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Germany and the Fall of Western Civilization

Germany and the Fall of Western Civilization. 1919-1945. Hanna Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem 1963 The “Banality of Evil” . I. The Politics of the Irrational & the Racial State.

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Germany and the Fall of Western Civilization

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  1. Germany and the Fall of Western Civilization 1919-1945

  2. Hanna Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem 1963 The “Banality of Evil”

  3. I. The Politics of the Irrational& the Racial State Humanity seems to have run like boys let out of schoolaway from the humanitarian, idealistic nineteenth century,from whose morality – if we can speak at all of morality inthis connection – represents a wide and wild reaction.Thomas Mann 1875-1955 - “An Appeal to Reason” 1931

  4. A. What Is Fascism? Fascio“witch’s brew” of ideologies- response to humiliation - concern w/ decadence / cultural conservatism - failure of democracy / capitalism / Enlightenment- intense nationalism / xenophobia / Volkish history - racism / Social Darwinism- suppression of class conflict- scapegoating; internal “threats” (November Criminals)

  5. B. The New Rome • Benito Mussolini 1922-43 • Cult of Personality “Il Duce” I know your anger, I know your dreams.I’ve been everything you want to be.

  6. 3. Attack on “bourgeois” values- individualism- liberalism 4. Squadristi “black shirts”

  7. 5. Militarism- Ethiopia ’35- Albania ’39 Lebensraum 6. Pact of Steel, 1939

  8. I. The Weimar Republic, 1919-1933

  9. Triumph of the Will Leni Riefenstahl- 1934 Nuremberg rally- how did the Nazis seduce Germany?

  10. A. Limited Recovery, 1924-26 • Dawes Plan 1924 • Treaties of Locarno 1925- end of occupation- entrance to League of Nations • Von Hindenburg becomes President

  11. 4. Liberal, artistic, literary society - Bauhaus school

  12. B. Collapse • Weak “civil society”- Revolution 1918-1919- Freikorps- Kapp Putsch 1920- Beer Hall Putsch 1923 2. Great Depression

  13. Legacy the Weimar Republic • Experiment in democracy that failed - economic failure / anger over WWI left many Germans distrustful of liberal govt. 2. Dissatisfaction with democracy left the door open for radicals 3. Hitler took over a system that was already broken

  14. C. The Rise to Power 1. Election of 1932- Hitler appointed Chancellor, Jan. 1933 2. Enabling Act, March 1933

  15. II. Life in the Third Reich

  16. A. Nazi support - farmers , small business men, civil servants - “Hitler Youth”

  17. 3. alliance w/ military, industry- rearmament, Rhineland 1936- autarky 4. Paramilitary thugs- SA, “stormtroopers”- SS Schutzstaffel Krupp Iron Works

  18. B. Propaganda and Culture "The chief function of propaganda is to convince the masses, whose slowness of understanding needs to be given time in order that they may absorb information; and only constant repetition will finally succeed in imprinting an idea on their mind.“ - Mein Kampf Joseph Goebbels

  19. Family and the state- Lebensborn “spring of life” • Racial Hygiene- public health / heredity- “mainstream”- sterilization

  20. 3. Euthanasia- Reich Committee for the Scientific Registration of Serious Hereditarily and Congenitally-based Illnesses (1938)Bishop of Münster “banality of evil”- Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem

  21. 4. “Asocials”- Sinti and Roma - addicts/criminals - homosexuals

  22. 5. “Decadence”

  23. III. The Holocaust Genocide - Any act committed with the idea of destroying in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group - killing or causing physical/mental harm - inflicting conditions that would harm a group - forcefully transferring children - United Nations, 1948

  24. Century of genocide 1915 – 1.5 M Armenians 30’s-40s – Hitler, 12 M ? Stalin, 15-20 M ? Tojo, 5 M 50s-60s – Mao, 50 M ? 1970s – Pol Pot, 1.7 M 1990s – Rwanda, 1+ M ? Bosnia and Herzegovina - “ethnic cleansing”

  25. A. “Racial” enemies 1. Culture creators (Aryans) Culture bearers (Japanese) Culture destroyers (Jews)

  26. 2. Racist ideology not unique to Nazis- the scale of murder was 3. Alienation as a precondition- segregation / concentration camps

  27. B. Pre-war assault 1. Romanticism / nationalism 2. Nuremberg Laws - 1935 - Protection of German Blood and German Honor - Reich Citizenship Law

  28. 3. Kristallnacht - 1938

  29. C. Ghettos - 1939 - 41

  30. IV. The Final Solution Auschwitz, 1991 Auschwitz Ovens

  31. A. 1941 – USSR 1. Einsatzgruppe September, Babi Yar

  32. B. Wannsee Conference • “Final Solution”November 1942 Reinhard Heydrich

  33. C. Resistance 1. Warsaw Ghetto Uprising January 1943

  34. 2. Non-Jewish Resistance - Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1906-1945- “cheap” vs. “costly” grace Confessing Church

  35. 3. Reality “The Road to the Holocaust was built by hate but paved with indifference.” - Ian Kershaw Allied complicity? Voyage of the Damned

  36. V. Legacy A. Nuremberg Trials - 1945-491. Morgenthau Plan2. UN guidelines, 1948

  37. B. Cold War • Versailles Diktat 2. New enemy

  38. C. Jewish Homeland 1. Zionism

  39. D. Implications for the West 1. Racist ideology not unique to Nazis - the scale of murder was 2. Alienation as a precondition 3. Western guilt?- Internationalism / Idealism

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