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Pre-Holocaust German History I The Birth of Modern Germany Early Modern Germany What is now known as Germany was for centuries a series of kingdoms and principalities, large and small. Most of these were loosely bound by the Holy Roman Empire, which was led by the Pope in Rome. However, after the Protestant reformation of the 1500‘s, many of the princes in these states became Lutheran or Calvinist Protestants. Disputes over whether Catholics or Protestants would succeed to the thrones in these states led to one of Europe’s most destructive conflicts, the Thirty Years’ War. The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) was actually a series of conflicts involving many nations in Europe, but was fought mostly in and around the German-speaking states. Thousands of villages and hundreds of towns in the German lands were destroyed, and famine and plague followed. After the war, the Holy Roman Empire remained in control until 1806, when it was abolished. After the Napoleonic Wars, a German confederation, led by the powerful Prussian state, was established 1n 1815. In 1848, German liberals took to the streets, attempting to force the creation of a unified Germany with more political power for the people. This revolution was stopped by the Prussian army. The Prussian king, preferring to have all Germans rule under his own and the other princes’ dictatorial rule, stopped all reforms. The Second Reich In 1871, after Prussia led several other northern German states to victory over Denmark, Austria, and France, a feeling of strong nationalism prevailed in Germany. Wilhelm I of Prussia and Otto von Bismarck, his chancellor, or prime minister, were able to take advantage of this feeling to unite all of Germany under the banner of the Second Reich, or Empire. (The first was the Holy Roman Empire). Bismarck used an authoritarian style, denying many individual freedoms in order to enforce the unity of the state. However, religious differences remained. Catholics in the South and West of Germany were suspected of being more loyal to Catholic Austria-Hungary than to other Germans. Political divisions arose, as well. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) was founded in the 1870’s to oppose the repressive government of the Kaiser. The Social Democrats were accused of being radical revolutionaries by the wealthy and powerful people in Germany. The SPD did not receive much support from the German middle class. In the early years of the twentieth century, the third Kaiser (emperor), Wilhelm II, wanted to increase the power of Germany in Europe. At first, Wilhelm II attempted to tax the nation’s wealthy people in order to pay for an expanded military. The elites threatened to revolt against this tax, so the government extracted the necessary funds from the working class. Workers responded negatively with strikes and protests against the government. The Social Democrats gained more influence by opposing the heavy 2 taxation of the lower-paid workers. As the SPD gained more seats in the Reichstag (parliament), they were able to get an inheritance tax passed which raised most of its money from the estates of the wealthy. The wealthy and powerful elites of Germany resented the new tax and warned that the SPD was full of dangerous radicals. Now Germany had class conflict, too. While Germany was strengthening its military, its neighbors were taking notice. An arms race resulted as nations competed to build their armies and navies. They also competed for colonies in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. Germany had possessions in East Africa, the West African Coast, Southwest Africa, China, and Samoa. Anxious to protect themselves and their possessions, the great European powers entered into alliances. Germany’s neighbor and main rival, France, formed the Triple Entente with Russia and Great Britain. Britain guaranteed neutral Belgium that it would intervene to protect it in any conflict with Germany. Germany already had entered into the Triple Alliance with Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The arms race and imperialist competition had led to many tensions among the competing nations. Wilhelm‘s government, which was still struggling to unite its various regions, religions, and classes, may have been tempted to use its new military might in order to grab funds from foreign conquests rather than from heavy taxation of its own people. The danger of a mass conflict among heavily-armed foes was growing as the year 1914 began. 3 II World War I The Great War, as it was called before 1941, was a disaster for Europe. More than 10 million men died. Twice that number suffered wounds, many of which were crippling. Over 100 billion dollars were spent fighting the war -- by the victorious nations alone. Northern France had been devastated by years of trench warfare; Germans were starving and near revolt; Russia had been taken over by a Communist dictatorship. An entire generation of young European men -- the so-called “Lost Generation” -- had been virtually wiped out. At the end of World War I, the victorious nations were eager to blame Germany for the catastrophe. Germany’s militarism and aggression, they claimed, were the main reasons the war broke out. After all, Germany had launched the first attacks. The reality, however, is much more complex. The “Powder Keg” The Balkan region of Southeast Europe was seething with nationalist feelings in 1914. Two wars in 1912 and 1913 pitted Balkan nations against the Turks and also against each other. Slavic peoples such as the Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, and Croats had been ruled by the Austrian empire for centuries. These peoples had their own languages and culture and a separate religion (Eastern Orthodox) than Catholic Austria. Nationalist movements, many of which were violent, were coming to life in the dying empire. Russia, a Slavic, Eastern Orthodox nation, sympathized with these nationalist movements and was accused by Austria-Hungary of stirring up discontent in the empire. Serbia, an independent nation bordering