Misplaced Pages

#9990

142-527: Every day, more than 100 trains pass over the causeway, 50 of those ferrying cars (there is no road link to Sylt). Each year, the railway ferries more than 450,000 vehicles over the causeway. The causeway, which bears the Weimar Republic Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg 's name, has interrupted the tidal flow , which until the causeway's appearance had flowed freely between Sylt and the mainland. This change in tides, it

284-653: A Free Socialist Republic was proclaimed at the Berlin Palace . The proclamation was issued by Karl Liebknecht , co-leader with Rosa Luxemburg of the communist Spartakusbund ( Spartacus League ), a group of a few hundred supporters of the Russian Revolution that had allied itself with the USPD in 1917. On the same day, in a move that was contrary to the constitution because only the Kaiser could appoint

426-594: A " Working Committee of German Associations " was founded with representatives of many groups considered "fit for good society". In 1919 the Weimar National Assembly established a parliamentary committee to inquire into the events that had led to the "outbreak, prolongation and loss of the First World War". Its results were of questionable value due to a lack of cooperation from the civil service and military and to increasing interference from

568-471: A "war guilt lie". In line with national conservative and bourgeois right-wing parties, they accused the governing parties of having contributed to Germany's humiliation by signing the treaty and of denying it the right to self-determination. The young republic was exposed from the beginning to attacks from both the extreme right and extreme left. The Left accused the Social Democrats of betraying

710-631: A chancellor, Prince Max of Baden, at Ebert's request, transferred his powers as chancellor to him. In view of the mass support for more radical reforms among the workers' councils, a coalition government called the Council of the People's Deputies ( Rat der Volksbeauftragten ) was established, consisting of three MSPD and three USPD members. Led by Ebert for the MSPD and Hugo Haase for the USPD, it governed Germany from November 1918 to January 1919. Although

852-547: A city-state should ideally be a republic, but maintained that a limited monarchy was better suited to a state with a larger territory. The American Revolution began as a rejection only of the authority of the British Parliament over the colonies, not of the monarchy. The failure of the British monarch to protect the colonies from what they considered the infringement of their rights to representative government ,

994-579: A coalition government; Hitler's far-right Nazi Party held two out of ten cabinet seats. Von Papen, as Vice-Chancellor and Hindenburg's confidant, was to serve as the éminence grise who would keep Hitler under control; these intentions severely underestimated Hitler's political abilities. By the end of March 1933, the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act of 1933 were used in the perceived state of emergency to effectively grant

1136-525: A commercial elite being republics. Italy was the most densely populated area of Europe, and also one with the weakest central government. Many of the towns thus gained considerable independence and adopted commune forms of government. Completely free of feudal control, the Italian city-states expanded, gaining control of the rural hinterland. The two most powerful were the Republic of Venice and its rival

1278-477: A general strike. The putsch quickly failed due in large part to the refusal of the ministerial bureaucracy to obey Kapp's orders. The Reichswehr, however, proved itself to be unreliable. It adopted a wait-and-see attitude under General von Seeckt, the head of the Troop Office , who said that "Reichswehr do not fire on Reichswehr". Some among the working class did not limit themselves to passive resistance to

1420-545: A later date (Article 233). In the short term it was required to pay the equivalent of 20 billion gold marks in installments through April 1921 (Article 235). The most contentious article of the treaty, the so-called War Guilt Clause , did not use the word "guilt". It stated that Germany accepted full responsibility for all the loss and damage from a war that was imposed on the Allies by the aggression of Germany and its allies ( Article 231 ). The implications of Article 231 and

1562-445: A mixture of the other forms, oligarchy and democracy . He argued that this was one of the ideal forms of government. Polybius expanded on many of these ideas, again focusing on the idea of mixed government and differentiated basic forms of government between "benign" monarchy ,  aristocracy , and democracy, and the "malignant" tyranny , oligarchy, and  ochlocracy . The most important Roman work in this tradition

SECTION 10

#1732766046010

1704-598: A number of small states embraced republican systems of government. These were generally small, but wealthy, trading states, like the Mediterranean maritime republics and the Hanseatic League , in which the merchant class had risen to prominence. Knud Haakonssen has noted that, by the Renaissance , Europe was divided with those states controlled by a landed elite being monarchies and those controlled by

1846-437: A parliamentary system. The rebellion caused great fear among supporters of the monarchy and in the middle classes because of the soviet-style aspirations of the councils. To centrist and conservative citizens, the country looked to be on the verge of a communist revolution. By 7 November, the revolution had reached Munich , resulting in the flight of King Ludwig III of Bavaria . The MSPD decided to make use of their support at

1988-645: A peacetime army. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles , the new army, the Reichswehr , was limited to 100,000 men and the Reichsmarine (navy), to 15,000. The treaty prohibited an air force, submarines, large warships and armoured vehicles. The official formation of the Reichswehr took place on 1 January 1921, after the limitations had been met. The soldiers of the Reichswehr took their oath to

2130-665: A relatively strong federal republic to replace the relatively weak confederation under the first attempt at a national government with the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union ratified in 1781. The first ten amendments to the Constitution called the United States Bill of Rights , guaranteed certain natural rights fundamental to republican ideals that justified the Revolution. The French Revolution

2272-691: A republic, in which the people, rather than a monarch, are described as sovereign. The Israelite confederation of the era of the Judges before the United Monarchy has also been considered a type of republic. The system of government of the Igbo people in what is now Nigeria has been described as "direct and participatory democracy". Early republican institutions come from the independent gaṇasaṅgha s — gaṇa means 'tribe' and saṅgha means 'assembly'—which may have existed as early as

2414-682: A result it was the leadership of the Reichswehr with its largely anti-democratic civil service personnel that, along with the Foreign Office, determined the portrayal of the war in the Weimar Republic. All in all, there was little objective and critical questioning of the causes of the war or of Germany's responsibility for it in academia, politics or the media during the Weimar period. The official view of history continued to follow

2556-545: A speech delivered by Adolf Hitler at a Nazi Party rally in Munich on 24 February 1929. A few weeks later, the term Weimarer Republik was first used again by Hitler in a newspaper article. Only during the 1930s did the term become mainstream, both within and outside Germany. According to historian Richard J. Evans : The continued use of the term 'German Empire', Deutsches Reich , by the Weimar Republic ... conjured up an image among educated Germans that resonated far beyond

