Retrospective Prophets: The Challenge of German History and German Exceptionalism Franz-Josef Deiters,Sprechen über Deutschland – vom Standpunkt der Religion. Vier Stimmen im Zeitalter der Weltkriege. Eine kulturwissenschaftliche Studie (Berlin: Erich Schmidt,2024)

Abstract

I take my title from Franz-Josef Deiters’ introduction to Sprechen über Deutschland – vom Standpunkt der Religion. Vier Stimmen im Zeitalter der Weltkriege (Talking about Germany – from the point of view of religion. Four voices in the Age of World Wars), four readings of German history written between 1914 and 1945. Three of these four readings take the form of retrospective prophecy in the threefold sense that defines the particular interest of Deiters’ study. Deiters rightly argues that the religious dimension has been neglected in the endless debates on German history and identity since 1945. Deiters reminds us just how central religion was to Max Weber's work and how central the issue of religion and secularization was to German social and cultural thought across the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century. In sum, Deiters maintains that the time has come to revisit cultural readings of German history in the Age of World Wars.