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.
Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
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 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 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
Volga Germans and other ethnic German repatriates including Black Sea Germans and Germans from other regions from the former Soviet Union are a separate group in Germany.
Since 1950, about 2.2 million ethnic Germans have left the former Soviet Union for Germany, in search of better economic and social conditions and an escape from post-World War II persecution. Most of these people come from from Kazakhstan particularly the northern part near Siberia. Another 1 million Germans still remain in Russia, Kazakhstan and the Ukraine.
The history of these ethnic Germans, especially the Volga Germans, had a hazardous past since they left the German soil centuries ago.
In 1763, Catherine the Great issued a persuasive manifesto inviting foreigners to settle in Russia. Because of the impoverished conditions in Europe due to the Seven Years War, and the aggressive campaign of immigration agents, many Germans answered the call to 'paradise'.
During the four years from 1764 to 1767, Germans colonized 104 villages in the desolate Volga Valley of Russia near the city of Saratov. Of these, 44 were on the West side, the hilly side (Bergseite) of the Volga River and 60 villages were on the East side, the meadow side (Wiesenseite).
The villages ranged in population from 225 to 250 people each. The emigrants numbered a total of more than seven thousand families, an estimated 25 thousand people.
The majority came from Hesse Germany, with southwest Germany well represented and less coming from other countries. Separate religious affiliations were of primary importance and interdenominational villages were extremely rare. With few exceptions, all of the villages were Lutheran, Reformed or Catholic and later Mennonite.
Divorced from their fatherland, the Germans turned inward to form an isolationist attitude that would characterize their behavior for years to come. No farmer lived isolated and alone on their farm but they resided in a village where they enjoyed communal amenities in conjunction with the church and school. The church was the center of community life.
The Germans maintained their way of life and had minimal interaction with the Russians. For the most part they only spoke German and did not learn the Russian language except for essential government and business dealings. They built German schools, practised their German religion, Lutheran, Reformed or Catholic, and only married other Germans, usually from their own village.
They faced many hardships since their arrivals from Germany. The first problem for the immigrants was houses. The emigrants had been promised that these would be ready upon their arrival, but in most cases the newcomers found neither house nor lumber to build them. The settlers were shown how to make themselves mud huts, Russian style, in which they had to live sometimes for as long as two or three years before their houses were ready.
Other needs of the settlers were not met. Domestic animals were in short supply; the farm implements furnished were crude, the seed grain was always late. There were shortages of clothing, so essential in the cold winters and even shortages of food.
Russian officials profiteered at the expense of the immigrants.
Nature was also against the newcomers. After the bitterly cold winters, came the spring floods to wash away their mud huts and make them flee to the hills. The summers were hot and dry and crop failure followed crop failure. Ignorance of the qualities of the soil and the kind of cultivation it required were difficulties that could only be overcome with experience.
Not until 1775 did the colonists harvest their first good crop and finally became independent of government help.
Since 1950, about 2.2 million ethnic Germans have left the former Soviet Union for Germany, in search of better economic and social conditions and an escape from post-World War II persecution. Most of these people come from from Kazakhstan particularly the northern part near Siberia. Another 1 million Germans still remain in Russia, Kazakhstan and the Ukraine.
The history of these ethnic Germans, especially the Volga Germans, had a hazardous past since they left the German soil centuries ago.
In 1763, Catherine the Great issued a persuasive manifesto inviting foreigners to settle in Russia. Because of the impoverished conditions in Europe due to the Seven Years War, and the aggressive campaign of immigration agents, many Germans answered the call to 'paradise'.
During the four years from 1764 to 1767, Germans colonized 104 villages in the desolate Volga Valley of Russia near the city of Saratov. Of these, 44 were on the West side, the hilly side (Bergseite) of the Volga River and 60 villages were on the East side, the meadow side (Wiesenseite).
The villages ranged in population from 225 to 250 people each. The emigrants numbered a total of more than seven thousand families, an estimated 25 thousand people.
The majority came from Hesse Germany, with southwest Germany well represented and less coming from other countries. Separate religious affiliations were of primary importance and interdenominational villages were extremely rare. With few exceptions, all of the villages were Lutheran, Reformed or Catholic and later Mennonite.
Divorced from their fatherland, the Germans turned inward to form an isolationist attitude that would characterize their behavior for years to come. No farmer lived isolated and alone on their farm but they resided in a village where they enjoyed communal amenities in conjunction with the church and school. The church was the center of community life.
The Germans maintained their way of life and had minimal interaction with the Russians. For the most part they only spoke German and did not learn the Russian language except for essential government and business dealings. They built German schools, practised their German religion, Lutheran, Reformed or Catholic, and only married other Germans, usually from their own village.
They faced many hardships since their arrivals from Germany. The first problem for the immigrants was houses. The emigrants had been promised that these would be ready upon their arrival, but in most cases the newcomers found neither house nor lumber to build them. The settlers were shown how to make themselves mud huts, Russian style, in which they had to live sometimes for as long as two or three years before their houses were ready.
Other needs of the settlers were not met. Domestic animals were in short supply; the farm implements furnished were crude, the seed grain was always late. There were shortages of clothing, so essential in the cold winters and even shortages of food.
Russian officials profiteered at the expense of the immigrants.
Nature was also against the newcomers. After the bitterly cold winters, came the spring floods to wash away their mud huts and make them flee to the hills. The summers were hot and dry and crop failure followed crop failure. Ignorance of the qualities of the soil and the kind of cultivation it required were difficulties that could only be overcome with experience.
