Familiar features of another collapse The first German republic was founded by the popular rule , and then destroyed by totalitarian nationalists who had seized power , claiming that return power to the people trapped by the reactionaries , tycoons and foreign agents . Ninety- five years ago , November 9, 1918 , was ousted German Kaiser Wilhelm II. From this day is counting mode , which later became known as the Weimar Republic , lasted less than one and a half decades, and lamentably ended its existence in the spring of 1933 . On our home Weimar syndrome and even a Weimar Russia always interpreted from the beginning of the 1990s. Now , on the occasion of the rise of the nationalist wave , these are slightly overexposed conversations take on an entirely new cast. History never repeats itself , especially a stranger. But there is common ground , and is useful for them to know and remember. German republican constitution was adopted in the summer of 1919 the National Constituent Assembly votes of deputies from the three parties of the so-called Weimar coalition - the Social Democrats , the Catholics of the Centre Party ( the predecessor of the current CDU ) and the representatives of the bourgeois- liberal Democratic Party ( the predecessor of the Free Democratic Party of Germany ) . This coalition is located in the German Constituent Assembly by three -fourths of golosov.Na the next election , in 1920 , she lost the parliamentary majority and until 1933 so it never and never returned . Weimar Germany is not in vain dubbed the republic without republicans . But if the regime , in spite of this , he lived for almost 15 years , so there were reasons . Totalitarian movements ( Nazis and Communists ) have become truly strong only in his last years . Conservatives , monarchists and nationalists dogitlerovskogo type somehow got on with the Weimar system , finding in it for myself a comfortable and profitable niches . In Prussia (where lived at 60 % of the German population ) Weimar coalition holds power almost until the very end - its constant head was a Social Democrat Otto Braun, nicknamed the red king of Prussia . A second pan-German president , a monarchist Field Marshal von Hindenburg (his predecessor was a rough Republican Social Democrat Ebert ) , the first five years of his reign rather neatly kept within the constitutional framework . Everything went hawking only since 1930 , though the reasons for the collapse of the Weimar Republic was carrying in itself the beginning. Just not all of them climbed out immediately . The Weimar Constitution divided power between the Reichstag , who appointed and dismissed the chancellor (prime minister) , according to the established parliamentary majority , and the popularly elected Reich President that he had the right to form a government of what people want , if intelligible majority in Parliament does not arise. Abstractly speaking, it was a very reasonable scheme , inspiring respect for its checks and balances . But in fact, she encouraged irresponsibility - the parliament and the president. Since the era of Bismarck and until 1918 , the German parliamentary system has to its credit some setbacks and absolutely did not have the practical experience of management. Everyone has taken control of the Kaisers government , and the deputies could quite freely criticize him . It was much easier and more enjoyable than to manage themselves. But after the fall of the monarchy Bismarckian system turned to them , and most importantly - to society, their backing. We had to make decisions , and this was not ready nor the political class , nor the people . Inherited from the monarchy party poorly oriented to the realities of the XX century and lived in shell familiar ideologies : the Social Democrats - the myths of Marxism , the Catholic Center - in the memories of attacking the Berlin Protestant government , the Liberals - in staroliberalnyh illusions, monarchists - in the dreams of the return of Kaiser , nationalists pre-Nazi type - a noble contempt for the common people . It is clear that this Parliament could not work steadily . Rare government could survive at least a year . In March 1930, another coalition cabinet has lost the support of most MPs and broken up, the new majority have arisen, and members of parliament with a secret relief to come to terms with the fact that the government does not generate the Reichstag , and President Hindenburg . The Weimar Republic entered the final phase for yourself so-called presidential offices. Open and even demonstrative turning Parliament into a farce had an effect , vaguely similar to the one in 1993, brought in the Duma elections in the Russian quarter of the vote Zhirinovsky . Only the Germans it was not a farce , and the first sign of impending tragedy. In September 1930, Hitlers Nazis , nationalists completely new type, pressed on their closeness to the people , and moreover - a social and a keen sense of modernity, got in the parliamentary elections of 18 % of the vote (instead of 2% two years earlier .) From now until the end of the Weimar Republic politics revolved around them. Rise of German totalitarian nationalism is usually explained by two myths. First, degrading and predatory attitude to Germany with the victors of the First World War . Second, the hardships of the Great Depression, surging in the late 1920s. In any myth can find a grain of truth , and in this , too . But it is worth remembering that with France, defeated in the years 1870-1871 , Germany appealed did not softer . Of losing power also cut off the land , it is also a tribute to the besieged , and the German rulers liked to talk publicly about the sword , which , like lightning, sparkle over France , as soon as she gives to it the slightest pretext. More than 40 years , until World War II, almost all French political parties have lived the dream of a rematch , but there ultranationalists to power did not come. The logic of the French political system in those years was the other - it is not pravelo and leveled . In Germany, the movement was in the opposite direction , although humiliating international restrictions (excluding , however , limits on arms ) almost came to naught at the end of 1920 , and the payment of reparations ceased in the early 1930s . The reason , apparently, is that the huge potential of great power gained by the German Reich under the Hohenzollern , was not exhausted in the First World War. Germany signed an armistice when its troops were still on foreign soil . The Germans did not consider themselves defeated , and even more so - war guilt . Harsh (but does not so terrible ) the terms dictated to them the world they perceived as the result of treachery Western allies , backed by the so-called stabbed in the back (Dolchstoß), allegedly deposited inside socialists, pacifists and Jewish intellectuals. As elsewhere , where politics is fed illusions and chimeras , and not the real interests , passions on this occasion did not wane over the years , but only increased, taking the 1930 view of a permanent collective paranoia. Curious: Yegor Gaidar, in retirement , regretted that in 1991, did not publish figures showing that