the empire, was even more of a threat. Serbs lived in Bosnia and other parts of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Serb nationalists were agitating to leave the empire and join a Greater Serbian state. The tension exploded in the summer of 1914. On June 28, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian empire, paid a visit to Sarajevo, a city in the Empire’s province of Bosnia. Sarajevo was a center of Serbian nationalism, and a terrorist group plotted to assassinate Franz Ferdinand as he traveled through the city. One terrorist threw a bomb with a lit fuse into the open car the Archduke and his wife were using. Franz Ferdinand managed to throw the bomb back into the street before it exploded. However, the Archduke’s driver, racing away from the scene, reached a dead end. As he tried to get the car turned around, an assassin named Gavrilio Princip approached the car and killed the Archduke, his wife, and the driver. The Austrian Empire responded swiftly to the assassination. The terrorists were discovered to have been armed in Serbia and smuggled across the border by a Serbian nationalist group known as the Black Hand. Although the connection between the terrorists and the Serbian government was never proven, the Austro-Hungarian Emperor, Franz Josef, felt he had no choice but to declare war on Serbia. The First Gamble: the Schlieffen Plan At this point, all the alliances began to take on frightful consequences. Russia saw itself as Serbia’s protector and mobilized its troops on the Austrian border. France, 4 the ally of Russia, then mobilized its troops, in turn, on the border of Austria’s ally, Germany. When a nation mobilizes its troops, it moves infantry and tanks into place so that an assault on an enemy could occur rapidly and effectively. Therefore, the neighboring nation is in far more danger when troops are mobilized. Germany, especially, had good cause to be alarmed. With French troops massing to the west and Russia moving to mobilize its troops on the German border as well as the Austrian, the Germans faced the danger of attacks on two fronts. The troop mobilizations placed all the nations involved in a high state of anxiety and made it very hard for diplomats to stop a general war from breaking out. If one nation were to attack another, many nations would likely be fighting within days. Germany, under the most pressure to strike first, did so in August of 1914. The German army had developed a plan for a two-front war. Named after its author, Alfred von Schlieffen, the plan called for a quick strike into France before the Russians could mobilize on the German border. Under the Schlieffen Plan, the Germans would bypass the French defenses by invading neutral Belgium and then swinging southwest and flanking the French forces. With a crushing victory in northeast France, the Germans could march into Paris and end the war in the west before the Russians could be ready to advance into Germany. Then, the Germans could swing their forces back to the east and defend themselves against an invasion from the east. Attempting to execute this plan was a huge gamble: if the army could not carry it out, Germany would be faced with a two-front war. Yet the Kaiser and his ministers felt they had no choice. On August 3, 1914, Germany, under the pretext of “defending” Belgium from a French attempt to violate its neutrality, rolled into Belgium. Now Germany was at war with France, and other nations, following their treaty obligations, entered the war. England declared war on Germany for violating Belgium’s neutrality. Russia declared war on Germany for attacking France. Austria-Hungary came in on the Germans’ side, declaring war on the French, British, and Russians. Colonies and former colonies such as Algeria, Australia and Canada also joined in. Turkey, seeing an opportunity to gain back British-held territories in the Middle East, entered the war soon afterward on the German/Austrian side. The German/Austrian alliance became known in the war as the Central Powers; the French/Russian/English alliance became known as the Allied Powers. As with most plans, the Schlieffen Plan ran into unforeseen difficulties. In this case, it was transportation. The Belgians tore up their railroads in front of the German advance, and the Germans were forced to use horses to transport their equipment and supplies. This slowed the German advance, and the French were able to mobilize quickly enough to the northeast to cut off the German armies. The French and Germans settled into a stalemate where neither could advance. In the east, a similar situation unfolded. As the allies on both sides moved their troops to the front lines, a new type of destructive and deadly warfare developed. A War of Attrition in the Trenches The balance of warfare had shifted toward defense with the invention of repeating rifles, machine guns, and advanced artillery. In addition, barbed wire and 5 mines were used to slow enemy advances enough to leave infantrymen vulnerable. The use of rapid strikes and the element of surprise were the only ways to gain ground in a military conflict. When stalemated, enemies were facing each other at a distance of several hundred meters. Each side was occupying a network of trenches protected by barbed wire and a “no man’s land” of mines. In order to attack the enemy, one side would open up artillery and mortar fire on the enemy, hoping to “soften it up.” While the shells rarely did a lot of physical damage to dug-in troops, the psychological effect of daily shelling was often devastating. After the artillery fire stopped, the attackers would vault out of their trenches, avoiding their own mines while dodging mortar fire, grenades, and machine gun fire. Once close to the enemy trenches, attacking troops had to brave minefields and cut through barbed wire before reaching the trenches for brutal hand-to-hand fighting. Not surprisingly, almost all such charges in World War I were unsuccessful. As the war progressed, more modern weapons were introduced. The airplane was not used on a large scale by either side and did not inflict much damage by itself, but