WWI Summary Individuals: • Austria: • Franz Ferdinand • Archduke of Austria. His assassination by a Serbian sparked WWI • Britain: • Lloyd George • Prime Minister of Britain • Haig • Field Marshal • France: • Clemenceau • President of France • Poincare • President of France • Foch • Field Marshal • US: • Woodrow Wilson • President of the US • Germany: • Kaiser Wilhelm II • Prince von Barden • As Kaiser Wilhelm II lost his power, Barden temporarily assumed leadership and played a major role in arranging the armistice • Von Hindenburg • Commander of the German army • Ludendorff • A general who played a large role in assisting Hindenburg’s command of the German army Dates: • 28th July 1914 – Franz Ferdinand assassinated – official start of WWI • 1914 – Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) in Britain • 9-12 September 1914 – Battle of the Marne • February – November 1916 – Battle of Verdun • July – November 1916 – Somme Offensive • 1916 – Hindenburg Programme in Germany • 1916 – Conscription introduced for first time in Britain’s history • 1916 – Russia withdraw from the war • 1916 National Service Law in Germany • 1916-17 – turnip winter in Germany • July – November 1917 – Battle of Passchendaele • 1917 – US declares war on Germany • 1917 – ‘Peace Note’ submitted by Pope Benedict XV • 1918 – rationing in Britain • 1918 – Allied forces unified under Field Marshal Foch • 1918 – US becomes a factor on the Western Front • March 1918 –Spring Offensive • 11th November 1918 – official end of WWI • 1919 – Treaty of Versailles signed by Germany Sources: • Recruitment in Britain, moral recruitment, propaganda, poster: “Daddy, what did YOU do in the great war?” (Britain, 1915) • Enthusiasm, patriotism, Britain, poem: ‘The Volunteer’ (Asquith, 1915) • Horrors of war, war weariness of soldier, poem: ‘The rank stench of those bodies haunts me still’ (Sassoon, 1916) Germany 1918-1939 Dates: • 28th July 1914 • WWI begins • 1917 • Bolshevik revolution • 1918 • 11th November 1918: WWI ends • Ebert-Groener Pact • 1919 • Weimar Republic established (1919-1933) • Spartacist uprising • Hitler joins the DAP • First Reichstag election – strong support for democratic parties • 1920 • Kapp Pusch • DAP publishes its ’25 Point Programme’ • 1921 • Hyperinflation of the Mark begins (1921-1924) • Reichstag election – drastic fall in seats for the SPD and democratic parties • 1923 • Beer Hall Putsch • Invasion of the Ruhr (1923-1925) • 1924 • Hyperinflation ends (1921-1924) • Golden Era begins (1924-1929) • Dawes Plan • Stresemann as foreign minister (1924-1929) • Hitler is in jail for 9 months • 1925 • The Invasion of the Ruhr ends (1923-1925) • Locarno Agreement • Mein Kampf is published • 1926 • Germany enters the League of Nations • 1928 • Reichstag election – discontinuation of trend of increasing support for antidemocratic parties. This is the only election in which this occurred • 1929 • Stresemann dies a sudden premature death • 1930 • The Great Depression strikes (1930-1940) • Reichstag election – recommencement of trend of increasing support for antidemocratic parties • 1932 • July 1932 Reichstag elections – NSDAP gains 123 seats. More than doubles their representation in the Reichstag. Now holds the majority of seats • November 1932 Reichstag elections – NSDAP loses 34 seats • 1933 • Reichstag Fire • Reichstag Fire Decree • Potsdam ceremony • Enabling Act • Law for the Coordination of the States within the Reich • Trade unions consolidated into the German Labour Front • Law against the Establishment of Parties • Concordat with the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church • Reich Chamber of Culture formed • Reichstag elections – Nazis gain 100% of the seats in the Reichstag • Germany withdrew from the League of nations • 1934 • The Night of the Long Knives • The army swears an oath of loyalty to Hitler • Hindenburg dies • Hitler assumes the position of President, combining it with his position as Chancellor into the new position of ‘Fuhrer’ • 1935 • Nuremberg Laws • Anglo-German Naval Agreement • 1936 • The Four Year Plan of Hjalmar Schacht Minister of Economics • Remilitarisation of the Rhineland • 1938 • Kristallnacht • Anschluss • Munich Conference • 1939 • Germany annexes the rest of Czechoslovakia • Soviet-German non-aggression pact • 1st September 1939 – outbreak of WWII as Germany invades Poland Quotes: • Weimar Constitution - “the most liberal and democratic document of its kind the twentieth century had seen” (Shirer) • Proportional representation: “resulted in the multiplication of splinter parties which eventually made a stable majority in the Reichstag impossible” (Shirer) • Between 1919 and 1933 there were 15 chancellors and 9 general elections • Article 48: “even before the advent of Hitler, brought an end to