the last Soviet government squandered all foreign exchange reserves and inventories of the state , and at the same time and wasted accumulation of ordinary people making the inevitable shock therapy . He compared it with the refusal of the German Social Democrats to publish the documents , according to which in the autumn of 1918 did not pacifists , and the German military , led by Ludendorff insisted on an armistice , as best knew the German front collapses from day to day. Like any true intellectual, our simple-minded reformer imagined that any figures or paper in fact able to get the masses to abandon the important and expensive for these ideas, though , and absolutely illusory . Not least, the first factor in the Nazis came to power and was the Great Depression . She hit and America, and Britain, but there is not ultra- earned . The authorities were able to prove to their people that are close to them that day and night thinking about their needs and try to help as much as they can. At Roosevelt and his New Deal got it better, multiparty British National Government established there at the peak of the crisis - a little worse , but the calming effect was evident everywhere. In Germany, the biggest burden fell just on the era of the presidential office at best indifferent and technocratic , infinitely distant from the people, and at worst - cynical lobbyist , serving the needs of roivsheysya around Hindenburg camarilla ostelbskih land magnates. Added to this is incomprehensible to ordinary people intrigue penumbral figures circulating around the Reich President , and to whisper something to him - like General Kurt von Schleicher . On this particular background Nazis with their slogans , facing both anti-red and anti- reaction to rid the suffering of the German people from the domination of tycoons , bureaucrats , non-Aryans , foreign stranglers , communist agents , etc. , looked their , and even and knowing what to do. A Weimar coalition disintegrated before our eyes. The liberals , left without voters simply left the scene . Centre Party pravelo and was beginning to probe the possibility of entering into a coalition with the Nazis. The Social Democrats , losing faith in themselves , passively trying to adapt to reality. The highest points of this policy of self-rescue have support of Hindenburg in the presidential elections in the spring of 1932 ( thanks to their help , he defeated Hitler , gaining 53% to 37 % and not taking a while incurring any specific political commitments to them) and the manipulation of the Prussian law taken the same day before the spring elections there the Landtag . Anticipating his defeat , the Social Democrats and its allies since tweaked the law that shift the current government of Prussia was for the local parliament is almost impossible. Received in April 1932, less than 40 % of the seats in the Prussian Landtag , the Weimar coalition , thanks to this pathetic forethought , a few months still clinging to power, but in July was still biased simply order the next presidential chancellor von Papen . Formally , the Social Democrats could give battle . They had equipped their staff Prussian police , more numerous than the entire German Reichswehr . There were hundreds of thousands of members of paramilitary units of the Social -Democratic Reichsbanner . Were controlled by the trade unions , it is theoretically able to raise millions of workers to strike . There was not one - the will to fight . She was not from top to bottom , from the party leader and ending with the rank and file activist. Rare calls to action immediately drowned in the chorus of confused voices. By mid- 1932, the German democratic forces could be considered completely bankrupt and ready to leave the stage without a murmur . There were only two options for further developments . The first - the victory of the Nazis, who sought to take power, so to speak, by constitutional means , having won a majority in the Reichstag , forming their own government and abolishing the rule , the presidential offices . His intention immediately after that eliminate the power of the parliament and they , however , are not particularly concealed . The second option , vividly discussed then surrounded Hindenburg was a state of emergency , the radical limit any political activities and go to some kind of ( what is there is poorly understood ) the authoritarian regime . Perhaps it was the only real chance any way to stop the Nazis. The idea enjoyed the support of the president. Hindenburg did not like and did not understand democracy, but neither liked Hitler , sarcastically mushrooming of his Bohemian (ie Czech ) Corporal , confusing his native Austrian town of Braunau of the same town in the Czech Republic. Throughout the second half of 1932 in the presidents circle built a variety of plans for restructuring the authoritarian state system , but ultimately failed to agree on any of them. Formal effort was enough - the army , police. Lacked the same as that of the Socialists - will. Aristocrats spent their whole life in the circle of friends ( in the background - papenovskom , for example, the cabinet of 10 ministers were only three nedvoryan ), just did not know what to say now to the people , and how to explain to him the next bend its policies. In the end, thought up to surrender to the Nazis, Hitler decided to believe the promises that he will be a presidential camarilla , and generally do not go to extreme measures . These bogus obligations issued by the confused and powerless partners worthless. Being in January 1933 the Chancellor , the chief Nazi Party appointed parliamentary elections in March , hoping to win their confidence and master the full authority strictly democratic means. The popular notion that the German people elected Hitler people , is another myth : the NSDAP gained while only 44 % of the vote and is located in the new Reichstag majority, only thanks to the alliance with the old nationalists , who broke up after a short time . It was not so much a formal electoral victory , much is still the same lack of will over the will of the victory , the victory of crazy , but the full force of the totalitarian system of the rotten , devoid of ideology and lost myself regime. There was the final touch . In order to legitimize the transfer of power from Parliament to the Nazi government needed a constitutional law the Emergency Powers Act , approved by two thirds of the deputies . The Social Democrats still found the strength to not support it . But the Center Party , whose leaders smiling Nazis verbally promised to maintain civil and political liberties , dutifully provided the required number of yes votes . The actual end of the Weimar Republic was held multiparty even before that, but now , as later wrote Joachim Fest , it was her moral end . If the example of German history to the Russian reality , then immediately clear : this is not quite what happens here now . However, some items may match - with time. This instructive and collapse of another democratic experiment . Sergei Selin Details : rosbalt.ru/main/2013/11/09/1197426.html
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 20:17:22 +0000