Political Life in Germany Between 1871 and 1933 Essay

Political Life in Germany Between 1871 and 1933 - Essay Example Social structures move beyond political party affiliations where continuity of organizations of parties ceased to exist alongside social cleavages persistence, which were overtaken by group ties based on common interests. This is based on the fact that attainment of group interests is not evidently achieved from particular political parties, but the social segments linking individuals with common interests such as living standards. German segmented society can be clearly linked to group ties with political interests that existed between 1871 and 1933. Political Life in Germany between 1971 and 1933 The German economy was modernized by the industrial revolution, which resulted in expansion and development of cities alongside the rise of the socialist movement. The city of Berlin developed significantly, with Prussia becoming powerful. However, Germans had deviant behavior to modernity that put into consideration concepts of political conduct and peasantry in general. The resistance to modernity could also be attached to moral image that German conservatisms had towards modernity in the nineteenth century. German peasants were loyal to their political behavior that was attached to pre-industrial norms, traditionalism, and their unwillingness and inability to embrace transformation processes of the German society1 (Evans & Lee 15). In 1871, the region unified to be led by Otto Bismarck, the German Chancellor, thus characterizing German empire formulation. Bismark’s leadership to the German empire went on to embrace expansion of the naval race and her colonies with its economy growing to match Britain’s economy by 1900. However, its growth was brought down by its participation against powerful countries such Britain in the World War I, after which it was striped of colonies and forced to pay back for war costs. This is the result of the German empire revolution, with Weimar republic coming to power and unstable democracy being rapid in parliament. The global great depression was severely felt in the German economy in1930s, with standards of living reaching unbearable levels and unemployment being the order of the day. The German society felt pressurized by the economic situation and began to lose confidence in the then government. Common interests against the government with respect to the unemployment and rising living standards largely contributed the establishment of the Nazis power and totalitarian regime under Adolf Hitler in 1933. The totalitarian regime was characterized with massive killing and imprisonment of political opponents, with the regime adopting aggressive foreign policies that initiated the Second World War. These interactions of economic constraints, social structure interests, and political interests have characterized the wave of political disparities in Germany in the first half of the twentieth and second half of the nineteenth century. With respect to the second half of th