After years of authoritarian monarchic control, proportional system of election led society to political chaos, as nearly 20 parties with different political programs from communist to right radicals were represented in Reichstag. None of country's politicians was successful either in diplomacy or in the art of achieving compromise. The experience of political pluralism led to political and economical disorientation in society, as in a period of 1919-1933 Germany witnessed several temporary coalitions in parliament and twelve governments, which were unable to stabilize country's economy.
Haffner describes that political crisis was a common attribute of Weimar republic's pluralism: "From 1914 to 1923 all governments had been weak" German parliamentarians of Weimar republic faced a common problem of all young political parties. Being one of the most popular parties in the country with wide support in society and even being the official party for several years, SDPG appeared to be ineffective state manager. Nearly all parties of socialist orientation lacked professionals in the sphere of economy, state administration and foreign politics. Their programs were mainly based on the critics of Kaiser Germany and on critics of conservatives, but they didn't want to accept that society lived according to those traditions and all spheres of life were based on centuries of such traditions.
A number of SDPG member betrayed ideals of their political program, which were directed on promoting social reforms and establishment of prototype of welfare state, as they too the side of big business. Often, national corporations used political influence of Social Democrats for lobbying their interests, which had nothing common with interests of German nation. Political disorientation of parliament and government led to the growth of working movement in 1919-1923, which culminated in a general strike and Hamburg revolt of workers on October 23, 1923. Social Democrats refused from office but the new counselor was neither successful:
the Bruning regime was the first essay and model of a form of government that has since been copied in many European countries: the semi-dictatorship in the name, and in defense, of democracy against fully fledged dictatorship... Anyone who takes the trouble to study Bruning's rule in depth will find all those factors that make this sort of government the inevitable forerunner of the very thing it is supposed to prevent: its discouragement of its own supporters; its lack of ideological weapons against enemy propaganda; the way it surrenders the initiative; and its collapse at the end... Bruning had nothing to offer the country but poverty, the curtailment of liberty, and the assurance that there was no alternative." number of government officials in judicial power were uncontrolled. Judicial power was the only branch of power, which avoided considerable reformation, a number of judges from Kaiser times saved their positions during Weimar republic. No wonder they were supporters of conservative ideas and right radical ideologies. In their actions they didn't promote the order of Weimar republic, but wanted restoration of "old iron order" instead. It's enough to tell that uncontrolled and unsupervised activity of judicial power led to the spread of Nazism in Germany as it did not take any measures to prevent the spread of nationalist and chauvinist ideologies. For example only one person went to prison out of 700 accused in Kapp Putsch, Hitler spent in prison only 9 months. (Under conditions of objective legislature Hitler would have spent some 10-15 years in prison).
Uneasy political and social climate did not fulfill the interests of national corporations and aristocracy who lost their traditional privileges, for they sought stability, economic freedom and stable taxation policies. The new government of Weimar republic didn't meet the demands of former soldiers and officers who lost their jobs and considered themselves to have been "betrayed' by the motherland. The working class, whose situation was becoming more and more untenable with each passing year, could not see their needs being met in any way, shape, manner or form. The spirit of militarism, nationalism, dignity and Junkerism (philosophy of Keiser Germany ruling classes) lived in the minds of millions. Those who saw hope for better in ideology of Social Democrats or in other liberal ideas of democrats still had deep sympathy and nostalgia for the "good old times" of "iron order," as" those committed to maintaining democracy and good relations with other countries were continually divided over reparation and rearmamentr issues" (Eyck, 1963 chs 5,6)
No wonder that, in such period of social and political crisis, favorable conditions were created for the spread of radical political ideology of extreme nationalism, which would defend national interests and revive nationalist ideas. This party appeared to be NSDAP or the National Socialist German Workers Party, led by Adolph Hitler. It had radical ideology based on militarism,
Hitler-Stalin Pact Beyond doubt, the world was in an anarchical state in the 1920s and 1930s, particularly as the Great Depression devastated the global economy and aggressive, fascist regimes took power in Germany and Japan. International organizations hardly existed at the time, and in economic policy most countries adopted strategies of nationalism, autarky and protectionism, while the 'revisionist' states like Germany, Japan and Italy made it perfectly clear that they intended
Hitler Created Anti-Semitic Laws Adolf Hitler is often viewed as the poster-child of anti-Semitism. But to understand why this is so we should look at why Hitler created so many anti-Semitic laws. I believe that Hitler created many anti-Semitic laws because, as Paul Johnson notes, anti-Semitism 'was to him a complete explanation of the world'. In other words, Hitler made laws that expressed his concept of the world. By the 1920s,
Paranoia In Psychology, paranoia is defined as 'a mental illness in which somebody wrongly believes that they are hated or badly treated by others'. In this context, Adolph Hitler and Osama bin Laden do not have commonality of thought. Although leaders of their respective groups or nations, both the men, were poles apart. Adolph Hitler and Osama bin Laden belonged to two stark opposite backgrounds, performed differently, were brought up in
Hitler's Ideology And Propaganda All propaganda must be popular and its intellectual level must be adjusted to the most limited intelligence among those it is addressed to." Thus wrote Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf, while serving a prison sentence in the Bavarian capital of Munich following an aborted coup that he had attempted in the fall of 1923 -- known in history as the "The Beer Hall Putsch." Another decade was
As Baigent and Leigh point out, von Stauffenberg's co-conspirators were "aristocratic" men who despised what they now knew to be a murderous regime (26). However, it was Stauffenberg who was "the most active leader in the conspiracy against Hitler," which is exactly how Operation Valkyrie is portrayed (Hoffman xiv). The close relationship between Nina Stauffenberg and her husband is rendered thinly but at least accurately in the film, based
Marxism and National Socialism Lenin's version of socialism, which became the model for the Soviet Union, China, Cuba and other underdeveloped nations that underwent revolutions in the 20th Century, was highly centralized, hierarchical and authoritarian. It emphasized rapid industrialization and economic development under the direction of the Communist Party, although in all these semi-feudal societies this was carried out without the benefits of any type of liberal or democratic traditions. Lenin
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