Themes & Quotes #4

Kurlander – Hitler’s Monsters (10 – 42)

“The late 19th century revival of Ario-German religion, folklore, and mythology, wrote the art Historian
Fritz Saxl, was akin to the 12th century, renaissance, a period when ‘the Christian religion seemed no
longer completely able to satisfy the spiritual side of man.” (Kurlander 13)

“The three decades before the First World War saw a resurface of interest in occult-Massionic orders
that merged the practices of astrology and spiritualism with neo-pagan religion and politics.” (Kurlander
14)

“Astrology was, alongside parapsychology, the most popular border in German and Austria.” (Kurlander
26)

“Parapsychology and astrology offered many interests into occult phenomena – the ability to extend
mind over time, the power to manipulate others, the possibility of diving in the future.” (Kurlander 27)

“Popular culture in the late-Wilhelmine period was moreover rife with the idea of creating superhuman
beings through a combination of biology and sorcery.” (Kurlander 29)

“But after 1918, in a sociopolitical environment radicalized bu war and crisis, this supernaturally infused,
holistic approach to biology helped transform the selectively applied practise of eugenics, popular across
Europe, into a hugely ambitious and fantastical programme of human experimentation and genocide in
Nazi Germany.” (Kurlander 30)

“Many liberals, Marxists, and mainstream scientists were concerned abot the proliferation of such
unverifiable border scientific doctrines. Some recognized as Frued did, the racist and illiberal tendencies
that supernatural thinking might encourage, especially when combined uncritically with scientific
claims.” (Kurlander 32)

Smith – Oxford (320 -329)

“The combined popular vote of the parties that Bismarck had deemed ‘enemies of the Reich’ – the
Socialists, the Catholics, and the national minorities … by 1898, 52.1% of the vote.” (Smith 321)

“There were many issues in Imperial Germany – ranging form legal reform to the expansion of a nascent
welfare state – but above facts of the imperial budget and political alignments ensured the military and
how to pay for it assumed central stage.” (Smithed 323)

“The build-up of the German navy set off an arms race and a Cold War, and drove Great Britain into the
arms of France, its erstwhile imperial rival.” (Smith 323)

“The large navy was also to create enthusiasm for the monarchy and for its imperial mission, and this
enthusiasm, the government hoped, would reach deep into the territory of the ‘enemies’ of the Reich …
the first of these propositions never worked.” (Smithed 323)
“The Navy League, founded on Tirpitz’s initiative and with the Kaiser as a Parton, tried to being back
workers into its membership, but the effort was a complete failure.” (Smith 324)

“The Catholic Center, like the Social Democrats, had an impressive history of opposition to Imperial
Germany’s military bills.” (Smith 324)

“ To the great question of the eradication of indeginous peoples in German colonies that Social
Democracy and the Catholic Center showed greater infedelity to a normative conception of democracy
based on the protection of rights.,” (Smith 326)

“The passing of the naval bills represented a turn in imperial politics, and it is not too much to say that
the central domestic issues of the next decade involved the question of how too pay for it.” (Smith 326)

“WEltpolitik militarized internal relations, and set antagonists … into thinking about strategy and
diplomacy in terms of a military industrial complex. This was the first consequence of Weltpolitik.”
(Smith 326)

“Germany found itself increasingly isolated, with only a comparatively weak Austria-Hungary as an ally.
As Germany fell into greater isolation, ther were no gains to the political empire.” (Smith 326)

“Historians, starting with Fritz Fischer, have used the War Council as evidence that the German
government wanted war even before 1914, and cite a directive form the meeting charging minsters with
the preparation of Germany for the outbreak of hostilities.” (Smith 328)

“In the period before World War I, the imperatives of WEltpolitik, the challenges of radical nationalism,
and the militarization of foreign policy shut down alternatives, and gave disproportionate voice to a
nationalism tha t demanded great power status for a nation state that had palpably failed in its bid to
become a great empire.” (Smith 328-9)

Zimmerman – Oxford (359 – 371)

“The liberal self-understanding of Germans as a cultural people, or Kulturevolk, engaged in a world

historical struggle for culture, or Kulturekamps, also influenced German overseas imperliams.”
(Zimmerman 359)

“The elections of 1906-07, called when the Catholic Center Party broke with German government over
colonial scandals.” (Zimmerman 362)

“Only the orthodox Marxists in the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the largest party in the Nation,
rejected the very promise of a colonial culture mission.” (Zimmerman 363)

“After the turn of the century, colonial officials and politicians, began to worry about the status of
racially mixed children that some of the heterosexual unions produced.” (Zimmerman 364)

“Eugenics, which became increasingly popular in Germany, as well as in the rest of Europe and the
United States, in the last decades of the 19th century, offered a biologicalistic, although not necessarily
racist conception of society.” (Zimmerman 367)
“Race was a category employed by liberals, as well as conservatives, in discussions of Jews and German
nationality.” (Zimmerman 367)

Dowden and Werner – Oxford (481 – 485)

There is a lot of talk about Schonberg in this, but it is too ahead of the time period that we are
talking about.

