GPHC Blog - Peace and Conflict: Germany

Connor Morley
Mr. Roddy IB 
Global Politics in Historical Context 
5 November 2018 
GPHC Blog - Peace and Conflict: Germany

        Today, Germany is a thriving democratic nation with the highest population of any nation located wholly within Europe. It has a HDI (Human Development Index) rating of 0.936, the 5th highest in the world, as well as one of the largest economies in the world with the country’s current GDP measured at 3.877 trillion USD, currently measured as the world’s sixth largest specifically. The country’s government is a federal parliamentary republic, somewhat similar to the United Kingdom except without a ruling monarchy. Germany also maintains favorable public relations with many countries both within the Western world and outside of it, similar to most highly-developed European nations. However, throughout much of the 20th century, Germany (and the various puppet states that it controlled and the states that emerged out of it) was a hotbed for conflict. 
       Germany’s foundation, like many ancient nations, essentially boils-down to the unification of separate individual kingdoms, most of which shared a common language (German or one of its many dialectical descendents) and which had strong ties within their culture and politics. This remained true until 1871 with the foundation of the German Empire, which controlled what is today several states in central Europe, including Germany itself. During a “rebranding” of sorts following Germany’s disastrous defeat in World War I (a rebranding which is known today as the Weimar Republic), where the nation gained less control of the European continent and became a republic, Adolf Hitler was quickly gaining control of parliament with his National Socialist German Workers Party (or the Nazi party for short). In 1933, Paul von Hindenburg, a decorated WWI war hero and leader of the republic at the time, appointed Hitler as chancellor because he thought that the increased popularity of the party could prove beneficial to support of the Republic. However, Hitler used this opportunity to steadily gain more and more control of parliament until he established himself as a dictator. Of course, as we now know, Hitler used this position of power to gain control over much of Europe and enact the genocide of over ten million “inferior” peoples, including over six million Jews, during the Holocaust. While this was occurring, he also began invading Poland in 1939, beginning World War II in Europe. Hitler used his imperialist and fascist allies, such as the Italians, the Japanese, and unofficially the Spanish, to contribute to the war effort, which expanded to the Pacific.
      After Hitler’s suicide and Nazi Germany’s defeat in 1945, a clash between occupation of Germany between the former Allied Powers and the Soviet Union (which, ironically, was a former Ally) led to the split of Germany into two separate states, with their border passing through Berlin. This lead to a clear divide between socialist and capitalist policies in the same city, separated by the now notorious Berlin Wall. Following the collapse of the divide in 1989 (which closely preceded dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991), Germany assumed its current governmental model, retaining many aspects that it had in the Weimar Republic, pre-Nazi Germany (including a Chancellor, a democratic parliamentary system, etc).

Sources: 
“Germany Profile - Timeline.” BBC News, BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), 15 Mar. 2018, www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17301646. 

Berentsen, William H., et al. “Germany.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 31 Oct. 2018, www.britannica.com/place/Germany. 

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