Germany's unique historical experience of undergoing national unification twice in a little over a century makes it a fascinating object of study. In this volume the processes of unification are analysed from the point of view of historians, political scientists and literary historians. Because each event had quite different historical pre-conditions (the first having been long anticipated and pursued, whereas the second took virtually all participants by surprise), the processes of adjustment to it have differed in many ways. Yet in each case the idea of national unity has held sway powerfully as a norm guiding the responses of those involved.

The Concept of National Unification; J.Breuilly & R.Speirs Beginning and End? The To German Unifications and the Epoch of Territoriality; J.Paulmann Illegitimate Unions? German and European Unifications Viewed in Comparative Perspective; L.McFalls Cultural Critique in the Two Unificationsof Germany; S.Brockmann Identity in Difference: Collective Symbols and the Interplay of Discourses in the Two German Unifications; R.Parr Nationalism and the First Unification; J.Breuilly How did German Federalism Shape Unification?; A.Green 'Something Magical in the Name of Prussia...' British Perceptions of German Nation Building in the 1860s; J.Retallack For Country, Court and Church: The Bavarian Patriots' Party and Bavarian Regional Identity in the Era of German Unification; E.Fink The Structure of German National Consciousness: Protestants, Catholics and Jews, 1871; H.W.Smith German Literature and the Foundation of the Second Empire; R.Speirs Provincialism, Private Life and the Marginal Hero: Germany After Unification in the Works of Gustav Freytag, Friedrich Spielhagen and Paul Heyse; E.Griffiths Theodor Fontane: Post-War Novelist; J.Osborne Nationalism in the Second German Unification; M.Fulbrook Historians, Unification and the 'New National Paradigm'; C.Ross Cultural Polarities? Grass, Walser, Wolf: Reflections on the Process of Unification; M.Butler From a 'Multinational Republic' to 'The Promised Land': Journals and Unification; K.Von Oppen Conclusion; J.Breuilly Outline Chronology Further Reading