New Series: Kings of Bavaria
Bavarian Coat of Arms 1835-1923
Source: Wikipedia
As my research has recently taken me in a new direction, I've decided to start a new multi-part series about it. For my dissertation, I will be researching the relationships between the Bavarian aristocracy and monarchy in the nineteenth century.
The Kings of Bavaria will feature all of the Bavarian kings which ruled between the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 and the fall of the Kingdom of Bavaria after World War I in 1918. Although the Kingdom of Bavaria did not actually last all that long (less that a century), it had some colorful figures as monarchs which left a lasting impression on Bavaria even to this day.
This will be a multi-part series. You will be able to see all of the entries in this series in the The Kings of Bavaria category which can also be found in the sidebar or by visiting the The Kings of Bavaria project page.
Kaiser Wilhelm II and the Nazis
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany
Source: Wikipedia
I've recently been reading a German history magazine called Der Spiegel: Geschichte. The most current issue focuses on the Hohenzollern dynasty in Prussia and ultimately in the German Empire from 1871 until 1918. One of the last articles in the issue discusses the last German Kaiser, Wilhelm II, and his life after his abdication from the German imperial and Prussian royal thrones.
Something I find quite fascinating about Kaiser after his abdication is his relationship to the Nazis once they came to power in the early 1930s. At first, he believed their nationalistic tendencies would lead to a re-establishment of the German monarchy and he would therefore be able to regain the throne he had lost. This of course proved to be just wishful thinking.
While he corresponded with Hitler through his son, the Nazis were never interested in bringing back the Kaiser or the monarchy that had led them to such embarrassing defeat in the First World War. They also, of course, wanted to keep power for themselves. Naturally, Wilhelm II was very disappointed by this and cut off practically all ties and contacts with Hitler and his party. His only remaining connection to the Nazis were the Nazi German soldiers who guarded him and his family at his home in the Netherlands where he was living in exile. In 1940, when the Kaiser found out about atrocities the Nazis were committing against the Jews and other people, he declared that it was the first time in his life that he felt ashamed to be German.
Shortly before Wilhelm's death in 1941, he requested that all mention of Nazis, all Nazi symbols and anything related to them be left out of his memorial service. His wish was not granted and he was given a funeral full of Nazi symbols. The funeral itself was used as propaganda by the Nazis, who used it to "show" their legitimacy in inheriting the German Reich.
While in exile, Wilhelm II could dream of nothing other than regaining the German imperial throne. He spent much of his time engaged in coming up with ways of how to re-establish himself as German Kaiser. His phase with Hitler and the Nazis were, in the end, just another part of his obsession.
For more about Kaiser Wilhelm II, his abdication and what led up to it, take a look at my series: Nineteenth Century German History.
First World War Officially Ends
Treaty of Versailles
Source: Wikipedia
I read something really interesting in the news today that I thought I would share here. According to the British newspaper, Telegraph, the First World War is finally coming to an end today. This past weekend, Germany made it's final payment for the war and thereby finally cleared the debt given to Germany by the Treaty of Versailles.
Here is the article from the Telegraph:
The final payment of £59.5 million, writes off the crippling debt that was the price for one world war and laid the foundations for another.
Germany was forced to pay the reparations at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 as compensation to the war-ravaged nations of Belgium and France and to pay the Allies some of the costs of waging what was then the bloodiest conflict in history, leaving nearly ten million soldiers dead.
The initial sum agreed upon for war damages in 1919 was 226 billion Reichsmarks, a sum later reduced to 132 billion, £22 billion at the time.
The bill would have been settled much earlier had Adolf Hitler not reneged on reparations during his reign.
Hatred of the settlement agreed at Versailles, which crippled Germany as it tried to shape itself into a democracy following armistice, was of significant importance in propelling the Nazis to power."On Sunday the last bill is due and the First World War finally, financially at least, terminates for Germany," said Bild, the country's biggest selling newspaper.
Most of the money goes to private individuals, pension funds and corporations holding debenture bonds as agreed under the Treaty of Versailles, where Germany was made to sign the 'war guilt' clause, accepting blame for the war.
France, which had been ravaged by the war, pushed hardest for the steepest possible fiscal punishment for Germany.
The principal representative of the British Treasury at the Paris Peace Conference, John Maynard Keynes, resigned in June 1919 in protest at the scale of the demands.
"Germany will not be able to formulate correct policy if it cannot finance itself,' he warned.
When the Wall Street Crash came in 1929, the Weimar Republic spiralled into debt. Four years later, Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany.
Nineteenth Century German History: Conclusion
The announcement by Philipp Scheidemann that the Kaiser has abdicated.
Source: Wikipedia
Germany in the nineteenth century was a place of unimaginable political unrest. The collapse of the Holy Roman Empire at the beginning of the century set the precedent for how the political scene of most of the rest of the century would play out. It would be chaotic, unnavigable and yet somehow the German people and their country survived. The goal throughout most of this time period was the reestablishment of the Holy Roman Empire. Attempted revolutions would be repeated with the underlaying themes of German unification and basic civil rights.
