The thanks of the fatherland: German veterans after the Second World War

German veterans never embraced the Weimar Republic, created out of the ruins of World War I. Former soldiers demanded a state that was militant, nationalist, and authoritarian, and their rejection of the new democratic Republic played a major role in its collapse and the Nazi rise to power. After Hi...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
1. Verfasser: Diehl, James M. (VerfasserIn)
Format: Buch
Sprache:English
Veröffentlicht: Chapel Hill [u.a.] Univ. of North Carolina Press 1993
Ausgabe:1. print.
Schlagworte:
Zusammenfassung:German veterans never embraced the Weimar Republic, created out of the ruins of World War I. Former soldiers demanded a state that was militant, nationalist, and authoritarian, and their rejection of the new democratic Republic played a major role in its collapse and the Nazi rise to power. After Hitler's defeat, German veterans again represented a source of social instability and a potential threat to democracy
Examining the activities of major veterans' groups, James Diehl shows why Bonn succeeded where Weimar had failed in defusing the threat of disgruntled veterans
Most accounts of veterans' activities in the Federal Republic have concentrated on the involvement of a minority of ex-soldiers in extremist and neo-Nazi movements. Diehl broadens the focus to provide a more comprehensive picture, treating veterans not only as a political factor but as a historical and social phenomenon as well. He has consulted extensive ministerial and organizational archives that became available to scholars only in the 198Os
Beschreibung:XII, 345 S.
ISBN:0807820776