When my discussion with Pascal turned into the unification of the German Nation and its emergence of the new European super power, how Otto von Bismarck played diplomacy and statesmanship surprised us.
Bismarck took advantage of his great skills in the field of diplomacy and led two wars which turned Prussia into the most powerful state among other states of the German Confederation and a major power in Europe. He ultimately made the German Nation an European super power by the unification of various states in to a single entity.
At the very early stage in his career, he opposed the unification of Germany, arguing that Prussia would lose its independence in the process. He accepted his appointment as one of Prussia's representatives at the Erfurt Parliament, an assembly of German states that met to discuss plans for union, but only in order to oppose that body's proposals more effectively. The Parliament, in any event, failed to bring about unification, for it lacked the support of the two most important German states, Prussia and Austria.
In 1852, Friedrich Wilhelm appointed Bismarck as Prussia's envoy to the Diet of the German Confederation in Frankfurt. His eight years in Frankfurt were marked by changes in his political opinions. No longer under the influence of his ultraconservative Prussian friends, Bismarck became less reactionary and more moderate. He became convinced that Prussia would have to ally itself with other German states in order to countervail Austria's growing influence. Thus, he grew more accepting of the notion of a united German nation.
Shortly after he served as the Prussian envoy in Frankfurt he had undertaken an ambassadorial position to Russia. While Bismarck was promoted, Helmuth von Moltke and Albrecht von Roon were appointed as the new Chief of Staff for the Prussian army and the Prussian Minister of War respectively and these three men over the next 12 years transformed the German Nation by unifying it into a powerful nation of Europe.
Before unification, the German Nation consisted of a multitude of principalities loosely bound together as members of the German Confederation. The Germanic Confederation of 39 states which was created from the previous 300 was under the heavy influence of Austria and its emperor as the president of the Confederation. Only portions of the territory of Austria and Prussia were included in the Confederation.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Holy Roman Empire Era War to Napoleonic Wars
In a while Pascal Sadune, the leader of the tsunami survey team joined me and my discussion with him digressed into many of the German historical events. As he did political science for his Masters degree, he had shown more interest in historical issues. His confession on the conflicts since the medieval times and major world wars showed how Germany had undergone many a destruction since historical times.
The reformation and Thirty Years War in German states from 1618 to 1648 totally ravaged the German Nation. The conflicts between Catholics and Protestants by their efforts in various states within the Holy Roman Empire to increase their power and the emperor's attempt to achieve religious and political unity of the empire caused the total devastation of the German Nation. The war resulted in a loss of something like a third of its population and large areas of the German Nation being laid waste.
Another major factor that threw the German Nation into a mess was the rivalry between Prussia and Austria for the leadership over other German states which began since 1640. After the Peace of Hubertsburg in 1763, Prussia too became equally powerful and exerted a powerful influence on German affairs.
Thereafter the Congress of Vienna, a conference between ambassadors from the major powers in Europe affected many of the German affairs.
The foundation of the Congress of Vienna was to reshape Europe's political map after the defeat of Napoleonic France in the previous spring. The Congress continued its discussions despite the ex-Emperor Napoleon I's return from exile and resumption of power in France in March 1815. The Congress's Final Act was signed nine days before his final defeat by Prussia's Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher with the help of the United Kingdom's Duke of Wellington at Waterloo on June 18, 1815.
The Congress finally reshaped entire Europe after the Napoleonic wars, with the exception of the terms of peace with France, which had already been decided a few months ago by the Treaty of Paris.
Most of the work at the Congress was performed by Great Britain, Russia, Prussia, Austria and France, the major powers of Europe at that time. The "Congress of Vienna" never actually occurred, as the Congress never met in plenary session, with most of the discussions occurring in informal sessions among the Great Powers. Most of the delegations, however, had nothing much to do at the Congress, and the host, Emperor Francis of Austria, held lavish entertainment to keep them occupied. This led to the Prince de Ligne's famous comment that "le Congres ne marche pas; il danse." (The Congress does not work; it dances.)
The Congress of Vienna was an integral part in what became known as the Conservative Order in which peace and stability were traded for liberties and civil rights. Though the Congress was frequently criticized for ignoring national and liberal impulses, and for imposing a stifling reaction on the continent, it had prevented another European general war for nearly a hundred years 1815 to1914.
The reformation and Thirty Years War in German states from 1618 to 1648 totally ravaged the German Nation. The conflicts between Catholics and Protestants by their efforts in various states within the Holy Roman Empire to increase their power and the emperor's attempt to achieve religious and political unity of the empire caused the total devastation of the German Nation. The war resulted in a loss of something like a third of its population and large areas of the German Nation being laid waste.
Another major factor that threw the German Nation into a mess was the rivalry between Prussia and Austria for the leadership over other German states which began since 1640. After the Peace of Hubertsburg in 1763, Prussia too became equally powerful and exerted a powerful influence on German affairs.
Thereafter the Congress of Vienna, a conference between ambassadors from the major powers in Europe affected many of the German affairs.
The foundation of the Congress of Vienna was to reshape Europe's political map after the defeat of Napoleonic France in the previous spring. The Congress continued its discussions despite the ex-Emperor Napoleon I's return from exile and resumption of power in France in March 1815. The Congress's Final Act was signed nine days before his final defeat by Prussia's Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher with the help of the United Kingdom's Duke of Wellington at Waterloo on June 18, 1815.
The Congress finally reshaped entire Europe after the Napoleonic wars, with the exception of the terms of peace with France, which had already been decided a few months ago by the Treaty of Paris.
Most of the work at the Congress was performed by Great Britain, Russia, Prussia, Austria and France, the major powers of Europe at that time. The "Congress of Vienna" never actually occurred, as the Congress never met in plenary session, with most of the discussions occurring in informal sessions among the Great Powers. Most of the delegations, however, had nothing much to do at the Congress, and the host, Emperor Francis of Austria, held lavish entertainment to keep them occupied. This led to the Prince de Ligne's famous comment that "le Congres ne marche pas; il danse." (The Congress does not work; it dances.)
The Congress of Vienna was an integral part in what became known as the Conservative Order in which peace and stability were traded for liberties and civil rights. Though the Congress was frequently criticized for ignoring national and liberal impulses, and for imposing a stifling reaction on the continent, it had prevented another European general war for nearly a hundred years 1815 to1914.
Roman Expansion in Ancient France & Germania
Julius Caesar invoked the threat of Germanic attacks as one justification for his annexation of Gaul ( modern France ) to Rome.
As Rome expanded to the Rhine and Danube rivers, it incorporated many Celtic societies into the Empire.
The Germanic tribal homelands to the north and east emerged collectively in the records as Germania. The peoples of the Germania were sometimes at war with Rome, but also engaged in complex and long-term Alps relations, military alliances, and cultural exchanges with Rome as well.
The initial purpose of the Roman campaigns was to protect Trans-Alpine Gaul by controlling the area between the Rhine and the Elbe.
In 58 B.C. Julius Caesar, governor of the Roman province of Southern Gaul, conquered the remainder of Gaul, which had been free until then: Thus, for the first time, the powerful Roman Empire moved into immediate vicinity to Germania, and further expansion and colonization on part of the Germanic tribes were blocked.
Caesar defeated Germanic warlord Ariovist, who had tried to conquer Gaul himself, and pushed back the Germanic Tencterians, who had crossed the Rhine from Upper Hesse. He had a 400-meter bridge built over the Rhine in 10 days, marched to the Germanic right bank of the Rhine, showed off the power of his army, won over the Germanic Ubians as allies and forced some other tribes into peace agreements.
In 38 B.C. Augustus' general Agrippa resettled the Germanic Ubians, allied with Rome, in a new town at the left bank of the Rhine in order to protect Roman Gaul from raids by uncontrolled Germania. This was the founding of Colonia Agrippinensis, today's City of Cologne.
The wealthy country of Gaul seemed firmly and safely in the hands of the Romans. Even before the Roman conquest, the Gauls had already lived in towns, and they started to get used to living under Roman rule. But in 16 B.C. Gaul was raided by the Germanic Sugambrians, Usipians, and Tencterians. They severely defeated Roman governor Lollius and freely looted the wealthy country and then returned to their homeland with heavy booty.
Emperor Augustus had led many wars, but this was the heaviest defeat his forces had suffered so far. Though Gaul was only looted, these attacks made Rome afraid that one day it could lose Gaul, a country that by then was yielding more taxes and crop than the fabulously wealthy Egypt.
In order to avoid this danger in the long run, Germania had to be conquered - though the country itself neither offered cities, nor treasures, nor a food surplus.
Augustus moved to the Rhine border and prepared the big offensive in person. First, all the territory between the Alps and the Danube was to be conquered, and then Germania was to be attacked simultaneously from the Rhine, the Danube, and from the North Sea coast with a fleet.
As a starting point, the Romans established 50 legion camps along the Rhine and connected them by army routes (these camps turned into modern cities Xanten, Bonn and Mainz).
Along the left bank of the Rhine, a considerable Roman fleet was being built. Emperor Augustus appointed his adoptive son Drusus governor of Gaul and made him commander-in-chief of the Rhine troops - probably 5 to 6 legions, or about 50,000 men, expected to conquer Germania.
While the Romans were preparing the war against Germania from their province of Gaul, the Gauls were embittered over the Roman tax collection: Apparently several Gaullic tribes were ready to risk an uprising against the Roman rule. But Drusus fell with his horse, broke his thigh, and died of wound-fever after one month, being only 29 years old.
He had been successful, and popular with Romans, and favoured by the Emperor: It is likely he would have become Augustus' successor - instead of his uncanny brother Tiberius.
After the death of the victorious general Drusus, 33 years-old Tiberius assumed continuation of the war. In the spring of 8 B.C., he once again crossed the Rhine with a large army.
The Germanic tribes were too weakened from the continuous warfare of the last years to put up any resistance: For four years, they had been attacked every year by superior Roman armies, their settlements had been regularly burnt down, and their fields devastated. In the countless bloody battles and skirmishes during these four years, probably all tribes had lost a significant proportion of their men.
Already in the previous year, the allied tribes had been unable to prevent Drusus' army from marching through their territories. This year promised to be equally unsuccessful. It seemed better to capitulate now - and not to wait until one would be totally defeated and defenseless. Probably out of these considerations, all Germanic tribes sent envoys to the Romans, asking for peace.
In an unpopular manner that was typical to Emperor Augustus, he simply arrested all the men, and had them brought to several Roman cities as hostages and they evaded this imprisonment by resorting to suicide. Now the Romans succeeded peace treaties with most of the Germanic tribes. They accepted Roman rule, and started to pay tribute and provide troops for the Romans.
As Rome expanded to the Rhine and Danube rivers, it incorporated many Celtic societies into the Empire.
The Germanic tribal homelands to the north and east emerged collectively in the records as Germania. The peoples of the Germania were sometimes at war with Rome, but also engaged in complex and long-term Alps relations, military alliances, and cultural exchanges with Rome as well.
The initial purpose of the Roman campaigns was to protect Trans-Alpine Gaul by controlling the area between the Rhine and the Elbe.
In 58 B.C. Julius Caesar, governor of the Roman province of Southern Gaul, conquered the remainder of Gaul, which had been free until then: Thus, for the first time, the powerful Roman Empire moved into immediate vicinity to Germania, and further expansion and colonization on part of the Germanic tribes were blocked.
Caesar defeated Germanic warlord Ariovist, who had tried to conquer Gaul himself, and pushed back the Germanic Tencterians, who had crossed the Rhine from Upper Hesse. He had a 400-meter bridge built over the Rhine in 10 days, marched to the Germanic right bank of the Rhine, showed off the power of his army, won over the Germanic Ubians as allies and forced some other tribes into peace agreements.
In 38 B.C. Augustus' general Agrippa resettled the Germanic Ubians, allied with Rome, in a new town at the left bank of the Rhine in order to protect Roman Gaul from raids by uncontrolled Germania. This was the founding of Colonia Agrippinensis, today's City of Cologne.
The wealthy country of Gaul seemed firmly and safely in the hands of the Romans. Even before the Roman conquest, the Gauls had already lived in towns, and they started to get used to living under Roman rule. But in 16 B.C. Gaul was raided by the Germanic Sugambrians, Usipians, and Tencterians. They severely defeated Roman governor Lollius and freely looted the wealthy country and then returned to their homeland with heavy booty.
Emperor Augustus had led many wars, but this was the heaviest defeat his forces had suffered so far. Though Gaul was only looted, these attacks made Rome afraid that one day it could lose Gaul, a country that by then was yielding more taxes and crop than the fabulously wealthy Egypt.
In order to avoid this danger in the long run, Germania had to be conquered - though the country itself neither offered cities, nor treasures, nor a food surplus.
Augustus moved to the Rhine border and prepared the big offensive in person. First, all the territory between the Alps and the Danube was to be conquered, and then Germania was to be attacked simultaneously from the Rhine, the Danube, and from the North Sea coast with a fleet.
As a starting point, the Romans established 50 legion camps along the Rhine and connected them by army routes (these camps turned into modern cities Xanten, Bonn and Mainz).
Along the left bank of the Rhine, a considerable Roman fleet was being built. Emperor Augustus appointed his adoptive son Drusus governor of Gaul and made him commander-in-chief of the Rhine troops - probably 5 to 6 legions, or about 50,000 men, expected to conquer Germania.
While the Romans were preparing the war against Germania from their province of Gaul, the Gauls were embittered over the Roman tax collection: Apparently several Gaullic tribes were ready to risk an uprising against the Roman rule. But Drusus fell with his horse, broke his thigh, and died of wound-fever after one month, being only 29 years old.
He had been successful, and popular with Romans, and favoured by the Emperor: It is likely he would have become Augustus' successor - instead of his uncanny brother Tiberius.
After the death of the victorious general Drusus, 33 years-old Tiberius assumed continuation of the war. In the spring of 8 B.C., he once again crossed the Rhine with a large army.
The Germanic tribes were too weakened from the continuous warfare of the last years to put up any resistance: For four years, they had been attacked every year by superior Roman armies, their settlements had been regularly burnt down, and their fields devastated. In the countless bloody battles and skirmishes during these four years, probably all tribes had lost a significant proportion of their men.
Already in the previous year, the allied tribes had been unable to prevent Drusus' army from marching through their territories. This year promised to be equally unsuccessful. It seemed better to capitulate now - and not to wait until one would be totally defeated and defenseless. Probably out of these considerations, all Germanic tribes sent envoys to the Romans, asking for peace.
In an unpopular manner that was typical to Emperor Augustus, he simply arrested all the men, and had them brought to several Roman cities as hostages and they evaded this imprisonment by resorting to suicide. Now the Romans succeeded peace treaties with most of the Germanic tribes. They accepted Roman rule, and started to pay tribute and provide troops for the Romans.
Ethnic Germans' Sufferings After World War I in the United States and Europe
German-Americans were the most visible non-Anglophone group in the US during the 18th and 19th centuries. But the hostility against these groups took place during the nineteenth century, but were largely non-systematic. The Germans' stance of anti-slavery position in the Southern United States brought about violent clashes in slave states such as Texas during the American Civil War.
The pacifist Mennonite and Amish communities attracted considerable hatred, particularly during the American Revolution and the US Civil War, when many Mennonites and possibly Amish were imprisoned or forcibly conscripted. There was a popular view that Germans did not consider themselves part of America.
Upon the outbreak of World War I, anti-German sentiment quickly reached fever pitch. Many Germans supported their (former) homeland's side in the war, in which America long remained officially neutral. The situation came to a crisis with America's entry into the war in 1917. By the time the troops returned from Europe, the German community had ceased to be a major force in American culture, or was no more perceived as German.
When in France during World War I, members of the Yale University had learned about the German song Die Wacht am Rhein and were apparently shocked to discover the fact that Yale's traditional song "Bright College Years" had been written to the "splendid tune" of Carl Wilhelm. Suddenly hating this melody, Yale Alumni sang "Bright College Years" to the tune of the Marseillaise instead, and after the war the German melody was banned for some time until it was reinstated in 1920.
In Canada, thousands of German born Canadians were interned in detention camps during World War I and World War II and subjected to forced labour. Many Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans were also detained during the First World War as were Japanese and Italian-Canadians during the Second World War.
In Britain, Germans were demonized in the press well before the First World War, when the Kaiserliche Marine started to challenge the Royal Navy, but particularly around 1912 and during the First World War. Anti-German sentiment was so intense that the British Royal Family (which was, in fact, of German origin) was advised by the government to change its name, resulting in the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha becoming the House of Windsor. The German Shepherd dog was renamed as Alsatian. The waters that had been known as the 'German Ocean' were also renamed; the North Sea (as in German Nordsee) despite being east of the British Isles.
The pacifist Mennonite and Amish communities attracted considerable hatred, particularly during the American Revolution and the US Civil War, when many Mennonites and possibly Amish were imprisoned or forcibly conscripted. There was a popular view that Germans did not consider themselves part of America.
Upon the outbreak of World War I, anti-German sentiment quickly reached fever pitch. Many Germans supported their (former) homeland's side in the war, in which America long remained officially neutral. The situation came to a crisis with America's entry into the war in 1917. By the time the troops returned from Europe, the German community had ceased to be a major force in American culture, or was no more perceived as German.
When in France during World War I, members of the Yale University had learned about the German song Die Wacht am Rhein and were apparently shocked to discover the fact that Yale's traditional song "Bright College Years" had been written to the "splendid tune" of Carl Wilhelm. Suddenly hating this melody, Yale Alumni sang "Bright College Years" to the tune of the Marseillaise instead, and after the war the German melody was banned for some time until it was reinstated in 1920.
In Canada, thousands of German born Canadians were interned in detention camps during World War I and World War II and subjected to forced labour. Many Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans were also detained during the First World War as were Japanese and Italian-Canadians during the Second World War.
