The Citizen and the State of Modern
Germany
Imperial Germany to Unification
Presented by:
Beth Lampp
Power Point by:
Michael Podgers
Research by:
Jamie Lockwood-Rachel Davis-Zachary Petersen-Andre Tan
Imperial Germany, 1871-1918
•
Proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors at
Versailles, January 18th, 1871
• This was the first approximation to
a state in the history of Germany
• Composed mostly of Germanspeaking people
•The nation state’s constitution consisted of
a contract between the princes of previously
established German states
•It did not establish any kind of list for
human rights, yet the system was quite
democratic
•The Bundesrat was a committee of
the partially sovereign states’
governments (This was not an elected
body)
•Many policies were left to the
discretion of the individual states
Imperial Berlin and the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles
Imperial Germany, 1871-1918
•
Prussia dominated the federation
• Prussia held three-fifths of the
empire’s population
• Prussia’s budget exceeded that of
the Imperial budget.
• The Prussian king was the
Deutscher Kaiser
• Prime minister was almost
consistently the chancellor
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First chancellor was Otto von
Bismarck (1871-1890)
The armies of the various states
were under the command of the
Kaiser
• This meant that Prussia had a
military monopoly within the
federation
Flag of Imperial Germany, Otto von Bismarck
Imperial Germany, 1871-1918
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In the effort to maintain privileges of the
existing states, the powers of the Reichstag
diminished.
•
Federalism did not work well with the
supremacy of the parliament.
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While the chancellor could be required to explain
his motives to the Reichstag, he could not be
overthrown in any way.
The federal structure of the Empire operated at the
expense of the one democratic feature of its
constitution (the Reichstag).
Rights of the individual were still protected
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Judges and bureaucrats had privileges and the
right to discretion
While censorship of the press was in existence,
laws were quite liberal
This principle was still imperfect
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While an 1869 law declared religious equality,
people were still discriminated against in their
search for employment.
Women had no say in politics and their property
rights were limited (their educational opportunities
did improve and in 1914, they were moving towards
careers.)
Anti-socialist law (1878-1890). Police had unlimited
powers of search and socialist meetings were
banned.
The Kulturkampf occurred. This was a series of laws
that imposed compulsory civil marriage, dissolved all
religious orders, and reduced the right of churches
to self-govern
Imperial Germany, 1871-1918
•
1912—elections to the Reichstag became major
political events
•
1871—barely half of the electorate voted.
•
1912—84.5% voted.
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Political parties became nation-wide
organizations and were professionally staffed
• Social Democrats developed in 1890, they
had a third of the votes and became the
largest party.
•
This made the Reichstag harder to control
• A contrast between a left-leaning public
and the conservatism the North German
states brought the nation state to the brink
of a crisis
• World war worsened these conflicts
•
The end of the Imperial constitution came in
September of 1918 as Germany faced military
collapse.
•
The constitution was amended to subject the
military to the decision of the chancellor.
•
Germany became a parliamentary monarchy.
Revolution and the Weimar
Republic, 1918-1933
•1919 - 1923 were identified as the ‘years of crisis’
•1923 - 1929: Goldene Zwanziger (Golden Twenties)
•1930 - 1933: Decline
•Revolution: alienated those who felt the changes went too far,
and freeing ‘those for whom they do not go far enough’
•How, What and Why of the revolution?
