Made in Germany - p. II (Italian Edition)

Causes of World War II

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The most dramatic and most significant reversal of German fortunes came, however, on the eastern front. The sheer scale of the conflict between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army dwarfed anything seen anywhere else during the second world war.

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From 22 June , the day of the German invasion, there was never a point at which less than two-thirds of the German armed forces were engaged on the eastern front. Deaths on the eastern front numbered more than in all the other theatres of war put together, including the Pacific.

But it did not. On the contrary, Stalin's patriotic appeals to his people helped rally them to fight in the "great patriotic war", spurred on by horror at the murderous brutality of the German occupation. More than three million Soviet prisoners of war were deliberately left to die of starvation and disease in makeshift camps. Civilians were drafted into forced labour, villages were burned to the ground, towns reduced to rubble.

More than one million people died in the siege of Leningrad; but it did not fall. Soviet reserves of manpower and resources were seemingly inexhaustible. In a vast effort, major arms and munitions factories had been dismantled and transported to safety east of the Urals. Here they began to pour out increasing quantities of military hardware, including the terrifying "Stalin organ", the Katyusha rocket-launcher. Already in December , Japan's entry into the war, and its consequent preoccupation with campaigns in the Pacific, allowed Stalin to move large quantities of men and equipment to the west, where they brought the German advance to a halt before Moscow.

Causes of World War II - Wikipedia

Unprepared for a winter war, poorly clad, and exhausted from months of rapid advance and bitter fighting, the German forces had to abandon the idea of taking the Russian capital. A whole string of generals succumbed to heart attacks or nervous exhaustion, and were replaced; Hitler himself took over as commander-in-chief of the army. Hitler had already weakened the thrust towards Moscow by diverting forces to take the grainfields of the Ukraine and push on to the Crimea. For much of , this tactic seemed to be succeeding. German forces took the Crimea and advanced towards the oilfields of the Caucasus.

Here again, acquiring new supplies of fuel to replenish Germany's dwindling stocks was the imperative. But Soviet generals had begun to learn how to co-ordinate tanks, infantry and air power and to avoid encirclement by tactical withdrawals. The German forces were already dangerously short of reserves and supplies when they reached the city of Stalingrad on the river Volga, in August Three months later, they had still not taken the city.

Stalingrad became the object of a titanic struggle between the Germans and the Soviets, less because of its strategic importance than because of its name. Short of fuel and ammunition, the Germans under General Paulus were unable to break out. As one airfield after another was captured by the Red Army, supplies ran out and the German troops began to starve to death.

On 31 January , refusing the invitation to commit suicide that came with Hitler's gift of a field marshal's baton, Paulus surrendered. Some , German and allied troops were captured; more than , had been killed. It was the turning point of the war. From this moment on, the German armies were more or less continuously in retreat on the eastern front.

The Red Army around Stalingrad was threatening to cut off the German forces in the Caucasus, so they were forced to withdraw, abandoning their attempt to secure the region's oil reserves. In early July came the last great German counter-attack, at Kursk. This was the greatest land battle in history, involving more than four million troops, 13, tanks and self-propelled guns, and 12, combat aircraft.

Warned of the attack in advance, the Red Army had prepared defences in depth, which the Germans only managed partially to penetrate. The local party commissar, Nikita Khrushchev, covered up this disaster by persuading Stalin that they had been destroyed in a huge battle that had eliminated more than German tanks and won a heroic victory. The legend of "the greatest tank battle in history" was born. In fact it was nothing of the kind. So enormous were the Russian reserves that the loss of the tanks made little difference in the end, as fresh troops and armour were moved in to rescue the situation.

In the document, the Germans agreed to a ceasefire and surrender of all the forces under the command of Vietinghoff at 2pm on 2 May.

Accordingly, after some bitter wrangling between Wolff and Albert Kesselring in the early hours of 2 May, nearly 1,, men in Italy and Austria surrendered unconditionally to British Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander at 2pm on 2 May. German forces in Berlin surrender: The Battle of Berlin ended on 2 May. The number of German land, sea and air forces involved in this surrender amounted to 1,, men. German forces in Bavaria surrender: Devers , commander of the American 6th Army Group. On 5 May , the Czech resistance started the Prague uprising.

The following day, the Soviets launched the Prague Offensive. In Dresden , Gauleiter Martin Mutschmann let it be known that a large-scale German offensive on the Eastern Front was about to be launched. Within two days, Mutschmann abandoned the city, but was captured by Soviet troops while trying to escape. He was by this time the most powerful Nazi official still alive. German forces in Breslau surrender: Jodl and Keitel surrender all German armed forces unconditionally: This was exactly the same negotiating position that von Friedeburg had initially made to Montgomery, and like Montgomery the Supreme Allied Commander , General Dwight D.

Eisenhower , threatened to break off all negotiations unless the Germans agreed to a complete unconditional surrender to all the Allies on all fronts. It included the phrase "All forces under German control to cease active operations at hours Central European Time on May 8, German forces on the Channel Islands surrender: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a radio broadcast at News of the imminent surrender broke in the West on 8 May, and celebrations erupted throughout Europe and parts of the British Empire.

German units cease fire: The other forces which did not surrender on 8 May surrendered piecemeal:. On 12 May an Allied liaison team arrived in Flensburg and took quarters aboard the passenger ship Patria. The liaison officers and the Supreme Allied Headquarters soon realized that they had no need to act through the Flensburg government and that its members should be arrested.

