Full Transcript for The World Turned Upside Down

society in the way that we think it should go. 00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:41.280 So, really, at this point in time, you've got two schools of thought. 00:02:41.280 --> 00:02:49.520 Everyone understands, or seems to understand, that the way things have been, the monarchs, the kings of the Middle Ages and of old, are going away. 00:02:49.520 --> 00:02:52.960 And it's time to modernize everyone's government. 00:02:52.960 --> 00:02:54.879 And so the two schools of thought are this. 00:02:54.879 --> 00:03:03.520 Well, fine, we get rid of the monarch, but we keep our government looking like, I guess, similar to what you would think of as a normal government. 00:03:03.520 --> 00:03:14.240 You have people have private property, you have laws, maybe a constitution, um, you have uh democracy, people vote, you know, who's gonna be in and what they're gonna do. 00:03:14.240 --> 00:03:21.599 The communists, however, saw their goal as a utopian society where there was no government. 00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:37.360 Everyone coexisted, everyone shared property, there was no personal property, and you know, they would have have done away with the institutions of marriage, for example, everyone would be equal, and that was their end goal. 00:03:37.360 --> 00:03:46.159 We needed to just cut ties to the past and and start implementing this more radical approach to this utopia that they wanted to build right then. 00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:48.639 So you had two factions, essentially. 00:03:48.639 --> 00:03:57.199 You have the the people that are progressive, yes, we're gonna get rid of the kings of old, but we're going to have a quote normal government. 00:03:57.199 --> 00:04:07.680 And the communists who said, no, no, no, we're going to just get rid of government completely, or we're going to do something else in order to jump us to this more utopian vision. 00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:09.360 We're going to get rid of private property. 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:11.039 And that was the division. 00:04:11.039 --> 00:04:21.040 And so up in Russia, you have the the Reds, those are the communists, fighting for taking over that, taking over the government and establishing their control. 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:24.399 And you had the whites, which were basically everybody else. 00:04:24.399 --> 00:04:26.800 They were the people that were like, no, no, no, we don't want to do that. 00:04:26.800 --> 00:04:36.639 When Kaiser Wilhelm decides to leave, so we'll talk about here in a second, Germany finds itself in the exact same situation. 00:04:36.639 --> 00:04:40.480 Uh they or the question is, well, what comes next? 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:41.439 Right. 00:04:41.439 --> 00:04:54.800 So the Russian Revolution took place in 1917, but by the end of um 1918 in November, it was obvious to most people in the world that Germany was going to lose the war. 00:04:54.800 --> 00:05:02.800 Um and there was increasing domestic unrest in Germany, and it was evident they weren't going to be able to turn things

around. 00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:09.759 Americans had sent troops to the Western Front, and they had no way to replenish their soldiers uh like that. 00:05:09.759 --> 00:05:18.240 Um Allied blockade had wreaked havoc on their food supplies, and so they were looking to see what's gonna come next for us. 00:05:18.240 --> 00:05:30.560 So they look over and see Russia, and you have a group of people there who called themselves the Spartacus League, the Spartacists. 00:05:30.879 --> 00:05:33.839 And the Spartacists were like, hey, we're we're gonna do the same thing. 00:05:34.240 --> 00:05:47.279 But what Germany had to look back on was they were only really a country for 50 years or so, and so they still had um a monarch, Kaiser Wilhelm, and um and then they'd had the parliament. 00:05:47.279 --> 00:05:56.240 But you know, it wasn't like they had 250 years of history to go back on and go back to this government that they were really entrenched in. 00:05:56.240 --> 00:05:58.240 So they knew they didn't want a monarch. 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:05.040 The Allies had said they weren't going to um engage in peace talks with Kaiser Wilhelm. 00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:09.040 Um, and so they were looking around to see what we are gonna do. 00:06:09.439 --> 00:06:12.800 And Wilhelm, he didn't really have a tr a lot of choice in this matter. 00:06:12.879 --> 00:06:29.759 He he left, but he didn't want to give up his people around him, his generals and like chancellors convinced him that Germany was gonna completely fall apart if he didn't, because like I said, the Allies weren't going to engage with him in peace talks. 00:06:29.759 --> 00:06:34.720 And if he stayed, there was going to be just an all-out civil war in Germany. 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:34.959 Right. 00:06:34.959 --> 00:06:38.879 Excusing himself from the whole picture reduced a lot of that. 00:06:39.199 --> 00:06:39.439 Right. 00:06:39.439 --> 00:06:41.680 So he noped out and went off to Holland. 00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:42.720 He was doing okay. 00:06:42.720 --> 00:06:53.519 He he was doing a lot better than his cousin, Nicholas II, had done, where the Bolsheviks basically placed him under house arrest and then moved him off to Siberia and then eventually uh dispatched him. 00:06:53.519 --> 00:06:55.839 But yes, so Wilhelm was okay. 00:06:55.839 --> 00:06:59.360 He he he got out and lived for years on afterwards. 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:04.319 But when he leaves, it really is a power vacuum. 00:07:04.319 --> 00:07:07.839 So you have all these pressures pushing on Germany. 00:07:07.839 --> 00:07:10.879 You have the war from the outside, which isn't settled yet. 00:07:10.879 --> 00:07:22.240 I mean, it's it is basically most people, not everyone, there's a whole there's a whole legend of like how Germany so could have won the war, and we can talk we'll talk about that later. 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:31.759 But the allies were pressuring from the outside, um, the conditions and problems inside were were creating