democratic parliamentary government” (Shirer) • Weimar Republic – “It was unloved and undefended by its servants” (Evans) • “we may arm ourselves with the weapons of democracy from its own arsenal” (Goebbels) • The army: “state within a state” (Shirer) • Ebert-Groener pact: “the cart does not slide further to the left” (Groener) • “I hate the revolution like a sin” (Ebert) • Kapp Putsch: Von Seekt refused to fight against “troops that have fought side by side against a common enemy” (Seekt) • Dolchstosslegende – Ludendorff purportedly “leapt upon the phrase like a dog on a bone” (Pares and Taylor) • Treaty of Versailles: “A ‘no’ would have been little more than a brief postponement of a ‘yes’” (Bauer) • A “Carthaginian Peace” (Keynes) • “diktat” (Hitler) • Mittlestand – “These were the people who later turned to Adolf Hitler as the messiah to lead them out of financial chaos” (Snyder) • "Germany is in fact dancing on a volcano” (Stresemann) • “By pre-1914 or post-1945 standards, Weimer politics were highly unstable” (Burleigh) • Inflation of the Mark: around 300 billion percent • Great Depression: unemployment neared 6 million • “A rainbow party of the discontented” (Evans) • Propaganda depicted “Hitler as both [a] charismatic superman and [a] man of the people” (Welch) • “Hitler’s success owed much to luck and even more to the bad judgement of his political opponents” (Bullock) • “Hitler did not seize power; he was jobbed into office by backstairs intrigue” (Bullock) • Von Schleicher described Von Papen as “a hat without a head” (Schleicher) • Hindenburg called Hitler “the Bohemian corporal” (Hindenburg) • Schleicher: “If they did not exist we would certainly have to invent them” (Schleicher) • “The disunity on the left” (Stackleberg) • “facade of legality” (Bracher) • “religious conversion” (Ludecke) • “the Aryan… alone was the founder of all higher humanity” (Hitler, Mein Kampf, 1925) • “the death of the weaker implies the life of the stronger” (Hitler, Mein Kampf, 1925) • The Weimer Republic: “the greatest miscarriage of the twentieth century” (Hitler, Mein Kampf, 1925) • “the woman’s… world is… her home” (Hitler, Mein Kampf, 1925) • "The mission of women, is to be beautiful and bring children into the world” (Goebbels) • “Only a member of the race can be a citizen… no Jew can be a member of the race” (25 Point Programme, 1918) • “We demand freedom of religion… so long as they [the churches] do not… oppose the moral senses of the Germanic race” (25 Point Programme, 1918) • The 25 Point Programme: “a hodgepodge, a catchall” (Shirer) • “If this Communist spirit got hold of Europe… it would be all aflame like this building.” (Hitler, 1933) • The Reichstag: “the most highly paid male chorus in the world” (Greenwood) • “Adolf is a swine… I’m the nucleus of the new army, don’t you see that?” (Rohm, 1934) • “The price paid for his elevation to supreme power was paltry” (Shirer) • “if anyone raises his hand to strike the state, then certain death is his lot” (Hitler, 1934) • The army swore and oath of “unconditional obedience” (Kershaw) to Hitler himself • The Day of Postdam – “the solemn handclasp… uniting the new Germany with the old’ (Shirer) • “With technology… a dictator can be almost as omnipresent as God” (Aldous Huxley) • “If you can capture the minds of young children… you have complete control” (Behrendt) • Structuralist: • “weak dictator” (Mommsen) • “without any clear aims” (Mommsen) • Intentionalist: • “fundamental consistency in Hitler’s ideas” (Trevor-Roper) • “a paternalistic and surveillance state” (Schroeder) • Opportunist + pluralist: “a man who exploited events far more than he followed a concise plan” (Taylor) • Determinist: • “the Second World War must be understood primarily as a reaction to the First World War” (Kershaw) • “Nazism and the Third Reich, in fact, were but a logical continuation of German history” (Shirer) • “Foreign policy was the Fuhrer’s very own realm” (Goring) • Hitler justifies acquiring land in Czechoslovakia: “preserve their racial identity” (Hitler, 1939) Dates: Date Event 1902 • The birth of Helene Riefenstahl 1919 • Helene is sent to the Lohmann School in Thale • Helene completes her boarding school education and enrols in the Jutta Klamt 1921 Dance School • Helene has her first romance with the Olympic tennis player Otto Froitzheim whom 1922 she methodically decided would deflower her • Helene injures her knee when dancing in Prague and this ends her dancing career 1924 after less than a year • Helene acted in her first film, the documentary ‘Ways to Strength and Beauty’ 1925 (1925) • ‘The Holy Mountain written in three days and three nights for Leni Riefenstahl’ 1926- (1926) by Arnold Fanck is released 1933 • Arnold Fanck wrote another 5 bergfilms in which Helene had the lead role • Helene