History Of Germany 1918 – 1949 1918 In The First World War Is Finally Over As Punishment For Losing Germany’s Two Wartime Allies The Austro-Hungarian And Ottoman Empires Were Carved Up Shortly Afterwards The Pressures Of Defeat Plunged Germany.
Into Chaos And As A Result The Kaiser Abdicated Revolution And Counter-Revolution Were The Order Of The Day And In The Small Town Of Weimar Berlin Was Too Dangerous The Weimar Republic Was Declared The Next Year The Allies Signed The Treaty Of Versailles.
Which Dictated The Terms Of Allied Victory This Territory Was Lost And The Rhineland Was Occupied By The Allies Germany Further Had To Reduce Its Military Massively Pay War Reparations And Also Had To Accept Almost Full Responsibility For.
Treaty of Versailles Impact
The War’s Outbreak So This New Weimar Republic Is One Of The Most Democratic Nations In The World At That Point Suffrage Was Granted To Everyone Over The Age Of 20 Including Women The German People Could Vote On Two Aspects Of The National Government Every Seven Years They Voted On A President Who Presided Over.
The German Parliament The Reichstag Every Four Years People Would Vote For Political Parties In National Elections For The Reichstag Virus System Known As Proportional Representation Whereby The Percentage Of Votes Nationally Dictated Percentage Of Seats In The Reichstag The President Could Call Elections Whenever He Felt.
And Also Had The Important Job Of Appointing The Chancellor Who Ran The Government And Could Proposed Laws These Laws Had To Be Passed By A Majority Vote In The Reichstag And Since No Party Ever Got 50 Of The Seat That Meant The Parties Would Have To Cooperate No Democracy Did Not Guarantee Harmony.
Weimar Republic Challenges
And There Was Numerous Attempts At Revolutions Such As The Quickly Aborted Socialist Republic Of Bavaria And The 1920 Revolution Led By Dr Wolfgang Cap Seized Berlin And The German Army Refused To Attack Him Because.
There Was A Strong Belief That Germany Had Only Lost The War Due To Political Betrayal Cap’s Revolution Was Only Ended By A General Strike Which Crowned The Country To A Halt This Turmoil Did Not Help The German Economy And Eventually Germany Missed A War Payment The French Wished To Punish.
The Germans For This Whereas The British Wanted Leniency The French Government Decided That If The Germans Would Not Pay Them Then They’d Simply Take The Money Instead And In 1923 The French Occupied The Heavily Industrialized Region Of The Rur The Reason For This Was That German Reparations Could Be Paid In Raw Materials.
Rise of the Nazi Party
Many Of Which Were Produced There Another Way That German Reparations Could Be Paid Was In Foreign Currencies Which Were Paid For By Printing More Paper Marks This Created The Hyperinflation That.
The Weimar Republic Is Famous For For Example In January 1923 A Loaf Of Bread Cost 163 Marks And In Early November In 1923 The Same Loaf Of Bread Cost Over 75 Billion Marks In November 1923 Another Attempted Revolution Occurred In Munich Led By A Certain Adolf Hitler And Undertaken By The Sa The Military.
Arm Of The National Socialist German Workers Party Better Known As The Nazi Party This Revolution Failed When Other Nationalist Politicians Refused To Help Hitler And The Army Was Called In Hitler Was Wounded And Arrested Shortly Afterwards It Was Imprisoned That Hitler Dictated His Autobiography Mein Kamp.
Hitler’s Ascension to Power
Which Became The Bedrock Of Nazi Ideology All Of This Would Make It Seem Like The Weimar Republic Was About To Immediately Collapse But It Managed To Survive Thanks To The Intervention Of Two Specific Individuals Gustav Strasser man Who Helped To Repair Relations With France And Charles Dawes An American.
Who Would Later Become Vice President Who Helped To Relieve Some Of Germany’s Economic Problems Germany’s Repayments Were Lowered The French Agreed To Leave The And America Agreed To Loan Germany Money Which Created A Strong Economic Leap Between The Two Countries So Then The Great Depression Struck Tanking.
The U.S Economy And Dragging Germany’s Down With It Paul Von Hindenburg The President Of Germany At The Time Failed To Get The Reichstag To Agree On A Response Or Anything As A Result He Had To Invoke Article 48 Which Allowed The President To Pass Laws Without The Approval Of The Reichstag In Times Of Emergency.
