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Life Between the Wars. The rise of Fascists, Militaristic, Totalitarian Regimes . Paul Valéry: On European Civilization and the European Mind, c. 1919, 1922.
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Life Between the Wars The rise of Fascists, Militaristic, Totalitarian Regimes
Paul Valéry:On European Civilization and the European Mind, c. 1919, 1922 • "The storm has died away, and still we are restless, uneasy, as if the storm were about to break. Almost all the affairs of men remain in a terrible uncertainty. We think of what has disappeared, we are almost destroyed by what has been destroyed; we do not know what will be born, and we fear the future, not without reason. …but doubt and disorder are in us and with us. There is no thinking man, however shrewd or learned he may be, who can hope to dominate this anxiety, to escape from this impression of darkness, to measure the probable duration of this period when the virtual relations of humanity are disturbed profoundly.
George Grosz Grey Day(1921) DaDa • Ridiculed contemporary culture & traditional art forms. • The collapse during WW I of social and moral values. • Nihilistic.
George Grosz The Pillarsof Society(1926)
Salvador Dali: Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of a New Man (1943)
A Primitive Ethiopia Faces a Modern Italian Army – February 24, 1935
German Irredentism after WWI This piece of propaganda shows how the Allies ‘stole’ ethnic German lands from both Germany and ‘Deutschösterreich’ (German / Austria), and gave those lands and their German populations to foreign enemies. The card is entitled: “Lost - but not forgotten country”. Beneath is a patriotic and prophetic poem by Paul Warncke: You must carve in your heart these words, as in stone: What we have lost, Will be regained!
German Feelings of Military Inferiority By the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany could not have an army larger than 100,000 men. In addition, they were not allowed to have, or produce, offensive weapons of any kind. The poster below shows how many Germans felt being surrounded by many powerful and potentially belligerent enemies.
Germany – Stabbed in the Back? After the war and the humiliation of Versailles, many Germans looked for a scapegoat, and the German military found it in Communists, republican politicians and ‘international Jewry’, together called the "November criminals". The commanders alleged they had ‘stabbed them in the back’ on the home front. This Dolchstoßlegende, literally ‘dagger-blow legend’, would play an important role in interwar Germany and the rise of extremism.
John Maynard Keynes - The Economic Consequences of the Peace In 1919, John Maynard Keynes (1883 – 1946) wrote The Economic Consequences of the Peace. He attended the conference as a delegate of the British Treasury and argued for a much more generous peace. A best seller throughout the world, it was critical of the Versailles Treaty in that it was a Carthaginian peace. It helped to consolidate American public opinion against the treaty and involvement in the League of Nations. The perception by much of the British public that Germany had been treated unfairly in turn was a crucial factor in public support for appeasement in the 1930’s. Time – 1965
German Hyperinflation – 1923 to 1924 The Reparations issue, and Germany’s difficulty, or unwillingness to pay, resulted in the economic collapse of the German currency throughout 1923 and into 1924. The mark lost value so quickly that in some cases workers would be paid two times per day. Often times, the currency had no value a day or two after being issued and people used that paper for other things, such as providing warmth during the winter or for cooking.
The Ruhr Crisis The Ruhr Crisis occurred in 1923 when Germany stopped making their reparation payments required by the Treaty of Versailles. In response, France, under Poincaré, occupied the Ruhr, a region rich in coal mines and steel production. This move, considered too harsh by Britain and the US, most likely cost France in the long run. In response, and until the beginning of World War II, France assumed a defensive posture towards Germany instead of an offensive policy as manifested in the Ruhr occupation.
The Dawes Plan The Ruhr occupation outraged Germany and put further strain on its economy. To defuse this situation and increase the chances of Germany resuming reparation payments, the Allied Reparations Committee asked Charles G. Dawes to find a solution. The main points of the Dawes Plan are as follows: 1) The Ruhr was to be evacuated by Allied occupation troops and reparation payments would begin again at a reduced rate 2) The German Reichsbank would be reorganized under Allied supervision. 3) Foreign loans (US) would be made available to Germany. 4) Reparation money would come from various German taxes. The plan was accepted and went into effect in September 1924.
The Rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nationalist Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) ‘25 Point’ Program of the NSDAP - February 24, 1920 The ‘25 Points’ were composed by Hitler and Anton Drexler. They were presented "to a crowd of almost two thousand and every single point was accepted amid jubilant approval…" (from Mein Kampf) and explained in the second volume of Mein Kampf: “The program of the new movement was summed up in a few guiding principles, twenty-five in all. They were devised to give, primarily to the man of the people, a rough picture of the movement's aims. They are in a sense a political creed, which on the one hand recruits for the movement and on the other is suited to unite and weld together by a commonly recognized obligation those who have been recruited.” • We demand the union of all Germany in a Greater Germany on the basis of the right of national self-determination. • 2. We demand equality of rights for the German people in its dealings with other nations, and the revocation of the peace treaties of Versailles and Saint-Germain. • 3. We demand land and territory (colonies) to feed our people and to settle our surplus population. • 4. Only members of the nation may be citizens of the State. Only those of German blood, whatever be their creed, may be members of the nation. Accordingly, no Jew may be a member of the nation. • 5. Non-citizens may live in Germany only as guests and must be subject to laws for aliens.
The ‘Beer Hall Putsch’ On 8th November, 1923, the Bavarian government held a meeting of about 3,000 officials. While Gustav von Kahr, the prime minister of Bavaria was making a speech, Adolf Hitler and armed storm troopers entering the building. Hitler jumped onto a table, fired two shots in the air and told the audience that the Munich Putsch was taking place and the National Revolution had began.
Hitler in Prison Hitler was sentenced to a 5-year prison term. What did he begin to do while serving time? Wrote first volume of Mein Kampf (My Struggle) Early advertisement for Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf showing the original title of the work. (Munich, Germany, 1924) 1925 Copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf
What did Mein Kampf Tell Those Who Read It? Contained basic ideas such as: • German recognition of Aryan superiority / racial awareness • Hatred for all inferior races, especially Jews • Mobilize masses w/ propaganda, appealed to feelings, not reason • Rule by dictator Based on physical appearance, all humans categorized: ‘higher / lower’. Who was at the top? Aryans = master race! (fair skin, blond hair, blue eyes) What were all other races? Racially inferior or‘Untermenschen’ - Jews, Slavic peoples (Czechs, Poles, Russians) other ‘undesirables’ "...NAZI philosophy by no means believes in an equality of races, but along with their difference it recognizes their higher or lesser value and feels itself obligated to promote the victory of the better and stronger, and demand the subordination of the inferior and weaker in accordance with the eternal will that dominates this universe." (Mein Kampf)
Nuremberg Laws 1935 • At the annual party rally held in Nuremberg in 1935, the Nazis announced new laws which institutionalized many of the racial theories prevalent in Nazi ideology. The laws excluded German Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of "German or related blood." Ancillary ordinances to the laws disenfranchised Jews and deprived them of most political rights.
