HI136 The History of Germany Lecture 6

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HI136 The History of GermanyLecture 6

• The First World War

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The July Crisis

• 28 June Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated at
  Sarajevo.
• 5 July Kaiser Wilhelm II offers Germanys
  unconditional support (the blank cheque) to
  Austria-Hungary.
• 23 July Austria issues her ultimatum to Serbia.
• 28 July Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.
  Russia orders partial mobilisation of her armed
  forces.
• 30 July Russia orders general mobilisation.
  Austria orders general mobilisation.
• 1 August Germany declares war on Russia. France
  orders mobilisation.
• 2 August Germany issues an ultimatum to Belgium,
  demanding to be allowed to move troops through
  Belgian territory.
• 3 August Germany declares war on France. Italy
  proclaims her neutrality.
• 4 August German troops cross the Belgian
  frontier. Britain declares war on Germany.

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Interpretations

• Government (Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg) wage a
  limited war to stabilise alliance system and
  political system, taking the risk of a major war
  but not wanting it. Playing with fire.
• Army (Chief of Staff Helmuth von Moltke) wage a
  preventive war as early as possible before
  military strength of Russia and France becomes
  overwhelming (expected to be the case in 1916) .
• Right-wing nationalists, conservatives and some
  industrialists fear of revolution or victory of
  Social Democrats in next election. Either
  revocation of universal male suffrage,
  suppression of Social Democracy and dictatorial
  rule or end of old political and social order,
  universal suffrage for Prussian Landtag,
  responsibility of government to the Reichstag,
  perhaps social revolution.
• Intellectuals, some of the middle class cultural
  pessimism, expectation of war, rejuvenation of
  nation, new exciting time.
• Victorious war best way to solve the stalemate,
  would have a stabilising effect and help foster
  national unity.

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Interpretations

• War was forced upon Germany traditional German
  view
• All nations were equally responsible, pessimistic
  view of inevitability of war widespread, fatal
  automatism of alliance systems alternative
  German view
• Germany and Austria-Hungary were alone
  responsible view of Allies
• German government, military economic elites
  were preparing for war at least since 1912 aim
  world power and territorial gains in the east and
  the west (Fritz Fischer) Fischer Controversy
• Social imperialism traditional elites feel
  under pressure to change social and political
  order to prevent reform wage war to divert
  attention from domestic problems, overcome
  polarisation of German society (Hans-Ulrich
  Wehler)

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Popular enthusiasm and support for Austria
(Berlin, 4 August 1914)
August 1, 1914, in Berlin (1914) by Arthur Kampf
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• I thank all of you for the love and loyalty
  that you have shown me these past days. These
  were serious days, like seldom before. Should it
  now come to a battle, then there will be no more
  political parties. I, too, was attacked by the
  one or the other party. That was in peace. I
  forgive you now from the depths of my heart. I no
  longer recognize any parties or any confessions
  today we are all German brothers and only German
  brothers. If our neighbours want it no other way,
  if our neighbours do not grant us peace, then I
  hope to God that our good German sword will see
  us through to victory in these difficult
  battles.
• Wilhelm II (1 August 1914)

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Burgfriede

• A political truce called by the parties in the
  Reichstag for the duration of hostilities.
• Even the SPD agreed to this and voted for War
  Credits.
• The SPD supported the war because
• They had been convinced that this was a defensive
  war against autocratic Russia.
• Many Socialists were also patriots and were proud
  of Germany and her achievements.
• The party leadership hoped to gain political
  legitimacy through supporting the nation in its
  hour of need.

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The Schlieffen Plan

• Drawn up by General Alfred von Schlieffen
  (1833-1913), chief of the general staff from 1891
  to 1905.
• Designed to cope with the prospect of a war on
  two fronts.
• Its objective was to quickly knock out France,
  leaving the German army free to face Russia.
• Several flaws in the plan, which were compounded
  by unexpected reverses once operations commenced.

