Germany: The Rise and Fall (1918-1991)

Germany 1918-1991

What Happened Before

• Germany became a nation-state relatively late compared to other European countries, in 1871.
• Before 1871, it was divided into small principalities, with Prussia and Bavaria being the largest.
• Austria was considered a "German" state but remained with Hungary as a dual monarchy.
• After defeating the French in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), the German Empire was declared in Versailles, with Prussia leading.
• Wilhelm of Prussia became emperor, and Otto von Bismarck served as chancellor.
• Emperor Wilhelm II took over after Bismarck, focusing on making Germany a powerful nation with colonies, a strong army, and a navy
• Germany's economy, particularly the Ruhr area, thrived and it became an industrial powerhouse.
• Germany's rise clashed with other European powers.
• Great Britain felt threatened by the growing German fleet
• France sought revenge for the 1871 war
• Russia aimed to expand its power in the Balkans.
• The Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary weakened, leading countries to form alliances.
• The Triple Entente consisted of Russia, France, and Great Britain, while the Triple Alliance comprised Germany, Austria, and the Ottoman Empire.
• Alliances, militarism, and nationalism culminated in World War I in 1914, triggered by the assassination of Austrian crown prince Franz Ferdinand

Characteristics of WWI

• High number of casualties, including civilians due to bombings
• Two-front war, with trench warfare on the Western Front
• New weapons like tanks, airplanes, and poison gas
• Significant involvement of civilians in factories, food distribution, and news dissemination via radio
• Russia withdrew due to the communist revolution, with Germans redeploying troops to the Western Front.
• The United States' entry in 1917 prevented Germany from achieving a breakthrough.
• Unrest grew in Germany over food shortages due to the British naval blockade, casualties, and factory labor.
• Emperor Wilhelm II abdicated and fled to the Netherlands as calls for a new government intensified
• Social democrats declared the Republic in Germany.

The Weimar Republic

• The government, led by Chancellor Ebert, agreed to an armistice with France, Britain, and the United States, later formalized in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
• The new government was unpopular among:
  • Conservative elites wanting the return of the emperor and the era
  • Soldiers feeling betrayed by the armistice (the "stab-in-the-back" legend)

The Weimar Republic Supported by

• Social democrats (SPD)
• Some liberals
• Catholics (Das Zentrum)

Germany and the Treaty of Versailles

• Many Germans opposed the Treaty of Versailles, calling it the Diktat of Versailles.
• Germany bore responsibility for WWI and faced penalties, including:
  • Reparations payments of 132 billion gold marks
  • Loss of 10% of its territory and colonies
  • Reduced military and no air force
  • Demilitarization of the Rhineland, bordering Germany and France.

German Economy During the Weimar Republic Economic Struggles

• High reparations payments
• Political unrest
• Loss of resource-rich areas (colonies)
• Negative sentiments after WWI
• French and Belgian occupation of the Ruhr for in-kind reparations (coal and ore)
• The Dawes Plan, proposed by an American banker, revitalized the economy by proposing large American loans in exchange for a new currency and inflation control.
• The Dawes Plan eased restrictions on the Treaty of Versailles, helping Germany's economy, culture, and politics
• Berlin became the new, hip capital with widespread support for the republic.
• The stock market crash in Wall Street in 1929 triggered a global depression and mass unemployment
• President Roosevelt's "New Deal," based on Keynes' anti-cyclical theory, aimed to break the cycle by investing and increasing state intervention and job creation during the crisis.
• The U.S. crisis hit Germany, because:
• Exports to the U.S.A. stagnated
• The Dawes Plan was withdrawn
• Germany still met reparation payments (until 1932).

