The German perspective of the Second World War

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The White Rose (German: Weiße Rose, pronounced [ˈvaɪ̯sə ˈʁoːzə] ⓘ) was a non-violent, intellectual resistance group in Nazi Germany which was led by five students and one professor at the University of Munich: Willi Graf, Kurt Huber, Christoph Probst, Alexander Schmorell, Hans Scholl and Sophie Scholl. The group conducted an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign that called for active opposition to the Nazi regime. Their activities started in Munich on 27 June 1942; they ended with the arrest of the core group by the Gestapo on 18 February 1943. They, as well as other members and supporters of the group who carried on distributing the pamphlets, faced show trials by the Nazi People's Court (Volksgerichtshof); many of them were imprisoned and executed.

Hans and Sophie Scholl, as well as Christoph Probst were executed by guillotine four days after their arrest, on 22 February 1943. During the trial, Sophie interrupted the judge multiple times. No defendants were given any opportunity to speak.

The group wrote, printed and initially distributed their pamphlets in the greater Munich region. Later on, secret carriers brought copies to other cities, mostly in the southern parts of Germany. In July 1943, Allied planes dropped their sixth and final leaflet over Germany with the headline The Manifesto of the Students of Munich. In total, the White Rose authored six leaflets, which were multiplied and spread, in a total of about 15,000 copies. They denounced the Nazi regime's crimes and oppression, and called for resistance. In their second leaflet, they openly denounced the persecution and mass murder of the Jews. By the time of their arrest, the members of the White Rose were just about to establish contacts with other German resistance groups like the Kreisau Circle or the Schulze-Boysen/Harnack group of the Red Orchestra. Today, the White Rose is well known both within Germany and worldwide.

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_J%C3%A4gerst%C3%A4tter
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franciszek_J%C3%A4gerst%C3%A4tter

[pieter]

Although this series is an excellent tv series I have one big objection and want to tell this to you folks. It shows a blunt, primitive, reactionary (Fascist), negative image of an antisemitic Polish resistance which has nothing to do with the real Polish reality of that time. Yes, there were antisemitic elements in the Polish resistance, but this is a blunt distorched image. The Polish resistance fought the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS, Ordnungspolizei, Gestapo and SD forces, but did not persecute Jews. In reality it saved Jews and in some cases (Warsaw Getto [1943] and the Warsaw uprising [1944]) fought together with Polish Jews against the superior Nazi Armed Forces. Polish Roman Catholics and Polish Jews fought side by side during the Getto uprising (9 April – 16 May 1943 (29 days)) and during the Warsaw Rising (1 August – 2 October 1944 (63 days))



Marek Edelman (1919-2009) was the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. He had remained in Poland following the Nazi defeat and was active in domestic and international politics while at the same time becoming one of Poland’s leading cardiologists. [Listeners: Anka Grupinska, Joanna Klara Agnieszka Zuchowska, Joanna Szczesna; date recorded: 2003]

TRANSCRIPT: You know, these were all people who were group leaders in youth organisations. They'd passed through Medem's sanatorium, the farm in Grochów, they'd brought up young people, children and look, those people they'd brought up on the farm on Grochów they all built that kibbutz from the very foundation stones. I'm not in favour of that but the children that they brought up themselves communally didn't eat, didn't drink, lived in a field - ideals! That's not important, but they supported one another, and when someone was sick in bed, like for example Sara Biderman who never worked but they provided for her that's not - of course, Antek was, from this class of people came people like - and Antek came from this background, too. He wasn't military, he was a youth worker.

[L] But you said yourself that in these battles in the ghetto, military men didn't do well.