all kinds of social unrest on the inside. 00:07:31.759 --> 00:07:45.439 Uh the uh the king leaves, Kaiser hauls off and is out, and so the people taking over the government are are basically saying, Okay, well, we we have to come up with something new, we're gonna come up with a new government. 00:07:45.439 --> 00:07:56.879 And then on the other side, inside of Germany, you have the the communists, the Spartacus League in this situation, the communists saying, Hey, look what Russia's doing just over here. 00:07:56.879 --> 00:07:58.560 We want to do the same thing. 00:07:58.560 --> 00:08:09.600 So you basically have a an exterior war being fought and a diverge, the beginnings of a civil war being fought, almost ready to be being fought on the inside. 00:08:09.839 --> 00:08:23.600 And the part that we're looking at is really important because it's between the armistice, which was November of 1918, and when the Versailles Treaty was signed in 1919 in June. 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:34.240 So we have these few months there where you have the big four of allies, France, Britain, Italy, and America, together debating things. 00:08:34.240 --> 00:08:38.799 Um, like Woodrow Wilson came up with a 14-point peace plan. 00:08:38.799 --> 00:08:43.759 Um, they're talking about what a League of Nations would look like with everyone getting along. 00:08:43.759 --> 00:08:48.879 And then even back then, the question of what to do with Russia in general. 00:08:48.879 --> 00:08:54.000 You can look back on it and be like, oh, well, you know, this was what Germany was like after the war. 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:58.559 But at this time, there were no reparations, no war guilt clause. 00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:03.679 So the frenetic energy in Germany really was we have no idea what's going to happen. 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:10.799 So it's in this environment that we have that we come upon the few people that are going to tell their stories from this time period. 00:09:10.799 --> 00:09:15.600 One of them is Gard, a medical student in Berlin in 1919. 00:09:15.600 --> 00:09:23.679 Um, his account came from the Amending Archive, and he had two small journals uh where he wrote where he was studying. 00:09:23.679 --> 00:09:25.120 He was he's a medical student. 00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:29.120 Um, and so Robin, you you've studied his his stuff a lot more. 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:31.120 Like what was your take on it? 00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:34.480 Well, he was very precise about everything he did. 00:09:34.480 --> 00:09:36.399 That um there were the two journals. 00:09:36.399 --> 00:09:42.879 One was entirely just pages and pages of his patients, the medicine, the dosage that he was giving them. 00:09:42.879 --> 00:09:44.000 So he was very precise. 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:45.360 Yeah, it's very precise. 00:09:45.360 --> 00:09:52.559 And the other one um was a diary that was kept mainly just for the first four months of 1919. 00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:59.039 There were like a couple follow-up um,

you know, a few months later, a couple pages here and there of what's going on. 00:09:59.039 --> 00:10:02.159 But it covers just this time period. 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:06.399 He talks very, very little about himself at all. 00:10:06.399 --> 00:10:11.279 Most diaries or memoirs or people reminiscing about their lives and things. 00:10:11.279 --> 00:10:14.879 Well, I mean, we find out from him, you know, he was a medical student. 00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:21.120 He studied parasites, he talked about his surgeries, which, you know, interesting. 00:10:21.120 --> 00:10:26.559 And we we know he was um recently married, and that's all I got from him. 00:10:26.559 --> 00:10:27.919 We don't even have his last name. 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:37.120 So what we know is this this is a a very meticulous, precise person keeping very consistent, very uh well-ordered documents. 00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:45.679 And he's documenting the parasites and the surgeries that he's doing, and he's also documenting the social chaos that's unfolding around. 00:10:46.080 --> 00:10:48.799 Right, the fallout of the international politics. 00:10:48.799 --> 00:10:54.720 So he followed this very closely and and would even go to different debates and things. 00:10:54.720 --> 00:11:03.120 But um, he talks about the British and the Americans, French, even references Japan and uh and Turkey. 00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:09.679 Um, but because he was in Berlin, he was especially interested in what was going along on what had been the Eastern Front. 00:11:09.679 --> 00:11:18.080 So where Poland was, um, which at the time Germany had it, so it was posing and Poland was Poland was very conflicted in what it was. 00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:26.399 Um it was struggling to become independent, but was literally caught between Germany and Russia, both geographically and politically, as it had been for centuries. 00:11:26.399 --> 00:11:33.759 In one entry, he talked about a political debate that he had attended before elections in February. 00:11:33.759 --> 00:11:46.960 And it was really interesting reading that because at this time, with all the chaos, numerous political parties and organizations were formed, as well as complete fracturing of ones that had already existed. 00:11:46.960 --> 00:11:51.440 And so a lot of people were just out there expressing their opinions. 00:11:51.440 --> 00:12:04.799 And a couple that I thought were just really interesting to bring out was one of the men speaking at the event claimed that people were born and raised predisposed for which political party to support. 00:12:04.799 --> 00:12:22.159 Another one argued against annexing any territory where people spoke different languages because he believed that you could never become fully one united group of people if you couldn't even understand the person next to you, which was also an interesting way to look at things. 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:28.240 So it's in this setting with all this going on that we're going to hear from Gerhard. 00:12:29.039 --> 00:12:31.440 January 4th, 1919. 00:12:31.440 --> 00:12:34.399 The Poles are becoming ever more arrogant. 00:12:34.399 --> 00:12:37.200 They have already occupied three-quarters of Posen. 00:12:37.200 --> 00:12:41.279 The Ryan is to become international, and the independents have now left the government. 00:12:41.279 --> 00:12:43.360 Germany, pull yourself together. 00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:45.840 There's bad news in the newspaper again. 00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:50.080 Regarding the Poles, our government has reached an agreement to cede them territory. 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:53.279 Now England will take control of Turkey from Egypt. 00:12:53.279 --> 00:12:55.360 January 7, 1919. 00:12:55.360 --> 00:12:58.159 The newspaper says the Spartacists are causing trouble. 00:12:58.159 --> 00:13:00.799 They are attacking the newspaper, Vorwartz. 00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:05.519 Endless demonstrations are happening here in Berlin, workers' strikes in Upper Silesia. 00:13:05.519 --> 00:13:10.000 The Poles are already right at the border, and because of Allied attacks, the trains are still disrupted. 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:14.879 Als is becoming entirely French and accepting the terms of the armistice. 00:13:14.879 --> 00:13:18.399 At the same time, the Poles are still struggling for independence. 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:22.159 There are further convulsions in Berlin, with help pouring in for both parties. 00:13:22.159 --> 00:13:25.840 In many places, the Spartacists are taking over the newspapers. 00:13:27.039 --> 00:13:41.200 So the Spartacists were a group of well, they were radical social democrats who would rebrand themselves as communists in 1919, but they were led by Karl Liebnicht and Rosa Luxemburg. 00:13:41.200 --> 00:13:51.360 Liebknicht was the son of Wilhelm Liebnicht, and he was really good friends with Karl Marx, and he was a founding member of the Social Democrats in Germany. 