Rise of Hitler

• Extreme political parties, like the communists and fascists (Adolf Hitler's NSDAP), gained traction due to renewed political instability.
• Hitler turned the NSDAP into Germany's largest party in 3 years
• Hitler achieved this through:
• Propaganda (film, radio, posters) and paramilitary displays (SA)

Hitler Propaganda

• Promises of work and prosperity ("Hitler, unsere letzte Hoffnung")
• Undoing the Treaty of Versailles and restoring Germany's greatness
• Antisemitic and ultra-right ideology appealing to anti-Jewish and anti-democratic sentiments among Germans
• Hitler became Chancellor in January 1933 in a government with conservatives and Catholics after his party became the largest in the elections.
• After the Reichstag fire (German parliament building), Hitler banned the Communist Party (KPD)
• Hitler suppressed communist representatives, and arrested leading communists, imprisoning them in concentration camps.
• Hitler secured all power for himself by the "Enabling Act" after suppressing the communists in the Reichstag
• Germany became a totalitarian state, with government control over education (Hitler Youth), information (censorship), the economy (war industry), culture (Reich Chamber of Culture), and public spaces (Jews banned)
• Germany was Nazified through terror and propaganda.

Hitler's Oppression

• Political opponents like communists, some social democrats, and anarchists
• Religious opponents like Catholics obeying the Pope, and members of the "Confessing Church"
• People of different races like Jews, Sinti, and Roma, and other Slavic communities
• Homosexuals, modern artists, intellectuals, and the mentally challenged faced persecution

Hitler's Support

• Economic renewal
• Military rearmament
• Remilitarization of the Rhineland
• Hitler violated the Treaty of Versailles, yet France and England did not respond.
• Germany annexed Austria (Hitler's birthplace).
• When Czechoslovakia agreed to include German-speaking territories, England and France opposed.
• At the Munich Conference, Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain, and Daladier met (Stalin was excluded).

Munich Conference

• England and France conceded to Hitler's demands as they did not want war, and had compassion for Germany after the Versailles Treaty.
• Chamberlain and Daladier hoped that Hitler would attack the Soviet Union.
• England and France's concessions resulted in the appeasement policy.

WWII (1939-1945)

• Post the invasion of Poland (1939), Great Britain and France declared war on Germany
• Germany occupied large parts of Europe, placing several measurements into law in occupied zones
• Jews had extra measures imposed, like the wearing of the Star of David and living in certain districts ("Judenviertel")
• Jews were targeted at the extermination camps

End of WWII

• After fierce fighting (Stalingrad, Normandy), the Western Allies and the Soviet Union defeated Germany, which surrendered in May 1945.
• The country was in disarray because its social, economic, political, and moral structures were destroyed.
• Large amounts of returning soldiers, victims of the Nazi regime, and other "displaced peoples" were on the move
• "Zero Hour" marked the beginning for post-war Germany
• The Allies divided Germany into four zones (British, American, Russian, and French).

Growing differences between the U.S.A and the U.S.S.R.

• The U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. worked together to defeat Hitler/Germany and Japan.
• These countries have different values, because:
• The U.S.S.R. had a communist structure with one-party rule, a central command economy, collective farms, and a totalitarian government exerting control over its population.
• The United States had a capitalist structure with an elected government and parliament, a free market economy, and operating the rule of law.
• The Cold War arose from these differences, with the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. fighting indirectly.

Cold War and Germany

• Ideological differences caused Germany divide after WWII between the Soviet Union and the U.S.A.
• Stalin intended to establish communist regimes in Eastern Europe (Soviet zone) to create a buffer and prevent future attacks from Germany.
• As a result, Germany needed to stay as poor as possible and make payments to the S.U.
• The U.S.A. sought to build a buffer/western zone against communist expansion, known as the Truman Doctrine
• This doctrine promised military and economic support to Western Europe to oppose communism.
• The U.S.A. pushed for greater West-European cooperation to make the zone stronger
• This would be achieved through political collaboration, the use of billions in borrowed funds (Marshall Aid) to revive their countries, and the establishment of democracy everywhere. This applied to the western occupying zones of Germany.