2698-462: A stop. After the war, Germany was obliged to cede Tønder and the Hoyerschleuse to Denmark. Sylt remained part of Germany, but owing to the new border, the old route to Sylt was now cut off, except if travellers wanted to go to the trouble of obtaining a Danish visa to make a short trip through Danish territory. Because of this unacceptable situation, construction on the long planned causeway

2840-455: A wealthy merchant class developed in the important trading cities. Despite their wealth they had little power in the feudal system dominated by the rural land owners, and across Europe began to advocate for their own privileges and powers. The more centralized states, such as France and England, granted limited city charters. In the more loosely governed Holy Roman Empire , 51 of the largest towns became free imperial cities . While still under

2982-601: Is Cicero's De re publica . Over time, the classical republics became empires or were conquered by empires. Most of the Greek republics were annexed to the Macedonian Empire of Alexander . The Roman Republic expanded dramatically, conquering the other states of the Mediterranean that could be considered republics, such as Carthage . The Roman Republic itself then became the Roman Empire. The term republic

SECTION 20

#1732766046010

3124-608: Is believed, is part of what has led to the loss of a certain amount of land at Sylt's southern end. The causeway lies in the specially protected Zone I of the Schleswig-Holsteinisches Wattenmeer National Park . Walks on the tidal flats are not allowed here, although they are quite popular elsewhere. After the Second War of Schleswig in 1864, when Prussia took over Schleswig from Denmark , Sylt and Westerland belonged to

3266-544: Is not commonly used to refer to pre-classical city-states, especially if outside Europe and the area which was under Graeco-Roman influence. However some early states outside Europe had governments that are sometimes today considered similar to republics. In the ancient Near East , a number of cities of the Eastern Mediterranean achieved collective rule. Republic city-states flourished in Phoenicia along

3408-468: Is reflected in the Arthashastra , an ancient handbook for monarchs on how to rule efficiently. It contains a chapter on how to deal with the saṅgha s , which includes injunctions on manipulating the noble leaders, yet it does not mention how to influence the mass of the citizens, indicating that the gaṇasaṅgha are more of an aristocratic republic, than democracy. The Icelandic Commonwealth

3550-676: Is so called because the Weimar National Assembly that adopted its constitution met in Weimar from 6 February to 11 August 1919, but the name only became mainstream after 1933. Even though the National Assembly chose to retain the old name Deutsches Reich (Art. 1 of the Constitution), hardly anyone used it during the Weimar period, and no single name for the new state gained widespread acceptance. To

3692-650: The 1848 German revolutions was named as the national flag in the Weimar Constitution . It was abolished after the entry into force of the Enabling Act of 1933, when the Nazi Party gained total power, in favour of two co-official national flags: the old black-white-red imperial tricolour and the flag of the Nazi Party . From 1935, the Nazi flag with the symbol offset became the sole national flag of

3834-694: The Black Reichswehr , a secret reserve networked within the Reichswehr and organised as labour battalions ( Arbeitskommandos ) to circumvent the Treaty of Versailles' 100,000 man limit on the German army. The Black Reichswehr was never involved in direct military action and was dissolved in 1923 after a group of its members attempted to overthrow the government in the Küstrin Putsch . The Reichswehr also developed far-reaching cooperation with

3976-517: The Fascist regime . These frustrations contributed to a revival of the Italian republican movement. King Umberto II was pressured to call the 1946 Italian institutional referendum to decide whether Italy should remain a monarchy or become a republic. The supporters of the republic chose the effigy of the Italia turrita , the national personification of Italy, as their unitary symbol to be used in

4118-703: The Greco-Turkish War (1919–22) , the monarchy was briefly replaced by the Second Hellenic Republic (1924–35). In 1931, the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic (1931–39) resulted in the Spanish Civil War leading to the establishment of a Francoist regime . The aftermath of World War II left Italy with a destroyed economy, a divided society, and anger against the monarchy for its endorsement of

4260-569: The Habsburgs tried to reassert control over the region both rural farmers and town merchants joined the rebellion. The Swiss were victorious, and the Swiss Confederacy was proclaimed, and Switzerland has retained a republican form of government to the present. Two Russian cities with a powerful merchant class— Novgorod and Pskov —also adopted republican forms of government in 12th and 13th centuries, respectively, which ended when

4402-455: The Kiel mutiny on 3 November. Sailors, soldiers and workers began electing workers' and soldiers' councils ( Arbeiter- und Soldatenräte ) modelled after the soviets of the 1917 Russian Revolution . The revolution spread throughout Germany, and participants seized military and civil power in individual cities. The power takeovers were achieved everywhere without loss of life. At the time,

Hindenburgdamm - Misplaced Pages Continue

4544-457: The League of Nations , which marked its reintegration into the international community. Nevertheless, especially on the political right, there remained strong and widespread resentment against the treaty and those who had signed and supported it. The Great Depression of October 1929 severely impacted Germany's tenuous progress; high unemployment and subsequent social and political unrest led to

4686-466: The Levantine coast starting from the 11th century BC. In ancient Phoenicia, the concept of Shophet was very similar to a Roman consul . Under Persian rule (539–332 BC), Phoenician city-states such as Tyre abolished the king system and adopted "a system of the suffetes (judges), who remained in power for short mandates of 6 years". Arwad has been cited as one of the earliest known examples of

4828-639: The Reichswehr from the control of the Reichstag . Under Seeckt the Reichswehr developed into what many historians consider a "state within the state". During the 1920 Kapp Putsch , Seeckt refused to deploy the Reichswehr against the Freikorps involved in the putsch but immediately afterwards had the Ruhr Red Army brutally suppressed during the Ruhr uprising . In 1921 the Reichswehr organized

4970-457: The Republic of Genoa . Each were large trading ports, and further expanded by using naval power to control large parts of the Mediterranean. It was in Italy that an ideology advocating for republics first developed. Writers such as Bartholomew of Lucca , Brunetto Latini , Marsilius of Padua , and Leonardo Bruni saw the medieval city-states as heirs to the legacy of Greece and Rome. Across Europe

5112-478: The Roman Republic . While the structure and governance of these states was different from that of any modern republic, there is debate about the extent to which classical, medieval, and modern republics form a historical continuum. J. G. A. Pocock has argued that a distinct republican tradition stretches from the classical world to the present. Other scholars disagree. Paul Rahe, for instance, argues that

