1.
Weimar Republic
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Weimar Republic is an unofficial, historical designation for the German state between 1919 and 1933. The name derives from the city of Weimar, where its constitutional assembly first took place, the official name of the state was still Deutsches Reich, it had remained unchanged since 1871. In English the country was known simply as Germany. A national assembly was convened in Weimar, where a new constitution for the Deutsches Reich was written, in its fourteen years, the Weimar Republic faced numerous problems, including hyperinflation, political extremism, and contentious relationships with the victors of the First World War. The people of Germany blamed the Weimar Republic rather than their leaders for the countrys defeat. However, the Weimar Republic government successfully reformed the currency, unified tax policies, Weimar Germany eliminated most of the requirements of the Treaty of Versailles, it never completely met its disarmament requirements, and eventually paid only a small portion of the war reparations. Under the Locarno Treaties, Germany accepted the borders of the republic. From 1930 onwards President Hindenburg used emergency powers to back Chancellors Heinrich Brüning, Franz von Papen, the Great Depression, exacerbated by Brünings policy of deflation, led to a surge in unemployment. In 1933, Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor with the Nazi Party being part of a coalition government, the Nazis held two out of the remaining ten cabinet seats. Von Papen as Vice Chancellor was intended to be the éminence grise who would keep Hitler under control, within months the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act of 1933 had brought about a state of emergency, it wiped out constitutional governance and civil liberties. Hitlers seizure of power was permissive of government by decree without legislative participation and these events brought the republic to an end, as democracy collapsed, a single-party state founded the Nazi era. The Weimar Republic is so called because the assembly that adopted its constitution met at Weimar, Germany from 6 February 1919 to 11 August 1919, but this name only became mainstream after 1933. To the right of the spectrum the politically engaged rejected the new democratic model, the Catholic Centre party, Zentrum favoured the term Deutscher Volksstaat while on the moderate left the Chancellors SPD preferred Deutsche Republik. Only during the 1930s did the term become mainstream, both within and outside Germany, after the introduction of the republic, the flag and coat of arms of Germany were officially altered to reflect the political changes. The Weimar Republic retained the Reichsadler, but without the symbols of the former Monarchy and this left the black eagle with one head, facing to the right, with open wings but closed feathers, with a red beak, tongue and claws and white highlighting. If the Reichs Eagle is shown without a frame, the charge and colors as those of the eagle of the Reichs coat of arms are to be used. The patterns kept by the Federal Ministry of the Interior are decisive for the heraldic design, the artistic design may be varied for each special purpose. The achievements and signs of movement were mostly done away with after its downfall
2.
Constituent assembly
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The National Constituent Assembly was formed from the National Assembly on 9 July 1789 during the first stages of the French Revolution. It dissolved on 30 September 1791 and was succeeded by the Legislative Assembly, the Estates-General of 1789, made up of representatives of the three estates, which had not been convoked since 1614, convened on 5 May 1789. The Estates-General reached a deadlock in its deliberations by 6 May, the representatives of the Third Estate attempted to make the whole body more effective and so met separately from 11 May as the Communes. On 12 June, the Communes invited the other Estates to join them, on 17 June 1789, the Communes approved the motion made by Sieyès that declared themselves the National Assembly by a vote of 490 to 90. The Third Estate now believed themselves to be an authority equal to that of the King. A legislative and political agenda unfolded, there were soon attempts by King Louis XVI and the Second Estate to prevent the delegates from meeting, as well as misunderstandings on both sides about each others intentions. Failing to disperse the delegates, Louis started to recognize their validity on 27 June, the Assembly renamed itself the National Constituent Assembly on 9 July and began to function as a governing body and a constitution-drafter. However, it is common to refer to the body even after then as the National Assembly or the Constituent Assembly, following the storming of the Bastille on 14 July, the National Constituent Assembly became the effective government of France. In the words of historian François Mignet, The assembly had acquired the power, the corporations depended on it. The royal power, though existing of right, was in a suspended, since it was not obeyed. The number of the Estates-General increased significantly during the election period, according to Timothy Tackett, there were a total of 1,177 deputies in the Assembly by mid-July 1789. Among them,278 belonged to the nobility,295 to the clergy, for the entire duration of the Assembly, a total of 1,315 deputies were certified,330 clerics,322 nobles, and 663 deputies of the Third Estate. Tackett noted that the majority of the Second Estate had a background. In the early period, its most notable leaders included Honoré Mirabeau, the Marquis de Lafayette, lameths brother Charles also belonged to this group. For a partial list of members of the National Constituent Assembly, in the summer of 1791, the National Constituent Assembly decided that the king needed to be restored to the throne if he accepted the constitution. The decision was made after the failed attempt to flee to Varennes. That decision enraged many Parisians into protesting, and one major protest devolved into the Champ de Mars Massacre, after surviving the vicissitudes of a revolutionary two years, the National Constituent Assembly dissolved itself on 30 September 1791. The following day, the Constitution of 1791 went into effect and this article incorporates text from the public domain History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814, by François Mignet, as made available by Project Gutenberg
3.
Reichstag (German Empire)
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The Reichstag was the Parliament of Germany from 1871 to 1918. Legislation was shared between the Reichstag and the Bundesrat, which was the Imperial Council of the princes of the German States. The Reichstag had no right to appoint or dismiss governments. All German men over 25 years of age were eligible to vote, members were elected in single-member constituencies by majority vote. If no candidate received a majority of the votes, an election took place. In 1871, the Reichstag consisted of 382 members, but from 1874 it was enlarged to 397 members, the term of office was initially set at three years, and in 1888 this was extended to five years. The Reichstag was opened once a year by the Emperor, in order to dissolve parliament, the approval of the Imperial Council and the emperor were required. Members of parliament enjoyed legal immunity and indemnity, the Reichstag first met in the Prussian Landtag building in Berlin. For a time it met in a former porcelain factory at number 4. That 23-year temporary location was the scene of political debates that are associated with names like Bebel, Liebknecht. The premises were considered too small, so in 1871 a decision was made to construct a new building. In 1872, there was a competition which attracted 103 entries by architects. Ten years on, in 1882, another competition was announced. The winner of the competition was the Frankfurt architect Paul Wallot. On 29 June 1884, the foundation stone was finally laid by the Emperor. The new building was acclaimed for its cupola of steel and glass, in 1888, before it was completed, Emperor Wilhelm I died, and 1888 was the Year of Three Emperors. The third of these, Wilhelm II, objected to a greater extent to the very concept of parliament as a democratic institution. The new building opened in 1894, the famous inscription – DEM DEUTSCHEN VOLKE – was added in 1916 by Peter Behrens, and it still towers above the monumental entrance
4.
Reichstag (Weimar Republic)
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The Reichstag was a legislative body of Weimar Germany from 1919, when it succeeded the Weimar National Assembly, until the Nazi takeover in 1933. Constitutionally, the Reichsrat represented the governments of the federal German states, according to the 1919 Weimar Constitution, the members of the Reichstag were to be elected by general universal suffrage according to the principle of proportional representation. Votes were cast for party lists. Elections were to be held at the end of a session of four years. Because of some special requirements, there were inconsistencies between the total share of votes received by a party and its share of the seats. Hitler was not in power yet, there was no hard and fast threshold for winning a seat in the Reichstag. In practice, a party could do so with as little as 0.4 percent of the national seat for some 60,000 votes. While this provision was intended to reduce wasted votes, it resulted in a large number of parties being represented in the chamber. Combined with the nationwide party-list system, this made it difficult to form a stable government. Moreover, each party wanted to pull Germany in a different direction and parties often refused to compromise with, or even recognize. Whereas some looked at pocketbooks, others at the pigmentation of the skin or the index of the skull, when the speaker of one party indulged in his oratory, the others walked out. It was not worth while to listen to somebodys opinion when you knew that his premises were all wrong, the grim determination to silence the unconvincible enemy by execution or imprisonment already existed prior to 1933 in many parties. The parliament passed legislation and the government budget, as well as making declarations of war, the members of the German cabinet, or government, were responsible to the Reichstag, which could force the resignation of ministers or even the whole cabinet by a motion of no confidence. It could also revoke emergency decrees by the Reich President according to Article 48 of the constitution -—however, in contrast, the Reichsrat, the house of state representatives, had minor significance. The constitution also provided for the possibility of referenda, but the hurdles to overcome were high, there were only two plebiscites, which were both unsuccessful. All too often, when a Chancellor was removed from office and this was especially pronounced in the 1930s, when Chancellors had to resort to Article 48 just to conduct the ordinary business of government. In the election of 1928, the Nazi Party won only 12 seats in the Reichstag, however, over the following two years it gained another 95. At the election of 1932, the Nazis and the Communist Party, with this latter enabling act, the Reichstag formally gave up its exclusive responsibility for the exercise of the legislative power
5.
German federal election, 1919
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Federal elections were held in Germany on 19 January 1919, although members of the standing army in the east voted for their representatives only on 2 February. The elections were the first of the new Weimar Republic following World War I and it was also the first German election held using proportional representation and with womens suffrage. It is also reckoned as the first truly free and fair all-German election, the voting age was lowered to 20 from 25 in the last Reichstag election of 1912. From its inaugural session on 6 February, the National Assembly functioned as both a constituent assembly and unicameral legislature, on 13 February, provisional Reichspräsident Friedrich Ebert appointed Philipp Scheidemann Reichsministerpräsident. Scheidemanns government replaced the revolutionary Rat der Volksbeauftragten, the supporting parties of the Weimar Coalition together won 76. 2% of the votes cast
6.
