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The middle of Europe
in the second millennium.
A country that took a long time to become united.
People who needed centuries to understand themselves as German.
Who are we?
Where do we come from?
Questions about a thousand year German history.
For democracy!
A restless Empire,
too small to rule over others
and too large for the balance of power in Europe.
To be a world power,
that is what Emperor Wilhelm wants,
and he puts the fate of the delayed nation at risk.
'Wilhelm and the world'
Kiel in November 1918,
The sailors of the German Imperial Navy mutiny. They demand an end of World War I ...
"Down with the Emperor" (people)
...and the abdication of the Emperor.
Wilhelm II. is under pressure.
Even the imperial government demanded his resignation.
"I am not thinking of abdicating."
"Your Majesty must act, quickly."
The mutiny turns into a revolt.
Workers start to join the sailors.
"I'm going to return to my homeland at the head of my troops and cast down the uprising. "
Hundreds of people become thousands.
"General Field Marshal von Hindenburg
what do you say?"
"Impossible!
I have to advise against it."
"What?? Why??"
"The army is unreliable.
They do not want to fight anymore."
Reliable soldiers should cast down the rebellion.
"Brothers do not shoot! Do not shoot!"
"You do not have the confidence of the troops anymore."
"The army holds no longer.
It would be different if god wanted it. "
"Fire!"
The First World War has already lasted 4 years.
On the battlefields Millions of soldiers have died,
have been wounded or crippled.
The situation at the front and at home is hopeless for the Germans.
Even, the emperor had once promised
glorious times for his people.
Only since the late 19th Century, has Germany been united.
The Germania at Ruedesheim am Rhein should remember,
that Chancellor Bismarck has united the nation.
The new emerging great power in the centre of Europe, brings unrest
for many neighbors.
Bismark has allied with Austria-Hungary to safeguard the Empire.
It exists as a secret agreement with Russia, as well.
The Chancellor wants to keep the balance of power in Europe.
"The Empire itself is sufficient."
The Berlin of the Prussian kings has developed in to a world city and
the political centre of the Empire in record time.
A booming city that attracts tens of thousands of immigrants year after year.
The Berlin citizens are especially proud of their boulevards.
At the turn of the 20th Century,
Berlin is one of the most modern cities in Europe.
Berlin is called Spree Chicago.
The tempo of develpoment of the capital is seen as incredible at that time.
In 1902, the first police officer directs traffic.
The light rail is Europes first elevated railway.
The population is growing rapidly. Germany has more than 56 million inhabitants in 1900.
Berlin alone has two million citizens.
Pickelhauben (spiked helmets) and Parades
It is the period that is called the Wilhelmine.
Named after him,
Emperor Wilhelm II.
A enigmatic character for whom power means everything.
An impulsive monarch who wants world recognition for himself and his Empire.
Someone who plays with power on a playground, that cannot be greater.
An emperor who is for many people the ideal representative.
-For the Germans, in the Wilhelmine Empire
means to be a German, to be united, to be powerful
and to represent this power even in the world,
having an impressive regent who
represents a good picture abroad.
You can say, the people were proud to be Germans,
in the Wilhelmine Empire.
-Economic and scientific achievements,
promoted the Empire with high speed into the 20th Century.
'Made in Germany' became a seal of quality,
and a power factor.
The Krupp Works evolve from a simple cast steel factory to an industrial giant in Essen
and the weaponry of the nation.
When William travels to the West of his Empire,
he loves to make a stop there.
As the Emperor, Friedrich Alfred Krupp also sees himself
as the guarantor of the economic boom.
He also wants to benefit in the race of the great powers for new markets.
"Expansion, however,needs a large amounts of raw materials and new markets. "
"Do not worry Krupp, we want to expand our colonial possessions."
"I do not worry your Majesty.
I am firmly convinced that you will provide
a 'place in the sun' for Germany. "
Wilhelm also wants to play in the 'Concert of Europe',
in the age of imperialism.
But the Germans are late. The colonies are widely distributed.
In 1898, the German Empire gains a naval base in China.
