The German Empire owed its existence to a 'revolution from above' but in
time its citizens came to perceive it as the embodiment of the German
nation state. The power of the Prusso-German state - with its outward
splendour and military pageantry, and with the prestige that it began to
enjoy within the system of European states - gradually came to outweigh
older, more broadly based traditions of cultural identity.
The Imperial period saw the formation of all the principal institutional
structures that have continued to govern life in Germany, and the
foundations of present-day cultural life. Yet the German Empire never
broke free from the shackles of its origins; it remained a state
distorted by authoritarianism. All areas of life were affected -
politics, the economy, the arts, education, foreign policy (where an
aggressive Weltpolitik sought to secure domestic stability) - and a
widening gulf opened between the political system and society, putting
at risk the very governability of the Empire. It was in these conditions
that Germany went to war in 1914, a conflict that ended with the
collapse of the Hohenzollern monarchy and the revolution of 1918-20.