Germany After the First World War

by Richard Bessel

A social history of Germany in the years following the First World War, this book explores Germany's defeat and the subsequent demobilization of its armies, events which had devastating social and psychological consequences for the nation. Bessel examines the changes brought by the War to Germany, including those resulting from the return of soldiers to civilian life and the effects of demobilization on the economy. He demonstrates that the postwar transition was viewed as a moral crusade by Germans desperately concerned about challenges to traditional authority; and he assesses the ways in which the experience of the War, and memories of it, affected the politics of the Weimar Republic. This is an original and scholarly book, which offers important insights into the sense of dislocation, both personal and national, experienced by Germany and Germans in the 1920s, and its damaging legacy for German democracy.

Genres: History

344 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Richard Bessel is Professor of Twentieth Century History. He works on the social and political history of modern Germany, the aftermath of the two world wars and the history of policing. He is a member of the Editorial Boards of German History and History Today.

He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies.

Reviews

[Joseph Hirsch · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got friends who live and die by the Actuarial Tables

After the defeat in the Great War, Germany floundered for an incredibly dark decade, in which failed revolutions, starvation, suicide, and paramilitary scuffles all played a part. The reasons for the brutality of this era were threefold: 1) Simple Vae Victis ("Woe to the Vanquished"). A defeated people usually suffer massive consequences for their defeat. In older times, this would involve enslavement or conversion to alien religions for anyone who wasn't slain, although in our "civilized" times such consequences are more attenuated, which brings us to point 2) Very harsh "war guilt" provisions were included in the Treaty of Versailles signed after the First World War, including provisions for Germany to demilitarize (and in turn, de-industrialize) large sectors of its economy, and to pay off an onerous war debt. 3) Germany, having faith in short and strong victory before the war, hadn't made any kind of contingency plans for what the entire society and economy would do if they got beaten by the Allies. The mood in Germany (the nation itself a recent concept) before the Great War is hard to apprehend at this point (even with the embarrassment of riches of historical works at our disposal), but Deutschland was a concept as much as a place, a dream of unification under a military leadership only slightly less deified than, say, Emperor Tojo in Japan. Germany didn't make contingency plans for what they would do if they lost the Great War for the simple reason that they didn't countenance the idea that they could lose. Their "Sonderweg" meant the Gods wouldn't let them lose. But they lost anyway.

I've recapitulated all of that history to say this: The subject of such a great defeat is naturally laden with pathos and tragedy and it's hard not to make compelling. Richard Bessel somehow manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of what should have been an easy victory, however. "Germany after the First World War" doesn't have much of a human dimension, and reads like a series of actuary tables compiled by someone who is wonkish bordering on suffering from Asperger's (no disrespect intended to actual sufferers of the disease). This author is more interested in some sort of paper version of death-by-PowerPoint than he is in bringing this history to life. I'm getting tired of overpriced and excruciating academic texts that no one reads, except for courses or if they're autodidact fools like me. Also, try using end-notes instead of footnotes.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a good book because it was very descriptive on conditions of Germany before, during and after world war I.

I especially like its description of the social statuses of these times. Such as the housing-market, among the solders and the civilian people. It also was cool how it described how the general economy was during this time (1914-1924).

It's a great book if you care about Germans economy and how they lived. I learned that I do not have to read a fiction book to be entertained. This book tells me about not only how people lived in that time but what there mental state was and how the people felt with the first world war going on. It gave a perspective from all walks of life not through the eyes of one person. What also intrigued me was that it showed you the different organizations that tried to help there economy and keep order.

There was also good vocabulary that helped my reading and showed me the book was not for small children. Some of the vocabulary that I liked was:
The Armistice ( A time during ww I)
Remuneration ( reward or pay )
Wheelwrights (a person who repairs wheels) Hitherto (up to this time or until now)
Predominantly (have power over others)
Jettisoned (to cast something overbord to lighten a vessel)