Deutsches Nationaltheater and Staatskapelle Weimar
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The Deutsche Nationaltheater and Staatskapelle Weimar is the most important musical and theatrical venue in Weimar in Germany. It is an institution, consisting of the theatrical Deutsches Nationaltheater. It has a total of six stages across the city and also hosts touring orchestras and theatre companies, in 1602, the ensemble attained resident status at the Weimar court, as the Herzoglichen Hofkapelle. Notable musicians in the history of the Staatskapelle Weimar included Johann Schein and Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach particularly worked as resident organist and Kapellmeister, Johann Nepomuk Hummel served as the ensembles Kapellmeister from 1819 to 1837, on the appointment by the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna. Franz Liszt began his tenure as Kapellmeister in 1842, and championed the music of Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz, after Liszt left in 1858, he was succeeded by Eduard Lassen who remained as director until his retirement in 1895. Lassen conducted several world premieres during his tenure, including the first performance of Camille Saint-Saënss Samson et Dalila in 1877, Richard Strauss served as second Kapellmeister under Lassen from 1889 to 1894 and led the premieres of his own Guntram and Engelbert Humperdincks Hänsel und Gretel. Peter Raabe became Kapellmeister in 1907, with the end of World War I and the dismantling of the German Empire, the ensemble was renamed the Weimar Staatskapelle. Ernst Praetorius directed concert and opera programming from 1924 to 1933, because his wife was Jewish, Praetorius left the post after the National Socialists ascended to power in Germany in 1933. Paul Sixt directed activities there during the Nazi regime, after World War II and the end of the Nazi regime, Hermann Abendroth became Generalmusikdirektor and chief conductor of the ensemble, serving from 1945 to 1956. Successive GMDs of the ensemble have included Gerhard Pflüger, Lothar Seyfarth, Rolf Reuter, Peter Gülke, Hans-Peter Frank, George Alexander Albrecht, Jac van Steen, oleg Caetani was principal guest conductor of the ensemble from 1984 to 1987. The ensemble was renamed the Staatskapelle Weimar in 1988. In September 2009, the Swedish conductor Stefan Solyom became GMD of the ensemble and he concluded his Weimar tenure in July 2016. In July 2015, the announced the appointment of Kirill Karabits as its next GMD and chief conductor, effective with the 2016-2017 season. Karabitss debut concert, in September 2016, was Richard Strausss Alpine Symphony
7.
Weimar
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Weimar is a city in the federal state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately 80 kilometres southwest of Leipzig,170 kilometres north of Nuremberg and 170 kilometres west of Dresden. Together with the neighbour-cities Erfurt and Jena it forms the metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants. Weimar is well known because of its cultural heritage and its importance in German history. The city was a point of the German Enlightenment and home of the leading characters of the literary genre of Weimar Classicism. Until 1948, Weimar was the capital of Thuringia, today, many places in the city centre have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage sites and tourism is one of the leading economic sectors of Weimar. Relevant institutions in Weimar are the Bauhaus University, the Liszt School of Music, in 1999, Weimar was the European Capital of Culture. Archaeological finds dating back to the Thuringii epoch show that the Weimar part of the Ilm valley was settled early, the oldest records regarding Weimar date to 899. Its name changed over the centuries from Wimares through Wimari to Wimar and finally Weimar, it is derived from Old High German wīh-, another theory derives the first element from OHG win. The place was the seat of the County of Weimar, first mentioned in 949, in 1062 it was united with the County of Orlamünde to the new County of Weimar-Orlamünde, which existed until the Thuringian Counts War in 1346 and fell to the Wettins afterwards. The Weimar settlement emerged around the wooden castle and two small churches dedicated to St Peter, and to St James. In 1240, the count founded the monastery in Oberweimar. Soon after, the counts of Weimar founded the town, which was an independent parish since 1249, from 1262 the citizens used their own seal. Nevertheless, the influence of the Weimar counts was declining as the influence of the Wettins in Thuringia increased. Hence, the new town was relatively marginal in a regional context. The settlement around St James Church developed into a suburb during the 13th century, after becoming part of the Wettins territory in 1346, urban development improved. The Wettins fostered Weimar by abolishing socage and granting privileges to the citizens, now Weimar became equal to other Wettinian cities like Weißensee and grew during the 15th century, with the establishment of a town hall and the current main church. Weimar acquired woad trade privileges in 1438, the castle and the walls were finished in the 16th century, making Weimar into a full city
8.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
9.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
10.
Weimar Constitution
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The Constitution of the German Reich, usually known as the Weimar Constitution was the constitution that governed Germany during the Weimar Republic. The constitution declared Germany to be a parliamentary republic with a legislature elected under proportional representation. Universal suffrage was established, with a voting age of 20. The constitution technically remained in effect throughout the Nazi era from 1933 to 1945, the constitutions title was the same as the Constitution of the German Empire that preceded it. The German states official name was Deutsches Reich until the adoption of the 1949 Basic Law, the nation was to be a democratic federal republic, governed by a president and parliament. The constitution was drafted by the lawyer and liberal politician Hugo Preuss, who was state secretary in the Ministry of the Interior. Disagreements arose between the delegates over issues such as the flag, religious education for youth. These disagreements were resolved by August 1919, though sixty-seven delegates abstained from voting to adopt the Weimar Constitution, the Republics first President, Friedrich Ebert, signed the new German constitution into law on 11 August 1919. The constitution is named after Weimar although it was signed into law by Friedrich Ebert in Schwarzburg and this is because Ebert was on holiday in Schwarzburg, while the parliament working out the constitution was gathered in Weimar. Federal elections were held in Germany on 6 June 1920 in line with the Weimar Constitution, gerhard Anschütz, a noted German teacher of constitutional law, was a prominent commentator of the Weimar Constitution. The Weimar Constitution was divided into two main parts, the two parts were divided into seven and five sections, respectively. In all, there were over 180 articles in the Constitution, some of the more noteworthy provisions are described below, including those provisions which proved significant in the demise of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazi Germany. The first part of the Constitution specified the organization of the components of the Reich government. Section 1 consisted of Articles 1 to 19 and established the German Reich as a republic whose power derived from the people, the Reich was defined as the region encompassed by the German states, and other regions could join the Reich based on popular self-determination and Reich legislation. However, Reich law superseded or nullified state law in the event of a conflict, adjudication of conflicts between the Länder and the Reich government was the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. State authorities were required to enforce Reich law and must have a constitution on free state principles, each state parliament was to be elected by an equal and secret ballot according to representative election. Each state government could serve only so long as it had the confidence of the state parliament. Articles 20 to 40 described the national parliament, the Reichstag, the Reichstag was composed of representatives elected by the German people by an equal and secret ballot open to all Germans aged 20 or older
11.
Nazi Germany
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Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943, the period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period. The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery, a national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitlers person, and his word became above all laws, the government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitlers favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending, extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen. The return to economic stability boosted the regimes popularity, racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitlers rule was ruthlessly suppressed, members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned, education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed, recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands and it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943
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Thuringia
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The Free State of Thuringia is a federal state in central Germany. It has an area of 16,171 square kilometres and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area, most of Thuringia is within the watershed of the Saale, a left tributary of the Elbe. Thuringia has been known as the heart of Germany from the late 19th century. It is home to the Rennsteig, Germanys most well-known hiking trail, half of Germanys 136 Winter Olympic gold medals have been won by Thuringian athletes. Johann Sebastian Bach spent the first part of his life and important further stages of his career in Thuringia, goethe and Schiller lived in Weimar and both worked at the University of Jena, which today hosts Thuringias most important science centre. Other Universities in this state are the Ilmenau University of Technology, the University of Erfurt. The name Thuringia or Thüringen derives from the Germanic tribe Thuringii, an older theory claims that they were successors of the Hermunduri, but later research rejected the idea. Other historians argue that the Thuringians were allies of the Huns, came to central Europe together with them, publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus first mentioned the Thuringii around 400, during that period, the Thuringii were famous for their excellent horses. The Thuringian Realm existed until after 531, the Landgraviate of Thuringia was the largest state in the region, after the Treaty of Leipzig, Thuringia had its own dynasty again, the Ernestine Wettins. Their various lands formed the Free State of Thuringia, founded in 1920, the Prussian territories around Erfurt, Mühlhausen and Nordhausen joined Thuringia in 1945. The coat of arms of Thuringia shows the lion of the Ludowingian Landgraves of 12th-century origin, the eight stars around it represent the eight former states which formed Thuringia. The flag of Thuringia is a bicolor, derived from the white. The coat of arms and flag of Hesse are quite similar to the Thuringian ones, symbols of Thuringia in popular culture are the Bratwurst and the Forest, because a large amount of the territory is forested. Named after the Thuringii tribe who occupied it around AD300, Thuringia became a landgraviate in 1130 AD. Most of the remaining Thuringia came under the rule of the Wettin dynasty of the nearby Margraviate of Meissen, in Mühlhausen and elsewhere, the Anabaptists found many adherents. Thomas Müntzer, a leader of some groups of this sect, was active in this city. Some reordering of the Thuringian states occurred during the German Mediatisation from 1795 to 1814, in 1920, after World War I, these small states merged into one state, called Thuringia, only Saxe-Coburg voted to join Bavaria instead. Weimar became the new capital of Thuringia, the coat of arms of this new state was simpler than those of its predecessors
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World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
14.
Chancellor of Germany
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The Chancellor of Germany is the head of government of Germany. The official title in German is Bundeskanzler, sometimes shortened to Kanzler, the term, dating from the early Middle Ages, is derived from the Latin term cancellarius. In German politics, the Chancellor is equivalent to that of a minister in many other countries. German has two equivalent translations of prime minister, Premierminister and Ministerpräsident, while Premierminister usually refers to heads of governments of foreign countries, Ministerpräsident may also refer to the heads of government of most German states. The current Chancellor is Angela Merkel, who is serving her term in office. She is the first female chancellor, thus being known in German as Bundeskanzlerin, the role of the Chancellor has varied greatly throughout Germanys modern history. Today, the Chancellor is the effective leader. The office of Chancellor has a history, stemming back to the Holy Roman Empire. The title was, at times, used in several states of German-speaking Europe, the modern office of Chancellor was established with the North German Confederation, of which Otto von Bismarck became Chancellor in 1867. After the Unification of Germany in 1871, the became known in German as Reichskanzler. With Germanys constitution of 1949, the title Bundeskanzler was revived in German, during the various eras, the role of the Chancellor has varied. From 1871 to 1918, the Chancellor was only responsible to the Emperor, with the founding of the republic and the constitutional reform in 1918, the Parliament was granted the right to dismiss the Reichskanzler. According to the Weimar Constitution of 1919, the Chancellor was appointed by the President and responsible to Parliament, when the Nazis came to power on 30 January 1933, the Weimar Constitution was de facto set aside. After the death of President Hindenburg in 1934, Adolf Hitler, the 1949 constitution gave the Chancellor much greater powers than during the Weimar Republic, while strongly diminishing the role of the President. Since 1867,33 individuals have served as heads of government of Germany or its predecessor, due to his administrative tasks, the head of the clerics at the chapel of an Imperial palace during the Carolingian Empire was called Chancellor. The chapels college acted as the Emperors chancery issuing deeds and capitularies and these three Prince-Archbishops were also Prince-electors of the Empire electing the King of the Romans. Already in medieval times, the German Chancellor had political power like Archbishop Willigis or Rainald von Dassel under Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. In 1559, Emperor Ferdinand I established the agency of an Imperial chancellery at the Vienna Hofburg Palace, upon the 1620 Battle of White Mountain, Emperor Ferdinand II created the office of an Austrian Court Chancellor in charge of the internal and foreign affairs of the Habsburg Monarchy
15.