5254-699: The Silesian Uprisings and the Greater Poland uprising in the German Province of Posen , which became part of the Second Polish Republic under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. In the four years following the First World War, the situation of most German civilians remained dire. The post-war economic crisis was a result of lost pre-war industrial exports, the loss of imported raw materials and foodstuffs due to

5396-706: The Spartacus League and the left wing of the USPD. In January, the Spartacus League, in what was known as the Spartacist uprising , took advantage of a large strike in Berlin and attempted to establish a communist government. The uprising was put down by paramilitary Freikorps units consisting of volunteer soldiers. Following bloody street fights, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were summarily killed after their arrests on 15 January. With

5538-790: The Weimar Constitution . The commander-in-chief was the Reich president , while the Reich minister of the armed forces exercised command authority. Military right of command ( Kommandogewalt ) was in the hands of the OHL. The resulting dualism between civilian power and military command was to become a heavy burden on the Republic. Whereas Reichswehr Minister Otto Gessler was content with limited political and administrative duties during his tenure (1920–1928), Colonel General Hans von Seeckt , Chief of Army Command from 1920 to 1926, succeeded in largely removing

5680-495: The public through their representatives —in contrast to a monarchy . Representation in a republic may or may not be freely elected by the general citizenry. In many historical republics, representation has been based on personal status and the role of elections has been limited. This remains true today; among the 159 states that use the word republic in their official names as of 2017 , and other states formally constituted as republics, are states that narrowly constrain both

5822-540: The 1930s. The Weimar Republic had a semi-presidential system . At the end of the First World War (1914–1918), Germany was exhausted and sued for peace in desperate circumstances. Awareness of imminent defeat sparked a revolution , the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II , formal surrender to the Allies , and the proclamation of the Weimar Republic on 9 November 1918. In its initial years, grave problems beset

Hindenburgdamm - Misplaced Pages Continue

5964-531: The 1960s and 1970s, the name "Hindenburgdamm" came to be criticized, since its namesake was a controversial figure. There were many initiatives to find the causeway a new name, but none of the suggestions (including "Sylt-Damm", "Friedens-Damm" ["Peace Causeway"] and "Friesen-Damm" ["Frisian Causeway"]) won majority support. Even though a few on Sylt may call for a road causeway instead of a railway link, it seems unlikely that Deutsche Bahn will be willing to give up this profitable line. In 2006, rumours came up that

6106-551: The 6th century BC and persisted in some areas until the 4th century AD in India. The evidence for this is scattered, however, and no pure historical source exists for that period. Diodorus , a Greek historian who wrote two centuries after the time of Alexander the Great 's invasion of India (now Pakistan and northwest India) mentions, without offering any detail, that independent and democratic states existed in India. Modern scholars note

6248-510: The Creole elite had little interest in giving these groups power and broad-based popular sovereignty . Simón Bolívar , both the main instigator of the revolts and one of its most important theorists, was sympathetic to liberal ideals but felt that Latin America lacked the social cohesion for such a system to function and advocated autocracy as necessary. In Mexico, this autocracy briefly took

6390-559: The French liberal thinkers, and also in the history of the classical republics. John Adams had notably written a book on republics throughout history. In addition, the widely distributed and popularly read-aloud tract Common Sense , by Thomas Paine , succinctly and eloquently laid out the case for republican ideals and independence to the larger public. The Constitution of the United States , which went into effect in 1789, created

6532-697: The German officer class. A rift developed between the MSPD and USPD after Ebert called upon the OHL for troops to put down a mutiny by a leftist military unit on 23/24 December 1918 in which members of the Volksmarinedivision (People's Navy Division) captured the city's garrison commander Otto Wels of the MSPD and occupied the Reich Chancellery where the Council of the People's Deputies had its offices. The ensuing street fighting left 11 Volksmarinedivision members and 56 members of

6674-526: The Kaiser that Germany needed to pursue an armistice and that the majority parties in the Reichstag, not the OHL, had to take responsibility for it. Although in retreat, the German armies were still on French and Belgian territory when the war ended on 11 November. Ludendorf and Paul von Hindenburg then began proclaiming that it was the defeatism of the civilian population – especially the socialists – that had made defeat inevitable. The stab-in-the-back myth

6816-417: The Kapp Putsch. Especially in the Ruhr , where dissatisfaction with the lack of nationalisation of key industries was particularly high, councils were formed that sought to seize local power. In the Ruhr uprising , civil war-like fighting broke when the Ruhr Red Army , made up of some 50,000 armed workers, mostly adherents of the KPD and USPD, used the disruption caused by the general strike to take control of

6958-399: The Kiel barracks. The sailors and soldiers welcomed him, and he was able to defuse the situation. On 9 November 1918, the German Republic was proclaimed by MSPD member Philipp Scheidemann at the Reichstag building in Berlin, angering Friedrich Ebert , the leader of the MSPD, who thought that the question of monarchy or republic should be answered by a national assembly. Two hours later,

7100-745: The Left and supporters of the former empire led to political violence and extremism . The young republic found itself in a nearly constant economic and political crisis until 1924. The Treaty of Versailles ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allied powers and set the conditions for peace. It was signed 28 June 1919 and can be divided into four main categories: territorial issues, disarmament, reparations and assignment of guilt. Territorially, Germany had to renounce sovereignty over its colonies and in Europe lost 65,000 sq km (25,000 sq mi) or about 13% of its former territory – including 48% of its iron and 10% of its coal resources – along with 7 million people, or 12% of its population. The Saarland

7242-403: The March 1920 Kapp Putsch , Freikorps units under General von Lüttwitz occupied the government quarter in Berlin. In an attempt to reverse the revolution and install an autocratic government, the former Prussian civil servant Wolfgang Kapp appointed himself Reich chancellor and Lüttwitz Reichswehr minister and commander-in-chief of the Reichswehr. The legal government fled Berlin and called for

SECTION 50

#1732766046010

7384-426: The National Assembly convened in the city of Weimar , giving the future Republic its unofficial name. The Weimar Constitution created a parliamentary republic with the Reichstag elected by proportional representation . During the debates in Weimar, fighting continued sporadically across Germany. On 7 April 1919 the Bavarian Soviet Republic was declared in Munich but quickly put down by Freikorps and remnants of