In Britain, Germans were demonized in the press well before the First World War, when the Kaiserliche Marine started to challenge the Royal Navy, but particularly around 1912 and during the First World War. Anti-German sentiment was so intense that the British Royal Family (which was, in fact, of German origin) was advised by the government to change its name, resulting in the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha becoming the House of Windsor. The German Shepherd dog was renamed as Alsatian. The waters that had been known as the 'German Ocean' were also renamed; the North Sea (as in German Nordsee) despite being east of the British Isles.
Germans' Sufferings
Stephan, a Saxon-Anhalt in our discussion on various Second World War issues, posed vaguely the world should know how the Allied Forces destroyed buildings and killed thousands of people ruthlessly.
There was frustration always in Germany though they apologized to the world for the massacres of Jews, Gypsies and other atrocities committed by Adolph Hitler and his Nazi Forces, the world has not so far apologized properly for the atrocities against the Germans around the world.
Germany apologized in 2004 for the colonial-era genocide, which killed 65,000 Herero people in what is now Namibia. Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Germany's development aid minister, at a ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the Hereros' 1904-1907 uprising against the German rulers said: "We Germans accept our historic and moral responsibility and the guilt incurred by Germans at that time".
German Chancellor Angela Merkel shared her grievances in front of Israel's national flag during a tree-planting ceremony near the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem on January 30, 2006 and laid a wreath for the six million Jews killed in the Nazi Holocaust.
But the Germans had a general opinion of the world's resentment over the German people's sufferings.
Ethnic Germans were systematically targeted based on their ethnicity in various parts of the world. Anti-German hostilities had been developed after the major World Wars of recent past, for which the German state had been held responsible. The German populations were identified with German nationalist regimes of Kaiser Wilhelm or Nazis.
This was the case in the World War I era; persecution of Germans in the United States and in Eastern and Central Europe following end of World War II. Many victims of these persecutions did not in fact have any connection to those regimes.
In other cases, German populations had been persecuted because they were perceived as lacking proper ties to the country in which they lived. This includes the persecution of ethnic German Mennonite, Amish and Hutterite communities in the United States and of Tyrolean Germans in South Tyrol.
In the case of South Tyrol, these hostilities hit the historically German population of an Austrian territory which had been annexed by Italy after World War I. Following the rise of the Fascist movement of Mussolini, the ethnic Germans of South Tyrol faced growing persecution. Their names, and the names of the towns and places in the area, were forcibly changed to Italian.
In addition, Mussolini engaged in a vigorous campaign to resettle ethnic Italians in the region. Many Tyroleans fled to Germany during this time, and the matter of South Tyrol became a source of friction between Hitler and Mussolini.
After the end of World War II, the organised persecution of Germans in the South Tyrol largely came to an end, although ethnic strife continued for decades.
There was frustration always in Germany though they apologized to the world for the massacres of Jews, Gypsies and other atrocities committed by Adolph Hitler and his Nazi Forces, the world has not so far apologized properly for the atrocities against the Germans around the world.
Germany apologized in 2004 for the colonial-era genocide, which killed 65,000 Herero people in what is now Namibia. Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Germany's development aid minister, at a ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the Hereros' 1904-1907 uprising against the German rulers said: "We Germans accept our historic and moral responsibility and the guilt incurred by Germans at that time".
German Chancellor Angela Merkel shared her grievances in front of Israel's national flag during a tree-planting ceremony near the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem on January 30, 2006 and laid a wreath for the six million Jews killed in the Nazi Holocaust.
But the Germans had a general opinion of the world's resentment over the German people's sufferings.
Ethnic Germans were systematically targeted based on their ethnicity in various parts of the world. Anti-German hostilities had been developed after the major World Wars of recent past, for which the German state had been held responsible. The German populations were identified with German nationalist regimes of Kaiser Wilhelm or Nazis.
This was the case in the World War I era; persecution of Germans in the United States and in Eastern and Central Europe following end of World War II. Many victims of these persecutions did not in fact have any connection to those regimes.
In other cases, German populations had been persecuted because they were perceived as lacking proper ties to the country in which they lived. This includes the persecution of ethnic German Mennonite, Amish and Hutterite communities in the United States and of Tyrolean Germans in South Tyrol.
In the case of South Tyrol, these hostilities hit the historically German population of an Austrian territory which had been annexed by Italy after World War I. Following the rise of the Fascist movement of Mussolini, the ethnic Germans of South Tyrol faced growing persecution. Their names, and the names of the towns and places in the area, were forcibly changed to Italian.
In addition, Mussolini engaged in a vigorous campaign to resettle ethnic Italians in the region. Many Tyroleans fled to Germany during this time, and the matter of South Tyrol became a source of friction between Hitler and Mussolini.
After the end of World War II, the organised persecution of Germans in the South Tyrol largely came to an end, although ethnic strife continued for decades.
A Discussion with Bavarian, Swabian, Franconian and Saxonian students
Wolfgang Schabert was from Stuttgart and proud of his Swabian sub-culture which is dominantly in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg and the western part of Bavaria. He told the Swabians still preserve their unique culture and speak the melodious Swabian dialect among them frequently.
Jasmine, Marco, Susanne and other students were discussing range of issues relating to current Germany and Asian history. Jasmine is a Frankfurter, a highly observant student and not given to much talk.
Susanne, a Franconian came out with an interesting point on the Alsace-Lorraine area, which is currently a French territory. She said Alsace-Lorraine changed hands between Germany and France. She told most of the people there of German origin spoke these days French and their way of life was also French because of their cultural assimilation.
Katrin, a Saxonian came out with various facts about the Saxonians and their own distinct culture. Christiane Glettler, a Bavarian spoke of Bavarian history.
Bavaria has a long historical background with the Bavarii tribes who were large and powerful and emerged late in Teutonic tribal times, in what is now the Czech Republic (Bohemia). They replaced, or perhaps are simply another phase of the previous inhabitants - the Rugians. They swiftly expanded their influence southward, and occupied the area which still bears their name: Bavaria.
There is some argument as to the origins of the Bavarii. Until recently, modern day Bavarians were thought to be descendants of the Bavarii, who themselves were direct descendants of the (most probably) Celtic Boii, who settled in what is now Bavaria perhaps as much as two centuries before the birth of Christ. The Boii may in turn have also lent their name to Bohemia, an area that has at times been part of Bavaria proper.
Over the last half of the 20th century, historical and archaeological research has increasingly supported the theory that the remnants of the Celtic Boii were absorbed into the Roman Empire and later intermingled with other Germanic peoples who chose to stay (or were stationed by the Romans) in the area.
By the 6th century AD, the evidence was found for the foundation of a Bavarian Stem-duchy whose leading men were related to the ruling Frankish (and possibly Alemannic/Swabian) houses. However, there is no longer real evidence that the rulers in Bavaria belonged to a people called the Bavarii. It is in fact likely that, after the name of the region became known by the name of the early inhabitants, later inhabitants became known by the accepted geographical name.
Jasmine, Marco, Susanne and other students were discussing range of issues relating to current Germany and Asian history. Jasmine is a Frankfurter, a highly observant student and not given to much talk.
Susanne, a Franconian came out with an interesting point on the Alsace-Lorraine area, which is currently a French territory. She said Alsace-Lorraine changed hands between Germany and France. She told most of the people there of German origin spoke these days French and their way of life was also French because of their cultural assimilation.
Katrin, a Saxonian came out with various facts about the Saxonians and their own distinct culture. Christiane Glettler, a Bavarian spoke of Bavarian history.
Bavaria has a long historical background with the Bavarii tribes who were large and powerful and emerged late in Teutonic tribal times, in what is now the Czech Republic (Bohemia). They replaced, or perhaps are simply another phase of the previous inhabitants - the Rugians. They swiftly expanded their influence southward, and occupied the area which still bears their name: Bavaria.
There is some argument as to the origins of the Bavarii. Until recently, modern day Bavarians were thought to be descendants of the Bavarii, who themselves were direct descendants of the (most probably) Celtic Boii, who settled in what is now Bavaria perhaps as much as two centuries before the birth of Christ. The Boii may in turn have also lent their name to Bohemia, an area that has at times been part of Bavaria proper.
Over the last half of the 20th century, historical and archaeological research has increasingly supported the theory that the remnants of the Celtic Boii were absorbed into the Roman Empire and later intermingled with other Germanic peoples who chose to stay (or were stationed by the Romans) in the area.
By the 6th century AD, the evidence was found for the foundation of a Bavarian Stem-duchy whose leading men were related to the ruling Frankish (and possibly Alemannic/Swabian) houses. However, there is no longer real evidence that the rulers in Bavaria belonged to a people called the Bavarii. It is in fact likely that, after the name of the region became known by the name of the early inhabitants, later inhabitants became known by the accepted geographical name.
Latin American-Germans & Their Early Migration to Brazil
Birget, a student on city planning was telling her experiences in Cuba. Her experiences in the Caribbean Island were quiet strange. While she was narrating some of her observations, my discussion with walker came to mind.
Walker had a marvelous experience in Belize and other Latin American countries with German descendant Latin Americans.
There are German descendant minorities in almost every South American and Central American countries including Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.
In the eighteenth century some isolated and small groups of German immigrants came to Latin America mainly from Germany, but also from Switzerland, Austria and Russia. Though the US was the main destination for immigration in the 19th century, the immigration to Latin America also was significant for various other political and economic reasons. Ninety percent of them came to Latin America mainly for Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile.
When the first group of Germans arrived in 1824 to Sao Leopoldo, in the State of Rio Grande do Sul in the southern Brazil, after 4 months of traveling, there were 39 people, being 33 Lutherans and 6 Catholics. They found a country with a climate, vegetation and culture very different from those of Germany. Southern Brazil was a land of gauchos, the cattle herders who used, and still live, in the Pampas region of Southern Cone.
In the next decades, however, waves of Germanic immigrants arrived to many areas of the Southern Brazil. They mostly settled in rural areas called colonies. These colonies had been created by the Brazilian government, and the lands were distributed between the immigrants. They had to construct their own houses and cultivate the land.
Germans came to Brazil to work as farmers because there were many lands and job opportunities. The Brazilian government had promised large lands to attract the immigrants, where they could settle with their families and colonize the region. In fact, these lands were in the middle of big forests and the first Germans had been abandoned by the Brazilian Government. The first years were not easy. Many Germans died of tropical diseases, others left the colony to find a better life elsewhere.
In fact, the German colony of Sao Leopoldo was a disaster. Nevertheless, in the next years another wave of 8, 000 Germans arrived to Sao Leopoldo, and then the colony started to develop, and the immigrants established the town of Novo Hamburgo (New Hamburg). From Sao Leopoldo and Novo Hamburgo the German immigrants spread into other areas of Rio Grande do Sul, mainly close to spring of rivers. All the region of Vale dos Sinos has been populated by Germans.
During the 1830's and part of 1840's German immigration was interrupted due to the "War of the Farrapos" in Brazil. The immigration restarted after 1845 with the creation of new colonies. The most important ones were Blumenau in 1850 and Joinville in 1851, both in Santa Catarina state and attracted thousands of German immigrants to the region. Some of the mass influx was due to Revolutions of 1848 in the German states.
In the last third of the nineteenth century immigration to Brazil became so difficult with the "Heydtschen Reskript" (1859) and they started to migrate towards Argentina. In the 1880's and 1890's German immigration to Latin America once again increased with the thirty percenatage of the total emigration from Germany towards Latin America.
Until the end of the 19th century 122 German colonies were created in Rio Grande do Sul, and many others in Santa Catarina, Parana, Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. Germans had established the first middle-class population of Brazil, in a country divided between slaves and their masters. Germans immigrants in Brazil were the fourth largest immigrant community to settle in the country, after Portuguese, Italians and Spaniards.
Walker had a marvelous experience in Belize and other Latin American countries with German descendant Latin Americans.
There are German descendant minorities in almost every South American and Central American countries including Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.
In the eighteenth century some isolated and small groups of German immigrants came to Latin America mainly from Germany, but also from Switzerland, Austria and Russia. Though the US was the main destination for immigration in the 19th century, the immigration to Latin America also was significant for various other political and economic reasons. Ninety percent of them came to Latin America mainly for Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile.
When the first group of Germans arrived in 1824 to Sao Leopoldo, in the State of Rio Grande do Sul in the southern Brazil, after 4 months of traveling, there were 39 people, being 33 Lutherans and 6 Catholics. They found a country with a climate, vegetation and culture very different from those of Germany. Southern Brazil was a land of gauchos, the cattle herders who used, and still live, in the Pampas region of Southern Cone.
In the next decades, however, waves of Germanic immigrants arrived to many areas of the Southern Brazil. They mostly settled in rural areas called colonies. These colonies had been created by the Brazilian government, and the lands were distributed between the immigrants. They had to construct their own houses and cultivate the land.
Germans came to Brazil to work as farmers because there were many lands and job opportunities. The Brazilian government had promised large lands to attract the immigrants, where they could settle with their families and colonize the region. In fact, these lands were in the middle of big forests and the first Germans had been abandoned by the Brazilian Government. The first years were not easy. Many Germans died of tropical diseases, others left the colony to find a better life elsewhere.
In fact, the German colony of Sao Leopoldo was a disaster. Nevertheless, in the next years another wave of 8, 000 Germans arrived to Sao Leopoldo, and then the colony started to develop, and the immigrants established the town of Novo Hamburgo (New Hamburg). From Sao Leopoldo and Novo Hamburgo the German immigrants spread into other areas of Rio Grande do Sul, mainly close to spring of rivers. All the region of Vale dos Sinos has been populated by Germans.
During the 1830's and part of 1840's German immigration was interrupted due to the "War of the Farrapos" in Brazil. The immigration restarted after 1845 with the creation of new colonies. The most important ones were Blumenau in 1850 and Joinville in 1851, both in Santa Catarina state and attracted thousands of German immigrants to the region. Some of the mass influx was due to Revolutions of 1848 in the German states.
In the last third of the nineteenth century immigration to Brazil became so difficult with the "Heydtschen Reskript" (1859) and they started to migrate towards Argentina. In the 1880's and 1890's German immigration to Latin America once again increased with the thirty percenatage of the total emigration from Germany towards Latin America.
Until the end of the 19th century 122 German colonies were created in Rio Grande do Sul, and many others in Santa Catarina, Parana, Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. Germans had established the first middle-class population of Brazil, in a country divided between slaves and their masters. Germans immigrants in Brazil were the fourth largest immigrant community to settle in the country, after Portuguese, Italians and Spaniards.
German Migration to Brazil After Major World Wars & Assimilation
Not all Germans who settled in Brazil became farmers. In the early 20th century most of the Germans immigrated to Brazil settled in big towns. Some of them settled in the old rural German colonies as well. The German immigration to Brazil had its largest numbers during the 1920s, after World War I. These Germans were mostly middle-class laborers from the urban areas of Germany.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Brazil also attracted a significant number of German Jews, who settled mostly in Sao Paulo. During the Nazi period and thereafter until the ban on emigration came into effect in 1941, some 100,000 Jews from Central Europe, the majority of them were German speaking moved to South America. Most of them nearly ninety percent moved towards Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile.
Many immigrant Germans were not counted in the early censuses. Often the spouses of immigrants were not listed as having entered into the country.
During the Second World War Brazilian ships were attacked by Germans and influenced by the US government, Brazil declared war against Germany. Brazil feared whether the German community in Brazil could rebel against the government.
President Getulio Vargas initiated a strict program of forced cultural assimilation - Nacionalismo- that worked quite efficiently. He forbade any manifestation of the German culture in Brazil. German schools were closed, houses with German architecture were destroyed and the use of the German language in Brazil was also forbidden with the publication of German newspapers (together with Italian and Japanese).
Since then, the southern Brazilian German regional language and culture was in decline. Some decried it as a tragic loss for the country while others felt that this meant national progress, saying assimilation will ultimately lead to a feeling of "getting together".
Many Germans also adopted voluntarily from German to the national languages mainly for their safety. Germans in other parts of Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe adopted this pattern of language change to avoid the anger of the Governments which were against or fought against Germany.
With this change in situation the members of the German minorities, previously communities of status and prestige, were turned into undesirable minorities though there were widespread elements of sympathy for Germans in many of the South American countries.
When Germanic immigrants first arrived in Brazil starting at the beginning of the 1800's they did not identify themselves as a unified German - Brazilian group. However, as time went on this common regional identity emerged for many different geo-socio-political reasons and was the major cause for their victimization as well.
After natural and forcible assimilation, Germans in Brazil currently speak a variety of German dialects in the south of the country. These German dialects originated from a variety of German dialects which were spoken by the German immigrants from Germany, Switzerland and Austria with the foreign borrowings from other immigrant languages especially Italian, Spanish, Japanese and the Brazil's national language, Portuguese.
The most dominant spoken Brazilian German dialect is Riograndenser Hunsruckisch, a Brazilian variation of the Hunsruckisch dialect of German. But other dialects are also spoken as well, like the Austrian dialect spoken in Dreizehnlinden, Pomeranian (Pommersch or Plautdietsch) dialect spoken by ethnic German Mennonites from the former Soviet Union and Danube Swabian (Donauschwabisch) dialect.
Although Riograndenser Hunsruckisch has long been the most widely spoken German dialect in southern Brazil, it is currently experiencing a very strong decline. A strong stigma has been forming around the public use of this language. Today it is spoken mostly in private, in family circles and by the elder members of the community and in the rural areas. It is very common for people not to admit that they know it. They speak it in their most private environs, although there are cities where you can hear German on streets or parks.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Brazil also attracted a significant number of German Jews, who settled mostly in Sao Paulo. During the Nazi period and thereafter until the ban on emigration came into effect in 1941, some 100,000 Jews from Central Europe, the majority of them were German speaking moved to South America. Most of them nearly ninety percent moved towards Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile.
Many immigrant Germans were not counted in the early censuses. Often the spouses of immigrants were not listed as having entered into the country.