No, no. But in the Warsaw Uprising, the military didn't do well there either. It was the civilians who coped well. Who did well, Rybicki. Monter said, because Rybicki was on the staff not the general one but the Warsaw staff, he said, 'Oh, this civilian knows a thing or two', because those military men they were milk-sops. It turned out that they couldn't even command properly during a war, didn't it? But in Warsaw, the command was mainly in the hands of civilians who'd grown up in the guerilla army during the war. If someone was a trainee sub-lieutenant he'd had six weeks of PO training, that's the kind of military man he was, you understand? Even that leader on Mostowa he was a fourth year student, how could he have been a POW, he was a sub-lieutenant during martial law. They were all children who'd had an upbringing, they called it patriotic but no, it was an upbringing preparing them for collective life. They were scouts, or from socialist organisations run by the PPS, from the Red scouts, or from that bloody Marian organisation, I don't know what it's called, that religious circle for men. They were people who'd been brought up in a completely different... And then there was this battle, they said it was patriotism, but this battle was against violence which determined, this violence determined that it was violence against people, it was in the ghetto. A leader who didn't have the faintest idea about the army, just like all of us, and like all those in the Warsaw Uprising, there was one captain there who'd fought in the war in Spain but did he know anything? Did Jurek Hüber know anything? He knew how to separate those Spaniards who were killing one another over a girlfriend.

[pieter]

Dear Folks, dear Karl,

An extremely important point I want to make is the fact that I and we have to look at the reality of June 2024. We are 79 years after the Second World War (1939-1945). In those 79 years (nearly 80 years) a lot has happened. Realise dear friends, that on the foundations of the Prussian democracy (1848 until 1918; the Prussian three-class franchise (German: Preußisches Dreiklassenwahlrecht) was an indirect electoral system used from 1848 until 1918 in the Kingdom of Prussia and for shorter periods in other German states) and the Weimarer Republic (a democratic German state that existed from 1918 until 1933) a much stronger and stable New Germany was build in West-Germany, the Western part of Germany with the help of Western allies, the American-, British- and French occupational forces, and German politicians that were Resistance fighters or non-Nazi's plus reformed old Nazi's that build the West German Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany) with a Democratic nature of Freedom and Democracy, a Free market economy, pluralism, tolerance and an anti-nazi and anti-Soviet communist stance. West-Germany was part of the West and an allie of the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom (Great Britain), France, the Netherlands and Belgium. West Germany wasn't anti-Polish, nor Anti-American, nor anti-French, nor anti-British and certainly not anti-Israel. West-Germany (the state) and it's Bundeswehr (the West German army) were reliable Western allies.


Dutch tanks, pictured in West Germany in 1956 as part of the large British and American-led foreign military presence in the country

West-Germany was called the the Bonn Republic (German: Bonner Republik). The capital was the city of Bonn, hence the Cold War-era country is sometimes known as the Bonn Republic (1949–1990).

The foundation for the influential position held by Germany today was laid during the economic miracle of the 1950s (Wirtschaftswunder), when West Germany rose from the enormous destruction wrought by World War II to become the world's second-largest economy. The first chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who remained in office until 1963, worked for a full alignment with the NATO rather than neutrality, and secured membership in the military alliance. Adenauer was also a proponent of agreements that developed into the present-day European Union. When the G7 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States) was established in 1975, there was no serious debate as to whether West Germany would become a member.

In the dominant post-war narrative of West Germany, the Nazi regime was characterised as having been a 'criminal' state, illegal and illegitimate from the outset; while the Weimar Republic was characterised as having been a 'failed' state, whose inherent institutional and constitutional flaws had been exploited by Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) in his illegal seizure of dictatorial powers. Consequently, following the death of Hitler in 1945 and the subsequent capitulation of the German Armed Forces, the national political, judicial, administrative, and constitutional instruments of both Nazi Germany and the Weimar Republic were understood as entirely defunct, such that a new West Germany could be established in a condition of constitutional nullity.[9] Nevertheless, the new West Germany asserted its fundamental continuity with the 'overall' German state that was held to have embodied the unified German people since the Frankfurt Parliament of 1848, and which from 1871 had been represented within the German Reich; albeit that this overall state had become effectively dormant long before 8 May 1945.

