HIST 2509 A History of Germany

HIST 2509 A History of Germany

Lecture W3-1

Defeat, Revolution,

and the Early Republic

TA Office Hours

Meaghan Harris (L-Z 2% applied to final grade)

Email: [email protected]

437 Paterson Hall

Tuesday January 17 11:30-1:00

Friday January 20 1:00-2:30

Tuesday January 24 11:30-1:00

TA Office Hours

Margaret Watts (A-G 2% not applied -- I will do this on spreadsheet, no worries!)

Email: [email protected]

1302 Dunton Tower

Wednesday January 18, 25 12-1pm

Friday January 20, 27 10-11am

Today’s Main Themes

• promises made, promises kept?• total war at home and away• truly a stab in the back?• postwar chaos

=understanding the weaknesses of Weimar

I. Peace in the Castle?

a. total war on the home/front

-from mythic victories early on

(Tannenburg, Masurian Lakes 1914)

-to Langemarck 1914 and the slaughter of 1916

(Verdun, Somme, Jutland, and the Brusilov Offensive)



-to Langemarck 1914

and the slaughter of 1916

(Verdun, Somme, Jutland,

and the Brusilov Offensive)

FROM REINHARD DITHMAR, DER LANGEMARCK-MYTHOS IN DICHTUNG UND UNTERRICHT (Neuwied Luchterhand, 1992). This image of a singing student volunteer appeared in a Nazi-era book.



-Hindenburg Programme 1916

-industrial refashioning

-scarcity and urban unrest

"Wir lassen uns nicht aushungern!”Verein für Kindervolksküchen und Kinderhorte, 1915


-"Turnip Winter 1916/17

-Ersatzbrot; newspaper nappies

-750,000 die due to

starvation alone


b. new fault lines to contend with

-despite initial support for the war, the 1915 Manifesto

-hatred by 1916, from the left but meandering to the centre

-Kaiser's 1917 Easter Speech and promised reforms

-last-ditch offensive, mutiny, and finally defeat

Armistice

Graphic depiction after 1918 of Matthias Erzbergerin Compiegne France with Ferdinand Foch

II. The Face of Defeat

a. 1918/19 Revolution and temporary government

-from Brest-Litovsk

-to the streets of Berlin

-worker's, soldier's, sailor's councils

-abdication of the Kaiser

-general strike

-revolution

At the dutch border


Philipp Scheidemann

proclaims a republic

in Berlin

November 9, 1918

DHM Photo

So does

Karl Liebknecht --

A socialist republic

at the Berlin PalaceReichstag

Warp Ahead: the Stadtschloss

1945 The Liebknecht Portal

Palast der Republik

Battleground Berlin

Freikorps Communist soldiers

The Landwehrkanal murders

Post-murder celebrations January 15, 1919, Eden Hotel Berlin

Postwar Commemoration

Freikorps paraphernalia

Liebknecht, Luxemburg and Thaelmann: GDR’s martyrswww.arbeiterfotografie.com/reportage


b. the Weimar Constitution – the Basic Law

-finally, a solution to the German Question?

-women’s suffrage

-universal manhood suffrage

c. the Versailles Diktat

-Wilson’s 14 points

-the dictated peace

-reparations

-John Maynard Keynes

September 1, 1923

A woman feeds a stovepipe with RMFrom the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Archive

III. The Unsung Republic

a. putsches and coups

b. assassinations

c. inflation

d. reparations and Ruhr occupation

e. gradual international acceptance at least for a time

-Kapp-Putsch 1920, Luettzow Putsch

-Beer Hall 1923

-Thuringia

and Saxony

a. putsches and coups

Kapp-Putschists spreading leaflets in front of Reichs Chancellery in Berlin DHM Berlin, 13. März 1920

b. assassinations

Enzenberger Rathenau

Eisner

-passive resistance

-Rhineland Bastards

Hands off the Ruhr!

Anti-French placard

by Theo Matejko

from 1923

DHM

c. inflation 1923d. reparations and Ruhr and Rhineland Occupation

-the infirm

-600,000 war widows

-2.7 million veterans

-6 million children

lost one or both parents

-rift between l and r gone?

e. stabilization and acceptance 1923-29f. integration: healing of past wounds?

From the series, Victims of the First World War, 1933

HIST 2509 A History of Germany

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