Week 11- Age of Extremes

Age of extremes: Time period between World War I and II 

Treaty of Versailles 

• Ended World War I  

• Peace conference began on January 18th, 1919 - intentionally on the anniversary of the Proclamation of the German Empire at Versailles→ doing so implicitly blamed WWI on Germany  

• German War Guilt Clause: France and Britain blamed Germany for issuing the war, and Austria-Hungary and imposed them to pay for all damages done 

- Article 233: Germany will pay for all damages done to the civilian population and property of the Allied Governments 

- territorial changes; lost territories 

Self-Determination and its Limits 

• Self-determination of peoples in Europe only (national self-determination) 

• Self-determination: peoples who see themselves as a nation should have their own policies 

• More nationally defined states instead of empires (no more Habsburg monarchy) 

Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points 

• Speech to US congress in 1918 

• Call for self-determination of peoples 

Czechoslovakia is a winner amongst the self-determination nations, gained a large territory 

• France wanted to weaken Germany- A good way to have a weak Germany is a strong Czechoslovokia 

• Self-determination did not include the German speakers within Czechoslovakia  

Austria was not allowed to join with Germany, as not allow it to get strong 

• Versailles Treaty states that Germany has to respect the sovereignty of Austria 

Did not give self-determination to the European colonies overseas  

• Vietnamese student in France tried to get self-determination policies for colonies, but was denied  

• Only Ireland gains independence from British empire

Weimar Germany 

• Revolutionary uprising in 1919

• Army is called to put down the rebellion 

•  Freikorps Unit- introduced another level of brutality to street fighting. Murder Rosa Luxemburg and other leaders  

- demobilized veterans who are convinced Germany hasn’t lost the war, extreme right wing violence, claim Germany had been betrayed, stabbed in the back by the left wings who accepted defeat in the Versailles Treaty 

Weimar Culture:

• Architecture, film, every artistic realm flourished with creativity 

• Stands for modernism more broadly  

• Bauhaus architectural movement→ initiates modern architecture. Everything designed for maximum efficiency and space

The New Woman and Sexual Freedom 

• “Down with kitchen slavery and up with the new way of life”

• The Weimer Republic’s Sexual Radicals, 1927 

- cross dressing, breaking women’s gender roles 

- The war shattered gender roles and opened up new spaces

- Sex reformers, books, public clinics 

- Movement for sexual reform was the largest non-party movement

Lecture 2

Fascism and Communism 

• European politics would be driven by a war between fascism (Italy) and communism (Soviets)

• Two competing, totalizing ideological systems. Each rejected liberal democracies and the values 

• Communism was internationalists, looked to utopian community of workers 

• Fascism was nationalist, and sought to create a community based on ethnicity and race. Exulted violence as a creative force in its own right, anti-globalist, in the beginning, made an alliance with the traditional conservatives right, then discarded those allies when they no longer benefited Fascism 

The Rise of the Nazi Party 

• Hyperinflation in Germany in 1922- so much money being printed 

•  Economic crisis brought by great depression in 1929  

• Hitler was effective at propaganda and channeling the people's anger  

• Part of that anger was directed towards social changes in Germany (gender reforms of Weimar Republic’s Sexual Radicals) 

•  His campaign was for the return and nostalgia of the “Aryan Family”, old conservative German family 

• Mass rallies 

Italian Fascism 

• Mass rallies and speeches 

Nazi Seizure and Consolidation of Power 

• In the early rounds of voting (1920s), Nazi Party was not getting any votes and only broke through in 1930 

• Up to that point, they were viewed as rough necks and not viewed seriously

• 1932; Hitler ran for president, but lost (13 million votes) 

• Nazi Party and Communists are dominating, the extremes are dominating  

• ⅓ of workforce is unemployed, centre collapsing at this time  

• Hitler got into power → institutions did not hold  

• The Reichstag Fire (1933)  

• 1933 Election Campaign: made strikes illegal, officials that were disloyal to Nazi party were fired 

• In 1933, Jews made up 1% of the German population, but Nazis made anti-semetic propaganda central to their identity 

- telling people to boycott Jewish businesses 

-”Nuremberg Laws”: Jews lost their right to citizenship, becoming stateless people within Germany (Can’t get valid passport to leave Germany)

- Law to protect German blood and honour: Germans cannot marry Jews 

*Nazi is also Fascist 

The Soviet Union (Communism) 

• Internationalists, looking for a utopian society of workers

• Violently oppressed the bourgeoisie and wealthy peasants

• “Kulaks” wealth Ukrainian peasants deported and demonized as rich peasants who didn’t care about the collective 

• Stalin’s 5 Year Plan (1928), to end backwardness. Rapid industrialization of the economy to catch up. 

- eliminate enemies  

Soviet Union and Nazi Party comparison

• Both celebrated the collective over the individual 

• While Germany was focused on Racial changes, Soviet Union prioritized class changes 

• Engaged in social engineering to remake and purify society