The Rise & Fall of the Second Reich
During the second half of the 19th century while crossing over to the very beginning of the 1900’s it is hard to really understand German politics and the rise of fall of the Germanic Empire. There is much debate over whether the political affairs of the 19thcentury Germany ultimately lead to the rise of the Nazi party some thirty years later in 1933 when Adolf Hitler rose to power as chancellor of Germany. Whether or not that may be true, it is something that has intrigued me the most having read The German Empire of 1871 due to the several distinctive views from the different historians throughout the reading.
In regards, to the idea of whether or not Otto Von Bismarck’s and King Wilhelm’s pre-modern aristocratic government that reigned for a nearly half a century was the foundation and cause to Hitler and the NAZI parties rise to power as Germany’s 3rd Reich is uncertain. However, in my opinion, I firmly believe that in no way did the government of the German Empire cause or predict the atrocities that were set to happen during World War II under NAZI regime. That being said I fully agree with Geo Eley and David Blackburn and their Neo-Marxist theory of how the German Empire under Bismarck’s power had a direct correlation to National Socialism and the NAZI’s taking control of the government via 1933.
Eley and Blackburn believed that pre-modern Germany along with the authoritarian political culture caused a bridge between the second and third Reich. I wouldn’t go as far as to say it formed a direct bridge, but when trying to understand Germany’s governmental history over the course of a century and a half I think the problems they believe resulted in such chaos were said to be true. The first of the two problems started really at the beginning of the political roller coaster when the bourgeoisie of the German estates underwent a revolution in 1948. During this revolution they missed a opportunity to unify themselves as one nation under the bourgeoisie but failed too due to an unsuccessful parliament and lack of a constitution. This failed revolution concluded in the liberal Bourgeoisie conforming to King Wilhelm of Prussia in the form of Feudalism.
I firmly believe that the idea of a divided liberal bourgeoisie was the event of the German Governments demise. I say that disregarding Bismarck’s power and influence amongst the conservative parliament of the German Empire, but rather the missed opportunity amongst the German people during the revolution of 1848 which originally was deemed a success but later on was seen as an epic failure.
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