Germany’s New Sonderweg: Why the ‘Special Path’ Theory Matters in 2025

The concept of the German Sonderweg — a “special path” of German political development — has shaped debates in history for nearly a century.

Photo by Rasmus Gundorff Sæderup on Unsplash

Dear Reader,

The phrase deutscher Sonderweg — “the German special path” — once explained how a nation of poets and philosophers could fall for organised barbarism. In the 19th century, Germany modernised without democratising: industry boomed, but political power stayed with the Kaiser and Junker aristocracy. The middle classes enjoyed prosperity, but didn’t enjoy the same rights as their peers in the UK and France.

By the early 20th century, many educated Germans seemed content with wealth and deference rather than democracy. Historians later argued that this set the stage for the authoritarian temptations that destroyed Weimar.

Yet the Sonderweg wasn’t always seen as a bad thing. During the First World War, German intellectuals celebrated their country’s hierarchical order as a moral counterweight to what they saw as Western decadence. A German victory, they claimed, would replace the “destructive liberation” of 1789 with Prussian discipline.…