Germany wants to make a mark and have a share on the profitable world market.
Pickelhauben (spiked helmets) in Tsingtao.
Quickly, the Emperor wants to gain the last colonial crumbs in the Pacific Ocean,
like in Samoa or Palau
But these colonies are not really profitable.
But the Empire is thankful for the African possessions,
almost six times as large as the mother country now.
Wilhelm wants to keep it up by all means.
-You can not blame the German Empire for what
all the other big states also wanted to have,
because to come from a great power to a world power.
-A global power such as Great Britain,
with whom Wilhelm has a love-hate relationship.
His mother is British. She despised all Prussians and
often stressed the superiority of England.
But Wilhelm likes to be guest in Osborne House on the Isle of Whight,
with his legendary grandmother Queen Victoria.
He sees himself as a member of the royal family.
"I'm also British!" he says.
-But he also saw that the German Empire was not as great as Britain.
That setting of the sun in the German Empire
and not as in the UK, where the sun never sets.
And that was such a competitive relationship
where the status and the prestige was simply different for both Empires.
The British had a fleet (Navy). The Germans had none.
-The Emperor wanted to change this.
"Such a beautiful fleet I also would like to have one!" he said.
Wilhelm dreamed of huge combat ships under the German flag, even as a child,.
Victoria's successor, King Edward mistrusts his enthusiastic nephew.
He is going to see him as England's greatest opponent, soon.
Because in 1898, Kaiser Wilhelm starts the construction of his own fleet.
His planner is going to be Alfred von Tirpitz who later served as Admiral.
About 60 warships should be built in 20 years time.
The favorite toy of the emperor, contains a politically explosive force.
"You're always with your Navy, but our fleet is rather modest compared with the English one. "
"Hogwash!"
But this is only a matter of time, for Wilhelm,
by means of industrialists like Krupp and strategists like Tirpitz.
England sees itself and the European balance threatened by the naval production range.
Feels itself challenged from the Wihelmine Empire.
The self-proclaimed first sailor of the nation, does he know the risk?
-The fleet stands also for German world politics and for equality with the sea power England.
It was an illusion to believe that this could be enforced without a conflict,
or thought to be able to easily handle this conflict.
This thinking in terms of prestige, of honor, of global political equality of rights,
has marked the German elites of the Wilhelmine era.
And so the fleet is one of the most popular projects at that time.
-Especially for the middle class.
Magnificent houses on the boulevards of the fast growing cities,
demonstrate the efforts of the emerging class for status and prestige.
It is believed that the fleet would help,
because the propaganda of the Navy,
makes german sea power dreams tasty, even for the youngest.
Many salesmen, businessman and officials dreams with,
and they feel well represented by their emperor on the way to worldwide recognition.
He behaves like an autocrat in the Empire,
although there is a chancellor and a parliament who also have a say in the Constitution.
-Wilhelm has a very interesting mix between megalomania and depression, I would say.
He saw himself in the role of an absolutist monarch,
who was placed in his office by the grace of God and led a personal regiment.
He is the navigator on the ship Germany who is dictating the course.
That was the role he played and also the self-image that he had of himself.
-What are the reasons for such delusions of grandeur?
In early childhood?
Wilhelm is crippled since birth in 1859,
result of medical malpractice.
The left arm hangs very loosely.
He has pain in his left ear and imbalance.
The parents try to fix the stigma of the successor.
At the age of 4, Wilhelm is put in a stretch corset,
to fix his crooked head posture.
An arm stretch machine should prevent the stiffening of the limb.
But the rigorous treatments have not the desired effects.
Also, the electrical therapy which should strengthen the muscles of the arm, does not help.
This therapy was abrupt because of the nervous responses of the prince, as it says.
The disability becomes a burdon for his relationship with his mother.
"His arm spoils any joy and all the pride that I should have for him."
She writes in a letter to Wilhelms grandmother Queen Victoria.
"He will never be a real man."
-What was perhaps even more serious, besides the physical disability,
was the fact that his mother could therefore never love him.
She was always ashamed because she brought this son into the world.
