History of Germany - Case Study Example

Country Research:A Case of Germany Table of Contents Introduction 3 Germany in the 20th Century: A Brief History 3 The Current Economic System in Germany 6 Cultural aspects of Germany in the 20th century 7 Conclusion 9 References 10 Introduction Germany had become the largest and the most populous nation Europe after the collapse of the USSR and also one known to have one of the most eventful histories among many others. These two facts had forever been acting like a vicious cycle in creating a deep impact on the nation and its people following any event – since the country has such a significant presence, it had one of the most disturbed pasts and which again had been creating a loud effect on its people. This paper will focus on some of the most significant events in the German history in the 20th century and the impact which they had on the country and its people soon after they occurred and the future of the nation. Germany in the 20th Century: A Brief History World War I (1914 – 1918) – The German society, under the leadership of Kaiser Wilhelm II had been one of the central powers during the war basically fought between two opposing alliance groups – the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente, with Germany belonging to the former along with Italy and Austria-Hungarian forces. It basically was aimed at putting an end to all wars between the prime powers over the globe. However, Germany was badly defeated and it had a disastrous impact on the nation with famine, flood and death engulfing the country. The war thus, terminated the saga of European power in a pathetic way. World War II (1939 – 1945) – The World War II that had its root in the World War I, saw the rise of the Nazi power in Germany under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, appointed as the chancellor of the state in 1933. Fought mainly on an expansion spree Hitler, a battle was ordered with the newly formed fascist state of Italy, an ally in the First World War under the leadership of Mussolini on March 16,1935, thus violating the treaty of Versailles agreed between the two nations back in 1870. Gradually, the march continued following the conquests of Austria, Czechoslovakia and so on. This time too, the war brought a pathetic end to the German power. The break-down of West and East Germany – Soon after the second world war concluded, on February 1945, the Yalta conference was held which declared the division of the German state into four parts under the jurisdiction of four major powers of the world at that time - Great Britain, France, Soviet Russia and the United States. The cold war (1945 - 1960) - The cold war was another significant event in the second-half of the 20th century in the German history. The war was the result of a conflict between the communist and the capitalist forces of the world with the capitalists named as the German Federal Republic (GFR) and comprising of the Western Allies and West Germany, and the other group, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), consisting of the Russian power along with East Germany. However, the capitalist policies created prosperity and power into an intrinsic feature of the Western counterpart unlike the communists who suffered from poverty and unemployment. Unification of the two states – The two major parts of the German state were merged in 1990 when strong revolts started coming from both sides of Germany followed by views popularized by Mikhail Gorbachev. The Soviet Russian power too realized that it was given a side-berth and its position was at stake. So, it reluctantly gave its consent in the unification of the two states (Leiby Richard A., 1999) . The Current Economic System in Germany At the time that the German states were unified, they were in a disastrous state mainly because of the impact of the wars. The condition of East Germany was worse than that of West Germany from the communist rule of Soviet Russia that had played a major role in the collapse of the eastern counterpart. The situations in the two regions could were almost in contrast of each other. While West Germany was characterized by falling unemployment levels and rising GDP, the eastern counterpart was almost at the verge of collapse. This feature was prevalent even after the two states were merged for which the German government under , had to pay special attention to it. The patronage of the government instilled 100 billion Deutsche Mark into the state mainly to increase investment opportunities in the region. But this move was not beneficial for the West German public since the sum that flowed out comprised of almost half of the public funds of the Western state. Moreover, the government enhanced the tax levels in the state as well in order to procure the amount needed to uplift the East German region. There are other aspects as well from which the move towards unification cannot be considered as a boon. For example, the workers belonging to West Germany were highly productive and thus could produce high quality products at affordable costs. This was why they could claim higher wages as well. But, the workers from the eastern region got influenced by this and started puckering their employers for higher wages without any move towards the enhancement of productivity. This led to a fall in the total production of the state and a gradual rise in the unemployment levels in the economy as a whole (INTERECONOMICS, May/June 1991). Cultural aspects of Germany in the 20th century Germanys culture in 20th century had made immense impact on present day Germany. The major element of Germans culture in 20th century was its visual culture. The visual culture in Germany was colored and rich. This was the phase when cinema and television along with photography and printmaking of Germany attracted the whole world toward itself. In the early 1914, Germany had around 2500 cinemas. Such advancement in visual culture proved as good source of wealth for Germany in the later half of 20th century. The country made pioneering experiments in field of cinema, modern dance, and powerful propaganda films regarding National Socialism (Finney, 2006, p.6). Germans literature was also well developed, few famous 20th century authors were Thomas Mann, Gunter Grass, Hermann Hesse and Heinrich Boll. All these four authors have won Nobel Prize. Germany had an unforgettable history in the field of Music, Architecture and Fine Art. The present day Germany displays its generations old culture along with new social developments. This make Germans culture more complicated for the outsiders to understand. Though the nation had a prideful cultural background, but World war-II had a devastating effect on both culture as well as the economical state of the nation. The changes which took place within countrys culture had resulted into confusion of identity regarding country people. Many Germans prefers to be regarded as European in state to be called as a Germen. The national flag of German Nation is hardly seen in any official rooms, the respect for the national anthem is also not as deep as seen in other western nations. But many cultural formalities are still in practice. These formalities reflect many aspects of German life like their way of eating, dressing, addressing other and the way of conducting themselves is very much formal. German follows a direct and to the point way of communication, and they believes themselves as "know it all" (Lord, 2005, p.6). For Germans time and punctuality mean a lot, this make them less flexible and less spontaneous as compared to other western nations and specially USA (Lord, 2005, p.8). So it can be said that the present culture of Germany gives insight of its history, its past political and economical state. Conclusion Germany today is the largest nation in the European Union in terms of population. This fact is disturbing in the sense that a high population is often associated with lower productivity levels and a lower income per capita from macroeconomic grounds. However, an optimistic side is that, a statistical survey conducted by the EU predicted that Germanys population will be shrinking down by a large extent within the next 50 years. Moreover, the large sums of funds that the government has been transfusing into the economy, did not go in vain as well. A good example is that of the worlds largest solar power plant which recently was found in Eastern Germany in 2007. References INTERECONOMICS. May/June 1991. The Economic Situation in Germany. Retrieved on October 7, 2009 from http://www.springerlink.com/content/h38m047hp2803k14/ Leiby Richard A. 1999. The Unification of Germany, 1989-1990. Greenwood Press: USA. Finney, G. (2006), Visual culture in twentieth-century Germany: text as spectacle. Indiana University Press. Lord, S. (December 30, 2005), Germany. Retrieved on October 12, 2009 from http://www.missouriwestern.edu/eflj/SeniorPortfolio/Lord/Germanypaper.pdf . Read More