The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich - Essay Example

Question Primary sources are significant to the study of history of Germany because they provide a windowinto past events that took place in Germany. Primary sources provide access to the record of social, artistic, scientific, as well as political events and achievements that happened in the history of Germany. Primary sources concerning German’s history provides firsthand information that has not been distorted by any other person. Primary sources are reliable because they give exact dates and periods about a number of events, that happened in the past. Primary sources are as well important because a reader is able to develop a clear understanding about the past events as far as German’s past events are concerned. Primary sources act as evidence of what happened in the past of Germany and they can be used as evidence for arguments concerning the history of Germany. Because of the originality of primary sources, they provide correct chronology of events, exact periods, and names of all people who participated in different historical events. Question 2 At the end of 19th and beginning of 20th century, Germany had concerns about its environment in order to protect their surroundings. Its concerns were mostly based on industry, transport as well as other human activities that can have a negative impact on their environment. Their concerns became more serious at the beginning of 20th century due to rise in industrialization and technology. Some heavy weapons that were used during the World Wars led to massive destruction of German’s environment. They wanted to protect their environment from air, soil, and water pollutions. Released wastes from industries caused environmental pollution especially water and air pollution. Forest cover was also a major environmental issue in Germany during the mentioned period because they discouraged destruction of forests. Some environmental laws that were implemented during this period are still applicable to current days. Question 3 The rise of Hitler to power was contributed by the weakness of the Weimar constitution. The constitution crippled the government and many people were willing to have a dictator as their leader. When a crisis erupted in 1919-1933, there was no one who could fight and stop Hitler. Article 48 of the Weimar constitution gave the president authority under certain situations, to take emergency measures in addition to proliferation of legislative verdicts without a prior approval from the parliament of Germany. This constitution also led to Hitler’s rise to power because the nation was under pressure from the right and left wing extremists. The right wing did not support a democracy system while the left wing blamed the ruling social democrats for not respecting the ideals of the workers’ movements. Hitler utilized the weaknesses that this constitution had to rise to power as a dictator. Question 4 Despite the fact that many women were suspended from jobs to go and raise their children, a good number of women expressed their support for Nazi party in the elections of 1930s. The Nazi party had placed some mechanisms in place to ensure support from Women. Many Nazi organizations aimed at women. Women were offered chances and first priorities to take control of these organizations. Nazi party as well enjoyed support from women who were less educated from all sides of Germany. The chances that women were given to lead different organizations of the Nazi regime was a major factor that led to women’s support in 1930s elections. Question 5 The social policies of the Nazi government were strongly influenced by the role that social eugenics played in Germany. The major belief of the eugenic movement in Germany was that populations in Germany could be improved by means of changing their genetic makeup. They aimed at improving the quality of the population by introducing positive features like improved productivity in addition to removal of other things that cause social problems like increased crime rate. Hitler together with other Nazis had strong support for eugenic pseudo-science. They saw the Germany society as a sick organism with contaminated body systems. They wanted to eliminate some elements of the community that they believed had undesirable characteristics. It led to formation of certain policies that required all doctors to record all genetically related disorders in all patients apart from women over 45 years. These conditions included schizophrenia and other disorders related to poor quality human beings. They wanted to come up with a superior Germany population because the policy had been applied in other countries before. Question 6 The Wannsee protocol was a meeting that brought together senior officials of Nazi Germany. The meeting was held in Berlin neighborhood of Wannasee in January 1942. Director of Reich main security office called the convention. The purpose of the conference was to ensure cooperation among administrative leaders in various sections of the government to put in practice the ultimate way out concerning the Jewish issue. It meant Jewish who had occupied Germany were to be deported to Poland and killed. The Nazis were working with other governments like Slovakia and Romania concerning the anti-Jewish activities. The main objective of the Wannasee protocol was to remove all Jews in Germany. Question 7 Cumulative radicalization refers to the way in which state guiding principle little by little became extreme because of the chaotic organization, social Darwinism that Hitler implemented, and the procedure of people working towards the Fuhrer. Hitler