From The Kaiser To Weimar: THE NAZIS, #1

By Ian McKay

The year 2014 marked the hundredth anniversary of the start of the first world war. We should know how this came about. After centuries of Imperial rule, in 1918, Kaiser Wilhelm 2nd fled into exile, in Holland. The Hohenzollern Empire was dead and it was a difficult thing for the German people to accept. Germany was trying to adjust to the fact that their country had lost the war and was now a democratic republic.

Most people associate the Naxi party with World War 11; however, the first meeting of the NSDAP (The Nazi Party) took p;lace in January 1919. Tthis book explores how the Nazis took advantage of the chaotic political situation that existed in Germany after the first world war.  The  NAZIS waged a clever and savage campaign from the year 1919 onwards, before they eventually achieved power in 1933.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ian McKay
• Release date: May 19, 2014
• ISBN: 9781507044681

Book preview

Table of Contents

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The Origins of The NAZIS

The Assassinations in Sarajevo, and their effects

The German Naval Mutiny

Eisner's Bavarian Socialist Republic

The 1914 Armistice Talks

The Christmas Crisis

The Spartacist Uprising

The Birth of The Weimar Republic

Eugen Levine's Bavarian Soviet Republic

The Sinking of the RMS Lusitania

The Paris Peace Conference.

The Treaty of Versailles

Acknowledgements

The origins of the Nazis  

Most people will agree that 'The Nazis', and the horrific crimes against humanity that they committed and the events that unfolded during the Second World War, simply defy belief. So, maybe it’s a good idea for us to ask ourselves the question; how did a well ordered, civilized and sophisticated society ever allow The Nazis to come into power? However, as the world knows, they did. How did the German people ever allow themselves to become brainwashed and seduced by a, relatively small, group of ruthless ambitious politicians led by an evil, delusional, criminal, lunatic named Adolf Hitler: and yet they did! Adolf Hitler and his evil henchmen were the founder members of the NSDAP; the ‘Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, which later became more commonly known by the collective and abbreviated, term of ‘The Nazis’.

Almost certainly, the Nazi party could never have come to power on the 30th January 1933, unless favourable political conditions within Germany had not provided them with the fertile soil that was needed for their evil seed to be set, and to germinate and flourish. In all probability, without those fertile conditions, the Nazis would never have been able to achieve power, and World War 2 would not have happened. So, in attempt to understand how these events did actually happen, maybe we should take a look at just how those fertile conditions came about.

In order to help us understand this better, we need to go back to an earlier period in history; to before the first world war, and examine the psyche of the German Kaiser. Born in 1859; the man who was to become Kaiser Wilhelm 2nd was the first grandchild of the English Queen Victoria and her consort Prince Albert. The infant Wilhelm was born to Queen Victoria's daughter, Princess Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa, the British 'Princess Royal', and her husband, the German Prince Frederick William of Prussia.

An extremely difficult breech birth caused Wilhelm to suffer a serious neurological condition known as 'Erbs Palsy'; and, consequently, the man who was to become the German Kaiser was born with a withered arm. His left arm was six inches shorter than his right; and, despite years of intense, and no doubt very painful, medical treatment to correct this, he was still left with a severely damaged and virtually useless left arm. Some people were of the opinion that his disability adversely affected his childhood emotional and psychological development; and, was the cause of his extreme personality in later life. His mother, in an effort to 'normalise' his upbringing, insisted that, despite his disability, he must learn to ride a horse.

The idea that the future Kaiser of Germany would not be able to ride a horse properly was anathema to her; and she insisted that his riding lessons began when he was only eight years old. The lessons were extremely difficult for the young boy, and he kept falling off the horse over and over again. His tears were ignored; and, each time he fell off the horse, he was picked up and seated back in the saddle. Eventually, after weeks of this treatment, he was finally able to keep his balance.

When Wilhelm was only four years old he was taken to England, to attend the wedding of his 'Uncle Bertie', who was later to become the English king Edward 7th, to the Princess Alexandra of Denmark. Wilhelm and his father attended the wedding ceremony dressed in traditional Scottish highland dress; the young boy was wearing a kilt and sporting a miniature dirk (a small dagger), in the top of his sock. During the ceremony, the four year old Wilhelm became bored, restless and started making a nuisance of himself. His eighteen year old uncle, Alfred Duke of Edinburgh, was given the job of looking after him; and, reports said, when Alfred shook him by the shoulder and told him to be quiet, the four year old Wilhelm