Anonymous said:
Prelude to the Present Day
Hermann Göring said:
The history of the German nation has always been one filled with contradictions. It is filled with peacemakers, and warmongerers, the noble and the cowardly, the merciful and the merciless. This cycle is visible clearly throughout the cycle of their history, in so much as that the expression: ''The Hun is either at your throat or at your feet" is one that comes to the tip of the average European when the topic is brought up.
In 1919, the Hun was most certainly at the feet of the Entente Cordiale, comprising of France, Great Britian, Italy and the late-comer to the war, the United States. After four-years of brutal trench warfare, the war moved from the fields of France to the ornate rooms at Versailles. Each Power came with the intention to fulfill the promises made to their allies and to the exhausted and angry populace at home. Unfortunately for them, those we're mutually exclusive. The populace cared little of who controlled Alsace-Lorraine or the Dardanelles, all that they wanted was the answer to the question on the tip of every mouth from London to Vladivostok: Why did this happen? Of what use was our suffering?
The treaty that followed did little to satisfy.
Germany was forced to cede the ethnically German territories of Alsace-Lorraine, Poznan, West Prussia, and the city of Memel. It was to cede its colonies to the Allies to be divided between themselves, mainly among France and Great Britian (Italy was to be the ignored by the Allies as their accomplishments to victory left much to be desired). Its army was to be capped at 100,000 men and forbidden from having a Navy or Airforce. In essence Germany was to be marginalized. The treaty did more to show the greed of the Allied Powers than the sacredness of the principles of 'national self-determination'. The only ones deciding anything were the Allies, not the populations in whose 'ínterests' they spoke.
Phillip Scheidermann said:
In the end the treaty created more problems then solved them. The shame and humiliation forced upon the proud German people steered them on a more successful path for the empire that they desired.
A course that in which the world will the world held their breath and made no comment.
Post-war Germany could be called a house divided; perhaps if the house was simultaneously on fire, collapsing and under siege. Its economy was ravaged by the unjust reparations forced upon it, the massive unemployment facing the returning veterans and the occupation of the Rhineland by the French. Although things began to pick up after the end of the occupation in 1925, the new enthusiasm did not last long...in 1929 it was shattered completely.
The Great Depression turned Germany from the most powerful economy in Europe to once of the most ravaged overnight. Unemployment skyrocketed to 25% with industrial output taking a more severe hit. Although economic in nature, the crisis took on a political dimension as politicians scrambled to shift the blame from themselves to their opposition; however futile it seemed.
The public, disenchanted with the failiure of the current system, turned to Fascism as their savior.
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