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Failure of the Schlieffen Plan The invasion of
Belgium made Germany seem like the aggressor
and brought Britain into the War. The plan had
not been updated to take recent Russian and
French military reforms into account. Moltke
weakened the thrust through Belgium by diverting
troops to Alsace and Lorraine and East
Prussia. The Germans faced stiffer resistance
than anticipated in particular they had not
expected to have to fight the British
Expeditionary Force (BEF). The German advance
halted at the First Battle of the Marne (4-10
Sept. 1914) and the Battle of the Aisne (15-18
Sept. 1914). September-December The race for
sea. By December 1914 the front had stagnated
into a 400 mile system of trenches running from
the Swiss border to the North Sea.
German troops charging into battle (above) and
digging in to defensive positions (below) in the
west, 1914
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The War in the East, 1914-15

• Russia mobilised her troops more quickly than
  anticipated and invaded East Prussia.
• General von Prittwitz ordered a retreat to the
  Vistula on 20 August.
• Displeased with this timid response, Moltke
  replaced Prittwitz with Paul von Hindenburg.

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Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934)

• 1847 Born at Poznan in Prussian Poland, the son
  of an East Prussian landowner.
• Educated at cadet schools in Wahlstadt and
  Berlin.
• Fought at Königgrätz (1866) and in the
  Franco-Prussian War.
• 1878 Joined the General Staff.
• 1905 Promoted to the rank of General.
• 1911 Retired from active service.
• 22 August 1914 Brought out of retirement to
  command the German Eighth Army in East Prussia.
• Victory at Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes made
  him a national hero.
• In many ways the archetypal Prussian Junker.

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The War in the East, 1914-15

• Russia mobilised her troops more quickly than
  anticipated and invaded East Prussia.
• General von Prittwitz ordered a retreat to the
  Vistula on 20 August.
• Displeased with this timid response, Moltke
  replaced Prittwitz with Paul von Hindenburg.
• The Russians defeated at the Battle of Tannenburg
  (26-31 August 1914) and the Battle of the
  Masurian Lakes (9-14 September 1914).
• Hindenburg became a public hero, promoted to
  Field Marshal and placed in command of the whole
  Eastern Front.
• Further campaigns in 1915 penetrated deep into
  Russian territory, driving into Poland and the
  Baltic States and capturing Warsaw and Vilna.
• The Schlieffen Plan turned on its head a war of
  movement in the east, while the western front
  stagnated.

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The Easterners Hindenburg, Ludendorff,
Hoffmann and Mackensen by Oskar Bruch
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Trench Warfare
The Battlefield in the Argonne Forest (1916)
Postcard Resting in the Trenches, c. 1914
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Trench Warfare
German troops attacking, July 1916 (Top Left),
posed photograph of a Storm Trooper (Bottom
Left), German soldier wearing First World War
trench armour (Above)
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Ernst Jünger

• In battle, the animal ascends as the secret
  horror at the souls base, shooting high as a
  consuming flame, an irresistible rapture that
  intoxicates the masses, a godhead enthroned above
  the hosts...
• Weve been harnessed and chiselled, but we are
  also such as swing the hammer and guide the
  chisel, we are at once the smith and the flashing
  steel.
• In Stahlgewitten (Storm of Steel, 1920)

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Erich Maria Remarque
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The Home Front

• The worlds first total war.
• Banks and export industries badly disrupted,
  while the Allied blockade made it difficult for
  Germany to import food and vital raw materials.
• Occupation of industrial areas of northern France
  and Belgium offset this to some extent,
• But still severe shortages.
• Necessitates state intervention in the economy.

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State Intervention

• 1915 Kreigsrohstoffabteilung (Raw Materials
  Department, KRA) ensures the acquisition,
  storage and distribution of materials vital to
  the war effort.
• 1915 Bread rationing introduced.
• 1916 Zentral-Einkaufs-Gesellschaft (Central
  Purchasing Company) acquisition of goods from
  neutral countries.
• 1916 Reichsgetreidstelle (Imperial Gain Office)
  controlled food supplies and issued ration
  cards .
• Hindenburg Programme (1916) Intended to
  concentrate industry on the production of
  munitions.
• Auxiliary Service Law (1916) Government could
  conscript workers and decide where they should
  work.

