Adolf von Harnack und die deutsche Politik 1890-1930

Adolf von Harnack, a church historian and academic organizer in Berlin, was one of the most influential persons in liberal Protestantism in Germany. Christian Nottmeier examines the connection between Harnack's outline for cultural theology and his political involvement after 1890. He begins by looking at the origins of Harnack's cultural theology as well as at those factors which influenced him politically before he was offered a professorship in Berlin in 1888. He then deals with his socio-political activities in the Protestant Social Congress and his activities in the field of academic policy, his thoughts on Catholicism and above all his integration into the network of government-friendly political scholars around 1900, and shows how with the help of his contacts to the Kaiser and the leaders of the Empire he tried enforce their cautious attempts to reform the Empire.