Part one, who were the Germans and why were they such massive assholes?
The Germans-We know the Germans are the bad guys in every movie ever, but who are these guys? Why did they fight so well? What is the deal with the pointy hats and fancy boots? Why were they such massive assholes? Basically, Germany was for most if its history made up of a thirty to 500 small nation states. These countries were all of Germany ethnically, IE the people were German, but they didn't have much in common. Then about 40 years before WWI, they were united in a single nation, show below.
The region of Prussia, in northern Germany, being the largest and most technologically of the various German states was able to bring Germany together. The Prussians have a reputation for being very harsh, very militaristic, and very badass. They were ruled by an Emperor, and had a nobility called the Junkers (don't laugh). Germany nobility, in contrast to the more bohemian French, were encouraged to be out going. The ideal young noble would like classical music, dress in a military outfit, go riding and hunting in his spare time, served in the army and be physically fit. German people were from a military culture, bravery, patriotic spirit, and stoic badassness were expected of their people, combined with being generally conservative, anti Semitic and super harsh. Now its a stereotype to call them a bunch of barbarians, as German Opera is second only to Italy, and German composers include Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven, so they aren't brutes, but were regarded as crass brutes by the British and French, and culturally are much more “Gruff” to put it nicely. Ironically, the Germans greatly admired the British...less so the French. The newly formed nation of Germany was ruled by the Kaiser (German for Caesar, meaning Emperor), Kaiser William I (pronounced Will-ham its annoying) united Germany, but it was his second in command, Otto Von Bismarck who was the diplomatic genius who made Germany. Basically, he provoked Austria, Russia, and France into attacking Germany, forcing the small German states to unite into one country for defense. The Franco Prussian war, fought 40 years before WWI is important, as the Germans owned France, and Kaiser William I forced France’s Napoleon III to kiss his boots in public and declare him “The new sun king” (the sun king was the title awarded France’s greatest king Louis XIV). France was the greatest nation on mainland Europe until their defeat in 1870, and resented the German induced humiliation. Following the defeat of France, the various states united into the German Empire in 1871. While unified with a centralized government, Germany was still very much divided, apart from Prussians, you had Bavarians, Saxons, Hessians, and ethnic Germans living in other countries. While technically a constitutional monarchy, the German parliament could only dictate the control of war funds, the real power lay in the hands of the Kaiser, actually it lay in the hands of Otto Von Bismarck, who controlled the old and basically senile Kaiser Wilhelm I. Politically, the Germans admired the British, as they were very much alike. They were both into physical activity, they both wanted their nobility to actually run stuff rather then sit around being spoiled twats (france), and they were both militaristic racist humorless gits. The English Royal Family was German since George I, and ironically the last German/English king would die a little before WWI the new king George the V was purely English. Finally, Germany is the "emotionally abused child of Europe, who grows up to be 6’6 and really pissed off", as while Germany had been trying to unite for centuries, the rest of Europe didn’t want such a powerful country coming about, and kept dividing them for roughly 1500 years. So Germany is pissed at the rest of the world and eager to assert themselves, Germany wanted colonies, but they were only able to get some crappy colonies in Africa and China because everything else had been taken. As for the pointy hats...yeah I don't know. The ruler of Germany at the time of WWII was the mentally disable Kaiser Wilhelm II. Oh right racism. Now lest get something clear, all of the Europeans were racist pricks who hated Jews, the Germans at the time were just a little more direct about it, through in one of heir African colonies 1904-1907, the Germans wiped out two separate African tribes, the Herore and Namaque. I mean, we don’t care because you know, their Africans, but basically the Germans used camps and mass murder to eliminate 70% of the Herore (65 thousand) and 50% of the Namas (ten thousand) in what is modern day Namibia (West of South Africa). I’m not saying that Germans are addicted to wiping other people off of the planet, just interesting in hindsight.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Mah WWI study guide part 1 What i've been doing all this time
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4 comments:
I don't know how to get the maps to work, this is really technically challenging :(
from
EE
Aw. German history is so absolutely f***ed up I love it.
"Germany is the 'emotionally abused child of Europe, who grows up to be 6’6 and really pissed off'" is my favorite quotation ever.
As for the Pickelhaube (the pointy hats), it's just an appearance thing that the Russians came up with and Wilhelm loved.
Hey thanks alot. Germany history is awesome, as they desperately try to come together, and everybody else just not letting them. I'm not an expert, I'm just writing a study guide so if their are any massive historical inaccuracies let me know.
And thanks about the quote, it was from my tenth grade history teach. And thanks (again) about the Pickelhaube, i never knew that, i always assumed that it was a Teutonic knight thing. My Uncle's family are germans so i have connections their
Next up...Franch...the anti germany
from
EE
Too bad Germany got beaten into the ground twice by countries not too much better than itself, and basically was taught never to get too big for its britches again. Sigh.
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