Prince Maximilian of Baden
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Maximilian Alexander Friedrich Wilhelm Margrave of Baden, also known as Max von Baden, was a German prince and politician. He was heir to the Grand Duchy of Baden and in October and November 1918 briefly served as Chancellor of the German Empire and he was named after his maternal grandfather, Maximilian de Beauharnais, and bore a resemblance to his cousin, Emperor Napoleon III. Max received an education at a Gymnasium secondary school and studied law. In 1900, he married Princess Marie Louise of Hanover at Gmunden, upon the order of Queen Victoria, Prince Max was brought to Darmstadt in the Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine as a suitor for Victorias granddaughter, Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt. Alix was the daughter of Victorias late daughter, Princess Alice and she was in love with Nicholas II, the future Tsar of Russia. After finishing his studies, he trained as an officer of the Prussian Army, following the death of his uncle Grand Duke Frederick I of Baden in 1907, he became heir to the grand-ducal throne of his cousin Frederick II, whose marriage remained childless. He also became president of the Erste Badische Kammer, in 1911, Max applied for a military discharge with the rank of a Generalmajor. Upon the outbreak of World War I in 1914, he served as a staff officer at the XIV Corps of the German Army as the representative of the Grand Duke. Shortly afterwards, however, he retired from his position as he was dissatisfied with his role in the military and was suffering ill health. In 1916, he became president of the German-American support union for prisoners-of-war within the YMCA world alliance. Due to his liberal stance he came into conflict with the policies of the Oberste Heeresleitung supreme command under Paul von Hindenburg and he openly spoke against the resumption of the unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917, which provoked the declaration of war by the United States Congress on 6 April. Hahn maintained close links with Secretary of State Wilhelm Solf and several Reichstag deputies like Eduard David, David pushed for Max to be appointed Chancellor in July 1917, after the fall of Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg. Max then put forward for the position in early September 1918, pointing out his links to the social democrats. Hertling, after consulting Vice-Chancellor Friedrich von Payer, suggested Prince Max of Baden as his successor to the Emperor. However, it took the support of Haußmann, Oberst Hans von Haeften and Ludendorff himself, to have Wilhelm II appoint Max as Chancellor of Germany. Max was to head a new government based on the majority parties of the Reichstag, when Max arrived in Berlin on 1 October he had no idea that he would be asked to approach the Allies about an armistice. Max was horrified and fought against the plan, moreover, he also admitted openly that he was no politician and that he did not think additional steps towards parliamentarisation and democratisation feasible as long as the war continued. Consequently, he did not favour a liberal reform of the constitution, however, Emperor Wilhelm II convinced him to take the post and appointed him on 3 October 1918
16.
Abdication
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Abdication is the act of formally relinquishing monarchical authority. The word abdication derives from the Latin abdicatio meaning to disown or renounce, in its broadest sense abdication is the act of renouncing and resigning from any formal office, but it is applied especially to the supreme office of state. In Roman law the term was applied to the disowning of a family member. Today the term applies to monarchs, or to those who have been formally crowned. An elected or appointed official is said to resign rather than to abdicate, a notable exception is the voluntary relinquishing of the office of Bishop of Rome by the Pope, called Papal resignation or Papal renunciation. Among the most notable abdications of antiquity are those of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the Dictator, in 79 BC, Emperor Diocletian in AD305, perhaps the most notable abdication in recent history is that of King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom and the Dominions. In 1936 Edward abdicated to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson, over the objections of the British establishment, the governments of the Commonwealth, the Royal Family and it was the first time in history that the British or English crown was surrendered entirely voluntarily. Richard II of England, for example, was forced to abdicate after power was seized by his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, the Scottish parliament pronounced a decree of forfeiture and deposition. In Scotland, Mary, Queen of Scots, was forced to abdicate in favour of her one-year-old son, to give legal effect to the abdication of King Edward VIII, His Majestys Declaration of Abdication Act 1936 was passed. In Medieval Japan abdication was used often, and in fact occurred more often than death on the throne. A tradition developed that an emperor should accede to the relatively young. Thus, many Japanese emperors have acceded as children, some only 6 or 8 years old, several emperors abdicated while still in their teens. These traditions show in Japanese folklore, theater, literature and other forms of culture, over half of Japanese empresses abdicated once a suitable male descendant was considered to be old enough to rule. Since the Meiji Restoration and the subsequent reorganization of imperial succession, no emperor has abdicated, there is also no provision for abdication in the Imperial Household Law, the Meiji Constitution, or the current 1947 Constitution of Japan. On February 27,1946, the emperors youngest brother, Prince Mikasa, even stood up in the council and indirectly urged the emperor to step down. General Douglas MacArthur insisted that Emperor Hirohito retain the throne, MacArthur saw the emperor as a symbol of the continuity and cohesion of the Japanese people. However, senior officials within the Imperial Household Agency have denied there is any official plan for the monarch to abdicate. A potential abdication by the Emperor would require an amendment to the Imperial Household Act, on 8 August 2016 the Emperor gave a rare televised address, where he emphasized his advanced age and declining health, this address is interpreted as an implication of his intention to abdicate
17.
German Emperor
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The German Emperor was the official title of the head of state and hereditary ruler of the German Empire. Following the revolution of 1918, the German head of state function was succeeded by the Reichspräsident, by this ceremony, the North German Confederation was transformed into the German Empire. This empire was a monarchy, the emperor was head of state. Under the imperial constitution, the empire was a confederation of states under the permanent presidency of Prussia, the King of Prussia was named in the constitution as the President of the Confederation. Thus, the crown was directly tied to the Prussian crown—something Wilhelm II discovered in the aftermath of World War I. He erroneously believed that he ruled the empire in personal union with Prussia, with the wars end, he conceded that he could not remain emperor, but initially thought he could at least retain his Prussian crown. The German Emperors had an extensive list of titles and claims that reflected the geographic expanse and diversity of the lands ruled by the House of Hohenzollern
18.
Wilhelm II, German Emperor
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Wilhelm II or William II was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. He was the eldest grandchild of the British Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and his leading generals, Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, dictated policy during the First World War with little regard for the civilian government. An ineffective war-time leader, he lost the support of the army, abdicated in November 1918, and fled to exile in the Netherlands. Wilhelm was born on 27 January 1859 at the Crown Princes Palace, Berlin to Prince Frederick William of Prussia and his wife, Victoria, Princess Royal, the eldest daughter of Britains Queen Victoria. At the time of his birth, his great-uncle Frederick William IV was king of Prussia, a traumatic breech birth left him with a withered left arm due to Erbs palsy, which he tried with some success to conceal. His left arm was about 6 inches shorter than his right arm, historians have suggested that this disability affected his emotional development. In 1863, Wilhelm was taken to England to be present at the wedding of his Uncle Bertie, William attended the ceremony in a Highland costume, complete with a small toy dirk. During the ceremony the four-year-old became restless and his eighteen-year-old uncle Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, charged with keeping an eye on him, told him to be quiet, but Wilhelm drew his dirk and threatened Alfred. When Alfred attempted to subdue him by force, Wilhelm bit him on the leg and his grandmother, Queen Victoria, missed seeing the fracas, to her Wilhelm remained a clever, dear, good little child, the great favourite of my beloved Vicky. His mother, Vicky, was obsessed with his damaged arm and she blamed herself for the childs handicap and insisted that he become a good rider. The thought that he, as heir to the throne, should not be able to ride was intolerable to her, riding lessons began when Wilhelm was eight and were a matter of endurance for Wilhelm. Over and over, the prince was set on his horse. He fell off time after time but despite his tears was set on its back again, after weeks of this he finally got it right and was able to maintain his balance. Wilhelm, from six years of age, was tutored and heavily influenced by the 39-year-old teacher Georg Hinzpeter, Hinzpeter, he later wrote, was really a good fellow. Whether he was the tutor for me, I dare not decide. The torments inflicted on me, in this riding, must be attributed to my mother. As a teenager he was educated at Kassel at the Friedrichsgymnasium, in January 1877, Wilhelm finished high school and on his eighteenth birthday received as a present from his grandmother, Queen Victoria, the Order of the Garter. After Kassel he spent four terms at the University of Bonn, studying law and he became a member of the exclusive Corps Borussia Bonn
19.
