The "excitement" of war

                World War I (The Great War) and World War II, affected Germany and its people in various ways. The wars brought about a new type of unification to the German nation and its people.

 WWI brought a certain type of excitement that Hagen Schulze described as “a reaction that is difficult to comprehend today,” (Schulze 191). German citizens felt the excitement and honor of taking part in WWI. This, in my opinion, can seem a bit hard to understand for people today why a nation would be showing a certain type of excitement for a war. For wars are full of destruction and great costs. The reason I can is was Germany united as a nation in 1871, but there was some inner trouble within the country itself. When WWI broke out in 1914 it gave every one, whether a politician, merchant, or citizen, a reason to put aside all differences and unite as a German nation to fight against the enemies. The war brought about a way for the Germans to actually see themselves not as individuals within a boarder, but as one German nation all fighting for the same cause for the first time since they formed in 1871. War was also seen as great honor. Basically any man who fought in the war would be held at almost one of the highest standards for it was every man’s job to lay down their lives for their countries. This is interesting because so many men were lining up to just fight in the war at the beginning of it.

A German WWI propaganda poster

A soldier receives flowers form a woman while heading off to the front. 

However, as the war dragged on longer than many expected the feelings towards war began to change drastically. Szhulze stated “As the war dragged on into the unforeseeable future, the original enthusiasm quickly faded, although the mood of the educated professional class remained fervent,” (Schulze 192). The glory of fighting in the war lost its value because food shortages, lack of supplies, loss of so many lives, and loss of hope in the war as it continued to drag on. The only people that seemed to support the war still were the wealthier classes who were the politicians, preachers, and professors who worked with these young men and influenced them to head into war. These were the men who did not see the horrors of war and could never fully see nor seem to understand that the glory of war was gone and was replaced by the horrors and sadness of it.

With the struggle and suffering of WWI, it is interesting to think that Germany would even think let alone actually enter a second world war. However looking at Schulze’s text I can almost see why Germany entered WWII.  One of the main reasons was the influence of Hitler. Even though Hitler was a dictator who caused much destruction, he was also a very powerful leader who had great influence over the German nation. When Hitler was rising to power, he was a very influential man. Schulze stated “He could collect the hopes and longings of his audience as a lens collects rays of light, then focus them with fascinating, vivid language and project them back onto the people,” (Schulze 231). Hitler was a man who gave what the German people wanted. The Weimer Republic, the government in power after WWI, was becoming weak. Hitler turned Germany around and reestablished a sense of pride and hope in the German citizens that was broken after the Great War. As Schulze continued to explain “Hitler’s party was not only a sect of believers and a party of the people; it was also a youth movement,” (Schulze 232). Hitler sought to the youth to show that they too can help turn Germany around, which Hitler did for the economy and its people improved, so when Hitler declared war in 1939, Germany followed for Hitler managed to improve Germany in the 1930s why not continue to follow him.

A WWII German propaganda poster

A rally for Hitler and his political party

WWI and WWII brought a way for Germany to unite as one nation and for individuals to become one national citizen.

Word count: 677 

Germany Becoming a Nation

What is quite interesting about the formation of the German nation is the reason behind their formation. It is quite a unique one for the United Kingdom and France have been in existence centuries while America formed about a 100 years before the German nation and American gained their freedom by defeating the British in the Revolutionary War.  According to Hagan Schulze there appears to be several reasons behind the creation and formation of the German nation. However, not all the ideas led automatically to the creation to the German nation, but more were stepping stones to the actual unification in 1871.

The Holy Roman Empire of Germany with all of its hundreds of territories. 

                One of the things that I found interesting is how early on in German history that the German citizens began to question the power of the Roman Empire.  Hagan stated that “its [the Roman Empire]  structure was regarded as old fashioned, backward, and too complex for the ordinary person to grasp,” (Schulze 70). Why even scholar Samuel von Pufendorf critized the Roman Empire as a monster in 1667 (Schulze 70). To both the people within the German Roman Empire and outside, the empire’s structure appeared to be weak, especially after the Thirty’s Years War. This war took a toll on Germany for much of the land was destroyed, about a ¼ of the population was dead, and there was mass amount of poverty. This caused Germany to be pushed back behind the other developed nations in Europe for they were trying to rebuild themselves from the war while the other nations continued to grow and improve themselves. Germany wanted some way to develop them like the rest of the world powers, but it took them another few centuries to do so.

