Why the Weimer Republic Could not Remain in Power after WWI - Assignment Example

HISTORY OF GERMANY Affiliation HISTORY OF GERMANY The Importance of Primary Sources to the Study of Germany Primary sources to the study of German include original documents, documentaries, periodicals, books, oral histories, music, letters, film footages and photographs. All these sources are believed to have been collected during the war giving evidence that they are likely to contain the correct version of events. These primary sources give us a perfect insight on what happened in German. This is because they contain firsthand information of the events that occurred before, during and after the wars as recorded by the perpetrators, victims and survivors of the wars. This kind of information is not likely to be obtained in the secondary sources which would be misleading in the information that they give. The Environmental Concerns in Germany at the End of the 19th and the Beginning of the 20th Century in Germany The beginning of the 20th century saw the production of the first nitrogen fertilizers in Germany. The use of these fertilizers in agriculture raised huge environmental concerns. These fertilizers contaminated with water and air and caused major devastating environmental concerns in Germany. This was especially problematic since Germany depended mostly on ground water for its drinking water supply. The extensive use of these nitrogen fertilizers in agriculture therefore contaminated the water and this not only caused negative impacts to the environment but also to the public health of the German citizens. There were also increased levels of acid rain in Germany. This damaged terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, destroyed vegetation and disrupted food webs. Acid rain equally destroyed almost half of the trees in the famous Black forest in Germany. Mechanisms of the Weimar Constitution Allowed Hitler to Rise to Power The weakness of the Weimer constitution was responsible for the rise of Hitler and the Nazi regime into power. The Weimer constitution was powerfully allied with the Versailles Treaty, which had obligated Germany to take full accountability for the war, and conceivably more challengingly, to reimburse the allied and associated powers for the injury imposed upon their civilian populations. The proportional representation electoral system was the main factor to fault the rise of Nazism and the consequent fall of the Weimar Republic as it was comprised of many deficiencies. Semi-presidentialism in Germany may also be recognized as a factor that contributed to fall of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Hitler. Reasons Why Women Supported the Nazi Party in Elections in the 1930s in Germany Women supported the Nazi elections in the 1930s because Hitler had made so many promises to them as well as laying emphasis on the importance of family and morals in the society. Hitler won the support of the women by delivering speeches to them on the family and morals in virtually all places, for example the sports grounds and halls. Many women were also afraid of communism which was likely to spread into Germany. They therefore opted to vote for Hitler so that he would stop the occurrence of communism revolution. Hitler had also promised the restoration of law and order in Germany and this is something that the women yearned for. The Role of Eugenics in the Social Policies of Nazi Germany Eugenics was a social theory that was popular with many academics, writers and philosophers in the early 20th century. It was propounded on the belief that the populations of the human race would be improved through the manipulation of their genetic make-up. From the theory it was believed that a society would achieve positive outcomes if it wiped out the unhealthy or undesirable genetic elements from the society. The Nazi social policies were largely influenced by this theory. The Nazi regime which was a strong believer of this theory believed that it was paramount for the state to intervene in order to improve the health of its society. They would do this by identifying the contaminating elements in Germany, restricting their growth and finally eliminating them completely. Doctors were required to register all genetically related illnesses and this was followed by the killing of the people diagnosed with those illnesses. The Wannsee Protocol and its Importance The Wannsee protocol was a conference organized by Reinhard Heydrich and whose purpose was to coordinate and make more effective the mass murder operations of the Jews under the leadership of Heydrich, as well as to solve problems like internal fights over mandates. The leadership of the Reich Security Main Office in these murder operations of all European Jews although disagreements remained around details. Heydrich announced to the meeting a program of organized deportation of Jews to the East. However, every participant at the meeting knew that the ’Final Solution of the Jewish Question’ did not merely mean the deportation of Jews. The ’Final Solution’ was a code name for the murder of all the Jews of Europe. The people present at the Wannsee were there to discuss how to make mass murder happen in an organized and methodical way. Cumulative Radicalization and how it is Relevant to Understanding Nazi Germany Cumulative radicalization was a situation in which there were never-ending rivalries between the Nazi chieftains, while the organization is held intact by the Fuehrer cult. The political decision-making process was totally informal, and there was no official facility in which to deliberate precarious issues between conflicting power holders. The so-called Fuehrer commands that inclined to substitute ordinary legislation were not co-ordinated. The competing chieftains would therefore legitimize their contradictory ambitions by referring to capricious orders by Hitler. The concession between the differing interests was seen in the viewpoint of a “Final Solution” to the Jews’ so-called problem in Germany. The Marshall Plan The Marshall Plan was a comprehensive program that was intended to rebuild Europe. This was especially due to the fear that the communist revolution would expand and also due to the rapid weakening of the economies of Europe. This plan brought a lot of investment into Europe. It equally generated a resurgence of the European industrialization. The plan was employed only in the Western Europe. Most research shows that the Marshall plan was a significant humanitarian