Friedrich Ebert
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Friedrich Ebert was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the first President of Germany from 1919 until his death in office in 1925. Ebert was elected leader of the SPD on the death in 1913 of August Bebel, in 1914, shortly after he assumed leadership, the party became deeply divided over Eberts support of war loans to finance the German war effort in World War I. He tried to isolate those in the party opposed to the war, Ebert was a pivotal figure in the German Revolution of 1918–19. When Germany became a republic at the end of World War I and his policies at that time were primarily aimed at restoring peace and order in Germany and containing the more extreme elements of the revolutionary left. With their help, Eberts government crushed a number of leftist uprisings that were ironically pursuing goals similar to those of the SPD and this has made him a controversial historical figure. Ebert was born in Heidelberg on 4 February 1871 as the seventh of nine children of the tailor Karl Ebert, three of his siblings died at a young age. Although he wanted to attend university, this proved impossible due to the lack of funds of his family, instead, he trained as a saddle-maker from 1885 to 1888. After he became a journeyman in 1889 he travelled, according to the German custom, from place to place in Germany, seeing the country, in Mannheim, he was introduced by an uncle to the Social Democratic Party, joining it in 1889. Ebert was on the black list of the due to his political activities. Between 1889 and 1891 he lived in Kassel, Braunschweig, Elberfeld-Barmen, Remscheid, Quakenbrück and Bremen, after settling in Bremen in 1891, Ebert made a living doing odd jobs. In 1893, he obtained an editorial post on the socialist Bremer Bürgerzeitung, in May 1894, he married Louise Rump, a manual labourer, who had been employed as a housemaid and in labelling boxes and who was active in union work. He then rented a pub that became a centre of socialist, in 1900, Ebert was appointed a trade-union secretary and elected a member of the Bremer Bürgerschaft as representative of the Social Democratic Party. In 1904, Ebert presided over the convention of the party in Bremen. He became a leader of the wing of the Social Democratic Party and in 1905 Secretary-General of the SPD. At the time, he was the youngest member of the Parteivorstand, meanwhile, Ebert had run for a Reichstag seat several times in constituencies where the SPD had no chance of winning,1898 Vechta,1903 and 1906 Stade. However, in 1912, he was elected to the Reichstag for the constituency of Elberfeld-Barmen and this was the election that also made the SPD the strongest party in the Reichstag with 110 out of a total of 397 members, surpassing the Centre Party. On the death of August Bebel on 13 August 1913, Ebert was elected as joint party chairman at the convention in Jena on 20 September with 433 out of 473 votes, when the July Crisis of 1914 erupted, Ebert was on vacation. Similar policy disputes caused Ebert to end his alliance with several left-wing members of the Reichstag and start to work closely with the Centre Party
20.
Council of the People's Deputies
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The Council of the Peoples Deputies was the name given to the government of the November Revolution in Germany from November 1918 until February 1919. The Council also reformed the system of suffrage and extended the right to vote to German women for the first time, the Council was formed on 10 November 1918 after the November revolution had swept away the old order. It was established several thousand revolutionary workers and soldiers councils had assembled at Zirkus Busch in Berlin. Their election or appointment had been initiated the day before by the actions of the Revolutionäre Obleute and this had happened against the will of the leadership of the Social Democrats, led by Friedrich Ebert who had been appointed Chancellor on 9 November. Unable to prevent the assembly, Eberts Social Democrats were able to co-opt the process, in addition, Ebert managed to convince the more radical Independent Social Democrats to join him in a unified socialist government containing three of their members. Thus a coalition between the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany made up the council, until 29 December 1918 there were three members from the SPD and three from the USPD. Ebert and Haase were joint chairmen, the members of the Council had no official portfolios, but Ebert was responsible for military and interior affairs. Since they had no civil service, the Council had to rely on the existing bureaucracy. The Council was formally in charge of the government when the armistice ending World War I was signed on 11 November 1918, on 12 November 1918, the Council issued a proclamation An das deutsche Volk. It announced the following nine points, The State of Emergency is lifted The rights of assembly and this also applies to civil servants There is no censorship. Censorship of theatrical plays is abolished Freedom of expression in speech, by 1 January 1919 at the latest, the eight-hour-workday was to be introduced. The government also promised to do everything to provide sufficient work, a scheme of unemployment assistance that would distribute the burden between Reich, state and municipality was in the works. The earnings ceiling for health insurance would be raised, the lack of housing would be alleviated through supply of housing. The government would work towards securing regular nutrition for the people and it would strive to keep up orderly production and protect property against private infringement, as well as personal freedom and safety. On 15 November 1918, the Council appointed Hugo Preuss as State Secretary of the Interior, the Council passed the Verordnung über die Wahlen zur verfassunggebenden deutschen Nationalversammlung, the law governing the upcoming elections for a national assembly, on 30 November 1918. This codified the changes to the suffrage announced earlier, for the first time in Germany, suffrage was extended to women. The Council also organized the Reichsrätekongress which met at the Preußisches Abgeordnetenhaus at Leipziger Platz in Berlin from 16 to 20 December 1918. By majority vote, this assembly decided to bring forward the elections to an assembly to 19 January 1919
21.
Social Democratic Party of Germany
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The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany. The party, led by Chairman Martin Schulz since 2017, has one of the two major contemporary political parties in Germany, along with the Christian Democratic Union. The SPD has governed at the level in Germany as part of a grand coalition with the CDU. The SPD participates in 14 state governments, nine of them governed by SPD Minister-Presidents, the SPD is a member of the Party of European Socialists and of the Socialist International, and became a founding member of the Progressive Alliance on 22 May 2013. Established in 1863, the SPD is the oldest extant political party represented in the German Parliament and was one of the first Marxist-influenced parties in the world. The General German Workers Association, founded in 1863, and the Social Democratic Workers Party, founded in 1869, merged in 1875, under the name Socialist Workers Party of Germany. From 1878 to 1890, any grouping or meeting that aimed at spreading socialist principles was banned under the Anti-Socialist Laws, in 1890, when the ban was lifted and it could again present electoral lists, the party adopted its current name. In the years leading up to World War I, the party remained ideologically radical in official principle, by 1912, the party claimed the most votes of any German party. Despite the agreement of the Second International to oppose the First World War, after 1918 the SPD played an important role in the political system of the Weimar Republic, although it took part in coalition governments only in few years. Adolf Hitler prohibited the party in 1933 under the Enabling Act – party officials were imprisoned, killed or went into exile, in exile, the party used the name Sopade. In the Soviet Zone of Occupation, the Soviets forced the Social Democrats to form a party with the Communists. In the Western zones, the Communist Party was later banned by West Germanys Federal Constitutional Court, since 1949, in the Federal Republic of Germany, the SPD has been one of the two major parties, with the other being the Christian Democratic Union. From 1969 to 1982 and 1998 to 2005 the Chancellors of Germany were Social Democrats whereas the other years the Chancellors were Christian Democrats, the SPD was established as a Marxist party in 1875. After World War II, under the leadership of Kurt Schumacher, the SPD re-established itself as a socialist party, representing the interests of the working class and the trade unions. With the Godesberg Program of 1959, however, the party evolved from a socialist working-class party to a modern social-democratic party working within capitalism. The current party platform of the SPD espouses the goal of social democracy, according to the party platform, freedom, justice, and social solidarity, form the basis of social democracy. The coordinated social market economy should be strengthened, and its output should be distributed fairly, the party sees that economic system as necessary in order to ensure the affluence of the entire population. The SPD also tries to protect the poor with a welfare state
22.
Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany
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The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany was a short-lived political party in Germany during the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. The organization was established in 1917 as the result of a split of left wing members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the organization attempted to chart a centrist course between electorally oriented revisionism on the one hand and bolshevism on the other. The organization was terminated in 1931 through merger with the Socialist Workers Party of Germany, to avoid confusion, the existing SPD was typically called the Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany from then on. Luise Zietz was one of the agitators in favor of a split in the party in 1917. She became a leader in the creation of the USPDs womens movement, at the same time, the Spartakusbund, led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, separated from the USPD again as well to merge with other left wing groups and form the KPD. In 1920, four delegates from the USPD attended the 2nd World Congress of the Comintern, Ernst Däumig, Arthur Crispien, Walter Stoecker, the USPD split up in the process, with both groups seeing themselves as the rightful USPD and the other one as being outcast. The USPD was instrumental in the creation of the 2½ International in 1921, the party got 20,275 votes in the 1928 Reichstag election, but won no seats. Eric D. Weitz, Creating German Communism, 1890-1990, From Popular Protests to Socialist State, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press,1997 David Priestand, Red Flag, A History of Communism, New York, Grove Press,2009
23.
Berlin
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Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million, Berlin is the second most populous city proper, due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world, following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all-Germany. Berlin is a city of culture, politics, media. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations. Berlin serves as a hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination, significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics. Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras, museums and its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions. The city is known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts. Since 2000 Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene, the name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of todays Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. All German place names ending on -ow, -itz and -in, since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore a canting arm, the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920, the central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document,1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, and profited from the right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod. In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, in 1415 Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. In 1443 Frederick II Irontooth started the construction of a new palace in the twin city Berlin-Cölln
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Women's suffrage
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Womens suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Limited voting rights were gained by women in Finland, Iceland, Sweden and some Australian colonies, National and international organizations formed to coordinate efforts to gain voting rights, especially the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, and also worked for equal civil rights for women. In 1881, the Isle of Man gave women who owned property the right to vote, in 1893, the British colony of New Zealand, granted women the right to vote. The colony of South Australia, did the same in 1894 and women were able to vote in the next election, South Australia also permitted women to stand for election alongside men. In 1899 Western Australia enacted full womens suffrage, enabling women to vote in the referendum of 31 July 1900. In 1902 women in the four colonies also acquired the right to vote. Discriminatory restrictions against Aboriginal people, including women, voting in elections, were not completely removed until 1962. Norway followed, granting full womens suffrage in 1913, most independent countries enacted womens suffrage in the interwar era, including Canada in 1917, Britain in 1918 and the United States in 1920. If women could work in factories, it seemed both ungrateful and illogical to deny them a place in the polling booth. But the vote was more than simply a reward for war work. Late adopters in Europe included Spain in 1931, France in 1944, Italy in 1946, Greece in 1952, Switzerland in 1971, the United States gave women equal voting rights in all states with the Nineteenth Amendment ratified in 1920. Canada and a few Latin American nations passed womens suffrage before World War II while the vast majority of Latin American nations established womens suffrage in the 1940s, the last Latin American country to give women the right to vote was Paraguay in 1961. In December 2015, women were first allowed to vote in Saudi Arabia, extended political campaigns by women and their supporters have generally been necessary to gain legislation or constitutional amendments for womens suffrage. In many countries, limited suffrage for women was granted before universal suffrage for men, for instance, in ancient Athens, often cited as the birthplace of democracy, only adult, male citizens who owned land were permitted to vote. Through subsequent centuries, Europe was generally ruled by monarchs, though forms of parliament arose at different times. Their Protestant successors enjoyed the same privilege almost into modern times and they make decisions there like the men, and it is they who even delegated the first ambassadors to discuss peace. The Iroquois, like many First Nations peoples in North America, had a kinship system. Property and descent were passed through the female line, Women elders voted on hereditary male chiefs and could depose them
25.
