This is the first English-language collection of essays on modern German history with a generational theme. It analyzes the origins and impact of generation conflict from the eighteenth century to the 1960s student revolts. It adds to our understanding of generations as historical phenomena and elucidates why so often in modern German history generation conflict has overshadowed class conflict. It addresses the generational roots of National Socialism, and pays particular attention to gender and the development of East German society.

Mark Roseman is a software developer, entrepreneur, writer, and mental health advocate. He previously worked and published extensively on topics related to user experience and technology to support collaboration between groups of people, and founded two software startup companies. More recently, he has been supporting Pauline with her psychiatry practice.

1. Introduction: Generation conflict and German history 1770-1968 Mark Roseman; 2. The ideal of youth in late 18th-century Germany Joachim Whaley; 3. Young Germans and Young Germany: some remarks on the history of German youth in the late 18th and in the first half of the 19th century Rainer Elkar; 4. The battle for the young: mobilising young people in Wilhelmine Germany Jürgen Reulecke; 5. Jewish politics and generation conflict in Wilhelmine Germany Jacob Borut; 6. The 'Front Generation' and the politics of Weimar Germany Richard Bessel; 7. The 'New Woman' and generation conflict: perceptions of young women's sexual mores in the Weimar Republic Cornelie Usborne; 8. Generations of German historians: patronage, censorship and the containment of generation conflict, 1918-45 Peter Lambert; 9. Gender, generation and politics: young protestant women in the final years of the Weimar Republic Elizabeth Harvey; 10. The Hitler Youth generation and its role in the two post-war German states Alexander von Plato; 11. The BDM generation: a female generation in transition from dictatorship to democracy Dagmar Reese; 12. A generation twice betrayed: youth policy in the transition from the Third Reich to the Soviet Zone of Occupation 1945-6 Michael Buddrus; 13. The generation that never was: young labour in the Ruhr mining industry 1945-57 Mark Roseman; 14. The German Kriegskinder. Origins and impact of the generation of 1968 Heinz Bude.