It’s been a while since I updated this site. I’ve been very busy with writing, doing research, teaching, and happily fulfilling my duties as a young father. Unfortunately, updating this website was at the very bottom of my Что Делать-list.
But here’s some good news: even some liberals in the Netherlands are beginning to show interest in the German revolution. Interestingly enough, this echoes some of the primary responses of liberals witnessing the revolutionary events of November 1918. Nevertheless, one year later almost no one in Germany looked back on the revolution with pride. In the German politics and memory culture, the revolution was largely forgotten. The new ruling parties in the fresh Weimar Republic focussed on defending the republic, and commemorating its revolutionary roots did not fit in well with that strategy. The left wing radicals that had brought the revolution about were utterly disappointed by its betrayal and the failure to establish a socialist council republic.
You can read more about this in an article that I wrote for the journal Liberale Reflecties, that is affiliated to the scientific bureau of the Dutch liberal party (VVD). In the article (that is in Dutch), I reflect on the role of the German Revolution in the memory culture and historiography in Germany. One of my arguments is that the memory of the German Revolution has (until the past decade) always remained in the shadow of the Russian Revolutions.
You can find the article here: PDF
Enjoy!
Gaard Kets 