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:55.039 In fact, Karl Liebnicht was named after Karl Marx. 00:13:55.039 --> 00:14:14.000 Karl was the guy that in December 1918, so right after the end of the war and the armistice was signed, he he went and tore down Kaiser Wilhelm's flag from the Berlin City Palace and declared Germany a free socialist republic. 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:35.120 And it was this time, um, it was December 1918 and January 1919, really, that um there was an uprising of the Social Democrats leading into the radical communists that were trying to take over Germany and uh make it more like Soviet Russia at the time. 00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:36.879 And they got pretty close. 00:14:36.879 --> 00:14:43.279 I mean, they were at the palace with a flag um saying it was a socialist republic. 00:14:43.279 --> 00:14:52.320 Um, but Karl Liebknecht and Rosa were captured by the Fry Corps, um, which were soldiers from the First World War. 00:14:52.320 --> 00:14:56.559 They were taken and executed January 15th. 00:14:56.559 --> 00:15:09.600 Um I'm gonna read a letter that

he wrote just hours before he was executed, and it's called In Spite of Everything, General Assault on Spartacus, down with Spartacus. 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:17.519 They howl through the alleys, grab them, whip them, stab them, shoot them, impale them, trample them down, tear them to shreds. 00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:22.399 Atrocities are being committed, eclipsing the Belgian atrocities of the German troops. 00:15:22.399 --> 00:15:23.919 Spartacus crushed. 00:15:23.919 --> 00:15:26.639 They celebrate from the post to the forwards. 00:15:26.639 --> 00:15:37.759 Spartacus crushed, and the sabers, the revolvers, the carbines of the re-established old Germanic police and the disarmament of the revolutionary workers will seal its defeat. 00:15:37.759 --> 00:15:41.840 Indeed, the revolutionary workers of Berlin have been defeated. 00:15:41.840 --> 00:15:44.000 A hundred of their best have been murdered. 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:46.799 Indeed, several hundred have been thrown into prison. 00:15:46.799 --> 00:16:06.399 They were defeated because they were abandoned by the sailors, the soldiers, the security forces, the army on whose help they had relied, and their force was paralyzed by the indecisiveness and weakness of their leaders, and the monstrous counter-revolutionary mudslide of reactionaries and the property classes drowned them. 00:16:06.399 --> 00:16:14.720 Beyond all doubts and worries, indeed, Berlin's revolutionary workers were defeated and Ebert and Schneiderman have won. 00:16:14.720 --> 00:16:29.600 They've won because the generals, the bureaucracy, the robber barons, the country squires, the clerics, and the money bags, who are all narrow-minded, stunted, and reactionary, stand with them for ammunition, gas bombs, and mortars. 00:16:29.600 --> 00:16:34.320 The defeated on the bloody January week have persisted gloriously. 00:16:34.320 --> 00:16:42.720 They have fought for something great, for the noblest goal of suffering mankind, for spiritual and material salvation of the starving masses. 00:16:42.720 --> 00:16:45.840 They've spilled their holy blood for a sacred feat. 00:16:45.840 --> 00:16:48.080 Their blood was therefore sanctified. 00:16:48.080 --> 00:16:49.919 The avengers have fallen. 00:16:49.919 --> 00:16:57.039 From every tattered fiber, new soldiers shall rise from the great cause, which is eternal and unwavering like the firmament. 00:16:57.039 --> 00:17:01.039 Those who are defeated today shall be victors of tomorrow. 00:17:01.039 --> 00:17:03.600 Because defeat serves as a lesson. 00:17:03.600 --> 00:17:07.920 The German proletariat still lacks revolutionary experience. 00:17:07.920 --> 00:17:18.400 And only through tentative attempts, adolescent errors, and painful setbacks can it obtain a practical education which will ensure future victory for the living forces. 00:17:18.400 --> 00:17:22.559 Whose unstoppable growth is the national law of societal development? 00:17:22.559 --> 00:17:24.799 A defeat means stimulus. 00:17:24.799 --> 00:17:28.720 And through defeat, after defeat, their road leads to victory. 00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:36.160 The proletarian revolution, which the counter-revolutionaries hoped to drown in blood, will rise above them with great numbers. 00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:38.640 Spartacus crushed, steady. 00:17:38.640 --> 00:17:40.240 We have not fled. 00:17:40.240 --> 00:17:41.839 We are not beaten. 00:17:41.839 --> 00:17:46.240 And even if they throw us in shackles, we are there and shall remain. 00:17:46.240 --> 00:17:52.079 And victory shall be ours because Spartacus that means fire and spirit. 00:17:52.079 --> 00:17:54.000 It means soul and heart. 00:17:54.000 --> 00:17:57.440 It means the will and act of the proletarian revolution. 00:17:57.440 --> 00:18:10.640 And Spartacus, that means all the hardships and yearning for happiness, all the fighting resolve for the class conscious proletariat, because Spartacus means socialism and world revolution. 00:18:10.640 --> 00:18:18.160 And so that was the last thing that um Liebknecht left all his supporters with. 00:18:18.160 --> 00:18:21.599 He was executed just a few hours after writing that. 00:18:21.599 --> 00:18:27.039 But what he's saying is that communism wasn't just relegated to Germany. 00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:29.039 He called it a world revolution. 00:18:29.039 --> 00:18:33.599 And it was beginning to, and had by this point spread around the world. 00:18:33.599 --> 00:18:46.079 In the United States, there were deportations, imprisonments, and the first communist red scare was going on, and the government was going after anarchists like Emma Goldman and communists like John Reed. 00:18:46.079 --> 00:18:48.000 So as Gerhard continues. 00:18:48.400 --> 00:18:52.000 In America, there are also labor demands, general strikes, etc. 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:54.319 Fighting continues in Berlin. 00:18:54.319 --> 00:18:58.079 The Allies have ordered a 12-hour workday at 60 cents an hour. 00:18:58.079 --> 00:19:00.880 There is fighting in Munich around the main railway station. 00:19:00.880 --> 00:19:02.880 There is a general stripe in Leipzig. 00:19:02.880 --> 00:19:07.920 Incidentally, all of this news appears out today only under brief news items. 00:19:07.920 --> 00:19:12.319 The government wants a people's army for self-defense and are recruiting men who fought in the war. 00:19:12.319 --> 00:19:13.839 But what can that achieve today? 00:19:13.839 --> 00:19:18.240 Because of the inflation during the war, the English are concerned about the security of our gold reserves. 00:19:18.240 --> 00:19:23.119 There is unemployment everywhere in the Reich because under the poor working conditions, nobody wants to work. 00:19:23.119 --> 00:19:29.359 Even though the Reich government is calling for calm on election day, there continues to be as part of this Bolshevik unrest. 00:19:29.359 --> 00:19:33.119 Their revolution to make Germany more like Russia failed. 00:19:33.119 --> 00:19:36.240 Freedom of the press