And that is the reason why Wilhelm turned away from his liberal parents, at an early age.
And was more attracted to the Prussian military.
-Despite his disability, he developed to be a decent rider,
but only on trained horses,
and became an avid hunter,
as long as they drive the animal across his musket.
Wilhelm is the supreme commander and commands a highly modern military machine.
He loves to play the warlord and
changes his uniform six times a day.
Everyday masked ball
The Emperor loves to dress like Frederick the Great, the Great Elector,
and other great warlords for costume festivals.
-He loved this costume fun but thus arose a picture as
if only the uniform counted and that is militarism,
not in the way of conquering but in ways of permanent stage presence.
They appeared as the military and the military was the first in the state,
especially with its Prussian Tratition and that was fatal.
-In Germany military rank was worth more than
the achievements in civilian life.
Warriors clubs and national associations set the tone.
Those who not folllow are suspicious.
-For every Lord every German was a poor German,
who did not idolised him, who was against the monarchy,
criticised the army, criticized the fleet and even was a republican.
-This cleaved the relationship between the working class and the emperor in the Empire.
Industrial workers start to organize themsleves,
and do not just want a better lifestyle and more worker participation,
but also a political representation.
This is what the SPD (Social Democrats) stands for.
The festivities on the Sedantags remember each year
the victory of the German troops against France in 1870.
Social Democrats like the typesetter Philipp Scheidemann from Kassel
is annoyed about the jingoism.
The comrades are defending the workers interest,
and want more democracy.
"'War against war', read the 'Vorwaerts' (Forward)!, Join the party!"
Their credo is not war, but the brotherhood of the nations.
"We want equal justice, for all! -Revolutioner! "
"Yes you are right sir! This is revolutionary! "
"Get away! Disappear you troublemakers! "
"For democracy! (People) For democracy! "
"Here buddy, we give the workers a voice in the Reichstag (parliament)! "
"This is outrageous on the Sedanstag! That is a scandal! "
"Do you know where Wilhelms megalomania leads to? Straight into the war! "
"You nationless people!"
This accusation to be poor patriots is going to pin on the Social Democrats, for a long time.
Social Democrats are for the Emperor quote:
"A gang of people who are not worthy to carry the name German. "
Although he is ready to improve the social situation of the workers.
But he evaluates political protest as an attack upon his person,
and with it the nation.
-The Social-Democrats want to participate, of course.
They want a parliamentary monarchy.
They are able to agree a monarchy, at least the right wing of the SPD,
but they want to have influence in the parliament.
And exactly that, is not allowed.
It stand still in the old state of the year 1871
and that is not contemporary and no longer acceptable for them.
-And for this they find popularity.
Millions join the SPD and the unions.
The Social-Democrats become the strongest party in parliament, over the years.
It threatens the internal decompostion of the Empire.
National Monuments as the Kyffhaeuserdenkmal,
testify to the efforts to keep the unity of Germany,
and to consolidate the Empire.
They want a distraction from internal tensions with a powerful world politics.
The emperor selects not the path of diplomacy.
He wants to appear forceful around the world.
In the summer of 1900, it comes to the so-called Boxer Rebellion in China,
against the western colonial masters.
When the German ambassador is murdered in Beijing,
Wihelm wants to demonstrate to the Europeans how to gain respect.
By the dispatching German troops who should help to cast down the uprising,
he commands his soldiers to a brutal procedure.
The so-called Hun-Speech will go down in history.
"Should you encounter the enemy, he will be defeated!
No pardon will be given!
Prisoners will not be taken!
Just as a 1000 years ago the Huns under their King Etzel (Attila) made a name for themselves,
so may the name German be affirmed by you in such a way in China,
that no Chinese will ever again dare to look cross-eyed at a German."
The imperial government of Germnay cannot prevent
that the words of the Emperor's spread around the world.
The soldiers seem to take him at his word.
But also the troops of other great powers are brutal against the Boxers.
But Wilhelm's speech shapes the picture of the Germans in the world.
The emperor often gives militant, arrogant and brash speeches.
And increasingly he is becoming a diplomatic risk.
