THE SONDERWEG THESIS
 One of the most long-standing disputes among historians touches upon whether 19-th century Germany followed the ‘normal’ way of development or unlike other European countries (such as France and England) chose a ‘special path’ – a Sonderweg.  According to the thesis, the role of middle class in Germany was undermined, thus, it failed to throw off the monarchy and made for the rule of the longest autarky in Europe.
The Sonderweg helps to answer numerous questions concerning absence of the unified state till the end of the nineteenth century, background of German industrial progress and factors that contributed to the emergence of the Third Reich. What is more, the Sonderweg gives the most accurate interpretation of how Germany swerved from the normal course of European history. 
To perceive what the situation corresponded to those times one should go back in history and recall that while in the eighteenth century Germany was regarded as the "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation", at the beginning of the nineteenth century it was broken into pieces (thirty-nine separate states) and only under Bismarck’s rule they were united into the empire again. However, that was far from the previous good old Germany as the country was overflowing with non-German national minorities and it was difficult to determine what "German" actually meant. Even those who were natives encountered numerous limitations. For example, women rights were undermined by political, legal, and economic constraints. 
Still, the end of Bismarck’s empire led to further aggravation of the situation. Such standing issues were paid much attention as what was Germany and who could be called German. 
In addition, whereas in other countries political, economic and social spheres were in harmony, in Germany the main emphasis was placed on the economic development. Consequently, the middle class failed to carry out a bourgeois revolution there and Germany missed out of institution of liberal rights and freedoms in contrast to Britain and France, which brought in tragic results. 
	Weimar republic proved to be unable to create a community in which women, workers, and religious minorities could comfortably get along together. In fact, the existing community excluded many persons who regarded themselves as German, namely the German Jews (in Nazi racial theory they were defined as “something less than human”) and the Holocaust was a terrible attempt to extirpate the Jewish people (1, 2005).
Unlike other theories that explain the Holocaust as a defensive reaction to Soviet crimes (as Professor Ernst Nolte, for example) the Sonderweg suggest that the sources of Nazism go back to time before the World War One.  
This is best illustrated by Marion A. Kaplan's "The Making of the Jewish Middle Class" (1991) and Heinrich Mann’s "Man of Straw" (1984). 
In her book Marion A. Kaplan depicts the evolution of social role of Jewish women in Imperial Germany and gives insight into life of German-Jewish bourgeoisie. It was the time when “new options for girls and women was first explored” (2, 1991:26). Jews were trying to assimilate with Germans and to lessen differences that existed between them. Thus, they tried not only to behave like the German but also to introduce German customs and traditions into their own homes and families. As to women, they were “to act as cultural mediator between the intimate sphere of the family and society at large”(2, 1991:26). In other words, they had to raise their children as future members of bourgeois society and run their houses in cleanness and order meeting all settled moral criteria. Moreover, women were responsible for making their families familiar with German music and literature, and culture in a whole. 
To cut the long story short, the writer gives us an arresting picture of Imperial Germany where Jewish women played a significant role in formation of the Jewish middle class though not being fully accepted by the society and refused to be given equal rights. Thus, even in the nineteenth century we can witness development of racial and gender discrimination. 
Despite the fact that Jews made great efforts to reconcile with Germans and live in peace on their common land, they were excepted from the community life and their rights were often infringed. The historic evidence factually validates the conclusions drawn by Heinrich Mann in his groundbreaking novel "Man of Straw" (Der Untertan). Maybe that is why this novel had been banned before it was published and became extremely popular. 
 Literally ‘straw man’ is a dummy made of stuffed clothes for crow scaring. In our case it refers to people lacking willpower and not able to make their own decision but following the crowd. 
Perhaps, for people who know German the title is more perceivable as it also conveys the meaning of serving and being utterly devoted to the state. 
Particularly, the novel describes a life of obsequious and fanatical admirer of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Diederich Hessling. He is a radical nationalist and without any doubt can serve as an ancestor of as a prototype for the Nazis likewise blindly following state orders. When at school he begins to feel his superiority and priority of his race over others. Once he bullies a Jew in his class, and having won loud applause for such a courageous deed he realizes his strength. "He was acting on behalf of the whole Christian community of Netzig. How splendid it was to share responsibility, and to be a part of a collective consciousness"(3, 1884: 14).  
Thus, Heinrich Mann reveals the overall moral bankruptcy of the bourgeois class as well as vices and weaknesses of German society under the rule of Wilhelm II. 
His protagonist, Diederich Hessling is a critical allegory for the society in which chauvinism and jingoism arise. Throughout the novel his ideals are in wide discrepancy with his deeds: he claims value of bravery but is a coward himself; he supports the military but does not want to serve and seeks for possibility to be relieved from this duty. Often the writer compares this character either in words or appearance with another person also ‘man of straw’ - Wilhelm II. For instance, “It almost seems to me. You look so very much like - His...” (3, 1984:191). 
One would not argue that these words to the large extent correspond to the words of Robert Moeller relating to the latter who pinpointed the pathological imperium and mentioned the following:
 The infant Kaiserreich had suffered through a depressed and unhappy childhood, dominated by an authoritarian father. Even after 1896, a prosperous adolescence was not enough to undo the ravages of youth or loosen the repressive mechanisms of "preindustrial" elites. A cowardly bourgeois adult remained incapable of overthrowing the "pre-industrial" father, succumbing rather to abnormal "feudalization" (4,1984:300). 
 To cut the long story short, Heinrich Mann raises the question of nationalism and which role played race ad ethnicity in German history. Using one person as an example he describes the whole society of those days. In the future those imperceptible at the first view signs of racial intolerance grew into extermination of peoples and nations and appearance of processes that were later called the Holocaust and the Nazism and became the evil tokens of the twentieth century. 
 In conclusion, we feel strong to maintain that the Sonderweg thesis gives an accurate interpretation of German history of the nineteenth century. Germany has chosen its own path in history, which was different from that of Western Europeans. This can obviously explained by the fact that at the time when in France and Britain, for example, the middle class changed the rule and threw off the monarchy Germany was cut into pieces and the country of those days could hardly be called unitary. The notions ‘German’ and ‘Germany’ were so marred that this uncertainty has lead to Germans stressing their superiority over others in the form of chauvinism and jingoism. Deprived of the strong monarchy and left behind all-European bourgeois revolutions German believed that strong monarchy and army could provide it with a world power status. However, later on, it came out that benefits of the Sonderweg were far from being numerous and on the contrary did lots of harm to Germany both in material and spiritual aspects. Yet, scientists who reject the Sonderweg are deluded as the real facts are in favor of it. The Sonderweg is inseparably connected with German history though painful and difficult to bear with at times and two above-mentioned novels - Marion A. Kaplan's "The Making of the Jewish Middle Class" and Heinrich Mann’s "Man of Straw" are only some of its pages.
Bibliography
1.	A History of Modern Germany since 1815. Retrieved on September 27, 2005 from http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/10135/10135.intro.html
2.	Marion A. Kaplan, The Making of the Jewish Middle Class: Women, Family and Identity in Imperial Germany. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991, p. 26
3.	Heinrich Mann. Man of Straw. Penguin Books, London, 1984, p. 14, 191
4.	David Blackbourn and Geoff Eley. The Peculiarities of German History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984. Pp. viii, 300