However structuralists have argued that mass political movements in Germany were on the rise and did in fact influence politics. The power the Kaiser has was overwhelming because he didnt have to answer to neither the reichstag or the bundesrat, he ultimately has complete utter control over domestic and foreign policy. This would suggest that Wilhelmine Germany was an authoritarian state under the kaisers rule, but many historians such as Wehler suggested his own version of the argument which states that Wilhelmine Germany was in fact shaped by the elites (junkers) and the army which simply controlled the Kaiser from the shadows. In this essay i will discuss these interpretations offering the view that Wilhelmine Germany was an 'authoritarian' state under the rule of elites and ultimately the kaiser. Kaiser Wilhem II was an unpredictable, intelligent man with a poor judgement, hardly the kind of person you would give almost unchallenged political powers.
3) Account for the successes and failures of democracy in Germany in the period 1918/1933 The Weimer Republic was doomed to failure from the outset. The quote from historian and journalist Sefton Delmar “Germany democracy was born with a hole in its heart”, has immense accuracy when post-war Germany is evaluated. The creation of a completely new and foreign form of government aggravated Germany’s post war position. Struggling with political, economic and social strife by the end of WWI, did not allow for a powerful government to be formed. The crucial weakness of the Weimer republic lay not in the strength of its enemies but in the striking absence of its friends.
He did not let anything stand in his way; unfortunately, the S.A was in the way. Hitler had many goals for Germany, and was able to succeed but he was only able to do that because he got rid of the S.A. Once he gained absolute power World War 2
Rachel Kay How accurate is it to say Frederick William IV was responsible for the failure of the Frankfurt Parliament? The Frankfurt Parliament was established to create freedom of press, German citizenship for all, fair taxation, equality of political rights and to create a unified Germany. However, countries like Austria greatly opposed it. Frederick William IV could be seen as responsible for the failure of the Frankfurt Parliament because he refused to accept any form of leadership and made it clear he distrusted the ‘gentlemen of Frankfurt’. However, many other factors played a role in the demise of the Parliament such as the fact that they were ill-organised, the lack of popular support and their inability to enforce decisions.
Even before 1933, the Nazi Party leadership, Hitler aside, was undermined by its inability to exert control over the regional Gauleiters, who saw themselves as Hitler’s personal representatives responsible only to him. “In the Party, the leader principle had formed the real foundation of Hitler’s strength long before 1933.” Indeed, since Hitler re-founded the Party in 1925,
Assess the view that the most important element in maintaining Hitler’s regime in power between 1933 and 1945 was the consent of the German people. Interpretation D and to some extent A argue that the German people supported the regime while B and C suggest that other factors such as repression, propaganda and economic conditions played a vital role in Hitler’s maintenance of power. The German nation as pointed out in source A (“A”) had a “long tradition of obedience to authority” so we can assume that the circumstances that were created in the 1920-1930s led to the willing establishment of a new regime. This is supported by the argument that the people gave their vote to Hitler and his followers repeatedly, as argued by Flenly in “A.” Historical evidence has shown us that Hitler gained support even from Germans living outside Germany. His occupation of Austria was an outstanding achievement as Austria welcomed their German neighbors and 200,000 Austrians gathered to welcome Hitler and hear his speech.
Fighting between some of the leading Nazi’s also meant that it would have been near impossible to put together an effective economy with all missions heading towards the same aim. It is fair to say that the strengths towards this statement highly outweigh the weaknesses, as the war economy was very poorly coordinated due to the many factors that contributed to German war production decreasing. In February of 1942, Albert Speer was appointed as Minister of Armaments, which at the time was a crucial role in the Nazi’s dominant mechanism. This was became the centralising ministry amongst all
Source A is about removing opposition and the use of propaganda to control what the population thought and did this is challenging the question as the consent is not given but actually forced out of the none Arian people of Germany. The source suggests that the Nazis removed the peoples basic rights like freedom of speech because they feared that the people would speak out against the laws that had been created to keep them under control. This is a strong argument against the Germans giving support towards the regime because it suggests that the Germans. Source A also suggests that after the war Germany still wasn’t ready politically so Hitler had an easy task in taking power the
The League also didn’t work because America didn’t join and it was the American President Woodrow Wilson who created it and it would never have worked unless all the nations were allowed to join. The failure of this organisation encouraged Hitler because he had witnessed how weak and inefficient it was. The Abyssinia Crisis is a good example of how the League
General von schleicher stopped supporting von papen and decided he himself should become chancellor, this triggered of a power struggle between von schleicher nd von papen, which ended with them handing power to Hitler. Hitler was made Chancellor in 1933 after von Papen persuades Hindenburg. Von Papen thought that as long as there were a limited number of Nazis in the cabinet then Hitler could be controlled. Von Papen was wrong. Another thing was there was the weakness of the Weimar government, which played its part.