From Second to Third Reich: The Problem of Continuity in German Foreign Policy

1979 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konrad H. Jarausch
Keyword(s):  
Third Reich ◽  
German History ◽  
Political Repression ◽  
World War ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
German People ◽  
Nazi Era ◽  
First World

Ever since Heraklites' dictum “panta rhei,” historians have debated the relative priority of continuity and change. Although Nazi and Allied propagandists saw the Third Reich as the fulfillment of earlier traditions, postwar scholars stressed the unprecedented nature of its genocide, political repression, and external aggression. Sensitive to charges of “collective guilt,” many German historians preferred to see the Nazi era as something sui generis, an aberration from and not the culmination of German history. Handicapped by language, culture, and access to sources, American scholars often tended to concentrate on problems and themes within one of several airtight compartments such as the Wilhelmian Empire, Weimar Republic, or Third Reich. Because of efforts to restore the “historical consciousness of [the German] people,” the critical implications of Ludwig Dehio's and Hajo Holborn's revisionism were largely ignored. Hence the scholarly community reacted with anger and disbelief when Fritz Fischer drew attention first to the continuity of German expansionism and then to the continuity of historical apologetics in his provocative book on German Aims in the First World War.

scholarly journals Een protestantse Flamenpolitik? Otto Bölke - dominee, heemkundige, Jongvlaams propagandist

2013 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 303-327
Author(s):  
Winfried Dolderer
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Local History ◽  
World War ◽  
Far Right ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Political Radicalism ◽  
First World

De Duitse dominee Otto Bölke (1873 – 1946) was geboren en werkzaam op de Fläming, een streek ten zuidwesten van Berlijn die in de middeleeuwen door inwijkelingen onder meer uit Vlaanderen en Nederland was gekoloniseerd. De vermeende Nederlandse afkomst van zijn voorouders heeft hem levenslang geïntrigeerd en aangezet tot een intense heemkundige bedrijvigheid alsmede een vroegtijdige belangstelling voor de Vlaamse beweging. Vanuit die belangstelling ontbolsterde Bölke zich tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog tot propagandist van de Flamenpolitik. Hij was betrokken bij een netwerk van Duitse sympathisanten van de meest radicale, Jongvlaamse variant van het activisme. De stichting van België kwam voor hem neer op een ‘verovering’ door de franstaligen; de Belgische staat noemde hij een ‘fabriek’ tot Romanisering van de Germaanse bevolking. Met Domela Nieuwenhuis maakte Bölke begin 1917 in Berlijn kennis. Domela leefde in onmin met het burgerlijke bezettingsbestuur, maar beschikte over Duitse vrienden in militaire evenals uiterst rechtse annexionistische kringen aan wie hij tot op het laatst verknocht bleef, De talrijke protestantse dominee's in dit netwerk waardeerden niet alleen de Nederlandse ambtsbroeder, maar evenzeer zijn politiek radicalisme dat strookte met hun eigen antidemocratisch conservatisme. Bölke toonde na de oorlog belangstelling voor het Vlaams nationalisme en kwam uiteindelijk in nationaalsocialistisch vaarwater terecht. Hij was een typische vertegenwoordiger van een Duits-nationaal protestantisme dat uit het keizerrijk doorgroeide tot in het Derde Rijk. ________ A Protestant Flamenpolitik (Flemish policy)? Otto Bölke – protestant pastor, expert on local history, propagandist of the Young FlemishThe German pastor Otto Bölke (1873 – 1946) was born and worked in the Fläming, a region southwest of Berlin, that had been colonised during the Middle Ages by immigrants from areas including Flanders and the Netherlands. The supposed Dutch origin of his ancestors intrigued him throughout his life and inspired his profound interest in local history as well as his early interest in the Flemish Movement.During the First World War that interest turned Bölke into a propagandist of the Flamenpolitik. He was involved in a network of German sympathizers of the most radical Young Flemish version of the activism. He considered the foundation of Belgium the equivalent of a ‘conquest’ by French speakers. He described the Belgian state as a ‘factory for romanising the Germanic population.’ Bölke made the acquaintance of Domela Nieuwenhuis in Berlin at the beginning of 1917. Domela was at odds with the civilian occupying administration but had German friends at his disposal in military as well as far right circles favouring annexation, to whom he remained attached until the end. The numerous Protestant pastors in this network valued not only their Dutch colleague, but also his political radicalism that reflected their own antidemocratic conservatism.  After the war Bölke was interested in Flemish nationalism and finally ended up in the National Socialist arena. He was a typical representative of a German national Protestantism that evolved from the Empire to the Third Reich.

