Page "Diplomatic history" Paragraph 8

At the same time, in 1961 when the German historian Fritz Fischer published Griff nach der Weltmacht, which established that Germany had caused the First World War led to the fierce " Fischer Controversy " that tore apart the West German historical profession.

One result of Fischer's book was the rise in the Primat der Innenpolitik ( Primacy of Domestic Politics ) approach.

As a result of the rise of the Primat der Innenpolitik school, diplomatic historians increasing started to play attention to domestic politics.

In the 1970s, the conservative German historian Andreas Hillgruber, together with his close associate Klaus Hildebrand, was involved in a very acrimonious debate with the leftish German historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler over the merits of the Primat der Aussenpolitik (" primacy of foreign politics ") and Primat der Innenpolitik (" primacy of domestic politics ") schools.

Hillgruber and Hildebrand made a case for the traditional Primat der Aussenpolitik approach to diplomatic history with the stress on examining the records of the relevant foreign ministry and studies of the foreign policy decision-making elite.

Wehler, who favored the Primat der Innenpolitik approach, for his part contended that diplomatic history should be treated as a sub-branch of social history, calling for theoretically-based research, and argued that the real focus should be on the study of the society in question.

Moreover, under the influence of the Primat der Innenpolitik approach, diplomatic historians in the 1960s, 70s and 80s start to borrow models from the social sciences.