We used to call Nazi Germany, led by Hitler, the Third Reich. But where did the previous two go?
The history of Germany is the history of three republics - the Weimar, the GDR, and the FRG, and three empires - in German, the Reichs. The First Reich was the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation - a vast, almost thousand-year-old state that, at its greatest moments, ruled most of Catholic Europe. It appeared in 962, when the king of Germany, Otto I, was ordained by the emperor for the first time since the fall of Rome, until 1806. Only Napoleon was able to finally destroy this magnificent empire. Together with his troops, he brought to Germany the ideas of the Enlightenment and liberalism. Since then, German politics can be viewed as a struggle between two principles: the democratic and the imperialist. The first of these gave birth to a galaxy of great German philosophers, formed a strong tradition of German humanism. The second is the same restless "Prussian spirit"forever offended in greatness and starting a war, gave the world two world wars. At the end of the XIX - beginning. XX centuries these two traditions replaced each other four times, brutally destroying what they replaced. The first such triumph of the "Prussian spirit" in 1871 was the creation of the Second Reich - the German Empire. The Third Reich took a lot from the Second, but they were two completely different states.
Dream of the greatness of the previous empire
Both Nazi Germany and the German Empire owe their creation to a powerful popular yearning for the greatness of Germany. In the 19th century, the Germans yearned for the strength and power of the Holy Roman Empire, and wanted revenge on other Europeans (in this case, the French) for humiliating their imperial dignity. It was these sentiments in society that made the consolidation of all German states possible. However, the ideological inspirers of the unification of Germany were the liberal-minded bourgeoisie - in 1848 they tried to crown the Prussian king as emperor of Germany.
The Germans of the Weimar Republic experienced similar feelings. They were humiliated and plundered by the victorious countries of the First World War, and nostalgic for the days of Kaiser Wilhelm, whom everyone in Europe feared. But instead of the liberal townspeople of 1848, conservative-minded peasants and philistines full of prejudices and delusions stood up for the former greatness in the 1920s-1930s.
Gathering lands
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Both Reichs tried to unite Germany - but they did it in different ways. After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Germany ceased to exist as a single state. It turned into many small principalities, over which two large German states fought for influence - Austria and Prussia. For almost the entire 19th century, through diplomatic and economic means, Prussia consolidated these small German states around itself. And in 1864 this process ends: Prussia begins a series of military operations against Denmark, Austria, as a result of which, by 1871, all German lands, with the exception of Austria, were collected under its rule.
The Nazis acted in similar ways, but much more rudely. They did not waste time on the skillful persuasion and enticement diplomacy that created the Second Reich, preferring the diplomacy of armored divisions at the border. In 1938, the Third Reich annexed the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia and annexed Austria.
Political system
The German Empire was a dualistic monarchy. This means that the fullness of power was concentrated in two centers: the monarch, who ruled the executive branch, and the parliament. In fact, the emperor completely headed the independent executive branch, appointed the chancellor, but did not have any leverage over the legislative process, he only signed laws. And the parliament of the German Empire, the Reichstag, was a completely democratic body to which deputies of completely different views could be elected. And although Chancellor Bismarck fought against liberal ideas, in many ways he was powerless against the system. and could not forbid everything.
The Third Reich was quite different. There was no democracy in it, all parties were banned, and the Fuhrer was in charge.
Attitude towards national minorities
There were no restrictions against ethnic groups in the German Empire. Both the Polish and Danish minorities were constantly represented in the Reichstag. In the empire, no restrictions were imposed on Jews either, despite the fact that anti-Semitism was not only strong, but also fashionable in German society in the second half of the 19th century. According to Moshe Zimmerman, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Bismarck himself was still an anti-Semite. However, this did not prevent him from constantly having contacts with large businessmen of Jewish origin, and from appointing representatives of this people to government posts. The enlightened spirit of the era did not allow anti-Semitism to break through to the state level. Jewish business, as well as anti-Semitic discourse, flourished in Bismarck's Germany.
Perhaps it was this policy of half measures, the desire to please everyone, that made it possible for the Nazis with their misanthropic theory to come to power. In the Second Reich, many said that it was time to deal with the Jews, but they only spoke. And in the Third Reich, those who listened to them made these "dreams" come true.
Artamonov Alexander