-And who comes us too close 'bites on granite!.
It was a time of immense male power spells,
but behind them were not many bad intentions.
But these battle metaphors are everywhere, of course,
and sometimes leads the battle metaphors into the combat training
and then it becomes dangerous.
-In Berlin, criticism soon grows in all-partys on the personal governance of the Emperor.
Since 1912, the Social Democrats are the largest party in the Reichstag (Parliament).
The delegate Philipp Scheidemann rallied against the megalomania of the Emperor.
"We have spent billions over billions for our fleet,
enormous money for our army,
and what was the result of the German world politics...zero point zero,
instead humiliation down the line. I remember you on the Hun-Speech!
What do you think how this matters overseas,
if we continually propagated the desire for war.
It has to be finished with this policy of megalomania.
What we need are alliances with England and France and not confrontation."
But the struggle for a 'place in the sun' already casts shadows over europe.
The balance of power has changed on the continent.
England has formed alliances with France and Russia.
Germany is between two fronts.
An alliance with England could break it,
but since 1906, the two Empires are in an unprecedented naval arms race.
In August 1908, the British King and Wilhelm meet each other
for discussions in Friedrichshof in Kronenberg.
But Edward VII. does not have great expectations for this family meeting.
"Come in!"
"His Majesty King Edward VII."
"Uncle Berti (Albert), I'm so please to see you!
"Willi (Wilhelm) good to see you, too.
You know already my Under-Secretary of State Sir Charles Hartington."
"Majesty, we are concerned about your renewed reinforcements for the fleet. "
"We need the fleet to protect our rapid growth in trade."
"The English people are afraid, that it could end in a war."
"Nonsense! Unrealistic!
I would make every effort to limit the German naval armament,
to regard as a declaration of war and answer with grenades. "
The course of the Emperor leads to Germany only having Austria-Hungary,
as a secure alliance partner.
Already, they speak about a big showdown in Europe,
and that means war.
In 1913, as the Kings and Queens meet up for the wedding
of the Emperor's daughter Viktoria Luise in Berlin,
already setting their High Generals on plans for war.
-This showed once again the world of the old Europe gathered.
But the family contacts between the European monarchs,
could not prevent the way into the catastrophe,
even they were almost all together intermarried and twinned.
-The time of the dynasties is over.
It's about national interests and so deceive these images
because the German Military is already thinking about
how the Empire can win a possible two front war.
Because they want to surprise the others in case of conflict.
They want to rapidly defeat France and then turn with all their forces to Russia.
But how close is the war?
The Balkan region has been Europes powder keg.
The Bosnian Serbs want to be independent from the Habsburg Empire
and call into question the Habsburg Monarchy.
On the 28th of June 1914, a Serbian nationalist shoots,
the Austrian successor Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo.
The assassination comes in useful for some agitators in Vienna and Berlin,
despite the danger involved with Russia, the alliance partner of Serbia.
Austria wants vengeance on the Serbs.
Secure its dominance in the Balkan region,
and build on its loyalty and alliance with Germany.
Emperor Wilhelm is aggressive at first.
When his ambassador advises to moderation in Vienna, he comments furious:
"The Serbs must be settled, now or never! "
5th July 1914
The Austria's Emperor Franz Joseph sent a messenger to Wilhelm II.
Vienna wants war against Serbia and asks for support from Berlin.
At the new Palais the Emperor and Chancellor hand over a blank cheque.
Germany is going to help Austria in the case of war.
-Germany has encouraged Austria to be harsh against Serbia,
and so risk a war with Russia and perhaps with England, as well.
That France would take part was clear anyway.
-But as Serbia suddenly accepts an ultimatum from Austria,
Wilhelm rathers peace.
"There is no reason for war, anymore" the Emperor wrote to Vienna.
But does he still control the situation?
-Wilhelm was on the German side, certainly the person who was at least willing for war in July 1914.
And he was ready to stop this war most likely,
and he saw the least need
to start a war now after the response of Serbia.
Others such as the German Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg was far more forceful,
but partly also the military.
