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This accessible study traces the dramatic social, cultural and political tensions in Germany since 1918. It ranges from the self-destructive Weimar Republic, through the extremes of genocide and military aggression in the Nazi era, to the extraordinary political experimentation of division of the nation in the Cold War, culminating in the collapse of communist East Germany and unification with capitalist democratic West Germany in 1990. The first edition of this book - one of the very first to appear after the fall of the Berlin Wall, treating East and West German history in equal depth - offered a powerful interpretation of the dynamics of twentieth-century German history. It focused particularly on the role of elites, and on the implications of political dissent and opposition under changing socio-economic conditions and international circumstances. For the second edition, revisions have been made to incorporate the results of recent research, an epilogue covering the years 1990 - 2000 has been added, and the suggestions for further reading and the bibliography have been updated.