Looking for notable history books, in German

by k_hopz

Guys, I'm hoping to do my post-graduate research on the Habsburg Empire and Central Europe. My German is quite good, I'd say I'm 75% of the way to my ultimate goal of fluency. I'd like to practice reading academic-level German which is quite different from conversational or literary German. I'm looking for notable examples of history written in German. If you know of anything relating to German or Austrian history that would be awesome, but honestly, any well-written or seminal works written in German would interest me. Danke.

radiev

So, I can tell you few things about Weimar Republic period as I am researching it now. Please note that I haven't read them yet as I collect the books and the material:

  • H. A Winkler books (Weimar 1918-1933, History of Germany, 2 volumes) are pretty good, his 3 volume work about Social Democracy (not sure if mSPD or mSPD and USPD) in Weimar Republic are considered as very good. Also, Winkler is a member of SPD.
  • Deutlev Peukert Die Weimarer Republik. Krisenjahre der klassischen Moderne isn't a new work but it's considered as innovative.
  • Ernst Nolte has published a book on Weimar also: Die Weimarer Republik. Demokratie zwischen Lenin und Hitler. Nolte is a conservative and has specific view on Sonderweg.
  • Horst Moller Die Weimarer Republik. Eine unvollendete Demokratie can be read as a beginner book
  • Sebastian Haffner
  • Eberhard Kolb Die Weimarer Republik seems to be a short textbook on Weimar times (I seen it in textbook section of Bonn Uni library).
  • Ursula Büttner Weimar. Die überforderte Republik 1918–1933 is mostly about politics, culture and society of Weimar.
  • Jost Hermand&Frank Trommler Die Kultur der Weimarer Republik is a very good book about Weimar culture and should be read together with Eric D. Weitz and Peter Gay books.
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Medieval (no particular order):

  • Classen, Peter. Kaiserreskript und Königsurkunde: diplomatische Studien zum Problem der Kontinuität zwischen Altertum und Mittelalter. Vyzantina keimena kai meletai 15. Thessalonikē: Kentron Vyzantinōn Ereunōn, 1977.

  • Angenendt, Arnold. Geschichte der Religiosität im Mittelalter. Darmstadt: Primus Verlag, 1997.

  • Grundmann, Herbert. Religiöse Bewegungen im Mittelalter: Untersuchungen über die geschichtlichen Zusammenhänge zwischen der Ketzerei, den Bettelorden und der religiösen Frauenbewegung im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert und über die geschichtlichen Grundlagen der deutschen Mystik: Anhang, Neue Beiträge zur Geschichte der religiösen Bewegungen im Mittelalter. Hildesheim: G. Olms, 1977.

  • Kern, Fritz. Gottesgnadentum und Widerstandsrecht im früheren Mittelalter: zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Monarchie. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1973.

  • Schramm, Percy Ernst. Kaiser, Rom und Renovatio: Studien zur Geschichte des römischen Erneuerungsgedankens vom Ende des karolingischen Reiches bis zum Investiturstreit. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1984.

HallenbeckJoe

For modern German history, I recommend Winkler's Der lange Weg nach Westen. It's a classic and a great place to start.

If you mostly care about reading in German, not necessarily on German history, Osterhammel's Die Verwandlung der Welt is a well-written, but long world history of the 19th century.