“The rise of science and culture of technology, rapid industrialization and its accompanying social
changes, sudden national unification, a rapid demographic shift from a rural to an urban culture, but
above all defeat in the Great War, and then the economic turbulence that followed the Treaty of
Versailles.” (D&W 481)

Blackbourne (440 – 459)

“Article 231 of the Versaillles Treaty (1919) asserted Geraman ‘responsibility’ for the war.: (Blackbourne
441)

“Certainly, Wilhelmina Germany had its annexationist solders and Pan-German extremities, but the
country’s leaders were not bent on aggression and had been forced to fight to fight a defensive war in.
1914.” (Blackbourne 441)

“The German ruling elite was planning a pre-e pit e struck or ‘prentice’ war from 1912, partly drivin bu
intolerable domesticc difficulties.” (Blackbourne 441)

“Many younger scholars followed Fischer, presenting further evidence that German rulers had
unleashed the war in order to preserve domestic stability.” (Blackbourne 442)

“German policy simply exaggerated the degree of alienation between Russian and Britain, and between
Britain and France.” This was referenceing the miscalculation aspect. (Blackbourne 444)

“During the second Morrocan Crisis of 1911, for example, a reckless and blistering German policy tried
to drive a wedge between Britain and France, but instead push them closer together.” (Blackbourne
445)

“Germany, largely by its own actions, was at the heart of the instability created by imperialist rivalry.”
(Blackbourne 446)

“The alliance system and imperialist tension have to be seen in conjunction with a third factor: the arms-
build-up of the great powers.” (Blackbourne 447)

“After the Franco-Russian Entente, German army strategy centered on the danger of war on two fronts
and produced the Schillifen Plan, and aggressive solution to the problem that foresaw a quick strike on
France before attention was turned to Russia. This entailed a violation of Belgium sovergnity, making it
more difficult to keep Britain neutral in the event of Continental War.” (Blackbourne 448)

“The cost of Germany included financial costs. Every great power felt the strain of the arms race.”
(Blackbourne 450)
“A growing public debt, revenue raising problems causing caused but the German federal structure and
the reluctance of the landed elite to party its share of taxes, political resistance to the military
expenditure, and other demands on the public purse – the defense element of public spending actually
fell between 1890 and 1913.” (Blackbourne 451)

Eksteins (193 – 207)

“Technological innovation and industrial progress would, in a grand synthesis, combine with a spirit of
pastorale simplicity. Society and culture would no longer be conflicting realms but an indissoluble
whole.” (Eksteins 192)

“In July 1917 Germany became, to all intents and purposes, a totalitarian state under the control of her
military. Even the kaiser had become little more than a puppet ruler, responding to the demands of the
high command in persons of Generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff.” (Eksteins 198)

The Schlieffen Plan (75 – 77)

“These, according to Schlieffen’s views, could only be the occupation of the natural defensive position in
the Meuse valley south of Namur; and thus the French would themselves violate Belgian neutrality … All
this presumed that Belgian neutrality would not be broken by Germany first.” (77)

The Armistice Demands (118 – 119)

Review all of these demands. Were they too harsh to Germany and would they have an effect?

The Fourteen Points (113 – 115)

These points were made by the Americans, during Woodrow Wilson, talking about the negotiations for
peace after WWI. It was used to restore power to countries form before, such as Austria-Hungary,
Belgium, and Russian territory. Here we also see reference to the League of Nations which would be
created in 1920.

The Blank Cheque (96)

This “Blank Cheque” was when Germany would pledge if Austria-Hungary would get in conflict, it would
enter war with them if Serbia was acting up. Well, as we have seen this did not work and Germany back
out after the assasination of Sarajevo. Germany was like no! This would eventually lead to the
ultimatum that A-H sends to Serbia, leading to WWI when Russia gets involved.

“In the meantime, his Majesty desires to say that he is not blind to the danger which threatens A-H and
thrust he Triple Alliance as a result of the Russian and Serbian Pan-Slavic agitation.” (96)

1914 Manifesto (101 – 102)

These are the accusations that have been made against Germany about WWI. (1914) – 102
Opinion Poll (69) – A bunch of questions to the public about the 19th century. This leads to the question
of how popular Wilhelm II was.

“11. The unhappiest period? … 1878 – 1890.”

“3. Who would you name the greatest hero fo the century? Wilhelm I (2400); Bismarck (1600). Wilhelm
II mentioned.”