Centre Party (Germany)
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The German Centre Party is a lay Catholic political party in Germany, primarily influential during the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic. In English it is called the Catholic Centre Party. Formed in 1870, it successfully battled the Kulturkampf which Chancellor Otto von Bismarck launched in Prussia to reduce the power of the Catholic Church. It soon won a quarter of the seats in the Reichstag, after World War II, the party was refounded, but could not rise again to its former importance, as most of its members joined the new Christian Democratic Union. The Centre Party was represented in the German parliament until 1957 and it exists as a marginal party, mainly based in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Many Catholics found themselves in Protestant dominated states and this led to serious aggressions against the Catholic population of the Rhineland and Westphalia and culminated in the arrest of the Archbishop of Cologne. The conflict relaxed after 1840, with Frederick William IVs accession to the throne, the Revolution of 1848 brought new opportunities for German Catholics. In October, the bishops had their first meeting in 40 years in Würzburg, in the National Assembly, which was convened to draw up a German constitution, a Catholic club was formed. This was not yet a party, but a loose union aimed at protecting the Churchs liberties in a future Germany. The later demise of the National Assembly proved to be a setback for Political Catholicism. In reaction this led to a doubling of Catholic representatives in the subsequent elections, in 1858, when the New Era governments of Wilhelm I adopted more lenient policies, the club renamed itself Fraction of the Centre in order to open itself up to include non-Catholics. This name stemmed from the fact that in the Prussian Diet the Catholic representatives were seated in the centre, faced with military and constitutional issues, where there was no definite Church position, the group soon disintegrated and disappeared from parliament after 1867. The main points were, Preservation of the Churchs autonomy and rights, defense against any attack on the independence of Church bodies, on the development of religious life and on the practice of Christian charity. Effectual implementation of parity for recognised denominations, rejection of any attempt to de-Christianise marriage. Preservation or founding of denominational schools, with such a manifesto, the number of Catholic representatives in the Prussian Diet rose considerably. In December 1870, they formed a new Centre faction, also called the Constitution Party to emphasise its adherence to constitutional liberties, three months later, early in 1871, the Catholic representatives to the new national parliament, the Reichstag, also formed a Centre faction. In the age of nationalism, Protestant Germans, whether Conservative or Liberal, after the First Vatican Council, Bismarck launched the Kulturkampf or cultural struggle against the Catholic Church. But the Catholics fought back vigorously and with near-unanimity, the Centre party gained greater support from the Catholic population
26.
German Democratic Party
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In 1930 the party changed to the Deutsche Staatspartei. The Democrats were a more left-wing or social liberal party, whereas the German Peoples Party was right-wing liberal, many of the leading figures in the party had been supporters of Imperial Germanys aim of Weltpolitik and Mitteleuropa. Along with the Social Democrats and the Centre Party, the Democratic party was most committed to maintaining a democratic and its social basis were middle class entrepreneurs, civil servants, teachers, scientists and craftsmen. The party was the one voted for by most Jews, the party was attacked by some for being a party of Jews and professors. Other well-known politicians of the DDP were Hugo Preuß, the author of the Weimar constitution. Hjalmar Schacht, president of the Reichsbank and one of the founders of the party, left the party in 1926 and became a supporter of Adolf Hitler. Nearly all German governments from 1918 to 1931 included ministers from the DDP, such as Walther Rathenau, Eugen Schiffer, Hugo Preuss, Kurt Riezler, Otto Gessler, Max Weber and Erich Koch-Weser. From their 18% share of the first elections under proportional representation in 1919, the party merged with the more right-leaning Young German Order to form the German State Party in 1930. With Ludwig Quidde and others the party had a pacifist wing which left the Party in 1930 and founded the Radical Democratic Party, after 1945 former politicians of the DDP joined mainly the new Free Democratic Party, as did the liberals from the German Peoples Party. First Federal President Theodor Heuss, a journalist and professor in history, had been a German State Party deputy in 1933, in the Soviet occupation zone the liberal leader was former DDP minister Wilhelm Külz. Other DDP members went to the Christian Democrats, such as Ernst Lemmer, Democratic Party of Germany Liberalism List of liberal parties Liberalism in Germany Weimar Republic Frye, Bruce B
27.
German National People's Party
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The German National Peoples Party was a national conservative party in Germany during the time of the Weimar Republic. Before the rise of the National Socialist German Workers Party it was the major conservative and it was an alliance of nationalists, reactionary monarchists, völkisch, and antisemitic elements, and supported by the Pan-German League. It was formed in late 1918 after Germanys defeat in the First World War and it combined remnants of the German Conservative Party, Free Conservative Party, German Fatherland Party and right-wing elements of the National Liberal Party. The party strongly rejected the republican Weimar Constitution of 1919 and the Treaty of Versailles which it viewed as a national disgrace, instead it aimed at a restoration of monarchy, a repeal of the dictated peace treaty and reacquisition of all lost territories and colonies. During the mid-1920s, the DNVP moderated its profile, accepting republican institutions in practice and participating in coalition governments on federal. It broadened its voting base—winning as many as 20. 5% in the December 1924 election—and supported the election of Paul von Hindenburg as President of Germany in 1925, at the same time it lost many votes to Adolf Hitlers rising Nazi Party. Initially, the DNVP had a number of ministers in Hitlers government but quickly lost influence and eventually dissolved itself in June 1933, the party was formed in December 1918 by a merger of the German Conservative Party and the Free Conservative Party of the old monarchic German Empire. Thus, the party united most of the formerly fragmented conservative spectrum of the Empire, as a result of the crisis atmosphere of late 1918, a very wide assortment of different parties came together to form the DNVP. We have a present, and God willing, a good future, the task of writing out a common platform acceptable to all fell to a committee headed by Ulrich von Hassell. Reflecting a strong anti-Semitic orientation, right from the start Jews were banned from joining the DNVP, in the elections on 19 January 1919 for the National Assembly that was to write the new constitution, the DNVP produced a pamphlet entitled The Jews—Germanys vampires. Generally hostile towards the republican Weimar constitution, the DNVP spent most of the period in opposition. Of the 19 cabinets between 1919 and 1932, the DNVP took part in two governments and their total period in office over this 13-year period was 27 months. More women than men voted for the DNVP, and despite the partys traditionalist values, the women in the DNVP tended to be most concerned with wiping out trash and dirt which was their term for pornography and prostitution. The Israeli historian Yehuda Bauer called the DNVP. the party of the traditional, the writer Kurt Tucholsky wrote in 1924 that Even in Jewish circles and even in merchant circles, this way of thinking prevails. Extremely nationalistic and reactionary and originally favouring restoration of the Hohenzollern monarchy and its supporters came from dedicated nationalists, the aristocracy, parts of the middle class and big business. The DNVP had little appeal to Catholics and almost its entire support came from Protestant areas, none of these had anything to do with the task at hand, namely to write a new constitution. The DNVP made no contribution to the drafting of the new constitution, in June 1919, the Reichstag had to ratify the Treaty of Versailles in the face of a warning from the Allies that World War I would resume if it was not ratified. The DNVP made certain that the parties in the Reichstag were going to vote for the treaty
28.
German-Hanoverian Party
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The German-Hanoverian Party, also known as the Guelph Party, was a conservative, federalist political party in the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. The party was founded in 1867 in protest of the annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover by the Kingdom of Prussia in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War. They wanted the revival of the Kingdom of Hanover and the restoration of the assets of the former ruling House of Welf. The party therefore was called the Welfen, and drew its strongest support from the rural areas around Hannover. From 1890 the party was led by Georg von der Decken, however, the referendum fell short of the one-third threshold required to enact devolution. The defeat hastened the decline and in the following years many members joined the rising Nazi Party. In 1933 the DHP, like other conservative and liberal parties, after World War II, a party called Niedersächsische Landespartei was formed as a continuation of the DHP. From 1947 that party was known as the German Party, by the time of 1953, a group of DP dissidents formed a new DHP, which again joined the remnants of the German Party in 1962. Hans Prilop, Die Vorabstimmung 1924 in Hannover, untersuchungen zur Vorgeschichte und Geschichte der Deutsch-Hannoverschen Partei im deutschen Kaiserreich und in der Weimarer Republik
29.
Communist Party of Germany
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The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956. In the 1920s it was called the Spartacists, since it was formed from the Spartacus League, during the Weimar Republic period, the KPD usually polled between 10 and 15 percent of the vote and was represented in the Reichstag and in state parliaments. The party directed most of its attacks on the Social Democratic Party of Germany, banned in Nazi Germany one day after Adolf Hitler emerged triumphant in the German elections in 1933, the KPD maintained an underground organization but suffered heavy losses. In East Germany, the party was merged, by Soviet decree, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the SED was renamed the Party of Democratic Socialism and subsequently merged into Die Linke. The KPD was banned in West Germany in 1956 by the Constitutional Court, before the First World War the Social Democratic Party was the largest party in Germany and the worlds most successful socialist party. Although still officially claiming to be a Marxist party, by 1914 it had become in practice a reformist party, in 1914 the SPD members of the Reichstag voted in favour of the war. In November 1918, revolution broke out across Germany, germanys Social Democratic government, which had come to power after the fall of the Monarchy, was vehemently opposed to the KPDs idea of socialism. The Party split a few months later into two factions, the KPD and the Communist Workers Party of Germany, following the assassination of Leo Jogiches, Paul Levi became the KPD leader. Other prominent members included Clara Zetkin, Paul Frölich, Hugo Eberlein, Franz Mehring, August Thalheimer, Levi led the party away from the policy of immediate revolution, in an effort to win over SPD and USPD voters and trade union officials. These efforts were rewarded when a section of the USPD joined the KPD. Through the 1920s the KPD was racked by internal conflict between more and less radical factions, partly reflecting the struggles between Zinoviev and Stalin in Moscow. Germany was seen as being of importance to the struggle for socialism. Eventually Levi was expelled in 1921 by the Comintern for indiscipline, further leadership changes took place in the 1920s. In 1923 a new KPD leadership more favorable to the USSR was elected and this leadership, headed by Ernst Thälmann, abandoned the goal of immediate revolution, and from 1924 onwards contested Reichstag elections, with some success. During the years of the Weimar Republic the KPD was the largest communist party in Europe and it maintained a solid electoral performance, usually polling more than 10% of the vote, and gaining 100 deputies in the November 1932 elections. In the presidential election of the year, Thälmann took 13. 2% of the vote. Critics of the KPD accused it of having pursued a sectarian policy – e. g. the Social Democratic Party criticized the KPDs thesis of social fascism and this scuttled any possibility of a united front with the SPD against the rising power of the Nazis. These allegations were repudiated by supporters of the KPD, the leadership of the SPD, it was said
30.
