Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Militarism and expansionism? main
peculiarity?
- German nature: militaristic
and ambitious
- Jerome
- militaristic and expansionist characteristics have been argued
to be the result of germanys development and industrial path
- Sonderweg theory: germany took
a strange oath in its development
and industrialisation
- Hans Ulrich Wehler, David Blackburn, Geoff Eley
- william shirer: it is all too clear
where national socialism had
come from: germanys history from
Martin Luther King to Frederick
the Great and the Kaiser formed a
logical continuum of subservience
to authority, rampant nationalism
and inherent anti-semitism
- Jill stephenson: but whether there was a common
western model of development is doubtful
- not the only peculiarity:
- Industrialisation very quick compared to other western countries. from
1850 to 1914
- failed revolution in 1848- unified
through military means
- old elites remained very powerful
- incomplete revolution in 1918
- failed revolutions of the bourgeoisie classes that
have been most influential in creating a germany
where extermist ideas can take root
- because the German bourgeoisie class had failed to have a revolution like it would
have in other european countries 'irrationalism, inwardness and cultural pessimism
appear as burdens which prevented the German bourgeoisie from fighting for its proper
objectives
- created a passive bourgeoisie where support for
refomist movements failed to take root, such as
pacifism, feminism or ultimately support for
western liberal democracy
- Germany since the 19th century has been characterised as a militaristic and
expansionist country
- one of the main characteristics of imperial germany
was that Germany was military nation
- army came out of unification with
high prestige
- conscription at 18 for three years
- army used as a way to train the youth, school of the nation,
breeding conservative soldiers prepared to defend the
monarchy against revolution
- social democrats and liberals werent
happy about the prestige of the army
- WW1: german military thinking,
causes of WW1: imperialism
(germany throwing its weight
around) masses wanted war or
myth of unity?
- From weimar to third reich? radicalisation of the voter: still mainly
thinking about foreign policy
- hitler: gave people something to do
- wanted a strong germany
- Hitler wanted to expand-
living space in the East. did
everyone want to? becoming
one of the worlds powers,
revision of the Treaty of
Versailles
- Situational factors?
- grievances and humiliation felt
from the treaty of Versialles
- economic problems of interwar period
- Ludwig Von Mises: in the 1870s Germany began to differ from
othe countries. German nationalists made what they believed
was a great discovery. The discovered that there nation was the
strongest in Europe
- believed that they could become a massive colonial
power