has turned into merely a freedom to lie. 00:19:36.240 --> 00:19:40.000 The bourgeois parties also sought some positive changes, but too slowly. 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:45.440 If nothing came immediately of the unified school system and other aims of the communists, nothing would ever come of it. 00:19:45.440 --> 00:19:50.319 Since the public was not yet sufficiently enlightened, the elections would yield a distorted picture. 00:19:50.319 --> 00:19:55.359 The independents didn't vote, but even though they didn't vote, they refused to relinquish their power. 00:19:55.359 --> 00:19:59.039 Instead, they operated like a supervisory board alongside the government. 00:19:59.039 --> 00:20:05.759 Since the assassinations of Karl Liebnik and Rosa Luxemburg, the Spartacists have now completely allied with the Soviets in Russia. 00:20:05.759 --> 00:20:12.319 When a newly formed army was about to deploy to protect the eastern border, it came under fire from communists and Spartacists. 00:20:12.319 --> 00:20:15.680 May 10th is the day set for the peace negotiations to begin. 00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:18.000 In Romania, there are peasant uprisings. 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:19.519 Things are beginning to fall apart. 00:20:19.519 --> 00:20:21.920 Our government will likely resort to dictatorship. 00:20:21.920 --> 00:20:24.000 Both home and factories are without coal. 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:26.240 No one wants to work and inflation keeps rising. 00:20:26.240 --> 00:20:33.359 There are now 220,000 unemployed, and it has become clear why America is in favor of internationalization of our colonies. 00:20:33.359 --> 00:20:35.039 Mainly so that Japan doesn't get them. 00:20:35.039 --> 00:20:37.119 Schneiderman wants to become a dictator. 00:20:37.119 --> 00:20:40.720 He alone is allowed to select the cabinet ministers and leaders in government. 00:20:40.720 --> 00:20:43.039 France is afraid that Germany will pack again. 00:20:43.039 --> 00:20:50.240 President Woodrow Wilson recommends following a middle path between military and economic pressure on Germany to prevent us from building up again. 00:20:50.240 --> 00:20:51.200 We're still suffering. 00:20:51.200 --> 00:20:53.599 February 15, 1919. 00:20:53.599 --> 00:20:56.799 The Italians are requisitioning art treasures in Vienna. 00:20:56.799 --> 00:20:59.119 The Germans are being expelled from China. 00:20:59.119 --> 00:21:04.000 Belgium covets Germany's Africa, and the French socialists are recoiling. 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:07.200 Even in the midst of all this chaos, the armistice is being renewed. 00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:09.839 Everywhere, everywhere, lies are being told. 00:21:10.240 --> 00:21:13.839 So that was Gerhard, the medical student in Berlin. 00:21:13.839 --> 00:21:17.200 But from here we'll move on to Wilhelm Markhard. 00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:21.680 And he was a middle-aged officer who served in the First World War. 00:21:21.680 --> 00:21:26.880 Like Gerhard, he really only wrote mainly in the year 1919. 00:21:26.880 --> 00:21:33.279 But because of his background and his age, his experiences were just very different. 00:21:33.279 --> 00:21:59.680 Part of the problem with the officers coming back was that they were being told by their generals, specifically Ludendorff, this stab in the back myth, which was basically saying the military was stabbed in the back by these November criminals, they called them, people who signed the armistice in November, Jews and socialists that had turned. 00:21:59.680 --> 00:22:02.799 Against Germany, and we were actually winning the war. 00:22:02.799 --> 00:22:04.960 This government isn't legitimate. 00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:18.880 And Markard, um, who was in this upper middle class, was there the country, living in a castle near mine again, outside of a city where he was had his family in Western Germany when the war was over. 00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:22.880 So he was really concerned about his safety, which he wrote a lot about. 00:22:22.880 --> 00:22:31.039 And and one of the things that he said was to keep their daughter home from kindergarten because he was afraid that she may get shot. 00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:36.400 And he, you know, he suggested either homeschool or boarding school as alternatives if things got bad. 00:22:36.400 --> 00:22:39.759 But, you know, it's really intense when you're riding home. 00:22:39.759 --> 00:22:46.640 Hey, if you're kind of scared, don't let our kindergartner go to school because I don't want her to be shot dead in the street. 00:22:46.640 --> 00:22:48.799 I mean, that that's where he was in life. 00:22:48.799 --> 00:22:51.519 Yes, it it was pretty intense. 00:22:51.519 --> 00:23:03.839 He was also really concerned about his career, which makes sense because the military was dissolving and uh millions of soldiers had resigned from the army without finding a job first. 00:23:03.839 --> 00:23:16.240 And he didn't really know whether to stay with the military, keep earning a pretty good salary while he could, and keep that going for as long as uh he was able to. 00:23:16.240 --> 00:23:21.519 At one point, he hoped to just make it through 1919, uh, staying in that position. 00:23:21.519 --> 00:23:27.759 And he talks about use all my vacation days, which was three or four weeks for him. 00:23:27.759 --> 00:23:31.519 And then at the end of all those vacation days, just retire. 00:23:31.519 --> 00:23:36.400 And this was something he talked about several times as an option that he may do. 00:23:36.400 --> 00:23:38.400 Um, but he really was conflicted. 00:23:38.400 --> 00:23:44.480 Do I stay with the army, not the army that I've known before, or do I just leave? 00:23:44.480 --> 00:23:50.799 And part of the problem with him just leaving was, of course, finding another job. 00:23:50.799 --> 00:23:56.880 So he talks a lot about how he really, really, really wants to have a farm. 00:23:56.880 --> 00:24:00.880 And his wife's father-in-law has estates that he could go live on. 00:24:00.880 -->

00:24:04.799 And as he's talking about his job prospects, what he's going to do. 00:24:04.799 --> 00:24:15.359 At the time, the Spartacists were saying, if they took control, that they would be taking 50% of uh families' incomes for the upper middle class. 00:24:15.359 --> 00:24:21.200 And no one was allowed to own land, um, have an estate unless they could farm it themselves. 00:24:21.200 --> 00:24:28.000 And this was such an issue for him that he spent a lot of time at night reading books on how to be a farmer. 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:31.920 He asks his wife, please send me more books on agriculture. 00:24:31.920 --> 00:24:38.240 Um, trying my hardest to learn how to do this so that we're still able to have land and still able to go somewhere. 00:24:38.240 --> 00:24:44.079 He was one of the people that was responsible for talking to the workers and soldiers councils. 00:24:44.079 --> 00:24:50.799 Uh, one of the things that they, the Spartacists said they would do was take away all the pensions of the soldiers who had served in the war. 00:24:50.799 --> 00:24:53.599 And like, what what do you plan to do? 00:24:53.599 --> 00:24:56.319 He literally was the one that went and talked to them. 00:24:56.319 --> 00:25:10.799 And then he would go back to the castle that he stayed at in Meiningen and you know, occasionally would go eat at the palace uh with the Duke and Duchess who knew Kaiser Wilhelm and would go and relay to them what the workers and soldiers' councils were saying. 