During the Second World War Brazilian ships were attacked by Germans and influenced by the US government, Brazil declared war against Germany. Brazil feared whether the German community in Brazil could rebel against the government.
President Getulio Vargas initiated a strict program of forced cultural assimilation - Nacionalismo- that worked quite efficiently. He forbade any manifestation of the German culture in Brazil. German schools were closed, houses with German architecture were destroyed and the use of the German language in Brazil was also forbidden with the publication of German newspapers (together with Italian and Japanese).
Since then, the southern Brazilian German regional language and culture was in decline. Some decried it as a tragic loss for the country while others felt that this meant national progress, saying assimilation will ultimately lead to a feeling of "getting together".
Many Germans also adopted voluntarily from German to the national languages mainly for their safety. Germans in other parts of Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe adopted this pattern of language change to avoid the anger of the Governments which were against or fought against Germany.
With this change in situation the members of the German minorities, previously communities of status and prestige, were turned into undesirable minorities though there were widespread elements of sympathy for Germans in many of the South American countries.
When Germanic immigrants first arrived in Brazil starting at the beginning of the 1800's they did not identify themselves as a unified German - Brazilian group. However, as time went on this common regional identity emerged for many different geo-socio-political reasons and was the major cause for their victimization as well.
After natural and forcible assimilation, Germans in Brazil currently speak a variety of German dialects in the south of the country. These German dialects originated from a variety of German dialects which were spoken by the German immigrants from Germany, Switzerland and Austria with the foreign borrowings from other immigrant languages especially Italian, Spanish, Japanese and the Brazil's national language, Portuguese.
The most dominant spoken Brazilian German dialect is Riograndenser Hunsruckisch, a Brazilian variation of the Hunsruckisch dialect of German. But other dialects are also spoken as well, like the Austrian dialect spoken in Dreizehnlinden, Pomeranian (Pommersch or Plautdietsch) dialect spoken by ethnic German Mennonites from the former Soviet Union and Danube Swabian (Donauschwabisch) dialect.
Although Riograndenser Hunsruckisch has long been the most widely spoken German dialect in southern Brazil, it is currently experiencing a very strong decline. A strong stigma has been forming around the public use of this language. Today it is spoken mostly in private, in family circles and by the elder members of the community and in the rural areas. It is very common for people not to admit that they know it. They speak it in their most private environs, although there are cities where you can hear German on streets or parks.
German-Brazilians Today
Most German-Brazilians speak only Portuguese nowadays. However, German was still spoken by over 600,000 Brazilians, as first or second language according to 2005 survey.
German influence can still be seen all across the southern states, be it in architecture, shops, and town names or in the way of life. Many German schools have re-opened during the 50s and are regarded as some of the best places to send children to.
Most German-Brazilians started to get married out of the German community after the 1940s. Some of them mixed with other Europeans, such as Portuguese, Italians and Poles. A few also have mixed with Afro-Brazilians and Brazilian native Indians.
Germans are regarded as good industrialists in Brazil in manufacturing shoes, leather goods, furniture, textiles, charcoal and mechanical devices.
Ernesto Beckmann Geisel, the one time president of Brazil was also a German descendent Brazilian.
Geisel was a son of Lutheran German immigrants. Geisel witnessed and participated in the most prominent events of Brazilian history in the 20th century, such as the revolution of 1930, the Getulio Vargas dictatorship and the 1964 military coup d'etat that overthrew the leftist President Joao Goulart. In this military intervention, Geisel was an important figure and he became Military Chief of Staff of President Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco.
In 1973 Geisel was appointed by President Emilio Garrastazu Medici and other military leaders to be the candidate of the National Renewal Alliance Party (ARENA) for the presidency. At that time, the president of Brazil was chosen by the military and then approved by the Congress in order to give an impression of free elections. Geisel was elected by a vast majority and during the Geisel administration, Brazil imported technology from Germany to install nuclear power plants that gave Brazil a regional superpower status.
Germans participated actively in the industrialization and development of big cities such as Curitiba and Porto Alegre in Brazil.
Many Brazilian towns were built under German architecture and many aspects of the Brazilian culture also were influenced by Germans. Today Brazil hosts an Oktoberfest in Blumenau, Santa Catarina, which is second only to Munich, Germany in size.
Most of the German-Brazilians live in Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Parana, the southernmost states of Brazil. There are around 10 million Brazilians who have German ancestry by some estimates. The percentages become higher in some cities, for example, in the town of Pomerode, in Santa Catarina, 90% of the population are Brazilians of German descent, and the main local language is Pomeranian dialect. It is considered the most German city in Brazil and the Germans there are the richest people in Brazil.
The state Santa Catarina is with the lowest levels of unemployment and illiteracy found in the country and still retain a strong influence of German culture. Even after three or four generations, the Germans there still consider themselves as Germans.
Many towns in Southern Brazil have a majority of Germans descended people, such as Sao Leopoldo, Novo Hamburgo, Nova Petropolis, Sao Bento do Sul, Blumenau, Joinville, Santa Isabel, Gramado, Canela, Santa Cruz do Sul, Estancia Velha, Ivoti, Dois Irmaos, Morro Reuter, Santa Maria do Herval, Presidente Lucena, Picada Cafe, Santo Angelo, Teutonia and Brusque.
German influence can still be seen all across the southern states, be it in architecture, shops, and town names or in the way of life. Many German schools have re-opened during the 50s and are regarded as some of the best places to send children to.
Most German-Brazilians started to get married out of the German community after the 1940s. Some of them mixed with other Europeans, such as Portuguese, Italians and Poles. A few also have mixed with Afro-Brazilians and Brazilian native Indians.
Germans are regarded as good industrialists in Brazil in manufacturing shoes, leather goods, furniture, textiles, charcoal and mechanical devices.
Ernesto Beckmann Geisel, the one time president of Brazil was also a German descendent Brazilian.
Geisel was a son of Lutheran German immigrants. Geisel witnessed and participated in the most prominent events of Brazilian history in the 20th century, such as the revolution of 1930, the Getulio Vargas dictatorship and the 1964 military coup d'etat that overthrew the leftist President Joao Goulart. In this military intervention, Geisel was an important figure and he became Military Chief of Staff of President Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco.
In 1973 Geisel was appointed by President Emilio Garrastazu Medici and other military leaders to be the candidate of the National Renewal Alliance Party (ARENA) for the presidency. At that time, the president of Brazil was chosen by the military and then approved by the Congress in order to give an impression of free elections. Geisel was elected by a vast majority and during the Geisel administration, Brazil imported technology from Germany to install nuclear power plants that gave Brazil a regional superpower status.
Germans participated actively in the industrialization and development of big cities such as Curitiba and Porto Alegre in Brazil.
Many Brazilian towns were built under German architecture and many aspects of the Brazilian culture also were influenced by Germans. Today Brazil hosts an Oktoberfest in Blumenau, Santa Catarina, which is second only to Munich, Germany in size.
Most of the German-Brazilians live in Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Parana, the southernmost states of Brazil. There are around 10 million Brazilians who have German ancestry by some estimates. The percentages become higher in some cities, for example, in the town of Pomerode, in Santa Catarina, 90% of the population are Brazilians of German descent, and the main local language is Pomeranian dialect. It is considered the most German city in Brazil and the Germans there are the richest people in Brazil.
The state Santa Catarina is with the lowest levels of unemployment and illiteracy found in the country and still retain a strong influence of German culture. Even after three or four generations, the Germans there still consider themselves as Germans.
Many towns in Southern Brazil have a majority of Germans descended people, such as Sao Leopoldo, Novo Hamburgo, Nova Petropolis, Sao Bento do Sul, Blumenau, Joinville, Santa Isabel, Gramado, Canela, Santa Cruz do Sul, Estancia Velha, Ivoti, Dois Irmaos, Morro Reuter, Santa Maria do Herval, Presidente Lucena, Picada Cafe, Santo Angelo, Teutonia and Brusque.
Austrian History
While I was talking to Andrea, a student came to us and showed a questionnaire, which was about the ethnic issues of the Island. I observed from Andrea's face that she was keen to know what it was all about.
The questionnaire was supposed to have been circulated among people to get their opinion. Some of the questionnaires were very tricky and sensitive.
I was reading each questionnaire and looked at Andrea's face. She was intent on what my answer was going to be.
When I gave my answers, she took it with much enthusiasm, giving them serious analysis.
Andrea narrated in between our discussion about the experience of her last visit to Sri Lanka with her parents.
Austrians are really international-minded. Former UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, an Austrian, had made some lasting impact in the recent past about Austria to the world though he was identified with the Nazis. I had heard about his friendly approach from Dr. Gamani Corea, who served as Secretary - General of UNCTAD, when Waldheim was the Secretary-General of the UN.
Andrea had traveled vastly in Europe and covered a number of sporting events for the PRESS in Austria. When I asked her about the Austrian economy, she said with a sense of pride that it was a very rich country amongst the European Union. She said after the Second World War, there was a steady growth in the economy. She mentioned that recurrent flooding was a major catastrophe in the history of Austria. Her deep love towards her motherland was reflected in her facial expressions when describing various historical issues of Austria.
The territory of Austria, originally known as the Celtic kingdom of Noricum, was a long time ally of Rome. It was occupied rather than conquered by the Romans during the reign of Augustus and made the province Noricum in 16 BC.
Later it was conquered by Huns, Rugii, Lombards, Ostrogoths, Slavs, Bavarii, Avars and Franks. Finally, after 48 years of Hungarian rule (907 to 955), the core territory of Austria was awarded to Leopold of Babenberg in 976 after the revolt of Henry II, Duke of Bavaria. Being part of the Holy Roman Empire the Babenbergs ruled and expanded Austria from the 10th to the 13th century.
After Frederick II, Duke of Austria died in 1246 and left no successor, Rudolf I of Habsburg gave the lands to his sons marking the beginning of the line of the Habsburgs, who continued to govern Austria until the 20th century.
With the short exception of Charles VII Albert of Bavaria, Austrian Habsburgs held the position of German Emperor beginning in 1438 with Albert II of Habsburg until the end of the Holy Roman Empire.
During the 14th and 15th century Austria continued to expand its territory until it reached the position of a European imperial power at the end of the 15th century.
Modern Austria's history started on the eve of the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire.
Just two years before the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the Empire of Austria was founded, which was transformed in 1867 into a dual-monarchy Austria-Hungary. The empire was split into several independent states in 1918, after the defeat of the Central Powers in World War I, with most of the German-speaking parts becoming a republic.
Between 1918 and 1919 it was officially known as the Republic of German Austria (Republik Deutschosterreich). After the Entente Powers forbade German Austria to unite with Germany, they also forbade the name, and then it was changed to simply Republic of Austria. This democratic republic, the First Austrian Republic, lasted until 1933 when the chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß established an autocratic regime oriented towards Italian fascism (Austrofascism).
Austria became part of Germany in 1938 through the Anschluss and remained under Nazi rule until the end of World War II. After the defeat of the Axis Powers, the Allies occupied Austria until 1955. Austria became a fully independent republic under the condition that it would remain neutral in the growing conflict between the Communist East Block and the non-Communist West.
Though Austria is a small country, its historical power-centered position in Europe and its cultural environment have made a great contribution to art and science. It has been the birthplace of many famous personalities such as composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven.and was home to psychologist Sigmund Freud, Management Guru Peter Drucker and engineer Ferdinand Porsche.
The questionnaire was supposed to have been circulated among people to get their opinion. Some of the questionnaires were very tricky and sensitive.
I was reading each questionnaire and looked at Andrea's face. She was intent on what my answer was going to be.
When I gave my answers, she took it with much enthusiasm, giving them serious analysis.
Andrea narrated in between our discussion about the experience of her last visit to Sri Lanka with her parents.
Austrians are really international-minded. Former UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, an Austrian, had made some lasting impact in the recent past about Austria to the world though he was identified with the Nazis. I had heard about his friendly approach from Dr. Gamani Corea, who served as Secretary - General of UNCTAD, when Waldheim was the Secretary-General of the UN.
Andrea had traveled vastly in Europe and covered a number of sporting events for the PRESS in Austria. When I asked her about the Austrian economy, she said with a sense of pride that it was a very rich country amongst the European Union. She said after the Second World War, there was a steady growth in the economy. She mentioned that recurrent flooding was a major catastrophe in the history of Austria. Her deep love towards her motherland was reflected in her facial expressions when describing various historical issues of Austria.
The territory of Austria, originally known as the Celtic kingdom of Noricum, was a long time ally of Rome. It was occupied rather than conquered by the Romans during the reign of Augustus and made the province Noricum in 16 BC.
Later it was conquered by Huns, Rugii, Lombards, Ostrogoths, Slavs, Bavarii, Avars and Franks. Finally, after 48 years of Hungarian rule (907 to 955), the core territory of Austria was awarded to Leopold of Babenberg in 976 after the revolt of Henry II, Duke of Bavaria. Being part of the Holy Roman Empire the Babenbergs ruled and expanded Austria from the 10th to the 13th century.
After Frederick II, Duke of Austria died in 1246 and left no successor, Rudolf I of Habsburg gave the lands to his sons marking the beginning of the line of the Habsburgs, who continued to govern Austria until the 20th century.
With the short exception of Charles VII Albert of Bavaria, Austrian Habsburgs held the position of German Emperor beginning in 1438 with Albert II of Habsburg until the end of the Holy Roman Empire.
During the 14th and 15th century Austria continued to expand its territory until it reached the position of a European imperial power at the end of the 15th century.
Modern Austria's history started on the eve of the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire.
Just two years before the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the Empire of Austria was founded, which was transformed in 1867 into a dual-monarchy Austria-Hungary. The empire was split into several independent states in 1918, after the defeat of the Central Powers in World War I, with most of the German-speaking parts becoming a republic.
Between 1918 and 1919 it was officially known as the Republic of German Austria (Republik Deutschosterreich). After the Entente Powers forbade German Austria to unite with Germany, they also forbade the name, and then it was changed to simply Republic of Austria. This democratic republic, the First Austrian Republic, lasted until 1933 when the chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß established an autocratic regime oriented towards Italian fascism (Austrofascism).
Austria became part of Germany in 1938 through the Anschluss and remained under Nazi rule until the end of World War II. After the defeat of the Axis Powers, the Allies occupied Austria until 1955. Austria became a fully independent republic under the condition that it would remain neutral in the growing conflict between the Communist East Block and the non-Communist West.
Though Austria is a small country, its historical power-centered position in Europe and its cultural environment have made a great contribution to art and science. It has been the birthplace of many famous personalities such as composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven.and was home to psychologist Sigmund Freud, Management Guru Peter Drucker and engineer Ferdinand Porsche.
Pennsylvania's Amish County & Mennonite Communities in Mexico
Pennsylvania's Amish county in Lancaster has turned into a wonder land after the Harrison Ford movie "Witness" filmed in 1985. Thereafter each year, a large number of visitors journey to Amish land to experience the excitement.
The Amish Experience, the largest and complete interpretive touring center is located in the heart of the oldest Amish settlement in the world, the county's only designated "Heritage Site" surrounded by Amish farmlands. The customs and life-styles of simpler times still lasting with homes without electricity, and transportation limited to the horse and buggy.
Community celebrations and special events with shopping by roadside stands and quilts to furniture and hex signs, add to the area's unique allure. The Amish Experience in the area's original family-style restaurant and Plain & Fancy Farm will excite the visitors with a la carte dining and the legendary all-you-can-eat dinner of local Pennsylvania Deutsch specialties.
Aaron and Jessica's Buggy Rides and the luxurious Amish View Inn & Suites will add further excitement to visitors.
Today, Amish farming communities are generally prosperous and stable.
Agricultural exchange, a unique exchange program with an Amish order in Pennsylvania made it possible for some Low German Mennonites to survive in Mexico.
Many Low German Mennonites in Mexico are second and third generation immigrants, trying to make their living as farmers in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. Their life has become difficult by the poor returns for their wheat and dairy products due to drought.
In 1994, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) helped by organizing a group of eight Amish men from US to visit Mennonite businesses, schools and churches in Chihuahua. Since then, the Amish have worked with MCC to raise a dairy herd, build a modern cheese factory and initiate a teacher training exchange in Chihuahua.
Amish in Pennsylvania along with two other groups in Ohio and Indiana enabled to reduce the poverty in the Mexican Mennonite colonies.
A large number of Mennonites have left to Canada in search of a better economic future. But there are Germans originally settled from then USSR who are very rich and influential in Mexico.
Amish and Mennonite communities are having a common Anabaptist history.
The Amish are conservative descendants of Anabaptists who fled to escape from religious persecution in southern Germany and Switzerland in the 1700s. They settled in Pennsylvania and the U.S. Midwest.
During the Reformation era in Europe the Anabaptist Christians rejected infant baptism and chose believer's baptism. Since many of them had been baptized in their infancy, they chose to be rebaptized as believing adults. So their enemies called them Anabaptists -- "re-baptizers." Mennonites are also descendants of Anabaptists.
Both the Amish and Mennonites speak German dialects, but they still require translators to communicate. As the two groups learned during an evening of singing, they share similar chant-style songs as well.
The establishment of a dialogue has helped to foster discussion. They have established enough trust to discuss painful issues such as divisions within the church. The recent introduction of electricity and rubber tires in some communities has prompted church leaders and many other residents to leave for more conservative colonies in southern Mexico and Bolivia.
The Amish Experience, the largest and complete interpretive touring center is located in the heart of the oldest Amish settlement in the world, the county's only designated "Heritage Site" surrounded by Amish farmlands. The customs and life-styles of simpler times still lasting with homes without electricity, and transportation limited to the horse and buggy.
Community celebrations and special events with shopping by roadside stands and quilts to furniture and hex signs, add to the area's unique allure. The Amish Experience in the area's original family-style restaurant and Plain & Fancy Farm will excite the visitors with a la carte dining and the legendary all-you-can-eat dinner of local Pennsylvania Deutsch specialties.
