Imperial Germany: Difference between revisions

Line 5:

In 1871, Germany was unified for the first time ever (though the [[Holy Roman Empire]] was a basically German institution, it <s>wasn't</s> [[The Remnant|hadn't been for several centuries]] a true union of the [[Loads and Loads of Characters|myriad of small independent countries]], but rather a loose confederations not unlike the constantly [[Zero Punctuation|feuding and inbreeding residents of some backwards Louisiana swamp]], and was formally dissolved in 1806). A lot bigger than modern Germany, it incorporated a large part of modern Poland, the Alsace and Lorraine areas of France, parts of Lithuania and Denmark, and what is now the Kaliningrad exclave of the Russian Federation. All had German populations at a time, but in some places they were not a majority or "German in sentiment". [[Internet Backdraft|Be very careful when you talk about this. It may spontaneously combust.]] Germans were kicked out of a lot of places after the Second World War, but in Germany and these places (Poland and the Czech Republic) [[Elephant in the Living Room|it's considered polite not to mention this.]]

Imperial Germany (Das Deutsche Reich) was a constitutional monarchy with a rather limp constitution and a great deal of influence in the hands of generals, landowners, and industrialists (although it did look good when it stood next to [[Tsarist Russia|some of its contemporaries]], and much of the weakness of its parliament was by comparison to Britain and France's supreme legislatures). It had an elected Parliament with very limited influence, as it had the power to pass, amend or reject bills, but only the chancellor could initiate them. The chancellor, in turn, was appointed by the Emperor and was responsible only to him. It is notable for having introduced universal suffrage early on, however, and for Bismarck's creation of a an advanced (for the time) welfare state.

Line 11:

The German Empire consisted of 4 Kingdoms ([[Prussia]], Bavaria, Saxony and Württemberg), 6 grand duchies, 5 duchies, 7 principalities, 3 free cities and 1 imperial territory (Alsace-Lorraine). Prussia was by far the most dominant state, as it made up 64% of the empire and the [[Prussian Kings|King of Prussia]] was also the German Emperor.

Germany became a major world power at this time, because of its booming economy and powerful army. It produced a lot of leading artists and scientists, and began to dabble in overseas colonialism and to build up a navy to rival Britain.

The most famous statesman of the time was [[Otto ~~Von~~ Bismarck]]. Bismarck engineered the unification of Germany through a lot of extremely ruthless and deceptive tricks, but he was so good at it that you [[Magnificent Bastard|can't help but cheer for the guy]] ([[Evil Chancellor|though that may be disputable]]). He spend his later years juggling a complex alliance system in an attempt to keep the peace in Europe. Historians are divided as to whether he could have kept it up, but Kaiser Wilhelm II booted him out, so we may never know. He also made the famous prediction that the next war in Europe would start over "some damned silly thing in the Balkans". [[World War One|He was right]].

The most famous statesman of the time was [[Otto von Bismarck]]. Bismarck engineered the unification of Germany through a lot of extremely ruthless and deceptive tricks, but he was so good at it that you [[Magnificent Bastard|can't help but cheer for the guy]] ([[Evil Chancellor|though that may be disputable]]). He spend his later years juggling a complex alliance system in an attempt to keep the peace in Europe. Historians are divided as to whether he could have kept it up, but Kaiser Wilhelm II booted him out, so we may never know. He also made the famous prediction that the next war in Europe would start over "some damned silly thing in the Balkans". [[World War One|He was right]].

The other best-known characters of the period are of course the Kaisers. There were three. The first was Wilhelm I, a conservative old Prussian stalwart with magnificent whiskers who had fought in the Napoleonic Wars. His reign was dominated, politically, by Bismarck. Then came Frederick III,<ref>They were using the Prussian numbering</ref> for less than a year. A man of strong liberal sympathies (he quite admired Britain; he even married [[Queen Victoria]]'s eldest daughter) he was struck down by cancer of the larynx and is a favourite of [[Alternate History]]. Finally and notoriously, Wilhelm II. A notoriously temperamental man with some [[Freudian Excuse|major childhood issues concerning his arm defect]] who veered between liberal and conservative, strident militarism and sympathy for socialism, and, during the war that came to define his reign, defeatism and dreams of victory.<ref>Also, serious [[Mommy Issues]] involving his relationship with Britain and British culture: unlike his father, who had a healthy respect for Britain, Wilhelm was at once awestruck and envious, hating his mother but also wanting to be British...and then hating them again because he could never be British. It's suspected that this obsession with Britain informed his focus on building up the German Navy.</ref> He fell out with Bismarck and dismissed him, and the rest of his reign was a succession of brief and unmemorable chancellors with himself as the real centre of gravity until during the war he was rendered irrelevant by the generals.

