Unification. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993.
    McAdams, James. Judging the Past in Unified Germany New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
    Murphy, Kondrashev and Bailey, Battleground Berlin: CIA vs. KGB. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.
    Rueschemeyer, Marilyn, and Christiane Lemke, eds. The Quality of Life in the German Democratic Republic. New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1989.
    Sanford, Gregory. From Hitler to Ulbricht. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    German Unification

    Anderson, Jeffrey, and Eric Langenbacher. From the Bonn to the Berlin Republic: Germany at the Twentieth Anniversary of Unification. Oxford: Berghahn, 2010.
    Ash, Timothy Garton. In Europe's Name: Germany in a Divided Continent. New York: Random House, 1993.
    Darnton, Robert. Berlin Journal: 1989-1990. New York: Norton, 1991.
    Hancock, M. Donald, and Helga Welch, eds. German Unification: Process and Outcomes. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994.
    Huelshoff, Michael, Andrei Markovits, and Simon Riech, eds. From Bundesrepublik to Deutschland: German Politics After Unification. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993.
    Jarausch, Konrad. The Rush to German Unity. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
    Larres, Klaus. Germany since Unification: The Development of the Berlin Republic. New York: Palgrave, 2001.
    Maier, Charles. Dissolution: The Crisis of Communism and the End of East Germany. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997.
    Merkl, Peter. German Unification in the European Context. University Park: Pennsylvania State University, 1993.
    Vat, Dan van der. Freedom was Never Like This: A Winter's Journey in East Germany. London: Hodder and Strughton, 1991.
    Young, Brigitte. Triumph of the Fatherland: German Unification and the Marginalization of Women Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999.

    Political Institutions

    Glees, Anthony. Reinventing Germany: German Political Development Since 1945. Oxford and Washington, Berg Publishers, 1996.
    Gunlicks, Arthur. The Lander and German Federalism. London: Macmillan, 2003.
    Kommers, Donald and Russell Miller. Constitutional Jurisprudence of the Federal Republic, 3rd ed. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2012.
    Loewenberg, Gerhard. Parliament in the German Political System. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1966.
    Rogowski, Ralf. Constitutional Courts in Comparison: The US Supreme Court and the German Constitutional Court. Berghahn Publishers, 2002.
    Rowe, Carolyn, and Wade Jacoby. German Federalism in Transition. London: Routledge, 2009.
    Thaysen, Uwe; Davidson, Roger; and Livingston, Robert, eds. The U.S. Congress and the German Bundestag: A Comparison. Boulder: Westview Press, 1990.

    The Social and Economic Context

    Alba, Richard, Peter Schmidt, and Martina Wasmer, eds. Germans or Foreigners? Attitudes toward Ethnic Minorities in Post-reunification Germany. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
    Flockton, Chris, Eva Kolinsky, Rosalind Pritchard, ed. The New Germany in the East: Policy Agendas and Social Developments since Unification. Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 2000.
    Germany and Gender: The Effects of Unification on German Women in the East and West, special issue of German Society and Politics 24-25 (Winter 1991).
    Hardach, Karl. The Political Economy of Germany in the Twentieth Century. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.
    Hollifield, James. Immigrants, Markets and States. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993.
    Kolinsky, Eva, ed. Social transformation and the family in post-Communist Germany. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1998.
    Streeck, Wolfgang. Re-Forming Capitalism: Institutional Change in the German Political Economy. Oxford University Press, 2009)
    Young, Brigitte. Triumph of the Fatherland: German Unification and the Marginalization of Women. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999.

    Political Culture

    Almond, Gabriel, and Sidney Verba. The Civic Culture. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963.
    Ardagh, John. Germany and the Germans. New York: Harper and Row, 1987.
    Baker, Kendall, Russell Dalton, and Kai Hildebrandt. Germany Transformed: Political Culture and the New Politics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981.
    Conradt, David. "The Changing Political Culture," in The Civic Culture Revisited, eds. Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba. Boston: Little, Brown, 1980.
    Dahrendorf, Ralf. Society and Democracy in Germany. New York: Doubleday, 1967.
    Inglehart, Ronald. Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.
    Jarausch, Konrad. After Hitler: Recivilizing Germans, 1945-1995. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
    Klingemann, Hans-Dieter, and Dieter Fuchs, eds. Citizens and the State. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
    Markovits, Andrei, and Simon Reich, The German Predicament: Memory and Power in the New Europe. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997.
    Merritt, Anna, and Richard Merritt. Public Opinion in Occupied Germany; The OMGUS Surveys, 1945­1949. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1970.
    Merritt, Anna, and Richard Merritt. Public Opinion in Semisovereign Germany: The HICOG Surveys, 1949­1955. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1980.
    Wittlinger, Ruth. German National Identity in the Twenty-first Century: A Different Republic After All?. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