Aaron and Jessica's Buggy Rides and the luxurious Amish View Inn & Suites will add further excitement to visitors.
Today, Amish farming communities are generally prosperous and stable.
Agricultural exchange, a unique exchange program with an Amish order in Pennsylvania made it possible for some Low German Mennonites to survive in Mexico.
Many Low German Mennonites in Mexico are second and third generation immigrants, trying to make their living as farmers in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. Their life has become difficult by the poor returns for their wheat and dairy products due to drought.
In 1994, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) helped by organizing a group of eight Amish men from US to visit Mennonite businesses, schools and churches in Chihuahua. Since then, the Amish have worked with MCC to raise a dairy herd, build a modern cheese factory and initiate a teacher training exchange in Chihuahua.
Amish in Pennsylvania along with two other groups in Ohio and Indiana enabled to reduce the poverty in the Mexican Mennonite colonies.
A large number of Mennonites have left to Canada in search of a better economic future. But there are Germans originally settled from then USSR who are very rich and influential in Mexico.
Amish and Mennonite communities are having a common Anabaptist history.
The Amish are conservative descendants of Anabaptists who fled to escape from religious persecution in southern Germany and Switzerland in the 1700s. They settled in Pennsylvania and the U.S. Midwest.
During the Reformation era in Europe the Anabaptist Christians rejected infant baptism and chose believer's baptism. Since many of them had been baptized in their infancy, they chose to be rebaptized as believing adults. So their enemies called them Anabaptists -- "re-baptizers." Mennonites are also descendants of Anabaptists.
Both the Amish and Mennonites speak German dialects, but they still require translators to communicate. As the two groups learned during an evening of singing, they share similar chant-style songs as well.
The establishment of a dialogue has helped to foster discussion. They have established enough trust to discuss painful issues such as divisions within the church. The recent introduction of electricity and rubber tires in some communities has prompted church leaders and many other residents to leave for more conservative colonies in southern Mexico and Bolivia.
German - Americans
At the student meeting, I was amazed by many of the new faces. Dietmar Doering enumerated the various activities in which students would be involved.
He turned his topic and was proudly telling about some of the German historical and notable personalities. Some of the Germans and their achievements are forgotten by the majority of German people.
Doering was continuing on Germans and German origin names around the world. Ethnic German minorities live in many countries in all six continents including the former Soviet Union, Poland, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Belgium, Italy, the United States, Latin America, Namibia, and Australia. These German minorities, through their ethno-cultural vitality, exhibit an exceptional level of variations.
Amongst them are small groups (such as those in Namibia) and many very large groups (such as the almost 1 million non-evacuated Germans in Russia and Kazakhstan or the near 500,000 Germans in Brazil), groups that have been greatly "folklorised" and almost completely linguistically assimilated (such as the Germans in the USA or Australia), and others, such as the true linguistic minorities (like the German minorities in Argentina and Brazil, in western Siberia or in Romania and Hungary); other groups, which are classified as religio-cultural groups rather than ethnic minorities, (such as the Eastern-Low German speaking Mennonites in Paraguay, Mexico, Belize or in the Altay region of Siberia) and the groups who maintain their status thanks to strong identification with their ethnicity and their religious sentiment (such as the groups in Upper Silesia, Poland or in South Jutland in Denmark).
Dietmar Doering was telling enthusiastically that Frankfurter, Hamburger and other famous fast food names were derived from German places and cities.
He was proud to speak of the well-to-do Americans of German ancestry. While he was telling, the students' faces took on a lively expression. They were talking to each other and nodding and exchanging notes silently among themselves.
Americans of German ancestry are the major European ethnic group in modern America.
As of a 2000 census, more than 45 million Americans claimed they had German ancestry but only 1.5 million of them spoke the language at that time.
German is the second most spoken language in the US states of North Dakota and South Dakota and the third in popular foreign language after Spanish and French in the US.
There are varieties of German dialects in the US. Texas German based in the Texas Hill Country in the vicinity of the town of Fredricksburg is a dying dialect. Hutterite communities speak Hutterite German, an Austro-Bavarian dialect in the US States of Washington, Montana, North and South Dakota and Minnesota and in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
In Canada there are people of German ancestry throughout the country and especially in the west as well as in Ontario. There is a large and vibrant community in the city of Kitchener, Ontario.
The US state Kansas is having more Mennonites and Volga German communities.
There are German commnuities in Wisconsin and Indiana.
In the early twentieth century immigrants mainly settled in St. Louis, Chicago, New York, and Cincinnati.
The German immigrants after World War II came primarily to New York, Los Angeles and Chicago urban areas and to Florida.
Generally, German immigrant communities in the USA have lost their mother tongue more quickly than those who moved to South America, possibly for the German speakers the Germanic based English was easier to learn than the Latin based Portuguese or Spanish. The strong anti-German sentiment and attacks on German-speakers in the US before and after the major World Wars also contributed to change their mother tongue into English.
The teaching of the German language to latter-age students has given rise to a pidgin variant which combines the German language with the grammar and spelling rules of the English language in the US. This variant is often understandable by the English and the German speakers and is called American German and often referred to as Amerikanisch or Amerikanischdeutsch. However this is a pidgin and not a dialect.
German Americans in the Amana Colonies in the state of Iowa speak Amana German.
The Amish and other Pennsylvania Germans including Mennonites speak a dialect of German known as Pennsylvania Dutch also known Pennsylvania Deutsch (a West Central German variety). The eastern Pennsylvania is a remnant of what was once a much larger German-speaking area.
He turned his topic and was proudly telling about some of the German historical and notable personalities. Some of the Germans and their achievements are forgotten by the majority of German people.
Doering was continuing on Germans and German origin names around the world. Ethnic German minorities live in many countries in all six continents including the former Soviet Union, Poland, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Belgium, Italy, the United States, Latin America, Namibia, and Australia. These German minorities, through their ethno-cultural vitality, exhibit an exceptional level of variations.
Amongst them are small groups (such as those in Namibia) and many very large groups (such as the almost 1 million non-evacuated Germans in Russia and Kazakhstan or the near 500,000 Germans in Brazil), groups that have been greatly "folklorised" and almost completely linguistically assimilated (such as the Germans in the USA or Australia), and others, such as the true linguistic minorities (like the German minorities in Argentina and Brazil, in western Siberia or in Romania and Hungary); other groups, which are classified as religio-cultural groups rather than ethnic minorities, (such as the Eastern-Low German speaking Mennonites in Paraguay, Mexico, Belize or in the Altay region of Siberia) and the groups who maintain their status thanks to strong identification with their ethnicity and their religious sentiment (such as the groups in Upper Silesia, Poland or in South Jutland in Denmark).
Dietmar Doering was telling enthusiastically that Frankfurter, Hamburger and other famous fast food names were derived from German places and cities.
He was proud to speak of the well-to-do Americans of German ancestry. While he was telling, the students' faces took on a lively expression. They were talking to each other and nodding and exchanging notes silently among themselves.
Americans of German ancestry are the major European ethnic group in modern America.
As of a 2000 census, more than 45 million Americans claimed they had German ancestry but only 1.5 million of them spoke the language at that time.
German is the second most spoken language in the US states of North Dakota and South Dakota and the third in popular foreign language after Spanish and French in the US.
There are varieties of German dialects in the US. Texas German based in the Texas Hill Country in the vicinity of the town of Fredricksburg is a dying dialect. Hutterite communities speak Hutterite German, an Austro-Bavarian dialect in the US States of Washington, Montana, North and South Dakota and Minnesota and in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
In Canada there are people of German ancestry throughout the country and especially in the west as well as in Ontario. There is a large and vibrant community in the city of Kitchener, Ontario.
The US state Kansas is having more Mennonites and Volga German communities.
There are German commnuities in Wisconsin and Indiana.
In the early twentieth century immigrants mainly settled in St. Louis, Chicago, New York, and Cincinnati.
The German immigrants after World War II came primarily to New York, Los Angeles and Chicago urban areas and to Florida.
Generally, German immigrant communities in the USA have lost their mother tongue more quickly than those who moved to South America, possibly for the German speakers the Germanic based English was easier to learn than the Latin based Portuguese or Spanish. The strong anti-German sentiment and attacks on German-speakers in the US before and after the major World Wars also contributed to change their mother tongue into English.
The teaching of the German language to latter-age students has given rise to a pidgin variant which combines the German language with the grammar and spelling rules of the English language in the US. This variant is often understandable by the English and the German speakers and is called American German and often referred to as Amerikanisch or Amerikanischdeutsch. However this is a pidgin and not a dialect.
German Americans in the Amana Colonies in the state of Iowa speak Amana German.
The Amish and other Pennsylvania Germans including Mennonites speak a dialect of German known as Pennsylvania Dutch also known Pennsylvania Deutsch (a West Central German variety). The eastern Pennsylvania is a remnant of what was once a much larger German-speaking area.
German Memoirs in Asia - US President Herbert Hoover in the Post-World Wars Era Europe
Philipp Staebler, a first year student of business economics was narrating the difficulties in the reunification of the separated Germanys.
He said after a brief pause "Well, it is difficult for sometime for some people in West Germany, but East Germany is also part of our nation and somehow or other way we will have to bear the burden".
Philip elaborated some stories of the Second World War era, which separated Germany, and many yet unresolved chaos. When our discussion turned on the rehabilitation of post-war Europe, a German university student referred to one person who left a lasting legacy. It was none other than Herbert Hoover, an American of German ancestry and was the 31st President of the United States of America (1929-1933). He had taken bold initiatives which saved the lives of millions of Germans and other Europeans in the Second World War that ravaged Europe.
Hoover was born into a Quaker family of distant German and Swiss descent, in Iowa. He helped millions of starving people by his charismatic negotiations between the opposing parties on relief assistance in post-war Europe. He exemplified the Efficiency Movement component of the Progressive Era, arguing there were technical solutions to all social and economic problems - a position that was challenged by the Great Depression that began while he was President.
When Belgium faced a food crisis after being invaded by Germany in the fall of 1914, Hoover undertook an unprecedented relief effort as head of the Commission for the Relief of Belgium (CRB). The CRB became, in effect, an independent republic of relief, with its own flag, navy, factories, mills and railroads. Its $12-million-a-month budget was supplied by voluntary donations and government grants.
In an early form of shuttle diplomacy, he crossed the North Sea forty times seeking to persuade the Germans in Berlin to allow food to reach war victims.
After the United States entered the war in April 1917, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover as head of the American Food Administration, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. He succeeded in cutting consumption of food needed overseas and avoided rationing at home. After the end of the war, Hoover, a member of the Supreme Economic Council and head of the American Relief Administration, organized shipments of food for millions of starving people in Central Europe. To this end, he employed a newly formed Quaker organization, the American Friends Service Committee to carry out much of the logistical work in Europe.
He extended aid to famine-stricken Bolshevist Russia in 1921. When a critic inquired why he should help Bolshevist Russia, Hoover retorted, "Twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!"
In June 1931, Hoover issued the Hoover Moratorium that called for a one-year halt in reparations payments by Germany to France and in the payment of Allied war debts to the United States to deal with a very serious banking collapse in Central Europe that threatened to cause a worldwide financial meltdown. The Hoover Moratorium had the effect of temporarily stopping the banking collapse in Europe.
Based on Hoover's previous experience with Germany at the end of World War I, in the winter of 1946 - 47 President Harry S. Truman selected Hoover to do a tour of Germany in order to ascertain the food status of the occupied nation. Hoover toured what was to become West Germany in Field Marshall Herman Goering's old train and produced a number of reports sharply critical of U.S. occupation policy. The economy of Germany had "sunk to the lowest level in a hundred years".
As the Cold War deepened, Hoover expressed reservations about some of the activities of the American Friends Service Committee, which he had previously strongly supported.
He impartially helped not only his distant German relatives of the German Nation but the Russians, and other Europeans as well and showed great human kindness.
Europeans who survived in the Second World War used to praise him that they were still alive because of Hoover's meals. The Belgian city of Leuven named a prominent square after him. In addition, the Finns coined a new word hoover, meaning "to help," to their language in honor of his humanitarian work.
He said after a brief pause "Well, it is difficult for sometime for some people in West Germany, but East Germany is also part of our nation and somehow or other way we will have to bear the burden".
Philip elaborated some stories of the Second World War era, which separated Germany, and many yet unresolved chaos. When our discussion turned on the rehabilitation of post-war Europe, a German university student referred to one person who left a lasting legacy. It was none other than Herbert Hoover, an American of German ancestry and was the 31st President of the United States of America (1929-1933). He had taken bold initiatives which saved the lives of millions of Germans and other Europeans in the Second World War that ravaged Europe.
Hoover was born into a Quaker family of distant German and Swiss descent, in Iowa. He helped millions of starving people by his charismatic negotiations between the opposing parties on relief assistance in post-war Europe. He exemplified the Efficiency Movement component of the Progressive Era, arguing there were technical solutions to all social and economic problems - a position that was challenged by the Great Depression that began while he was President.
When Belgium faced a food crisis after being invaded by Germany in the fall of 1914, Hoover undertook an unprecedented relief effort as head of the Commission for the Relief of Belgium (CRB). The CRB became, in effect, an independent republic of relief, with its own flag, navy, factories, mills and railroads. Its $12-million-a-month budget was supplied by voluntary donations and government grants.
In an early form of shuttle diplomacy, he crossed the North Sea forty times seeking to persuade the Germans in Berlin to allow food to reach war victims.
After the United States entered the war in April 1917, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover as head of the American Food Administration, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. He succeeded in cutting consumption of food needed overseas and avoided rationing at home. After the end of the war, Hoover, a member of the Supreme Economic Council and head of the American Relief Administration, organized shipments of food for millions of starving people in Central Europe. To this end, he employed a newly formed Quaker organization, the American Friends Service Committee to carry out much of the logistical work in Europe.
He extended aid to famine-stricken Bolshevist Russia in 1921. When a critic inquired why he should help Bolshevist Russia, Hoover retorted, "Twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!"
In June 1931, Hoover issued the Hoover Moratorium that called for a one-year halt in reparations payments by Germany to France and in the payment of Allied war debts to the United States to deal with a very serious banking collapse in Central Europe that threatened to cause a worldwide financial meltdown. The Hoover Moratorium had the effect of temporarily stopping the banking collapse in Europe.
Based on Hoover's previous experience with Germany at the end of World War I, in the winter of 1946 - 47 President Harry S. Truman selected Hoover to do a tour of Germany in order to ascertain the food status of the occupied nation. Hoover toured what was to become West Germany in Field Marshall Herman Goering's old train and produced a number of reports sharply critical of U.S. occupation policy. The economy of Germany had "sunk to the lowest level in a hundred years".
As the Cold War deepened, Hoover expressed reservations about some of the activities of the American Friends Service Committee, which he had previously strongly supported.
He impartially helped not only his distant German relatives of the German Nation but the Russians, and other Europeans as well and showed great human kindness.
Europeans who survived in the Second World War used to praise him that they were still alive because of Hoover's meals. The Belgian city of Leuven named a prominent square after him. In addition, the Finns coined a new word hoover, meaning "to help," to their language in honor of his humanitarian work.
German Memory - US President Gen Dwight D Eisenhower in the German POW Crisis
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States (1953-1961) who was in charge of the Allied Forces during the Second World War, made the controversial decision to reclassify German prisoners of war (POWs) in U.S. custody as Disarmed Enemy Forces (DEFs). As DEFs, they could be compelled to serve as unpaid conscript labor. An unknown number may have died in custody as a consequence of malnutrition, exposure to the elements, and lack of medical care.
Canadian author James Bacque in his book "Other Losses" heavily criticized Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower for his involvement in treating the German prisoners of war. James Bacque's comments in "Other Losses" were widely discussed on American and German televisions and received a mixture of excitement and anger.
The reason for the reaction was the author's conclusion that Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, as head of the American occupation in Germany in 1945, deliberately starved to death German prisoners of war in staggering numbers. Bacque holds that "the victims undoubtedly number over 800,000, almost certainly over 800,000 and quite likely over a million. Their deaths were knowingly caused by army officers who had sufficient resources to keep them alive."
Eisenhower's method, according to Bacque, was simple: he changed the designation of the prisoners from "Prisoners of War" (P.O.W.), which required by the Geneva Convention to be fed the same rations as US Army's, to "Disarmed Enemy Forces" (D.E.F.), which allowed him to cut their rations to starvation level.
Bacque says the D.E.F. were also denied medical supplies and shelter; because of that they died by hundreds of thousands. Their deaths were covered up on Army records by listing them as "other losses" on charts showing weekly totals of prisoners on hand, numbers discharged and so forth.
Bacque was quoted in a wire service interview as saying, "Americans should take down every statue of Eisenhower, and every photograph of him and annul his memory from American history as best they can, except to say, 'Here was a man who did very evil things that we're ashamed of."
But the critics exclaimed if there were a million dead, where were the bodies? Did Eisenhower have such vast power that he could order starvation on a mass scale and keep it a secret? Was the undoubted suffering in the camps, especially the transit camps along the Rhine, the result of Eisenhower's policy or the result of the chaotic conditions that prevailed in Europe in the spring and summer of 1945?
Historian Stephen Ambrose criticised James Bacque for having had no previous historical research or writing experience. James Bacque himself admitted in his introduction to the book "Other Losses": "Doubtless many scholars will find faults in this book, which are only mine. I welcome their criticism and their further research, which may help to restore to us the truth after a long night of lies."
Some time back, the Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans invited some leading experts to examine the charges. The conference participants, including historian Stephen Ambrose came to the first conclusion that James Bacque had made a major historical discovery: "There was widespread mistreatment of German prisoners in the spring and summer of 1945. Men were beaten, denied water, forced to live in open camps without shelter, given inadequate food rations and inadequate medical care. Their mail was withheld. In some cases prisoners made a "soup" of water and grass in order to deal with their hunger. Men did die needlessly and inexcusably."