Walter Rathenau (1867-1922), industrialist and
founder of the Kreigsrohstoffabteilung
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War Finance

• Germany already had a large budget deficit before
  1914.
• Taxation not sufficient to finance the war, and
  proposals to raise taxes vetoed on political
  grounds and the fiscal privileges of Junkers
  continued unabated.
• Only 16 of the cost of the war met by taxation.
• War financed by printing money and war loans.
• This led to massive inflation by 1918 the mark
  had lost 75 of its value.
• Also a fall of real wages (20 in war industry,
  40 in other branches).

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Food Shortages
By the autumn of 1916 food shortages, Inflation
and mounting casualties beginning to effect the
public mood. 1916-17 The Turnip Winter
exceptionally cold weather and a poor potato
harvest lead to a severe food and fuel
crisis. Between 1916 and 1917 deaths from
hypothermia and starvation rose from 121,000 to
293,000. Infant Mortality at 50 by 1918.
Above Left The first mobile kitchen
(Gulaschkanone) in Berlin, c. 1916. Below Left
Queuing for food, 1917.
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Mobilisation for total warMeasures
Failures

• War Raw Materials Office coordination of
  industrial products.
• Food rationing in 1915.
• War Food Office 1916.
• Substitutes clothes with paper fibres.
• Gaps in the labour force filled by women
  (emancipation double burden).
• Auxiliary Labour Law (1916) Government could
  conscript workers and decide where they should
  work.
• Dictatorship of Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL)
  Hindenburg and Ludendorff loss of influence for
  civil government strengthening of army
  influence.

• Scarcity of clothing, soap, food.
• Agricultural production fell, meat consumption
  only 12 of pre-war level.
• Malnutrition and starvation turnip winter
  1916/17 (consequence up to 750,000 dead).
• Polarisation pro Siegfrieden (victorious
  peace) with far reaching war aims, pro peace
  without contributions and annexations.
• Middle Classes pauperisation, living conditions
  closer to working class but many now more
  nationalist, angst (loss of status) .
• Working Class spontaneous strikes in 1916 and
  1917.

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Propaganda
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Propaganda
Help us to Triumph Buy War Bonds! Poster by
Fritz Erler (1916)
Poster showing Wilhelm II and his assertion that
he had never sought war (1915)
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• French and Russian, they matter not,A blow for
  a blow, a shot for a shot,We fight the battle
  with bronze and steel,And the time that is
  coming Peace will seal.You we will hate with a
  lasting hate,We will never forego our hate,Hate
  by water and hate by land,Hate of the head and
  hate of the hand,Hate of the hammer and hate of
  the crown,Hate of seventy millions choking
  down.We love as one, we hate as one,We have one
  foe and one alone--ENGLAND!
• Ernst Lissauer, Hassgesang gegan England (1914)

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1916
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Breaking the Stalemate

• No agreement over how the stalemate in the west
  should be ended and the war won.
• Hindenburg Ludendorff pushed for an all-out
  offensive in the east to knock Russia out of the
  war before turning their attention to the west.
• Falkenhayn believed the war could be won in the
  west and put his faith in an attack on sections
  of the front held by the French.
• Influential voices in the Admiralty pushing for
  the introduction of unrestricted submarine
  warfare (sinking all shipping entering Allied
  waters).

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Verdun (1916)
Offensive against the fortress of Verdun intended
to bleed the French white. Feb.-June 1916
315,000 French and 281,000 Germans killed, but
the French held on.
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The Silent Dictatorship

• The Kaiser increasingly sidelined in political
  and military matters.
• By 1916 Bethmann-Hollweg under pressure from the
  right and struggling to maintain the political
  consensus.
• The increasingly unpopular Falkenhayn dismissed
  in August 1916.
• Replaced by Hindenburg as Chief of the General
  Staff, with Ludendorff as Quartermaster General.
• They have huge popular support and use this to
  increasingly control political and economic, as
  well as military, affairs.
• Thus, from the summer of 1916 onwards, Germany
  was ruled by a military dictatorship.