Samuel von Pufendorf, one of the early scholars who critized the Holy Roman Empire and thought of a unified national identity. 

                Ideas of a nation and German identity continued to grow amongst German citizens from the time after the Thirty’s Years War up until Germany unified in 1871. For example, the German nation grew mainly because of its fragmented identity and territories within the empire (Schulze 89). The princes and monarchs always wanted to know what was going on in every inch of their territories and were heavily active in their citizen’s lives.  With the monarchs wanting to be so invested in their territories, the monarchs created administrators to help tend to their position. From this growth of interest in their people, monarchs created more educated jobs to help with their work which led to a growth of the educated in Germany. These were the people in the 18^th century who really began to float around the idea of expressing an interest in a national identity. However, only the educated were in on the national German identity while the peasants were left with no understanding of the identity. According to Friedrich Nicolai only 20,000 people compared to the millions in Germany were participating in the national identity discussion (Schulze 90). This is a small fraction of the whole empire at the time and hardly enough to create any sort of impact to move towards a true German nation.

                Despite these early interests in a German nation, the true push towards the actual unification in 1871 were a number of factors: “shock of defeat; a sense of humiliation; the onerous financial burdens imposed on the defeated states; the devastation caused by French enemies….the rise in the cost of living connected with the system of French customs duties now imposed,” (Schulze 102). The domination of Napolean and other wars along the French boarders with the German Roman Empire made many citizens begin to question the ability of the empire and drove for the push towards actually having a German nation. Another factor was when the Roman Empire dissolved when Emperor Francis II abdicated during the War of the Third Coalition. Without a ruler, Germany turned towards other ways to still exist. Since many of the citizens within the empire shared a common language and somewhat similar culture, unification appeared to work.  So in 1871 Germany was unified into a nation. However the road to becoming a powerful nation would be another feat for Germany after their unification.

Emperor Francis II who abdicated his crown as the emperor of Holy Roman Empire. 

Word count: 677 

Berlin: A City of Vast History

Having been involved with art for most of my life and studio art being my minor, one of the facts that I found interesting about Berlin were artists George Grosz and Käthe Kollwitz. Each artist captured a different time and theme in their artwork, but both reflect an event or theme in Berlin history. Grosz focused on the corruption of society during the 1920s when the wealthy were the ones who held all the power and controlled all of the jobs while the poor consisted of the wounded soldiers from WWI and the general working class. In the documentary, it was stated that Grosz was painted the most accurate pictures of Berlin in the 1920s. It is a part of Berlin’s history that I believe most people do not here about. Grosz either used a simple contour drawing (using only the outline of images) or used paint to capture this corrupt and completely social spilt of society. Grosz did not try to capture any beauty, he wanted to show what Berlin was most like during this time. What I find really interesting about Grosz is he used his art as a way to record history. Instead of writing it down in a journal, he used his art to record it so generations from now can look back and visually see his representation of Berlin.

An image created by George Grosz that shows the greedy upper class with their money at the table while the poor working class and wounded soldier wander in the back, 

Käthe Kollwitz’ artwork focused on an entirely different theme from Grosz. Kollwitz lost her son during WWI; she was one of many mothers in Berlin that lost their sons to the war. After that lost she used art as a way to express her grief and the grief of many in Berlin. WWI left thousands of women without their sons, husbands, fathers, and brothers.  One of the most famous works created by her is the statute of a mother and her dead son.  What is interesting about this statute is that it shows the famous image of a mother and her child but in an absolutely new way. What I mean by this is the grouping of a mother and her child in art has been around for centuries; it’s a common theme that can be viewed in works by Mary Cassatt, Friedrich August von Kaulbach, and numerous religious paintings of Mary and Jesus (the main symbol behind many mother and child paintings). However, what makes Kollwitz interesting is she takes these two figures of mother and child but alter it to show Berlin’s aftermath of WWI. Most paintings show the mother and son alive. Kollwitz changes this historical image to show only the mother alive to represent the loss of her son and the loss of so many mothers in Berlin. It was a statue that represented the pain and struggle that followed any war and that any side, victor or defeated, can relate to.