effort. The plan also established and legitimatized the United States foreign aid programs. These programs had become an essential part of the foreign policy of the United States. The Relevance of Krautrock to the Study of German History after the 2nd World War The Krautock were experimental and various musical sounds developed by musicians in West Germany from the 1960s. This was despite the devastating effects that the Second World War had had on Germany. It had left Germany separated from its history and set apart from the rest of the European countries. The Krautock originally referred to almost all German rock and pop music in 1960s and 1970s. However, it is now tantamount with an exclusive influence to new avant-garde music and international pop culture in the world today. The Krautock is therefore relevant to the study of the German history after the Second World War as it gives us an insight on how German rebuild itself after the war. The Reason for the Development of a National Police Force in West Germany in the 1970s One of the reasons for the development of a national police force in the West Germany in the 1970s was to strengthen the sense of comradely community within the police force. This was started especially by the older police officers who had been born before the First World War. Their aim was to protect the police from investigations into the Nazi regime. This was especially investigations into the crimes of violence that had been committed during the Nazi regime. This was however a misguided intention for developing a national police forces. This is because the police needed to face their past so as to find better solutions on how to conduct themselves in the future. Reasons for the fall of the Weimer Republic Hitler and the Nazi regime are often argued to be the main proponents that led to the fall of the Weimer Republic in German. It is however noted that it took critical events and conditions before the Nazi regime was able to fully rise into power and establish itself in German. This paper is therefore going to talk about the various reasons that led to the fall of the Weimer Republic in German. Firstly, the Weimer Republic fell due to the responses that were directed towards the Treaty of Versailles. This is because this particular Treaty had put extremely harsh conditions for the German government and its opposers believed that the Weimer Republic had been in favor of the Treaty. The Treaty generated a lot of political division and debate even among some of the members of the Weimer Republic. Most of the Germans were against the Treaty and when Hitler promised to bring it to an end; they gave him all their support leading to the automatic demise of the Weimer Republic. The Weimer Republic had refused to cooperate with some of the people who had called for the non-performance of the Treaty of Versailles. The Weimer Republic had reasons to believe that the non-performance of the Treaty would inevitably lead to war as well as economic struggles on the part of German. The reluctance of the Weimer Republic to give support to the non-performance of this Treaty therefore led to its downfall as people equally refused to support it. Secondly, the burdens of the reparations that German had to make also led to the downfall of the Weimer Republic. These burdens had been placed on the German government by the Treaty of Versailles in order to make good the effects that German had caused during the First World War. The huge costs that were associated with the reparations made the German government not to recover both its economic as well as political stability. It was therefore extremely challenging for the Weimer Republic to function properly given the huge economic crisis that it was facing. The Weimer Republic fell as it was not even able to pay a quarter of the reparations that it was required to pay. Thirdly, the Weimer Constitution was partly to blame for the fall of the Weimer Republic. This is because the constitution had taken much of the responsibility for the political instability that had been occasioned by the First World War. The political divisions were enhanced and worsened by the fact that the emergency powers of the president were always being called into action. These emergency powers had been established by the Weimer constitution. Fourthly, the proportional voting system that was established by the Weimer Republic also led to the Republic’s downfall. This voting system advocated for democracy and it allocated Reichstag representation according to the number of votes that each party had received. The Reichstag was equally filled with many parties whose membership was enormous and its policies were regional. This led to a great hindrance in the passing of legislations in the Republic. Debates in the chambers were also hindered by the presence of so many interests as well as parties. This stalemate was therefore responsible for the fall of the Weimer Republic. Fifthly, the decline of the Weimer Republic was occasioned by the difficulties that were presented by the minority government. There is no political party that had absolute majority of the seats in the Republic and this therefore means that none of those parties would make absolute decisions that would be of benefit to the entire republic of Weimer. Some of these small political parties did not participate in the decision making processes of the Republic. This also led to a stalemate in the Republic. Sixthly, the economic collapse in German had extreme effects on the Weimer Republic. Most of the people in German had no jobs and the few that had jobs were not paid well. This led to many of the German citizens declining their support for the Weimer Republic as they believed that it was responsible for their lack of employment and poor living conditions. People were therefore willing to give their support to a different power than supporting the Weimer Republic with its devastating living conditions. Seventhly, it is argued that the rise in the support of Hitler and the Nazi regime was also responsible for the fall of the Weimer Republic. Hitler got the political support of most of the powerful interest groups in German like the capitalists, echelons, barons as well as the industrialists. This gave Hitler the impetus to seek power which he eventually got leading to an automatic death of the Weimer Republic. From the foregoing analysis, it can be argued that the Weimer Republic was not likely to remain in power after the effects of the First World War. Read More