The Weimar Republic
Post-war Germany
Treaty of Versailles
In November 1918, the Germans expected that the terms would be relatively equitable. But no one was prepared for the peace terms Germany was forced to accept in the armistice of 11 November 1918. These conditions were regarded in Germany as an unjustified national humiliation. Many Germans refused to believe that their armed forces had actually been defeated. A fateful myth soon began to circulate in large sections of public opinion on the centre and right of the political spectrum.Many people began to believe that the Army had been defeated because it had been stabbed in the back.
Collapse of the political system
Defeat in the war brought about the immediate collapse of the political system: german absolutism. Within days the uprisings had spread to the civilian population, and the Kaiser and all the princes were forced to abdicate. The Kaiser's abdication had a great political, social and psychological impact. Germany had been ruled by a monarchy since the Middle Ages. Now, it found itself without its main state figure, creating a social crisis. German politicians would have to find another way to govern a country in crisis.
Consequences of the Treaty
In reality, the peace agreement offered new possibilities for German foreign policy in east-central Europe, where a host of small, unstable states at odds with each other, such as Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia, had replaced the once mighty Habsburg and Romanov empires. The territorial provisions of the treaty were mild compared to what Germany would have imposed on the rest of Europe in the event of victory.
The Allied military occupation of parts of western Germany along the Rhine Valley also provoked widespread resentment and intensified German nationalism in the affected regions. It was the French who provoked the most resentment. The banning of German festivals and patriotic songs, the encouragement of separatist movements in the area and the legalisation of radical nationalist groups caused particular indignation.
Political violence
The ex-soldiers and their resentments nevertheless played a decisive role in creating a climate of violence and discontent after the war, and the conflict of having to adapt to peacetime conditions pushed many to the extreme right. On the left, too, there was a new willingness to use violence, conditioned by the direct or indirect experience of war.
Legitimated violence
Germany failed to make the transition from wartime to peacetime after 1918. Instead, it remained mired in a situation of continuing war; war with itself and war with the rest of the world.
The language of politics was steeped in wartime metaphors, the rival party was an enemy to be crushed, and fighting, terror and violence became widely accepted and perfectly legitimate weapons of political contestation.
The First World War legitimised violence. The change in mood could already be seen in parliamentary debates. After 1918 they too often degenerated into improper shouting matches, with each side showin manifest contempt for the other. But the situation was far worse on the streets, where all sides armed goon squads and skirmishes, clashes were frequent, and beatings and killings were widely resorted to.
Political parties became associated with armed and uniformed squads, paramilitary troops whose task was to provide guards for public events, to impress people by parading in military formation through the streets, and to intimidate, beat and sometimes kill members of paramilitary units linked to other political parties.
Conclusion
It was in this atmosphere of national trauma, political extremism, violent conflict and revolutionary upheaval that Nazism was born. Most of the elements that became part of its eclectic ideology were already present in Germany before 1914 and had become even more familiar to the population during the war.
The collapse of the country into political chaos towards the end of 1918 provided the spur to translate radical ideas into violent action.
Post-war Germany
Guillermo Lopez
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Transcript
The Weimar Republic
Post-war Germany
Treaty of Versailles
In November 1918, the Germans expected that the terms would be relatively equitable. But no one was prepared for the peace terms Germany was forced to accept in the armistice of 11 November 1918. These conditions were regarded in Germany as an unjustified national humiliation. Many Germans refused to believe that their armed forces had actually been defeated. A fateful myth soon began to circulate in large sections of public opinion on the centre and right of the political spectrum.Many people began to believe that the Army had been defeated because it had been stabbed in the back.
Collapse of the political system
Defeat in the war brought about the immediate collapse of the political system: german absolutism. Within days the uprisings had spread to the civilian population, and the Kaiser and all the princes were forced to abdicate. The Kaiser's abdication had a great political, social and psychological impact. Germany had been ruled by a monarchy since the Middle Ages. Now, it found itself without its main state figure, creating a social crisis. German politicians would have to find another way to govern a country in crisis.
Consequences of the Treaty
In reality, the peace agreement offered new possibilities for German foreign policy in east-central Europe, where a host of small, unstable states at odds with each other, such as Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia, had replaced the once mighty Habsburg and Romanov empires. The territorial provisions of the treaty were mild compared to what Germany would have imposed on the rest of Europe in the event of victory.
The Allied military occupation of parts of western Germany along the Rhine Valley also provoked widespread resentment and intensified German nationalism in the affected regions. It was the French who provoked the most resentment. The banning of German festivals and patriotic songs, the encouragement of separatist movements in the area and the legalisation of radical nationalist groups caused particular indignation.
Political violence
The ex-soldiers and their resentments nevertheless played a decisive role in creating a climate of violence and discontent after the war, and the conflict of having to adapt to peacetime conditions pushed many to the extreme right. On the left, too, there was a new willingness to use violence, conditioned by the direct or indirect experience of war.
Legitimated violence
Germany failed to make the transition from wartime to peacetime after 1918. Instead, it remained mired in a situation of continuing war; war with itself and war with the rest of the world.
The language of politics was steeped in wartime metaphors, the rival party was an enemy to be crushed, and fighting, terror and violence became widely accepted and perfectly legitimate weapons of political contestation.
The First World War legitimised violence. The change in mood could already be seen in parliamentary debates. After 1918 they too often degenerated into improper shouting matches, with each side showin manifest contempt for the other. But the situation was far worse on the streets, where all sides armed goon squads and skirmishes, clashes were frequent, and beatings and killings were widely resorted to. Political parties became associated with armed and uniformed squads, paramilitary troops whose task was to provide guards for public events, to impress people by parading in military formation through the streets, and to intimidate, beat and sometimes kill members of paramilitary units linked to other political parties.
Conclusion
It was in this atmosphere of national trauma, political extremism, violent conflict and revolutionary upheaval that Nazism was born. Most of the elements that became part of its eclectic ideology were already present in Germany before 1914 and had become even more familiar to the population during the war.
The collapse of the country into political chaos towards the end of 1918 provided the spur to translate radical ideas into violent action.