Historiography Flashcards
What is Detlev Peukert’s views on the nature of the revolution?
Ebert’s decisions from the 9th of November 1918 to the 19th of January 1919 signalled that “the revolution was to be confined to constitutional and corporatist measures.” The existence of a democratic tradition in Germany before the revolution and the complexity of Germany’s industrial and social structure “meant that any radical break with the past was impossible”.
What is Detlev Peukert’s views on Ebert?
Ebert and the SPD were afraid that the chaos that had happened in Russia would happen in Germany too.
What is Detlev Peukert’s views on the Ebert-Groener Telephone Pact?
“For Ebert, the need for order remained paramount.” He was conscious of the shattering spectacle of events in Russia, he wanted to be able to enter peace negotiations from a position of greater strength, and he knew that demobilisation and putting the economy back onto a peacetime footing would necessitate a huge organisational effort by the state. These considerations underlay the agreement which was made on 19 November between Ebert and Groener, “a compromise that conditioned relations between the new republic and the old military.”
What is Detlev Peukert’s views on the Sparacist’s Revolt and its Suppression?
The Spartacists “had no clear cut strategy.” The suppression of the Spartacists by the government meant that the split within the working class movement now became permanent and delivered the SPD “Into the hands of armed groups for whom the fight against ‘Bolshevism’ was merely a prelude to the fight against the revolutionary current as a whole.” This was all quite unnecessary given the balance of forces in January: the Spartacists were never as much of a threat as Ebert supposed.
What is Detlev Peukert’s views on the impact of the 1923 crisis on German life?
Counsels caution: “the social effects…are not easy to assess.” Thus, two individuals from the same broad social class may be affected very differently.
What is Detlev Peukert’s views on the Dawes Plan?
The Dawes Plan “granted Germany a reasonable scale of reparations payments.” The technical problems of Germany’s ability to pay were detached from Franco-German rivalry. Dawes was also a victory for financial realism. However, “in the medium term a vicious circle developed, as American credits were followed by German reparations payments, which led to French credit repayments, primarily to the Americans, which in turn were followed by new American credits. In late 1929 this whole overblown system collapsed, and the countries involved were sucked into world-wide recession.”
What is Detlev Peukert’s views on the political and economic stabilisation in 1924-29?
Wrote of ‘the illusion of domestic stability’; the years between 1924 and 1929 seem stable only by contrast with the periods of crisis that preceded and followed them. There were deep structural tensions in German society including those created by the peace treaty and the foundation of the Republic in 1918-19. 1924-29 was a period of intense modernity and experiment; but, argued Peukert “the exceptionally severe check to Germany’s economic growth that followed the First World War reduced the scope for compromises and trade-offs.” The ‘cult of modernity’ provoked intense conservative reaction.
What is Detlev Peukert’s views on Hindenburg?
The republic “was destroyed through the active connivance of the Reich President, Paul von Hindenburg.”
What is Detlev Peukert’s view on the mistakes and weaknesses of Nazi opponents?
The split in the labour movement (between the communists and the social democrats) prevented the left from functioning as an effective political force.
What is Stephen Lee’s view on the nature of the revolution?
“The year 1918…saw in Germany a revolutionary situation but without a revolution…if there was a revolution, it did not revolutionise.”
What is Stephen Lee’s view on the preparation and adoption of the constitution?
Weimar Germany had all the necessary components for democracy. However, the balance between them was potentially flawed.
What is Stephen Lee’s view on the Treaty of Versailles?
The Treaty “set in motion influences which were to prove more damaging to the republic than the treaty itself. Its impact was therefore indirect but real nevertheless.”
What is Stephen Lee’s view on the Dawes Plan?
The Dawes Plan drew the sting from the commitment to reparations payments and enormous boost was provided by the inflow of American investments. However, recovery was “based too heavily on externally generated credit. Short-term loans were used to finance long-term capital projects, the assumption being that it would not be difficult to renew the loans as payments fell due. This made the German economy highly vulnerable to any major fluctuations on the American stock market.”
What are Stephen Lee’s view on Hitler and the Politics of Intrigue?
“Hitler came to power largely through a conspiracy.”
The Nazis’ success depended on the vulnerability of the republic caused by the economic crisis from 1929. Hitler succeeded in collecting much of the electorate that had become disillusioned with the republic.
What is Stephen Lee’s view on the Night of the Long Knives?
It might be argued that the real revolutionaries were the SA and that Hitler took emergency measures against these in the ‘Night of the Long Knives’. On the other hand, Hitler stopped the second revolution ‘not through a preference for legality’, but to maintain and strengthen his own position. In any case, the method by which the leaders of the SA were dispatched can hardly be described as legal.