7526-429: The National Assembly voted to approve the treaty on 23 June. It was signed in Paris five days later. Explaining the rise of extreme nationalist movements in Germany shortly after the war, British historian Ian Kershaw pointed to the "national disgrace" that was "felt throughout Germany at the humiliating terms imposed by the victorious Allies and reflected in the Versailles Treaty...with its confiscation of territory on

7668-402: The Norwegian king Haakon IV for the Icelanders to rejoin the Norwegian "family", led the Icelandic chieftains to accept Haakon IV as king by the signing of the Gamli sáttmáli (" Old Covenant ") in 1262. This effectively brought the Commonwealth to an end. The Althing, however, is still Iceland's parliament, almost 800 years later. In Europe new republics appeared in the late Middle Ages when

7810-523: The People combined American, European, and Chinese ideas. Under his leadership, the Republic of China was proclaimed on January 1, 1912. Republican ideas were spreading, especially in Asia. The United States began to have considerable influence in East Asia in the later part of the 19th century, with Protestant missionaries playing a central role. The liberal and republican writers of the West also exerted influence. These combined with native Confucian inspired political philosophy that had long argued that

7952-405: The Republic, such as hyperinflation and political extremism , including political murders and two attempted seizures of power by contending paramilitaries ; internationally, it suffered isolation, reduced diplomatic standing and contentious relationships with the great powers. By 1924, a great deal of monetary and political stability was restored, and the republic enjoyed relative prosperity for

8094-410: The Rhineland and 50 kilometres (31 miles) east of the river demolished. Germany was prohibited from having an air force, tanks, poison gas, heavy artillery, submarines or dreadnoughts . A large number of its ships and all of its air-related armaments were to be surrendered. Germany had to compensate the Allied Powers for the losses and damages of the war, with the exact amount left to be determined at

8236-571: The Soviet Red Army , leading among other things to the secret training of German military pilots in clear violation of the Treaty of Versailles. With Seeckt's fall in 1926, the Reichswehr made a change in course for which Colonel (later General) Kurt von Schleicher was primarily responsible. The goal was to arouse broad social support for rearmament and to militarize society itself for the purpose of future warfare. Under Paul von Hindenburg's Reich presidency, Reichswehr leadership gained increasing political influence and eventually helped determine

8378-404: The Third Reich, and after World War II, both the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic readopted the black-red-gold flag. The coat of arms was initially based on the Reichsadler ("imperial eagle") introduced by the Paulskirche Constitution of 1849, and announced in November 1919. In 1928, a new design by Karl-Tobias Schwab was adopted as national coat of arms, which

8520-399: The Vajji Mahajanapada were the Licchavis. The Empire of Magadha included republican communities such as the community of Rajakumara. Villages had their own assemblies under their local chiefs called gramakas . Their administrations were divided into executive, judicial, and military functions. Scholars differ over how best to describe these governments, and the vague, sporadic quality of

8662-438: The Workers' and Soldiers' Council of Greater Berlin called for a National Congress of Councils ( Reichsrätekongress ) which took place from 16 to 21 December 1918. Against the opposition of the more radical members who demanded a socialist republic, Ebert, backed by the large MSPD majority at the Congress, was able to schedule the election for a provisional National Assembly that would act as an interim parliament and be given

SECTION 60

#1732766046010

8804-424: The abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II was announced, marking the end of Imperial Germany and the beginning of the Weimar Republic. The armistice that ended the fighting was signed on 11 November. Germany lost the war because its allies were facing defeat and its economic resources were running out, while by late summer 1918 fresh American troops were arriving in France at the rate of 10,000 per day. Support among

8946-411: The affirmation of Ebert, those responsible were not tried before a court-martial, leading to lenient sentences, which made Ebert unpopular among radical leftists. The National Assembly election , in which women were allowed to vote for the first time, took place on 19 January 1919. The MSPD won the largest share of the votes at 37.9%, with the USPD fifth at 7.6%. To avoid the ongoing fights in Berlin,

9088-427: The argument issued by the OHL in 1914 that Germany had been threatened by invasion and encirclement. Revising the conditions of the Versailles Treaty became the main goal of German foreign policy. The consensus opposing the "war guilt clause" did much to promote agitation against foreign countries and the Weimar Constitution. Both the DNVP and, in particular, the NSDAP questioned the entire post-war order and propagated

9230-445: The citizens at large govern for the public good, it is called by the name common to all governments ( to koinon onoma pasōn tōn politeiōn ), government ( politeia )". In later Latin works the term republic can also be used in a general way to refer to any regime, or to refer specifically to governments which work for the public good. In medieval Northern Italy , a number of city states had commune or signoria based governments. In

9372-434: The city-states of Italy and the Hanseatic League, both were important trading centres, with a large merchant class prospering from the trade with the New World. Large parts of the population of both areas also embraced Calvinism. During the Dutch Revolt (beginning in 1566), the Dutch Republic emerged from rejection of Spanish Habsburg rule. However, the country did not adopt the republican form of government immediately: in

9514-552: The classical republics had a form of government with few links to those in any modern country. The political philosophy of the classical republics has influenced republican thought throughout the subsequent centuries. Philosophers and politicians advocating republics, such as Machiavelli , Montesquieu , Adams , and Madison , relied heavily on classical Greek and Roman sources which described various types of regimes. Aristotle 's Politics discusses various forms of government. One form Aristotle named politeia , which consisted of

9656-470: The collapse of Chancellor Hermann Müller's grand coalition and the beginning of the presidential cabinets . From March 1930 onwards, President Paul von Hindenburg used emergency powers to back Chancellors Heinrich Brüning , Franz von Papen and General Kurt von Schleicher . The Great Depression, exacerbated by Brüning's policy of deflation , led to a surge in unemployment . On 30 January 1933, Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor to head

9798-424: The composition of the Reich governments. As a result, the Reichswehr contributed significantly to the development of an authoritarian presidential system during the final phase of the Weimar Republic. After Adolf Hitler announced the "regaining of military sovereignty" (reintroduction of conscription etc.) in 1935, two years after his rise to power , the Reichswehr was absorbed into the new Wehrmacht . It

9940-445: The continental blockade, the loss of Germany's overseas colonies and the worsening debt balances that had been exacerbated by Germany's heavy reliance on bonds to pay for the war. The economic losses can be attributed in part to the extension of the Allied blockade of Germany until the Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919. It is estimated that between 100,000 and 250,000 German civilians died of disease or starvation between