Not until 1775 did the colonists harvest their first good crop and finally became independent of government help.
German Memories - Kaiser William II & His "Love-Hate" Relationship With Great Britain
The German Empire without Bismarck had started to experience a general lack of coherence and consistency in the foreign policy issues towards other powers. William's "love-hate" relationship with Great Britain and in particular with his British cousins further made chaos in the consistency of foreign policy while the elite had their own agenda and further messed foreign affairs.
William never had in mind an open armed conflict with Britain or never even imagined it, but his general anti-British sentiments, which arose within him from his youth by his own prejudices, reflected among the elite of the German government and created further confusion.
William's prejudices towards Britain made him to believe when war came about in 1914, his late uncle Edward VII trapped him into a diplomatic mess by the British attempts to encircle Germany under the Entente Cordiale with France in 1904 and with Russia in 1907. He was unrealistic about the constitutional set-up in Britain and believed that his late uncle had a say on British foreign policy.
This mental paranoia made him to give importance to personal diplomacy with his British cousins to shape British - German relations where they had no power at all. Through Queen Victoria, William was a first cousin to many of the crowned heads in Europe most notably George V of the United Kingdom and Nicholas II of Russia through his consort, the Empress Alexandra.
Kaiser William II, the first grandchild of Queen Victoria had lasting affection from the British Public as he was at his maternal grandmother's deathbed, holding her in his arms as she passed away. But his immature political and diplomatic blunders spoiled that in the coming years.
William gave importance to his personal appearance and emotions than to his statesmanship. He had a vast collection of uniforms and costumes and used to wear different ones for each occasion, often four or more a day and was treated as a joke, saying that when eating plum pudding the emperor would dress as a British Admiral, the honorary rank he had been awarded by his grandmother in 1889.
William never had in mind an open armed conflict with Britain or never even imagined it, but his general anti-British sentiments, which arose within him from his youth by his own prejudices, reflected among the elite of the German government and created further confusion.
William's prejudices towards Britain made him to believe when war came about in 1914, his late uncle Edward VII trapped him into a diplomatic mess by the British attempts to encircle Germany under the Entente Cordiale with France in 1904 and with Russia in 1907. He was unrealistic about the constitutional set-up in Britain and believed that his late uncle had a say on British foreign policy.
This mental paranoia made him to give importance to personal diplomacy with his British cousins to shape British - German relations where they had no power at all. Through Queen Victoria, William was a first cousin to many of the crowned heads in Europe most notably George V of the United Kingdom and Nicholas II of Russia through his consort, the Empress Alexandra.
Kaiser William II, the first grandchild of Queen Victoria had lasting affection from the British Public as he was at his maternal grandmother's deathbed, holding her in his arms as she passed away. But his immature political and diplomatic blunders spoiled that in the coming years.
William gave importance to his personal appearance and emotions than to his statesmanship. He had a vast collection of uniforms and costumes and used to wear different ones for each occasion, often four or more a day and was treated as a joke, saying that when eating plum pudding the emperor would dress as a British Admiral, the honorary rank he had been awarded by his grandmother in 1889.
German Memories - The New German Empire and the Lagacy of Otto Von Bismarck
The new German Empire was a federal one: each of its twenty-five constituent states (kingdoms, grand duchies, duchies, principalities, and free cities) retained its autonomy. The King of Prussia, as German Emperor didn't have sovereignity over the entirety of Germany but as the first amongst equals. Bismarck was also appointed as the Imperial Chancellor of the German Empire, but retained his Prussian offices including those of Minister-President and Foreign Minister; thus, he held almost complete control of both domestic and foreign policy.
He almost changed the course of the German Nation by his tireless efforts and built it into one of Europe's superpowers. The credit of the German Nation's unification belongs to Bismarck from the collection of separate principalities and Free Cities since the era of Charlemagne. Over thousand years various kings and rulers had tried to unify the German states without success until Bismarck came into the scene and made it into a single country and one of the most powerful nations in Europe.
Bismarck by the realisation of the Austro-Hungarian problems of different nationalities within one state, tried to Germanize the state's national minorities, situated mainly in the borders of the empire, such as the Danes in the North of Germany, the French of Alsace-Lorraine and the Poles in the East of Germany.
Although Bismarck had no personal hate against Poles, his policies concerning them, which were usually motivated by tactical considerations of what was best for Germany and were generally unfavourable to Poles, became a grave burden for German-Polish relations for a long time.
In order to avoid alienating the United Kingdom, he declined to seek a colonial empire or an expansion of the navy. In 1872, he extended the hand of friendship to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia, whose rulers joined Wilhelm I in the League of the Three Emperors. Bismarck also maintained good relations with Italy.
During 1873, Germany, and much of the rest of Europe, had endured the Long Depression since the crash of the Vienna Stock Exchange in 1873. For the first time in Germany since vast industrial development in the 1850's after the 1848-49 revolutions, a downfall had hit the German economy. To aid faltering industries, Bismarck decided to abandon free trade and establish protectionist tariffs and created chaos in the relations with neighbouring European nations.
