The End of the War and Splitting of a Nation

                The end of World War II brought about not just the end of the Third Reich, the destruction of a nation, and families torn apart, but a nation torn apart as well.  In 1945 the war ended and for many nations the healing could start but in Germany it was a different story.  Not only was the nation split into four but their capital was as well.  Cities laid in ruin, people were jobless, soldiers had not come home, and new politics/governing figures were being forced onto the people.  At this point in their history, “whether Germany even still existed as a nation was an open question, but one to which Germans were heartily indifferent.  Surviving to the next day was what counted” (Schulze 287).  The four victorious powers, America, France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, assumed control over Germany and as a result things would never be the same.

                People would be alienated in their own country, families would be split apart, and new values would be instilled in the people of Germany.  The German government was taken over and replaced with an “Allied Control Council consisting of the commanders-in-chief of the four powers, with headquarters in Berlin, the capital of the former Reich” (287).  This council discussed matters that pertained to the whole of Germany but each administrator of the sections was free to rule its own zone.  One thing the “big three” (United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union) had agreed on was that “as far as the treatment of Germany itself was concerned, they agreed that “German militarism and Nazism” must be eliminated, so that Germany could never again threaten its neighbors or world peace” so Germany was virtually dismantled (288).  At this point in their history, it would appear that Germany as a nation no longer existed.  It was a fragmented community of Germany speaking cities.  Political leaders were discharged from their positions along with public officers, and any industry that related to creating arms or weapons was dismantled and abandoned. 

                Along with the disembodiment of Germany’s political system and some of their industries their economic system was dismembered.  Initially, “the Potsdam Agreement specifically stated that Germany was to be ‘treated as a single economic unit.’ But as each power was directed to fulfill its own reparations claims from its zone of occupation, this principle was undermined from the start,” meaning that not only did Germany suffer being torn apart physically and politically but economically as well (289).  How can a country function when it has been torn apart? I think the ultimate goal was for it to not function “so that Germany could never again threaten its neighbors or world peace” but that was also destroying a unique culture and altering it so it could never be the same again (288). 

                Beyond this every German citizen was required, under the Potsdam agreement, to undergo a “de-Nazification” process (289).  The way this would be done was left to each zone to determine itself.  Naturally this led to flaws, errors, and “mistaken conclusions” (290).  Many cases dealing with fascism were taken to the docket due to this and so they chose to deal with the minor cases first; as the minor cases were getting worked through “the Cold War intensified” so “interest in pursuing war criminals declined, so that it was often those with the most incriminating past who got off scot free” (290).  Many people are aware of the crimes and terrible things that happened during the war, but who knows about what happened directly after? Especially in Germany and how the people were treated?  I think it is important to point out different punishments, conflicts, and degrees of destruction that were inflicted upon the citizens of Germany at the end of the war. 

The four occupations zones of Germany after the war

A sign informing people that they were leaving a specific zone (American) - notice that German, the language of the citizens, is last on the list.

The Beginnings of a New Germany

In 1806 a new nation was formed and although it was the beginning of a snowball effect that had been building for years that was put in motion on October 14, 1806 when the Prussian army was defeated and reduced at Jena and Auerstedt (Hagen-Schulze 101).  The shell or buffer zone that was Germany was gone in 1806 and with it the idea that Germany could never exists although it was hard to say what Germany actually was.  It may appear that at this point in history Germany could not and would not ever exists, but this was the very beginning of the German nation.  

 

Napoleon Bonaparte

It is hard to imagine how the country of Germany ever came together to be united but even after the years of civil wars and the many different kingdoms scattered throughout the land a nation was formed.  A myriad of things, such as financial burdens, defeat, the devastation caused by the French living off the land and destroying it, and the rise in the cost of living, all contributed to “the administrative reform of the German states along French lines, and the discovery of Germany as a nation” (102).  French ‘satellite governments’ were put into place and all the states joined except for Prussia and Austria, but even they set up governments that followed the model of government set up by France as they remained threatened by Napoleon (103).  Through the years that followed the governments grew, changed and evolved until in 1809 “where the governments appeared immovable” so “bands of patriotic activists mounted small local insurrections” (105).   During the year many different rebellions through Europe took place until Napoleon started taking “heavy losses during his retreat from Russia” which prompted a great amount of patriotic feelings throughout the nation and changed the mood in Germany (105).  

Offenburg Rathaus in 1840

The years that followed were inflicted by wars and changing power and the years that followed “1840 saw a rebirth of German nationalism and strong growth in the organizations promoting it” (119).   A movement that spread throughout the land was the gymnastics movements “with an accompanying ideology that linked the goal of physical fitness with the ideas of patriotism and national defense” (119).  There was also a choral society that sponsored national choral festivals that spread and “promoted patriotic songs” and “also made inflammatory speeches” (120).  During this time it became obvious that both nationhood and the liberal opposition that was involved were both on the same side (121).  All this led to leaders meeting in Offenburg on October 10, 1847 to work towards finishing the movement that was set in place around 1830 to make Germany a “single unified republic” (121).  Other reformist called for more action to be taken and in the years that followed, revolutionaries kept working towards their goal of turning Germany into just that, Germany: a single, free standing, unified republic (121).  

After all the turmoil and warfare that occurred it truly is hard to believe that the states and countries worked and came to agreements and the nation of Germany was formed as a self-sustaining nation that governed its own people. Even though the events in 1806 started the snowball effect that would eventually turn Germany into its own nation, it took 65 years for it to actually happen and achieve its end goal.  In 1806 it would be hard to imagine that they would succeed in their efforts in uniting the states, especially in the years that followed but somehow, between the changing governments and shifts in power, the states of Germany were able to find a way to come together and form a country on January 18, 1871.