Their second conclusion was, "when scholars do the necessary research, they will find Bacque's work to be worse than worthless. It is seriously - nay, spectacularly - flawed in its most fundamental aspects". They accused that, "he misuses documents; he misreads documents; he ignores contrary evidence; his statistical methodology is hopelessly compromised; he makes no attempt to look at comparative contexts; he puts words into the mouth of his principal source; he ignores a readily available and absolutely critical source that decisively deals with his central accusation; and, as a consequence of these and other shortcomings, he reaches conclusions and makes charges that are demonstrably absurd."
The final conclusion of historians was that Eisenhower was an enthusiastic supporter of denazification, but not because he hated the Germans or believed in collective guilt. On the contrary, he believed that there were Germans who were committed to democracy and that the task of the occupation was to find them and bring them to the fore.
In a speech in Frankfurt in 1945, he declared, "The success or failure of this occupation will be judged by the character of the Germans 50 years from now. Proof will come when they begin to run a democracy of their own and we are going to give the Germans a chance to do that, in time."
Historians exclaimed, "This does not sound like a man who simultaneously was directing the death by starving a million of young Germans."
Canadian author James Bacque in his book "Other Losses" heavily criticized Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower for his involvement in treating the German prisoners of war. James Bacque's comments in "Other Losses" were widely discussed on American and German televisions and received a mixture of excitement and anger.
The reason for the reaction was the author's conclusion that Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, as head of the American occupation in Germany in 1945, deliberately starved to death German prisoners of war in staggering numbers. Bacque holds that "the victims undoubtedly number over 800,000, almost certainly over 800,000 and quite likely over a million. Their deaths were knowingly caused by army officers who had sufficient resources to keep them alive."
Eisenhower's method, according to Bacque, was simple: he changed the designation of the prisoners from "Prisoners of War" (P.O.W.), which required by the Geneva Convention to be fed the same rations as US Army's, to "Disarmed Enemy Forces" (D.E.F.), which allowed him to cut their rations to starvation level.
Bacque says the D.E.F. were also denied medical supplies and shelter; because of that they died by hundreds of thousands. Their deaths were covered up on Army records by listing them as "other losses" on charts showing weekly totals of prisoners on hand, numbers discharged and so forth.
Bacque was quoted in a wire service interview as saying, "Americans should take down every statue of Eisenhower, and every photograph of him and annul his memory from American history as best they can, except to say, 'Here was a man who did very evil things that we're ashamed of."
But the critics exclaimed if there were a million dead, where were the bodies? Did Eisenhower have such vast power that he could order starvation on a mass scale and keep it a secret? Was the undoubted suffering in the camps, especially the transit camps along the Rhine, the result of Eisenhower's policy or the result of the chaotic conditions that prevailed in Europe in the spring and summer of 1945?
Historian Stephen Ambrose criticised James Bacque for having had no previous historical research or writing experience. James Bacque himself admitted in his introduction to the book "Other Losses": "Doubtless many scholars will find faults in this book, which are only mine. I welcome their criticism and their further research, which may help to restore to us the truth after a long night of lies."
Some time back, the Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans invited some leading experts to examine the charges. The conference participants, including historian Stephen Ambrose came to the first conclusion that James Bacque had made a major historical discovery: "There was widespread mistreatment of German prisoners in the spring and summer of 1945. Men were beaten, denied water, forced to live in open camps without shelter, given inadequate food rations and inadequate medical care. Their mail was withheld. In some cases prisoners made a "soup" of water and grass in order to deal with their hunger. Men did die needlessly and inexcusably."
Their second conclusion was, "when scholars do the necessary research, they will find Bacque's work to be worse than worthless. It is seriously - nay, spectacularly - flawed in its most fundamental aspects". They accused that, "he misuses documents; he misreads documents; he ignores contrary evidence; his statistical methodology is hopelessly compromised; he makes no attempt to look at comparative contexts; he puts words into the mouth of his principal source; he ignores a readily available and absolutely critical source that decisively deals with his central accusation; and, as a consequence of these and other shortcomings, he reaches conclusions and makes charges that are demonstrably absurd."
The final conclusion of historians was that Eisenhower was an enthusiastic supporter of denazification, but not because he hated the Germans or believed in collective guilt. On the contrary, he believed that there were Germans who were committed to democracy and that the task of the occupation was to find them and bring them to the fore.
In a speech in Frankfurt in 1945, he declared, "The success or failure of this occupation will be judged by the character of the Germans 50 years from now. Proof will come when they begin to run a democracy of their own and we are going to give the Germans a chance to do that, in time."
Historians exclaimed, "This does not sound like a man who simultaneously was directing the death by starving a million of young Germans."
Saturday, December 22, 2007
German Memory - US President Gen Dwight D Eisenhower in the Crisis of Starving German POWs
Canadian author James Bacque in his book "Other Losses" heavily criticized Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower for his involvement in treating the German prisoners of war. James Bacque's comments in "Other Losses" were widely discussed on American and German televisions and received a mixture of excitement and anger.
Historians criticized Bacque, "He completely misunderstands Eisenhower's position and activity in the occupation. He puts full responsibility on Eisenhower for every policy decision, never recognizing that he had superiors from whom he took policy directives and orders - specifically, the Army Chief of Staff, the European Advisory Commission, acting in the name and with the authority of the British, Soviet and American Governments."
The report at the New Orleans conference with the diplomatic background, by Brian Villa of the University of Ottawa, noted that the policy of Eisenhower's superiors was to impress upon the Germans the fact of their defeat, the fact that they had brought it on themselves and in other ways to "treat 'em rough." Denazification was one aspect of that policy. Another was that German prisoners would not be fed at a higher level than German civilians, than the civilians of the liberated nations, or than the displaced persons (DPs).
An assertion that was central to Bacque's accusation was his contention that there was no European food shortage in 1945. He pointed to warehouses in Germany full of food. He stated that the Red Cross had enough food available. One of his pieces of evidence was that a train from Geneva loaded with food parcels sent by the Red Cross to feed German prisoners was forced to turn back.
But historians denied Bacque's accusation and came out with the revelation that the Allied Governments had decided those Red Cross food parcels were to feed displaced persons, of whom there were more than two million in Germany.
They also pointed out the fact denying Bacque's accusation of no food shortage that Eisenhower wrote to the Chief of Staff, Gen. George C. Marshall, in February 1945: "I am very much concerned about the food situation... We now have no reserves on the Continent of supplies for the civil population."
Eisenhower wrote to the Combined Chiefs of Staff on April 25, 1945: "Unless immediate steps are taken to develop to the fullest extent possible the food resources in order to provide the minimum wants of the German population, widespread starvation and disease are inevitable during the coming winter."
Historians pointed out Eisenhower had sent many messages before the surrender of Germany on the expectation of possible inadequacy of food. After the first week of May, all of Eisenhower's calculations as to how many people he would be required to feed in occupied Germany became woefully inadequate. He had badly underestimated, for two reasons. First, the number of German soldiers surrendering to the Western Allies far exceeded what was expected (more than five million, instead of the anticipated three million) because of the onrush of German soldiers across the Elbe River to escape the Russians. So too the German civilians - there were millions fleeing from east to west, about 13 million altogether, and they became Eisenhower's responsibility.
Eisenhower faced shortages even before he learned that there were 17 million more people to feed in Germany than he had expected.
The report of the Military Governor for Germany in July 1945 stated, "The food situation throughout Western Germany is perhaps the most serious problem of the occupation. The average food consumption in the Western Zones is now about one-third below the generally accepted subsistence level."
The September report declared, "Food from indigenous sources was not available to meet the present authorized ration level for the normal consumer of 1,550 calories per day."
Historians criticized Bacque's accusation that the prisoners were receiving 1,550 calories a day and his observation that such a ration meant slow starvation. They pointed out he apparently never looked at what civilians were getting in Germany or in the liberated countries. In Paris in 1945, the calorie level was 1,550 for civilians. It was only slightly higher in Britain, where rationing continued. It was much lower in Russia, where rationing also continued. As noted, the official ration for German civilians was 1,550, but often not met. In Vienna in the summer of 1945 the official ration sometimes fell to 500. Historians noted anyone who was in Europe in the summer of 1945 would be flabbergasted to hear that there was no food shortage.
Historians criticized Bacque, "He completely misunderstands Eisenhower's position and activity in the occupation. He puts full responsibility on Eisenhower for every policy decision, never recognizing that he had superiors from whom he took policy directives and orders - specifically, the Army Chief of Staff, the European Advisory Commission, acting in the name and with the authority of the British, Soviet and American Governments."
The report at the New Orleans conference with the diplomatic background, by Brian Villa of the University of Ottawa, noted that the policy of Eisenhower's superiors was to impress upon the Germans the fact of their defeat, the fact that they had brought it on themselves and in other ways to "treat 'em rough." Denazification was one aspect of that policy. Another was that German prisoners would not be fed at a higher level than German civilians, than the civilians of the liberated nations, or than the displaced persons (DPs).
An assertion that was central to Bacque's accusation was his contention that there was no European food shortage in 1945. He pointed to warehouses in Germany full of food. He stated that the Red Cross had enough food available. One of his pieces of evidence was that a train from Geneva loaded with food parcels sent by the Red Cross to feed German prisoners was forced to turn back.
But historians denied Bacque's accusation and came out with the revelation that the Allied Governments had decided those Red Cross food parcels were to feed displaced persons, of whom there were more than two million in Germany.
They also pointed out the fact denying Bacque's accusation of no food shortage that Eisenhower wrote to the Chief of Staff, Gen. George C. Marshall, in February 1945: "I am very much concerned about the food situation... We now have no reserves on the Continent of supplies for the civil population."
Eisenhower wrote to the Combined Chiefs of Staff on April 25, 1945: "Unless immediate steps are taken to develop to the fullest extent possible the food resources in order to provide the minimum wants of the German population, widespread starvation and disease are inevitable during the coming winter."
Historians pointed out Eisenhower had sent many messages before the surrender of Germany on the expectation of possible inadequacy of food. After the first week of May, all of Eisenhower's calculations as to how many people he would be required to feed in occupied Germany became woefully inadequate. He had badly underestimated, for two reasons. First, the number of German soldiers surrendering to the Western Allies far exceeded what was expected (more than five million, instead of the anticipated three million) because of the onrush of German soldiers across the Elbe River to escape the Russians. So too the German civilians - there were millions fleeing from east to west, about 13 million altogether, and they became Eisenhower's responsibility.
Eisenhower faced shortages even before he learned that there were 17 million more people to feed in Germany than he had expected.
The report of the Military Governor for Germany in July 1945 stated, "The food situation throughout Western Germany is perhaps the most serious problem of the occupation. The average food consumption in the Western Zones is now about one-third below the generally accepted subsistence level."
The September report declared, "Food from indigenous sources was not available to meet the present authorized ration level for the normal consumer of 1,550 calories per day."
Historians criticized Bacque's accusation that the prisoners were receiving 1,550 calories a day and his observation that such a ration meant slow starvation. They pointed out he apparently never looked at what civilians were getting in Germany or in the liberated countries. In Paris in 1945, the calorie level was 1,550 for civilians. It was only slightly higher in Britain, where rationing continued. It was much lower in Russia, where rationing also continued. As noted, the official ration for German civilians was 1,550, but often not met. In Vienna in the summer of 1945 the official ration sometimes fell to 500. Historians noted anyone who was in Europe in the summer of 1945 would be flabbergasted to hear that there was no food shortage.
German Memory in Asia - An Exploration Into Austrian-German Dialects
While I was talking to Dietmar Doering , a student entered into the office exclaiming, "Oh! I couldn't believe it, such a big change?" Doering told she was a former student and introduced Andrea. She was visiting Sri Lanka after her stay as an intern student in 2004. She was working in a leading Austrian newspaper as a sports journalist.
In the middle of our conversation, she smiled at Doering and said, "You are talking with an Austrian accent". He with a smile accepted her remark. Doering has been living in Sri Lanka for more than twenty years with his mother and he might have adopted that accent for her benefit.
Austrian German is a variety of the German language and mostly a High German dialect.
Dialects are receding in Austria as they are in some other areas of Europe, but it can safely be said that they are more persistent than in most of Germany.
Dialects are frequently used in TV series or movies where it is appropriate for a particular character and situation. Educated people in Vienna usually speak a very slight form of dialect or simply Standard German, but with the characteristic Viennese accent.
Austria's mountainous terrain led to the development of many distinct German dialects. All of the dialects in the country, however, belong to Austro-Bavarian groups of German dialects, with the exception of the dialect spoken in its west-most Bundesland, Vorarlberg, which belongs to the group of Alemannic dialects. There is also a distinct grammatical standard for Austrian German with a few differences to the German spoken in Germany.
In the middle of our conversation, she smiled at Doering and said, "You are talking with an Austrian accent". He with a smile accepted her remark. Doering has been living in Sri Lanka for more than twenty years with his mother and he might have adopted that accent for her benefit.
Austrian German is a variety of the German language and mostly a High German dialect.
Dialects are receding in Austria as they are in some other areas of Europe, but it can safely be said that they are more persistent than in most of Germany.
Dialects are frequently used in TV series or movies where it is appropriate for a particular character and situation. Educated people in Vienna usually speak a very slight form of dialect or simply Standard German, but with the characteristic Viennese accent.
Austria's mountainous terrain led to the development of many distinct German dialects. All of the dialects in the country, however, belong to Austro-Bavarian groups of German dialects, with the exception of the dialect spoken in its west-most Bundesland, Vorarlberg, which belongs to the group of Alemannic dialects. There is also a distinct grammatical standard for Austrian German with a few differences to the German spoken in Germany.
German Memory - US President Gen Dwight D Eisenhower & The "Other Losses" of German Prisoners
According to Canadian Author James Bacque, Eisenhower personally, secretly, and with sinister intent changed the status of surrendered German soldiers from prisoners of war to Disarmed Enemy Forces.
But the historians argued that the change in designation was a policy matter. The decision was made not by Eisenhower but by his superiors, specifically by the European Advisory Commission. Nor was any attempt made to keep it secret. All those involved acted with the authority of the British, Russian and American Governments, and they were perfectly straightforward about the reason for the change in status. The Allies could not afford to feed the millions of German prisoners at the same level at which they were able to feed German civilians, the civilians of the liberated countries of Western Europe and the displaced persons. But the United States and other Allied nations had signed the Geneva Convention, which had the force of a treaty. They did not wish to violate it, so they used the new designation of "Disarmed Enemy Forces."
The greatest number of "other losses" revealed in the August 1945 Report of the Military Governor. (These monthly reports are in the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kan., in the National Archives in Washington and elsewhere; they are a basic source on every aspect of the occupation, including food shortages and prisoners). Historians accused Bacque that he did not cite them and there was no evidence that he examined them even.
The August report lists the numbers of disarmed enemy forces discharged by American forces and those transferred to the British and French for forced labor.
The report states: "An additional group of 663,576 are listed as 'other losses,' consisting largely of members of the Volksturm [Peoples' Militia], released without formal discharge."
The People's Militia consisted of older men (up to 80 years of age, mainly World War I veterans) and boys of 16 or sometimes less. American guards and camp authorities told the old men to go home and take care of their grandchildren, the boys to go home and return to school along with the transfers to other zones. Historians criticized James Bacque that he ignored all these facts for his 'missing million'.
They further criticized Bacque was wrong on every major charge and nearly all his minor ones. Eisenhower was not a Hitler, he did not run death camps, German prisoners did not die by the hundreds of thousands, there was a severe food shortage in 1945, there was nothing sinister or secret about the "disarmed enemy forces" designation.
Nevertheless, Historians agreed with Bacque on one point, that some US Army soldiers and their officers were capable of acting in almost as brutal a manner as the Nazis.
But number of historians has commented in their reviews in Britain, France, Germany and Canada, "they cannot believe what Mr. Bacque says about Eisenhower is true, but they cannot also disprove it."
Eisenhower, the German descendant American who showed his statesmanship and greater humanity by ending the Korean War and avoiding military intervention in Vietnam finally left a controversial legacy in his ancestral Germany; once said, "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children... This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron."
But the historians argued that the change in designation was a policy matter. The decision was made not by Eisenhower but by his superiors, specifically by the European Advisory Commission. Nor was any attempt made to keep it secret. All those involved acted with the authority of the British, Russian and American Governments, and they were perfectly straightforward about the reason for the change in status. The Allies could not afford to feed the millions of German prisoners at the same level at which they were able to feed German civilians, the civilians of the liberated countries of Western Europe and the displaced persons. But the United States and other Allied nations had signed the Geneva Convention, which had the force of a treaty. They did not wish to violate it, so they used the new designation of "Disarmed Enemy Forces."
The greatest number of "other losses" revealed in the August 1945 Report of the Military Governor. (These monthly reports are in the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kan., in the National Archives in Washington and elsewhere; they are a basic source on every aspect of the occupation, including food shortages and prisoners). Historians accused Bacque that he did not cite them and there was no evidence that he examined them even.
The August report lists the numbers of disarmed enemy forces discharged by American forces and those transferred to the British and French for forced labor.
The report states: "An additional group of 663,576 are listed as 'other losses,' consisting largely of members of the Volksturm [Peoples' Militia], released without formal discharge."
The People's Militia consisted of older men (up to 80 years of age, mainly World War I veterans) and boys of 16 or sometimes less. American guards and camp authorities told the old men to go home and take care of their grandchildren, the boys to go home and return to school along with the transfers to other zones. Historians criticized James Bacque that he ignored all these facts for his 'missing million'.
They further criticized Bacque was wrong on every major charge and nearly all his minor ones. Eisenhower was not a Hitler, he did not run death camps, German prisoners did not die by the hundreds of thousands, there was a severe food shortage in 1945, there was nothing sinister or secret about the "disarmed enemy forces" designation.