10082-403: The country in themselves. In 1641 the English Civil War began. Spearheaded by the Puritans and funded by the merchants of London, the revolt was a success, and King Charles I was executed. In England James Harrington , Algernon Sidney , and John Milton became some of the first writers to argue for rejecting monarchy and embracing a republican form of government. The English Commonwealth

10224-513: The decisions of the assembly. Elected by the gaṇa , the chief apparently always belonged to a family of the noble class of Kshatriya Varna . The chief coordinated his activities with the assembly; in some states, he did so with a council of other nobles. The Licchavis had a primary governing body of 7,077 gaṇa mukhyas , the heads of the most important families. On the other hand, the Shakyas , Koliyas , Mallakas , and Licchavis , during

10366-572: The dominion of the Holy Roman Emperor most power was held locally and many adopted republican forms of government. The same rights to imperial immediacy were secured by the major trading cities of Switzerland. The towns and villages of alpine Switzerland had, courtesy of geography, also been largely excluded from central control. Unlike Italy and Germany, much of the rural area was thus not controlled by feudal barons, but by independent farmers who also used communal forms of government. When

10508-591: The east bank near Cologne , Mainz and Koblenz . In addition, the Rhineland and an area stretching 50 kilometers east of the Rhine was to be demilitarized. France had demanded the occupation both to protect itself from a renewed German attack and as collateral for German reparations. The occupation was to last 5 years in the British zone, 10 in the American and 15 years in the French and Belgian zones, until 1934, but

10650-501: The eastern border and even more so its 'guilt clause'." Adolf Hitler repeatedly blamed the Republic and its democracy for accepting the oppressive terms of the treaty. Article 231 of the Versailles Treaty was widely perceived not only as a legal legitimisation of reparations but also as a moral condemnation of Germany, and it triggered a storm of indignation among the German public. The hostility towards it came from across

10792-530: The electoral campaign and on the referendum ballot on the institutional form of the State, in contrast to the Savoy coat of arms , which represented the monarchy. On June 2, 1946 the republican side won 54.3% of the vote and Italy officially became a republic, a day celebrated since as Festa della Repubblica . Italy has a written democratic constitution , resulting from the work of a Constituent Assembly formed by

10934-629: The end of the French First Republic and her Sister Republics , each replaced by " popular monarchies ". Throughout the Napoleonic period, the victors extinguished many of the oldest republics on the continent, including the Republic of Venice , the Republic of Genoa , and the Dutch Republic . They were eventually transformed into monarchies or absorbed into neighboring monarchies. Outside Europe, another group of republics

11076-417: The end of the war and the signing of the treaty. Many German civilians expected life to return to pre-war normality after it was lifted, but the severe food shortages continued. In 1922, for example, meat consumption had not increased since the war years. At 22 kilograms per person per year, it was less than half of the 52 kilograms consumed in 1913. German citizens felt the food shortages more deeply than during

11218-480: The enormous fall in the Papiermark 's value. After four years of war and famine, many German workers were disenchanted with the capitalist system and hoped for a new era under socialism or communism. Socialists dominated the new revolutionary government in Berlin, and numerous short-lived council republics were set up in cities across Germany. Even after they were suppressed, ideological conflicts between

11360-399: The evidence allows for wide disagreements. Some emphasize the central role of the assemblies and thus tout them as democracies; other scholars focus on the upper-class domination of the leadership and possible control of the assembly and see an aristocracy . Despite the assembly's obvious power, it has not yet been established whether the composition and participation were truly popular. This

11502-664: The form of a monarchy in the First Mexican Empire . Due to the Peninsular War , the Portuguese court was relocated to Brazil in 1808. Brazil gained independence as a monarchy on September 7, 1822, and the Empire of Brazil lasted until 1889. In many other Latin American states various forms of autocratic republic existed until most were liberalized at the end of the 20th century. The French Second Republic

11644-612: The formal declaration of independence ( Act of Abjuration , 1581), the throne of king Philip was only declared vacant, and the Dutch magistrates asked the Duke of Anjou , queen Elizabeth of England and prince William of Orange , one after another, to replace Philip. It took until 1588 before the Estates (the Staten , the representative assembly at the time) decided to vest the sovereignty of

11786-544: The government, which wanted to prevent a German admission of guilt before the world public. The committee met until 1932. During the course of World War I, war reporting was the responsibility of the German General Staff and after 1918 of the Potsdam Reich Archives founded by General Hans von Seeckt , which dedicated itself to the task of "disproving" German war guilt and war crimes. As

11928-421: The grassroots level and put themselves at the front of the movement. They joined the calls for Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicate, and when he refused, Chancellor Maximilian of Baden made a public announcement that the Kaiser and Crown Prince Wilhelm had already done so. Gustav Noske (MSPD) was sent to Kiel to prevent any further unrest and took on the task of controlling the mutinous sailors and their supporters in

12070-482: The ice in the Wadden Sea formed an impenetrable barrier. Already being planned at that time was a rail causeway from the mainland to Nösse on Sylt. The horrendous cost of such a project kept it shelved for quite a while, until Westerland was raised to town in 1905. Westerland's growing popularity as a seaside resort led in 1910 to serious official planning for the rail causeway. World War I brought all planning to

12212-465: The ideals of the labour movement because of their alliance with the old elites; the Right held the supporters of the Republic responsible for Germany's defeat in the First World War, denigrating them as "November criminals" and insinuating that the German army, which was still fighting on enemy soil when the war ended, had been stabbed in the back by them and the revolution (the stab-in-the-back myth ). In

12354-470: The industrial district. After bloody battles in which an estimated 1,000 insurgents and 200 soldiers died, Reichswehr and Freikorps units suppressed the revolt in early April. Constitutional republic This is an accepted version of this page List of forms of government A republic , based on the Latin phrase res publica ('public affair'), is a state in which political power rests with

12496-558: The institutional structures Bismarck created: the successor to the Roman Empire ; the vision of God's Empire here on earth; the universality of its claim to suzerainty ; and a more prosaic but no less powerful sense, the concept of a German state that would include all German speakers in Central Europe ;– 'one People, one Reich, one Leader', as the Nazi slogan was to put it. The black-red-gold tricolour of