After Russia's victory over the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War, Bismarck helped to negotiate a settlement at the Congress of Berlin in 1878. Russia had previously secured great advantages in southeastern Europe when it made peace by ratifying the Treaty of San Stefano. Bismarck and other European leaders, however, opposed the growth of Russian influence, and sought to protect the power of the Ottoman Empire. The Treaty of Berlin revised the Treaty of San Stefano, reducing the concessions offered to Russia. As a result, Russo-German relations suffered; the Russian Prince Gorchakov denounced Bismarck for compromising his nation's victory. The relationship between Russia and Germany was further weakened by the latter's protectionist policies.
In February 1888, during a Bulgarian crisis, Bismarck addressed the Reichstag on the dangers of a European war. For the first time he dwelt upon the imminent possibility that Germany would be forced to fight on two fronts and he spoke of the peace at the final years of his tenure.
Bismarck's astute, cautious, and pragmatic foreign policies allowed Germany to retain peacefully the powerful position into which he had brought it; maintaining amiable diplomacy with almost all European nations. France, the main exception, was devastated by Bismarck's wars and his harsh subsequent policies towards it and became one of Germany's most bitter enemies in Europe.
During most of his nearly thirty year-long tenure, Bismarck held undisputed control over the government's policies. Bismarck proved himself as one of the most capable European statesmen of the nineteenth century by his clever statesmanship and proved himself as the "Iron Chancellor".
Though he was forced to resign from his office over disputes on domestic policies with Emperor William II, Bismarck left a lasting legacy in Europe and around the world. The German Nation and the Germans around the world remebered him by the creation of numerous statues and memorials around the German cities, towns, and countryside including the famous Bismarck Memorial in Berlin, Bismarck Sea and Bismarck Archipelago in the vicinity of then German colony in New Guinea as well as the City of Bismarck in the US State of North Dakota.
He almost changed the course of the German Nation by his tireless efforts and built it into one of Europe's superpowers. The credit of the German Nation's unification belongs to Bismarck from the collection of separate principalities and Free Cities since the era of Charlemagne. Over thousand years various kings and rulers had tried to unify the German states without success until Bismarck came into the scene and made it into a single country and one of the most powerful nations in Europe.
Bismarck by the realisation of the Austro-Hungarian problems of different nationalities within one state, tried to Germanize the state's national minorities, situated mainly in the borders of the empire, such as the Danes in the North of Germany, the French of Alsace-Lorraine and the Poles in the East of Germany.
Although Bismarck had no personal hate against Poles, his policies concerning them, which were usually motivated by tactical considerations of what was best for Germany and were generally unfavourable to Poles, became a grave burden for German-Polish relations for a long time.
In order to avoid alienating the United Kingdom, he declined to seek a colonial empire or an expansion of the navy. In 1872, he extended the hand of friendship to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia, whose rulers joined Wilhelm I in the League of the Three Emperors. Bismarck also maintained good relations with Italy.
During 1873, Germany, and much of the rest of Europe, had endured the Long Depression since the crash of the Vienna Stock Exchange in 1873. For the first time in Germany since vast industrial development in the 1850's after the 1848-49 revolutions, a downfall had hit the German economy. To aid faltering industries, Bismarck decided to abandon free trade and establish protectionist tariffs and created chaos in the relations with neighbouring European nations.
After Russia's victory over the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War, Bismarck helped to negotiate a settlement at the Congress of Berlin in 1878. Russia had previously secured great advantages in southeastern Europe when it made peace by ratifying the Treaty of San Stefano. Bismarck and other European leaders, however, opposed the growth of Russian influence, and sought to protect the power of the Ottoman Empire. The Treaty of Berlin revised the Treaty of San Stefano, reducing the concessions offered to Russia. As a result, Russo-German relations suffered; the Russian Prince Gorchakov denounced Bismarck for compromising his nation's victory. The relationship between Russia and Germany was further weakened by the latter's protectionist policies.
In February 1888, during a Bulgarian crisis, Bismarck addressed the Reichstag on the dangers of a European war. For the first time he dwelt upon the imminent possibility that Germany would be forced to fight on two fronts and he spoke of the peace at the final years of his tenure.
Bismarck's astute, cautious, and pragmatic foreign policies allowed Germany to retain peacefully the powerful position into which he had brought it; maintaining amiable diplomacy with almost all European nations. France, the main exception, was devastated by Bismarck's wars and his harsh subsequent policies towards it and became one of Germany's most bitter enemies in Europe.
During most of his nearly thirty year-long tenure, Bismarck held undisputed control over the government's policies. Bismarck proved himself as one of the most capable European statesmen of the nineteenth century by his clever statesmanship and proved himself as the "Iron Chancellor".
Though he was forced to resign from his office over disputes on domestic policies with Emperor William II, Bismarck left a lasting legacy in Europe and around the world. The German Nation and the Germans around the world remebered him by the creation of numerous statues and memorials around the German cities, towns, and countryside including the famous Bismarck Memorial in Berlin, Bismarck Sea and Bismarck Archipelago in the vicinity of then German colony in New Guinea as well as the City of Bismarck in the US State of North Dakota.
German Memories - Franco-Prussian War and Otto Von Bismarck's Diplomacy
Prussia's victory over Austria increased tensions with France. The French Emperor, Napoleon III, feared that a powerful Prussia would upset the balance of power in Europe. Bismarck, at the same time, sought war with France; he believed that if the German states perceived France as the aggressor, they would unite behind the King of Prussia.