Line 23:

Important note: never confuse Imperial Germany with the Nazis. People with any knowledge of German history (well, okay, [[Nerd|nerds]], but it's pretty much the same around here) scream and writhe when they hear this. And this wiki is full of nerds.

Imperial Germany has relatively few fans today, but it's generally agreed that they deserve some credit for not being the Nazis, and none other than [[Winston Churchill]], writing in ''The Gathering Storm'' in 1948 concluded that Germany (and the world) would have been far better off keeping the Hohenzollerns under a true constitutional monarchy than the troubled republic of [[Weimar Germany]], and a lot of facts seem to stand up for this. The Kaiser, despite remaining a reactionary, intolerant, and somewhat bonkers gentleman till the end, strongly condemned the violent Nazi persecution of Jews (despite being viciously anti-Semitic himself), and he died before the Holocaust even happened. Monarchism was strong in the [[Weimar Republic]] but today very few people support monarchism.

For several centuries, Germany had been splintered into many small states, most of which weren't really able to defend if the great powers (France, England, Sweden, Russia, Austria) decided to attack their country and use it as a battlefield. But now, as some historians stated, Germany had turned from a sponge (i.e. being soft and absorbing attacks) to a steel block. Its neighbors were pretty uncomfortable with that.

Line 40:

* [[Freudian Excuse]]: Wilhelm II and his withered left arm.

* [[He Also Did]]: Somewhat randomly, Britain and the US chose Wilhelm I to settle a dispute about the sea border between Washington State (then the Washington Territory) and British Columbia in 1871, as a result of the "[[Silly Reason for War|Pig]] [[wikipedia:Pig War|War]]" twelve years earlier.

* [[Historical Villain Upgrade]]: They could be per-itty bad, but they weren't the Nazis. [[Critical Research Failure|Some people aren't clear on this.]] [[Villain with Good Publicity|On both sides of said issue.]]

* [[Magnificent Bastard]]: Bismarck.

* [[Nice Hat]]: The notorious ''[[wikipedia:Pickelhaube|Pickelhaube]]''.

Line 51:

* [[Too Dumb to Fool]]: Bismarck could play almost any other foreign or domestic statesman like a fiddle, but Wilhelm II was so stubbornly determined to have a hand in things that he proved almost immune to Bismarck's influence.

** What Wilhelm refused to play along with was Bismarck intentionally provoking German socialists to revolt, and then militarily crushing them to eliminate their political influence in Germany. Hardly a case of "too dumb to fool." Maybe "too humane to puppet."

* [[What Could Have Been]]: Fredrick III was liberal and pro-British. If he had ruled Germany might have much more democratic and the First World War could have been avoided. Or Germany was far too conservative for his reforms to be implemented and a clash between the major powers in Europe was inevitable.

** Or the personal opinions of the kaiser, whether it was Wilhelm or Friedrich, didn't matter for all that much in the federal imperial German state. What would "more democratic" have meant for a Germany that already granted universal manhood suffrage anyway (unlike the contemporary United Kingdom, for that matter)?

*** Well, for one thing, making the Chancellor responsible to the Reichstag rather than the Kaiser, making the actual leader of the government responsible to the people? The Social Democrats were the largest party in the Reichstag from 1912 until the end of the Empire in 1918, so had this been the case, the SPD should have at least been part of the government (if not leading it) during that period. It wasn't.

**** For one, reforming the electoral system so that universal suffrage worked as it should have rather than as it actually was implemented: as a club to keep dissent amongst the lower classes down via the partitioned vote.

***** The partioned vote only applied in the state legislatures, in the Reichstag elections it worked just as it did e. g. in the UK, with a first-past-the-post winner in each constituency becoming the representative in the Reichstag.

*** Like [[Imperial Japan]] during [[World War Two]], wasn't Germany basically a military dictatorship before the end of [[World War One]]?

**** Pretty much, though by all accounts Kaiser Wilhelm was on far better terms with the 3rd OHL (the German high command which had effectively taken over the government of the parts of Europe still under Central dominance- including Austria-Hungary and to a lesser extent Bulgaria-) than Hirohito was with the "Imperial Junta" right up to the end.

Line 78:

* They attempted to utilize an elaborate disintegrating ray as a secret weapon in "Biggles, Adventures in Time."

* The protagonists must face off against their re-animated mecha zombies to steal a copy of the Kaiser's war plans in "Sucker Punch."

* The Kaiser is also taken prisoner at the end of [[Charlie Chaplin]]'s short 1918 film "Shoulder Arms", having been portrayed by his brother Sydney.

* Their soldiers are attacked with a knife from behind and scalped by Tristan in "[[Legends of the Fall]]", after they go to the rather elaborate lengths of setting up a machine gun just to kill Samuel when he is blinded by gas and trapped on the barbed wire.

* Represented by buffoonish German air ace Count Manfred Von Holstein in "Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines".