The impact of the First World War

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The impact of the First World War

• History of Germany
• Lecture 5

ChMick_at_aol.com
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Schedule

• The Road to War
• The Course of the War 1914-1917
• Hate Propaganda
• Victory and Defeat
• The Home Front
• Revolution
• Conclusion Lasting Consequences

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Foreign Policy of William II

• New Course place in the sun, world power,
  dominance on continent
• Great Britain Germany tries in vain to win over
  GB to form an alliance, conflicts in colonial
  questions, navy policy, GB forms Entente Cordiale
  with France in 1904
• France containment fails (Morocco), France no
  longer isolated, conflicts Alsace-Lorraine,
  German dominance in Central Europe, colonial
  questions
• Russia refuses to renew Reinsurance Treaty,
  makes an alliance between France and Russia
  (1892) and England and Russia (1907) possible
• Austria supports Austrian policy on Balkans
• Italy Triple Alliance (Austria, Germany, Italy)
  1882

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German blank cheque to Austria
French blank cheque to Russia
General Russian mobilisation
Austria decides to go to war against Serbia
German ultimatum to Russia and France
Germany declares war on Russia and France,
dynamics of alliances
German invasion in Belgium England declares war
on Germany
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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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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, stabilising effect, national unity,
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Was the German Empire doomed?

• YES
• Polarisation of society
• Semi-absolutist constitution
• Conservatives not willing to reform political
  system
• Isolation of Social Democracy
• Strength of reactionary agrarian elites
• Political weakness of middle classes
• Radicalisation of nationalism
• Role of radical non-parliamentarian pressure
  groups
• Irresponsible personal rule of Emperor (advisors)
• Role of arch-conservative Prussia (see suffrage)
  and its bureaucrats retarding factor
• Prussian Army growing role, not controlled by
  parliament

• NO
• Rule of law
• Universal suffrage
• Largely free press
• Growing role of parliament and increasing
  self-confidence of deputies
• Begin of constructive role of social-democratic
  deputies in parliament / cooperation with left
  liberals
• Growing strength of SPD as democratic party, loss
  of revolutionary drive

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AUGUST 1914 during the days of mobilization the
society (Gesellschaft) which had existed
transformed itself into a community
(Gemeinschaft). The German sociologist Emil
Lederer in 1915
"How the artist, the soldier in the artist, would
have praised God for the collapse of the peaceful
world, with which he was so fed up, so utterly
fed up. War! We found it cleansing, freeing, and
a monstrous hope. Of this the poets spoke, only
of this. Thomas Mann in 1914
Recommended reading Jeffrey Verhey, The Spirit
of 1914 Militarism, Myth, and Mobilization in
Germany (New York, 2000)
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Speech of Emperor Wilhelm II from the Balcony of
the Royal Palace, Berlin, August 1, 1914
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the
expression of your loyalty and your esteem. When
it comes to war, all parties cease and we are all
brothers. One or another party has attacked me in
peacetime, but now I forgive them wholeheartedly.
If our neighbours do not give us peace, then we
hope and wish that our good German sword will
come victorious out of this war!
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Speech of Wilhelm II from the Balcony of the
Royal Palace, Berlin, July 31, 1914
A momentous hour has struck for Germany. Envious
rivals everywhere force us to legitimate defense.
The sword has been forced into our hands And so
I commend you to God. Go forth into the churches,
kneel down before God, and implore his help for
our brave army.
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Take up the sword of justiceSir John Bernard
Partridge, 1914-1918152 x 98.6 cm
Germania, Friedrich August von Kaulbach 1914, 192
x 147 cm DHM, Berlin
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Schedule

• The Road to War
• The Course of the War 1914-1917
• Hate Propaganda
• Victory and Defeat
• The Home Front
• Revolution
• Conclusion Lasting Consequences

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The Western Front 1914
Graf von Schlieffen 28.02.1833 V  04.01.1913
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1915
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Warfare on the Western Front
                                                  
                                     Machine
guns in a trench, preparing an attack on Fort St.
Catherine 1915
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Forest near Ypern
Ruins of Lens
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Poison Gas
British soldiers blinded by an attack of poison
gas lined up awaiting treatment
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Verdun
1916
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Verdun 1916
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Fractures
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Storm of Steel Battle as inner experience 1922
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
Ernst Jünger
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Erich Maria Remarque
Otto Dix The Attacker, 1916
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The Eastern Front 1914-1917
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1917
1915
1916
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Schedule

• The Road to War
• The Course of the War 1914-1917
• Hate Propaganda
• Victory and Defeat
• The Home Front
• Revolution
• Conclusion Lasting Consequences

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Destroy this mad brute / Enlist U.S. ArmyUSA,
1917/18
Souvenez-vous!Remember!Paris, 1917
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Anti-German UnionLondon, founded 1915
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We Barbarians1914-1918DHM, Berlin
Are We Barbarians?Berlin, 1914-1918
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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!
Hasslied by Ernst Lissauer (excerpt). Originally
published in Jugend, 1914, translated by Barbara
Henderson in The New York Times.
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Schedule

