The two traditions of republicanism that took hold in Germany and the United States in the period from 1780 to 1840, as well as their patterns of historical development, show both similarities and major differences. The German tradition, much less known than its American counterpart, was recently summarized in a challenging article by Paul Nolte. In particular, Nolte argues that republicanism in Germany could not make the transition from classical republicanism to a more modern form, like the development that took place during the American Revolution. From the beginning German republicanism was much more premodern, local, communal, and hostile to the development of a modern market economy. The political thought of the leading German political theorist, Carl von Rotteck, for example, shows that German republicanism made only a halfhearted attempt to embrace modern liberal politics and capitalist economic concepts. Thus, according to Nolte, German republicanism before 1840 initially existed more to preserve the old local, communal order than to aid the birth of a new, modern world. After the paradigm shift of the 1840s German republicanism did not become a strong independent movement, nor did it find a strong ally in a vibrant liberalism; rather, it was soon displaced by rivals such as socialism and conservatism, and its notions of local political community and congruent rather than competing economic interests were overtaken by modern social concepts, such as the class antagonism of industrialized society.