Historical context FF

• Princely States (26) belonging to Germany


  Before 1871
• Germany wins Franco-Prussian War

  1870
• United Empire (country) under Wilhelm I and Otto von Bismark

  1871
• WW1


  1914 - 1918
• Rationing


  1915
• Turnip Winter


  1916-17
• 19% of German population served in some form during the war
• Russian revolution led by Lenin


  November 1917
• Weimar Republic and Parliamentary Democracy

  1918
• Political chaos and street fighting, especially Munich and Berlin


  October 1918 - August 1919
• German Republic proclaimed by first Prime Minister Philipp Schneidemann.

  Karl Liebknecht announces a Communist State.

  November 1918 (9th November)
• The November Revolution


  November 1918 - Spring 1919
• New Republic Government signs armistice (peace)

  11 November 1918
• Versailles treaty (blame) signed by SPD government (and Ebert)

  28 June 1919
• Huge economic debt
• War guilt clause
• Weimar Constitution signed


  August 1919
• Kapp Putsch - a coup to overthrow parliamentary democracy to establish a right-wing, autocratic government (failed)


  March 1920
• Leftist uprisings


  March 1921
• French and Belguim troops enter the Ruhr (Germany's main industrial area). Passive Resistance.


  1923
• Leftist uprisings


  October 1923
• Munich Beer Hall Putsch. Coup led by Hitler and the DAP party. Failed.


  November 1923
• Golden period


  1924-1929
• America bail out Germany from hyperinflation
• Germany retrade internationally
• American modes of production
• Jazz, mass culture, the charleston, ready to wear clothing
• The Ruhr opens again for business, with workers working 12 hour days to make up for lost production.


  1924
• Paul von Hindenburg becomes President.

  1925
• Censorship instated.


  1926
• Unemployment benefit given to all (not based on need)

  1927
• Great depression


  1929
• NSDAP become more popular. 18% of the vote. Rising unemployment, no money for welfare, black markets rocket.


  September 1930
• Von Hindenburg rules mostly by emergency decree. 6,000,000 people unemployed. Lots of fighting.


  1932
• Hilter becomes chancellor.


  January 1933
• Berlin olympics.


  1936
• Frankfurt School - 1923, Frankfurt


  • Aim of developing Marxist studies in Germany
  • Many of its figures were well known Jewish intellectuals
  • Reflected on Weimer culture and sociology primarily in exile in 30s and 40s
  • Strong Marxist perspective - what went wrong. Pitches Hitler's rise as inevitable due to German culture
  • People included: Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno
• Parties


  • SPD - Social Democratic Party - centre to left
  • KPD - German Communist Party - left wing
  • NSDAP - National Socialist Party - right wing
  • DDP - German Democratic Party - social liberal party
  • Zentrum - Catholic centre party (more right)
  • DVP - German People's Party - right wing
• Article 48 - President (not chancellor) can rule on his own by emergency decree
• Reichstag - Parliament