Winston Churchill sitting on a broken chair recovered from Hitler's bunker in Berlin in the last days of WWII.

 Hindenburg appointing Hitler as Chancellor of Germany.  

This picture shows German troops entering Poland in the fall of 1939. During this camping, Hitler introduced a new type of warfare called "Blitzkrieg" or lighting warfare. This revolutionary approach to warfare involved the use of planes, armor and vehicles to quickly overwhelm defenders within a city. Ideally a wave of bombers would damage preliminary defenses, quickly followed by tanks and other various types of armor that were intend to further weaken enemy defenses. This was followed by lightly armored soldiers typically in jeeps, half-tracks or motorcycles that began the initial primary assault. Once a strong hold or base of operations was established, greater amounts of foot soldiers would arrive and prepare for a full out assault of the city. In the initial stages of WWII Blitzkrieg was devastating to ill-equipped countries like Poland, and allowed for Hitler to quickly establish military presence in the region.  

Most historians agree that there was not one single factor that triggered the start of World War I, however in almost every account of history the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand is viewed as the last major historical event that thrust Europe into World War I.  The picture above is an artist’s rendition of the Archduke's assassination, and after Serbian assassin Gavrilo Princip fired two shots; Europe was less than a month away from the official start of World War I.

World War I officially started on July 28, 1914 and lasted until the fall of 1918. It is estimated that over 1,700,000 German soldiers were killed during WW I, and to add to this, Germany received complete blame for the start of the war.  As a result of this Germany faced astronomical amounts of reparations, similar to punitive damages, and was responsible for repaying the Allied forces billions of dollars. This caused large levels of inflation to German currency (reichsmarks) and ultimately led to the demise of the post World War I German economy. This caused a great deal of unrest and frustration across Germany, and made the political scene in Germany chaotic to say the least.  Despite this by 1924, following some stability through the rise of the Weimar Republic, it appeared as if Germany was slowly shaking the effects of World War I.  “Between 1924 and 1929 German production increased in volume by 50%, and many industries were able to regain their former dominant position in world markets (Schulze 218).”

 From the outside it appeared as if Germany was slowly returning to its pre-WW I economic potential, but vast ideological polarization within the Weimar Republic made its collapse inevitable.  This atmosphere allowed for the rise of not only a new political party, but also the birth of a new leader.  This political party, the Nazi party was led by Adolf Hitler, and his charisma and strategic use of rhetoric grabbed the attention of the German people.  The Nazi party relied on logical political platforms to grab the attention of the German people, and Hitler’s sweeping rhetoric attracted the attention to various Germans across the political spectrum.  By 1933, the Nazi party had turned into the dominant political party in Germany, and on January 30, Hitler was appointed as the Chancellor of Germany.  The Weimar republic was in shambles, and the momentum of the Nazi party would soon rise to hold absolute power over Germany. 

            Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor was only the beginning of the Nazi parties dominance, and by the mid 1930’s the Nazi party held complete control over the German government and its people.  Hitler’s political beliefs were quite radical, and as we know focused on the creation of a “master ethnic race.”  Hitler believed in the preservation and further creation of the Aryan race, and declared that all other ethnic races were inferior.  Jews were specifically targeted by the Nazi party, and by the end of World War II, more than 6 million Jews were murdered in labor or concentration camps. 

            After Hitler’s rise to power, he quickly began re-arming and assembling the German army, an act that was prohibited by the Treaty of Versailles (the treaty that officially ended WW I).  By the late 1930’s Hitler had assembled the largest and best-equipped army on earth, and a large-scale military conflict was destined to happen.  On September 1, 1939 under the leadership of Hitler and the Nazi party, the German Army invaded Poland and WW II officially started.  The scope of World War II is far to enormous to cover in one blog or one paper, however the conclusion of WW II laid the framework of the modern world.  As I previously mentioned in one of my previous blogs, the post WW II years led to the Cold War, which fundamentally altered the makeup of world powers of that time period. 

            For this blog I thought it was important to discuss some of the minor details that led to Hitler’s rise to power and some of the general background leading up to WW II.  In my opinion we typically remember the outcome of WW II, the major battles of the War and some of the effects that the conclusion of the War had on the modern world, but we fail to take a step back and analyze the series of events that made WW II possible.  W/C 722

This picture shows German troops march through the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on June 16, 1871.

This picture depicts the 1848 German National Assembly that attempted to draft a constitution that would allow Germany to elect a national government.

A famous portrait of Napoleon that is seen in numerous history books.

The Iron-Chancellor

Following the Thirty Year’s war the dozens of provinces that make up modern day Germany were very similar to our own colonies during the early years of our country.  The provinces were divided religiously, economically and lacked a central authoritative power to unify them.  Further there was a complete lack of infrastructure among the provinces that made trading between them completely incredibly inefficient.  The separation among provinces hurt the provinces economically, but this economic downfall was only a small issue compared to the defense issues that their separation caused.  The lack of unity between the provinces made the German provinces incredibly vulnerable to foreign attackers, and it was only a matter of time before an outside attacker took an advantage of the opportunity. 

            France finally capitalized on this opportunity, and as we will discuss in more detail this later, this attack may have been a bitter blessing in disguise.  France’s attack was led primarily through Napoleon, however the effects of his rule would have a long lasting impact on not only Germany but also the other major nations of Europe.  Similar to our own revolution, war forced the provinces of Germany to realize that there current system of government was inadequate in a variety of ways.  The path to unification didn’t happen overnight and was by no means “smooth”, however it is important to remember the surrounding events that let to the formation of what we recognize to be as Germany. 

            While we have already briefly discussed several events that led to the creation and unification of Germany, I have decided to focus on one individual who I believe was critical to Germany’s emergence as a national superpower towards the end of the 19^th century.  Otto von Bismarck referred to by some historians, as the “Iron-Chancellor” was appointed as the prime minister of Prussia on September 24, 1862.  The Iron-Chancellor was the spark that the German people needed to take the advancement of their nation to the next level.  As I stated earlier a previous major flaw to the unification of the German provinces was military unity, and the provinces often sat back on their heels as they were attacked from stronger European countries.  Bismarck changed this tactic, and believed that if Germany wanted to strengthen it needed to go on the offensive.  This came through a war with France that lasted till approximately 1871, and proved to be the final necessary major historic event that led to German Unification.

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