•Fall of monarchy in November 1918
•Germans were ashamed of loss in WW I, devastated by the
Treaty of Versailles & its reparation payments
•Reformists take over, ruling SPD accused of betraying the ideals
of workers’ movement by preventing a communist revolution
•With abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II, SPD leader
Friedrich Ebert served as first President of Germany/
Provisional government established
•Weimar Coalition: SPD, Deutsche Demokratische Partei,
and Catholic Zentrum Partei
•One of three options for democracy:
•Parliamentary (chosen)
•Fearof provisional government not able
to maintain public order against the threat
from the revolutionary Left
•Revolutionary (‘all power to the
councils’)
Hall of Mirrors, Versailles and Weimar, Germany
Revolution and the Weimar
Republic, 1918-1933
•This parliamentary republic established in 1919 is
known as the Weimar Republic
•Political violence between left-wing and right-wing
groups
•Hyperinflation occurred in the 1920s
•The Weimarer Verfassung comprises:
•Section 1: Germany as republic, region
encompassing Länder, establishment of generallyrecognized principles of international law
•Section 2 describes the national parliament
(Reichstag) in Berlin, representatives elected by
German people Reichstag could be dissolved by Reich
president
•Section 3: Reich president represents entire
German nation
•Section 4: Reichsrat (State Council) being means by
which Länder could participate in the making of
legislation at national level.
•Section 7 establishes the justice system, and judicial
independence
•Weimar Republic is a decentralized unitary
state not a federation
•Zweiter Hauptteil comprises:
•Section 1: The Individual - individual rights of
Germans, every German was equal before the
law
•Flaws of the Weimar Constitution:
•Allocation of presidential powers: allowance
of president to dismiss chancellor even when
the chancellor retained the confidence of the
Reichstag and similarly the appointment of a
non-supported one
•Article 48: Notverordnung (emergency decree)provision gave the president broad powers to suspend
civil liberties (Adolf Hitler took advantage of this)
Revolution and the Weimar
Republic, 1918-1933
•
Decline of Weimar Republic
• Latent weakness brought about by the
1929 Depression
• Weimar Coalition failed to gain
majorities at any of the Reichstag
elections from 1920 onwards
• Paul von Hindenburg was questionably
‘loyal’ to the democratic Republic
• Dependence on Länder to preserve
stability
• 1930 onwards Germany was ruled
under emergency powers of Article 48
• Hindenburg appointed Franz von Papen
as Reichskanzler, who toppled the SPD
minority administration of Prussia
• ‘Republic with not enough republicans’
• Splinter parties and anti-Republican
sentiment caused Coalition
governments to be unstable and shortlived; Communist Party & Nazi Party
grew steadily/exponentially
the ‘Third Reich’, 1933-1945
•Election 1932—A coalition government formed with Hindenburg
as President and Adolf Hitler as Chancellor
•A majority of the cabinet was non-Nazi
•Hitler made a Nazi-majority cabinet
•Fifty thousand SA & SS members were recruited
•New elections yielded a 52% win by the Nazi party
•February 27, 1933—Blamed on communist by the Nazi
government
•With only SPD opposition full emergency powers were granted to
Hitler’s government
•Between Jan. & March 1933 sixty-nine politically motivated murders
occurred
•Up to 30,000 political opponents were incarcerated
•Boycott of Jewish owned businesses begin in April
•Book burnings
•Destruction of “un-German” culture
•Abolition of trade unions
•National Socialists sole political party
•August 2, 1933—Hindenburg dies and Hitler combines the office
of the President and Chancellor
•The German constitution was not once violated by Hitler at this time
•The National Socialists were able to easily gain the confidence and support of
Germans because of the vulnerable state of the country
•Job creation slashed the number of un-employed from over 6 million to less
than a half million
•Nationalist propaganda helped to unify the German people
the ‘Third Reich’, 1933-1945
•Fear was a huge part of the Nazi’s success
•The Nuremburg Laws, 1935
•November 9, 1935—Kristallnacht
•Mass destruction of Jewish homes, synagogues
and businesses
•About 25,000 Jews deported
•Jews forced to wear yellow Star of David to
indentify them
•War World II in Europe begins on September 1,
1939 when Nazi Germany invades Poland…the
Soviets later invaded from the East
•Nazi Germany later invades the Low Countries,
Denmark, Finland and Norway, all of Eastern &
Southern Europe into Russia & Greece, France
and North Africa from Egypt to Morocco
•The Nazis would establish extermination and
labor camps across Europe and especially in
southern and eastern Poland
•Jews, Homosexuals, Gypsies, communists and
