HST 802 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Erich Ludendorff, Berlin Wintergarten Theatre, Dawes Plan
Document Summary
Germany and the aftermath of the first world war. Europe was dominated by age old emperors. Many countries in europe were the product of wwi. During the first war, 750,000 germans died of starvation. Gov"t had to keep convincing germans that the war is worth it and they"ll win. Germans were told they were winning, even though they were on the losing end. After kaiser wilhelm 2nd"s abdication, a new democratic germany was established, Weimar republic, by the moderate socialist friedrich ebert. Weimar republic refers to the gov"t between wwi and when nazi"s took over in wwii. Kaiser planned the war and lost, but by the end he had vanished. Ebert, who"d been trying to stop the war, had to go to their allies and negotiate an end to the war that has been brutal to mankind. Germany continued to think they were winning. Ludendorff deflected responsibility for the lost war by claiming that germany was.