From illusion to destruction: the Germanic bid for world power, 1897–1945

1976 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Biddiss
Keyword(s):  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
First World War ◽  
The Other ◽  
World War ◽  
The Third ◽  
World Power ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
First World

Over the last two decades none has done more than Fritz Fischer to compel major reinterpretation of German ambitions between the 1890s and the end of the Third Reich. In 1959–60 this Hamburg historian published two articles that hinted at the coming storm. It broke dramatically in 1961 with the appearance of his huge Griff nach der Weltmacht This densely documented treatment of Germany's objectives in the First World War was striking enough to become before long the object of official displeasure at Bonn. Nor did Fischer's thesis win any easy support from professional colleagues, who argued bitterly about it during the 1964 German Historical Convention. Its still wider impact was clear from the deliberations of the International Historical Congress held at Vienna in 1965. That same year saw the publication of Fischer's Weltmacht oder Niedergang, a brief volume in rebuttal of criticism, and soon scholars in many countries were swelling the tide of relevant literature. By 1969 this included Kreig der Illusionen in which Fischer greatly amplified his original arguments. All three books are, at last, available in English. The translation of Griff nach der Weltmacht dates from 1967, but only lately have the other two been similarly treated. It seems appropriate to review these alongside recent works by Dr John Moses, on Fischer's revolutionary place in a national historiographical tradition, and by Professor Norman Rich, on the German aims associated with the war that broke out in 1939.

1. The inter-war years

2014 ◽  
pp. 4-19
Author(s):  
Gerard L. Weinberg
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Peace Treaty ◽  
Fundamental Issue ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Western Border ◽  
German People ◽  
Second World ◽  
First World

‘The inter-war years’ looks at the period after the First World War when the victorious powers were drafting peace treaties with Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and the successor of the Ottoman Empire. The fundamental issue was how to reorganize Europe and territories elsewhere as the basic assumption of territoriality shifted from the dynastic to the national principle. The treaty with Germany had numerous aspects including provisions for war crime trials, the demilitarization of Germany's western border, reparations, and limitations on Germany's military, which were deeply resented by the German people. Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933 and the increasing disregard for the peace treaty brought a Second World War closer.

The First World War and the Origins of the Red Scare

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
First World War ◽  
Red Scare ◽  
Political Repression ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
First World

This chapter examines the origins of the Red Scare of 1919–1920, with particular emphasis on the role of the United States's entry into the First World War. The effort required to bring a reluctant nation into the war and quash dissenting voices brought the federal government into the business of systematic rather than ad hoc industrial and political repression. The civil liberties of citizens who protested either the commitment to war or its effects were suppressed. The place of nativism and antiradicalism in American politics and society became elevated. More importantly, the experience of war set political precedents that helped to spawn a new movement devoted to promoting the cause of anticommunism in American life. The chapter first considers how US participation in the First World War contributed to the emergence of “modern” anticommunism before discussing the role of the American Protective League in the repression efforts during the war. It also explores the business of loyalty, cultural repression, farmers' collectives and minor political parties, silencing dissent, and the campaign against industrial unions during the war.

“These Scoundrels Are Not the German People”

2020 ◽  
pp. 61-90
Author(s):  
Michael Geheran
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Nazi Party ◽  
World War ◽  
Social Death ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
German People ◽  
Reign Of Terror

This chapter discusses the Nazi seizure of power from 1933 to 1935. The chapter extends the argument that Jewish veterans used their record of fighting to counter antisemetic attacks into the early years of the Third Reich, demonstrating that Hitler's seizure of power in 1933 did not bring “social death” for the Jewish Frontkampfer. The reign of terror the Nazis unleashed on Jews, Communists, and other groups stood in marked contrast to their failed attempts to marginalize Jewish ex-servicemen, whose record of service in the front lines in World War I enabled them to claim and negotiate a special status in the new Germany. Jewish veterans did not break with their identity as Germans, and continued to demand recognition of their sacrifices from the German public as well as the Nazi Party.

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