The Allies had a problem, because they realized that although the German armed forces had surrendered unconditionally, SHAEF had failed to use the document created by the " European Advisory Commission " EAC and so there had been no formal surrender by the civilian German government. This was considered a very important issue, because just as the civilian, but not military, surrender in had been used by Hitler to create the " stab in the back " argument, the Allies did not want to give any future hostile German regime a legal argument to resurrect an old quarrel.

Truman on 10 May This was part of the post-war economic plan that advocated how the Allied occupation would include measures to prevent Germany from waging further war by eliminating its armament industry, and the removal or destruction of other key industries required for military strength. This included the removal or destruction of all industrial plants and equipment in the Ruhr. It included the following:.

The Governments of the United States of America, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom and the Provisional Government of the French Republic, hereby assume supreme authority with respect to Germany, including all the powers possessed by the German Government, the High Command and any state, municipal, or local government or authority. The assumption, for the purposes stated above, of the said authority and powers does not effect [a] the annexation of Germany. It is disputed whether this assumption of power constituted debellation —the end of a war caused by the complete destruction of a hostile state.

Economic integration, especially increased national consciousness among the German states, made political unity a far likelier scenario. Germany finally began exhibiting all the features of a proto-nation.

Marx and Engels , in their analysis of the abortive Revolutions, defined such a coalition: While relative stability was maintained until , with enough bourgeois elements still content to exchange the "right to rule for the right to make money", the landed upper class found its economic base sinking. While the Zollverein brought economic progress and helped to keep the bourgeoisie at bay for a while, it increased the ranks of the middle class swiftly—the very social base for the nationalism and liberalism that the Prussian state sought to stem.

The Zollverein was a move toward economic integration, modern industrial capitalism, and the victory of centralism over localism, quickly bringing to an end the era of guilds in the small German princely states. This led to the revolt of the Silesian Weavers, who saw their livelihood destroyed by the flood of new manufactures. The Zollverein also weakened Austrian domination of the Confederation as economic unity increased the desire for political unity and nationalism. News of the Revolution in Paris quickly reached discontented bourgeois liberals, republicans and more radical working-men.

The first revolutionary uprisings in Germany began in the state of Baden in March Within a few days, there were revolutionary uprisings in other states including Austria, and finally in Prussia. On 15 March , the subjects of Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia vented their long-repressed political aspirations in violent rioting in Berlin, while barricades were erected in the streets of Paris. Friedrich Wilhelm gave in to the popular fury, and promised a constitution , a parliament, and support for German unification, safeguarding his own rule and regime. On 18 May, the Frankfurt Parliament Frankfurt Assembly opened its first session, with delegates from various German states.

It was immediately divided between those favoring a kleindeutsche small German or grossdeutsche greater German solution. The former favored offering the imperial crown to Prussia. The latter favored the Habsburg crown in Vienna, which would integrate Austria proper and Bohemia but not Hungary into the new Germany. From May to December, the Assembly eloquently debated academic topics while conservatives swiftly moved against the reformers.

As in Austria and Russia, this middle-class assertion increased authoritarian and reactionary sentiments among the landed upper class, whose economic position was declining. They turned to political levers to preserve their rule. As the Prussian army proved loyal, and the peasants were uninterested, Friedrich Wilhelm regained his confidence.

The Assembly issued its Declaration of the Rights of the German people , a constitution was drawn up excluding Austria, which openly rejected the Assembly , and the leadership of the Reich was offered to Friedrich Wilhelm , who refused to "pick up a crown from the gutter". Thousands of middle class liberals fled abroad, especially to the United States.

In , Friedrich Wilhelm proposed his own constitution. His document concentrated real power in the hands of the King and the upper classes, and called for a confederation of North German states—the Erfurt Union.

A new generation of statesmen responded to popular demands for national unity for their own ends, continuing Prussia's tradition of autocracy and reform from above. Germany found an able leader to accomplish the seemingly paradoxical task of conservative modernization. Bismarck told the Diet, "The great questions of the day are not decided by speeches and majority votes Gradually, Bismarck won over the middle class, reacting to the revolutionary sentiments expressed in by providing them with the economic opportunities for which the urban middle sectors had been fighting.

The German Confederation ended as a result of the Austro-Prussian War of between Austrian Empire and its allies on one side and the Kingdom of Prussia and its allies on the other. The Confederation had 34 members immediately before its dissolution. In the Prague peace treaty , on 23 August , Austria had to accept that the Confederation was dissolved.

Morgenthau Plan

The South German states were allowed to create a South German Confederation but this did not come into existence. Prussia created the North German Confederation in covering all German states north of the river Main and also the Hohenzollern territories in Swabia.

However, due to the successful prosecution of the Franco-German War , the four southern states joined the North German Confederation by treaty in November On 1 January , the Empire was declared by the presiding princes and generals in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles , near Paris. The current countries whose territory were partly or entirely located inside the boundaries of German Confederation — are:. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Coat of arms — Territory of member states outside of the confederation. Reichsthaler to Conventionsthaler to Vereinsthaler from List of states of the German Confederation. The neutrality of this section is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met.

January Learn how and when to remove this template message. Revolutions of in the German states. Consortium on Revolutionary Europe, — Journal of Modern History. Germany from Napoleon to Bismarck: The Economic Development of France and Germany: A Modern History of Europe. Revolution and Counter-Revolution", written mainly by Engels. Recent Works on the German Revolution of ". Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit Bismarck und das Reich. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart , p.

Why Hitler's grand plan during the second world war collapsed

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