Nevertheless, Historians agreed with Bacque on one point, that some US Army soldiers and their officers were capable of acting in almost as brutal a manner as the Nazis.
But number of historians has commented in their reviews in Britain, France, Germany and Canada, "they cannot believe what Mr. Bacque says about Eisenhower is true, but they cannot also disprove it."
Eisenhower, the German descendant American who showed his statesmanship and greater humanity by ending the Korean War and avoiding military intervention in Vietnam finally left a controversial legacy in his ancestral Germany; once said, "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children... This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron."
German Memory in Asia - A Discussion With German-Spanish Student
Aquarius resort's indoor stadium was flooded by visitors for an unusual event, the German university student's fashion show.
When I was moving around I found there were some students struggling with their own make-up to make it match their dresses and to gain a right balance. They were bothering so much for a mere fashion show. I wondered how participants in a world beauty contest would care over their attire and make-up.
The lights were switched off other than a few red lights. The students were making elegant body movements and gestures just like what one sees at fashion show. They were dancing and singing at times to some melodious German songs.
Once the fashion show was over, I extended my congratulations to Nita who had performed so excellently. While I was talking to her, she related some stories and said that her mother was a German and father a Spanish.
She asked me whether I had heard of Valencia and when I said "No", her face darkened and asked me repeatedly "you never heard about Valencia?" Then she asked after a brief pause whether I heard about "Barcelona" and when I said "of course yes", she smiled and said just north of Barcelona was her father's native place "Valencia". "Do you know how beautiful that Mediterranean city is?" and continued, "I like Valencia very much" and narrated the historical importance of Valencia. Her narration was expressive of the love she bore towards her father and his land of birth.
When I was moving around I found there were some students struggling with their own make-up to make it match their dresses and to gain a right balance. They were bothering so much for a mere fashion show. I wondered how participants in a world beauty contest would care over their attire and make-up.
The lights were switched off other than a few red lights. The students were making elegant body movements and gestures just like what one sees at fashion show. They were dancing and singing at times to some melodious German songs.
Once the fashion show was over, I extended my congratulations to Nita who had performed so excellently. While I was talking to her, she related some stories and said that her mother was a German and father a Spanish.
She asked me whether I had heard of Valencia and when I said "No", her face darkened and asked me repeatedly "you never heard about Valencia?" Then she asked after a brief pause whether I heard about "Barcelona" and when I said "of course yes", she smiled and said just north of Barcelona was her father's native place "Valencia". "Do you know how beautiful that Mediterranean city is?" and continued, "I like Valencia very much" and narrated the historical importance of Valencia. Her narration was expressive of the love she bore towards her father and his land of birth.
German Memoirs in Asia - Austria & Divided German States
Andrea was narrating various issues about Austria. When I asked Andrea how most of the Austrians identify themselves as Austrians or Germans, she said, "there are complex issues. We have a unique culture in Austria. So we feel comfortable when we identify ourselves as Austrians". She also said, "We are less in number compared to those who are in Germany and that is the primary reason why we like to identify ourselves as Austrians".
That the German Nation and its people should be divided was a notion held by many European nations. Foreign powers had long interceded in German affairs, pitting one German principality against the other.
In the 19th century, after the Napoleonic Wars and the fall of the Holy Roman Empire (of the German nation), Austria and Prussia emerged as two opposite poles in Germany, trying to re-establish the divided German nation. In 1870, Prussia attracted even Bavaria in the Franco-Prussian War and the creation of the German Empire as a German nation-state, effectively excluding the multi-ethnic Austrian-Habsburg monarchy. From this time on, the connotation of Germans came to shift gradually from "speakers of the German language" to "Imperial Germans."
The dissolution of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire after World War I led to a strong desire of the population of the new Republic of Austria to be integrated into Germany. This was, however, prevented by the Treaty of Versailles.
Trying to overcome the shortfall of Chancellor Bismarck's creation, the Nazis attempted to unite "all Germans" in one realm. This was welcomed among ethnic Germans in Czechoslovakia, Austria, Poland, Danzig and Western Lithuania, but met with resistance among the Swiss and the Dutch, who were perfectly content with their perception of separate nations established in 1648, and the Dutch, in particular as they had never even spoken a form of the modern Germanic language.
Before World War II, most Austrians considered themselves German and denied the existence of a distinct Austrian ethnic identity. It was only after the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II that this began to change. After the world war, the Austrians increasingly saw themselves as a nation distinct from the other German-speaking areas of Europe, and some polls in 2000 indicated that no more than ten percent of the German-speaking Austrians saw themselves as part of a larger German nation linked by blood or language.
Germans, would hold that they belong to the German culture, which is what decides if someone is considered a German or not. On the other hand, Austrians often prefer to see the same persons and institutions as Austrian. Particularly, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven - who spent most of their lives in what is Austria today - may be considered to have been central within the German culture but may nevertheless often be characterized as Austrians, not as Germans.
The beginnings of a divided Germany may be traced back much further; to a Roman occupied Germania in the west and to Free Germania in the east. Starkly different ideologies have many times been developed due to conquerors and occupiers of sections of Germany. Poets talked of Zwei Seelen in einem Herz (Two souls in one heart).
That the German Nation and its people should be divided was a notion held by many European nations. Foreign powers had long interceded in German affairs, pitting one German principality against the other.
In the 19th century, after the Napoleonic Wars and the fall of the Holy Roman Empire (of the German nation), Austria and Prussia emerged as two opposite poles in Germany, trying to re-establish the divided German nation. In 1870, Prussia attracted even Bavaria in the Franco-Prussian War and the creation of the German Empire as a German nation-state, effectively excluding the multi-ethnic Austrian-Habsburg monarchy. From this time on, the connotation of Germans came to shift gradually from "speakers of the German language" to "Imperial Germans."
The dissolution of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire after World War I led to a strong desire of the population of the new Republic of Austria to be integrated into Germany. This was, however, prevented by the Treaty of Versailles.
Trying to overcome the shortfall of Chancellor Bismarck's creation, the Nazis attempted to unite "all Germans" in one realm. This was welcomed among ethnic Germans in Czechoslovakia, Austria, Poland, Danzig and Western Lithuania, but met with resistance among the Swiss and the Dutch, who were perfectly content with their perception of separate nations established in 1648, and the Dutch, in particular as they had never even spoken a form of the modern Germanic language.
Before World War II, most Austrians considered themselves German and denied the existence of a distinct Austrian ethnic identity. It was only after the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II that this began to change. After the world war, the Austrians increasingly saw themselves as a nation distinct from the other German-speaking areas of Europe, and some polls in 2000 indicated that no more than ten percent of the German-speaking Austrians saw themselves as part of a larger German nation linked by blood or language.
Germans, would hold that they belong to the German culture, which is what decides if someone is considered a German or not. On the other hand, Austrians often prefer to see the same persons and institutions as Austrian. Particularly, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven - who spent most of their lives in what is Austria today - may be considered to have been central within the German culture but may nevertheless often be characterized as Austrians, not as Germans.
The beginnings of a divided Germany may be traced back much further; to a Roman occupied Germania in the west and to Free Germania in the east. Starkly different ideologies have many times been developed due to conquerors and occupiers of sections of Germany. Poets talked of Zwei Seelen in einem Herz (Two souls in one heart).
German Memories - Kaiser William II & The First World War
William gave the German nation an extra strength on the international level only by constructing a powerful navy which he had inherited from his mother, a love of the British Royal Navy, the world's largest at that time. He made a reality of what he once confided to his uncle Edward VII that his dream was to have a "fleet of my own some day" like the British. William's personal "likes and dislikes" caused by his fleet's poor show in front of his grandmother Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations led him to take steps towards the construction of a powerful navy against his cousins in Britain.
William well utilised the talents of the dynamic naval officer Alfred von Tirpitz. He appointed him as the head of the Reich Naval Office in 1897 and the new admiral had come out with his Tirpitz Plan, the "Risk theory" where he advocated how Germany could force Britain to accede to German demands in the international arena through the threat posed by a powerful battle-fleet concentrated in the North Sea. But building this powerful fleet of more expensive Dreadnought type of battleships cost a lot to Germany imposing financial strains in the coming years.
William got into the trap of the First World War when his close friend the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was murdered on June 28, 1914. William offered Austria-Hungary to crush the secret organization that had plotted and slayed the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He encouraged Austria to use force against the suspected Serbian movement which was responsible for his murder. But he was further trapped by his exploitative elites in Berlin by sending him away to his annual cruise of the North Sea on July 6, 1914, as they wanted to manipulate things in his absence for war to increase German dominance in Europe. They feared William might undermine their war effort - something of which William, for all his bluster, was extremely apprehensive.
William made erratic attempts to stay on top of the crisis via telegram, and when the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum was delivered to Serbia, he hurried back to Berlin. He reached Berlin and started his last minute attempt to avert the war.
But beyond his knowledge and control in Austria the warring-attempts were in full swing. Unknown to the Emperor, Austro-Hungarian ministers and generals had already convinced the 84-year-old Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria to sign a declaration of war against Serbia.
When William learnt that the First World War was unavoidable by a document stating that Russia would not cancel its mobilization on the event of Austro-Hungarian mobilization against Serbia, he wrote a lengthy commentary containing the startling observations: "For I no longer have any doubt that England, Russia and France have agreed among themselves........knowing that our treaty obligations compel us to support Austria.......to use the Austro-Serb conflict as a pretext for waging a war of annihilation against us.......Our dilemma over keeping faith with the old and honorable Emperor has been exploited to create a situation which gives England the excuse she has been seeking to annihilate us with a spurious appearance of justice on the pretext that she is helping France and maintaining the well-known Balance of Power in Europe for her own benefit against us."
William well utilised the talents of the dynamic naval officer Alfred von Tirpitz. He appointed him as the head of the Reich Naval Office in 1897 and the new admiral had come out with his Tirpitz Plan, the "Risk theory" where he advocated how Germany could force Britain to accede to German demands in the international arena through the threat posed by a powerful battle-fleet concentrated in the North Sea. But building this powerful fleet of more expensive Dreadnought type of battleships cost a lot to Germany imposing financial strains in the coming years.
William got into the trap of the First World War when his close friend the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was murdered on June 28, 1914. William offered Austria-Hungary to crush the secret organization that had plotted and slayed the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He encouraged Austria to use force against the suspected Serbian movement which was responsible for his murder. But he was further trapped by his exploitative elites in Berlin by sending him away to his annual cruise of the North Sea on July 6, 1914, as they wanted to manipulate things in his absence for war to increase German dominance in Europe. They feared William might undermine their war effort - something of which William, for all his bluster, was extremely apprehensive.
William made erratic attempts to stay on top of the crisis via telegram, and when the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum was delivered to Serbia, he hurried back to Berlin. He reached Berlin and started his last minute attempt to avert the war.
But beyond his knowledge and control in Austria the warring-attempts were in full swing. Unknown to the Emperor, Austro-Hungarian ministers and generals had already convinced the 84-year-old Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria to sign a declaration of war against Serbia.
When William learnt that the First World War was unavoidable by a document stating that Russia would not cancel its mobilization on the event of Austro-Hungarian mobilization against Serbia, he wrote a lengthy commentary containing the startling observations: "For I no longer have any doubt that England, Russia and France have agreed among themselves........knowing that our treaty obligations compel us to support Austria.......to use the Austro-Serb conflict as a pretext for waging a war of annihilation against us.......Our dilemma over keeping faith with the old and honorable Emperor has been exploited to create a situation which gives England the excuse she has been seeking to annihilate us with a spurious appearance of justice on the pretext that she is helping France and maintaining the well-known Balance of Power in Europe for her own benefit against us."
German Memories - Volga Germans Under Bolshevist Atrocities
Following World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, Russia experienced mass starvation from 1920 to 1924 caused largely by a government policy of forced grain requisition.
When the Volga Germans resisted, they were completely stripped of all grain and mass executions were carried out. More than thirty percent of the Volga German population was deliberately starved before relief was permitted.
Starting in 1921, the Volga Relief Society in America raised money and bought supplies for the starving Volga Germans.
The cruelties against the Volga Germans was better revealed to the world in 1922 when a former Sheboygan resident John Hermann returned to Sheboygan, Wisconsin and told his story of survival and escape from Russia. He left from Sheboygan, Wisconsin to his Volga German settlement in Russia just before the opening of the war and returned to Sheboygan after the Bolshevist atrocities to Volga Germans which made them impoverished and nearly dead.
His story was published in the Sheboygan Press on Jan 24, 1922.
The story went as - John Hermann, residing at 1018 N. Ninth street, returned to Sheboygan early last week with reports of conditions in the Volga river region of Russia which corroborate the wildest reports of correspondents abroad. Tall, haggard, careworn, his face furrowed by worry and privation and with eyes saddened by scenes of horror, Mr. Hermann has returned after an absence of seven years to his family circle, whose happiness knows no bounds.
Mr. Hermann who had been here several years, left Sheboygan in May 1914, starting on his return journey to Russia where he intended to settle his estate and divide it among his sons.
The World War made his return impossible and he was forced to stay in his native village. During the war, Mr. Hermann stated, the conditions were not bad. There was plenty of food and though extensive requisitions had to be filled to the government, they willingly complied, for the armies had to be fed.
As soon as the bolshevists came to power, their merciless rule was felt in the Volga river region. Hordes of them swooped down upon the hamlets and villages and ordered election of councils of government, consisting of twenty-four men and a president, which body was authorized to carry out their orders and instructions.
Every village naturally had a dissatisfied element, which was in sympathy with the bolshevist, and this element was elected into office. The wealthier people were barred from election. The bolshevists supplied the candidates for election and the citizens had no choice in the matter.
Through this council a systematic plan of impoverishing the Volga river region was carried out. Orders stipulating great quantities of corn and wheat were continually given and these orders had to be obeyed.
Tardiness of only one hour in the delivery of the demanded quantities meant either a fine of twenty "boots" of wheat (one boot being equal to about forty pounds) or if the officers were so inclined - death.
After a few months the conditions became deplorable. The supplies for man and beast were exhausted. Lack of fodder put the draft animals in poor condition.
Often the bolshevists demanded horses at a moment's notice and the least resistance upon the part of their owners meant death. Horses and wagons with driver were commandeered to haul away the grain and many of those unfortunates never returned to their native home.
A neighbor of Mr. Hermann's who begged to be excused from hauling some grain to the territorial headquarters twenty versts away on the ground that he had just then returned from an extensive trip and his horse needed rest was shot down where he stood. Then other inhabitants of the village were killed at another time.
Some of the inhabitants of the village Schaefer, where Mr. Hermann had his home, being unable to bear the tyranny of the invaders, revolted, dethroned the council installed by the Soviet and elected their own from the fair-minded citizenship. As soon as the news of this occurrence reached headquarters of the bolshevists, troops were sent to capture the village and the newly elected council was put on horses, taken to the neighboring village, Reinwald, where they were executed.
The crop in the year of 1920 was a good one, said Mr. Hermann. It was well able to sustain the population of the stricken country had not the demands of the bolshevists been so great.
Seeing that starvation would be certain if provisions were not made in time, Mr. Hermann conceived the plan of completely closing the chimney and fireplace in his home. This he filled with 36 boots of wheat. The hidden store saved the lives of his immediate relatives for a time. He would gladly have shared it with others had not fear of detection prevented him from doing so. A hint of the priceless treasure to the authorities would have meant certain death.
All grinding mills were destroyed by the bolshevists to stop private manufacture of flour. Driven by desperation, ingenious minds experimented with coffee mills with no mean result though others also used meat grinders to obtain a little coarse flour.
Most of the passenger trains were crowded so that many who were anxious to escape death, climbed aboard boxcars and made their way in this manner. Men and women alike huddled on the top of these cars hoping against hope to reach a more fortunate region. It so transpired that the wife of a friend of Mr. Hermann's gave birth to a child while riding on the roof of a boxcar, exposed to the elements and the winds.
The favorite pastime of the bolshevists was the use of these destitute men and women as a means of target practice and it was considered a feat to pick off one of those huddled forms from a moving train. Mr. Hermann is hardly able to realize that he survived the ordeal. Repeatedly taken from trains, forced to slave labor, and after numerous escapes from the clutches of the revolutionists, he finally reached Novo sew (New Russia) at the Black Sea. This place is about 800 versts distant from his native village and it took him nearly six months to traverse the distance.
He was successful in getting a job as stevedore on a tramp steamer and passing through the Aegean Sea down into the Mediterranean and Italy. Traveling through Italy and Austria Hungary he crossed into Germany where he found employment at Bremen and awaited the time when his relatives in Sheboygan could provide for his steamship passage.
He said to the Press by Telegram, "The people of Sheboygan do not appreciate enough the great quantities of food they possess. Smiles of contentment are upon the faces and the children know no want. But for the starving people in Russia, these smiles of plenty and contentment are no more.
Their eyes are turned to America and the hope that help will come gives them courage to battle another day against their enemy - death. Still, I do not see how any of them can live today, for they lack food, clothing and fuel. There is plenty of fuel, yes - but no one has the energy left to get it. With them it is a problem of conserving their strength to fight the hand of famine."
When the Volga Germans resisted, they were completely stripped of all grain and mass executions were carried out. More than thirty percent of the Volga German population was deliberately starved before relief was permitted.
Starting in 1921, the Volga Relief Society in America raised money and bought supplies for the starving Volga Germans.
The cruelties against the Volga Germans was better revealed to the world in 1922 when a former Sheboygan resident John Hermann returned to Sheboygan, Wisconsin and told his story of survival and escape from Russia. He left from Sheboygan, Wisconsin to his Volga German settlement in Russia just before the opening of the war and returned to Sheboygan after the Bolshevist atrocities to Volga Germans which made them impoverished and nearly dead.
His story was published in the Sheboygan Press on Jan 24, 1922.