Blockade of Berlin

• Berlin was the capital of Germany, liberated by the Russians, but open to the U.S.A., English, French, and Germans.
• A solid divide was slowly forming across Europe, the Iron Curtain.
• Stalin initiated a blockade of Berlin in 1948, leading the English and Americans to supply West Berlin for a year via an airlift, until the blockade ceased.
• Berlin became very important, representing the Cold War conflict

East and West Germany Split

• In 1949, the bond of the three western zones to form the Federal Republic of Germany developed, with West Berlin as part of it
• That same year, the German Democratic Republic was created in the soviet zone, a "peoples democracy" in the model of the Communist society.

B.R.D. (Bondsrepubliek Deutschland (West Germany))

• The Federal Republic of Germany formed into a reliable democracy in the 1950s, thanks to:
• West integration by Konrad Adenauer (Christian-Democratic chancellor from 1949 to 1963);
• The Marshall plan that the B.R.D. had (loans). The Marshall Plan, which resulted in the "Wirtschafstwunder";
• Military and political cooperation, where the B.R.D. was a member of N.A.T.O. sooner rather than later;
• European cooperation (first the E.G.K.S., later the European Union), which took away the problems between France and Germany
• Adenauer, recognised neither the D.D.R. and had the ideal of the German Unity

D.D.R. Deutsche Demokratische Republik (East Germany)

• The B.R.D. developed into a totalitarian dictatorship
• Walter Ulbricht (Moscou loyal president of the Communist Partij, 1950-1971) - to establish communistic heilstaat;
• The strict control of the Staatssicherheitsdienst (the Stasi
• Crushed inner protest;
• Army action (the build of the Wall in 1961
• Military and other cooperation with the Sovjet-union and other Oostblok-nations
• Economic cooperation in Oost-Europa: the Comecon
• The introduction of a command economy (worked not as good)
• Payments that the DDR made to the sovjet-union, by breaking DDr-factories to the Soviet-Union

Tension in the German Cold War: The Wall

• In the 50's grew the tension between the B.R.D. and the D.D.R.. The BRD flourished but the DDR had nothing
• Million youth left the DDR and were heading west
• Ulbricht and Sovjet-leader Chroesjtsjov thought to build the Wall to contain the flow of humans.
• The West protested but did nothing. The U.S.A. (implicit that the S.Us Union owned Oost-Duitsland.

Spaninng in de Koude Oorlog: Cuba

• There came a danger situation in Europe (300 km from V.S.) - that led the VS to build on Cuba. A battle was ready to begin, but it faded.

Improved relations

• The relations between the Sovjet-Union and the United States had been improved after the Muur-Crisis
• Both had seen the damage of a nuclear war
• During this detente the West-German socialist-Chancellor Willy Brandt tried to improve the relations with the DDR

Brandt Politiek

• In 1972, the DDR and the B.D.R recognised to each other. Yet West held to the ideals to build a strong Germany
• Brandenburg helped Germany to become together, DDr-Leader Honecker was for German parting.

S.U. and U.S.A.

• Despite that the SU and VS still had problems
• The U.S.A. was for anti Communist policy and was against the Union. The S.U. wanted the power to hold their things.

De DDr En Gorbatsov

• Gorbatsjov tried to fix countries but could not make it the way he wanted.
• Many people who still had to do with west-Germany

Fall Van De Muur

• In DeD Dr waren mensen die meer hervormingen wanted, ze braken de Muur neer en de Oost en West Duitsche landen stonden open

Einde Koude Oorlog

• The cold war came at an end when the Sovjet-Union disappeared in 1991
• The countries had to be nothing with communism

Duitse Hereniging

• In 1990 Germany stood together
• The way the people wanted to but could not
• Many East-Germans loved West-Duitsland, the West-Germans had problems to pay everything
• Asylum led to problems. Frankrijk also has to do with Duitsland, but Kohl said that everything will be worked out with de European Union.
• German did everything with the European Union, they did everything together there.