    Political Learning and Political Communication

    Fishman, Sterling, and Lothar Martin. Estranged Twins: Education and Society in the Two Germanies. New York: Praeger, 1987.
    Hearnden, Arthur. Education, Culture, and Politics in West Germany. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976.
    Humphries, Peter. Media and Media Policy in Germany: The Press and Broadcasting since 1945, rev. ed. New York and Oxford: Berg Publishers, 1994.
    Max Planck Institute. Between Elite and Mass Education. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1982.
    Rodden, John. Repainting the Little Red Schoolhouse: A History of Eastern German Education, 1945-1995. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
    Rosalind Pritchard, Reconstructing Education: East German Schools and Universities after Unification. New York : Berghahn Books, 1999.
    Semetko, Holli, and Klaus Schoenbach. Germany's 'Unity' Election: Voters and the Media. Cresskill,k NJ: Hampton Press, 1994.
    Stahl, Walter ed. Education for Democracy in West Germany. New York: Praeger, 1961.

    Political Participation

    Barnes, Samuel, Max Kaase, et al. Political Action: Mass Participation in Five Western Democracies. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1979.
    Dalton, Russell. Citizen Politics: Public Opinion and Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Democracies, 6th ed. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2013.
    DeBardeleben, Joan and Jon Pammett, eds. Activating the Citizen: Dilemmas of Participation in Europe and Canada. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
    Gabriel, Oscar, Silke Keil and Eric Kerrouche, eds. Political Participation in France and Germany. Colchester, UK: ECPR Press, 2012.
    Huber, Sandra, et al. Turnout in Germany: Citizen Participation in State, Federal and European Elections since 1979. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2007.
    Jennings, M. Kent; Jan van Deth, et al. Continuities in Political Action: A Longitudinal Study of Political Orientations in Three Western Democracies. Berlin/New York: de Gruyter. 1989.
    Koch, Achim, Martina Wasmer and Peter Schmidt, eds. Politische Partizipation in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Empirische Befunde und theoretische Erklärungen. Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 2001.

    Elite Politics

    Aberbach, Joel, Robert Putnam, and Bert Rockman. Bureaucrats and Politicians in Western Democracies. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981.
    Adenauer, Konrad. Memoirs, 3 vol. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1965.
    Brandt, Willy. People and Politics: The Years 1960-1975. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1978.
    Dahrendorf, Ralf. Society and Democracy in Germany. New York: Doubleday, 1967.
    Deutsch, Karl, and Lewis Edinger. Germany Rejoins the Powers: Mass Opinion, Interest Groups, and Elites in Contemporary German Foreign Policy. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1959.
    Rohrschneider, Robert. Learning Democracy: Democratic and Economic Values in Unified Germany. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999).

    Interest Groups

    Berghahn, Volker, and Detlef Kartsen. Industrial Relations in West Germany. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 1988.
    Braunthal, Gerard. The Federation of German Industry in Politics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1965.
    Cooper, Alice. Paradoxes of Peace: German Peace Movements since 1945. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996.
    Goeckel, Robert. The Lutheran Curch and the East German State: Political Conflict and Change Under Ulbricht and Honecker. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992.
    Katzenstein, Peter, ed. Industry and Politics in West Germany: Toward the Third Republic. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989.
    Koopmans, Ruud. Democracy from Below: New Social Movements and the Political System in West Germany. Boulder: Westview Press, 1995.
    Markovits, Andrei. The Politics of the West German Trade Unions: Strategies of Class and Interest Representation in Growth and Crisis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
    Padgett, Stephen. Organizing Democracy in Eastern Germany. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
    Piazza, James. Going Global: Unions and Globalization in the United States, Sweden, and Germany. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2002.
    Schmitter, Philippe, and Gerhard Lehmbruch. Trends Toward Corporatist Intermediation. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1981.
    Thelen, Kathleen. Union in Parts: Labor Politics in Postwar Germany. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991.

