I think you’re a little too harsh on the Weimar republic. You’re right that it fell to the Nazis eventually, but until 1933 it was the most progressive time that Germany had experienced up to this point. Of course, the system was littered with exploits since it was Germany’s first attempt at democracy, it was filled to the brim with corrupt conservatives and nationalists who wanted it to fail, and it was doomed from the start because of Britain’s and France’s high demands for reparations after the war, but in some places (labour, religion, sexual) it still had better laws than the FRG; and because the Nazis hadn’t gone to work on it yet, it was actually the main cultural and academic superpower in the world, having spawned both quantum mechanics, relativistic cosmology, and modern theatre.
‘Weimar Republic was progressive’ is a propaganda take by Germany to make them feel like the nazis happened in isolation. Your understanding of the Weimar Republic isn’t materialist. Rather than talk about quantum mechanics which had no impact on the workers, you could talk about how the SPD killed Karl and Rosa and wiping out communists to make sure that there was no chance of a workers state. And look what it led to… So anyway I would say I’m not being hard on the Weimar Republic
I am not saying Weimar was absolutely progressive, just by German standards. In German history, the 1920s Weimar state wasn’t exceptional in its hatred of communism and its infiltration by fascists in the military and the secret service. However, I think the difference is that communists were a greater threat to the system than ever before or since, and they managed to achieve things in Weimar which wouldn’t be thinkable in Western Germany until many decades after the Nazis: In terms of labour, workers in the Weimar republic had won the right to only work five 8-hour-days a week, a right that wasn’t won back in the West until 1994, the same year in which homosexuality was relegalised (which was legal in Weimar to begin with). In terms of religion, the Reichskonkordat established between the Catholic church and the Nazis is still valid to this day, which is why German pupils still are forced to attend religious education, the church can still levy its own taxes, and church properties still enjoy special protection.
I think you’re a little too harsh on the Weimar republic. You’re right that it fell to the Nazis eventually, but until 1933 it was the most progressive time that Germany had experienced up to this point. Of course, the system was littered with exploits since it was Germany’s first attempt at democracy, it was filled to the brim with corrupt conservatives and nationalists who wanted it to fail, and it was doomed from the start because of Britain’s and France’s high demands for reparations after the war, but in some places (labour, religion, sexual) it still had better laws than the FRG; and because the Nazis hadn’t gone to work on it yet, it was actually the main cultural and academic superpower in the world, having spawned both quantum mechanics, relativistic cosmology, and modern theatre.
‘Weimar Republic was progressive’ is a propaganda take by Germany to make them feel like the nazis happened in isolation. Your understanding of the Weimar Republic isn’t materialist. Rather than talk about quantum mechanics which had no impact on the workers, you could talk about how the SPD killed Karl and Rosa and wiping out communists to make sure that there was no chance of a workers state. And look what it led to… So anyway I would say I’m not being hard on the Weimar Republic
I am not saying Weimar was absolutely progressive, just by German standards. In German history, the 1920s Weimar state wasn’t exceptional in its hatred of communism and its infiltration by fascists in the military and the secret service. However, I think the difference is that communists were a greater threat to the system than ever before or since, and they managed to achieve things in Weimar which wouldn’t be thinkable in Western Germany until many decades after the Nazis: In terms of labour, workers in the Weimar republic had won the right to only work five 8-hour-days a week, a right that wasn’t won back in the West until 1994, the same year in which homosexuality was relegalised (which was legal in Weimar to begin with). In terms of religion, the Reichskonkordat established between the Catholic church and the Nazis is still valid to this day, which is why German pupils still are forced to attend religious education, the church can still levy its own taxes, and church properties still enjoy special protection.