In 1949 with the continuation and aggravation of the Cold War (for example, the Berlin Airlift of 1948–49), the two German states that were originated in the Western Allied and the Soviet Zones became known internationally as West Germany and East Germany. Commonly known in English as East Germany, the former Soviet occupation zone in Germany, eventually became the German Democratic Republic or GDR. In 1990 West Germany and East Germany jointly signed the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany (also known as the "Two-plus-Four Agreement"); by which transitional status of Germany following World War II was definitively ended and the Four Allied powers relinquished their joint residual sovereign authority for Germany as a whole including the area of West Berlin which had officially remained under Allied occupation for the purposes of international and GDR law (a status that the Western countries applied to Berlin as a whole despite the Soviets declaring the end of occupation of East Berlin unilaterally many decades before). The Two-plus-Four Agreement also saw the two parts of Germany confirm their post-war external boundaries as final and irreversible (including the 1945 transfer of former German lands east of the Oder–Neisse line), and the Allied Powers confirmed their consent to German Reunification. From 3 October 1990, after the reformation of the GDR's Länder, the East German states and East Berlin joined the Federal Republic.



West-Germany and East-Germany existed from 1949 until 1990. For 49 years West-Germany and East-Germany were divided, often families were split in half, 50% in West-Germany and 50% in East-Germany. This caused many family dramas and alienation between the West-German and East-German people. This split is visible until today, because you stil have Wessis (West-Germans) and Ossi's (East-Germans) in the present day United Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland). In the voting pattern in East-Germany you see that the extreme right Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland) is stil strong there. Many East-Germans are stil homesick for East-Germany, the Communist DDR, they have 2 names for that in German; 1) Ostalgie, nostalgia for aspects of life in Communist East Germany. It is a portmanteau of the German words Ost (east) and Nostalgie (nostalgia). Its anglicised equivalent, ostalgia (rhyming with "nostalgia"), is also sometimes used. Another term for the phenomenon is GDR nostalgia (German: DDR-Nostalgie). 2) Ostweh (Heimweh nach Ostdeutschland; English; Homesickness for East Germany (the German Democratic Republic [GDR], German; Deutsche Demokratische Republik [DDR]).

Reality

Was life really better in the former East Germany? To that question in a survey by the German magazine Der Spiegel, 57 percent of former Ossies answered 'yes'. An important reason for that feeling may be that no one was unemployed in the socialist state. That changed after reunification, after which East Germans had to compete in the labor market with highly educated West Germans. Although East Germans felt like second-class citizens in the united Germany, billions were pumped into the modern construction of the former GDR with the 'Aufbau Ost' project. And although some states, such as Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Brandenburg, lagged behind the rest, the growing prosperity in many East German states was soon palpable.

Although Germany has been reunified for almost 30 years, the ostalgia and cultural divide between East and West persist to this day. Tourists in Berlin have now discovered the commercialized form of Ostalgie (Ostalgia and Ostweh, the Homesickness for of older East Germans for the East-German state, the DDR); and are enthusiastically clicking their cameras in little East-German Trabant cars through old East Berlin. So the Ostalgie also yields something.


East-German two stroke engine Trabant car

Reunification

With the collapse of eastern bloc in 1989, symbolised by the opening of the Berlin Wall, there was a rapid move towards German reunification; and a final settlement of the post-war special status of Germany. Following democratic elections, East Germany declared its accession to the Federal Republic subject to the terms of the Unification Treaty between the two states; and then both West Germany and East Germany radically amended their respective constitutions in accordance with that Treaty's provisions. East Germany then dissolved itself, and its five post-war states (Länder) were reconstituted, along with the reunited Berlin which ended its special status and formed an additional Land. They formally joined the Federal Republic on 3 October 1990, raising the number of states from 10 to 16, ending the division of Germany. The expanded Federal Republic retained West Germany's political culture and continued its existing memberships in international organisations, as well as its Western foreign policy alignment and affiliation to Western alliances like NATO and the European Union.


The falling of the Berlin Wall in 1989


The falling of the Berlin Wall in 1989

The official German reunification ceremony on 3 October 1990 was held at the Reichstag building, including Chancellor Helmut Kohl, President Richard von Weizsäcker, former Chancellor Willy Brandt and many others. One day later, the parliament of the united Germany would assemble in an act of symbolism in the Reichstag building.

However, at that time, the role of Berlin had not yet been decided upon. Only after a fierce debate, considered by many as one of the most memorable sessions of parliament, the Bundestag concluded on 20 June 1991, with quite a slim majority, that both government and parliament should move to Berlin from Bonn.

