Mitchell Allen, Michael Hughes, eds. German Parliamentary Debates, 1848-1933. New York: Peter Lang, 2003. 296 pp. $44.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8204-5049-0.

Reviewed by Markus Moesslang (German Historical Institute London)
Published on H-German (October, 2004)

This volume of translated parliamentary debates from the Frankfurt Paulskirche and the German Reichstag 1848-1933 presents the reviewer with a difficult task if he is to do justice to its editors. This is due not so much to the nature of the book as a source book as to the history of the volume itself. After the death of Michael Hughes in 1993, Mitchell Allen, who never actually met his co-editor, undertook the task of completing Hughes's project of editing the debates, five in all, compiled in this volume. As we learn from the preface, "all Professor Hughes had done were the rough translations of the debates" (p. vii). Allen was therefore commissioned by LaSainte Union College, Southampton, not only to finish Hughes's worthy undertaking but also "to complete this volume in a manner that would echo the views and sentiments of Dr. Hughes as closely as possible" (p. vii). Explaining his approach, Allen continues in his preface: "To this end, I read his published works and those secondary sources upon which he [Hughes] had taken notes. While this is hardly a foolproof method, there was little else that could be done" (p. vii). Given the extraordinary task of completing Hughes's work, Allen's hermeneutic agenda of following in Hughes's footsteps is understandable. It does not explain, however, the poor editorial standards of this volume.

While it is not unusual for editions of this kind to conceal the original sources from which the texts are drawn, it seems paradoxical that the only source which is given, i.e. the only one Allen could identify in "Hughes' box of materials," are "newspaper transcripts from the 1848 Frankfurt Parliament (cited as 'Migard' [sic!] in the 'Selected Works')" (p. viii). After checking the appendix "Selected Works" (pp. 289-90), one starts to have doubts about Allen's competence to edit translations of this sort. Allen obviously confused capital M and W written in German Fraktur so that he was unable to identify the politician and stenographer Franz Wigard, member of the Frankfurt Parliament 1848-49 and editor of the stenographic records of that assembly.[1] A further look at the German titles in the appendix confirmed the initial assessment of Allen's slackness. Superficial checking showed that no less than fourteen of the twenty German titles listed were incorrect.

One may argue that these mistakes are minor compared with the potential benefits of this edition in making available key debates of German parliamentary history to a non-German-speaking audience, not least students of German history. However, editions of historical texts, and even more so translations, should maintain a certain level of accuracy if readers are to use or even cite them with confidence. Names and dates are of course crucial. To give an example of Allen's inaccuracy: Peter Reichensperger, Deputy of the Centre Party and participant in the Reichstag debates on the anti-socialist law of 1878, is once named "Reichesperger" (p. 110) and once "Reichsperger" (index, p. 294). The debate itself is wrongly dated December 16-17 (pp. v, 109) instead of September 16-17, 1878.

The potential of this book becomes obvious when we look at the debates chosen. After the introduction, in which Allen gives an outline of the German parliamentary tradition since the early modern period, the volume starts with the debate of the Frankfurt National Assembly of October 26, 1848 which touches deeply upon the German question. The debate not only shows the complexity of the subject of Austria's role in a future unified Germany, but also the inability of the members of the Frankfurt National Assembly to work out a practicable and politically acceptable concept. Notably more used to parliamentary conventions than their predecessors of 1848 were the members of the German Reichstag which are presented in the second debate of this volume. The debate on the second draft of the anti-socialist law (bill against the dangerous activities of Social Democracy) of September 16 and 17, 1878 took place under the cloud of the assassination attempt on Kaiser Wilhelm I by Karl Nobiling. The fact that the measures proposed and subsequently passed against the socialist and communist movement undermined the state as founded on the rule of law itself explains to a certain extent the tensions which characterize this debate. The underlying ideological and social divisions between the members of the Reichstag of 1878 are also apparent in the debate on the enlargement of the German navy of June 12, 1900. As the debate illustrates, Germany's imperial designs were closely linked to questions of domestic reforms in a socially divided society. Nationalism and chauvinism, which ran through the majority of speeches, mirrored the Reich's foreign policy at the turn of the century. Equally telling for Germany's present and future international role is the Constituent National Assembly debate on the acceptance of the Treaty of Versailles of June 22, 1919, one day before the Allies' ultimatum expired. The enormous importance of the Treaty of Versailles for the further political developments of the Weimar Republic is anticipated in most contributions to this debate. The short debate of June 23--although included in the heading of this chapter--is only briefly summarized by Allen (p. 242). The volume closes with the notorious Reichstag debate on the Enabling Act of March 23, 1933.

On the whole Hughes's translations prove useful and read more or less coherently. It is nevertheless obvious that, as stated in Allen's preface, Hughes only drew up "rough translations" (p. vii). Due to the formal inadequacies of the volume, one is, of course, tempted to be overcritical, but throughout the translation, inaccuracies and inconsistencies in many instances not only fail to present the often tense atmosphere of the German original; they also affect the meaning. In the translation of Hitler's speech in the debate of 1933, for example, "nation" is used for both Volk and Nation (pp. 253-254) and Attentaeter are "criminals" (p. 253). In many cases addresses by the respective presidents referring to the agenda or calling upon the next speaker are omitted; in some instances these omissions are not marked by the editor. Particularly irritating are explanatory additions which are woven into the translation. Ueber die Boerse mag man denken wie man will is translated as "On the question of higher taxes on dealings in the Stock Exchange, you can think what you like" (p. 169); Sumpflanze is transformed into "'bog plant' or a 'poisonous tree'" (p. 169).

It is, of course, a monumental if not impossible task to come to terms with the German original--but co-editor Allen has done too little to improve the overall quality. In a note on the debate of 1919, for example, he tries to explain Wilhelm Kahl's way of speaking as follows: "Wilhelm Kahl was very old at the time [!] ... and his German is thus very old fashioned and convoluted in style" (p. 243). In fact Kahl was seventy-one at the time--not exactly a Methuselah--and the passage Allen refers to (p. 235), compared with passages before and afterwards, is not exceptionally complicated.

Given the various obvious mistakes and the passages of translation that appear at least arguable, one is not inclined to trust the translation as a whole. I would strongly recommend that this edition should only be used in comparison with the German original. With the exception of the debate of 1848, which is available in the 1979 reprint of Wigard's Stenographischer Bericht, all debates are included in two volumes edited by Axel Kuhn and Detlef Junker in 1970/71.[2] For the years 1867/71 to 1895 the minutes of the German Reichstag are also available online.[3] For the interested English-speaking (reading) audience, however, this edition clearly represents a missed opportunity.

Notes

[1]. Franz Wigard, ed. Stenographischer Bericht ueber die Verhandlungen der deutschen constituierenden Nationalversammlung zu Frankfurt a. M.. 9 vols (Frankfurt a. M.: Sauerlaender, 1848-1850). Reprint: Reden fuer die deutsche Nation 1848/49 (Munich: Moos & Partner, 1979-80).

[2]. Axel Kuhn, ed. Deutsche Parlamentsdebatten, Band I: 1871-1918 (Frankfurt a. M.: Fischer Buecherei, 1970); and Detlef Junker, ed. Deutsche Parlamentsdebatten, Band II: 1919-1933 (Frankfurt a. M.: Fischer Buecherei, 1971).

[3]. http://mdz.bib-bvb.de/digbib/reichstag/.

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Citation: Markus Moesslang. Review of Allen, Mitchell; Hughes, Michael, eds., German Parliamentary Debates, 1848-1933. H-German, H-Net Reviews. October, 2004.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=9893

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