00:25:10.799 --> 00:25:17.759 And so his role in this is just very interesting and very different than Gerhard's. 00:25:17.759 --> 00:25:28.480 Um, but this one gives us a glimpse into the angst and the uncertainty that the upper and middle classes were facing in Germany and the aftermath of the First World War. 00:25:28.480 --> 00:25:39.519 Because, as was the problem in Russia, when you have the proletariat, the workers that are trying to take over, they are going after the upper and middle class people. 00:25:39.519 --> 00:25:42.400 He was one of those that they were going after. 00:25:42.400 --> 00:25:48.400 And uh I just wanted to share with you part of his letters home to his wife at this time. 00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:55.200 The palace, Meinigan, January 2nd, 1919. 00:25:55.200 --> 00:25:59.759 1919 has begun in bloodshed. 00:25:59.759 --> 00:26:05.920 I believe that once the revolution is over, we will awake to a sober reality. 00:26:05.920 --> 00:26:13.680 Yesterday, on New Year's Day, I was invited to dine with the Duke at 1 PM. 00:26:13.680 --> 00:26:16.799 I was the only guest. 00:26:16.799 --> 00:26:23.839 We talked about a lot of local affairs and the chaotic situation in Brunswick. 00:26:23.839 --> 00:26:29.519 The Duke and Duchess have received good news from Kaiser Wilhelm in Holland. 00:26:29.519 --> 00:26:34.160 The food was wonderful, and the palace magnificent. 00:26:34.160 --> 00:26:38.720 It was comforting to be surrounded by such princely splendor. 00:26:38.720 --> 00:26:45.200 Both the Duke and Duchess are astute and understand the gravity of our situation. 00:26:45.200 --> 00:26:49.519 We shared many memories from our time in Berlin. 00:26:49.519 --> 00:26:58.160 I was graciously dismissed with the invitation to come back more often, without needing a formal announcement. 00:26:58.160 --> 00:27:03.680 Tomorrow I must speak with the Workers and Soldiers Council. 00:27:03.680 --> 00:27:07.920 They have taken control of the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen. 00:27:07.920 --> 00:27:13.920 I asked for the meeting and hope to talk to them calmly and peacefully. 00:27:13.920 --> 00:27:25.680 It helps significantly that the local authorities side with the Social Democrats, who are far more moderate than the radical leftist and Spartacists. 00:27:25.680 --> 00:27:30.720 The German army is now nearly entirely demobilized. 00:27:30.720 --> 00:27:34.640 They have been transformed into a people's militia. 00:27:34.640 --> 00:27:41.680 Soldiers, veterans of Vervor Von, are no longer receiving government benefits. 00:27:41.680 --> 00:27:45.519 Today the soldiers council met for two hours. 00:27:45.519 --> 00:27:54.960 The Social Democratic Trade Union leaders speak well, use propaganda, and are able to rally a crowd. 00:27:54.960 --> 00:27:59.440 I was able to gain a lot of insight into their organization. 00:27:59.440 --> 00:28:02.559 I spoke for over an hour. 00:28:02.559 --> 00:28:07.680 There were no incidents, and we came to a peaceful agreement. 00:28:07.680 --> 00:28:10.400 This cannot continue for long. 00:28:10.400 --> 00:28:12.799 I will not be here much longer. 00:28:12.799 --> 00:28:18.640 However, I think that I should hold on as long as possible for now. 00:28:18.640 --> 00:28:21.519 Things will get more difficult soon. 00:28:21.519 --> 00:28:26.559 There will not be any coal delivered for several months. 00:28:26.559 --> 00:28:31.519 Our garrison supply only lasts until the end of this month. 00:28:31.519 --> 00:28:35.759 Looting will begin once things start to freeze. 00:28:35.759 --> 00:28:38.079 Everything is wretched. 00:28:38.079 --> 00:28:44.000 Our troops are completely demoralized and are defecting en masse. 00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:49.440 I feel like my military career will soon be over. 00:28:49.440 --> 00:28:54.160 Conditions are becoming increasingly bleak and hopeless. 00:28:54.160 --> 00:28:59.680 Everyone feels powerless to do anything to change the circumstances. 00:28:59.680 --> 00:29:05.039 With the chaos surrounding us, there is no motivation to work. 00:29:05.039 --> 00:29:10.000 The National Assembly elections are 14 days away. 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:15.680 We will have to become accustomed to being part of the lower middle class. 00:29:15.680 --> 00:29:19.839 A general wealth tax is coming. 00:29:19.839 --> 00:29:26.880 The government is taking 50% of anything over 30,000 marks. 00:29:26.880 --> 00:29:32.799 Vor taxes and inheritance tax are also being considered. 00:29:32.799

--> 00:29:36.160 This will hit the middle class the hardest. 00:29:36.160 --> 00:29:41.359 If this happens, we cannot buy our own farm as we have vaunted. 00:29:41.359 --> 00:29:46.720 We would barely be able to buy a house with a large garden in the countryside. 00:29:46.720 --> 00:29:52.000 Billions of dollars are being wasted on propaganda for socialism. 00:29:52.000 --> 00:30:03.759 There is no better platform than unemployment benefits, and to pay for soldiers to receive three to five more marks per day, January 7th. 00:30:03.759 --> 00:30:08.000 The situation here is verse, but still bearable. 00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:10.640 Zerar street battles in Berlin. 00:30:10.640 --> 00:30:15.599 If they come to power, then everything will instantly be over. 00:30:15.599 --> 00:30:18.400 The Second Reich will be over. 00:30:18.400 --> 00:30:21.359 Some believe it has already come to that. 00:30:21.359 --> 00:30:27.440 Ebert's government is disbanding the standing army and establishing a Freikorps. 00:30:27.440 --> 00:30:31.279 I can already picture myself living day to day. 00:30:31.279 --> 00:30:39.599 If the Spartacists win these street battles around Germany, they will do away with pensions, and the National Assembly will not meet. 00:30:39.599 --> 00:30:45.519 There is heavy fighting, and the Spartacists control major cities throughout the Reich. 00:30:45.519 --> 00:30:49.599 In Brunswick, there is pure chaos. 00:30:49.599 --> 00:30:57.359 I hope to stay here, collect a salary as long as possible, and try to forget the hardships that will come. 00:30:57.359 --> 00:31:03.119 Secretly, I hope that Ebert's government will hold and suppress the rabble. 00:31:03.119 --> 00:31:06.640 Communication is nearly impossible. 00:31:06.640 --> 00:31:11.599 If you fear for your safety, Anne Marie should not go to school. 00:31:11.599 --> 00:31:19.119 The railroads are still only partially open, and we must fate to see what happens with the street fighting in Berlin. 00:31:19.119 --> 00:31:24.720 I knew this was going to happen, but I never imagined it would be this bad. 00:31:24.720 --> 00:31:26.400 January 10th. 00:31:26.400 --> 00:31:33.039 I must consider whether to take extended leave or try to remain at my post. 00:31:33.039 --> 00:31:40.480 Our military will not last much longer, so we must take control of our future and find an estate with a farm. 00:31:40.480 --> 00:31:43.759 We can get a kindergarten teacher for the kids. 00:31:43.759 --> 00:31:47.200 Please send me some books on farming. 00:31:47.200 --> 00:31:49.039 I need to learn more. 00:31:49.039 --> 00:31:57.359 I plan to spend my afternoon in the quiet of the old castle, reading, writing, and taking an afternoon nap. 00:31:57.359 --> 00:32:01.119 Do not worry about me, this is a small town. 00:32:01.119 --> 00:32:07.200 Even if the Spartacist were to attempt a coup, it would only affect me secondarily. 00:32:07.200 --> 00:32:11.599 The main concern is the Workers and Soldiers Council. 00:32:11.599