The statue that showed the horrors that followed WWI. Käthe Kollwitz. Title: Pietá

As for East Berlin, what I found the most interesting about its history was how the Russians truly left their mark on East Berlin after WWII when they had power over it. For example the Russian power in East Berlin destroyed the Schloss, the royal palace of Germany, because it represented the old power and interfered with Russian’s new vision for East Berlin.  Also the Russians used the ruins and fallen stones of the buildings to build a monument to represent the fallen soldiers of WWII of the Russian army, not of the German army.  It was hard to believe that Russia left such a huge imprint on Berlin by destroying a German historical building such as the Schloss and then building a monument in honor of their dead. It was as if they were trying to create a new Russian communist country in East Berlin and try to remove some of Germany’s history from this place all together.  What is even more interesting was after the wall came down and East and West Berlin became one again, some people in East Berlin still struggle today with trying to decide to rebuild their history by rebuilding the Schloss while others rather have nothing to do with rebuilding it as if the Russian ideas still linger in their minds.

The Schloss before being destroyed during WWII.

The devastation of WWII represented in this image of the destroyed Schloss, just one of many buildings destroyed in Berlin due to the war. 

Word Count: 688 

To be honest, before I watched the documentary, Martin Luther: A Reluctant Revolutionary, I never really knew much about who Martin Luther was or what he accomplished during his lifetime.  After watching this documentary I believe I have a better understanding of who Martin Luther was as a man and what he accomplished for the German nation as a religious and cultural revolutionary man.

The biggest thing that made Luther be viewed as a revolutionary man was his 95 theses nailed to the church door and his defiance against the Pope and the way that religion was run in the Holy Roman Empire (which Germany was a part of during Luther’s time).

Luther nailing his 95 theses to the door of the church. 

 He was attacking one of the biggest and most influential powers in the empire. He believed that the Pope was abusing his power over the people. For example the Pope would have many people working for him and be paraded around in the most marvelous of ways. Luther believed that this is where majority of the German people’s money was being spent towards, for the own personal gain of the Pope.  During this time, as what I can tell from the documentary, some people were questioning the church but no one wanted to speak out or if they did they were executed or excommunicated from the church. Luther however changed that for he was the first one to do so and actually live to tell the tale. The 95 thesis nailed to the church door was just one of his early acts of defiance against the church and a personal attack at the Pope He tried returning religion and its power to the people and make it more democratic type then a sole leader of the church.  It was as if he was stealing the religion from the Pope and returning it to the people, almost like a religious Robin Hood.

Besides being a revolutionary man in religion, he was also a cultural revolutionary. The believed date of the first printing press is around 1439 and created by a man named Johannes Gutenberg. So the printing press has been around long before Luther pegged his 95 theses to the door of the church. However he used the printing press as a tool to help further spread his ideas and views. Luther used the press to publish his writings to be shared among the political powers in the realm as well as the common folks. It was a way for everyone to be united and understand what was occurring during the time and learn the cause that Luther was fighting against. It was the early start of using the press as a way to argue. 

The printing press was a tool Luther used to print his ideas. 

Besides the press he also translated the Bible from Latin into German. This was a great change because it was an early start to creating a common language in Germany. It also was a way that the common folks can have their own copy of the Bible and to actually understand the text and learn from it as well instead of solely relying on the Pope for translation.

The Bible that Luther wrote after translating it into German.

Martin Luther was more than a man who nailed a piece of paper to a church door, he was a man who saw religion being corrupted and wanted to return it to the people and he used modern technology of the printing press and the translation of the Bible as one of the ways to help him accomplish his goals.