even growing numbers of Poles and Russians
were sent to die in gas chambers or working
•Over 150,00 victims (the incurably mentally and
physically ill) died by euthanasia until the practice
stopped due to Catholic protests
the ‘Third Reich’, 1933-1945
•After a failed invasion of Russia and the US, UK,
Canadian and Allied landings in Normandy, Italy and
N. Africa the successful Nazi campaign across
Europe began to reverse
•June 6, 1944—the Anglo-American Allied powers land
on the beaches of Normandy in France
•On June 20, 1944 a group of Nazi-German military
officers and highly placed civilians attempted to
assassinate Hitler—a clear sign of dissent within the
hierarchy of Nazi German government and military
•Germany fell in the spring of 1945
•Soviet and Western Allied troops meet on April 25,
1945 at the Elbe
•Germany surrendered in Europe on May 7, 1945 (known
as Victory in Europe or V-E Day
•The end of WWII marked a major turning point in the
history of the German people
•The German people were morally, economically, socially
and physically devastated like never before
•They bore the scars of systematic destruction across
Europe done in their names
•The ghost of the Holocaust would haunt the German
people
•Over 11 million people in Europe killed in
Holocaust alone
•6 million Jews
•2-3 million Soviet POWs
•2 million ethic Poles
•1 million or more Romani
•10000 or more Homosexuals
the German States and Unification,
1945-1989
•Mass destruction of German political, social, economic
systems and infrastructure required almost total
reconstruction
•German people became quite subservient to
whatever existing power structure there was
•There was a considerable lack of political interest
among Germans at the time
•The creation of a new political required a lot of
changes to put Germany on the path to becoming a
real Republic
•Germany was divided into four section administered
by one of each of the Allied powers (USA, UK, USSR
and France)
•Länder established by occupying Allied powers are
essentially unchanged today
•By 1949 two German states with reasonable powers
of self government existed
•Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR) comprised
of the Soviet zone in the East
•Bundesrepublik Deutschland (BRD) comprised of the
western Allied zones in the west and south
the German States and Unification,
1945-1989
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By 1947 the German Länder were
holding elections again

Many old parties were re-emerging
under new titles
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The “Basic Laws” was written as a
constitution for the BRD (it was
written anticipation an eventual reunification)
◦
The BRD government was established in
Bonn, the DDR established in East Berlin

By the mid 1950s a stable 5 party
republic was fully functioning in the
BRD

Preferring Socialism over Capitalism
as a means of preventing future
Fascisms a fully functional Soviet
republic existed in the DDR
Checkpoint in Berlin, the Border markings in united Germany, a
view of Bonn (former capital of the BRD (West Germany)
the German States and Unification,
1945-1989
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During the Cold War the BRD came of
age and soon became a world economic
and political leader and expanded human,
political and economic rights within its
borders with vigor
• Political changes occurred mostly by
amendment
• Constitutional Court
• System for the election of Chancellor and
President
• Growth in German civic life and political
participation
• Expansion of civil liberties to women and
homosexuals
• Increased political opportunities
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DDR was a one party Soviet republic
where a powerful and watchful
government existed
• Most East Germans retreated into privacy
in response to the lack of political and
social liberties
East Berlin (top) West Berlin (Bottom)
the German States and Unification,
1945-1989
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By the end of the 1980s there was
increasing unrest in the DDR
By October protests were on the rise
The opening of the Hungarian border with
Austria unleashed a swell of East Germans
in the BRD
By November elections and political
concessions lead to the easing of travel
restrictions to/from the DDR
On the night of November 9, 1989 the
border between the DDR and BRD was
opened and the Berlin Wall was torn down
On October 3, 1990 the political unification
of Germany occurred
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The formal title of the country became the
Bundersrepublik Deutschland and the capital was
moved to Berlin
Political union was achieved peacefully and
smoothly and resulted in the creation of a
functional federal republic
Gaps still exist between former East
Germans and West Germans