Allies of World War I
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The Allies of World War I were the countries that opposed the Central Powers in the First World War. The members of the original Triple Entente of 1907 were the French Republic, the British Empire, Belgium, Serbia, Greece, Montenegro, and Romania were affiliated members of the Entente. The 1920 Treaty of Sèvres defines the Principal Allied Powers as the British Empire, French Republic, Italy, the Allied Powers comprised, together with the Principal Allied Powers, Armenia, Belgium, Greece, Hejaz, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serb-Croat-Slovene state and Czechoslovakia. The U. S. declaration of war on Germany, on 6th April 1917 was on the grounds that Germany had violated its neutrality by attacking international shipping and it declared war on Austria-Hungary in December 1917. The U. S. entered the war as a power, rather than as a formal ally of France. Although the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria severed relations with the United States, the Dominion governments did control recruiting, and removed personnel from front-line duties as they saw fit. From early 1917, the War Cabinet was superseded by the Imperial War Cabinet, in April 1918, operational control of all Entente forces on the Western Front passed to the new supreme commander, Ferdinand Foch of France. The Austrian Empire followed with an attack on the Serbian ally Montenegro on 8 August, on the Western Front, the two neutral States of Belgium and Luxembourg were immediately occupied by German troops as part of the German Schlieffen Plan. On 23 August Japan joined the Entente, which then counted seven members, the entrance of the British Empire brought Nepal into the war. In 1916, Montenegro capitulated and left the Entente, and two nations joined, Portugal and Romania, on 6 April 1917, the United States entered the war. Liberia, Siam and Greece also became allies and this was followed by Romanian cessation of hostilities, however the Balkan State declared war on Central Powers again on 10 November 1918. In response to the Germans invasion of neutral Belgium, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914, gibraltar, Cyprus and Malta were British dependencies in Europe. The UK held several colonies, protectorates, and semi-autonomous dependencies at the time of World War I, in Eastern Africa the East Africa Protectorate, Nyasaland, both Northern and Southern Rhodesia, the Uganda Protectorate, were involved in conflict with German forces in German East Africa. In Western Africa, the colonies of Gold Coast and Nigeria were involved in actions against German forces from Togoland. In Southwestern Africa, the dominion of South Africa was involved in military actions against German forces in German South-West Africa. Canada and Newfoundland were two autonomous dominions during the war that made major contributions to the British war effort. Other British dependent territories in the Americas included, British Honduras, the Falkland Islands, British Guiana, and Jamaica. The UK held large possessions in Asia, including the Indian Empire which was an assortment of British imperial authorities in the territory now defined as India, Bangladesh, Burma, australia and New Zealand were two autonomous dominions of the UK in Oceania during the war
31.
Paris Peace Conference, 1919
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It took place in Paris during 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities. The main result was the Treaty of Versailles with Germany, which in section 231 laid the guilt for the war on the aggression of Germany and this provision proved humiliating for Germany and set the stage for the expensive reparations Germany was intended to pay. They met together informally 145 times and made all the major decisions, the conference opened on 18 January 1919. Key recommendations were folded into the Treaty of Versailles with Germany, the five major powers controlled the Conference. Amongst the Big Five, in practice Japan played a small role, the four met together informally 145 times and made all the major decisions, which in turn were ratified by other attendees. The open meetings of all the approved the decisions made by the Big Four. The conference came to an end on 21 January 1920 with the inaugural General Assembly of the League of Nations, the main result was the Treaty of Versailles, with Germany, which in section 231 laid the guilt for the war on the aggression of Germany and her allies. This provision proved humiliating for Germany and set the stage for very high reparations Germany was supposed to pay, republican Germany was not invited to attend the conference at Versailles. Representatives of White Russia were present, a central issue of the Conference was the disposition of the overseas colonies of Germany. The British dominions wanted their reward for their sacrifice, Australia wanted New Guinea, New Zealand wanted Samoa, and South Africa wanted South West Africa. Wilson wanted the League of Nations to administer all the German colonies until such time as they were ready for independence, Lloyd George realized he needed to support his dominions, and he proposed a compromise that there be three types of mandates. Mandates for the Turkish provinces were one category, they would be divided up between Britain and France, Wilson and the others finally went along with the solution. The dominions received Class C Mandates to the colonies they wanted, Japan obtained mandates over German possessions north of the equator. Wilson wanted no mandates for the United States, his top advisor Colonel House was deeply involved in awarding the others, Wilson was especially offended by Australian demands. He and Hughes had some clashes, with the most famous being, Wilson, But after all. Hughes, I represent sixty thousand dead, prior to Wilsons arrival in Europe in December 1918, no American president had ever visited Europe while in office. High hopes and expectations were placed on him to deliver what he had promised for the post-war era, in doing so, Wilson ultimately began to lead the foreign policy of the United States toward interventionism, a move strongly resisted in some domestic circles. Once Wilson arrived, however, he found rivalries, and conflicting claims previously submerged and he worked mostly trying to sway the direction that the French and British delegations were taking towards Germany and its allies in Europe, as well as the former Ottoman lands in the Middle East
32.
Weimar Classicism
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Weimar Classicism is a German literary and cultural movement, whose practitioners established a new humanism, from the synthesis of ideas from Romanticism, Classicism, and the Age of Enlightenment. The German Enlightenment, called “neo-classical”, burgeoned in the synthesis of Empiricism and Rationalism as developed by Christian Thomasius and this philosophy, circulated widely in many magazines and journals, profoundly directed the subsequent expansion of German-speaking and European culture. The inability of this common-sense outlook convincingly to bridge “feeling” and “thought”, “body” and “mind”, another, though not as abstract, approach to this problem was a governing concern with the problems of aesthetics. It was no inquiry into taste — into positive or negative appeals — nor sensations as such, therefore, the Weimar Classicism could also be started with the arrival of Wieland and extended beyond Schillers death until the death of Wieland or even of Goethe himself. In Italy Goethe aimed to rediscover himself as a writer and to become an artist, through training in Rome. While he failed as an artist, Italy appeared to have him a better writer. Schillers evolution as a writer was following a path to Goethes. He had begun as a writer of wild, violent, emotion-driven plays, in the late 1780s he turned to a more classical style. In 1794 Schiller and Goethe became friends and allies in a project to establish new standards for literature, by contrast the contemporaneous and efflorescing literary movement of German Romanticism was in opposition to Weimar and German Classicism, especially to Schiller. On this Goethe remarked, The Weimar movement was notable for its inclusion of female writers, die Horen included works by several women, including a serially published novel, Agnes von Lilien, by Schillers sister-in-law Caroline von Wolzogen. Other women published by Schiller included Sophie Mereau, Friederike Brun, Amalie von Imhoff, Elisa von der Recke, between 1786 and Schillers death in 1805 he and Goethe worked to recruit a network of writers, philosophers, scholars and artists to their cause. A work’s Gehalt is not reducible to its Inhalt, Stoff, Schiller and Goethe reserve this for the forms taken from the world or that are created. In a work of art, Stoff is to be “indifferent”, christoph Martin Wieland was the first writer to arrive in Weimar. In 1772 he was called by the widowed Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, then regent of the Duchy Sachsen-Weimar, Weimar remained Wielands home until his death. Here, in 1773, he founded Der teutsche Merkur, which under his editorship became the most influential literary review in Germany,1776, one year after his arrival, Goethe arranged that Herder was called to Weimar, whom he had admired already in his Strasbourg years. The vast array of writings themselves, other than being solely literary pursuances or distichs, include scientific, philosophic, Schiller was remarkably prolific during this period, writing his plays Wallenstein, Mary Stuart, The Maid of Orleans, The Bride of Messina and William Tell. Ein Schauspiel für Liebende Iphigenie auf Tauris Torquato Tasso Römische Elegien Venezianische Epigramme Faust, ein Fragment Beiträge zur Optik Der Bürgergeneral Reineke Fuchs Unterhaltungen deutscher Ausgewanderten Das Märchen, Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre Faust. Musicians were inspired to compose for the works of writers, Ludwig van Beethoven, Paul Dukas, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
33.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer and statesman. In addition, numerous literary and scientific fragments, more than 10,000 letters and he was an early participant in the Sturm und Drang literary movement. He also contributed to the planning of Weimars botanical park and the rebuilding of its Ducal Palace and his first major scientific work, the Metamorphosis of Plants, was published after he returned from a 1788 tour of Italy. During this period, Goethe published his novel, Wilhelm Meisters Apprenticeship, the verse epic Hermann and Dorothea, and, in 1808. Goethes comments and observations form the basis of several biographical works, Goethes father, Johann Caspar Goethe, lived with his family in a large house in Frankfurt, then an Imperial Free City of the Holy Roman Empire. Though he had studied law in Leipzig and had been appointed Imperial Councillor, Johann Caspar married Goethes mother, Catharina Elizabeth Textor at Frankfurt on 20 August 1748, when he was 38 and she was 17. All their children, with the exception of Johann Wolfgang and his sister, Cornelia Friederica Christiana and his father and private tutors gave Goethe lessons in all the common subjects of their time, especially languages. Goethe also received lessons in dancing, riding and fencing, Johann Caspar, feeling frustrated in his own ambitions, was determined that his children should have all those advantages that he had not. Although Goethes great passion was drawing, he became interested in literature, Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock. He also took pleasure in reading works on history and religion. He writes about this period, Goethe became also acquainted with Frankfurt actors, among early literary attempts, he was infatuated with Gretchen, who would later reappear in his Faust and the adventures with whom he would concisely describe in Dichtung und Wahrheit. He adored Caritas Meixner, a wealthy Worms traders daughter and friend of his sister, Goethe studied law at Leipzig University from 1765 to 1768. He detested learning age-old judicial rules by heart, preferring instead to attend the lessons of Christian Fürchtegott Gellert. In Leipzig, Goethe fell in love with Anna Katharina Schönkopf, in 1770, he anonymously released Annette, his first collection of poems. His uncritical admiration for many contemporary poets vanished as he became interested in Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, already at this time, Goethe wrote a good deal, but he threw away nearly all of these works, except for the comedy Die Mitschuldigen. The restaurant Auerbachs Keller and its legend of Fausts 1525 barrel ride impressed him so much that Auerbachs Keller became the real place in his closet drama Faust Part One. As his studies did not progress, Goethe was forced to return to Frankfurt at the close of August 1768, Goethe became severely ill in Frankfurt. During the year and a half that followed, because of several relapses, during convalescence, Goethe was nursed by his mother and sister
34.