A suitable premise for war arose in 1870, when the German Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was offered the Spanish throne, which had been vacant since a revolution in 1868. The French not only blocked the candidacy, but also demanded assurances that no member of the House of Hohenzollern become King of Spain.
Bismarck then published the Ems Dispatch, a carefully edited version of a conversation between King Wilhelm and the French ambassador to Prussia. The publication was intended to provoke France into declaring war on Prussia. The Ems Dispatch had the desired effect. France mobilized and declared war, but was seen as the aggressor; as a result, German states, swept up by nationalism and patriotic zeal, rallied to Prussia's side and provided troops.
The Franco-Prussian War in 1870 was a great success for Prussia. The German army, commanded by Moltke, won victory after victory. The French were defeated in every battle. The remainder of the war featured very careful German operations and massive confusion on the part of the French.
At the end, France was forced to pay a large indemnity and surrender Alsace and part of Lorraine. Though Bismarck opposed the annexation, arguing it would be the "Achilles' Heel" of the new empire, Moltke and his generals insisted that it was needed to keep France in a defensive position. He broke France's supremacy over continental Europe after the Franco-Prussian war.
He carefully built the external security of the new German Nation upon his skillful diplomacy, which isolated France internationally and created a vast and complex system of alliances for mutual military support with most of Europe's nations.
In the role of an 'honest broker', Bismarck was also successful in maintaining peace and stability in Europe by settling French political conflicts through negotiations. Essentially a cautious politician, Bismarck never pursued an imperialistic course in Europe. In Africa however, Bismarck followed for some time a policy of imperial conquest, in a manner similar to the other European powers.
His most important tool in politics was his talent in the successful planning of complex international developments.
Bismarck decided to act immediately to secure the unification of Germany after his victory over France. He opened negotiations with representatives of southern German states, offering special concessions if they would agree to unification. The negotiations were successful; King Wilhelm was crowned "German Emperor" on 18 January 1871 in the Hall of Mirrors in the Chateau de Versailles for the further humiliation of France.
A suitable premise for war arose in 1870, when the German Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was offered the Spanish throne, which had been vacant since a revolution in 1868. The French not only blocked the candidacy, but also demanded assurances that no member of the House of Hohenzollern become King of Spain.
Bismarck then published the Ems Dispatch, a carefully edited version of a conversation between King Wilhelm and the French ambassador to Prussia. The publication was intended to provoke France into declaring war on Prussia. The Ems Dispatch had the desired effect. France mobilized and declared war, but was seen as the aggressor; as a result, German states, swept up by nationalism and patriotic zeal, rallied to Prussia's side and provided troops.
The Franco-Prussian War in 1870 was a great success for Prussia. The German army, commanded by Moltke, won victory after victory. The French were defeated in every battle. The remainder of the war featured very careful German operations and massive confusion on the part of the French.
At the end, France was forced to pay a large indemnity and surrender Alsace and part of Lorraine. Though Bismarck opposed the annexation, arguing it would be the "Achilles' Heel" of the new empire, Moltke and his generals insisted that it was needed to keep France in a defensive position. He broke France's supremacy over continental Europe after the Franco-Prussian war.
He carefully built the external security of the new German Nation upon his skillful diplomacy, which isolated France internationally and created a vast and complex system of alliances for mutual military support with most of Europe's nations.
In the role of an 'honest broker', Bismarck was also successful in maintaining peace and stability in Europe by settling French political conflicts through negotiations. Essentially a cautious politician, Bismarck never pursued an imperialistic course in Europe. In Africa however, Bismarck followed for some time a policy of imperial conquest, in a manner similar to the other European powers.
His most important tool in politics was his talent in the successful planning of complex international developments.
Bismarck decided to act immediately to secure the unification of Germany after his victory over France. He opened negotiations with representatives of southern German states, offering special concessions if they would agree to unification. The negotiations were successful; King Wilhelm was crowned "German Emperor" on 18 January 1871 in the Hall of Mirrors in the Chateau de Versailles for the further humiliation of France.
Friday, December 21, 2007
German Memories - Ancient Germans Migration
I remembered an incident in my CARE days, when I visited an NGO near Nallur, the once flourishing city of the Nagas in the coastal Jaffna lagoon. I asked an elderly person who had an inkling of history as to what happened to the Nagas and the Yakkas. He told me they were all in our blood.
The assimilation transmitted genetically beneficial traits among the people all over the world and an interesting study recently revealed in the ice age old Europe, how the Germanic element of the genes helped for the survival of the dying Finns.
As ice melted about 10,000 years ago, stone-age men, perhaps early Finns, occupied the rich new lands between Norway and the Urals. Other wanderers in the North, many of whom were Germanic, followed them into those areas. According to Matti Klinge of the University of Helsinki, the dominant "genetic element" in Finland today is Germanic.
Germanic people had followed the Finns northward since the dawn of history and were accepted there amongst them. When the waves of disease swept over Europe, it is possible that the Germanic genetic traits which was the ones carrying specific immune factors, such as blood type A, survived because the immune factors were already there and did not have to be produced by a human immune response.
Even during the second and fifth centuries as the western Roman Empire lost military strength and political cohesion, numerous Germanic tribes migrating en masse in far and diverse directions. Taking them to England and as far south through present day Continental Europe to the Mediterranean and northern Africa passed on the beneficial Germanic genetic elements to other tribes.
The Germanic tribes intruded into other tribal territories, and the ensuing wars for land escalated and then the wandering tribes began staking out permanent homes as a means of protection. Much of this resulted in fixed settlements from which many, under a powerful leader.