• The Road to War
• The Course of the War 1914-1917
• Hate Propaganda
• Victory and Defeat
• The Home Front
• Revolution
• Conclusion Lasting Consequences

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Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg
Erich Ludendorff
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Revolutions in Russia
Alexander Kerenski
Vladimir I. Lenin
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1918
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Brest-Litovsk, February 1918
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German Spring Offensive 1918
                                                                                                                                                      

German reserves advancing through St Quentin.
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1918
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Schedule

• The Road to War
• The Course of the War 1914-1917
• Hate Propaganda
• Victory and Defeat
• The Home Front
• Revolution
• Conclusion Lasting Consequences

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Mobilisation for total war IMeasures
Failures

• War financed by printing money and war loans

• Taxation of war profits only in 1916
• Fiscal privileges of Junkers continue unabated
• 16 of cost of war was met by taxation
• Black market
• Fall of real wages (20 in war industry, 40 in
  other branches)

uneven distribution of burden unfair
Inflation in 1918 the German mark had lost 75
of its value
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Mobilisation for total war II Measures
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 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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War Economy
Women workers in ammunition factory
Childs vestClothes made out of substitute
materials, 1916/17, Paper
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First urban mobile kitchen (Gulaschkanone) in
BerlinBerlin, around 1916
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Anstehen nach Lebensmittelnum 1917
Queuing for food, 1917
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Political events 1916-1917

• Dictatorship of OHL (Hindenburg, Ludendorff)
• Hunger winter of 1916/17
• Founding of USPD (Peace Now)
• Reichstag across party lines (constitutional
  reform, Peace Resolution)
• War weariness
• Looking for scapegoats Jews (growing
  anti-Semitism) Social Democrats

• 1916 War of attrition in the west
• 1917 Blockade and submarine warfare
• 1917 USA enter the war
• 1917 (Feb./Oct.) Russian Revolutions

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Verhandlungen des Deutschen Reichstages, July 19,
1917On July 19th, Reichstag Deputy Matthias
Erzberger introduced a peace resolution which was
passed, 212 votes to 126
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.
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Political events 1918

• Strikes of armaments workers (January) peace and
  democracy
• Preparation of Armistice majority of parties in
  government
• Reform in October, parlamentarisation of
  constitution
• Demand abdication of the Emperor

• 1918 US President Woodrow Wilson 14 Points
• 1918 (March) Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
• 1918 Spring Offensive
• Collapse of the Western front from August 8,
  1918

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Schedule

• The Road to War
• The Course of the War 1914-1917
• Hate Propaganda
• Victory and Defeat
• The Home Front
• Revolution
• Conclusion Lasting Consequences

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Gustav Noske (x) vor Matrosen in Kiel am 8.November
                                                                                                         
Gustav Noske (x) vor Matrosen in Kiel am 8.November
                                                                                                         
Gustav Noske (x) vor Matrosen in Kiel am 8.November
Gustav Noske (x) addressing sailors in Kiel on November 8

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Strikes

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Friedrich Ebert1925
Philipp Scheidemann proclaiming the republic in
front of the ReichstagBerlin, 9.11.1918, DHM,
Berlin
Karl Liebknecht
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Street fighting in BerlinSpartacists, postcard,
Berlin, January 1919
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Elections for the National Assembly, 19.01.1919
Party Votes
DNVP 10.30
DVP 4.40
Zentrum (Christliche Volkspartei) 19.70
DDP 18.50
SPD 37.90
USPD 7.60
Other 1.60
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Schedule

• The Road to War
• The Course of the War 1914-1917
• Hate Propaganda
• Victory and Defeat
• The Home Front
• Revolution
• Conclusion Lasting Consequences

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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 War

• Parlamentarization and Democratization
• Persistence of economic structures and power of
  old elites
• Dolchstoßlegende myth of the stab in the
  back

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The stab in the back (Poster of the DNVP), 1924
We have lost the war. This fact is not a
consequence of the revolution. Ladies and
Gentlemen, it was the Imperial Government of
Prince Max of Bade which made arrangements for
the armistice which disarmed us. After the
collapse of our allies and in view of the
military and economic situation there was nothing
else it could do. The revolution refused to
accept the responsibility for the misery into
which the German people were plunged by the
mistaken policy of the old regime and the
irresponsible over-confidence of the militarists
(generals). Friedrich Eberts address to the
Weimar Constituent Assembly, February 1919
Our repeated requests (to the government) for
strict discipline and strict laws were never met.
Thus our operations were bound to fail and the
collapse had to come the revolution was only the
last straw. An English general rightly said, The
German army was stabbbed in the back. No blame
is to be attached to the sound core of the army.
Its performances call like that of the officer
corps for equal admiration. It is perfectly plain
on whom to blame rests. Hindenburg in a report
to a government commission, November 1919
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Lasting Consequences of War

• Parlamentarization and Democratization
• Persistence of economic structures and power of
  old elites
• Dolchstoßlegende myth of the stab in the
  back
• Split of the workers movement SPD KPD
• Strong right wing forces
• Germany as a revisionist power
• Revanchism and hate
• Economy Inflation and reparations, loss of
  industrial territory

Bad starting point for first German democracy