As a citizen of Germany, I feel that my views on the Weimar Government should be heard! I will start with WWI. What happened?! We were fighting on and doing well in the war, and then we just quit? I understand that the Schlieffen Plan from way back at the beginning of the war had not worked, and the war lasted a lot longer that the leaders anticipated, as in not 16 weeks (Belk Notes). But, I think that we could have kept going. Many countries were growing weary, as was exemplified by Russia. We could have won the war instead of signing of lame treaty. The Treaty of Versailles outlined that we would have to take blame for the war, make our army smaller, give away land (GOOD land), and then pay this humungous debt (Belk Notes). Does any of this sound good to you? I suppose that in the position that the Weimar Government was in, it was quite impossible to make a good decision. Either they sign the treaty and get yelled at by people like me, or other countries would invade. What I'm explaining, is that if we had pulled through the war and won it in the first place, there would be no need to sign any treaty; we would be calling the shots.
Now, I will move on to the land that had been taken in the Treaty of Versailles (Belk Notes). Did I mention that it was GOOD land? Those were the areas that were rich in industry and fertile land! Now how are we supposed to build ourselves back up if we don't have the means to do so?! Our people are suffering from the losses of the war, which we could have won, and we can't fix it. Many of my friends died in that war, and for what? So we could grovel at the feet of other Europeans and give away our economy? The Weimar Government should have stepped in to negotiate at least for some way to build ourselves back up. Now we are wallowing around, and the government is beginning to lose my support, if you couldn't tell. Where are we going with all of this failure and quitter-attitudes?
In continuation with the economy, I am utterly frustrated. Many of the workers were killed in the war, so I understand some industry has gone under because of that, but then I see nothing being done about it still! Our outputs are not doing very well at the moment, but I do see that due to our trying to conquer and establish and empire in the countries surrounding us, we have earned a bad reputation. I understand that that is difficult to deal with, who wants to trade with the unpopular country? Overall, I think that the Weimar Government could have done several things to prevent some of the problems we are facing now (bad economy, loss of land, etc by winning the war). Some would have happened anyway (since we lost, we were bound to lose something), but they still need to be dealt with. I will allow the fact that a couple of the outcomes of the war are difficult to deal with (Treaty of Versailles - negotiation?), and the Weimar Government is stuck with difficult decisions and bad-or-bad choices. I just wish that we could have won the war...
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Of course we would have been in a completely better situation if we would have won the war. The Weimar government would have never even came to power and we would not be having the problems we are. I completely agree with the Weimar government trying to negotiate the land taken. How could they just sign the treaty with no fight or arguement. I understand that if they would have declined the allies would have invaded us but putting up a fight would have showed the people we were still strong. Many more people would be supporting them if they had tried to negotiate atleast a small amount. Maybe the allies would have even listened? Who knows though because the government immediately accepted.
ReplyDelete(Irate loyalist is go!)
ReplyDeleteYou cannot blame the Weimar for our loss of the war, that blame falls on the Kaiser, who started the affair. The Weimar, in their infinite wisdom, was able to negotiate us out of certain slavery! Their forces pushed our depleted, battered army out of France and in to Belgium, and Americans were surging in to replace tired soldiers. Would you have us throw more lies away? The Weimar government had no power in this situation, what would you have them do? Should we allow ourselves to be slaughtered, oppressed, everything we own taken from us? I would rather lose a small fraction and maintain our independence than endure slavery of those fools. We have a unique position, we have America who is willing to fund us, and land that can be developed. Our problems began with the Kaiser's rash actions, let us learn from his mistakes and work in a more diplomatic manner. Let the Weimar work, give them time, and do not strive to further weaken our country lest you find a "necklace" befitting a traitor wound 'round your neck.