12638-646: The largest and most powerful of the medieval republics. John Calvin did not call for the abolition of monarchy, but he advanced the doctrine that the faithful had the duty to overthrow irreligious monarchs. Advocacy for republics appeared in the writings of the Huguenots during the French Wars of Religion . Calvinism played an important role in the republican revolts in England and the Netherlands. Like

12780-407: The last foreign troops evacuated the Rhineland on 30 June 1930. The treaty's disarmament provisions were intended to make the future German army incapable of offensive action. It was limited to no more than 100,000 men with only 4,000 officers and no general staff; the navy could have at most 15,000 men and 1,500 officers. The Rhineland was to be demilitarized and occupied and all fortifications in

12922-496: The late Middle Ages, writers such as Giovanni Villani described these states using terms such as libertas populi , a free people. The terminology changed in the 15th century as the renewed interest in the writings of Ancient Rome caused writers to prefer classical terminology. To describe non-monarchical states, writers (most importantly, Leonardo Bruni ) adopted the Latin phrase res publica . While Bruni and Machiavelli used

13064-593: The limited and decentralized monarchies that had existed in most of the Middle Ages. It also saw a reaction against the total control of the monarch as a series of writers created the ideology known as liberalism . Most of these Enlightenment thinkers were far more interested in ideas of constitutional monarchy than in republics. The Cromwell regime had discredited republicanism, and most thinkers felt that republics ended in either anarchy or tyranny . Thus philosophers like Voltaire opposed absolutism while at

13206-525: The mid-1920s, most Germans referred to their government informally as the Deutsche Republik , but for many, especially on the right, the word " Republik " was a painful reminder of a government structure that they believed had been imposed by foreign statesmen and of the expulsion of Emperor Wilhelm II in the wake of a massive national humiliation. The first recorded mention of the term Republik von Weimar (Republic of Weimar) came during

13348-571: The model it had for its earlier settler colonies of creating independent Commonwealth realms still linked under the same monarch. While most of the settler colonies and the smaller states in the Caribbean and the Pacific retained this system, it was rejected by the newly independent countries in Africa and Asia , which revised their constitutions and became republics instead. Britain followed

13490-553: The modern word republic sometimes does. One of Plato 's major works on political philosophy, usually known in English as The Republic , was titled Politeia . However, apart from the title, modern translations are generally used. Aristotle was apparently the first classical writer to state that the term politeia can be used to refer more specifically to one type of politeia , asserting in Book III of his Politics : "When

13632-487: The monarch's branding of those requesting redress as traitors, and his support for sending combat troops to demonstrate authority resulted in widespread perception of the British monarchy as tyrannical . With the United States Declaration of Independence the leaders of the revolt firmly rejected the monarchy and embraced republicanism. The leaders of the revolution were well-versed in the writings of

13774-511: The new Chancellor broad power to act outside parliamentary control. Hitler promptly used these powers to thwart constitutional governance and suspend civil liberties, which brought about the swift collapse of democracy at the federal and state level, and the creation of a one-party dictatorship under his leadership. Until the end of World War II in Europe in 1945, the Nazis governed Germany under

13916-471: The new Tondern district. The seaside bathing town of Westerland gradually grew in popularity. The west coast railway already ran from Altona by way of Husum and Niebüll to Tønder (then also in Germany and called Tondern). From here, the tracks were extended to the port at the Hoyerschleuse, whence paddlesteamers ran to Munkmarsch harbour on Sylt. The connection was at the tide's mercy, and in winter,

14058-529: The new government was confirmed by the Berlin Workers' and Soldiers' Council, it was opposed by the Spartacus League. On 11 November 1918, an armistice was signed at Compiègne by German representatives. It effectively ended military operations between the Allies and Germany. It amounted to a German capitulation, without any concessions by the Allies; the naval blockade was to continue until complete peace terms were agreed on. The Executive Council of

14200-565: The next five years; this period, sometimes known as the Golden Twenties , was characterised by significant cultural flourishing, social progress, and gradual improvement in foreign relations. Under the Locarno Treaties of 1925, Germany moved toward normalising relations with its neighbours, recognising most territorial changes under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles and committing never to go to war. The following year, it joined

14342-399: The officer corps, while Groener pledged that the military would be loyal to the government and that it would help it in its fight against left-wing revolutionaries. The agreement marked the acceptance of the new government by the military, but the new Reichswehr armed forces, limited by the Treaty of Versailles to 100,000 army soldiers and 15,000 sailors, remained fully under the control of

14484-484: The only republics in Europe. This changed when, after the 1908 Lisbon Regicide , the 5 October 1910 revolution established the Portuguese Republic . In East Asia, China had seen considerable anti-Qing sentiment during the 19th century, and a number of protest movements developed calling for constitutional monarchy. The most important leader of these efforts was Sun Yat-sen , whose Three Principles of

14626-463: The period around Gautama Buddha , had the assembly open to all men, rich and poor. Early republics or gaṇasaṅgha , such as Mallakas, centered in the city of Kusinagara , and the Vajjika (or Vṛjika) League, centered in the city of Vaishali , existed as early as the 6th century BC and persisted in some areas until the 4th century AD. The most famous clan amongst the ruling confederate clans of

14768-678: The political spectrum, from the far right to the moderate governing parties to the KPD. After the treaty came into force, the Foreign Office continued the state's control of the debate over war guilt. The War Guilt Department financed and directed the Centre for the Study of the Causes of the War , which was to provide "scientific" support for the "campaign of innocence" abroad. For war-innocence propaganda at home,

14910-962: The populace had the right to reject unjust governments that had lost the Mandate of Heaven . During this period, two short-lived republics were proclaimed in East Asia; the Republic of Formosa and the First Philippine Republic . Republicanism expanded significantly in the aftermath of World War I when several of the largest European empires collapsed: the Russian Empire (1917), German Empire (1918), Austro-Hungarian Empire (1918), and Ottoman Empire (1922) were all replaced by republics. New states gained independence during this turmoil, and many of these, such as Ireland , Poland , Finland and Czechoslovakia , chose republican forms of government. Following Greece's defeat in

15052-478: The population had begun to crumble in 1916, and by mid-1918 many Germans wanted an end to the war. Increasing numbers of them began to associate with the political left, such as the Social Democratic Party and the more radical Independent Social Democratic Party , which demanded an end to the war. When it became obvious to the generals that defeat was at hand, General Erich Ludendorff convinced