Wilhelm could just not enforce himself, as so often.
-On the 29th July 1914,
Austrian artillery open the cannonade on Belgrade from the bank of the Danube.
The response of the House of Habsburg on the shelling of Sarajevo.
Europe tumbles into the war and no power to prevent it.
It is the march into the primal catastrophy of the 20th century.
The Emperor hopes his family contact with the Russian Tsar,
could still prevent the disaster.
The two cousins Willy and Nicki, as they call themselves,
send urgent telegrams and letters to each other.
But when first Russia mobilised against Austria and then against Germany,
the great war can not be averted.
Germany feels encircled by the others.
In fact, Germany has excluded itself.
However it is the parliament that has to pass the bill for the military.
Philipp Scheidemann the leader of the SPD is in conflict with his comrades.
Should the peace party approve the war credits or not for the Emperor.
"Quite the opposite, we must enforce international solidarity, now.
In all countries to call the workers to revolt against the war that is the slogan of the moment. "
"We must see the difference between offensive war and defensive war!
We do not take responsibility for the war, but for the defence of our country. "
"That's right, no one should be able to say anymore that we are unpatriotic."
The SPD wants to show that the German Empire is also thier fatherland.
-The target of the German policy was to point the finger at Russia
as aggressor against Germany in the July crisis,
and that was the reason why the Social Democrats approved the war credits.
If they would have seen the war as a German war of aggression then they wouldn't have done it.
-When the news arrives of the Russian general mobilisation,
cheering crowds gathered before the Berlin Palace.
They are waiting for a response from the Emperor.
His generals calling for the declaration of war. They still hope for a quick limitable conflict.
Wilhelm sees no way out.
"I did not want the war." he is going to say later.
-I am convinced that this disaster could still have been stopped theoretically
by noon of the 1st August 1914.
If the heads of states would have had the character to say no.
Wilhelm II. had this authority. If Wilhelm II. would have said:
"We do not declare war!"
then no one had been able to make this decision irreversible.
He was the emperor.
He was the man who had the last word.
-On 1st August 1914 after the Empire declared war against Russian,
the Emperor proclaimed from the balcony of the Berlin Palace
the German general mobilisation and
evokes the cohesion of the Germans.
"In the midst of peace, the enemy attacks.
So, rise up! To arms!
Any dithering, any faltering would be treason to the Fatherland."
The Emperor inculcate in the Reichstag (Parliament):
"I know no parties, I know only Germans."
The majority of the population was enthusiastic for the war.
It was later called the 'Spirit of 1914'.
Many believe that it was going to be a short war.
-The war at first brought the Germans together.
They felt threatened, they felt the need to defend the homeland
and the war caused an incredible Euphoria.
The Germans felt so united as never before.
-In early August Germany is at war against
Russia, France and England.
The technical advances make it a mass of deaths.
Poison gas, is used for the first time.
The rapid advance of the German troops in the first weeks,
follows a grueling warfare in the west.
The fronts barely move.
Only the 'Battle of Verdun'
700,000 dead and wounded.
When in August 1916, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and
General Erich Ludendorff take over the supreme command,
they no longer command only soldiers they have power over the state.
The hopes of the nation are not directed on the emperor
but on Hindenburg who has won victories in the east.
"I and the army, we belong together"
Wilhelm had said after his accession to the throne.
But he is not able to be the Supreme Warlord.
and steps behind the military.
Only the facade ofthe sovereign monarch remains.
His Majesty can distribute decorations.
-The Emperor is more marginalized and
he is barely present for the majority of Germans in the last months and years of the war.
-In 1917, when the revolution is forcing the Tsar to abdicate in Russia and
the Bolsheviks seize power, the war in the East finished.
The Germans dictate first the conditions for a harsh peace in Russia.
They want to annex territories in the East, not only as security.
-Everything was leading to consolidate the German position as world power.
There were different variants of war policies.
The most radical variants were represented by the 'Pan-Germans', the heavy industry,
and the German political Right. The variants went to the giant conquest programs in Eastern Europe,
including conquest of living space.