--> 00:32:15.359 It would be difficult to find a better place to stay. 00:32:15.359 --> 00:32:22.640 After the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, people have completely lost their sense of leadership and stability. 00:32:22.640 --> 00:32:26.160 Currently, train connections are still terrible. 00:32:26.160 --> 00:32:34.000 I often think of the families in Alsace and Lorraine now destituted and defenseless against the French. 00:32:34.000 --> 00:32:39.680 Many of them still have husbands out there, and have heard no news of them. 00:32:39.680 --> 00:32:43.119 They are going through a truly hard time. 00:32:43.119 --> 00:32:48.079 At least we can discuss and prepare for our future in peace. 00:32:48.079 --> 00:32:52.240 And for now we still have an income and food. 00:32:52.240 --> 00:32:54.720 Berlin seems to be calming down. 00:32:54.720 --> 00:33:00.480 Ebert and Schneidermann, the Social Democrats, have won a victory for now. 00:33:00.480 --> 00:33:07.519 Today, january sixteenth, there was a large conference with the Workers and Social Council. 00:33:07.519 --> 00:33:12.319 The main thing is to get through the political climate right now. 00:33:12.319 --> 00:33:17.279 By autumn, conditions in Germany should have stabilized again. 00:33:17.279 --> 00:33:22.400 Please consider whether you think I should resign or continue in the service. 00:33:22.400 --> 00:33:26.319 I will go along with whatever you decide. 00:33:26.319 --> 00:33:30.400 If kings become dangerous, you should leave. 00:33:30.400 --> 00:33:33.920 By next year, hopefully the verst is over. 00:33:33.920 --> 00:33:35.440 January 18th. 00:33:35.440 --> 00:33:42.640 Tomorrow's election will decide Germany's future, assuming that the election is able to take place at all. 00:33:42.640 --> 00:33:56.319 New coup attempts are expected throughout Germany, particularly since the deaths of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebnik, communist murdered on January 15th, have provided them a reason. 00:33:56.319 --> 00:34:01.839 Ebert's government remains weak, even though the troops are being successful. 00:34:01.839 --> 00:34:08.559 The Entente is becoming increasingly demanding and continues to strangle Germany. 00:34:08.559 --> 00:34:14.559 We are all but ripe for suffocation, but people still don't realize it. 00:34:14.559 --> 00:34:21.039 The German National Party is unable to control the agitation by the Reds and the Radicals. 00:34:21.039 --> 00:34:25.920 We are poor, defeated, godforsaken people. 00:34:25.920 --> 00:34:37.760 I feel like I am walking on a tightrope with the abyss formed by the Workers and Soldiers Council, which is moving increasingly towards the Spartacist. 00:34:37.760 --> 00:34:43.039 I hope to take leave for 14 days and come see you all. 00:34:43.039 --> 00:34:51.679 Spartacists have occupied Eisenach and is blocking passenger traffic at the train station. 00:34:51.679 --> 00:34:56.880 It is quite simply a return to the highway banditry of old. 00:34:56.880 --> 00:34:59.519 January 19th. 00:34:59.519 --> 00:35:05.599 Yesterday the workers and soldiers' councils deposed the Lord Mayor. 00:35:05.599 --> 00:35:12.880 I try to only intervene when they are making decisions and try to stay out of personal issues. 00:35:12.880 --> 00:35:19.920 The men treat me well, even so everything around us is descending into chaos. 00:35:19.920 --> 00:35:29.360 I now have to raise a rifle regiment, even though I am not commanding it, and am getting no volunteers. 00:35:29.360 --> 00:35:37.840 The Imperial government is authorizing house house searching and collecting hoarded things. 00:35:37.840 --> 00:35:39.760 But do not be afraid. 00:35:39.760 --> 00:35:41.519 January twentieth. 00:35:41.519 --> 00:35:45.440 The Socialist had a strong showing in the election here. 00:35:45.440 --> 00:35:49.360 Other parts of Germany should get the same results. 00:35:49.360 --> 00:35:57.039 Only in later elections, after a disaster happens, think about whether it would be better to leave the city now. 00:35:57.039 --> 00:36:02.079 It would be terrible if our children were endangered by a stray bullet. 00:36:02.079 --> 00:36:04.559 School is not that important. 00:36:04.559 --> 00:36:08.559 Safety should be our primary concern. 00:36:08.559 --> 00:36:13.360 It would be best if you could stay at your father's estate in the country. 00:36:13.360 --> 00:36:17.199 But I would take you in here in Meinigan as well. 00:36:17.199 --> 00:36:22.159 Now that the National Assembly has been elected, it is calmer for now. 00:36:22.159 --> 00:36:26.880 The bourgeois hold a slim majority against the socialists. 00:36:26.880 --> 00:36:30.320 I am anxious and worry about you. 00:36:30.320 --> 00:36:33.280 Always remember that I love you. 00:36:33.280 --> 00:36:36.880 Keep your chin up, and we will get through this. 00:36:36.880 --> 00:36:39.440 You can see things are not simple. 00:36:39.440 --> 00:36:46.159 Because I foresaw the collapse and the chaos, I am no longer surprised by anything. 00:36:46.159 --> 00:36:50.639 In the evening before bed, I study how to do farm work. 00:36:50.639 --> 00:36:53.360 Monday, January 27th. 00:36:53.360 --> 00:37:02.880 The decree about command authority has upset the Workers and Soldiers Council, and I expect there will soon be protests. 00:37:02.880 --> 00:37:04.480 January twenty eighth. 00:37:04.480 --> 00:37:11.360 I ate with the Duke, and I still can't decide whether to resign from my post or reapply. 00:37:11.360 --> 00:37:18.000 I decided that we must wait until after the National Assembly to make a decision. 00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:21.440 I still don't know enough to farm. 00:37:21.440 --> 00:37:26.719 And if the owner of land doesn't farm it himself, the land will be taken away. 00:37:26.719 --> 00:37:32.559 We must come up with something to do about our estate so that it is not taken away. 00:37:32.559 --> 00:37:33.760 February first. 00:37:33.760 --> 00:37:37.679 The Communists have declared war on Ebert's Reich

government. 00:37:37.679 --> 00:37:42.400 When it gets warmer outside, I think there will be another revolution. 00:37:42.400 --> 00:37:49.119 My friend escaped from the rebels under cover of darkness, and officers are being hunted. 00:37:49.119 --> 00:37:52.000 The revolution is only beginning. 00:37:52.000 --> 00:37:56.960 I think my time in the army can be measured in weeks, not months. 00:37:56.960 --> 00:38:03.280 I think I am too old to learn to farm, so I am using the time for rest. 00:38:03.280 --> 00:38:09.920 This is a terrible time to live, but my thoughts wander to past war years. 00:38:09.920 --> 00:38:17.519 At least the Great War is over, but I am sure that spring will bring famine and anarchy. 00:38:17.519 --> 00:38:21.920 Supplies will be exhausted and industry paralyzed. 00:38:21.920 --> 00:38:23.840 No one vaunts to work. 00:38:23.840 --> 00:38:29.920 A strong nationalist leader would be the right man to put us back on track. 00:38:29.920 --> 00:38:36.079 I think that a second revolution is likely and the government is powerless to stop it. 00:38:36.079 --> 00:38:39.360 There are struggles over command. 00:38:39.360 --> 00:38:43.519 I plan to take a leave of absence and then resign. 00:38:43.519 --> 00:38:52.239 This purge achieves little because I know that Spartacists and the Communists will rise again february sixth. 