it was valuable for reconnaissance. Much more frightening was the use of poison gas. The Germans were the first to use lethal gas as a weapon in April 1915. Along the Western Front that day, German troops released a huge green cloud of chlorine downwind toward Algerian, French, and Canadian positions, killing hundreds and causing mass panic. The Allies responded by developing gas masks and their own gas canisters. Although gas did not kill nearly as many men as conventional weapons, its effect on soldiers was chilling. Even more horrific was the prospect of a mustard gas attack. Mustard gas was a blistering agent which burned away any exposed skin, blinded unprotected eyes, and burned out lungs when inhaled. The largest battles of attrition took place at Verdun and the Somme in France. At Verdun, the Germans attempted to seize important hills outside the city and then draw the French into attacking a fortified position. Over ten months in 1916, the Germans managed to seize one hill, but repeated attempts to seize a second led to slaughter of immense proportions. Battle lines moved back and forth, with troops finding refuge in trenches and shell-holes. Severe food shortages and disease took their toll as well as battle wounds and deaths. By December 1916, the French had driven the Germans back to their previous positions. No ground was gained to justify the huge losses on either side. Over 700,000 casualties resulted from this battle, with both sides suffering over 100,000 killed. In part to relieve the pressure on the French at Verdun, the British launched an offensive along the Somme River in July of 1916. At huge cost (58,000 casualties on the first day alone), the British captured the first line of German trenches. But German reinforcements arrived to slow the advance. Over the next four months, the British, joined by the French, advanced a total of 12 kilometers at a cost of more than 400,000 British casualties and 200,000 French losses. The Germans lost about half a million more men. Problems at Home in Germany Germans who had enthusiastically cheered as troops left in August 1914 were becoming disenchanted with the huge losses. Food shortages began as early as 1915. 6 Tensions between workers and industrialists grew as more pressure was placed on them to produce materials for the war. Skilled workers, who were in great demand, began to exercise choice, leaving one job for another and often disrupting production. The Reichstag passed a law forcing workers to stay at their jobs during the war. Workers later revolted against these controls and against wage cuts by striking in large numbers. Mass rebellion by the workers of Germany was feared throughout the war. Meanwhile, the German government struggled with the high cost of war. There were two main options the government could consider. The first was heavy taxation. With the population already on edge and the burden of taxes already heavy on workers, the government would have to grant more freedom and democracy in order to avoid civil unrest. The second option was to pay for the war through conquest. If Germany could grab some of the French and Belgian colonies and annex some territory in France, it could use the industry and natural resources of the lands gained in order to enrich the nation. The Kaiser and his ministers chose the second option. Germany would now gamble everything on the strategy of conquest. The Second Gamble -- Unrestricted Submarine Warfare German industry had developed a second deadly and frightening weapon, the unterseeboot or U-boat. These were the first submarines to be used effectively in warfare. U-boats were able to destroy enemy ships through the element of surprise. An undetected submarine could sink an enemy ship with a torpedo. Submarines were vulnerable, however, in that they had to surface for air every few hours. On the surface, submarines were clumsy and easy targets for the guns of naval ships. Kaiser Wilhelm and his generals saw an opportunity to drive Britain out of the war and shift the balance toward Germany. If U-boats could effectively blockade and starve Britain into submission, then the Germans could deal with the French on their own. The Russians were withdrawing from the war after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Thus, the Germans, with the help of their allies, could win the war at sea and on the ground in France without having to worry about an eastern front. When the civilian chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, resisted this plan, his government was disbanded and replaced by a military dictatorship run by General Erich von Ludendorff. Submarines were not fast enough to chase merchant ships, then board them and confiscate the cargo. Instead, they had to torpedo ships without warning in order to have a successful blockade. A submarine blockade required attacks on any ship that approached the enemy. Even ships from neutral nations such as the United States were targeted. Hundreds of neutral ships went down in 1917. This policy of unrestricted submarine warfare violated international law and brought strong criticism down on the Germans. America had already been outraged by the sinking of the British passenger ship Lusitania, which was torpedoed off the Irish coast in late 1915 with 128 Americans among the 1,260 dead. United States President Woodrow Wilson warned Germany that it would be held responsible for American lives and ships lost to further submarine attacks. Despite the protests, Germany continued to target all merchant ships, even those from neutral nations, which attempted to enter or leave British ports. Even though they knew that this policy would eventually lead to America’s entry into the war, the Germans felt they could achieve their goals before the Americans arrived. 