applied this theory as an intermediary between different power blocks. Cumulative radicalization is important in understanding the Nazi Germany era because Hitler applied it during his era. Question 8 The Marshall plan was an initiative by America to help and support Europe. United States America gave $13 billion as an economic support to assist to rebuild economies of European countries after the end of World War II. The plan was to run for four-year duration. The plan was also known as the European recovery program. The Second World War weakened many European nations economically. The plan was to ensure that Europe comes back to its economic status before the war. Question 9 Krautrock referred to a movement or style that was used in music and it is widely associated with a number of events in Germany after the Second World War. Krautrock is important to the study of history of Germany because it was characterized by Germany acts after the World War II. The name Krautrock was also common in Germany to name different Rock music bands. Question 10 Following the separation of Germany into East and West Germany, the rate and nature of crimes changed drastically. Due to these changes associated to crime, a national police force was developed in West Germany to control rate of crimes. Essay question The fall of the Weimar republic in 1933 was associated with a number of reasons. This paper will discuss different reasons that led to the collapse of the Weimar republic. Different events that happened that period are attributed to the fall Weimar republic. The rise to power of the Nazi party is one of the reasons associated with its fall. The Nazi regime was characterized by lack of democracy in Germany and it is one of the major reasons for the fall of Weimar Republic, as it will be broadly discussed in this paper. The Weimar republic is a government that was established by the Germans because it was one of the terms of the Versailles agreement. Fall of Weimar republic could have been due to a number of events that took place during that time. Different scholars as well as historians have argued about the exact reason for the fall of this republic. Sections of historians claim that people who were in power during that period caused the fall. Others claim that the great depression in addition to instabilities within the government caused the fall. Different things contributed to the fall of Weimar Republic in 1933. In the first place, Weimar Republic was not stable due to different reasons. The system was forcefully introduced in Germany in 1919 and many people were not well conversant with democracy. The new government system led to confusions among German citizens because they were not used to it. In addition to this, the new government system caused disorders within the government systems. The ruling system in the Weimar Republic was very exceptional where a president together with a chancellor ruled at the same time. Power of authority was divided between the two roles, with each position as a rule supported by big coalition. An individual exclusively held the function of the chancellor for some years because the coalition government was not able to make a working structure that would fulfill all their requirements. The instability of the government was also caused by a unique power of article 48 that gave the chancellor a permission to suspend people from the parliament. All factors that led to an unstable government are as well the key reasons that caused the Weimar Republic to collapse. In 1929, Germany was under leadership of a grand coalition that brought together the social democrats as well as the People’s party. During that period, the rate of unemployment was rising at a fast rate. The social democrats advocated for increase in employer contributions while the Peoples’ Party advocated for cutting benefits. The fall of the Weimar Republic has been for a long time associated with the weak Weimar constitution. The weaknesses that the constitution had are the key reasons while Weimar republic collapsed. The weakness of the constitution was a major reason why Hitler rose to power. Hitler took advantage of some provisions of the Weimar constitution especially article 48, to rise to power as a dictator. The article 48 of the constitution allowed the president of Weimar to rule by decree without getting permission from the National Assembly of Germany. This article was a major weakness that the constitution had. Economic calamities contributed greatly to the fall of Weimar Republic. Throughout the history of Weimar Germany, the republic experienced many economic hardships because of different political instabilities. At many times, the Weimar Republic faced serious food shortages, increase in rate of unemployment, hyperinflation, and economic depressions. The nation suffered many depts. During the war period, Weimar Republic incurred many depts. The war was followed by a serious economic depression. Weimar Republic was unable to recover from the economic hardships due to many depts. These economic problems caused the fall of Weimar republic. The fall of Weimar Republic are linked to many reasons that were dependent to each other. For instance, the weaknesses that the Weimar constitution had led to emergence of some issues like poor leadership and unstable government. Other factors like economic calamities led to its fall. As mentioned above, these are key reasons for collapse of Weimar Republic according to different scholars and historians. Works cited Shirer, William L. The Rise and fall of the Third Reich; a History of Nazi Germany. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960. Print. Read More