15194-530: The power to elect magistrates from the populace and pass laws; and a series of magistracies with varying types of civil and political authority. Most often a republic is a single sovereign state , but there are also subnational state entities that are referred to as republics, or that have governments that are described as republican in nature. The term originates from the Latin translation of Greek word politeia . Cicero , among other Latin writers, translated politeia into Latin as res publica , and it

15336-496: The pretense that all the extraordinary measures and laws they implemented were constitutional; notably, there was never an attempt to replace or substantially amend the Weimar constitution . Nevertheless, Hitler's seizure of power ( Machtergreifung ) had effectively ended the republic, replacing its constitutional framework with Führerprinzip , the principle that "the Führer's word is above all written law". The Weimar Republic

15478-491: The regular army dead. The USPD leaders were angered by what they believed was treachery by the MSPD, which in their view had joined with the anti-communist military to suppress the revolution. As a result, the USPD left the Council of the People's Deputies after only seven weeks. On 30 December, the split deepened when the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) was formed out of a number of radical left-wing groups, including

15620-617: The regular army. The fall of the Munich Soviet Republic to these units, many of which were on the extreme right, resulted in the growth of far-right, antisemitic movements and organisations in Bavaria , including Organisation Consul , the Nazi Party , and societies of exiled Russian monarchists. Revolutionary sentiment also arose in the eastern states where interethnic discontent between Germans and minority Poles led to

15762-535: The representatives of all the anti-fascist forces that contributed to the defeat of Nazi and Fascist forces during the liberation of Italy . In the years following World War II , most of the remaining European colonies gained their independence, and most became republics. The two largest colonial powers were France and the United Kingdom. Republican France encouraged the establishment of republics in its former colonies. The United Kingdom attempted to follow

15904-609: The republics were conquered by Muscovy / Russia at the end of 15th – beginning of 16th century. Following the collapse of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum and establishment of the Turkish Anatolian Beyliks , the Ahiler merchant fraternities established a state centered on Ankara that is sometimes compared to the Italian mercantile republics. The dominant form of government for these early republics

16046-443: The right of representation and the process of election. The term developed its modern meaning in reference to the constitution of the ancient Roman Republic , lasting from the overthrow of the kings in 509 BC to the establishment of the Empire in 27 BC. This constitution was characterized by a Senate composed of wealthy aristocrats wielding significant influence; several popular assemblies of all free citizens, possessing

16188-423: The right of the spectrum, the politically engaged rejected the new democratic model and were appalled to see the honour of the traditional word Reich associated with it. The Catholic Centre Party favoured the term Deutscher Volksstaat (German People's State), while on the moderate left, Chancellor Friedrich Ebert 's Social Democratic Party of Germany preferred Deutsche Republik (German Republic). By

16330-500: The same time being strongly pro-monarchy. Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Montesquieu praised republics, and looked on the city-states of Greece as a model. However, both also felt that a state like France, with 20 million people, would be impossible to govern as a republic. Rousseau admired the republican experiment in Corsica (1755–1769) and described his ideal political structure of small, self-governing communes. Montesquieu felt that

16472-601: The single-tracked stretches of the line (between Niebüll and Klanxbüll and between Morsum and Westerland ) were to be extended to double-track. However, these rumours proved to be false. Work started in 2008 at the Lehnshallig crossover merely had the purpose of replacing old equipment. Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic , officially known as the German Reich , was a historical period of Germany from 9 November 1918 to 23 March 1933, during which it

16614-598: The socialist movement, which represented mostly labourers, was split among two major left-wing parties: the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD), which called for immediate peace negotiations and favoured a soviet-style command economy, and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), also known as the Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany (MSPD), which had supported the war and favoured

16756-489: The task of writing a democratic constitution for a parliamentary government. To ensure that the fledgling government maintained control over the country, Ebert and General Wilhelm Groener , Ludendorff's successor as leader of the Supreme Army Command (OHL), concluded the secret Ebert–Groener pact on 10 November. Over the telephone, Ebert promised that he would allow sole command of the troops to remain with

16898-462: The term to describe the states of Northern Italy, which were not monarchies, the term res publica has a set of interrelated meanings in the original Latin. In subsequent centuries, the English word commonwealth came to be used as a translation of res publica , and its use in English was comparable to how the Romans used the term res publica . Notably, during The Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell

17040-461: The territorial losses especially angered the Germans. The treaty was reviled as a dictated rather than a negotiated peace. Philipp Scheidemann , then minister president of Germany, said to the Weimar National Assembly on 12 May 1919, "What hand should not wither that puts this fetter on itself and on us?" He resigned rather than accept the terms, but after the Allies threatened to resume hostilities,

17182-806: The towns of the Holy Roman Empire. Similar revolts occurred in Italy, notably the Ciompi Revolt in Florence. While the classical writers had been the primary ideological source for the republics of Italy, in Northern Europe, the Protestant Reformation would be used as justification for establishing new republics. Most important was Calvinist theology, which developed in the Swiss Confederacy, one of

17324-852: The war because the reality contrasted so starkly with their expectations. Immediate post-war industrial production fell to the levels of the 1880s, or 57 percent of its value in 1913. The 1919 per capita GDP was only 73 percent of the comparable 1913 figure. Controlled demobilisation kept unemployment initially at around one million. By January 1922, the unemployment rate had sunk to just 0.9%, but inflation caused most workers' real wages to be significantly lower than they were in 1913. The hyperinflation that peaked in late 1923 had its worst effects on government workers, whose wages did not keep pace with private sector workers, and on middle class Germans who had invested in war bonds or who relied on savings, investments or pensions for their living. What had once been substantial savings became essentially worthless due to

17466-445: The word commonwealth was the most common term to call the new monarchless state, but the word republic was also in common use. At the present time, the term republic commonly means a system of government which derives its power from the people rather than from another basis, such as heredity or divine right . While the philosophical terminology developed in classical Greece and Rome , as already noted by Aristotle there

17608-536: The word democracy at the time of the 3rd century BC and later suffered from degradation and could mean any autonomous state, no matter how aristocratic in nature. Key characteristics of the gaṇa seem to include a gaṇa mukhya (chief), and a deliberative assembly. The assembly met regularly. It discussed all major state decisions. At least in some states, attendance was open to all free men. This body also had full financial, administrative, and judicial authority. Other officers, who rarely receive any mention, obeyed

