History of Germany

The Germans detested the Communists, even the Communists in their own country. Hitler killed off many of them. He attacked the USSR because they had resources he needed and he hated communism.

Britain and France permitted Germany to violate the Treay of Versailles by rearming and by putting troops into the Rheinland. Then they allowed Germany to take over Czheckoslovakia and Austria. At each stage of these aggressions it was hoped that Hitler would be appeased and not want to go any further. he always said, "This is my last territorial demand." But it was never true. he always wanted more. Michael Montagne Firstly, remember this is a contentious issue. Although popular opinion has turned "appeasement" into a word for cowardice, there were strong reasons (however disastrous the consequences )for pursuing it at the time. Appeasement refers to reducing your enemies through negotation. Arguably the biggest appeasement failure before 1939 was over Italy's attack on Abyssinia 1935-36(Ethiopia today). Despite the fact that Mussolini was a fascist, he was as alarmed by German rearmament as GB and France; he was therefore a potential ally against Hitler. However, GB and France, via the League of Nations, imposed sanctions on Italy for her actions. The sanctions were largely ineffective and this is why historians have cited this as an example of appeasement. It can be considered an "appeasement failure" because it succeeded in alienating the Italians, who increasingly saw the British and the French as weak. By October 1936 Italy had effectively been drawn into an ever closer alliance with Germany; therefore the British/French policy had increased, rather than decreased the threat that they faced. Many would of course argue that the greatest failure was Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler over his claim to the Sudenten territory in Czechoslovakia. Hitler was effectively handed this key strip of land ( which contained 3-3.5 million German speakers) with the promise that this would be the last of Germany's territorial claims. This was the infamous Munich Agreement. Infamous, because within 6 months, Hitler had seized the rest of Czechoslovakia. However, some have argued that Chamberlain had no choice. The issue brough Europe within an inch of war and due to faulty intelligence about the strength of the German Luftwaffe, Chamberlain had been told that Britain was ill prepared for war at this time. What many fail to realise is that on returning from Munich, the British government began to make more earnest preparations for the war that of course did come in 1939. Therefore, although appeasement was far from our "finest hour" it can be seen as a pragmatic tactic which delayed war for a year - giving the British and the French more time to prepare for the conflict which they realised was looming

A frequently quoted figure is 11 million dead overall, of whom 6 million were Jews.

Most of those who were prisoners of war were sent home after the war, though in many cases not immediately. The USSR kept some German prisoners till 1955.

The German Republic of 1919-1933 is nicknamed the Weimar Republic.

Germany's hyper-inflaton was caused by Germany printing extra money that was worthless :)

^Sounds like the Unites States.

king = König

to limit the power of the Russian empire in the balkans -----nova net

$ A1 Don $

The party's rise to power was rapid. Before the economic depression struck, the Nazis were practically unknown, winning only 3 percent of the vote to the Reichstag (German parliament) in elections in 1924. In the 1932 elections, the Nazis won 33 percent of the votes, more than any other party. In January 1933 Hitler was appointed chancellor, the head of the German government, and many Germans believed that they had found a savior for their nation

It was a way of expressing hatred for books that Hitler and the Nazis thought were 'un-German'. The book-burning in May 1933 was organized by Goebbels and was done amid maximum melodrama. Long before anyone even thought of the Nazis the poet Heinrich Heine said, 'Where they burn books, they end up burning people'.

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The Book Burning rallies were also used to control the intellect of the Nazi followers so that they didn't know any other knowledge except what they deemed necessary. This led them to be able to control what their followers thought about the world, and more importantly, how Hitler wanted them to think during World War 2

Germany was a one-party state when the Nuremberg Laws were passed (1935). Only Nazi party nominees were allowed to stand for election. The Nuremberg Laws were not put to the vote. They were read out, the Nazi Reichstag cheered wildly and that was that. 'Passed by acclaim' was the expression used.

east Germany couldn't get to the freedom of the west because of the Berlin wall

master cheif

Uhm...I think by fighting back real hard...