Nazi Propaganda and Ideology
The Biggest Problem With Article 48 Was That There Was No Definition Of An Emergency Meaning It Was Open To Abuse The German People Turned To Different Political Parties To Fix The Problems Some Chose Communism Whereas Others Placed Their Faith In The National Socialists The Nazis Believed That The German-Speaking Peoples Should Be United In A Single State They Argued That Communists And The Jews Were.
The Enemies Of The German People And As Such Had To Be Removed The Nazis Were Popular Because They Wished To Disregard The Treaty Of Versailles Which Many Germans Considered Insulting They Also Wish To Limit Any Foreign Involvement In German Affairs By Limiting The Rights And Numbers Of Foreigners.
In Germany Another Reason Was People’s Anger With The Continuing Economic Crises Which They Were Desperate To End A Series Of Elections Led To A Massive Increase In In The Number Of Seats Held By The Nazis And By 1932 They Were The Largest Party By Far After Continuously Coming First Hitler Asked President.
Night of the Long Knives
Hinder berg To Be Made Chancellor Which He Refused Several Times Because They Were Worried That Hitler Would Overthrow The Government Yet Eventually After The Nazis Continuous Victories And Elections Hindenburg Agreed To Give Him The Job In January 1933. So Hitler Immediately Began Working To Overthrow The Government.
A Fire Started In The Reichstag By A Young Dutch Communist Was Used By Hitler To Paint All Communists As The Enemies Of Germany Hindenburg Under Pressure From Hitler Issued The Reichstag Fire Decree And The Reichstag Passed The Enabling Act Which Suspended Many Civil Liberties And Made Hitler The De Facto Dictator Of Germany.
These Were Passed Mainly Because The Opposing Communist Parties Were Outlawed And That The Vote Was Being Held In A Building Filled With Armed Members Of The Sa Over The Next Few Months Hitler Established The Secret Police The Gestapo In Order To Help Shore Up His Position He Outlawed Trade Unions As.
Nuremberg Laws and Persecution
They Were Seen As Breeding Grounds For Communists And In July He Abolished All Other Political Parties In 1934 Hitler Ordered The SS Another Paramilitary Group And The Gestapo To Eliminate His Enemies Which Included The Head Of The Sa Ernst Room In An Event Known As The Night Of The Long Knives This Was Mainly.
Because Hitler Felt That The Essay Was The Only Force That Could Stop Him Shortly After This Purge President Hindenburg Died And Hitler Assumed The Role Of President As Well As That Of The Chancellor He Declared Himself.
The Fuhrer Of Germany And Using Article 48 Create A Single-Party Dictatorship The Lives Of Germans Changed Massively Under The New Nazi Regime The Media Was Brought Under The Control Of Joseph Goebbels The Minister For Propaganda Heinrich Himmler Was Placed In Command Of The Gestapo And The SS Who Were Ordered.
Kristallnacht: The Pogrom
To Crack Down On Anyone Who Disagreed With The Nazi Government Germans For The Most Part Accepted Having Less Freedoms In Return For A Higher Standard Of Living And Because The Nazis Had Ended The Chaos From The Decade Before They Took Power The Nazi Government Established The German Labor Front.
Which Was Like A Trade Union Except Without The Representation The Nazis Also Established The Strength Through Joy Program Which Was Designed To Keep Workers Happy It Even Helped To Produce Class Barriers By Making Vacations Clubs Cinemas And Other Recreational Activities.
Open To People Outside Of The Upper Classes Its Most Popular Creation Was The People’s Car Better Known As The Volkswagen Which Further Which The Class Divide Since It Could Be Paid For In Installments In 1936 Hermann Gering Was Put In Charge Of The Economy Beginning The Four-Year Plan Which Was Supposed.
World War II Begins
To Make Germany Entirely Self-Sufficient Within Four Years Unemployment Virtually Disappeared Conscription Was Instated A Major Public Works Were Undertaken Most Famously The Autobahn And The Berlin Olympic Games The Most Important Part Of The Four-Year Plan Was That It Saw The Beginning Of German Rearmament.
Which Was A Violation Of The Treaty Of Versailles Hitler’s Plan To Unify The German People Picked Up Towards The End Of The 30s In 1938 After Some Double Dealing Threat And The Referendum German Troops March Into Austria And Hitler Announced Its Annexation After Negotiations With The British And The French It Was Agreed.
