Weimar Germany is often remembered as the ultimate political disaster, a democracy whose catastrophic end directly led to Adolf Hitler's rise. Invisible Fatherland challenges this narrative by recovering the nuanced and sophisticated efforts of Weimar contemporaries to make democracy work in Germany-efforts often obscured by the Republic's eventual collapse. In doing so, Manuela Achilles reveals a unique form of constitutional patriotism that was rooted in openness, compromise, and the capacity to manage conflict. Authoritative yet accessible, Invisible Fatherland contrasts Weimar's pluralistic democratic practices with the rigid tendencies in contemporary thought, including Rudolf Smend's theory of symbolic integration and Karl Löwenstein's concept of militant democracy. Both theories, though influential, restrict the positive potential of open, conflict-driven democratic processes. This study challenges us to appreciate the fundamental fluidity and pluralism of liberal democracy and to reflect on its resilience in the face of illiberal and authoritarian threats-an urgent task in our time.

‘Invisible Fatherland offers a brilliant reconceptualization of the history of Weimar Germany. Achilles highlights the patriots and public servants who created a democratic political culture. In doing so, she offers a bold challenge to the narrative of Weimar democracy's inevitable demise, which makes its ultimate end that much more tragic.'

Annemarie Sammartino - Oberlin College

‘Democracy-even in times of peace and stability-is hard work, work that requires the willingness to accommodate diverse and divergent perspectives and to reach compromise. Germany's first democracy, the Weimar Republic, forged out of wartime defeat and repeatedly challenged by political unrest and economic instability was, in Achilles's detailed and ambitious account, surprisingly inclusive and resilient. An essential history of political culture that will reshape Weimar historiography and inspire renewed empathy for embattled democracies in our own time.'

Jill Suzanne Smith - Bowdoin College