Posted on 11/05/2018 2:38:49 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I on French soil, and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will be in London at a ceremony in Westminster Abby with Queen Elizabeth II.
But while the leaders visit the capitals of Germany's wartime enemies, at home there are no national commemorations planned for the centenary of the Nov. 11 armistice that brought an end to the four-year war that killed more than 2 million of its troops and left 4 million wounded.
Next week, German parliament is holding a combined commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the declaration of the first German republic, the 80th anniversary of the brutal Nazi-era pogrom against Jews known as the Night of Broken Glass, and the 29th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Almost as an afterthought, parliament notes there's also art exhibition in the lobby called "1914/1918 - Not Then, Not Now, Not Ever."
More than just being on the losing side of the World War 1, it's what came next that is really behind Germany's lack of commemorative events.
For Germany, the Nov. 11 armistice did not mean peace like it did in France and Britain. The war's end gave rise to revolution and street fighting between far-left and far-right factions. It also brought an end to the monarchy, years of hyperinflation, widespread poverty and hunger, and helped create the conditions that brought the Nazis to power in 1933.
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Does Frau Merkel celebrate the Fall of the Wall?
Only if it keeps people out....................
I must agree, though, that World War II has almost erased World War I from memory.
The “War To End All Wars” ended ...
at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.
I agree. We (allies) won. They lost. Twice.
Most people have heard of “All Quiet on the Western Front”,
but most do not know of the companion volume “The Road Back”. Kind of a sequel or alternative ending.
In it the hero survives the war and has to deal with the
return to post war Germany. PTSD, speculators, the rise
of the Freicorps. Even a war dog with PTSD.
I was lucky enough to find both wrapped together at a
flea market.
I believe there was even a movie made of it.
NAZIs are Socialists and therefore only on the Right Wing of the Socialist Spectrum. A true example of the ‘right wing’ in Germany may be the Royal Family, or the German Regular Army which up till then was not essentially political.
That would be the
International Socialists (Communists sponsored by Bolsheviks in Russia) and the
National Socialists (Nazis sponsored in large part by disgruntled German soldiers who thought they had been stabbed in the back by Judeo-Bolshevism).
Historically you can draw an almost straight line from Napoleon defeating the Holy Roman Empire (Pre-Germany, Germany)to the Franco-Prussian War to WW1 to WW2.
The roots of 1939 stretch all the back to 1805
Today's Germany mourns 1) and 3), but cheers 2).
Yes. They lost the war and they lost the peace.
Buddy’s leaving day after tomorrow for Belgium. His son is spending a school year studying in Austria and travelling around Europe. He’s gonna meet his son in Ypres Wednesday night so they can join in the activities for the Day of Remembrance.
But boy, A LOT of good men on both sides died in that war.
“100th Anniversary of World War I to be marked in London and Paris, not Berlin”
Well.....yeah?
Somehow I dont think Vinnena will be shooting off fireworks either.
“For Germany, the Nov. 11 armistice did not mean peace like it did in France and Britain.”
The Brits committed a mass murder by enforcing a starvation naval blockade against German ports for about 8 months after the war. The low estimate is that 100,000 civilians died. The poverty lead to the street fighting.
Even worse, the British and French retribution in the Armistice was a primary causal factor of the failure of the Weimar republic and the rise of the 3rd reich. The demands for immense financial reparations was one of the big reasons Weimar Germany began unleashing the printing presses. It’s aftermath lead to the cold war.
WWI and the crazed loons of Europe’s handling of it is the primary cause of most of the misery in the world today. From the middle east and Saudi Arabia, to the Germans sending Lenin into Russia, to the ascendance of the Progressives here in the USA, to the creation of an FBI, to WWII macro and micro, to the utterly disrespectful treatment of the Japanese ally at Versailles, the beginning of debasement from gold into fiat currencies, the unleashing of Soviet communism... you name it. It all came from the aftermath of WWI.
“German Chancellor Angela Merkel will mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I on French soil”
Which is appropriate since the German surrender in WW1 was also on French soil.
“I agree. We (allies) won. They lost. Twice. “
WW 1 was not a black and white thing like WW 2. The first didn’t need to happen ...it was a collective failure.
“The roots of 1939 stretch all the back to 1805”
I very much agree! Absent the actions of Napoleon the various German states would have had no reason to unify. The Franco-Prussian War would not have happened, and WWI and WWII in Europe may well have been avoided.
Austria-Hungary might even still be a country.
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