Prof. Dr. Klaus Weber and Saimaiti Maimaitiming - Humiliation and Resentment: Anti-Western Ideology Transfers between Germany, China and Turkey, 1870s-1930s - Research Factory B/ORDERS IN MOTION

Anfangsdatum:
17.07.2024 16:15

Enddatum:
17.07.2024 17:45

Ort:
HG 109 (Senatssaal)

In scrutinizing illiberal and authoritarian anti-western ideologies during the heyday of overt imperialism, and in focusing on Germany, China and the Ottoman Empire, this project challenges established notions separating Europe from Asia. Elites in the Kaiserreich and in the Ottoman and Chinese Empire – three latecomers in both nation-building and industrialization – envied many of the achievements of Western countries, Britain and France in particular. But their attitudes towards ‘the West’ were vacillating between admiration and rejection, seeing French republicanism and frivolity, and British liberalism and naval power as a threat. In demonstrating that the ‘Sonderweg’ was not uniquely German, this research will overcome euro-centric perspectives still prevailing in this field of study, often underrating its eastern dimensions. It will also reveal continuities in authoritarian thought and cultural essentialism in Eurasian regions from the 19th century to the present day.