The Germans had come to the table hoping to hear Wilson saying, “the equality of nations upon which peace much be founded on if it is to last must be an equality of rights..” (German Peace Delegation, p. 76) Instead they were hit with several Billion reichmarks in reparations, a reduced military and many other limitations politically, economically, militarily and territory wise (The Versailles Treaty, 1918). Germany was to blame for the war, as were all of Europe. However the old adage, to the victor goes the spoils. With such documents as the Zimmerman Note, one can only speculate on the terms handed down by a victorious
Contrastingly, James Joll suggests that Germany’s defensive offensive war rooted from a fear of encirclement from the countries that it borders, and so presents the opinion most opposing to that of the question. L.F.C Turner’s opinion arises somewhere between the two other historians’ arguments, and states that Germany was aggressive during Europe’s last month of peace before war, but there were other factors that should be considered equally. On the one hand, it was German aggression that was responsible for the outbreak of a general European war in August 1914. One example of suggested German aggression can be seen in their long term foreign policy, ‘weltpolitik’ (world politics), which had been implemented in 1897. The aim of this foreign policy was to spread German influence throughout the world, the meaning of which is interpreted differently by different people.
Therefore the beginnings of democracy in Germany came in times of civil and political unrest following Germany’s defeat in WWI. During the war Germany had essentially been a military dictatorship under Hindenburg and Ludendorff, this style of government being popular among the German people. Therefore when democracy was introduced it was viewed with contempt, primarily among the conservative elites. The defeat in the war also brought about changes in how political maters were handled in Germany. Richard Evans in “the Coming of the Third Reich” argues that WWI had sanctioned the use of violence for political gain, leading to the formation of paramilitary groups that further undermined the effectiveness of the democracy.
These tensions started to disrupt their dual alliance with Austria-Hungary, even with a ‘Blank Cheque’ being given to them. With the Kaiser believing that foreign policy and civil war was increasingly the same, it can be assumed that aggressive foreign policy may have been set to distract the German public away from things at home and more onto how to become a strong world power. A factor that both strengthens and weakens the argument of aggressive foreign policy being the reason for the outbreak of war in 1914 is that of encirclement. Source V mentions ‘They felt encircled not merely by the Triple Entente, but also by the forces of change.’ First of all, Germany became sceptical about the alliance between Britain, France and Russia, the Triple Entente, they thought it was not going to work and did not fear it until they tried to cause problems between France and Britain with the ownership of the Balkan islands, which was unsuccessful. When Germany realised that the entente was a
Considering that Realpolitik focused on preventing a war within Europe and Weltpolitik aggressively asserted German dominance, it can be validly argued that this direct change in German foreign policy played a major role in bringing about the First World War. Another reason that German foreign policy was so greatly scrutinized was because of the Anglo-German naval rivalry which was creating tension within Europe. As long as Germany built, Britain would be a German enemy. The German government dramatically increased the development of German Ships. [i] This arms race and change in German foreign policy, believing they needed to control the seas was seen as a definite and direct cause
‘The outbreak of the war in Europe 1914 was due to an aggressive German Foreign Policy which had been waged since c.1900’ How far do you agree with this opinion? Discussions over the causes of the outbreak of war in Europe in 1914 have caused much controversy due to the breadth of events in multiple countries which took place over a short period of time, concluding in war. The evidence within source V, W and X refer to some of these events, thus hold different countries and individuals to blame to different extents. Whilst source V suggests that aggressive German Foreign policy did hold a considerable proportion of the blame, it places the Germans in a sympathetic position due to their encirclement leaving them no other option. Source W is very similar due to the fact that it blames Germany’s strengthening of the military and navy to a large extent, however proclaims their ‘peaceful intentions’; whereas source X dwarfs Germany’s contributions as a state, placing more responsibility for the outbreak of war on Austria-Hungary.
Assess the impact of conservative parties and elites on German politics in the period 1918-1934. Conservative parties and elites had a significant impact on German politics in the period 1918-1939. From the establishment of the Weimar Republic to the beginning of Nazi power, conservative parties and elites have had a strong influence on German politics. These conservative parties and elites were primarily right-wing nationalists, who either just tolerated or rejected the idea of democracy. However despite this, these conservative elites had both positive and negative impacts on German politics.
It is used to manipulate information to influence public opinion, through emotional appeals and demise of the enemy, to create hatred between countries. It promoted patriotism and nationalism within a country. Britain did not have a policy of national service; this was standard in countries such as France and Germany. The whole point of propaganda was to get more and more people to sign up for the war, this was important because of all the casualties and the hardship suffered on the home front. The government did this by displaying posters stating ‘your country
Thesis Statement: The differences between art and parody on art are in position of art, aesthetic degradation and artist’s views on the concept of art. II. Main Body A) Topic sentence: In course of time position and role of art are changing. 1. Supporting idea: Then: Artists created paintings for mental pleasure a) Reacting on subconscious and emotional level b) Showing feelings and desires 2.
Walter Benjamin is a modernist in the sense that all his criticism has been done with the purpose of liberation from that which is redundant and of no use in the future. Some of Walter Benjamin’s major works include Illuminations (1968), The Origin of German Drama (1977), Reflections (1978), Moscow Diary (1986), and The Arcades Project (1999). What I found really interesting from the commentaries on the internet was the way in which Walter Benjamin devised a way of defining himself through analyzing the works of others like what he wrote on Socrates and his essay on Goethes Elective Affinities The rise of mass culture as an outcome of technology was a subject of particular interest to Walter Benjamin Aura: In “The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technical Reproducibility”, he talks about the aura and that how because of mechanical reproducibility, mankind would no longer have that same sense of awe and appreciation for art. So art would lose its aura. This essay shows great prescience and understanding of what was to come.