7 With the Russians out of the war, Germany and Austria-Hungary devoted many of the men and resources from the eastern front to one final assault in the West. If the attack, called the “Peace Offensive” by the Germans, forced a quick surrender by the French and British, then the Americans, who were threatening to enter the war on the Allied side, would be too late. America Enters the War As more American ships fell victim to unrestricted submarine warfare, President Wilson and Congress edged closer to a declaration of war. The United States was pushed over the brink by the infamous “Zimmermann telegram.” This message was sent by Germany’s foreign minister, Arthur Zimmermann, to the German ambassador to Mexico. British intelligence intercepted the message, decoded it, and quickly passed it on to the Americans. Zimmermann’s message showed how desperate the Germans had become. He urged his ambassador to offer a deal with Mexico. If Mexico would go to war against the United States, Germany would help Mexico win back most or all of the territories it had lost to the U.S. in the Mexican-American War. American public opinion swung wildly in favor of war when the Zimmerman note was publicized. On April 2, 1917, Wilson asked for a declaration of war, and Congress issued it four days later. The U.S., however, was unprepared for a large-scale war, and in fact had an army of little over 100,000 men at the time of the declaration. Congress quickly instituted a military draft, and the small American Expeditionary Force (AEF), led by General John J. Pershing, landed in France in June 1917. The Americans insisted on fighting alone, not under British or French command. The AEF did not reach full strength until the spring of 1918. In all, over 3 million U.S. troops fought in Europe. Meanwhile, the Germans’ Peace Offensive was making gains. Outnumbering the French, British, and newly-arrived Americans on the western front, the Germans crossed the Marne River, just 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Paris, on June 3, 1918. Despite the heavy casualties of this latest offensive, Germans were now optimistic for victory. The turning point of the entire war was the fighting that followed in the summer of 1918. American troops saw their first major action in the Battle of Belleau Wood near the Marne. Nearly a million U.S. troops drove the Germans back. In the so-called Second Battle of the Marne in 1918, combined Allied forces drove the Germans back across the Marne. By September, German forces had lost all the ground they had gained in the offensive. Furthermore, almost all German reserve troops had been used up. German supplies were low and the American force looked too strong to resist. The New German Government and the “Stab in the Back” In the late summer of 1918, the military dictatorship of Germany did a strange thing: it handed power back to a civilian government led by the Social Democratic Party. This was a sure sign that the generals knew that the German war effort was lost. The military leaders saw two benefits to this move. First, a civilian government was more likely to receive lenient terms from the winners at the end of the war. Second, and more importantly, the military government would be out of power when the German defeat 8 became final. Thus, civilians, not the military, could be blamed for the surrender. To make sure they were not the scapegoats, the generals began to establish the myth of the dolchstoss, or “stab in the back.” Friendly newspaper editors and people on the street began to state openly that the German military was being weakened by radical unionists and rumor-mongers. The union workers wanted Germany to lose so that a communist government like Russia’s could take over after the war, went the story. By staging so many strikes, they were helping Germany’s enemies. Jews, the eternal scapegoats, were accused by many of spreading malicious rumors in order to make the people accept defeat more readily. Jews were accused because they were considered outsiders whose racial and religious differences made them natural enemies of the “true German” people. While the rumors were not widely believed at first, they later took on a large significance when Germans looked back on their defeat in World War I. On November 11, 1918, the Central Powers and Allied Powers signed an armistice in Paris. World War I was over, but the costs were enormous. Over one million German men were dead, and Germany’s economic and social situation was chaotic. Change in Germany was inevitable, but would it be gradual or radical? 9 III The Weimar Republic: Chaos and Instability Germany was on the verge of violent revolution in the fall of 1918. Anger over the loss of the war and the death of so many men was expressed through violent demonstrations. The democracy that had just been born was in danger of being swept aside by a communist revolution or a right-wing counter-revolution. The unrest began with a naval mutiny. German sailors in the North Sea ports of Wilhelmshaven and Kiel were ordered out on a desperate mission against the powerful British navy, even though it was obvious that the war was lost. The sailors rebelled and seized government offices. This mutiny sparked similar actions throughout Germany. Sailors, soldiers, and workers formed councils which took over most government offices in the state of Bavaria, and many others nationwide. The situation appeared dangerously similar to the Russian Revolution of the year before. Radical workers were calling for a communist state with all private property abolished. Knowing that the Tsar had been executed by radicals under similar circumstances in 1917, the Kaiser fled Germany. The Weimar Constitution At this point, the Social Democrats, the party many looked to for leadership after the war, decided to proclaim Germany’s switch to a republic. In a republic, there is no monarch. Instead, there is a constitution and the people choose their representatives. This republic became known as the Weimar Republic because its constitution was written and signed in the city of Weimar. Under the new Constitution, a President would replace the Kaiser as the head of state. The President was elected directly by the people, and had no power to make policy. However, he had three substantial powers the power to appoint a chancellor, to dissolve parliament, and to call new elections. The most important of these powers was the appointment of a chancellor. The chancellor acted as head of government, taking care of the daily business of the republic. In a national emergency, the President was empowered to rule Germany through decree, with the chancellor acting as his representative. In normal circumstances, laws would have to be approved by the Reichstag. The Weimar Constitution reflected many liberal influences, including the United States Constitution and France’s Declaration of the Rights of Man. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press were guaranteed for the first time in German history. Religious freedom was protected. Women were given the right to vote in Germany, two years before they were enfranchised in America. The Constitution also guaranteed workers’ rights and economic freedom and promised that all Germans would share in the economic well-being of the nation. 10 The Communist Threat At first, it looked like the communists would cooperate with the Social Democrats. Although they were more radical, the communists shared many of the ideals of social justice that the Social Democrats had always held. The new government was led by Friedrich Ebert, a Social Democrat who was known for moderate views. The communists originally supported Ebert, but their alliance did not last long. By January of 1919, the communists abandoned their support of the Social Democrats and formed their own party, the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Radical workers began demonstrating in the streets in favor of a communist government. Ebert overreacted to these demonstrations. He called in the army to stop the rebellion. The army shot and killed many revolutionaries, but another problem arose, as well. The Freikorps, private militias loyal to conservatives, jumped into the fray and killed many more. Communist leaders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebnicht were taken into custody and brutally murdered by Freikorps men while “trying to escape“. The communists never forgave the Social Democrats for their use of deadly force. This incident was only the beginning of five years of political violence and instability in Germany. The Treaty of Versailles The end of the fighting in Europe was officially an armistice, not a peace treaty, until 1919. The Weimar government negotiated and signed the agreement that officially ended World War I, the Treaty of Versailles. This agreement would prove to be disastrous both in the short term and in the long run for Germany. Some terms of the treaty were intended to weaken Germany. The Germans were forced to give up all of their colonies. Their army was limited to 100,000 men. Submarines and warplanes were banned, and the navy was limited to 36 warships. Other terms were intended to punish and humiliate the Germans. Germany and its allies had to accept responsibility for the war and its death and damage. Germany was required to pay an indemnity, or penalty, to the Allies, of $33 billion. Germany lost huge amounts of territory. Alsace-Lorraine was given back to France after 48 years; West Prussia, Upper Silesia and Posen were to be ceded to a new Polish state. East Prussia was now cut off from the rest of Germany (see map). Allied troops were installed along the Rhine River in western Germany. When the terms of the treaty were revealed, the German public was outraged. It seemed the entire blame for the war had been placed on the Germans. Considering the position Germany had been in just before the war and the huge losses it had suffered, the German people felt that they did not deserve to be singled out and punished. Veterans of the war felt the most anger. Many felt that all of the German soldiers’ sacrifices were wasted. A rumor grew out of the frustration and shame of the German military. The “stab in the back” myth contended that the German army would have emerged victorious if not for the cowardly backstabbers at home. The “November criminals” had robbed Germany of its glory, driven out the royal family, and reduced the nation to a weak republic, according to a popular belief. Many veterans angrily blamed radical workers and “rumor-mongering” Jews for the defeat. One such veteran was a 11 young corporal named Adolf Hitler who had returned to Munich after being temporarily blinded by a gas attack in 1917. Was this the meaning of the sacrifice which the German mother made to the fatherland when with sore heart she let her best-loved boys march off, never to see them again? Did all this happen only so that a gang of wretched criminals could lay hands on the fatherland?...And yet, was it only our own sacrifice that we had to weigh in the balance? Was the Germany of the past less precious? Was there no obligation toward our own history? Were we still worthy to relate the glory of the past to ourselves? And how could this deed be justified to future generations? Monstrous and degenerate criminals! (Mein Kampf, 205-206) When he had recovered, Hitler got a job with the new republican government that he so despised. His assignment was to join a radical group and report on its activities to a special department. In time, Hitler stopped making his reports. The group he had joined was the German Workers‘ Party. This party would later evolve into the National Socialist Workers‘ Party of Germany, known for short as the Nazi Party. Instability Anger over the treaty and political and social unrest led to a very rocky period of instability for the Weimar Republic. Political assassinations and attempted revolutions were common in the years 1919-1923. Pitched battles were fought in the streets between radical left wingers (Communists) and right wingers (extreme conservatives who favored a return of the Kaisers and a crackdown on individual freedoms). Freikorps militias roamed the country looking for fights, and found radicalized workers seemingly everywhere willing to oppose them. Workers not only took to the streets to fight, but also to stage strikes to protest right-wing takeovers of government. The army, the government, and the courts all took the side of the right-wingers in this struggle. A communist uprising in the state of Bavaria was brutally suppressed by