ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a seminar of mainly non-specialists in Cambridge in early 1976. It explains the long-term origins of National Socialism to some critical scrutiny and in the process to clarify our understanding of the Wilhelmine right. The chapter deals with some suggestions for an alternative chronology of the right between the early-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. The new volatility of the rural electorate and the unprecedented truculence of German conservatism’s natural supporters created big problems for the right-wing parties at the very time when they most needed fresh reserves of popular support against the Social Democratic Party. The Pan-Germans and the naval enthusiasts were bitterly resented by the established party politicans, particularly as they legitimated their agitation from an angry critique of the latter’s inadequacy. The original impetus was provided by the Second World War, when the Allies had a pressing interest in finding historical justifications for their hostilities with Germany.