Friedrich Schiller
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Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, physician, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life, Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with the already famous and they frequently discussed issues concerning aesthetics, and Schiller encouraged Goethe to finish works he left as sketches. This relationship and these led to a period now referred to as Weimar Classicism. They also worked together on Xenien, a collection of satirical poems in which both Schiller and Goethe challenge opponents to their philosophical vision. Friedrich Schiller was born on 10 November 1759, in Marbach, Württemberg as the son of military doctor Johann Kaspar Schiller. Schiller grew up in a religious family and spent much of his youth studying the Bible. His father was away in the Seven Years War when Friedrich was born and he was named after king Frederick the Great, but he was called Fritz by nearly everyone. Kaspar Schiller was rarely home during the war, but he did manage to visit the family once in a while and his wife and children also visited him occasionally wherever he happened to be stationed. When the war ended in 1763, Schillers father became an officer and was stationed in Schwäbisch Gmünd. Due to the high cost of living—especially the rent—the family moved to nearby Lorch, although the family was happy in Lorch, Schillers father found his work unsatisfying. He sometimes took his son with him, in Lorch, Schiller received his primary education. The quality of the lessons was fairly bad, and Friedrich regularly cut class with his older sister, because his parents wanted Schiller to become a pastor, they had the pastor of the village instruct the boy in Latin and Greek. Pastor Moser was a teacher, and later Schiller named the cleric in his first play Die Räuber after him. As a boy, Schiller was excited by the idea of becoming a cleric and often put on black robes, in 1766, the family left Lorch for the Duke of Württembergs principal residence, Ludwigsburg. Schillers father had not been paid for three years, and the family had been living on their savings but could no longer afford to do so, so Kaspar Schiller took an assignment to the garrison in Ludwigsburg. There the Schiller boy came to the attention of Karl Eugen and he entered the Karlsschule Stuttgart, in 1773, where he eventually studied medicine. During most of his life, he suffered from illnesses that he tried to cure himself. While at the Karlsschule, Schiller read Rousseau and Goethe and discussed Classical ideals with his classmates, the plays critique of social corruption and its affirmation of proto-revolutionary republican ideals astounded its original audience
35.
Philipp Scheidemann
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Philipp Heinrich Scheidemann was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. On 9 November 1918, in the midst of the German Revolution of 1918–1919, later, beginning in the early part of the following year, he became the second head of government of the Weimar Republic, acting in this post for 127 days. Philipp Scheidemann was born in Kassel on 26 July 1865, the son of Friedrich Scheidemann an upholsterer, Scheidemann attended elementary and secondary schools between 1871 and 1879. After the death of his father, the fell into poverty. In 1879-83, Scheidemann was apprenticed as a printer, in 1883, he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany and became a union member. At the time, the German Anti-Socialist Laws were still in force, until 1895, Scheidemann worked as a printer and proofreader. Scheidemann married in 1889 at Kassel and they had three daughters, Lina, Liese and Hedwig. From 1895 to 1903, he worked as an editor at social democratic newspapers at Gießen, Nuremberg, Offenbach, in the German federal election of 1903, Scheidemann was elected from the SPD to the German Reichstag for a constituency in Solingen, he retained this seat until 1918. In 1906, he became a member of the city council of Kassel, a position he held until 1911. After the German federal election of 1912, Scheidemann was the first social democrat to become 1st Vice-President of the Reichstag, when August Bebel, long-time leader of the SPD, died in 1913, Scheidemann and Hugo Haase became joint chairmen of the SPD parliamentary group. His oratory skills, pragmatism, sense of humour and middle-class manners won him appreciation beyond his own party, although he voted for the Imperial war loans in 1914 at the start of World War I, Scheidemann later argued for a Verständigungsfrieden without annexations or reparation demands. Scheidemann tried to mediate between the left and right wings of his party, but could not prevent the eventual split, in 1917, the SPD split on the issue of continued funding for the war effort and Scheidemann became chairman of the Majority SPD, alongside Friedrich Ebert. In January 1918, during the January strike, he was a member of the Executive Council and he joined the new government of Prince Maximilian of Baden in October 1918 as Staatssekretär without portfolio. This was the first time members of the SPD had served in the Imperial government, Scheidemann was chosen for the position due to his popularity. However, he and SPD leader Friedrich Ebert both still hoped to retain the monarchy in face of the revolution, Maximilian von Baden preferred a younger son of Wilhelm II to succeed to the throne. Around noon, Friedrich Ebert arrived at the Imperial chancellery and demanded that the authority to govern be handed over to him, Maximilian von Baden resigned and unconstitutionally designated Ebert his successor as Imperial chancellor and Minister-President of Prussia. All of the Secretaries of State, including Scheidemann, remained in office, Ebert issued a proclamation asking the masses on the streets to remain quiet and to go home. Ebert and Scheidemann then went to the Reichstag building for lunch, a huge crowd assembled outside, and there were calls for a speech
36.
Scheidemann cabinet
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The Scheidemann cabinet was the first democratically elected Reichsregierung of the German Reich. It took office on 13 February 1919, although the Weimar Constitution was not in force yet, it is generally counted as the first government of the Weimar Republic. It was based on the Weimar Coalition of centre-left parties, Ministerpräsident Philipp Scheidemann resigned in protest against the Treaty of Versailles on 20 June 1919. His cabinet was followed by the government of Gustav Bauer, following the collapse of the German Empire and the German Revolution of 1918-19, on 19 January 1919 the Germans had voted in elections for the Nationalversammlung. The January elections returned a smaller than expected share of the vote for the socialists, after its inaugural session on 6 February it passed a provisional constitution known as Gesetz über die vorläufige Reichsgewalt. Friedrich Ebert, chairman of the Council of the Peoples Deputies, was elected on 11 February as temporary Reichspräsident and that same day, Ebert asked his fellow Volksbeauftragten Philipp Scheidemann to form the new government, referred to in the law as Reichsministerium. In fact, at point, coalition negotiations had been going on for a while. The SPD was talking to the DDP and the Zentrum, although the SPD did approach the USPD, Ebert reportedly said that he had only conducted talks with the extreme left so that they would bear the responsibility for the talks failure. For their part, the DDP would not have accepted a coalition with the USPD, the negotiations were difficult and dragged on. In particular, the presidency of the National Assembly was hotly contested, finally, it was agreed that Eduard David who had been the initial president would resign, making way for the former president of the Reichstag, Constantin Fehrenbach. Apart from Ebert himself–who had said that he preferred the more representative office of head of state–Scheidemann had been the favourite to become head of government. With the exception of Ebert all the other Volksbeauftragen joined the new cabinet, Gustav Noske had previously been in charge of Army and Navy affairs, and he became Defence Minister. Otto Landsberg, the thinker on law on the Council became Minister of Justice. Rudolf Wissell had been in charge of affairs and kept that portfolio. Gustav Bauer had been a member of the Cabinet Baden in charge of the newly formed Labour Ministry, a position he had continued to hold through the revolution. Robert Schmidt and Eduard David, with no portfolio but charged with looking at the question of what responsibility Germany had in bringing about the Great War, against seven members from the SPD there were three from the DDP and three from the Zentrum. Schiffer had been a member of the National Liberal Party and served as Secretary of State for the Treasury in the Empire but had joined the DDP after the November revolution. Erzberger had been a member of the Cabinet Baden, had negotiated the Armistice in November 1918, in the coalition talks, Ulrich Graf von Brockdorff-Rantzau had been treated as a member of the DDP although he did not belong to the party
37.
Constantin Fehrenbach
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Constantin Fehrenbach, sometimes Konstantin Fehrenbach, was a German Catholic politician who was one of the major leaders of the Centre Party or Zentrum. He served as President of the Reichstag in 1918, and then as President of the Weimar National Assembly from 1919 to 1920, in June 1920, Fehrenbach became Chancellor of Germany. He resigned in May 1921 over the issue of war reparation payments to the Allies, Fehrenbach headed the Center Partys Reichstag fraction from 1923 until his death in 1926. From 1871 to 1878, Fehrenbach studied theology, then law at Freiburg im Breisgau and in 1882 began to practice law there, in 1879, Fehrenbach married Maria, née Hossner at Freiburg. In 1884, he started his career by becoming a member of the Freiburg city council. The next year, Fehrenbach became a member of the Landtag of Baden for the Catholic Zentrum, however, in 1887 he resigned his seat after disagreements with the leader of the party in Baden, Theodor Wacker. In 1895, Fehrenbach became Stadtrat in Freiburg and in 1896 Kreisabgeordneter, in 1901 he was reelected to the Landtag and remained a member until 1913. In 1903, he became a member of the Reichstag where his oratory skills were widely acclaimed. In 1917, Fehrenbach became the chairman of the Hauptausschuss of the Reichstag, in July 1918, Fehrenbach became the last president of the Imperial Reichstag. After the German Revolution of 1918-19, Fehrenbach once again became president of the parliament, in that office, he succeeded due to a talent for achieving compromise and a quiet and self-controlled nature. Within the Zentrum, he was a member of the right wing. In June 1920, Fehrenbach formed the first Weimar Republic cabinet without participation of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the SPD remained the largest party in the newly elected Reichstag, which succeeded the National Assembly. As Chancellor, Fehrenbach represented Germany at the Spa conference and the London Conference and he tried in vain to get the US government to work as a mediator. He resigned in May 1921, as the DVP had withdrawn its support for the foreign policy of trying to cooperate with the Allies on the issue of reparations. In particular, Fehrenbach had failed to get the Reichstags approval for a fixing of German reparation payments at 132 billion gold mark, although he officially resigned on 4 May, he remained in charge of the care-taker government until his replacement by Joseph Wirth on 10 May. In 1922, Fehrenbach became a judge on the Staatsgerichtshof, the guardian of the Weimar Constitution. In late 1923, Fehrenbach was elected head of the Zentrum fraction in the Reichstag and he remained in that office until his death in 1926. He also became vice-chairman of the Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus, Fehrenbach died on 26 March 1926 in Freiburg im Breisgau
38.