the army, with over 1,000 rebels being executed on the spot and thousands being sent to prison. But when the national government was overthrown by conservatives led by Wolfgang Kapp in 1920, the army refused to intervene. Kapp’s putsch, or military coup, was stopped when workers all over Germany refused to report to their jobs. The republic was restored in days, as the strike succeeded in forcing Kapp out. Even though Kapp’s men had executed over 200 supporters of the government, very few were arrested. Kapp died before he could be put on trial, and another ringleader was convicted and given a very light sentence. The courts were very lenient, also, on rightwing political assassins. Not a single right winger convicted of a political killing receiveda heavy sentence. Communist assassins, even though they were responsible for lessthan ten percent of the killings, were dealt with much more harshly. Ten Communist assassins were executed, and all the others were given long prison terms. Meanwhile, the German economy was very fragile. Business owners faced a crisis as workers staged strike after strike. German business was in no position to resist the workers, and so the employers gave in to wage demands, in effect buying peace 12 from the workers. However, these costs had to be passed on to the consumer. Thus, a period of heavy inflation began. Banks suffered because the money that they had loaned out was being paid back in funds that were heavily devalued by inflation. With banks in a crisis, money to lend was scarce, and so interest rates shot up as well, causing even more inflation. The French, Belgians, and British, who had borrowed heavily from the United States during the war, were under heavy pressure to repay that debt. In turn, they insisted that Germany stick to a strict payment schedule for the war reparations. The Germans struggled to pay the debt, even printing money to pay it. The French and Belgians, acting on a failure to pay an installment of the reparations, sent troops early in 1923 into the industrial Ruhr region of Germany. The French and Belgians hoped to set up a “puppet state” where they would control the wealth of the area and extract reparations through force. A wave of nationalism ran through Germany, and the people of the Ruhr staged a general strike where almost everyone stayed home. The German government, in support of the protest, paid these workers while they were at home. Of course, in order to afford these payments, the German government had to print money. Hyper-inflation resulted. In 1918, roughly four German marks equaled one dollar. In 1923, the value of the mark fell to unimaginable depths in the worst explosion of inflation in modern history. At the beginning of the year, it took 17,000 marks to equal one U.S. dollar. By August, 4.6 million marks equaled one dollar. By September, the figure was 25 billion marks to the dollar. And by November 16, over 4 trillion marks equaled one dollar. Savings accounts were wiped out literally overnight. A German who had saved money for years and left it in a bank now found his savings worthless. For instance, if someone had saved 100,000 marks, a large sum in those days, its value would have gone from $21,000 U.S. dollars in 1918 to a tiny fraction of a cent in November of 1923. People on pensions found their monthly payments ridiculously inadequate. The government tried to adjust their payments to match the inflation rate, but in the time it took to adjust the rates and mail the checks, inflation was proceeding so fast that the checks were worthless when they arrived. The “Beer Hall Putsch” The end of the period of wild instability in the Weimar Republic was marked by Adolf Hitler’s failed putsch, or attempt to overthrow the republic in November 1923. Hitler had become the leader of the Nazis, who were a small party with great ambitions. The Nazi party hoped to exploit the popular resentment in Germany of the treaty and of the French occupation. Their platform called for abolition of the Treaty of Versailles. Under the Nazi vision, Germany was to conquer lands in Eastern Europe so that the German people would have lebensraum, or living space. Full citizenship rights would be given only to “pure” Germans: not to Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, or other minority groups. In a time of economic, social, and political upheaval, these ideas began to take hold. The 34-year old Hitler may have overestimated the popularity of his ideas. On November 8, 1923, he attempted to place Germany under Nazi rule. He began with a planned speech in a beer hall in which he declared that the Bavarian government was overthrown. His brown-shirted storm troopers then staged a “spontaneous” 13 demonstration in the streets of Munich. Hitler’s plan was to use his storm troopers to oust the Bavarian state government in Munich. After that, he would gather his forces and lead a march into Berlin, where they would topple the republic and set up a radical right wing government in Germany. Some key allies that Hitler had counted on betrayed him, however, and he was arrested on November 10. His “Beer Hall Putsch” had failed. After being convicted of treason, Hitler was given a light sentence of five years in prison. 