00:38:52.239 --> 00:38:57.679 People are trying to help us get out, and I am certain that everything will be okay. 00:38:57.679 --> 00:39:03.519 The only question is whether I will be granted entry to Bronswig without a problem. 00:39:03.519 --> 00:39:11.440 If it is difficult, then maybe we can meet in Hanover, and the children go to Grossman's boarding house. 00:39:11.440 --> 00:39:15.679 I will return home or to Hanover by March first. 00:39:15.679 --> 00:39:18.159 And we can figure out what to do. 00:39:18.159 --> 00:39:26.079 I want to at least wait through the summer at my post to ride out nineteen nineteen still earning a high income. 00:39:26.079 --> 00:39:34.559 A lot of people are sitting on the street because they have nowhere to go and resigned too fast from the military. 00:39:34.559 --> 00:39:40.159 Only if the government remains strong can we control the spread of Bolshevism. 00:39:40.159 --> 00:39:42.960 They would love to scatter the National Assembly. 00:39:42.960 --> 00:39:47.280 Workers and soldiers councils are fighting for their existence. 00:39:47.280 --> 00:39:55.599 Industrial population ready to march on Weimar, trying to strike, but I think they will leave at the first shot. 00:39:55.599 --> 00:39:59.360 I am sorry that you suffer so much from our separation. 00:39:59.360 --> 00:40:10.559 It is hard for me too, but at least we know that we will be reunited soon, and that we can call and talk to each other on the phone. 00:40:10.559 --> 00:40:22.239 In Ukraine and the Far East, people are still separated, and officers' families in captivity, dealing with abuse in enemy occupied territories. 00:40:22.239 --> 00:40:25.119 We never know what the next day will bring. 00:40:25.119 --> 00:40:31.280 Dictatorship of the proletariat is horrible and surrounded by spies. 00:40:31.280 --> 00:40:35.920 Coal shortages will cause public buildings to close. 00:40:35.920 --> 00:40:41.440 You should stock up on fuels, peat and wood for the coming weeks. 00:40:41.440 --> 00:40:43.360 Cost doesn't matter. 00:40:43.360 --> 00:40:53.360 If we get peace, right now there is just the armistice, our income will rise because our state income is important to our finances. 00:40:53.360 --> 00:40:55.039 February eighth. 00:40:55.039 --> 00:41:02.480 The Spartacist threat is back and there are fierce battles and open rebellion throughout the country. 00:41:02.480 --> 00:41:06.800 Gotha is occupied and Weimar paralyzed. 00:41:06.800 --> 00:41:09.519 Can the assembly wipe them out? 00:41:09.519 --> 00:41:17.599 Thuringia workers are all armed and ready to fight, although in the majority the bourgeois party is irrelevant. 00:41:17.599 --> 00:41:19.360 February seventeenth. 00:41:19.360 --> 00:41:22.079 I submitted my request for leave. 00:41:22.079 --> 00:41:24.880 It was going to happen eventually. 00:41:24.880 --> 00:41:30.639 I know that this is terrible news, but I can't stay here in Meiningen. 00:41:30.639 --> 00:41:38.400 Even if we could find the tiniest place, with only four rooms, that would be okay. 00:41:38.400 --> 00:41:40.880 All apartments are taken. 00:41:40.880 --> 00:41:44.320 Thousands of people are waiting for a home. 00:41:44.320 --> 00:41:47.760 As it is, we may have to bid on one. 00:41:47.760 --> 00:41:51.760 The Entente will put Germany into servitude. 00:41:51.760 --> 00:41:54.480 The hard times are not over yet. 00:41:54.480 --> 00:41:58.000 Munich and the Rhineland are in chaos. 00:41:58.000 --> 00:42:02.079 Unemployment continues to rise everywhere. 00:42:02.079 --> 00:42:09.039 I am still studying agriculture, but remain under constant surveillance and suspicion. 00:42:09.039 --> 00:42:14.719 Trains still having issues, so I cannot travel long distances. 00:42:14.719 --> 00:42:18.239 Got to be with you, your Ollie. 00:42:19.039 --> 00:42:26.159 So that was Wilhelm Markhard's account of the first few months of 1919 in the German countryside. 00:42:26.159 --> 00:42:54.559 And Markhard took that guessing game out for me because he actually included some news clippings from himself from when he was advertising rebuilding the army that you talked about in early 1919. 00:42:54.559 --> 00:42:59.519 And he was looking for upstanding men to be officers. 00:42:59.519 --> 00:43:07.119 In addition, some family members or people that have known the person with documents in the archives, um, add to them. 00:43:07.119 --> 00:43:10.800 And um Marquard's daughter left a note in his file. 00:43:10.800 --> 00:43:21.360 And her addendum said that he was eventually able to learn how to farm and that that he and the family were able to keep one

of the father-in-law's estates. 00:43:21.679 --> 00:43:23.199 So so he did learn to farm. 00:43:23.440 --> 00:43:24.480 Yeah, he learned to farm. 00:43:24.719 --> 00:43:31.360 So when he when he made this transition from what he was doing before to becoming a farmer, do we know do we know how old he was? 00:43:31.360 --> 00:43:32.639 He was middle-aged. 00:43:32.639 --> 00:43:34.559 So he wasn't a young guy. 00:43:34.559 --> 00:43:35.840 This wasn't like right out of school. 00:43:35.920 --> 00:43:42.239 He was like No, no, because he was up in the officer ranks, um, overseeing people, talking to the soldiers' councils. 00:43:42.239 --> 00:43:44.159 He was not like a really young guy. 00:43:44.159 --> 00:43:56.719 He already had a strong, established life in the city where he'd been his entire life um and only knew that life and um and worked hard to learn how to do something new. 00:44:00.320 --> 00:44:02.159 Oh yep, I'm I'm not here far I'm a farmer. 00:44:02.480 --> 00:44:09.280 Yes, and his daughter said um that he never regretted it, the change that he actually you know loved being in the country. 00:44:09.280 --> 00:44:14.639 And so sometimes you just you just have to take a leap of faith and and hope that it works out. 00:44:14.639 --> 00:44:16.800 In Mark Hard's case, it did. 00:44:16.800 --> 00:44:21.760 His kids grew up in the countryside, and um and so that was his story. 00:44:22.239 --> 00:44:22.559 Right. 00:44:22.559 --> 00:44:35.679 So what we're seeing here through Markard's story and his description of the things that are happening around him is uh Germany, the German people struggling with their identity. 00:44:35.679 --> 00:44:38.000 They're they're having an identity crisis. 00:44:38.000 --> 00:44:43.039 And uh part of the reason for that is that everything is changing. 00:44:43.039 --> 00:44:48.320 The old order, the way of things, the kings of old, the Kaiser has left. 00:44:48.320 --> 00:44:51.280 And now the question is well, what do we do next? 00:44:51.280 --> 00:45:03.280 This is even more difficult than it had been in the past because uh on the table now is this idea of of communism. 00:45:03.280 --> 00:45:10.719 And communism looks at itself not as a regional identity, right? 00:45:10.719 --> 00:45:22.719 It's looking at itself as a class-based identity, a group of people that are bound together not by how close they are to their neighbors, but by their ideas, right? 00:45:22.719 --> 00:45:41.119 So, you know, back if you look if you look at this area and this time in history, or even many times in history, people oftentimes identify themselves by who their neighbors are, or people that speak the same language, or people that have the same customs, or you know, people that are are similar to them. 00:45:41.519 --> 00:45:54.960 Which is why it was very interesting when Thad and I did some research in Austria, and I was talking to the man at the archives there, his name was Paul, and he said, Do you have any relatives

