I was thinking about the article by David Blackburn that we read this week for class. Again, I’m going to preface all of this with the thought that it’s very difficult to connect how Germany’s past can be connected to its eventual turn into the Third Reich. I think that anyone claiming that a country could be predestined to make that kind of turn is kind of silly. Although I think that the predestination idea is laughable, I can of course see how various events and political situations could have led the country to turn into the Nazi Party.
From what I took from the Blackburn article, the peasants of the German countryside began to see the city as a place where the growth of the negative was becoming rampant. In class, we discussed how the cities began to have that feeling of “impersonality” where no one knew anyone due to the sheer mass in numbers that came from living in an urban area. Maybe because of this impersonality the peasantry felt that the city had less moral fiber than that of the countryside. Many of the views state that the peasant community was being manipulated by the political world and that even the market stood as a threatening symbol to them. If there really was such a divide between the city and the countryside, maybe the only thing that really divided them was the lack of understanding between the two. This wouldn’t be the first time in history that a lack of understanding led to something unnecessary. With the view of manipulation in mind, let’s think about what was said in class regarding the idea that maybe the other political parties were simply attempting to accommodate the peasants. Politicians still do this today. Everyone at the beginning of our presidential elections comes out with very strong ideas in mind, but as they begin getting down to the wire in the process, the candidates start to sound the same in some of the smaller things. They focus on a few key issues that will bring in the votes that they need.
Seeing this, the peasants (who I doubt were uninformed or stupid) starting using their votes as not only political weapons by going against what people expected them to do, but as a form of political protest. The more the people used this as an act of personal choice, the concept of deference began to vanish. They began to realize that power in numbers could mean power in politics. I can only imagine how it would have been to live at a time like that when the statues quo was so powerfully shaken as it was then. As we look at all of this progress being made, it is easier to see how these people began making their way into a Third Reich. The possibility was becoming ever more present, whether they knew it or not. The peasants were all anti-elitist, anti-Semitic, and anti-urban (not to mention that, as we learned in class, anti-urban sentiment could have been the same thing as anti-Weimar Republic thought). As you look back, it’s easier to see how the idea of the community (or, forgive me if I misspell this, “Gemeinschaft”) could have shifted to the Societal (or, again forgive me if I mess this up, “Gesellschaft”) view. I think that given the standing up to their current governmental arguments and anti-Semitic, anti-urban, and anti-elitist views were what helped set up a true unification of Germans. Think of what the Third Reich was built upon. The peasants hated the elitist view of things: that’s fine because we’re all Germans and we’re ALL elite compared to other people. We’re anti-urban and sick of the Weimar Republic. That’s good; the Third Reich will represent everyone in a new and more powerful way. The Third Reich is coming and if you’re angry with how things are going, have we got a scapegoat for you. In my opinion, the Germans allowed the Third Reich and the Nazi party to come to power because of a reckless confidence and a need to blame their faults on anyone but themselves. Calling that predestination is giving that kind of mindset too generous an out.

Road to the Third Reich

It’s been rather difficult for me to come up with a subject to write on this week. What with studying for the exam and all of my other classes, it’s been hard to focus on one subject for a long enough time period to put my sights on a particular event. I guess given the fact that I’ve been looking back on all of our older notes, it’s been easier for me to take a look at how the stage was being set for the Third Reich.
It’s always strange for me to imagine just how things could have been different if the slightest event was changed. I look at the timeline and wonder if the events that eventually set up the Third Reich and the rise of Nazism could have started as far back as the Holy Roman Empire trying to fend off the forces of Napoleon or if all of those things could have begun around the time that Bismarck came to prominence. The argument can obviously be made that all of these events came together to lay the groundwork for the Third Reich, but I’m wondering if it really started at a certain time for Germany. I’m thinking along the lines of what we’ve discussed in class: was there a specific point at which Germany turned down the path that would eventually lead them to war and holocaust?
If these things began with the invasion of Napoleon then I could certainly understand that. After the many years that the French maintained power over the area, it would be understandable to for the German people to desire a unified country. It would also make sense for them to feel a kind of camaraderie with other Germans simply because they were being antagonized by the same foe. I realize that this is basically what happened, but why did it take so long for these feelings to come to fruition in someone like Bismarck. This brings up my questioning of whether or not it could have been Bismarck and the politics of his time that set down the road that would lead to the Nazis. Even though Bismarck was called the “White Revolutionary” who seemed to have a desire to calm things down, maybe his actions are the ones to blame.
After everything Bismarck did that brought the people together and even united Germany; maybe it was just that that made the people of Germany feel they had a right to everything that they desired. It seems to me that one of the key factors that the Germans took into war was the feeling that they could do no wrong. The obvious term of “the superior race” shows what they must have been thinking. The surge of nationalism and political zeal was one of the things that Hitler used to mobilize Germany in such a way. Bismarck’s love of his country may have eventually brought it to its knees if the people’s nationalism and lust for more did indeed help push them into the arms of the Third Reich. As far as the country’s hatred of the Jewish during that time, the German people were no strangers to picking out those that they thought were hurting their goals and national strength. Just like Bismarck’s Reichsfeinde, the Jewish were made to be enemies of the state. If the time of Bismarck had any influence of the growth of the Third Reich (which it did), then wouldn’t this be the most solid groundwork for the Reich? I can’t help but correlate the two eras together. Then again, this is obvious. It’s just odd that Bismarck’s love for his country eventually turned into something that did a great job of destroying it.