It wasn't only the Turkish soldiers that won, everyon Turk that wanted to fight for his/her country did. That's how they won at gallipolli. Probably couldn't have done it if it weren't for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who led the fight of the Turks against various European armies.

They were fed a piece of bread and got some coffee without any sugar or milk. They were treated terribly, like they were not even human. Some of them didn't even like the food so many died of starvation only after a few days at the concentration camps.

Hitler was Sentenced on April 1 1924 for High Treason and was released in December of the same year

Germany was split into 4 segments, but 3 (French, British, and American) were combined into the country pf West Germany. The Russian section was made into East Germany. Japan was completely occupied by the US, other allied countries played a smaller role in Japan. Russia was specifically excluded from any occupation of Japan because of American perception of the Russians as the 'new enemy' at the end of WW2. Neither was allowed to have a significant military after WW2, so the US took the idiotic role of protector of both of them.

During World War I, he was a general who commanded the German Army, initially in the war against Russia. After much success there, he was made the overall commander of all German forces, and by the end of the war, he was so powerful that he was the virtual dictator of Germany.

After the war, he eventually became President of Germany. In Germany, the President is a lot like the Queen of England- technically has a lot of power, but the reality is that they don't really use it... and just like the Prime Minister in England, the German Chancellor is normally the one who actually runs the government. But Germany's chancellors in the 1920's-1930's had problems getting anything done because of their crazy election system and numerous conflicting political parties, so Hindenburg was forced to use his Presidential powers to force things to get done.

Hindenburg was a key player in the rise of the Nazis in the early 1930's. Hitler ran for President in 1932 and was badly defeated by Hindenburg, who, despite being a very old man at that point (in his mid 80's), was still a popular war hero. Hindenburg didn't like Hitler, but was forced by political machinations to make Hitler the Chancellor in 1933. For the first year or so of Hitler's reign as Chancellor, Hindenburg, as President and popular war hero, was the only thing stopping Hitler from taking total control. If there was a civil war between Hitler and Hindenburg, Hindenburg could count on the German Army to support him. So Hitler had to be careful not to totally anger Hindenburg.

When Hindenburg died in summer 1934, Hitler chose to not hold elections to replace him- instead, he merged the President's powers into the Chancellor's, and made himself the absolute dictator of Germany.

ample iron and coal resources.

The most important signal for many Jews was the 'Night of Broken Glass' (Kristallnacht) of 9-10 November 1938, when Jews and Jewish businesses were attacked in a government-sponsored outburst of anti-Jewish violence. About 30,000 Jews were seized and sent to concentration camps. (This outburst followed the assassination in Paris of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan, a Polish Jew resident in Germany. His parents had been dumped on the German-Polish border).

There were many signs. Laws were passed denying Jews citizenship, forbidding them to marry non-Jewish Germans, etc. For those Jews employed in the public sector, it was their dismissal in April 1933.

Unfortunately, because of the amount of people who wanted *out* of Germany, many countries were stiffening their immigration policies, so it was often hard for them to find a place to go.

The German states were united by a series of three wars planned out by Otto von Bismarck and carried out by teh Prussian state that had diplomatic significance to the people in the different regions.

Bismarck knew that the states in the north wouldn;t join with Prussia unless it seemed like the most logical option. To convince them, he told Demark, that bordered those states, that the duchies of Schlesswieg and Hollstein were German and shouldn't be controlled by Denmark. He made a deal with the Austro-Hungarians that if they fought with Prussia against Denmark, they would get one of the duchies. The Danish-Prussian War ensued. Denmark was defeated, Schlesswieg and Hollstein went under Prussian and Austrian rule and those northern German states saw unity with Prussia as the most logical option. And because Denmark began the war itself, the war saw it as an agressor against a country who want to negotitate through diplomats so there were no hard feelings for Prussia amongst other countries.

