Matthew Rosenthal D Band AP Euro.

DBQ German Civil Peace Civil peace in Germany was the idea that, for the duration of the war, any prewar conflicts among Germans would cease, and the German civilians would unite, bearing in mind interests of either defending the country or interests to better their own specific factions. There were many views towards this idea of civil peace, usually having to generally be pro or con on the idea. Those who were all for the idea of civil peace either had romanticnationalistic ideals in mind (wanting to keep the peace and win the war for beloved Germany), imperative-nationalistic ideals in mind (you are fighting for Germany because you must, and because it is stupid to do otherwise), or had kept in mind the ideals of specific groups that certain people belonged to (labor groups, womens rights advocates, and the Social Democratic Party). However, these ideas had quickly changed throughout the course of WWI, and just as there were people advocating the civil peace, there were also those who discouraged; either it was bad for the economy, as there were shortages of food and increasing labor hardships, or the government did not even support the ideas and rights of the people who were at home keeping score and watching those out on the front lines. When civil peace was first introduced in Germany at the beginning of World War I, it was welcomed with much praise by the nationalistic people of Germany. In fact, the ideas of civil peace allowed Germans to romanticize their country in a new and promising way. As in Doc 1, Emperor William II of Germany claims that if the Germans stand together, then God will guide the German sword to victory! The German Emperor claims to see no more separated political parties as he envisions the German people fighting together as brothers. This romantic vision of a unified Germany was received well at first, and if we look at Doc 2, we see that the German people advocate the idea. Doc 2 is a photograph of a huge number of German people standing to together and rejoicing (many of them have their hats raised in the air). This is a

Matthew Rosenthal D Band AP Euro. DBQ German Civil Peace picture of the 40,000 people that attended Emperor William IIs speech on civil peace on August 1, 1914. Both document 1 and document 2 together portray the romantic feelings towards Germany at the beginning of the war. However, in Germany, civil peace was advocated in another way, by a more martial nationalism; Germany would almost enforce the idea upon the citizens. A good example of this is in Doc 6, by Oskar Schmitz, a member of the Pan-German League. Schmitz criticizes specifically those who did not support the idea of civil peace simply by saying Other opinions are not allowed. He believed that the best individuals in Germany would support the war (and by extension, civil peace) and if you did not support these causes, then your opinion would not be valued. Although this way of thinking is similar to the previous argument (Germany civil peace should be supported), the way people go about it is different. This is more along the lines of a dictatorship, you MUST support the war or else you are not the best. Oskar Schmitzs opinion on this matter would be affected just by the organization he belongs to. Because he was in the Pan-German League, he obviously would advocate civil peace and to that end, would shun anyone who did not. Doc 11 presents the same idea but just spoken by a different person, General Wilhelm Groener. He claims that those who dont support the civil peace during the time of war are stinking dogs. His opening sentence is Who dares not work when Supreme Commander Hindenburg commands? The emphasis is on his words who dares not work He is suggesting that it is wrong if you dont support the war and civil peace and therefore is implying a more dictator-like view towards civil peace. Civil peace was supported in one other way, by those who only supported it to benefit their own factions or parties in Germany. The first example of this is in Doc 3, a section in the

Matthew Rosenthal D Band AP Euro. DBQ German Civil Peace Social Democratic Party newspaper. It claims that this party (SDP) would not itself be extinguished at the moment. So its intentions are clear, the Social Democratic Party supported the war because they wanted to survive and possibly come out on top. The rationality behind it is if Germany lost the war, the Social Democratic Party may not even have a place to operate from. It protected its own interests just like a few other groups in Germany. Another group that did the same was The League of German Womens Movements, which was shown in Doc 4. This party stresses the victory over not only the war, but also over the economic and MORAL danger within. Of course Helen Simon, the writer of this section, would feel this way. She is a womens rights advocate, and for that reason she would support the war so her group (League of German Womens Movements) could gain more respect and possibly help the fight for womens rights. However, not all parties in Germany supported the war and civil peace. In fact, a few years after the previous documents, was a police report by radical labor leaders. This is shown in Doc 10, and it is definitely not in support of the war. This group wanted certain working rights, like the right to protest/gather, and also wanted to be provided sufficient food through state control (rationing). The report explicitly states that this radical labor group wants to End the war without seeking damages or conquests. This group would tend to feel this way because the workers were being used for a war that was returning nothing: in fact, food shortages and higher prices only made it worse. Doc 12 is yet another one that shows the disinterest of the different classes in working with each other. These different groups, the high class, lower middle class, and the working class all had their own interests and doc 12 is a perfect example of this. A couple of years into the war and the ideas towards civil peace had changed; people believed that the government did little in terms of supporting Germanys peoples rights and ideals. As stated before, doc 10 presents a clear idea of how the conditions were like for workers.

Matthew Rosenthal D Band AP Euro. DBQ German Civil Peace Throughout the war, they wanted more food and more working rights and had to protest to even get noticed. Doc 5 supports the idea of the unwanted war as the writer, a columnist of a liberal newspaper writes, It is simply not true that the proclamation of war brought forth a rush of enthusiasm among the Berlin population. The document was written 10 years after the war began,
and the writer of the column could have gotten his ideas looking in retrospect at the war. The liberals in Germany tended to vouch against the war, and when the columnist of this newspaper reflected on Germanys defeat, he wrote how the people did not all want the war to happen. He claims that only a small group of people, usually those who were very youthful, sang the ideas of the Pan-German League. Doc 7 is the angry cry of a soldier in the trenches during the war (notice how the quote was posted in yet another liberal newspaper). The soldier is angry that the higher ups in Germany exploit the soldiers at war for their own gains. There hasnt been any attention paid to the children and women at home keeping the home fires burning, and they have been just treated unfairly. There were food shortages and high prices in Germany at the time of war, and the soldier believes it is unfair to fight in a war that wont even allow the citizens to live peacefully. In this way, the soldier was against the war and the idea of a civil peace. The final way that the attitudes of civil peace in Germany had changed and were portrayed throughout WWI was that the combination of the war and civil peace affected the economy in a bad way. Doc 9 is a report by a military administrator in a rural province. The people working in the rural areas are being affected by the war just as much as those in urban areas. They feel the effects of the war and the higher ups reaping the benefits of the war. The food shortages and low economy can explain why workers on the farms, according to doc 9, were mostly prisoners of war. The economy was bad and the higher class was feeding off of the lower class during the war time. Doc 8 is another one that portrays the unfair conditions for citizens during the war. A woman quotes, Wed rather fight for a

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more just division of the goods of this Earth. As can be seen and is protested by civilians later on in the war (after it first started) the conditions are so bad and the state is doing little about it. It just continues to send in the troops and destroy the economy. Even a soldier, as stated before in doc 7, angrily cries against the unjust increase in prices and the shortage of food. The problem is that the war Germany was fighting was returning nothing, they were losing! However, the state greedily sent in more men and continued to cut the economy away from the civilians behind the front lines.