Maybe I'm going crazy, but...

I’m going to kind of build off of what Marilin Goff said in her most recent blog because it got me to thinking about Bismarck. It’s very interesting to me to think about what kind of things Bismarck could have been capable of if things had gone his way when granting the people universal suffrage. Think about it, if the Catholics had no been given the ability to vote for more Conservative and more Catholic inclined politicians to attain the goals they desired.

In my opinion, Bismarck was a genius. Mischievous and somewhat sinister in the way that he was doing things, yes, but he found a way to exploit loop holes to achieve his goals. He found a way to work around the system that was currently in place to succeed in many ways that others had not. The concept of a unified Germany must have seemed so far out of reach to others of that time period. The people of the region had been dancing around the subject for years and yet no one had found a way to make it a reality. Then along comes a spider (played conveniently by Otto Von Bismarck) and over the course of a few years, the dream of a unified Germany is no longer just a dream. Speaking for myself, I was amazed by the story that J. Malto told us about how the throne of Spain was opened and the French began their pleading to keep the Kaiser from having interest. What was probably a very mild and mannered encounter was turned into a national (bearing in mind that the term national did not yet apply) incident where the honor of the German people was attacked. It would have never occurred to me to change the wording of a telegram and leak it to the press (give me time though, it’s giving me ideas! Just kidding).

After all of the encounters with Austria and the various battles and wars which took place during the time, I can’t help but wonder if Bismarck could have in any way foreseen the unfolding of events and played them to his advantage, or if he just managed to seize the opportunities as they came to him. I thought about this during another one of my classes in which an officer in the Army in the early 1920’s began trying to convince America of the possibilities of aircraft as a tool of war. This was long before the creation of our Air Force or anything similar to it (like the Army Air Corps of WWII). What reminded me of Bismarck though is that towards the end of this officer’s career, as he was being court-martialed for his lack of tact regarding the Army, Navy, and American government, he said that he was sure air power would be the deciding factor in the future of combat. He predicted that one day, planes would descend upon American soil and drop bombs that would deal us great damage. When someone in the court asked him, almost laughing, if he was serious, the officer told him that he imagined that the enemy would be Japan and they would attack Pearl Harbor. This, of course, happened in 1941, long after his court-martial and death. After learning this, I couldn’t help but compare the American officer and Bismarck. Since both Bismarck and this officer both seemed to have a handle on what was going to happen next, then wouldn’t it make since that Bismarck would have just seen those events coming?

I suppose the only reason that my other story came to mind was to compare the fact that both of these men were able to see what was down the road. One of them was able to take advantage of those events, the other not as much. Still, it reminds me of the old saying: “History repeats itself.” Perhaps someone else will come along that can predict these events and play them to his or her advantage. Here’s hoping that person is with us and not against us. I wouldn’t want to go up against a Bismarck.

First blog with a few thoughts

Well we just began to learn about the various issues and social problems with the German confederation and many thoughts crossed my mind. During our lectures, discussions, and readings I’ve been very interested in how the people of these areas must have perceived the events unfolding around them. The more we have learned of their social structure has only served to interest me further.

The beliefs of the various groups (i.e. conservatives, liberals, etc.) were very interesting to me not because of how they conflicted, but because of how the groups seemed to cancel one another out on nearly every issue that was presented. Something about our country’s governmental structure (keeping the obvious differences in mind) is that regardless of what group you may belong to, your voice must usually be at least acknowledged. The various complaints of one group against the government structure, be it conservative or liberal, is not only acknowledged in many cases but acted on.

Forgive me for being scattered, but it’s been a long 7 days and I’m doing my best to form coherent thoughts. It seemed to me throughout the various readings that governments did so much to avoid uprisings or the loss of power that they not only prevented any progress from occurring, but also managed to force regression. As time passed in the German states, the balance of power (along with progression) went wildly up and down like a came of Chutes and Ladders.

Then again, who am I to say that this isn’t just how progress is made? A continual back and forth that leaves one hoping that the scale will eventually tilt towards the betterment of the society. I understand that in many cases throughout history progress has been hampered or altogether stopped because a monarch refuses to give up power. What amazes me about the German timeline, however, is that the different groups seemed to be more of a hindrance to progress that many of the monarchs. Instead of little advancements being made here and there over the course of time, each group stood in the way of good that could be done in order to make their own version of “good” while the monarch of the time, for fear of losing his power, scrambled around to keep everyone at bay. This of course just made everyone unhappy and created more issues for the people to argue about.

As frantic and aimless as my thought process may be in this first blog (please continue to bear with me), my central aim in this rambling is to express how baffled I became with how every group down to the smallest role in German history was so concerned with their own power, wellbeing, survival, etc. that it seemed the only thing that had been accomplished was a complete standstill among the groups, monarch, and lower classes.

But hey, this is why we have uprisings and revolution! Whenever everything gets just a bit too far off base, we just shake it up and seem to start from scratch with glorious and inspired goals. I suppose that’s how the German countries made the tiny bits of progress that they did. One turn up the tall ladder, another down the short slide, and then eventually you find yourself in a better position.Let’s hope my rambling in the future finds more interesting targets, shall we?