Schlesswieg and Hollstein served another purpose. The southeastern German states would rather join Austia-Hungary that with the other German states. Bismarck again thought a war would convince them of German supperiority. The former Danish duchy Prussia had let Austria take provided an excuse. Bismarck told Austria Prussia didn't think Austria was ruling its duchy very well. Austria took offense and began the Austro-Prussian War, also known as the Seven Weeks War. Prussia won, but stopped short of sacking Vienna because they would need Austria as an ally eventually. The southeastern states joined with Prussia and Prussia got the other duchy. And because Austria began the war, the world saw Austria as an agressor against a country who had simply said something through a diplomat so other countries had no hard feelings for Prussia.

Bismarck had to do something rather underhanded to gain the Southwestern provinces as well as Alsace and Lorraine, that were under French control. At Ems, the kaiser of Prussia recieved a telegram from Napolean III of France that described that he felt offended by such-and-such a thing. The Kaiser wrote a very apologietic letter and told Bismarck to send it. However, Bismarck wrote and sent a different, rude letter not only to Napolean, but to multiple French newspapers. When the French demanded answers, Bismarck presented teh Kaiser's letter and claimed Prussia had been framed. The French began the Franco-Prussia War over the offense. It ended and 180,000 French were prisoners of Prussia, including Napolean. The southwestern states joined Prussia and the treaty ceded Alsace and Lorraine to the new Germany. Again, Prussia was not the agressor and was well-liked.

This all occurred over a decade and ended with a united Germany in 1871.

The Nazi's reduced unemployment from five million to zero in a few years. Although it would appear miraculous this was not the case. The German army reintroduced military service which meant instead of having young men unemployed they were in the army. The Nazis also put pressure on employers to not employ Women. As women were to stay at home and look after the children. This meant women were not counted in the figures for unemployment thus lowering it. All unemployed were forced into any vacant job. If they refused to work then they were labelled "work shy" and risked imprisonment. Jews were denied German citizenship so technically were no longer unemployed as they weren't German.

German companies were given money if they employed as many people as possible. Instead of using a digger they would employ five men with shovels or even maybe fifteen people with spoons. This reduced unemployment but decreased wages.

German war industry drastically decreased unemployment. The guns were made to arm the new conscripted force. This provided jobs for many German workers. Many Autobahns and other building projects such as football stadiums or planting new forests. The Nazis set up many events which provided jobs such as cruises, concerts and weekend trips. All served to lower unemployment.

Germany reduced the extent to which she was dependant on imports. This would increase the demand for products that Germany produced. Instead of Germans buying white bread from Poland they would instead buy black bread from German farmers. This increased the demand for black bread which meant there had to be more German farmers growing the black bread.

Germans felt as if their economy was recovering. Unemployment had fallen dramatically and new building projects such as the Autobahns boosted German moral. The truth was the real value of the currency had fallen.

Although it would seem that Germany is better off. The fact is that the German economy was overheating. If it had not been for the outbreak of war then Germany would have experienced another inflation crisis.

There was no economic miracle in Germany only the drastic reduction in unemployment. The quality of life for the German population fell and although unemployment was eliminated many who were still unemployed were not counted in the statistics.

The Berlin Wall was opened in November 1989. Most of the wall has since been torn down, although parts of it still remain (they were still there in 2006 when I visited Berlin).

Germany and France have fought a number of different wars.

In the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, the Prussians (later the Germans) defeated France and forced the French to cede the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany.

In World War I, the French spent the entire war (1914-1918) unsuccesfully trying to expel the Germans from French soil. Although the Germans still occupied some French territory by the time they surrendered (11 November 1918), they were militarily defeated. After the war, France recovered Alsace and Lorraine, as well as militarily occupying the Ruhr Valley region near the border.

In World War II, the French were rapidly defeated by the Germans and surrendered on 22 June 1940. Germany occupied the northern 2/3 of France then, and then occupied all of the country in November 1942.

The Allies launched an invasion of France on D-Day, 6 June 1944. They were ultimately successful in forcing the Germans out of France, although it took some months. Paris was liberated on 25 August and all French soil had been freed by December 1944.