Treaty of Versailles
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The Treaty of Versailles was the most important of the peace treaties that brought World War I to an end. The Treaty ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers and it was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of World War I signed separate treaties, although the armistice, signed on 11 November 1918, ended the actual fighting, it took six months of Allied negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. The treaty was registered by the Secretariat of the League of Nations on 21 October 1919 and this article, Article 231, later became known as the War Guilt clause. The treaty forced Germany to disarm, make substantial territorial concessions, in 1921 the total cost of these reparations was assessed at 132 billion marks. On the other hand, prominent figures on the Allied side such as French Marshal Ferdinand Foch criticized the treaty for treating Germany too leniently, although it is often referred to as the Versailles Conference, only the actual signing of the treaty took place at the historic palace. Most of the negotiations were in Paris, with the Big Four meetings taking place generally at the Quai dOrsay, the First World War was fought across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Countries beyond the war zones were also affected by the disruption of trade, finance. In 1917, two revolutions occurred within the Russian Empire, which led to the collapse of the Imperial Government, the American war aim was to detach the war from nationalistic disputes and ambitions after the Bolshevik disclosure of secret treaties between the Allies. The existence of these treaties tended to discredit Allied claims that Germany was the power with aggressive ambitions. On 8 January 1918, United States President Woodrow Wilson issued a statement that became known as the Fourteen Points and this speech outlined a policy of free trade, open agreements, democracy and self-determination. After the Central Powers launched Operation Faustschlag on the Eastern Front and this treaty ended the war between Russia and the Central powers and annexed 1,300,000 square miles of territory and 62 million people. During the autumn of 1918, the Central Powers began to collapse, desertion rates within the German army began to increase, and civilian strikes drastically reduced war production. On the Western Front, the Allied forces launched the Hundred Days Offensive, sailors of the Imperial German Navy at Kiel mutinied, which prompted uprisings in Germany, which became known as the German Revolution. The German government tried to obtain a settlement based on the Fourteen Points. Following negotiations, the Allied powers and Germany signed an armistice, the terms of the armistice called for an immediate evacuation of German troops from occupied Belgium, France, and Luxembourg within fifteen days. In addition, it established that Allied forces would occupy the Rhineland, in late 1918, Allied troops entered Germany and began the occupation. Both the German Empire and Great Britain were dependent on imports of food and raw materials, primarily from the Americas, the Blockade of Germany was a naval operation conducted by the Allied Powers to stop the supply of raw materials and foodstuffs reaching the Central Powers
39.
Gustav Bauer
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Gustav Adolf Bauer was a German Social Democratic Party leader and Chancellor of Germany from 1919 to 1920. He served as head of government for a total of 219 days, prior to becoming head of government, Bauer had been Minister of Labour in the first democratically elected German cabinet. After his cabinet resigned in March 1920, Bauer served as vice-chancellor, Minister of Transportation, Bauer was born on 6 January 1870 in Darkehmen, near Königsberg in East Prussia as the son of bailiff Gustav Bauer and his wife Henriette. From 1876 to 1884, he attended the Volksschule in Königsberg, after 1884, he worked as a clerk and later head clerk for a lawyer at Königsberg. In 1895, he became president of the Verband der Büroangestellten and he also was editor of the publication Der Büroangestellte and in 1903 was named head of the Zentral-Arbeiter-Sekretariat der Freien Gewerkschaften in Berlin. In 1908, Bauer became second chairman of the Generalkommission der Gewerkschaften in Berlin, on 2 October 1911, Bauer married Hedwig Moch. In 1912, Bauer was elected to the Reichstag for the Social Democratic Party of Germany in a Breslau constituency, in October 1918, Bauer became Secretary of State at theReichsarbeitsamt in Max von Badens cabinet. Bauer remained in position throughout the revolution of 1918/19. After Max von Baden resigned in November 1918, Bauer continued to serve under Reichskanzler Friedrich Ebert and then under the Council of the Peoples Deputies, in January 1919, Bauer was elected to the National Assembly for Magdeburg. In February, he became Reichsarbeitsminister in Philipp Scheidemanns cabinet, after Scheidemann resigned in June 1919 to protest the Treaty of Versailles, Bauer succeeded him as Reichsministerpräsident, heading the Cabinet Bauer. When the Weimar Constitution came into force in August 1919, Bauer became Reichskanzler, the Allotment Garden and Small-Lease-Holding Ordinance of July 1919 provided legal protection for non-commercially used property such as workers’ gardens and “Schreber” gardens. In addition, maternity care was covered by a 25 mark payment and this law also entitled the wives and daughters of insured employees to certain types of support in connection with pregnancy. Following a similar decree issued in December 1918, an important decree was issued in support of Jugendpflege in November 1919, various improvements to unemployment benefits were also carried out during Bauers time as chancellor. A winter supplement was provided in October 1919, and certain modifications were carried out in January 1920, in addition, the maximum benefit for single males over the age of 21 was increased from three and a half to six marks in February 1920. A decree of October 1919, however, ordered all Reich unemployment relief funds to be withdrawn from those municipal authorities that went beyond the maximum scales. In the field of insurance, a decree of 28 June 1919 bestowed upon rural funds the same right of self-government that other funds had. An order of 27 October 1919 empowered the Reich Minister of Labour to encourage through grants, in December 1919, laws were passed that extended compulsory insurance against infirmity and old age to certain new classes of workpeople. The Betriebsrätegesetz of February 1920 established works councils at workplaces with 20 or more on the payroll as a means of improving lines of communication between labour and management, in March 1920, the Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch attempted to depose the government
40.
Matthias Erzberger
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Matthias Erzberger was a German publicist and politician, Reich Minister of Finance from 1919 to 1920. Prominent in the Catholic Centre Party, he spoke out against World War I from 1917 and he was assassinated for this act by the right-wing terrorist group Organisation Consul. He was born on 20 September 1875 in Buttenhausen in the Kingdom of Württemberg, the son of Josef Erzberger, a tailor and postman, in his early life he gained massive weight, which he lost in the course of thirty years. He attended the seminaries in Schwäbisch Hall and Bad Saulgau, where he graduated in 1894, while teaching, he also studied constitutional law and economics at Fribourg, Switzerland. Two years later, he became a journalist working for the Catholic Centre partys publication Deutsches Volksblatt in Stuttgart, Erzberger joined the Catholic Centre Party and was first elected to the German Reichstag in 1903 for Biberach. By virtue of unusually varied political activities, he took a position in the parliamentary party. He became a specialist in colonial policy and financial policy, contributing to the reforms of 1909. In 1912, Erzberger became a member of the Fraktionsführung, the leadership of the parliamentary party and he supported a significant military build-up in Germany in the years 1912-13. In 1900, he married Paula Eberhard, daughter of a businessman, like many of his party, he initially supported Germanys involvement in World War I and was carried along by a wave of nationalistic enthusiasm. In September 1914, he wrote a memorandum in which he laid out his view on Germanys war aims, advocating the annexation of Belgium and parts of Lorraine, among other territories. By this stage he was rapporteur to the Reichstags Military Affairs Committee, and he was in charge of foreign propaganda, especially relating to Catholic groups, and set up a system of information gathering using the resources of the Vatican and of the Freemasons. Erzberger was also involved in diplomatic missions, for example he worked with Bernhard von Bülow in a failed attempt to keep Italy from entering the war in 1915. He wrote letters to leading military authorities, later published, with extravagant plans for German annexations, seen as an opportunist, he was said to have no convictions, but only appetites. Erzberger contributed to bring about the fall of Bethmann-Hollweg in the summer of 1917, instead, Georg Michaelis, the nominee of Erich Ludendorff, whose position in the German Supreme Command made him the virtual dictator of Germany, became chancellor. By 1917, with the armies stalemated on both fronts, Erzberger changed his political stance and he became one of the leading opponents of unrestricted submarine warfare and in April 1917 met a Russian envoy in Stockholm to discuss peace terms. He elucidated his views on the war in a speech in the Reichstag on 6 July in which he called on the government to denounce territorial ambitions, the speech was remarkable at the time in that he carefully delineated the extent of German military weakness. Two weeks later, on 19 July, he put to the vote what he called a resolution that embodied all the points he had made in his speech. The resolution passed 212 to 126, and even received the support of Chancellor Michaelis, but the Chancellor had hamstrung the resolution by adding to his support the proviso as I interpret it, which he then used as an excuse to completely ignore its prescriptive power
41.
Allied occupation of the Rhineland
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The Allied occupation of the Rhineland took place following the armistice that brought the fighting of World War I to a close on 11 November 1918. The occupying armies consisted of American, Belgian, British and French forces, the terms of the armistice provided for the immediate evacuation of German troops from Belgium, France, and Luxembourg as well as Alsace-Lorraine within 15 days. French forces continued to occupy German territory in the Rhineland until the end of 1930, the British Army entered German territory on 3 December 1918. The British Army of the Rhine was established as the force in March 1919. Based at Cologne, they published The Cologne Post, the French Eighth Army and Tenth Army originally constituted the French forces involved in the occupation. On 21 October 1919, they were combined to form the French Army of the Rhine, in 1919 France stationed between 25,000 and 40,000 French colonial soldiers in the Rhineland. The events resulted in a campaign by the German right-wing press. Furthermore, some German women married African soldiers from the occupying forces, many Germans were killed during civil disobedience protests. E. g. against dismissal of German officials, the American forces originally provided around 240,000 men in nine veteran divisions, nearly a third of the total occupying force. General John Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force on the Western Front, established the Third Army for the purpose, Third Army was assigned to occupy the northern sector of the Coblenz bridgehead. By July 1919, Third Army was disbanded, having been reduced to about 8,400 men, on 24 January 1923, the US Army withdrew from the occupation of the Rhine, vacating the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, which was promptly occupied by the French. Occupation of the Ruhr Free State Bottleneck Rhenish Republic Edmonds, J. E, the Occupation of the Rhineland 1918–29. The Watch on the Rhine, The Military Occupation of the Rhineland, Black Shame – the campaign against racial degeneration and female degradation in interwar Europe. The French Occupation of the Rhineland, 1918–1930 Map of Europe during the Occupation of the Rhineland at omniatlas. com
