ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. This book defines the key concepts such as "popular liberalism", "Catholic rural bourgeoisie", "voluntary association", "marginality" and "subculture", and locates them in the particular conditions of the Greater Swabian region from the 1860s to the late 1920s. It describes the unique radical-liberal subculture in Greater Swabia and also describes the principal stages in the development of popular liberalism in south Germany from the mid nineteenth century to the final years of the Weimar Republic. The book shows how this unique radical-liberal subculture changed its form of representation from popular liberalism to National Socialism. It focuses on two key players: the local bourgeoisie and the local Vereine which, in the name of historical-cultural slogans such as "progress", "freedom", "people's community" and the "people", fought and challenged the local Catholic-Ultramontane forces.
