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HIST2128 Germany, 1871-1933: From Empire to Republic

HIST2128 Germany, 1871-1933: From Empire to Republic. The Strains of Total War: Reaction, reform, and revolutionary ferment, 1914-17 Lecture 15 3 April 2012. ‘Spirit of 1914’. = New sense of community ( Gemeinschaft ) in German nation Belief in justice of war vs. R + F

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HIST2128 Germany, 1871-1933: From Empire to Republic

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  1. HIST2128Germany, 1871-1933: From Empire to Republic The Strains of Total War: Reaction, reform, and revolutionary ferment, 1914-17 Lecture 15 3 April 2012

  2. ‘Spirit of 1914’ = New sense of community (Gemeinschaft) in German nation • Belief in justice of war vs. R + F • Feeling of end of all class divisions • Encouraged middle class (less working class & rural) young men’s readiness to go to war

  3. War economy • Cut-off of nearly all overseas supplies by GB navy’s coastal blockade ↓ → War Materials Section in war ministry, (Kriegsrohstoffabteilung: KRA) to centrally plan economy + engage large-scale private industries (Sep 1914 ) ↓ 25 raw-materials corporations (Kriegsrohstoffgesellschaften) as joint-stock companies to buy up stocks + distribute them to firms in military production

  4. Hindenburg Program, 1916 (1) • OHL’s program for total industrial mobilisation initiated after Allied Somme offensive (mid- 1916): • Consequence of Allied superiority in men & material • Attempt to radically increase munitions production in short period • Created War Office (Kriegsamt) to plan & control all facets of economic mobilisation + to mobilise every able-bodied man for war-related service • Paved way for Auxiliary Service Law(Hilfsdienstpflichtgesetz)

  5. Hindenburg Program, 1916 (2) Proved to be fantasy program: • Little extra labour available • Resulted in major transportation & coal crisis (1916/7) • Steel production decreased instead of increased • Extensive damages to army being drained of extra 1 mill. men ► Faulty administration + finite limits to industrial resources as main factors behind failure

  6. Food economy (1) • → War Grain Corporation (Kriegsgetreidegesellschaft) as joint-stock company: Initiative of big cities to ensure adequate supply of grain (Nov 1914) → ‘Compulsory economy’ (Zwangswirtschaft) with bread rationing by ‘bread card’ (Feb 1915) • Imperial Grain Corporation: Joint-stock company with extra admin authority (Jul 1915) = Model for rationing of nearly all sectors of food economy

  7. Food economy (2) • War Food Office (Kriegsernährungsamt) with ‘food dictator’ to organise food economy more efficiently (May 1916) • Too few real powers • Constant resorts rivalries with government offices • Transformed into full Reich ministry (Aug 1917)

  8. Food economy (3) • Severe lack of food due to GB blockade • Overhasty bureaucratic executive measures → Slaughter of 9 mill. pigs as ‘co-eaters’ to humans (1915) → later shortage of pig meat • Wide-scale substitute food(Ersatz) without effect on increasing undernourishment → ‘turnip winter’ (1916/7)

  9. Social crisis 1917-8 (1) • Food rations only 47-54% of calories needed → High mortality rates among infants & elderly • Middle-class (fixed salaries’ earners) especially affected by chronic inflation = Strong frustration in population = Increasing tendencies for strikes = More demands for reforms of political system (‘parliamentarisation’ of Reich government + abolishment of Prussian Three-class franchise)

  10. Social crisis 1917-8 (2) = Split-off of Independent SPD (USPD) from ‘Majority’ SPD (MSPD) (Apr 1917) → USPD support of ‘naval mutiny’ (Aug 1917) + acts of sabotage & strikes in cities (Jan 1918) ► Social crisisweakened resistance by elites to revolutionary agitation after Bolshevist revolution in Russia

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