Germany has fascinated its own people as well as onlookers in the twentieth century because, unlike the history or national existence of other European states, its very being has been posed as a question. Why was there no unified German state until late in the nineteenth century? How did Germany become an industrial power? What responsibility does Germany bear for the two world wars? This study attempts to answer these and other fundamental questions through looking at the economic, social, political and cultural forces which have created modern Germany.