A defeat meant either scattering or merging with the dominant tribe. In Denmark the Jutes merged with the Danes; in Sweden the Geats merged with the Swedes; in England, the Angles merged with the Saxons to form the Anglo-Saxons.
Outside of Scandinavia, present-day countries speaking a Germanic language have mixed ethnic roots not restricted to the earliest Germanic peoples. Germanic peoples were often quick to assimilate foreign cultures.
There were Romanized Norsemen in Normandy, and the societal elite in medieval Russia among whom many were the descendants of Slavified Norsemen, though it was contested by some Slavic scholars in the former Soviet Union calling it the "Normanist theory".
In England assimilation happened by the migrating Angles, Saxons and Jutes who merged with the indigenous Celtic speaking Britons, resulting in an English identity for the inhabitants of that land.
In the latter part of mid-11th century, French-speaking Norsemen arrived and similarly altered what was known as Anglo-Saxon England and set the English language on the path from Old English to Middle English.
As in England, Scotland's indigenous Brythonic Celtic culture succumbed to Germanic influence due to Teutonic invasion; while the Scottish Highlands and Galloway retained a Gaelic heritage due to the recent invasions from Ireland which supplanted the British culture there, the Scottish Lowlands became English speaking.
France saw a great deal of Germanic settlement, and even its namesake the Franks were a Germanic people. Entire regions of France (such as Alsace, Burgundy and Normandy) were settled heavily by Germanic peoples, contributing to their unique regional cultures and dialects. But most of the languages spoken in France today are Romance languages, while the people have a heavy Gallic substratum that predates Latin and Germanic settlement.
Portugal and Spain also had a great measure of Germanic settlement, due to the Visigoths and the Suevi (Quadi and Marcomanni), who settled permanently. The Vandals were also present, before moving on to North Africa, where they were absorbed into the local population. Many Spanish words of Germanic origin entered into the Spanish language at this time and many more entered through other avenues (often French) in the ensuing centuries.
Italy, especially the area north of the city of Rome, has also had a history of heavy Germanic settlement. Germanic tribes such as the Visigoths, Vandals, and Ostrogoths had successfully invaded and sparsely settled in Italy in the 5th century AD. Most notably, in the 6th century AD, the Germanic tribe known as the Lombards entered and settled primarily in the area known today as Lombardy. The Normans, a partially Germanic people, also conquered and ruled Sicily and parts of southern Italy for a time.
Germany itself assimilated Slavic and Baltic peoples to the east in medieval and modern times; after World War II their descendants spread to other parts of Germany.
Going further back, most of the current territory of Germany was occupied by Celtic and Nordwestblock tribes who were eventually linguistically assimilated into the Germanic peoples.
The assimilation transmitted genetically beneficial traits among the people all over the world and an interesting study recently revealed in the ice age old Europe, how the Germanic element of the genes helped for the survival of the dying Finns.
As ice melted about 10,000 years ago, stone-age men, perhaps early Finns, occupied the rich new lands between Norway and the Urals. Other wanderers in the North, many of whom were Germanic, followed them into those areas. According to Matti Klinge of the University of Helsinki, the dominant "genetic element" in Finland today is Germanic.
Germanic people had followed the Finns northward since the dawn of history and were accepted there amongst them. When the waves of disease swept over Europe, it is possible that the Germanic genetic traits which was the ones carrying specific immune factors, such as blood type A, survived because the immune factors were already there and did not have to be produced by a human immune response.
Even during the second and fifth centuries as the western Roman Empire lost military strength and political cohesion, numerous Germanic tribes migrating en masse in far and diverse directions. Taking them to England and as far south through present day Continental Europe to the Mediterranean and northern Africa passed on the beneficial Germanic genetic elements to other tribes.
The Germanic tribes intruded into other tribal territories, and the ensuing wars for land escalated and then the wandering tribes began staking out permanent homes as a means of protection. Much of this resulted in fixed settlements from which many, under a powerful leader.
A defeat meant either scattering or merging with the dominant tribe. In Denmark the Jutes merged with the Danes; in Sweden the Geats merged with the Swedes; in England, the Angles merged with the Saxons to form the Anglo-Saxons.
Outside of Scandinavia, present-day countries speaking a Germanic language have mixed ethnic roots not restricted to the earliest Germanic peoples. Germanic peoples were often quick to assimilate foreign cultures.
There were Romanized Norsemen in Normandy, and the societal elite in medieval Russia among whom many were the descendants of Slavified Norsemen, though it was contested by some Slavic scholars in the former Soviet Union calling it the "Normanist theory".
In England assimilation happened by the migrating Angles, Saxons and Jutes who merged with the indigenous Celtic speaking Britons, resulting in an English identity for the inhabitants of that land.
In the latter part of mid-11th century, French-speaking Norsemen arrived and similarly altered what was known as Anglo-Saxon England and set the English language on the path from Old English to Middle English.
As in England, Scotland's indigenous Brythonic Celtic culture succumbed to Germanic influence due to Teutonic invasion; while the Scottish Highlands and Galloway retained a Gaelic heritage due to the recent invasions from Ireland which supplanted the British culture there, the Scottish Lowlands became English speaking.