The story went as - John Hermann, residing at 1018 N. Ninth street, returned to Sheboygan early last week with reports of conditions in the Volga river region of Russia which corroborate the wildest reports of correspondents abroad. Tall, haggard, careworn, his face furrowed by worry and privation and with eyes saddened by scenes of horror, Mr. Hermann has returned after an absence of seven years to his family circle, whose happiness knows no bounds.
Mr. Hermann who had been here several years, left Sheboygan in May 1914, starting on his return journey to Russia where he intended to settle his estate and divide it among his sons.
The World War made his return impossible and he was forced to stay in his native village. During the war, Mr. Hermann stated, the conditions were not bad. There was plenty of food and though extensive requisitions had to be filled to the government, they willingly complied, for the armies had to be fed.
As soon as the bolshevists came to power, their merciless rule was felt in the Volga river region. Hordes of them swooped down upon the hamlets and villages and ordered election of councils of government, consisting of twenty-four men and a president, which body was authorized to carry out their orders and instructions.
Every village naturally had a dissatisfied element, which was in sympathy with the bolshevist, and this element was elected into office. The wealthier people were barred from election. The bolshevists supplied the candidates for election and the citizens had no choice in the matter.
Through this council a systematic plan of impoverishing the Volga river region was carried out. Orders stipulating great quantities of corn and wheat were continually given and these orders had to be obeyed.
Tardiness of only one hour in the delivery of the demanded quantities meant either a fine of twenty "boots" of wheat (one boot being equal to about forty pounds) or if the officers were so inclined - death.
After a few months the conditions became deplorable. The supplies for man and beast were exhausted. Lack of fodder put the draft animals in poor condition.
Often the bolshevists demanded horses at a moment's notice and the least resistance upon the part of their owners meant death. Horses and wagons with driver were commandeered to haul away the grain and many of those unfortunates never returned to their native home.
A neighbor of Mr. Hermann's who begged to be excused from hauling some grain to the territorial headquarters twenty versts away on the ground that he had just then returned from an extensive trip and his horse needed rest was shot down where he stood. Then other inhabitants of the village were killed at another time.
Some of the inhabitants of the village Schaefer, where Mr. Hermann had his home, being unable to bear the tyranny of the invaders, revolted, dethroned the council installed by the Soviet and elected their own from the fair-minded citizenship. As soon as the news of this occurrence reached headquarters of the bolshevists, troops were sent to capture the village and the newly elected council was put on horses, taken to the neighboring village, Reinwald, where they were executed.
The crop in the year of 1920 was a good one, said Mr. Hermann. It was well able to sustain the population of the stricken country had not the demands of the bolshevists been so great.
Seeing that starvation would be certain if provisions were not made in time, Mr. Hermann conceived the plan of completely closing the chimney and fireplace in his home. This he filled with 36 boots of wheat. The hidden store saved the lives of his immediate relatives for a time. He would gladly have shared it with others had not fear of detection prevented him from doing so. A hint of the priceless treasure to the authorities would have meant certain death.
All grinding mills were destroyed by the bolshevists to stop private manufacture of flour. Driven by desperation, ingenious minds experimented with coffee mills with no mean result though others also used meat grinders to obtain a little coarse flour.
Most of the passenger trains were crowded so that many who were anxious to escape death, climbed aboard boxcars and made their way in this manner. Men and women alike huddled on the top of these cars hoping against hope to reach a more fortunate region. It so transpired that the wife of a friend of Mr. Hermann's gave birth to a child while riding on the roof of a boxcar, exposed to the elements and the winds.
The favorite pastime of the bolshevists was the use of these destitute men and women as a means of target practice and it was considered a feat to pick off one of those huddled forms from a moving train. Mr. Hermann is hardly able to realize that he survived the ordeal. Repeatedly taken from trains, forced to slave labor, and after numerous escapes from the clutches of the revolutionists, he finally reached Novo sew (New Russia) at the Black Sea. This place is about 800 versts distant from his native village and it took him nearly six months to traverse the distance.
He was successful in getting a job as stevedore on a tramp steamer and passing through the Aegean Sea down into the Mediterranean and Italy. Traveling through Italy and Austria Hungary he crossed into Germany where he found employment at Bremen and awaited the time when his relatives in Sheboygan could provide for his steamship passage.
He said to the Press by Telegram, "The people of Sheboygan do not appreciate enough the great quantities of food they possess. Smiles of contentment are upon the faces and the children know no want. But for the starving people in Russia, these smiles of plenty and contentment are no more.
Their eyes are turned to America and the hope that help will come gives them courage to battle another day against their enemy - death. Still, I do not see how any of them can live today, for they lack food, clothing and fuel. There is plenty of fuel, yes - but no one has the energy left to get it. With them it is a problem of conserving their strength to fight the hand of famine."
German Memories - Kaiser William II & the End of the First World War
Though William was not a clever statesman like his erstwhile chancellor Bismarck, he tried his best diplomacy to avoid the war with Great Britain as it would attack if Germany would start its warring frontier in France through Belgium.
Though he was not actively sought to unleash the First World War, he had a dream of building a powerful German Empire. But he wanted to achieve it without bloodshed. His inability to scheme things like Bismarck made him to end up with unrealistic plans and chaotic statements.
But his better judgment at one point indicated a world war was imminent and tried his last resort of personal diplomacy to preserve the peace by his "Willy and Nicky" correspondence and influencing after the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum that Austro-Hungarian troops should go no further than Belgrade, thus limiting the conflict.
But by then it was far too late, for the eager military officials of Germany and the German Foreign Office were successful in persuading him to sign the mobilisation order and initiate the Schlieffen Plan. William was trapped by his military elite and made the First World War to be called his own initiation by the British and unfairly named it a "the Kaiser's War" of which he was personally not responsible by unleashing the conflict.
Nevertheless, his own love for culture and trappings of militarism pushed him to endorse the German military establishment and industry most notably the Krupp corporation into a prominent and influential position in the affairs of the German militia. The Krupp corporation which supported and enabled his dynasty to rule ultimately pushed his empire into an armaments race to compete with European powers.
At one point William reminded his Generals before the war expressing his pessimism as "You will regret this, gentlemen". But he encouraged Austria to pursue a hard line with Serbia and the subsequent German actions during the war gained him the title of "Supreme War Lord".
As the war progressed, his influence receded and inevitably his lack of ability in military matters led to an ever-increasing reliance upon his generals, so much so that after 1916 the Empire had effectively become a military dictatorship under the control of Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff.
Increasingly cut off from reality and the political decision-making process, William vacillated between defeatism and dreams of victory, depending upon the fortunes of "his" armies.
Though he was used by the military Generals as a useful figurehead and made him to award medals and courageous speeches, at one point he realised the necessity of a capitulation and influenced the military and political hierarchy. He really felt the German Nation should not bleed to death for a dying cause.
But over time things started to move in a different way and his abdication was necessitated by the popular perceptions that had been created by the Entente propaganda against him. He realised the situation and crossed the border by train the following day and went into exile in the Netherlands, which had remained neutral throughout the war.
Upon the conclusion of the Treaty of Versailles in early 1919, Article 227 expressly provided for the prosecution of William "for a supreme offense against international morality and the sanctity of treaties", but Queen Wilhelmina refused to extradite him, despite appeals from the Allies.
Ironically, prior to the outbreak of the First World War, while the young Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands visited Prussia, William II boasted to the child-Queen that "my guards are seven feet tall and yours are only shoulder high to them." Wilhelmina smiled politely and replied: "Quite true, Your Majesty, your guards are seven feet tall. But when we open our dikes, the water is ten feet deep!". William II had to swallow his pride under her custody during the rest of his political exile.
Ironically in William's absence the German Government finally accepted, as a basis of peace negotiations, the program laid down by the President of the United States in order to avoid further bloodshed and brought about the immediate conclusion of an armistice on land, on water, and in the air.
Pathetically some years ago only William hosted US President Theodore Roosevelt in a review of the German army on parade and Roosevelt exclaimed, "My God, if I had an army like this, I could rule the world!"
Though he was not actively sought to unleash the First World War, he had a dream of building a powerful German Empire. But he wanted to achieve it without bloodshed. His inability to scheme things like Bismarck made him to end up with unrealistic plans and chaotic statements.
But his better judgment at one point indicated a world war was imminent and tried his last resort of personal diplomacy to preserve the peace by his "Willy and Nicky" correspondence and influencing after the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum that Austro-Hungarian troops should go no further than Belgrade, thus limiting the conflict.
But by then it was far too late, for the eager military officials of Germany and the German Foreign Office were successful in persuading him to sign the mobilisation order and initiate the Schlieffen Plan. William was trapped by his military elite and made the First World War to be called his own initiation by the British and unfairly named it a "the Kaiser's War" of which he was personally not responsible by unleashing the conflict.
Nevertheless, his own love for culture and trappings of militarism pushed him to endorse the German military establishment and industry most notably the Krupp corporation into a prominent and influential position in the affairs of the German militia. The Krupp corporation which supported and enabled his dynasty to rule ultimately pushed his empire into an armaments race to compete with European powers.
At one point William reminded his Generals before the war expressing his pessimism as "You will regret this, gentlemen". But he encouraged Austria to pursue a hard line with Serbia and the subsequent German actions during the war gained him the title of "Supreme War Lord".
As the war progressed, his influence receded and inevitably his lack of ability in military matters led to an ever-increasing reliance upon his generals, so much so that after 1916 the Empire had effectively become a military dictatorship under the control of Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff.
Increasingly cut off from reality and the political decision-making process, William vacillated between defeatism and dreams of victory, depending upon the fortunes of "his" armies.
Though he was used by the military Generals as a useful figurehead and made him to award medals and courageous speeches, at one point he realised the necessity of a capitulation and influenced the military and political hierarchy. He really felt the German Nation should not bleed to death for a dying cause.
But over time things started to move in a different way and his abdication was necessitated by the popular perceptions that had been created by the Entente propaganda against him. He realised the situation and crossed the border by train the following day and went into exile in the Netherlands, which had remained neutral throughout the war.
Upon the conclusion of the Treaty of Versailles in early 1919, Article 227 expressly provided for the prosecution of William "for a supreme offense against international morality and the sanctity of treaties", but Queen Wilhelmina refused to extradite him, despite appeals from the Allies.
Ironically, prior to the outbreak of the First World War, while the young Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands visited Prussia, William II boasted to the child-Queen that "my guards are seven feet tall and yours are only shoulder high to them." Wilhelmina smiled politely and replied: "Quite true, Your Majesty, your guards are seven feet tall. But when we open our dikes, the water is ten feet deep!". William II had to swallow his pride under her custody during the rest of his political exile.
Ironically in William's absence the German Government finally accepted, as a basis of peace negotiations, the program laid down by the President of the United States in order to avoid further bloodshed and brought about the immediate conclusion of an armistice on land, on water, and in the air.
Pathetically some years ago only William hosted US President Theodore Roosevelt in a review of the German army on parade and Roosevelt exclaimed, "My God, if I had an army like this, I could rule the world!"
German Memory - Dresden Bombing & the World's Reaction
Overall, Anglo-American bombing of German cities claimed between 305,000 and 600,000 civilian lives. But the devastation in Dresden made a great impact on neutral countries at that time. Howard Cowan, an Associated Press war correspondent, subsequently filed a story saying that the Allies had resorted to terror bombing.
There were follow-up newspaper editorials on the issue and a long-time opponent of strategic bombing, Richard Stokes MP, asked questions in the House of Commons. The destruction of the city provoked unease in informed circles in Britain.
The bombing of Dresden was the first time Allied populations questioned the military actions used to defeat the Nazis.
The nature of the bombing of Dresden has made it a unique point of contention and debate. Critics of the attack come from across the political spectrum, from far left to far right.
Gunter Grass, the German novelist and Nobel laureate for literature and Simon Jenkins, the former editor of "The Times" referred to the Dresden bombing as a "war crime".
Harald Jaehner, a German literary critic stated: "Look at the bombing of Dresden, which was really an assault on the civilian population."
Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, president of Genocide Watch, wrote: "The Nazi Holocaust was among the most evil genocides in history. But the Allies' firebombing of Dresden and nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were also war crimes.............".
Before the bombing, Dresden was regarded as a beautiful city and a cultural centre, and was sometimes known as Elbflorenz, or Florence on the Elbe. Its notable architecture included the Zwinger Palace, the Dresden State Opera House, and the Dresden Frauenkirche, its historic cathedral.
According to Friedrich: German forces were in full retreat by February 1945, and the impact on civilians was out of all proportion to the military goal. He argued that the bombing was a war crime even under the legal standards of that time, because the Allies intended to cause as many civilian casualties as possible.
Friedrich also contends that the outcome of previous bombing attacks well demonstrated that the Allied forces were aware of the destruction caused by incendiary bombs, and that due to the collapse of German air defense and improvements in bombing accuracy, future attacks were likely to cause ever increasing numbers of civilian deaths.
But the United States military made the case that bombing of Dresden did not constitute a war crime, based on various reasons that the raids had legitimate military ends according to the military circumstances at that time.
The US also argued the military units and anti-aircraft defenses were sufficiently close to the city and it's not valid to consider the city was "undefended".
The US also pointed out the raid achieved the military objective, without "excessive" loss of civilian life.
The US legitimacy of the military ends were based on the rail-yards which were subjected to American precision bombing as they assumed the rail-yards had beyond their ordinary value as a transportation center.
An inquiry conducted at the behest of the US Secretary of War, General George C. Marshall also concluded that the raid was justified by the available intelligence. The inquiry also justified the military operation by eliminating German ability to reinforce a counter-attack against Marshall Konev's extended line and to regroup using Dresden as a base of operations. As Dresden had been largely untouched during the war, it was one of the few remaining functional rail and communications centers.
A secondary objective was to disrupt the industrial use of Dresden for munitions manufacture, which American intelligence believed to be the case. The city contained the Zeiss-Ikon optical factory and the Siemens glass factory, both of which, according to the Allies, were entirely devoted to manufacturing military gun-sights.
They believed immediate suburbs contained factories building radar and electronics components, and fuses for anti-aircraft shells and other factories produced gas masks, engines for Junkers aircraft and cockpit parts for Messerschmitt fighters.
Because of the concentration of undamaged industry, unusual in Germany at the time of the raids, the allied planners very strongly believed that Dresden had strategic importance to supply material for the defense of German military.
After the firebombing they estimated that over 25% of industrial capacity was disabled or destroyed, eliminating potential use of Dresden by the German military to launch counter-strikes against the Soviet advance.
There were follow-up newspaper editorials on the issue and a long-time opponent of strategic bombing, Richard Stokes MP, asked questions in the House of Commons. The destruction of the city provoked unease in informed circles in Britain.
The bombing of Dresden was the first time Allied populations questioned the military actions used to defeat the Nazis.
The nature of the bombing of Dresden has made it a unique point of contention and debate. Critics of the attack come from across the political spectrum, from far left to far right.
Gunter Grass, the German novelist and Nobel laureate for literature and Simon Jenkins, the former editor of "The Times" referred to the Dresden bombing as a "war crime".
Harald Jaehner, a German literary critic stated: "Look at the bombing of Dresden, which was really an assault on the civilian population."
Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, president of Genocide Watch, wrote: "The Nazi Holocaust was among the most evil genocides in history. But the Allies' firebombing of Dresden and nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were also war crimes.............".
Before the bombing, Dresden was regarded as a beautiful city and a cultural centre, and was sometimes known as Elbflorenz, or Florence on the Elbe. Its notable architecture included the Zwinger Palace, the Dresden State Opera House, and the Dresden Frauenkirche, its historic cathedral.
According to Friedrich: German forces were in full retreat by February 1945, and the impact on civilians was out of all proportion to the military goal. He argued that the bombing was a war crime even under the legal standards of that time, because the Allies intended to cause as many civilian casualties as possible.
Friedrich also contends that the outcome of previous bombing attacks well demonstrated that the Allied forces were aware of the destruction caused by incendiary bombs, and that due to the collapse of German air defense and improvements in bombing accuracy, future attacks were likely to cause ever increasing numbers of civilian deaths.
But the United States military made the case that bombing of Dresden did not constitute a war crime, based on various reasons that the raids had legitimate military ends according to the military circumstances at that time.
The US also argued the military units and anti-aircraft defenses were sufficiently close to the city and it's not valid to consider the city was "undefended".
The US also pointed out the raid achieved the military objective, without "excessive" loss of civilian life.
The US legitimacy of the military ends were based on the rail-yards which were subjected to American precision bombing as they assumed the rail-yards had beyond their ordinary value as a transportation center.
An inquiry conducted at the behest of the US Secretary of War, General George C. Marshall also concluded that the raid was justified by the available intelligence. The inquiry also justified the military operation by eliminating German ability to reinforce a counter-attack against Marshall Konev's extended line and to regroup using Dresden as a base of operations. As Dresden had been largely untouched during the war, it was one of the few remaining functional rail and communications centers.
A secondary objective was to disrupt the industrial use of Dresden for munitions manufacture, which American intelligence believed to be the case. The city contained the Zeiss-Ikon optical factory and the Siemens glass factory, both of which, according to the Allies, were entirely devoted to manufacturing military gun-sights.
They believed immediate suburbs contained factories building radar and electronics components, and fuses for anti-aircraft shells and other factories produced gas masks, engines for Junkers aircraft and cockpit parts for Messerschmitt fighters.
Because of the concentration of undamaged industry, unusual in Germany at the time of the raids, the allied planners very strongly believed that Dresden had strategic importance to supply material for the defense of German military.
After the firebombing they estimated that over 25% of industrial capacity was disabled or destroyed, eliminating potential use of Dresden by the German military to launch counter-strikes against the Soviet advance.
German Memories in Asia - A Visit to Indian Ocean's Kayts Islands
Torsten Kapeller, is a student from Stuttgart, Germany. He traveled in the war-torn North and East of the island on a tsunami-relief mission to provide tsunami warning sirens and telling various stories on his mission.
