ABSTRACT
A word frequently used in connection with German history is ‘particularity’. It implies that German history took a distinctive course (Sonderweg) that marks it off from the history of other European nations and that carried within it the seeds of the calamitous events of 1933 to 1945. It is not intended here to consider the merits of various historical theories. Nevertheless, the idea of ‘particularity’ contains at least two major factors that indisputably affected the course of German history: first, the fact that Germany did not achieve statehood until very late and was in the words of the title of a much acclaimed book by Helmuth Plessner Die verspätete Nation (The Belated nation) (Plessner 1974); and, second, that a tradition of democratic government based on popular acceptance of this form of rule was unable to establish itself in Germany.
