One of the most frustrating parts of researching anything in German history is that it is primarily dominated by the twelve years of Nazi rule. If you visit any bookstore and browse the European history section, the only German history books you will find are World War II books, GDR books and perhaps, if you are lucky, one or two books about World War I and/or Imperial Germany.
What about all the history that happened before that? How about mediæval Germany? What happened to the time of great German philosophy of the last eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries? How about the Revolution of 1848? I bet most people don't even realise there was a revolution in Germany in 1848.
It is always very frustrating when you are having a discussion with someone and the first thing they ask you when you mention you are researching German history is something about the Nazis. Because of our modern obsession with that time period and that regime, it seems as though a lot of people are completely unaware that Germany has (or at least the German people have) been around for a very long time and there is an enormous amount of very interesting history there!
Next time German history comes up in any conversation, please do the Germans a favour and make it a point to emphasise other aspects of it and not just the Nazi period as well.
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