[pieter]

www.britannica.com/place/West-Germany

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[pieter]

Folks,

Again, it is important to state that Germany today is a normal, respected, valued, trusted and aligned European country which is part of the EU, NATO, the Weimar Triangle (a regional alliance of France, Germany, and Poland created in 1991 in the German city of Weimar. The group is intended to promote co-operation between the three countries in cross-border and European issues), the OECD, the G7, the G20, the World Bank and the IMF. German citizens in Europe today are normal citizens of one of the Democratic and Western European states which lies both in Western-Europe and Central Europe. German politicians, chancellors (Prime ministers), presidents, Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Ministers of Economical Affairs and the Ministers of Finance, German diplomats and international negotiators. There is respect for German scientists, entrepreneurs, the quality products German workers produce in German factories (Deutsche Wertarbeit), German artists (Fine Art, Sculpture, Graphical Design [3D Design], Video Art, Cinema, photography, Fashion), German musicians, Classical Orchestra, Opera Houses, German Pop Music, German Professors, German ambassadors, German expats abroad that put value to other European countries in the sense of their economic, social-cultural, scientific and educational contributions (to European universities and Art Academies [German guest art teachers and Artists at foreign Art Academies in other European countries]) and etc.

Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, German; Bundesrepublik Deutschland, BRD), is a country in Central Europe. It is the second-most populous country in Europe after Russia and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its 16 constituent states have a total population of over 84 million in an area of 357,600 km2 (138,100 sq mi). It borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, and France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands to the west. The nation's capital and most populous city is Berlin and its main financial centre is Frankfurt; the largest urban area is the Ruhr.

Since World War II, Germany has made great efforts to both commemorate the victims and redress the crimes of the Holocaust, providing strong material and political support for the state of Israel and actively prosecuting hate crimes and the propagation of neo-Nazi doctrine; the latter became an issue in the 1990s with the rise in Germany of anti-immigrant skinhead groups and the availability of Hitler’s Mein Kampf over the Internet. Clearly, modern Germany struggles to balance its national interests with those of an influx of political and economic refugees from far afield, especially North Africa, Turkey, and South Asia, an influx that has fueled ethnic tensions and swelled the ranks of nationalist political parties, particularly in eastern Germany, where unemployment was double that of the west. Tensions became especially acute in the second decade of the 21st century, when more than one million migrants entered Germany in the wake of the revolutions of the Arab Spring and the Syrian Civil War.

The constitution of the republic, adopted in 1949 by West Germany, created a federal system that gives significant government powers to its constituent Länder (states). Before unification there were 11 West German Länder (including West Berlin, which had the special status of a Land without voting rights), but, with the accession of East Germany, there are now 16 Länder in the unified republic. The largest of the states is Bavaria (Bayern), the richest is Baden-Württemberg, and the most populous is North Rhine–Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen).

Matters of national importance, such as defense and foreign affairs, are reserved to the federal government. At both the state and federal levels, parliamentary democracy prevails. The Federal Republic has been a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) since 1955 and was a founding member of the European Economic Community (see European Union). During the four decades of partition, the Federal Republic concluded a number of agreements with the Soviet Union and East Germany, which it supported to some extent economically in return for various concessions with regard to humanitarian matters and access to Berlin. West Germany’s rapid economic recovery in the 1950s (Wirtschaftswunder, or “economic miracle”) brought it into a leading position among the world’s economic powers, a position that it has maintained.

Much of Germany’s post-World War II success has been the result of the renowned industriousness and self-sacrifice of its people, about which novelist Günter Grass, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1999, remarked, “To be a German is to make the impossible possible.” He added, more critically,

"For in our country everything is geared to growth. We’re never satisfied. For us enough is never enough. We always want more. If it’s on paper, we convert it into reality. Even in our dreams we’re productive."

This devotion to hard work has combined with a public demeanour—which is at once reserved and assertive—to produce a stereotype of the German people as aloof and distant. Yet Germans prize both their private friendships and their friendly relations with neighbours and visitors, place a high value on leisure and culture, and enjoy the benefits of life in a liberal democracy that has become ever more integrated with and central to a united Europe.

Pieter

- Sources Wikipedia and Emcyclopedia Britannica