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There are so many things these articles overlook. Germany was coming out of the WW1 as a loser. The war in Europe was nothing like you've ever seen in America.
by lispm 10y ago
There are so many things these articles overlook.
Germany was coming out of the WW1 as a loser. The war in Europe was nothing like you've ever seen in America. Germany was paying reparations for many years. Germany lost two million soldiers (out of ten million world wide). Many civilians were killed. Poorness among the families of fallen soldiers. Many were wounded. Several hundred thousand Germans died due to lack of food.
The crisis of Germany in the 20s and 30s was also nothing, literally nothing, you have ever seen in the USA.
In 1923 one Dollar was 4.21 Billionen Reichsmark.
No kidding. 4.21 Billionen Reichsmark. That's a 4*10^12 in US numbers. The equivalent of one dollar.
1929 was another economic crisis which reached into the 30s. Mass unemployment, families looking for food, resignation, ongoing reparations, social security not developed, politicians failing, feeling of a total catastrophe - but this was based real problems. Not in 'the strongest nation with the largest military.'
The problems of the US today are tiny in comparison. There are poor people in the US. But it is nothing compared to the Weimarer Republik and their weak democracy, which was under fire from communists, the Nazi party, conservative parties, ... even the president did not support it and in the end caused its collapse when handing over the government to Hitler.
Mostly the social democrats were supporting the democracy.
If you think the times of the Weimarer Republik are similar to the US today, its political or its economic situation - this is total BS.
- wuschel 10y agoDon't forget the monarchists who held many an important position in the state. Indeed, the first german fledgling democractic state, the Weimarer Republic, still called the "Reich" bei many of its inhabitants, had a horrible economic start in a time of great social change.
- lispm 10y agoRight, the monarchists were mostly against the Weimarer Republik. They lost most of their special rights in 1919/20.
- hga 10y agoThe war in Europe was nothing like you've ever seen in America. I think Southerners might disagree with that point, especially through the post-Civil War Reconstruction AKA military occupation period. Not saying they're directly comparable, but "nothing like you've ever seen in America" significantly overstates the differences.
- DocTomoe 10y ago> I think Southerners might disagree with that point Trust me, WW1 in Europe makes the American Civil War look like a nice picnic with the kids in a park.
- hga 10y agoFor the losers I don't believe that was true, although I agree it was less disastrous in a number of ways.
- masklinn 10y ago> For the losers I don't believe that was true The continental "winners" of WW1 suffered more than the losers of the civil war. Check out https://populationpyramid.net/france/1950/ https://populationpyramid.net/france/1950/ and https://populationpyramid.net/germany/1950/ https://populationpyramid.net/germany/1950/ there are two features you can notice on these: one is a belt at the 30~34 level which is a birth deficit from the WW1 (combined with WW2 losses), the second is that the male side has a giant bite taken out above the 45-49 line, those are the deaths from WW1, 30% of the male cohorts of fighting ages were lost in the trenches, parts of the battlefields between Belgium and France are still completely unfit for any human activity, they remain "red zones" a century later[0] with poisonous compounds (e.g. arsenic) representing double-digit amounts of soil, and even in "rehabilitated" areas of farmers keep harvesting iron[1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_rouge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_rouge [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_harvest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_harvest
- hga 10y ago