Word count: 574 

Out the entirety of chapter 2 the most intriguing part that stood out to me the most was the following passage: “Germany, on the other hand, was experiencing the longest peace time era of its whole history, from 1555 (the Peace of Augsburg) until 1618. It ended mainly because over the course of this time ambitious leaders had formed alliances along denominational lines and were only waiting for the right moment to strike,” (Schulze 62). Basically if you recall from the book, Schulze was talking about how during the latter part of the 16^th century much of Europe was broken out into numerous battles and wars, however Germany had a time of piece that lasted for about 63 years.  It may be a small passage from the text, but it was the passage that stuck with me the most. 

One thing that I found strange about this passage is how little time the author actually spent on it. Schulze wrote that this is the longest peace time the whole history of Germany, but he literally gives it a sentence and moves on. What came out of the 63 years of peace that Germany had? Did it further develop Germany as a nation or through works of art and literature; was it Germany’s form of a golden age? How did the peace manage to last for 63 years? These were the questions that ran through my mind when I came across the passage. However, instead of answering these questions and focusing on some events that may have occurred during this time instead of jumping straight back into vivid detail portraying the hard times and battles that followed soon after the piece broke. This passage made me realize how many nations’ histories, whether it is Germany’s or America’s, mainly focuses how it was shaped through wars, political uprisings, or hardships. No history spends time on the positives that helped form a nation.

 For example when I was in American history classes I remember mainly learning about all the wars that America fought in as well as the Depression and the labor strikes in the early 1900s. Sure we mentioned the Roaring 20s, but I remember our wars more than the “golden 20s.” 

http://www.soldierstudies.org/index.php?action=webquest_1

An example of the connection of how nations are usually associated purely on their war that they fought in. For example the Civil War dominates our American history yet not much else is learned from the 1800s. By Schulze skimming over the peace era, he is skimming over 63 years of German history. 

With Schulze leaving out the peace era I feel that I am missing a part of Germany’s history. I want to learn about the history that is not spoken much about, such as the longest peace time. It was still a part of Germany’s history and it was a part that shaped them to be the nation that they are today.

http://www.germanculture.com.ua/library/history/bl_30_years_war.htm

The Thirty Years; War that started in 1618; one of the reasons for the end to the longest peace time in German history.  

Word Count: 431

                The first time I ever been out of the country was Canada for a high school choir trip. I know Canada is just over the border, but I count it. It was not until December 2013 when I got to experience going aboard across seas to London.  After the amazing experience in London, I wanted to travel aboard again. So here I am heading into senior year and getting the chance to experience Germany for D-term 2014.

                Out of all the places that I could have traveled to, I decided to choose Germany for a couple of reasons.

                One of the reasons is the wonderful stories I have heard from a family member and a friend.  My aunt has a friend who lives in Germany, so every once in a while my aunt will fly out to Germany and visit her friend. When she returns home, she tells my family and me about her trip. My friend also went to Germany for a school trip and I heard all about it and saw numerous pictures. Hearing stories from both of them I wanted the chance to experience Germany myself and learn too why my aunt and my friend had such a good time over there.

                Another reason why I wanted to study aboard in Germany is both an architecture and historical viewpoint. I am fascinated by castles for they are such vast buildings built hundreds of years ago and many are still standing strong today. These buildings are beautifully designed but also hold a vast amount of history.  When I am Germany, I anticipate learning about each castle of when it was built, who lived there, and the purpose of the castle itself. We do not have castles in the US, so it is breathtaking to see one in real life. After seeing two castles in England, I cannot wait to experience the castles in Germany and see the different architecture and history of them.

Zwinger Castle in Dresden

                To go around Christmas time is also a great treat to be studying aboard in Germany for the Christmas markets. I have been to the Christmas market in downtown Chicago and the one in London. I am looking forward to experience one in the country that the one in Chicago is based on. My aunt told me they are absolutely beautiful and are almost everywhere, but she and her friend love to go to them all the time when my aunt is over in Germany. The Christmas markets are a special treat on the trip for they only happen one month a year and to say that I got to experience one is neat.

An ordainment stand at a Christmas Market

                I am looking forward to studying aboard in Germany and cannot wait for the adventure to begin.

Word Count: 456