Your blog assignment for this week is to play the role of a German Citizen and rate the performance of the Weimar Republic in their dealings with the following issues:
1) How they dealt with WWI?
2) How they dealt with the land question after WWI? (Think about the land that was lost...)
3) Working with the Allies, especially the U.S., in order to pay for war reparations. (Think about the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan)
4) How they dealt with the Post-War Economy (1918-1933) (Think about Industrial Output, Agricultural Output, Unemployment)
5) How they provided for the everyday needs of the German people.
Don't forget, for the blog this week you only need to post how you would rate the Weimar Government for three out of the five issues from above. I would really like for you to approach this week's blog a bit differently than normal. I want you to write as if you are a German Citizen who was living in the post-WWI era!!! (In the First Person!!!) Have fun with this and truly speak on what your thoughts are in terms of the performance of the Weimar Government. But, you still need to see the opportunity for historiography! Some citizens may have viewed the efforts of the Weimar Government as beneficial to Germany, whereas some may have viewed their actions as shameful. This is where the historical debate will be created. Have fun with this blog but be very explicit in WHY you rate the Weimar Government in the way that you do!
Remember your due dates:
1) Original Post: By Thursday 12/3 (12:00 am)
2) 2 Responses: By Sunday 12/6(12:00 am)
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Jonah Simmons
ReplyDeleteI am a very upset German citizen! and for a number of reasons! First of all, the Great War. Why did the Government stop? We were doing well until just before we quit! And what happened as a result? the Treaty of Versailles! We ended up the worst off after the war! Not only did we have an unbelievable amount of damage to our land, a destroyed economy, millions of deaths, and starvation and poverty throughout Germany, our government had to sign the treaty of Versailles! we, as a country, also had to claim full responsibility for the war (a completely unfair part of the treaty since it was the faults of other countries as well!), reduce our military dramatically (did Great Britain have to do the same? I don't think so!), and have to pay an enormous amount of money to pay for the damage in other countries (which we definitely can't pay since it's way too high a price and we were damaged the most!).
And thanks to the lost land, we can't really do much to get our economy back up. Did we really have to allow that land to be taken away? Also, with our economy down and no way to bring it back up, a military that's far too small to fight efficiently, and a government that doesn't know how to save it's country from disaster, how are we supposed to fight off communism (Belk's notes).
Even with the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan the country's still doing terribly! We still have way too many unemployed, no money or food, and we're all hungry! With reduced debts, I think my government should be doing a lot better! Our government is supposed to be providing jobs for us and food and we're not getting it. Without an economy that works efficiently and therefore is not getting things out on the market for Germans and citizens of other countries to buy, I don't know how we can get work. if we had more land to work on, that could increase imployment. i think this government is trying to help this country out of this terrible time of uncertainty and doubt, but I don't know if it can do it.