Free Essays on Germany

As a young adult in 1989, I remember the joyous displays of people crossing the border from East Germany to West Germany. I was unknowledgeable about the significance of the â€Å"fall of the Berlin Wall†, but I understood through the media that it was an important historical event of the twentieth century and would surely become a significant part of world history. German reunification became a reality that many Germans had dreamed of for years. The Reunification of the two Germanys was met with great excitement and expectations. Could this merging of two worlds live up to the dream of those who stood by the wall as it came crashing down? After World War II, Germany divided into four sections or zones. While this was meant to be a temporary move, the Cold War interceded and eventually the three western zones combined to form the Federal Republic of Germany while the eastern zone formed the German Democratic Republic. (Sandford) Berlin, the capital was also divided. The two areas of Germany, East Germany and West Germany began to experience a deteriorating relationship and conflicts arose. On Sunday August 12, 1961 plans for the beginning of the Berlin Wall were instituted. Led by Erich Honecker, the plans were kept secret. In fact, only twenty or so top-level East German officials knew of the plans. With limited written plans, the wall was erected with little knowledge until its completion. For the next 28 years the Berlin wall would separate East and West Germany. The divided areas of Germany would lead very different lives, with West Germany, a democratic union where the people and economy prospered. Yet , on the other hand, East Germany, under communist rule suffered tremendous economic dismay, and it people were offered few liberties. During the 1980’s, political changes in Eastern Europe gave Germans the hope for a reunified country, but the dream was unattainable as long as the communists held East Germany. In ... Free Essays on Germany Free Essays on Germany Germany in transition 1815 – Congress of Vienna – the ordering of German speaking countries After the defeat of France the victorious powers, Britain, Russia, Austria and Prussia, concluded peacemaking recognising the 38 States of the German Confederation. Some of these states were newly created states while others were restorations of the Holy Roman Empire. Although losing eastern territory to Russia, Prussia was doubled in size after land in the Rhineland and Westphalia was granted to her, making her the dominant power in northern Germany. Monarchies and principalities were in still in operation using their own courts and applying their own oaths of allegiance. However there were problems with newly established monarchs where loyalties had to be constructed through manufacturing of an image ( Frederich William III ). The states organised themselves, especially Prussia, more authoritatively than before in areas such as, security of borders, taxes, the military and education. Many of the natural resources became state owned, especially the coal mines of Saarland and the many German forests. Universities were founded and very well funded with an emphasis based on uniformity of approach especially in the area of university degrees. In the period between 1814 –1819 eleven different states drew up constitutions. In the most liberal of these, Baden, a house of parliament containing both a house for the lords and commons was established. Burschenschaften (1815) drew up the modern three striped German flag of today, leaving liberal reformers optimistic. However this optimism was short lived with the reactionary decade of the 1820s, with formal politics replaced by societies and the mass circulation of political pamphlets. 1830 Revolts – Reasons 1) Limited freedom of the 1820s, especially where the right to vote was concerned. 2) Poor harvest in 1830, as well as a rise in the price of bread. 3) Cus... Free Essays on Germany Communications The German Basic Law guarantees the freedom of the press. Germany has high newspaper readership and a well-informed population. In 1998, the country had 398 daily papers, with a total daily circulation of 25.5 million copies. Major daily publications include the Frankfurter Allgemeine, Sà ¼ddeutsche Zeitung, Die Welt, and the Berlin Tagesspiegel. Der Spiegel and Die Zeit are weeklies with national circulation. Party-owned and government-run publications in the former East Germany were privatized after 1989. Fees tied to the ownership of television sets finance the three major German public television channels. The channels are organized into 12 broadcasting regions, each with several radio stations. The channels produce their own shows or purchase foreign films and programs. Additional private and foreign channels and cable television are available. Television ownership is nearly universal. The German telephone system is modern, automatic. The system relies on satellites, cable, and microwave radio relay (MRR) networks. Before unification, this state of development did not apply to East Germany, where only the government and the secret police had efficient communications at their disposal. Since 1990, however, massive Western transfer payments have given East Germany a highly advanced communications systems, although the distribution of private telephones has not yet caught up with West German standards. Transportation Germany has a highly developed transportation system including a limited-access superhighway known as the autobahn. There is no