William Carr states ‘ A revolutionary situation did exist in 1918 as long as the people were no longer prepared to obey the old rulers’ This highlights the disruption amongst the people, an awareness that there was a shift of power but whether this new awareness constitutes a revolution can be questioned. The end of the Kaiser rule was significant as the lifelong belief the German people once had in their Kaiser and his Authoritarian rule was shattered; a significant change in mentality that allowed the possibility of a new democratic republic. This was such drastic change and for the first time meant Germans in theory
Revolution is a fundamental change in power or organization that takes place in relatively short period of time. The term revolution means a change in power. The political changes in Germany between October 1918 and May 1919 helped a lot for the revolution to occur. As firstly then German revolution lead by the German navy refusing to attack the British Navy as they realised the war is lost and that attacking them would be a suicide mission. Soon other major German ports like Kiel and Hamburg were under the control of the navy.
To what extent was Germany a totalitarian state between 1933 and 1939? The Nazi state possessed elements of totalitarian power; however, it lacked dominance in Germany and was therefore not a totalitarian state. Totalitarianism refers to a system of government whose power is determined by terror and force over their state, and who controls all social, economic and political aspects of the state. Whilst the Nazi regime reflects some aspects of totalitarianism through its control over the media and the single party state, the Nazi state required the support of the German population to maintain its power. This highlights that the population was not terrorised into supporting the regime, but persuaded through manipulation by the Nazi government.
Communism’s goal was to bring down capitalism in any way possible. When Stalin came into power in 1924, the US mistrusted him even more. During this time, Germany was in the process of building itself up. Stalin was concerned that Russia would be attacked and the US was concerned watching Hitler spread his rule. Stalin and the US created a brief alliance because they were both concerned with stopping Hitler.
To understand and identify the aspects of the totalitarian system in both countries it's important to consider both countries history. On November the 11th 1918 Germany agreed to signed the Armistice. After Germany was forced to accept Versailles agreement by accepting guilt for WW 1. As a consequence the German people were demotivated and had no confidence in the new liberal democratic Weimar government and international forces. This resulted in risings such as the Spartacist rising where communists fuelled by the success of the Russian revolution almost occupied nearly every major city in Germany.
This meant that the government had back up from the army if anything were to up rise. But this came at a cost, Ebert promised to stop the spread of revolutionary socialism (which the army hated) and too preserve the authority of the current army officers, this basically meant the army were controlling Ebert. This was a significant change that could have led to a revolution because Ebert would NOT have been able to hold onto power without the support of the army. Ebert hoped to maintain Stability throughout Germany by introducing an Act called ‘Stinner-Leigien Act’ which represented real progress and reform. Both Ebert and the Army simply wanted to ensure that there would be no Left Wing Revolution.
(cited in Hoepper et.al. 1996,p.194) Chomsky’s definition applies to the Berlin Wall as it describes how the leaders mobilized their nations to support their harsh ideological endevours. Khrushchev attempted to convince the East German population that the wall was being built to protect them from spies from West Germany. Kennedy saw the Wall as an oppurtunity to expose the unpopularity of Soviet Communism. Ideology pertains to the basis of an ecenomic or political theory(Moore.
They clashed with the main powers of Europe over territory like morocco, which ultimately strengthened Franco-Anglo relationships. Weltpolitik was a huge political risk and in the end the risks outweighed the positive factors, which resulted in the failure of the plan and ultimately was a great cause of WW1 In 1893 the Franco-Russian alliance was formed which meant that it allowed the possibility of encirclement of Germany, which made them paranoid. The Kaiser at the time was Wilhelm II and he surrounded himself with military figures so had a very militaristic point of view. So his response to the possible encirclement was to come up with a new plan called the Schliffen Plan. This stated that if a possibility of a two front war with France and Russia was ever to arise they would mobilise their troops quickly and beat the French within six weeks and then march back in time to meet the Russian army.
Was the Weimar Republic Fatally Flawed? To understand the above question posed we must consider what caused the new republic to be declared, and also what foundations remained intact for the eventual collapse of this cotemporary government. Before discussing the Weimar Republic we must go back to the end of World War one to understand what brought about this new Republic. Towards the end of World War one, the morale within the army and in Germany collapsed. A series of small defeats prompted strikes throughout Germany.
All of these factors will be spoken about in this essay, as well as the intrinsically linked rise of the Nazi party, which put the final nail in the Weimar Republic’s metaphorical coffin. The Weimar Republic was a government that from its beginnings was always going to struggle to succeed. A large section of the German population did not believe that it had lost the war, or that it required to be ended at all. At this stage in time, Germany was still possessed of their traditional proud warrior mindset, and the seemingly meek withdrawal from a war in which the nation had invested so much did not sit well with this image of themselves. Germany hadn’t been invaded; it hadn’t suffered losses so dire that this dreadful circumstance of answering to its enemies had been forced upon it, so they resented the situation that their beloved nation found itself in.