According to Sebastian Haffner, the fate of the German Empire was determined by its foreign policy. The Bonn historian Klaus Hildebrand has presented, for the first time, a comprehensive work on the German nation-state within the web of European and overseas powers. This standard work is now available again in a new edition with an updated preface. "In sovereign mastery of the extensive literature and with a subtle understanding of the often highly complicated interconnections," judges the Frankfurt historian Lothar Gall, "Hildebrand always maintains a focus on the essential, on the central lines of development. Structures and personalities are equally given their due, and the twists, forks, and intersections on the ultimately fateful path from Bismarck to Bülow, from Stresemann to Hitler are described in detail, as well as the possibilities.".