speed limit on the autobahns, but frequent reconstruction projects and congestion keep the speed down. Since East German roads had not been upgraded and expanded much since the 1930s and the volume of motor vehicles on them rose greatly after unification, a large part of the funds transferred from the West have gone to expand the German highway system. The country's ex... Free Essays on Germany The Germany of the past had a low attendance at church. The German’s had placed a tax on all churches. The tax was collected by the state. Catholicism was the dominant religion for most of the 14th to 19th centuries. The Catholics stayed mostly to the south, as the Protestants and Lutherans lived in the north. During the era of World War II, the small population of German Jews was killed by the Nazis. More than 500,000 Jews were killed during this time. After the war, only 40,000 Jews remained in Germany. Today’s population of over 82 million Germans, is divided into several different religions. Still the dominant religion is Catholicism. The economy was developed in 1949 with Democratic Republic houses. Since the rise in the economy house hold income, cars, and hospitals increased. The eastern sides of Germany had the technological advances, and the western parts were more towards the manual labor. Of course Germany’s greatest low was during the end of World War II. Germany’s rebuild toward economic growth began in the late 50’s. As the economy have changed from it’s communist ways, it continues to grow today. The workers of Germany’s society out rank the homeless and those on welfare.... Free Essays on Germany Historically, Versailles’s reparations have taken the complete blame for the Weimar’s Eyears of hyperinflation; however, Versailles only tells half of the story and the Weimar’s economic break down desires a critical examination of the Reichstag’s macro–economic policies. As disproportionate as reparations demanded by Versailles were The underlying fact is that they could not have caused the hyperinflation unless they in concert with the irresponsible actions of Reichstag.  EIt is generally assumed that there was no alternative to inflationary policies in Germany immediately after the First World War, because of the costs of demobilization and reparations. However, this view fails to distinguish between political miscalculation and economic reality. EWrites in Niall Niall Ferguson in an article titled Constraints and Room for Maneuver in the German Inflation of the Early 1920s for the journal The Economic History Review. Economists lik e Ferguson speculate that Weimar structure and inability to deal with criticizes were to blame for the great inflation. Weimar political weakness is rooted in the polarization of the German population following the contentious and in German opinion controversial negotiation that led to the Versailles treaty. The public be fractured and radicalized and as a result the radical parties of nationalist and communist doubled in size leaving any political debate being highly divisive. Writing for the Arthur van Riel and Arthur Schram support this argument and contend that the Weimar contraversal orgins and subsqental need to appease the masses explain the government’s lack fiscal respocbiltuy The Weimar Republic is often seen as an unwished-for, improvised result of the chaos that followed World War I and of a fundamental controversy over socioeconomic conditions and matters of political representation. These conflicts had been inherited from the Wilhelm inian period, and, although economic... Free Essays on Germany As a young adult in 1989, I remember the joyous displays of people crossing the border from East Germany to West Germany. I was unknowledgeable about the significance of the â€Å"fall of the Berlin Wall†, but I understood through the media that it was an important historical event of the twentieth century and would surely become a significant part of world history. German reunification became a reality that many Germans had dreamed of for years. The Reunification of the two Germanys was met with great excitement and expectations. Could this merging of two worlds live up to the dream of those who stood by the wall as it came crashing down? After World War II, Germany divided into four sections or zones. While this was meant to be a temporary move, the Cold War interceded and eventually the three western zones combined to form the Federal Republic of Germany while the eastern zone formed the German Democratic Republic. (Sandford) Berlin, the capital was also divided. The two areas of Germany, East Germany and West Germany began to experience a deteriorating relationship and conflicts arose. On Sunday August 12, 1961 plans for the beginning of the Berlin Wall were instituted. Led by Erich Honecker, the plans were kept secret. In fact, only twenty or so top-level East German officials knew of the plans. With limited written plans, the wall was erected with little knowledge until its completion. For the next 28 years the Berlin wall would separate East and West Germany. The divided areas of Germany would lead very different lives, with West Germany, a democratic union where the people and economy prospered. Yet , on the other hand, East Germany, under communist rule suffered tremendous economic dismay, and it people were offered few liberties. During the 1980’s, political changes in Eastern Europe gave Germans the hope for a reunified country, but the dream was unattainable as long as the communists held East Germany. In ...