That Germany Would Annex The Ethnically German Sudeten Land From Czechoslovakia Germany Soon Afterwards Occupied Half Of It Which Wasn’t Agreed The Lithuanians Then Caved Into Hitler’s Demands For This Territory The British And The French Afraid Of A New Major War In Europe Did Nothing To Deter Hitler.
Blitzkrieg Tactics Unleashed
From Seizing More And More Territory Or Re-Arming Which Served Only To Embolden Him An Agreement Was Then Made Between Germany And The Soviet Union To Divide Poland And On September 1 1939 The Germans Invaded And Two Weeks Later The Soviets Would Do The Same Beginning.
The Second World War France And Britain Had An Agreement With Poland And Declared War On Germany Although Germany Would Quickly Overrun France In 1941 The Germans Invaded The Soviet Union Shortly Before Declaring War In The United States Two Very Bad Ideas The Germans Were Initially Very Successful And By 1943.
The Third Reich Looked Like This The Allies Particularly The British And The United States Began Bombing Campaigns Against German Cities Most Notably Cologne Hamburg And Of Course Dresden These Attacks Were Designed To Destroy German Factories And Infrastructure As Well As Frighten The Germans Into Submission.
Operation Barbarossa: Eastern Front
The German Economy Didn’t Change Drastically At The Beginning Of The War Since Germany Had Already Been Producing Arms For Many Years One Major Difference Between Germany And The Allies Was That Germany Was Very Reluctant To Have Women Working In The Factories Which Ultimately Lowered.
The Number Of Available Workers And Frontline Soldiers In The Conquered Territories The Nazis Implemented A Policy Of Forced Labor In Poland Many Women Were Forced To Work Farmlands To Produce Food Whilst Men Worked In Factories Many Jewish People Alongside Anyone Else Is Considered Undesirable.
Were Used For Slave Labor To Produce Weapons Some Of Which They Sabotaged Throughout Europe The Jewish Populations Were Rounded Up And Placed Into Concentration Camps The Original Purpose Of These Camps Was Not Extermination But Forced Labor Although They All Had Horrendous Mortality Rates Before.
Holocaust and Concentration Camps
And Throughout The War The Nazis Had Attempted To Decide On What They Would Do With The Jewish Population Of Europe At First The Nazis Wish To Deport Them And In Fact Some Were Sent To Palestine It Wasn’t Until 1942 That The Camps Began To Explicitly Exterminate Prisoners Or That Specialized Extermination.
Camps Were Opened The Best-Known Camps Being Auschwitz And Tablinka Where Over One And A Half Million People Were Killed Between Them Throughout The Holocaust It Is Believed That Roughly Five And A Half Million Jews Were Killed Alongside Roughly The Same Amount Of Poles And Soviet Prisoners Gypsies.
Those With Mental And Physical Disabilities As Well As Homosexuals Were Also Exterminated Alongside Them Having Failed To Conquer The Soviet Union The Tide Of The War Changed Against The Nazis And The Soviets Managed To Force Them All The Way Back Into Germany Liberating Many Of The Concentration Camps.
Battle of Stalingrad Turning Point
On The Way At The Same Time The United States United Kingdom And Canada Amongst Others Invaded West In Europe And Together They Managed To Push The Nazis Back Into Germany As Well Most Of The German High Command Including Hitler Committed Suicide In April 1945 And Germany Surrendered In May.
History Of Germany 1918 – 1949
Thus Ending The Third Reich In The Nazi Regime Germany Was Occupied In The Surviving Nazi Leaders Were Put On Trial At Nuremberg Where Many Were Sentenced To Death After It Surrender Germany And Berlin Were Split Into Occupied Zones And Both Began The Process Of Denotification The Allied Occupation.
Zones Were Soon Combined Into The Federal Republic Of Germany And The Soviet-Occupied Zones Became The German Democratic Republic Known As Western East Germany Respectively They Would Remain Divided Until 1990 At The End Of The Cold War Ultimately The Legacy Of Nazi Germany Is Complex.
The Nazis Whilst Committing Unimaginable Crimes Managed To Reinvigorate Germany And Build It Into A Military Powerhouse The Nazis Brought About Immense Suffering Across The European Continent And Their Actions Produced Many Countries Including Germany Itself To Ruins The Consequences Of Nazism Are Still Being Examined.