14 IV The End of the Weimar Republic and the Rise of Nazism The crisis of 1923 was overcome, and Germany entered a period of stability which would last for five years. Yet even as the nation was getting to its feet, political and economic storms were gathering. A Period of Stability: 1924-1929 Gustav Stresemann took over as chancellor for two short months at the end of 1923. In those two months, several attempts to overthrow the government were prevented (including Hitler’s). The workers in the Ruhr went back to their jobs, the government stopped printing money, and a new mark was introduced, bringing more stable value to money. The Dawes Plan, under which American money was loaned to Germany to help its economy get back on its feet, was adopted in 1924. There were other international developments which strengthened the Weimar Republic. French troops began to leave the Ruhr in 1925. That same year, Germany signed treaties with its neighbors guaranteeing the borders of Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Poland, and Czechoslovakia and renouncing the use of force in resolving conflicts. In 1926, the Berlin Treaty was signed with the Russian leaders. Both the Soviets and the Germans pledged to remain neutral if the other was at war with another nation. Germany was now in good standing with the international community, and in 1926 was admitted to the League of Nations, an organization founded after the Great War to guarantee peace and security to member nations. Even though German democracy was a confusing tangle of multiple parties and coalitions and frequent changes of government, the Weimar Republic remained fairly stable politically through the end of the twenties. Attempts to overthrow the government ceased, and street fighting among various factions became a rare occurrence. Yet even though the economy, the government, and foreign relations seemed to be stable, underlying problems threatened the seemingly stable Weimar Republic. Underlying Political and Social Problems All these agreements would seem to have been good for Germany. The economy was stabilized and Germany’s relationships with the powers of Europe were greatly improved. However, these treaties were not popular with all the people inside Germany. Feelings of nationalism ran deep among a large segment of the population. Many of those whose relatives had been “stranded” inside Czechoslovakia and Poland after the Treaty of Versailles had hoped to see the lost lands somehow regained by Germany. To the nationalists, Germany’s glory had been destroyed by the war, and its people had been separated by political boundaries imposed by the Social Democratic leaders who had signed the Treaty of Versailles. Among the nationalists were many military officers who were determined to let the republican government take the blame 15 for any and all problems in Germany. In addition, most Germans were dissatisfied with the society of the new Germany. Germany was still essentially conservative. Adults in Germany had been brought up in a traditional society and educated in highly regimented, traditional school systems. These people were offended in many ways by the new openness of democracy. Women had been given formal equality under the Weimar Constitution, yet most German women retained the traditional role of mother. Working women had been oddities before the First World War, but now there was a sizable population of single women living on their own and working in the cities. These “new women” expressed themselves by wearing short hair, driving cars, and going out to nightclubs. Although the “new women” were still a minority, they attracted a lot of attention from writers, filmmakers, and photographers. They also received a great deal of disapproval from the public. American culture, especially jazz music, also found its way into Germany. Conservatives felt that jazz represented the undisciplined, crude culture of America, and resented their children’s interest in it. In addition, churches became active in criticizing the decadence that went along with freedom. Birth control had now become widely available, and the church leaders blamed democracy. Germans were experiencing freedoms they had never had before, and many Germans were uncomfortable with the things that came along with democracy. The Nazi Party Adolf Hitler sat seething in prison for the 10 months of his sentence. In his cell, which was actually a fairly comfortable room, he dictated his memoirs to a faithful Nazi Party subordinate, Rudolf Hess. In Mein Kampf, (My Struggle) Hitler described not only his life story but also his philosophy. In a rambling, sometimes illogical style, the future Chancellor described his political philosophy, which mostly consisted of contempt for democrats, Jews, foreigners, trade unionists, and all those Germans not strong enough to share his vision for the renewed glory of Germany. Later, the book would be treated as the Nazi bible, given as a present at graduations, weddings, and the like. When Hitler emerged from prison, he had become an idol to the members of the Nazi Party. Hitler was able to use his prison ordeal to promote the idea of a leader who had suffered through war and political unrest. He, the self-sacrificing hero, was the perfect leader to guide Germany back to greatness, according to popular Nazi belief. Hitler used his enhanced status to reorganize his party, to attract thousands of new members, and to become the unquestioned leader of the NSDAP. Within a few years of his release from prison, Hitler had over 100,000 members of the SA (Sturmabteilung), his brown-shirted militia, marching boisterously and often violently through the streets all over Germany. Mass gatherings and parades of the party faithful helped to build up the image of Hitler as a powerful figure. The Nazi Party ideology was centered around a few basic ideas: the racial purity and historic greatness of the German people; the unfairness of the Treaty of Versailles; and the need to reconquer Eastern European lands (see box). This set of ideas had been all but ignored in the early Twenties. Middle class voters, after experiencing the problems of war and its aftermath, were willing to allow the Weimar government a chance to prove itself throughout most of the Twenties. Nazi ideas were still barely 16 registering in 1928, when the Nazis received only 2.5 percent of the vote in elections for the Reichstag. But the events of 1929-30 changed the situation. The Great Depression The Great Depression, which began in the United States, was triggered by a major stock market crash and widespread closings of banks, whose investments in the stock market were reduced to a tiny fraction of their original amounts. In Germany, the situation was slightly different. German banks had relied on their American counterparts to lend money to help pay the reparations from World War I. Banks in the U.S., desperate for cash, demanded that German banks repay the loans from the American banks. German banks were unable to pay, and had to shut their doors due to lack of funds. With German banks out of business, many people’s savings were lost. Millions were thrown out of work and impoverished. Many of these unfortunate Germans became angry at the government and at capitalism for failing them. By 1929, the Social Democrats were no longer the dominating party in the Reichstag. The SPD was forced to join with conservative parties in order to govern Germany. As disaster struck, the SPD faded into the background and the conservatives took control of the government. The new government showed very little concern for individual rights and democracy. Nazi Party – Main Beliefs 1. All German Speakers must be reunited (including those living within the borders of France, Poland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia). 