17750-664: The world, the final Allied offensive began in August 1918, and the position of Germany and the Central Powers deteriorated, leading them to sue for peace. After initial offers were rejected by the Allied Powers, the hunger and privation of the war years came together with the awareness of an impending military defeat to help spark the German Revolution . On 9 November 1918, a republic was proclaimed , and

17892-522: Was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclaimed itself, as the German Republic . The period's informal name is derived from the city of Weimar , which hosted the constituent assembly that established its government. In English, the republic was usually simply called "Germany", with "Weimar Republic" (a term introduced by Adolf Hitler in 1929) not commonly used until

18034-651: Was already a long history of city states with a wide variety of constitutions, not only in Greece but also in the Middle East . After the classical period, during the Middle Ages , many free cities developed again, such as Venice . The modern type of republic itself is different from any type of state found in the classical world. Nevertheless, there are a number of states of the classical era that are today still called republics. This includes ancient Athens and

18176-541: Was also not republican at its outset. Only after the Flight to Varennes removed most of the remaining sympathy for the king was a republic declared and Louis XVI sent to the guillotine. The stunning success of France in the French Revolutionary Wars saw republics spread by force of arms across much of Europe as a series of client republics were set up across the continent. The rise of Napoleon saw

18318-704: Was ceded to the Allied powers, and Danzig went to the League of Nations as the Free City of Danzig . The Polish Corridor left East Prussia physically separated from the rest of Germany. Under the terms of both the Armistice of 1918 and of the Treaty of Versailles, French, British, Belgian and American troops occupied the Rhineland , the area of Germany on the west bank of the Rhine river , together with bridgeheads on

18460-484: Was control by a limited council of elite patricians . In those areas that held elections, property qualifications or guild membership limited both who could vote and who could run. In many states no direct elections were held and council members were hereditary or appointed by the existing council. This left the great majority of the population without political power, and riots and revolts by the lower classes were common. The late Middle Ages saw more than 200 such risings in

18602-534: Was created as the Napoleonic Wars allowed the states of Latin America to gain their independence. Liberal ideology had only a limited impact on these new republics. The main impetus was the local European-descended Creole population in conflict with the Peninsulares —governors sent from overseas. The majority of the population in most of Latin America was of either African or Amerindian descent, and

18744-576: Was created in 1848 but abolished by Napoleon III who proclaimed himself Emperor in 1852. The French Third Republic was established in 1870 when a civil revolutionary committee refused to accept Napoleon III's surrender during the Franco-Prussian War . Spain briefly became the First Spanish Republic in 1873–74, but the monarchy was soon restored. By the start of the 20th century France, Switzerland and San Marino remained

18886-402: Was established in 930 AD by refugees from Norway who had fled the unification of that country under King Harald Fairhair . The Commonwealth consisted of a number of clans run by chieftains, and the Althing was a combination of parliament and supreme court where disputes appealed from lower courts were settled, laws were decided, and decisions of national importance were taken. One such example

19028-520: Was finally begun by Philipp Holzmann in 1925. Early in the construction, a storm flood swept away what had already been built. After this experience, it was decided to realign the causeway's route somewhat more towards the north. A trenchlike cofferdam was built to facilitate construction. 1,000-1,500 workers were employed on the project. In the two years that it took to build the causeway, more than 3 million cubic metres (4 million cu. yd.) of sand and clay were moved, and 120,000 tonnes of stones used. It

19170-436: Was in turn translated by Renaissance scholars as republic (or similar terms in various European languages). The term can literally be translated as 'public matter'. It was used by Roman writers to refer to the state and government, even during the period of the Roman Empire . The term politeia can be translated as form of government , polity , or regime , and it does not necessarily imply any specific type of regime as

19312-413: Was opened on 1 June 1927. The auto-train car shuttle train terminal in Niebüll is connected to the Autobahnen in Schleswig-Holstein by Federal Highways ( Bundesstraßen ) B5 and B199. On 3 September 2009, there was a fatal accident on the Hindenburgdamm when a squall blew a truck off a flatcar in one of the auto-trains. The driver was thrown out of the truck and died at the accident scene. In

19454-430: Was put under the control of the League of Nations for 15 years, and the output of the area's coal mines went to France. Alsace–Lorraine , which Prussia had annexed following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, once again became French. The northern part of Schleswig-Holstein went to Denmark following a plebiscite. In the east, a significant amount of territory was lost to a restored Poland . The Memel Territory

19596-440: Was short-lived, and the monarchy was soon restored. The Dutch Republic continued in name until 1795, but by the mid-18th century the stadtholder had become a de facto monarch. Calvinists were also some of the earliest settlers of the British and Dutch colonies of North America. Along with these initial republican revolts, early modern Europe also saw a great increase in monarchical power. The era of absolute monarchy replaced

19738-437: Was spread by the Right throughout the 1920s and ensured that many monarchists and conservatives would refuse to support the government of what they called the "November criminals". The destabilising effect of the stab-in-the-back myth on the Weimar democracy was an important factor in the rise of National Socialism . On 29 October 1918, a rebellion broke out among sailors at Wilhelmshaven ; similar unrest then spread to become

19880-413: Was the Christianisation of Iceland in 1000, where the Althing decreed that all Icelanders must be baptized into Christianity, and forbade celebration of pagan rituals. Contrary to most states, the Icelandic Commonwealth had no official leader. In the early 13th century, the Age of the Sturlungs , the Commonwealth began to suffer from long conflicts between warring clans. This, combined with pressure from

20022-449: Was the unified armed forces of the Nazi regime. Germany and the Central Powers fought the Allies of WWI between 28 July 1914 and 11 November 1918. The war ended with 20 million military and civilian deaths, including 2,037,000 German soldiers and from 424,000 to 763,000 civilians, many of them from disease and starvation as a result of the Allied blockade of Germany . After four years of war on multiple fronts in Europe and around

20164-407: Was used until being replaced by the Nazi Reichsadler in 1935, and readopted by the Federal Republic of Germany in 1950. Following Germany's defeat in World War I, several million soldiers of the Imperial German Army either simply dispersed on their own or were formally demobilized. The provisional civilian government and the Supreme Army Command (OHL) planned to transfer the remaining units to

#9990