France saw a great deal of Germanic settlement, and even its namesake the Franks were a Germanic people. Entire regions of France (such as Alsace, Burgundy and Normandy) were settled heavily by Germanic peoples, contributing to their unique regional cultures and dialects. But most of the languages spoken in France today are Romance languages, while the people have a heavy Gallic substratum that predates Latin and Germanic settlement.
Portugal and Spain also had a great measure of Germanic settlement, due to the Visigoths and the Suevi (Quadi and Marcomanni), who settled permanently. The Vandals were also present, before moving on to North Africa, where they were absorbed into the local population. Many Spanish words of Germanic origin entered into the Spanish language at this time and many more entered through other avenues (often French) in the ensuing centuries.
Italy, especially the area north of the city of Rome, has also had a history of heavy Germanic settlement. Germanic tribes such as the Visigoths, Vandals, and Ostrogoths had successfully invaded and sparsely settled in Italy in the 5th century AD. Most notably, in the 6th century AD, the Germanic tribe known as the Lombards entered and settled primarily in the area known today as Lombardy. The Normans, a partially Germanic people, also conquered and ruled Sicily and parts of southern Italy for a time.
Germany itself assimilated Slavic and Baltic peoples to the east in medieval and modern times; after World War II their descendants spread to other parts of Germany.
Going further back, most of the current territory of Germany was occupied by Celtic and Nordwestblock tribes who were eventually linguistically assimilated into the Germanic peoples.
German Memories - Attack on Roman Forces by Germanic Teutons & Cimbri
During the late 2nd century BC, the Teutons were marching south along with their neighbors, the Cimbri and the Ambrones, and attacking Roman Italy.
The Cimbri were ferocious warriors who did not fear death. The host was followed by women and children on carts. Aged women dressed in white sacrificed the prisoners of war and sprinkled their blood, the nature of which allowed them to see what was to come.
Evidence that the Cimbri may have practised ritualistic sacrifice is found in the nearly 1500 year-old Haraldskaer Woman discovered in Jutland in the year 1835. Noosemarks and skin piercing were evident and she had been thrown into a bog rather than buried or cremated.
After several battles with the Boii and other Celtic tribes, the Cimbri and other tribes appeared 113 BC in Noricum ( the today's Austria), where they invaded the lands of one of Rome's allies, the Taurisci. On the request, the Roman consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, sent to defend the Taurisci, they retreated only to find themselves deceived and attacked at Noreia, an ancient city in the eastern Alps as the capital of the kingdom of Noricum.
In a bloody battle, they defeated the Romans. Only a storm, which separated the combatants, saved them from complete annihilation.
Thereafter the road to Italy was open, but they turned west towards Gaul (modern day France). They came into frequent conflict with the Romans, who usually came out the losers. In 109 BC, they defeated a Roman army under the consul Marcus Junius Silanus, who was the commander of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis. The same year, they defeated another Roman army under the consul Gaius Cassius Longinus, who was killed at Burdigala (modern day Bordeaux). In 107 BC, the Romans once again lost against the Tigurines, who were allies of the Cimbri.
It was not until 105 BC that they planned an attack on the Roman Empire itself. At the Rhone River, the Cimbri clashed with the Roman armies. The Roman commanders, the proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio and the consul Gnaeus Mallius Maximus, hindered Roman coordination and so the Cimbri succeeded in first defeating the legate Marcus Aurelius Scaurus and later caused a devastating defeat on Caepio and Maximus at the Battle of Arausio.
The Roman force was completely overwhelmed and the legate was captured and brought before Boiorix. Scaurus was not humbled by his capture and advised Boiorix to turn back before his people were destroyed by the Roman forces. The king of the Cimbri was indignant at this impudence and had Scaurus executed by being burned alive in a wicker cage.
The Roman force had witnessed the complete destruction of their colleagues. In other circumstances the army might have fled, but the poor positioning of the camp backs to the river caused their total annihilation. The Romans lost as many as 112,000 men including the lost auxiliary cavalry and the non-combatants.
The Cimbri were ferocious warriors who did not fear death. The host was followed by women and children on carts. Aged women dressed in white sacrificed the prisoners of war and sprinkled their blood, the nature of which allowed them to see what was to come.
Evidence that the Cimbri may have practised ritualistic sacrifice is found in the nearly 1500 year-old Haraldskaer Woman discovered in Jutland in the year 1835. Noosemarks and skin piercing were evident and she had been thrown into a bog rather than buried or cremated.
After several battles with the Boii and other Celtic tribes, the Cimbri and other tribes appeared 113 BC in Noricum ( the today's Austria), where they invaded the lands of one of Rome's allies, the Taurisci. On the request, the Roman consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, sent to defend the Taurisci, they retreated only to find themselves deceived and attacked at Noreia, an ancient city in the eastern Alps as the capital of the kingdom of Noricum.
In a bloody battle, they defeated the Romans. Only a storm, which separated the combatants, saved them from complete annihilation.
Thereafter the road to Italy was open, but they turned west towards Gaul (modern day France). They came into frequent conflict with the Romans, who usually came out the losers. In 109 BC, they defeated a Roman army under the consul Marcus Junius Silanus, who was the commander of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis. The same year, they defeated another Roman army under the consul Gaius Cassius Longinus, who was killed at Burdigala (modern day Bordeaux). In 107 BC, the Romans once again lost against the Tigurines, who were allies of the Cimbri.