Otto von Bismarck was eventually able to accomplish what had been tried and failed many times in nineteenth century German: reunification of most German-speaking states under one ruler. The establishment of the German Empire in the middle of the century would create the impetus for two world wars in the twentieth century. Although Adolf Hitler later claimed to have restored the Empire under the Third Reich, it was not truly an empire in the same sense that the Second Reich under the Kaisers was. The fact that the Germany of today is a country itself is largely a product of the nineteenth century.
This entry is the end of a multi-part series. You can find all of the entries either on the Nineteenth Century German History project page or in the category of the same name.
Flag of the German Empire (1871-1918).
Source: Wikipedia
Fall of the Wall
The Berlin Wall by the Brandenburger Tor.
Unless you've been living in a cave, you've probably noticed by now that today marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was on this day, November 9th, in 1989 that the Wall was breached and East Germans finally allowed into West Germany.
This was the result of a long, complicated process by which the Soviet Union and other communist states in Eastern Europe slowly collapsed throughout the 1980s. Originally, the East German government only wanted to reform -- like its Soviet counterparts -- by offering its citizens more freedom. Part of this freedom was the ability to move between the two Germanys. Once the Wall was breached, however, the reunification of Germany became possible and even became a part of official policy. After almost a year of negotiations, Germany officially became one country again on October 3, 1990.
Reinhard Gehlen – Conclusion
Reinhard Gehlen in 1945
I have finally finished up my paper on Reinhard Gehlen. The final version was due today and it is a great relief to have it finished. I wrote up a brief summary of how the Gehlen Organization came to be on my German blog, but I will write a rough translation of it here.
Gehlen was a very interesting man. During the Nazi-period in Germany he was the head of the General Staff division, Fremde Heere Ost (Foreign Armies East). The division dealt with the condition of the soviet military. Just before the end of the war he foresaw that German was going to lose and thus decided to hide the information collected by his division in Bavaria. He wanted to give all of the information to the Americans so the Americans could be more prepared to fight against the Soviet Union in the upcoming battle of ideologies he saw coming.
After the war, he was taken prisoner by the Americans which is when he began to work for the Americans. In 1946, the Gehlen Organization was founded by the American Army and Gehlen. Gehlen worked with his colleagues from the Fremde Heeren Ost for the Americans until 1956. The Gehlen Organization was taken over by the new West German government in 1956 and the Bundesnachrichtendienst(Federal Intelligence Service) was born.
Gehlen Research: Primary Documents Jackpot
Reinhard Gehlen
As I have discussed before, I am doing a research project on the former German spymaster Reinhard Gehlen and the organization that he established after the second World War which eventually became the West German (and now just German) Bundesnachrichtendienst, or Federal Intelligence Service. The relationship between Gehlen and his spy ring had with the United States, in particularly the CIA, was extremely controversial as the American public would have been horrified to know that their government had employed former Nazis in their attempt to gather intelligence on the Soviets.
Because of the controversy of their relationship many officials in the CIA, the American military and the American government did not trust Gehlen or the intelligence gathered by his organization during the Cold War. This is going to be the focus of my research project. From a post-Soviet era, 21st century vantage point, I want to know if the intelligence gathered by Gehlen's spy ring was -- as many Americans claim -- actually inaccurate and deceiving or if that was simply something that the Americans unjustly accused the Gehlen Organization of. I watched a History Channel special about Reinhard Gehlen which presented Gehlen in a very negative light, claiming that his intelligence was falsified and incorrect. I guess we will see though.
Today I spent most of the morning and early afternoon researching at the university library. I have already spent quite a bit of time there this week, but this time I spent it looking for primary documents related to Gehlen and his organization. It turns out that the CIA declassified a huge number of documents in the late 90's and in 2004. That's lucky, but unfortunately it would require a trip to the National Archives in Washington DC, which I am unwilling to spend the money and time to do for a short undergraduate research paper. I was quite discouraged by this, but after a bit more looking around on the internet, I came across a site from The George Washington University which has all of the released documents in handy PDF files I can download for free. Needless to say, that pretty much made my day. I am now in over my head with primary documents on the organization and can't wait to start sifting through them.
Reinhard Gehlen
This semester I am taking a historical methods class in which the focus is the history of espionage. In this class, we are required to choose a topic related to the history of intelligence and do a research paper based on that. The topic I have chosen to do is Reinhard Gehlen who held a high rank in the German military as an intelligence gatherer during World War II and then was used by the CIA after the war to collect intelligence on the Soviet Union in East Germany.
Reinhard Gehlen in 1945
Gehlen was instructed to create a spy ring based in West Germany that would gather intelligence on Soviet affairs. Because of this he was excused from any warcrimes he had committed during the Nazi era. His spy ring became known as the "Organisation Gehlen" and included many of his former colleagues whom he worked with during the second World War. The Organisation Gehlen essentially became the forerunner for the German Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), or the Federal Intelligence Bureau, which is in many respects the German equivalent of the CIA. Gehlen served as the BND's first president.
For more about Reinhard Gehlen, see the Reinhard Gehlen article on Wikipedia.
As part of this particular assignment, we have to include memoirs from the person involved. Reinhard Gehlen wrote his memoirs in 1971 under the title of Der Dienst: Erinnerungen 1942-1971 (The Service: Memoirs 1942-1971). The library here does not have a copy of the book in English, so I have to resort to reading it in German. It shouldn't really be a problem, but it will take a little longer to plough through all 400 pages of it.
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