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Podcast: New Books in Western European Studies
Episode: Adam Bisno, "Big Business and the Crisis of German Democracy: Liberalism and the Grand Hotels of Berlin, 1875-1933" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
Description: Through the colorful world of Berlin’s grand hotels, this book charts a new history of German liberalism and explores the changing relationships among big business, society, and politics. Behind imposing facades, managers and workers were often the picture of orderly and harmonious service, despite living in sometimes uncomfortable proximity. Then, during World War I, class tensions rose to the surface and failed to resolve in the following years. Doubting the ability of the Weimar Republic to contain these conflicts, a group of hotel owners, some of the most prominent Jewish industrialists and financiers in the country, cho...