It was not until 105 BC that they planned an attack on the Roman Empire itself. At the Rhone River, the Cimbri clashed with the Roman armies. The Roman commanders, the proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio and the consul Gnaeus Mallius Maximus, hindered Roman coordination and so the Cimbri succeeded in first defeating the legate Marcus Aurelius Scaurus and later caused a devastating defeat on Caepio and Maximus at the Battle of Arausio.
The Roman force was completely overwhelmed and the legate was captured and brought before Boiorix. Scaurus was not humbled by his capture and advised Boiorix to turn back before his people were destroyed by the Roman forces. The king of the Cimbri was indignant at this impudence and had Scaurus executed by being burned alive in a wicker cage.
The Roman force had witnessed the complete destruction of their colleagues. In other circumstances the army might have fled, but the poor positioning of the camp backs to the river caused their total annihilation. The Romans lost as many as 112,000 men including the lost auxiliary cavalry and the non-combatants.
German Memories - Germanic Migration From Scandinavia to Southern Europe
While I was narrating the migration of Nagas and other tribes towards the Island, our discussion went back to before the Christian era of Europe where some of the Germanic tribes from Scandinavia were migrating towards the Northern Part of today's Germany.
The southward movement of Germanic tribes were probably influenced by a deteriorating climate in Scandinavia around 600 BC - 300 BC. The warm and dry climate of southern Scandinavia which was a couple of degrees warmer than today, deteriorated considerably, which not only dramatically changed the flora, but forced people to change their way of living and to leave their settlements.
At around this time, this culture discovered how to extract bog iron from the ore in peat bogs. Their technology for gaining iron ore from local sources may have helped them expand into new territories.
After they learnt new technological advancements, the Germanic tribes Teutons and the Cimbri were moving towards the southern parts of Europe. The Teutons were mentioned as a Germanic tribe in early historical writings by Greek and Roman authors, Strabo and Velleius.
The concept of 'Germanic' as a distinct ethnic identity was hinted at by the early Greek geographer Strabo as an adventourous group who dwelt in northern Europe. It was quoted by early chroniclers that "The Germani at noon serve roast meat with milk, and drink their wine undiluted". The Germanic tribes were each politically independent, under a hereditary king. The kings appear to have claimed descendancy from mythical founders of the tribes.
According to Ptolemy's map, the Teutons lived on Jutland, whereas Pomponius Mela placed them in Scandinavia. More than some hundred years before the birth of Christ many of the Teutones, as well as the Cimbri, migrated south and west to the Danube valley, where they encountered the expanding Roman Empire.
In the densely forested north of Europe, there lived more people than could be nourished by the primitive agriculture techniques. The fertile farmlands and pasture grounds of the south and the west were attractive to the Germanic tribes as battling for these areas was far easier than clearing their own forests with iron axes.
The Germanic tribes had been spreading out deeper and deeper into the west and south. At the same time they displaced the Celts up to the Rhine and the Danube, which now would be the borders to Celtic Gaul (today's France) and to Celtic Rhetia (today's South Germany and Switzerland).
The southward movement of Germanic tribes were probably influenced by a deteriorating climate in Scandinavia around 600 BC - 300 BC. The warm and dry climate of southern Scandinavia which was a couple of degrees warmer than today, deteriorated considerably, which not only dramatically changed the flora, but forced people to change their way of living and to leave their settlements.
At around this time, this culture discovered how to extract bog iron from the ore in peat bogs. Their technology for gaining iron ore from local sources may have helped them expand into new territories.
After they learnt new technological advancements, the Germanic tribes Teutons and the Cimbri were moving towards the southern parts of Europe. The Teutons were mentioned as a Germanic tribe in early historical writings by Greek and Roman authors, Strabo and Velleius.
The concept of 'Germanic' as a distinct ethnic identity was hinted at by the early Greek geographer Strabo as an adventourous group who dwelt in northern Europe. It was quoted by early chroniclers that "The Germani at noon serve roast meat with milk, and drink their wine undiluted". The Germanic tribes were each politically independent, under a hereditary king. The kings appear to have claimed descendancy from mythical founders of the tribes.
According to Ptolemy's map, the Teutons lived on Jutland, whereas Pomponius Mela placed them in Scandinavia. More than some hundred years before the birth of Christ many of the Teutones, as well as the Cimbri, migrated south and west to the Danube valley, where they encountered the expanding Roman Empire.
In the densely forested north of Europe, there lived more people than could be nourished by the primitive agriculture techniques. The fertile farmlands and pasture grounds of the south and the west were attractive to the Germanic tribes as battling for these areas was far easier than clearing their own forests with iron axes.
The Germanic tribes had been spreading out deeper and deeper into the west and south. At the same time they displaced the Celts up to the Rhine and the Danube, which now would be the borders to Celtic Gaul (today's France) and to Celtic Rhetia (today's South Germany and Switzerland).
German Memories - Early European Migration & Life-Style
Though our discussion touched on many of the early human migration what attracted us most was the 400, 000 year old wooden projectile spears which were found at Schoningen in northern Germany. These wooden projectile spears are thought to have been made by the Neanderthals' ancestors.
The Neanderthals disappeared completely from this world some 30,000 - 40,000 years ago. The Cro-Magnon probably came in contact with the Neanderthals, and is often credited to have caused or finalized the latter's extinction. To what extent Cro-Magnons interbred with Neanderthals - if at all - is still a matter of debate and we came out with some controversial argument.
The Cro-Magnons could be descended from any number of subspecies of Homo sapiens that emerged from Africa approximately 100,000 years ago. The Cro-Magnons were the earliest modern humans to enter into Europe perhaps around 50,000 years ago, during a long interglacial period of particularly mild climate, when Europe was relatively warm, and food was plentiful.
Some of the oldest works of art in the world, such as the cave paintings at Lascaux in southern France came into our discussion which were as old as shortly after the Cro-Magnons' migration. These early humans used manganese and iron oxides to paint pictures and even they were believed to have created the first calendar around 34,000 years ago. The Cro-Magnons even knew how to make woven clothing and constructed huts out of rocks, clay, bones, branches and animal fur.
The last ice age plunged Europe into a much colder and harsher environment, and covered much of the north of it with inhospitable glaciers. As the glaciers began to retreat, about 20,000 years ago, humans migrated northward again. It was this Mesolithic population, the descendants of Cro-Magnons who were dwelling in Europe around 7000 BC when the Neolithic people first began to enter there from the Asiatic portion of today's Turkey.
If the Neolithic immigrants to Europe were indeed Indo-European, then populations speaking non-Indo-European languages in today's Europe the Basques of the Pyrenees are the descendants of Mesolithic people since their language is related to none other in the world and also the Basque population has a unique genetic profile. The Uralic speaking peoples, the Finns and others represent this Mesolithic generation.
The other current non-Indo-European languages of Europe - Turkish, Maltese, and Magyar - were introduced in pre-historical times.
Our discussion went back into the Neolithic European lifestyle in between the Mesolithic and Bronze Age periods in Europe, roughly from 7000 BC to 1700 BC. The Neolithic Europeans were living in small-scale, family-based communities, subsisting on domestic plants and animals supplemented with the collection of wild plant foods and with hunting, and producing hand-made pottery, that is, made without the potter's wheel.
There were some Neolithic Europeans in southeastern Europe living in heavily fortified settlements of 3,000-4,000 people in Greece whereas in England there were 50-100 people together as highly mobile cattle-herders.
The Neolithic European peoples were warlike, and they imposed themselves as an elite on the Mesolithic populations, who adopted their language. The Neolithic Proto-Indo-Europeans were a patrilineal society. They had domesticated the horse and the cow which played a central role, in religion and mythology as well as in daily life. A man's wealth would have been measured by the number of his animals.
They practised a polytheistic religion centered on sacrificial rites, probably administered by a priestly caste. Important leaders would have been buried with their belongings, and possibly also with members of their household or wives under the human sacrifice called Suttee.
The Neanderthals disappeared completely from this world some 30,000 - 40,000 years ago. The Cro-Magnon probably came in contact with the Neanderthals, and is often credited to have caused or finalized the latter's extinction. To what extent Cro-Magnons interbred with Neanderthals - if at all - is still a matter of debate and we came out with some controversial argument.
The Cro-Magnons could be descended from any number of subspecies of Homo sapiens that emerged from Africa approximately 100,000 years ago. The Cro-Magnons were the earliest modern humans to enter into Europe perhaps around 50,000 years ago, during a long interglacial period of particularly mild climate, when Europe was relatively warm, and food was plentiful.
Some of the oldest works of art in the world, such as the cave paintings at Lascaux in southern France came into our discussion which were as old as shortly after the Cro-Magnons' migration. These early humans used manganese and iron oxides to paint pictures and even they were believed to have created the first calendar around 34,000 years ago. The Cro-Magnons even knew how to make woven clothing and constructed huts out of rocks, clay, bones, branches and animal fur.
The last ice age plunged Europe into a much colder and harsher environment, and covered much of the north of it with inhospitable glaciers. As the glaciers began to retreat, about 20,000 years ago, humans migrated northward again. It was this Mesolithic population, the descendants of Cro-Magnons who were dwelling in Europe around 7000 BC when the Neolithic people first began to enter there from the Asiatic portion of today's Turkey.
If the Neolithic immigrants to Europe were indeed Indo-European, then populations speaking non-Indo-European languages in today's Europe the Basques of the Pyrenees are the descendants of Mesolithic people since their language is related to none other in the world and also the Basque population has a unique genetic profile. The Uralic speaking peoples, the Finns and others represent this Mesolithic generation.
The other current non-Indo-European languages of Europe - Turkish, Maltese, and Magyar - were introduced in pre-historical times.
Our discussion went back into the Neolithic European lifestyle in between the Mesolithic and Bronze Age periods in Europe, roughly from 7000 BC to 1700 BC. The Neolithic Europeans were living in small-scale, family-based communities, subsisting on domestic plants and animals supplemented with the collection of wild plant foods and with hunting, and producing hand-made pottery, that is, made without the potter's wheel.
There were some Neolithic Europeans in southeastern Europe living in heavily fortified settlements of 3,000-4,000 people in Greece whereas in England there were 50-100 people together as highly mobile cattle-herders.
The Neolithic European peoples were warlike, and they imposed themselves as an elite on the Mesolithic populations, who adopted their language. The Neolithic Proto-Indo-Europeans were a patrilineal society. They had domesticated the horse and the cow which played a central role, in religion and mythology as well as in daily life. A man's wealth would have been measured by the number of his animals.
They practised a polytheistic religion centered on sacrificial rites, probably administered by a priestly caste. Important leaders would have been buried with their belongings, and possibly also with members of their household or wives under the human sacrifice called Suttee.
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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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