The University of Central Florida's history honors society, Phi Alpha Theta, welcomed Dr. Eric Kurlander, Associate Professor and Chair of the Stetson University History Department, on Nov. 18.
Kurlander was invited to discuss his extensive research of liberalism and the discontinuity in Germany from 1933 to the end of the Nazi rule.
The speech titled "A ‘Special Path' Less Traveled: Liberals, Nazi Occultists, and the (Dis)continuities of German History," highlighted the key reasons, according to Kurlander, as to why Germany's political identity turned out the way it did leading up to the Nazi regime.
The lecture began when Amelia H. Lyons, Assistant Professor in UCF's History Department, introduced Kurlander briefly to the small crowd.
Members of Phi Alpha Theta raise their own money to have historians like Kurlander lecture on campus.
He introduced his topic by establishing that his research attempts to tie together the themes of history with his own theoretical approach.
Kurlander aimed to discuss the continuity, discontinuity, and lack of a revolution in Germany. All of these are topics Kurlander further discusses in his book "Living with Hitler: Liberal democrats in the Third Reich."
Kurlander said he believed that liberalism wasn't in complete conflict with socialism. Being a liberal and a nationalist was not mutually exclusive in Germany.
He explained that instead of liberals leaving Germany because of its new form of government, they stayed and accepted the new political identity being formed.
He concluded that Germany's weak liberalism compared to other western nations and neo-romantic ideas left Germany's liberalism susceptible to Fascism.
Kurlander emphasized that there were some parallels in other countries' histories, but at some point Germany took a different path. Other countries were having revolutions involving an uprising of the middle class, yet Germany was not.
"People who shouldn't, had far too much influence in government. Germany was run by aristocrats who should have been wiped out by a bourgeois revolution, " said Kurlander.
According to Kurlander, German aristocrats pushed for more imperialist policies during WWI. Kurlander continued by saying that German elites didn't give up power and thus focused upon imperialism to subsidize exploitation at home by exploiting abroad.
Kurlander furthered on his clarification of German imperialism by incorporating how the motives of German aristocrats were not far different from the motives of Nazis.
"Even German liberals didn't believe anyone could be a German, unlike the French who believed any one who could be French," Kurlander said.
Unlike the rest of the countries involved in the imperialist movement, Germany didn't want African colonies, they wanted to move east, Kurlander explained.
This made the distinction between Germany and other western nations motives more clear.
Kurlander brought up what other historians thought of the discontinuities in German History.
"Some argued that Germany faced problems because it was too modern," Kurlander said. "History is not objective, it can be shaped into almost anything depending on how and where you do your research,"
Towards the end of the lecture, Kurlander discussed what he believed to be correlations between the peculiarities of post WWI Germany and current American politics after 9/11.
Drew Fedorka, 20, a history major was glad that Kurlander made the topic relevant to U.S. politics.
"Any history can be made relevant," Fedorka said.
Kurlander ended his speech by providing time for questions. A few students asked for clarifications, while most wanted to continue discussing the parallels between the political ideology in the Weimar Republic and the politics of post-9/11 America.
Chris Burns, 31, a junior majoring in history said "[I] wished more people turned out, we bring in professors from other schools and it basically becomes a free lecture."
Burns is also the secretary of UCF's Phi Alpha Theta Chapter.
After the question-and-answer session had concluded, people stayed to continue discussing Kurlander's views on American politics.
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