    Party System and Electoral Politics

    Braunthal, Gerhard. The German Social Democrats since 1969. Boulder: Westview Press, 1993.
    Clemens, Clayton, and Thomas Saalfeld, eds. The 2005 Bundestagswahl, a special issue of German Politics (December 2006) 15: 335-535.
    Hampton, Mary, and Christian Soe, eds. Between Bonn and Berlin: German Politics Adrift? Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999.
    Langenbacher, Eric, ed. Between Left and Right: The 2009 Bundestag Elections and the Transformation of the German Party System. Brooklyn, NY: Berghahn, 2010.
    Less, Charles. Party Politics in Germany: A Comparative Politics Approach. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
    Margit Mayer and John Ely, eds. The German Greens: Paradox Between Movement and Party. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998.
    Padgett, Stephen, and Thomas Saalfeld, eds. Bundestagswahl '98: End of an Era?. Portland: Frank Cass, 2000.
    Patton, David. Out of the East: From PDS to Left Party in Unified Germany. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2011.
    Poguntke, Thomas. Alternative Politics: The German Green Party. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press, 1993.
    Roberts, Geoffrey. German Electoral Politics. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006.
    Veen, Hans-Joachim, Norbert Lepszy, and Peter Mnich, Die Republikaner Party in Germany: Right-wing Menace or Protest Catchall? Westport, CT: Praeger, 1993.
    Weßels, Bernhard, Hans Rattinger, Sigrid Roßteutscher, and Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck, eds., Voters on the Move or on the Run? Information-processing and Vote Choice in a Complex World. Oxford University Press, 2013.

    Policy Process

    Blondel, Jean, and Ferdinand Mueller-Rommel, eds. Decision Making in West European Cabinets. London: Macmillan, 1991.
    Braunthal, Gerhard. The West German Legislative Process: A Case Study of Two Transportation Bills. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1972.
    Johnson, Nevil. Government in the Federal Republic: The Executive at Work, 2nd ed. Oxford: Pergammon, 1983.
    Kommers, Donald. Constitutional Jurisprudence of the Federal Republic of Germany Durham: Duke University Press, 1989.
    Mayntz, Renate. "Executive Leadership in Germany: Dispersion of Power or Kanzlerdemokratie?" in Presidents and Prime Ministers, Richard Rose and Ezra Suleiman. Washington: American Enterprise Institute, 1980.

    Policy Performance

    Crawford, Beverly. Power and German Foreign Policy: Embedded Hegemony in Europe. London: Palgrave, 2007.
    Dyson, Kenneth and Stephen Padgett, eds. The Politics of Economic Reform in Germany. London: Routledge, 2009.
    Dyson, Tom. The Politics of German Defense and Security: Policy Leadership and Military Reform in the post-Cold War Era. Berghahn, 2007.
    Flockton, Chris. The New Germany in the East: Policy Agendas and Social Developments since Unification. London: Frank Cass, 2000.
    Eberwein, Wolf-Dieter and Karl Kaiser. Germany's New Foreign Policy: Decision-Making in an Interdependent World. New York: Macmillan Palgrave, 2001.
    Geddes, Andrew. The Politics of Migration and Immigration in Europe. Sage Publications, 2003.
    Green, Simon and William Patterson, eds. Governance in Contemporary Germany. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
    Gunlicks, Arthur, ed. German Public Policy: Current Debates on Political, Legal and Social Issues. Berghahn Publishers, 2004.
    Haeusermann, Silja The Politics of Welfare State Reform in Continental Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
    Joppke, Christian, Immigration and the Nation-State: The United States, Germany, and Great Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
    Kahn, Charlotte. Ten Years of German Unification: One State, Two Peoples. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2000.
    Lahav, Gallya. Immigration and Politics in the New Europe: Reinventing Borders. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
    Larres, Klaus. Germany since Unification: The Development of the Berlin Republic. New York: Palgrave, 2001.
    Mey, Holger. German Security Policy in the 21st Century. Berghahn Publishers, 2004.
    Padgett, Stephen et al., ed. Developments in German Politics 4. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
    Reutter, Werner, ed. Germany on the Road to Normalacy: Policies and POlitics of the Red-Green Federal Government. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
    Siebert, Horst. The German Economy: Beyond the Social Market. Princeton University Press, 2005.
    Sinn, Hans-Werner, Can Germany Be Saved?: The Malaise of the World's First Welfare State. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2007.
    Sperling, James, Peter. The Federal Republic at Fifty-five: Berline is nicht Bonn?. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press, 2005.
    Vail, Mark. Recasting Welfare Capitalism: Economic Adjustment in Contemporary France and Germany. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2010.

    October 22, 2014