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1917
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1917

• January Unrestricted submarine warfare resumed.
• Growing war-weariness amongst the population.
• July Peace resolution passed by the Reichstag.

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• The Reichstag strives for a peace of
  understanding and a lasting reconciliation of
  peoples. Any violations of territory, and
  political, economic, and financial persecutions
  are incompatible with such a peace. . . .
• However, as long as the enemy governments refuse
  to agree to such a peace, as long as they
  threaten Germany and her allies with conquest and
  domination, so long will the German people stand
  united and unshaken, and they will fight until
  their right and that of their allies are made
  secure.
• Matthias Erzberger, speech to the Reichstag, 19
  July 1917

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1917

• January Unrestricted submarine warfare resumed.
• Growing war-weariness amongst the population.
• 19 July Peace resolution passed by the
  Reichstag.
• July Bethmann-Hollweg resigns as Chancellor,
  replaced by George Michaelis and then Count
  Hertling.
• Feb./March First Russian Revolution.
• 6 April The USA declared war on Germany.
• May-June Mutinies in the French Army.
• Oct./Nov. Second Russian Revolution Bolsheviks
  come to power promising to end the war.

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The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918)
Source G. Layton, From Bismarck to Hitler
Germany, 1890-1933
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1918

• January 400,000 Berlin workers go on strike.
• March Spring Offensive launched.

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The Kaiserschlacht (Kaisers Battle), March-July
1918 Source P. J. Haythornthwaite, The
World War One Sourcebook
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1918

• January 400,000 Berlin workers go on strike.
• March Spring Offensive launched.
• July Allied counter-attack ? collapse of the
  western front.
• September
• Peace feelers sent out to the Americans
• Prince Max von Baden appointed Chancellor
• 26 October Reform of the Constitution.
• 3 November Naval Mutiny at Kiel.
• 7 November German plenipotentiaries cross enemy
  lines.
• 9 November Republic proclaimed in Berlin.
• 11 November Armistice signed.

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CASUALTIES OF THE WORLD WAR
  Known dead Seriously wounded Otherwise wounded Prisoners or missing
Russia 2,762,064 1,000,000 3,950,000 2,500,000
Germany 1,611,104 1,600,000 2,183,143 772,522
France 1,427,800 700,000 2,344,000 453,500
Austria-Hungary 911,000 850,000 2,150,000 443,000
Great Britain 807,451 617,714 1,441,394 64,907
Serbia 707,343 322,000 28,000 100,000
Italy 507,160 500,000 462,196 1,359,000
Turkey 436,924 107,772 300,000 103,731
Rumania 339,117 200,000 ...... 116,000
Belgium 267,000 40,000 100,000 10,000
United States 107,284 43,000 148,000 4,912
Bulgaria 101,224 300,000 852,339 10,825
Greece 15,000 10,000 30,000 45,000
Portugal 4,000 5,000 12,000 200
Japan 300 ........ 907 3
Total 9,998,771 6,295,512 14,002,039 5,983,600
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Lasting Consequences of the War

• Loss of life changes to the labour force, lower
  birth rate etc.
• Psychological effects
• War Neuroses
• The Dolchstoßlegende (Stab in the Back Myth)

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The Stab in the Back Myth

• At this time, the secret intentional mutilation
  of the fleet and the army began as a continuation
  of similar occurrences in peacetime. . . . An
  English general said with justice The German
  army was stabbed in the back, No guilt applies
  to the good core of the army. Its achievements
  are just as admirable as those of those of the
  officer corps. Where the guilt lies has clearly
  been demonstrated.
• Paul von Hindenburg

Election poster for the DNVP (1924)
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Lasting Consequences of the War

• Loss of life changes to the labour force, lower
  birth rate etc.
• Psychological effects
• War Neuroses
• The Dolchstoßlegende (Stab in the back myth)
• Split in the left.
• Germany a revisionist power.
• Economy Inflation and reparations, loss of
  industrial territory.

Bad starting point for first German democracy!