The tsunami sirens were brought from Germany and could be operated manually to alert the coastal villages up to a few hundreds meters.
Torsten said his mission to North was exhaustive. He visited a beach and was struck by the beauty of its shallow sea-bed. From his description, I guessed it was the "Saddi" beach in the Kayts Islands.
Visiting Kayts Islands from the Jaffna Peninsula, crossing a mile-long narrow way had been a fascinating experience since my school days. We could see the shallow sea on both sides of the way, which is an extension of the Palk Strait connecting the Gulf of Mannar and the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean.
We could always see in the shallow seas, the sea-gulls, the Brahmin kites and other birds of different varieties busily fishing all the time. Some of the large Brahmin-kites used to rest on the top of fixed fishing nets everywhere in the sea. It was fascinating to see their take off from the nets and I was surprised in my early school days how large birds like them could uplift their bodies using their wings.
When Torsten was sharing his experience about his travel to Kayts, my thoughts went back to the Dutch Sea Fort, which was built by the Portuguese and then reconstructed by the Dutch in the sea off Kayts Islands.
The Portuguese not only constructed Forts in the island but also in other parts of Asia.
The Portuguese, Dutch, English, Danish, French even German and other European cultures and architecture heavily influenced Asian art, culture and architecture and my maternal ancestors' house in Kayts resembled that of a small Dutch Fort with inside gardens and large rectangular verandahs and corridors, which made me to wonder about the different types of architecture.
Torsten was telling about the soothing climate of the Peninsula. As the Jaffna Peninsula sets a breeze from the Bay of Bengal and Indian sub-continent by its close proximity, there is an effect on the humidity, the climate and even on the monsoon system.
The tsunami sirens were brought from Germany and could be operated manually to alert the coastal villages up to a few hundreds meters.
Torsten said his mission to North was exhaustive. He visited a beach and was struck by the beauty of its shallow sea-bed. From his description, I guessed it was the "Saddi" beach in the Kayts Islands.
Visiting Kayts Islands from the Jaffna Peninsula, crossing a mile-long narrow way had been a fascinating experience since my school days. We could see the shallow sea on both sides of the way, which is an extension of the Palk Strait connecting the Gulf of Mannar and the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean.
We could always see in the shallow seas, the sea-gulls, the Brahmin kites and other birds of different varieties busily fishing all the time. Some of the large Brahmin-kites used to rest on the top of fixed fishing nets everywhere in the sea. It was fascinating to see their take off from the nets and I was surprised in my early school days how large birds like them could uplift their bodies using their wings.
When Torsten was sharing his experience about his travel to Kayts, my thoughts went back to the Dutch Sea Fort, which was built by the Portuguese and then reconstructed by the Dutch in the sea off Kayts Islands.
The Portuguese not only constructed Forts in the island but also in other parts of Asia.
The Portuguese, Dutch, English, Danish, French even German and other European cultures and architecture heavily influenced Asian art, culture and architecture and my maternal ancestors' house in Kayts resembled that of a small Dutch Fort with inside gardens and large rectangular verandahs and corridors, which made me to wonder about the different types of architecture.
Torsten was telling about the soothing climate of the Peninsula. As the Jaffna Peninsula sets a breeze from the Bay of Bengal and Indian sub-continent by its close proximity, there is an effect on the humidity, the climate and even on the monsoon system.
German Memory - Firebombing on Dresden and the Devastation
The firebombing campaign was supposed to begin with an USAAF Eighth Air Force raid on Dresden on February 13 but bad weather over Europe prevented any American operations. So it fell to RAF Bomber Command to carry out the first raid.
During the evening of February 13, the RAF bombers 796 Avro Lancasters and 9 De Havilland Mosquitoes were dispatched in two separate waves and dropped 1,478 tons of high explosive and 1,182 tons of incendiary bombs in the early hours of February 14.
The second attack, 3 hours later, was an all-Lancaster attack by aircraft of 1, 3, 6 and 8 Groups, with 8 Group providing standard Pathfinder marking. The weather had by then cleared and 529 Lancasters dropped more than 1,800 tons of bombs with great accuracy.
Later on the 14th 311 American B-17s dropped 771 tons of bombs on Dresden, with the railway yards as their aiming point.
Part of the American Mustang-fighter escort was ordered to strafe traffic on the roads around Dresden to increase chaos. The civilians were fleeing the firestorm engulfing Dresden. During this raid there was a brief, but possibly intense dogfight between American and German fighters around Dresden.
The Americans continued the bombing on February 15, dropping 466 tons of bombs.
During these four raids a total of around 3,900 tons of bombs were dropped.
The firebombing consisted of dropping large amounts of high-explosives to blow off the roofs to expose the timbers within buildings, followed by incendiary devices (fire-sticks) to ignite them and then more high-explosives to hamper the efforts of the fire services. This eventually created a self-sustaining firestorm with temperatures peaking at over 1500°C. After the area caught fire, the air above the bombed area became extremely hot and rose rapidly. Cold air then rushed in at ground level from the outside and people were sucked into the fire.
After the main firebombing campaign between 13th and 15th, there were two further raids on the Dresden railway yards by the USAAF. The first was on March 2 by 406 B-17s which dropped 940 tons of high-explosive bombs and 141 tons of incendiaries. The second was on April 17 when 580 B-17s dropped 1,554 tons of high-explosive bombs and 165 tons of incendiaries.
Out of 28,410 houses in the inner city of Dresden, 24,866 were destroyed. An area of 15 square kilometres was totally destroyed, among that: 14,000 homes, 72 schools, 22 hospitals, 18 churches, 5 theatres, 50 banks and insurance companies, 31 department stores, 31 large hotels, 62 administration buildings as well as factories such as the Ihagee camera works. In total there were 222,000 apartments in the city. 75,000 of them were totally destroyed, 11,000 severely damaged, 7,000 damaged, 81,000 slightly damaged.
The city was around 300 square kilometres in area in those days. Although the main railway station was destroyed completely, the railway was working again within a few days.
The precise number of dead was a mystery by the fact that the city and surrounding suburbs was with a population of 642,000 in 1939 and was crowded at that time with up to 200,000 refugees, and some thousands of wounded soldiers. Some of them might have been killed and incinerated beyond recognition in the fire-storm. Earlier reputable estimates varied from 25,000 to more than 60,000, but historians now view around 25,000-35,000 as the likely range with the latest research by the Dresden historian Friedrich Reichert in 1994.
The ideal weather conditions at the target site, the wooden-framed buildings, "breakthroughs" linking the cellars of contiguous buildings and the lack of preparation for the effects of air-raids made the attack in Dresden a devastating. For these reasons the loss of life in Dresden was higher than many other bombing raids during World War II.
During the evening of February 13, the RAF bombers 796 Avro Lancasters and 9 De Havilland Mosquitoes were dispatched in two separate waves and dropped 1,478 tons of high explosive and 1,182 tons of incendiary bombs in the early hours of February 14.
The second attack, 3 hours later, was an all-Lancaster attack by aircraft of 1, 3, 6 and 8 Groups, with 8 Group providing standard Pathfinder marking. The weather had by then cleared and 529 Lancasters dropped more than 1,800 tons of bombs with great accuracy.
Later on the 14th 311 American B-17s dropped 771 tons of bombs on Dresden, with the railway yards as their aiming point.
Part of the American Mustang-fighter escort was ordered to strafe traffic on the roads around Dresden to increase chaos. The civilians were fleeing the firestorm engulfing Dresden. During this raid there was a brief, but possibly intense dogfight between American and German fighters around Dresden.
The Americans continued the bombing on February 15, dropping 466 tons of bombs.
During these four raids a total of around 3,900 tons of bombs were dropped.
The firebombing consisted of dropping large amounts of high-explosives to blow off the roofs to expose the timbers within buildings, followed by incendiary devices (fire-sticks) to ignite them and then more high-explosives to hamper the efforts of the fire services. This eventually created a self-sustaining firestorm with temperatures peaking at over 1500°C. After the area caught fire, the air above the bombed area became extremely hot and rose rapidly. Cold air then rushed in at ground level from the outside and people were sucked into the fire.
After the main firebombing campaign between 13th and 15th, there were two further raids on the Dresden railway yards by the USAAF. The first was on March 2 by 406 B-17s which dropped 940 tons of high-explosive bombs and 141 tons of incendiaries. The second was on April 17 when 580 B-17s dropped 1,554 tons of high-explosive bombs and 165 tons of incendiaries.
Out of 28,410 houses in the inner city of Dresden, 24,866 were destroyed. An area of 15 square kilometres was totally destroyed, among that: 14,000 homes, 72 schools, 22 hospitals, 18 churches, 5 theatres, 50 banks and insurance companies, 31 department stores, 31 large hotels, 62 administration buildings as well as factories such as the Ihagee camera works. In total there were 222,000 apartments in the city. 75,000 of them were totally destroyed, 11,000 severely damaged, 7,000 damaged, 81,000 slightly damaged.
The city was around 300 square kilometres in area in those days. Although the main railway station was destroyed completely, the railway was working again within a few days.
The precise number of dead was a mystery by the fact that the city and surrounding suburbs was with a population of 642,000 in 1939 and was crowded at that time with up to 200,000 refugees, and some thousands of wounded soldiers. Some of them might have been killed and incinerated beyond recognition in the fire-storm. Earlier reputable estimates varied from 25,000 to more than 60,000, but historians now view around 25,000-35,000 as the likely range with the latest research by the Dresden historian Friedrich Reichert in 1994.
The ideal weather conditions at the target site, the wooden-framed buildings, "breakthroughs" linking the cellars of contiguous buildings and the lack of preparation for the effects of air-raids made the attack in Dresden a devastating. For these reasons the loss of life in Dresden was higher than many other bombing raids during World War II.
German Memories - Kaiser William II & His Personal Diplomacy
He believed in personal diplomacy the same way as he had in mind with his British cousins, with his cousin-in-law Tsar Nicholas II of Russia also to build up a greater relationship between the two nations in the event of war. His unrealistic understanding of European power politics made him to sign an agreement with Tsar Nicholas at a private meeting at Bjorko in 1905. But on his return to Germany his Chancellor Bulow obstructed the personal treaty of alliance between the two cousins. In the same way Tsar Nicholas was confronted by his policy makers and elite in St. Petersburg on his return, which reduced the treaty to the status of a dead letter.
European power politics once again undermined his effort to avoid the war with Russia. His telegram to Nicholas II failed to yield the result on the eve of the First World War because of the existing German commitments to Austria-Hungary. William in 1889 gave his assurance to Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph in a chivalrous fidelity that "the day of Austro-Hungarian mobilization, for whatever cause, will be the day of German mobilization too" and made the German-Russian Alliance impossible as the Austrian mobilization for war would most likely be against Russia.
He blundered in German foreign relations either by his own mistake or by the combination of his foreign policy elites. On one occasion he visited Morocco and created the Moroccan Crisis of 1906. His visit to Tangier in Morocco on the encouragement of his foreign policy elite was seen as German interests in Morocco. He further aggravated German relations with France by his remarks on Moroccan independence as France was expanding its colonial interests in Morocco. The chaos finally led to the Algeciras Conference, which severely isolated Germany in the whole of Europe.
William further aggravated the relationship with many of the countries in Europe and outside by his controversial comments in the British newspaper "The Daily Telegraph" in 1908 where he started to comment in the beginning with the intention of building up the Anglo-German cooperation, but in the course of the interview he went to say something else out of his emotional outbursts, saying the French, Russians, and Japanese were united together against Germany and the Germans cared nothing for the British. He attacked the French and Russians that they had attempted to instigate Germany to intervene in the Second Boer War. He said the German naval buildup was targeted against the Japanese, not Britain. He finally ended up attacking severely the English people saying: "You English are mad, mad, mad as March hares."
After that interview, even in Germany the reflection was severe and even there were protests to remove him. William kept thereafter a very low profile for some time, but took revenge on his chancellor Bulow by forcing him to resign for his public disclosure that he did not edit his interview, which appeared in The Daily Telegraph. The Daily Telegraph crisis had reduced his influence in domestic and foreign policies and he lost his self-confidence and personality altogether.
European power politics once again undermined his effort to avoid the war with Russia. His telegram to Nicholas II failed to yield the result on the eve of the First World War because of the existing German commitments to Austria-Hungary. William in 1889 gave his assurance to Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph in a chivalrous fidelity that "the day of Austro-Hungarian mobilization, for whatever cause, will be the day of German mobilization too" and made the German-Russian Alliance impossible as the Austrian mobilization for war would most likely be against Russia.
He blundered in German foreign relations either by his own mistake or by the combination of his foreign policy elites. On one occasion he visited Morocco and created the Moroccan Crisis of 1906. His visit to Tangier in Morocco on the encouragement of his foreign policy elite was seen as German interests in Morocco. He further aggravated German relations with France by his remarks on Moroccan independence as France was expanding its colonial interests in Morocco. The chaos finally led to the Algeciras Conference, which severely isolated Germany in the whole of Europe.
William further aggravated the relationship with many of the countries in Europe and outside by his controversial comments in the British newspaper "The Daily Telegraph" in 1908 where he started to comment in the beginning with the intention of building up the Anglo-German cooperation, but in the course of the interview he went to say something else out of his emotional outbursts, saying the French, Russians, and Japanese were united together against Germany and the Germans cared nothing for the British. He attacked the French and Russians that they had attempted to instigate Germany to intervene in the Second Boer War. He said the German naval buildup was targeted against the Japanese, not Britain. He finally ended up attacking severely the English people saying: "You English are mad, mad, mad as March hares."
After that interview, even in Germany the reflection was severe and even there were protests to remove him. William kept thereafter a very low profile for some time, but took revenge on his chancellor Bulow by forcing him to resign for his public disclosure that he did not edit his interview, which appeared in The Daily Telegraph. The Daily Telegraph crisis had reduced his influence in domestic and foreign policies and he lost his self-confidence and personality altogether.
German Memories - Volga Germans Migration Towards Americas
A century after the first Germans had settled in the Volga region, Russia passed legislation that revoked many of the privileges promised to them by Catherine the Great. The sentiment in Russia became decidedly anti-German.
Russia first made changes to the German local government. Then in 1874, a new military law decreed that all male Russian subjects, when they reached the age of 20, were eligible to serve in the military for 6 years. For the German colonists, this law represented a breach of faith.
The Volga German men also had to join in the military and fought in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. One of these men died in the war. In the 1880s Russia began a subtle attack on German schools and other German institutions.
When Russia was reducing the privileges granted to the Germans, several nations in the Americas were attempting to attract settlers by offering inducements reminiscent of those of Catherine the Great.
Soon after the military service bill became law, both Protestant and Catholic Volga Germans gathered and chose delegations to journey across the Atlantic to examine settlement conditions in the United States. They started arriving in the USA in the mid 1870s. Early destinations were in the heartland of the country around Kansas and later spread west to Washington, Oregon and California and East to Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio.
Volga Germans started arriving in Canada in the 1890s, later than other countries. They settled in 3 provinces in Canada: Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. They settled primarily in 2 countries in South America: Argentina and Brazil. Starting in 1876 these countries were settled primarily by Catholic Volga Germans. While Brazil was the first South American country to be settled by them, Argentina ultimately contained a vastly larger population of Volga Germans due in part to better farmlands.
In their new homes overseas, they initially continued their pattern of introverted closed German communities. The people of individual villages tended to travel together and settle together in their new homeland. It was not uncommon to find hundreds of them from one village in one location in the new world. First they primarily settled among people of their own village, then among other Volga Germans, next among other Germans.
There was also emigration to North Caucasus in Russia where a number of colonies were established. In the 1890's when land became scarce there, migration was diverted eastward to Siberia. As the fear of a world war grew among the Volga Germans, it too encouraged emigration. What started as a trickle became a flood after the turn of the century. In spite of the large emigration, the population increased to 345,000 by 1897 and to over 500,000 by 1914.
Russia first made changes to the German local government. Then in 1874, a new military law decreed that all male Russian subjects, when they reached the age of 20, were eligible to serve in the military for 6 years. For the German colonists, this law represented a breach of faith.
The Volga German men also had to join in the military and fought in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. One of these men died in the war. In the 1880s Russia began a subtle attack on German schools and other German institutions.
When Russia was reducing the privileges granted to the Germans, several nations in the Americas were attempting to attract settlers by offering inducements reminiscent of those of Catherine the Great.
Soon after the military service bill became law, both Protestant and Catholic Volga Germans gathered and chose delegations to journey across the Atlantic to examine settlement conditions in the United States. They started arriving in the USA in the mid 1870s. Early destinations were in the heartland of the country around Kansas and later spread west to Washington, Oregon and California and East to Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio.
Volga Germans started arriving in Canada in the 1890s, later than other countries. They settled in 3 provinces in Canada: Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. They settled primarily in 2 countries in South America: Argentina and Brazil. Starting in 1876 these countries were settled primarily by Catholic Volga Germans. While Brazil was the first South American country to be settled by them, Argentina ultimately contained a vastly larger population of Volga Germans due in part to better farmlands.
In their new homes overseas, they initially continued their pattern of introverted closed German communities. The people of individual villages tended to travel together and settle together in their new homeland. It was not uncommon to find hundreds of them from one village in one location in the new world. First they primarily settled among people of their own village, then among other Volga Germans, next among other Germans.
There was also emigration to North Caucasus in Russia where a number of colonies were established. In the 1890's when land became scarce there, migration was diverted eastward to Siberia. As the fear of a world war grew among the Volga Germans, it too encouraged emigration. What started as a trickle became a flood after the turn of the century. In spite of the large emigration, the population increased to 345,000 by 1897 and to over 500,000 by 1914.
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German university students donate a boat and engine to an affected fisherman.
Germans university students with Dietmar Doering (centre) at Marawila beach.
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