PDF file: History - Advanced Higher - Germany - Education Scotland

Source J
Heinrich Stroebel, a member of the USPD, comments on the events of November
1919.
Except for a handful of political careerists and profiteers, the whole country feels
greatly depressed by the course and results of the revolution. Today, as the first
anniversary of the birth of the Republic approaches, not only are the Junkers and
upper bourgeoisie simply itching to give it a mortal blow at the first opportunity, not
only is it an object of scorn for the small man and the peasant, but it is so even for the
proletariat, which feels mocked and cheated, and considers democracy simply the
façade behind which capitalist exploitation and military despotism are carrying on
exactly as they did under the monarchy…
Source K
On 13 March 1920 Wilhelm Kapp, a senior civil servant, issued a proclamation and
tried to establish a conservative regime in Berlin. His Putsch failed.
The Reich and nation are in grave danger. With terrible speed we are approaching
the complete collapse of the State and of law and order. The people are only dimly
aware of the approaching disaster. Prices are rising unchecked. Hardship is
growing. Starvation threatens. Corruption, usury, nepotism and crime are cheekily
raising their heads. The government, lacking in authority, impotent, and in league
with corruption, is incapable of overcoming the danger. Away with a government in
which Erzberger is the leading light !
We shall govern not according to theories but according to the practical needs of the
State and the nation as a whole. In the best German tradition the State must stand
above the conflict of classes and parties. We reject the granting of class-advantage
either to the Right or the Left. We recognise only German citizens …
Everyone must do his duty ! The first duty of every man today is to work. Germany
must be a moral working community!
Source L
In ‘Mein Kampf’ Hitler comments on the reaction of the authorities to the French
occupation of the Ruhr and the need for ‘national renewal’.
But anyone who in the spring of 1923 wanted to make France’s occupation of the
Ruhr an occasion for reviving out military implements of power had first to give the
nation its spiritual weapons, strengthen its will power, and destroy the corrupters of
this most special national strength … Regardless what type of resistance was decided
on, the first requirement was always the elimination of the Marxist poison from our
national body … To fight France with the deadly enemy in our ranks would have
been sheer idiocy … For never in our history have we been defeated by the strength
of our foes, but always by our own vices and by the enemies in our own camp. Since
the leaders of the German state could not summon up the courage for such a heroic
History: Germany: Versailles to the Outbreak of World War II - 1918-1939 (AH) 53