-But this was no longer the war that the majority had supported in the Reichstag.
Not only, radical socialists such as Karl Liebknecht demanded a peace without annexations.
The people of his majesty are already tired of war.
On the home front raged the struggle for daily bread.
About 700,000 people mainly elderly and children,
will die of diseases and hunger till the end of war.
The front collapses in the west.
In the summer of 1918, the German army cannot take anymore.
In September, the High Command explains:
"The continuation of the struggle is hopeless."
And it forced the emperor to agree to a parliamentary system of government and so
to ease peace negotiations with the Western powers.
Almost overnight, the German people receives a democracy from the top.
-The war had caused a situation that
the German political Right had wanted to avoid.
Now, Germany became a democracy.
Took over as it was called, the system of the victorious powers, "An atypical German system".
This became a slogan for the nationalistic right,
throughout the whole period of the 'Weimar (First German) Republic'.
-Just before the war's end, the Navy Department suddenly gives the order to the fleet,
to struggle to the last great battle, for the sake of honor.
Wilhelms proud fleet was useless in combat against the British supremacy.
Besides a few battles,
the ships spent almost the entire war in the harbor.
The tired war sailors mutiny.
The troops have orders to stop them if necessary by all means.
"Brothers do not shoot!"
"Fire!"
It is the opening shots for the November Revolution.
The revolution spread like a wildfire in the whole of Germany within a few days.
In the most major cities, 'workers' and soldiers' take power.
On the 9th of November, the uprising reached Berlin.
The government under the new Chancellor Max von Baden
is fearing a revolution like in Russia and pleads with the emperor to abdicate.
He is at his headquarters in Belgium in these days.
Even as his officers say that everything is over,
Wilhelm II. still refuses to step down, unitl the last.
The Chancellor announces to the world under the pressure from the street the abdication of the German emperor
on the afternoon of the 9th November
and passes the government to the Social Democrats.
The top leadership of the party is sitting in the Reichstag for a late lunch,
as a panicky reaction makes history.
"Comrade Scheidemann! Comrade Scheidemann there are thousands.
Come quickly! You must talk. You have to say something.
Karl Liebknecht wants...., he wants to proclaim the Soviet Republic from the Palace."
"What??....
So I will talk."
Philipp Scheidemann spontaneously proclaimed the first German Republic.
"Workers and Soldiers! The four war years were horrible.... "
-A daring step paves the way for democracy .....
".... The emporer has abdicated. He and his friends have disappeared,
the people have won over all of them.
The old and rotten, the monarchy has collapsed.
The new may live. Long live the German Republic!"
At the beginning, the first German republic has the majority
of citizens and parties behind it.
because the will to democracy has a long tradition in Germany, as well.
But the democratic constitution fails in the crisis.
The Nazis promised to the Germans a new force and
a new Empire that should rule over the world.
The deceptive glory of a criminal regime,
that will lead Europe into the abyss.
Defeat and liberation in May 1945.
Never again should Germany seek war.
But one part of the Germans will have more difficulties to carry out the consequences of the past.
On the 17th of June 1953,
people in the GDR protest against the communist dictatorship.
Stones against tanks.
The SED regime put in jail the East Germans only a few years later,
in 1961.
The wall reinforces the division of the Germans
but they united in a way to break through the stone wall.
The Germans in the East,
bring the dictatorship to an end with the peaceful revolution at a time of new beginnings.
They have done something that could never be reached in the centuries, before.
Unity in freedom and peace
However, variety is also a tradition in Germany that it counts to uphold it and appreciate.
And there are many paths that leading to a united Germany,
through all the ups and downs of history.
"For democracy!"
"Fire!"
"It must decide
whether Prussia rises in Germany or whether Germany become Prussian."
"Stein, why you are looking so serious? Celebrate with us!
We have defeated Napoleon."
"I'm going against all the rules of war, attack an enemy who is twice as strong as."
"I will never accept this brash robbery!"
"Let it be my concern your majesty."
"Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason....
....I can not and will not recant anything."
"The kingdom is sacred."
"Sacrum Imperium."