2. Eastern lands and overseas colonies must be captured in order to provide living space (lebensraum). 3. The Treaty of Versailles must be abolished. 4. Non-Germans (Jews, Gypsies, and Slavs) must not be citizens, nor be allowed to hold office or vote. 5. All German citizens are guaranteed a decent standard of living. If the presence of nonGerman aliens threatens this promise, the aliens are to be expelled. 6. Non-Germans must no longer be allowed to immigrate into Germany. 7. Newspapers may not be owned by non-Germans. All newspapers must be printed in German. Source: Facing History and Ourselves Paul von Hindenburg, former Field Marshal and now President of Germany, used Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution to declare an emergency. He used his two chancellors, Heinrich Bruning (1929-1932) and Franz von Papen (1932-1933) to rule Germany by decree. During a national emergency, the Reichstag’s powers were limited. The chancellor could dissolve the parliament at any time, and thus could get any new law or program he wished. Bruning and von Papen attempted to fix the economy by 17 imposing heavy taxes and reducing spending on social programs. As a result, the living standard for workers sank even lower. Radicals Gain Followers The Great Depression is said to have radicalized German politics. The parties in the center, such as the Social Democrats and the Catholic Center Party, began to see their support erode. “Fringe” parties such as the Nazis on the right and the Communists on the left began to gain support. The Nazis, who had just three percent of the vote in 1928, shot up to 18 percent in 1930. The Communists gained, as well, although not quite as dramatically. The KPD vote rose from 11 percent in 1928 to 15 percent in 1930. By 1932, the Nazi Party was the largest party in the Reichstag, with 230 seats. The Communists were the third largest, with 89 seats. Why did such a dramatic shift occur? Several factors must be considered. First of all, many Germans had never fully supported liberal democracy. The inefficiency of the Weimar governments and the shocking social changes associated with the new freedom made many Germans feel alienated from their government. This made them more likely to support parties that promised sweeping changes. The huge unemployment problem attracted many workers to the Communists. Here was a party which pledged to put people to work, but beyond that, to correct the social, political, and economic injustices in Germany. The wealthy industrialists and bankers who had caused the crisis would be swept away, and the workers would have control of factories and businesses. In a time when workers felt powerless and small, the Communists’ promise of power and equality was especially enticing. The Nazis, however, were attracting most of the angry voters. Most Germans were still furious over the loss of the World War and the harsh terms imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. During hard times, many of these Germans saw radical nationalists such as the Nazis as the true representatives of the German people. Hitler promised to repudiate the treaty and make Germany strong again. Nazi propaganda emphasizing national pride and nostalgia was very effective in this uncertain time. As historian William Sheridan Allen points out in his study of one German city, the Nazis were seen as enthusiastic and energetic, qualities which appealed to Germans who wanted change. Nazi propaganda by this time had shifted away from anti-Semitic themes to images of youth and vitality, directly linking the Nazi party to attractive features of the German volk: youth, good looks, energy, and optimism. These positive qualities overcame the reservations people had about the rough tactics used by the Nazis. At the same time, however, the Nazis were able to take advantage of racial fears and anti-Semitism. Although racial fears were played down in Nazi propaganda of this era, they existed in the general public. Communism was associated with Slavic and Asiatic peoples. As the chief critic of communism, Hitler was positioned as a racial defender of the German people against the threat of these Eastern hordes. And in his tirades against the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler was appealing to all those who had fallen for the “stab in the back” myth, which blamed Jews, among others, for the “criminal” betrayal of the Fatherland in 1918-1919. The Nazi Party most likely would not have succeeded in normal times. When 18 people have jobs, available goods and services, comfortable social surroundings, and a stable political system, they have no need for radical nationalism. But when a country suffers as many shocks and setbacks as Germany did in the years after the war, radical nationalists such as the Nazis offer something that many people wish to hear. “It is not your fault,” they say. “Foreigners and traitors have conspired to rob you of your rights and your wealth.”* When people are angry and frustrated, it is easy to exploit their feelings with such words. *There are several recent examples. The same theme was used by authoritarian rulers in Yugoslavia (1989-1999) and Zimbabwe (2000-present). Syrian President Bashir Assad has used similar rhetoric in an attempt to connect rebels in his country to foreign terrorists and imperialists. 19