Sunday, September 27, 2009
sept 21-29
One of the things that I find interesting about this course is reading about connections or building blocks to the National Socialist and the Nazi Germany. In David Blackbourn's "peasants and Politics In Germany" Blackbourn cites the peasant class' politics helped fuel the National Socialist Party and the Nazi's. The economic and social changes taking place in Germany seem to me to be a major reason the peasant class could get behind the National Socialist and Nazi's. Blackbourn wrote about the distrust the rural peasant class had fro the social changes taking place in the city. He stated the city was seen as a non-community and alienated the rural class with "latin names and complicated chemical formulae". The distance between rural and urban created a rural political alignment. When the national socialist were coming to power with a glorified image of these rural "salt of the earth" people as being distinctly "german" that it would seem to appeal to the peasant class. I find it interesting that distrust of modernization is a root in the foundation of a, despite being backward and socially archaic, a very modern government: the Nazi national socialists.
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I totally agree. This is my favorite part of the class; connecting the people who provided the "fuel" and gave rise to the later National Socialists. Blackbourn does a good job of presenting potential reasons for the base of the future Party. The disconnect between the politicians and the peasants is just a common theme that seems to constantly occur in German history. Blackbourn does a good job in showing the disconnect, but also the power the peasantry and lower middles classes had in affecting the political scene when they needed to get something done for themselves.
ReplyDeleteThis idea of rural vs. urban politics is nothing new; we continue to see it in our country today. One thing I find particulary interesting is that the peasants were seen as insignificant and powerless by the elites and those in power for so long... but in reality, when they eventually came together to better themselves and demand change, they suddenly became an untapped source of significant, political power, "fuel," that ultimately swayed the political control of the country to Hiltler and his party.
ReplyDeleteThe rise of the peasants and their ability to influence political developments in the 1890s foreshadows how increased political participation would change the rules of the political game. As we will start to see next week with Fritzsche's book, increased political participation sparks a re-imagining of politics and the nation in which the people themselves begin to demand a new relationship to the government and the nation.
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