from here? 00:45:54.960 --> 00:46:02.159 And I said, Oh, well, yeah, in Bavaria, you know, the boundless burgers and my family traces back that far. 00:46:02.159 --> 00:46:06.400 He looked at me and he said, Well, that's another country. 00:46:06.639 --> 00:46:06.800 Right. 00:46:06.800 --> 00:46:08.719 He was just like, What are you talking about? 00:46:08.719 --> 00:46:10.239 This that's a long ways away. 00:46:10.400 --> 00:46:16.639 And I said, Well, listen, in Texas, it's like it's three hours to the closest city. 00:46:16.639 --> 00:46:19.440 So it's a very different perspective. 00:46:19.440 --> 00:46:29.440 But when you're driving even now, uh, like we were driving, and you reach the border of Austria and Germany, and there is just a totally different vibe. 00:46:29.440 --> 00:46:29.840 Right. 00:46:29.840 --> 00:46:47.599 So it is, you know, they there still is the identity of you, um, in this specific case, Austria and uh and Germany, um, that both see themselves as the same, but they're next door neighbors, um, yet they still feel that they're very different from each other. 00:46:47.840 --> 00:46:50.960 They have their own individual, they have their own unique style. 00:46:51.199 --> 00:46:51.519 Yes. 00:46:51.760 --> 00:46:52.239 Right? 00:46:52.239 --> 00:47:20.480 So so at this point in time, everyone not only is dealing with, yes, they have similar languages, yes, they have similar uh history and past, but now there's this idea that your neighbors, your brothers and sisters might not be your next door neighbors, but they might be the revolutionaries over in Russia, or the people that share the same ideas in France or in Britain or in the United States. 00:47:20.480 --> 00:47:33.039 And so this ideology, the communist ideology, held that the revolution that was coming wasn't just a Russian revolution, it was gonna be a worldwide revolution. 00:47:33.039 --> 00:47:37.280 All the people that were revolen, workers of the world unite. 00:47:37.360 --> 00:47:38.480 That was their slogan. 00:47:38.559 --> 00:47:38.719 Right. 00:47:38.719 --> 00:47:39.280 Absolutely. 00:47:39.280 --> 00:47:50.480 They all believed that yes, Russia was the first step, but really Germany was gonna follow, and France would follow, and Great Britain would follow, and even at some point the United States, it might take a little while, but they would get there too. 00:47:50.719 --> 00:47:57.039 Well, I think also we need to talk about um Marx, and he really didn't see this starting in Russia, right? 00:47:57.519 --> 00:48:02.880 No, in fact, Russia was seen as too immature for the revolution to come to. 00:48:02.880 --> 00:48:16.880 So, really, Marx believed that for sure Germany would lead the way in the communist revolution, or maybe France, or possibly Great Britain, but Russia was was pretty far down on everybody's list of the places where the communist revolution is first going to happen. 00:48:16.880 --> 00:48:29.119 And so when that when the opportunity

presented itself and Lenin got on the train and you know went across Germany and and had you know led the revolution there, it really was kind of kind of out of the blue. 00:48:29.119 --> 00:48:30.800 Like nobody really expected that. 00:48:31.119 --> 00:48:33.280 No one expects the communist revolution. 00:48:33.599 --> 00:48:35.920 No one expects the communist revolution, right? 00:48:35.920 --> 00:48:46.320 So it's happening in Russia, and there people and uh many of the people in Germany were looking across and saying, well, maybe maybe this is something we should do as well. 00:48:46.320 --> 00:48:48.480 So uh let me read you something. 00:48:48.480 --> 00:48:57.760 Uh an article published by the Russian Soviet uh shortly before the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, and they had has this excerpt. 00:48:57.760 --> 00:49:04.800 Quote The German Kaiser, covered with the blood of millions of innocent dead, wants to hurl his army against Petrograd. 00:49:04.800 --> 00:49:12.320 Let us call to the German workmen, soldiers and peasants, who want peace, not less than we do, to stand up against the stand war. 00:49:12.320 --> 00:49:24.320 This can be done only by a revolutionary government, which would speak readily for the workmen, soldiers, and peasants of Russia, and would appeal over the heads of the diplomats directly to the German troops, fill the German trenches with proclamations in the German language. 00:49:24.320 --> 00:49:27.360 Our airmen would spread these proclamations all over Germany. 00:49:27.360 --> 00:49:38.079 So the Russians really saw a way to end the war as basically to say, look, we've thrown over our we've thrown off our government. 00:49:38.079 --> 00:49:40.000 Um our czar is gone. 00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.800 How about if you get rid of your czar and then we can just we can just call an end to these hostiles? 00:49:45.119 --> 00:49:48.559 Well, we real we also have to look at the date that it was published. 00:49:48.559 --> 00:49:54.000 Um this was October 1917, so time of the Russian Revolution. 00:49:54.000 --> 00:49:59.519 And Lenin, Trotsky, and the Bolsheviks had come to power promising an end to the war. 00:49:59.519 --> 00:49:59.920 Right. 00:49:59.920 --> 00:50:06.719 And one of the uh ways that the communists worked was to give a lot of propaganda to the troops. 00:50:06.719 --> 00:50:10.239 Um, and so that was one of the methods that they used. 00:50:10.239 --> 00:50:20.480 But we just have to remember that this was still, you know, a year out from when the actual war ended, and Russia was just like, come on, guys, we can end it now, we can join together. 00:50:20.800 --> 00:50:21.440 Right. 00:50:21.440 --> 00:50:22.159 Right. 00:50:22.159 --> 00:50:32.719 But the this propaganda and this idea that the the workers, the soldiers, the basically the the people doing all the work, not the you know, not the elites, right? 00:50:32.719 --> 00:50:37.519 The the people on the ground, those are the people that are going to

be in charge of the new world. 00:50:37.519 --> 00:50:51.599 So the unrest that we see, the reason that you know we have to have a FRICOR, the reason that we have to have all the people brought up in order to put down the revolution happening inside Germany, is because the revolution is there. 00:50:51.599 --> 00:51:02.079 There are a lot of people that are looking to make changes in Germany and possibly take it in the same direction that the Bolsheviks took Russia. 00:51:02.559 --> 00:51:14.159 Another example of this identity crisis that Thad was talking about earlier is that there were two cities in Germany, Munich and Berlin, um, that were in fact very different. 00:51:14.159 --> 00:51:18.880 Um, but it's looking at Germany as a, you know, who are we? 00:51:18.880 --> 00:51:24.719 You had the Spartacists and the Spartacus League in Berlin creating unrest. 00:51:24.719 --> 00:51:31.119 And then you had Munich, which was much more laid back and had a very Bohemian type spirit. 00:51:31.119 --> 00:51:48.000 So we heard from Gerhard, who was in Berlin, and Wilhelm Markard was in the countryside, and and then there were several other accounts that I've read that are all calling out the chaos in Munich, um, specifically in the late spring of 1919. 00:51:48.000 --> 00:51:57.599 So this was after the first uh elections had been held in February, and you know, it was after like the first um spat of chaos. 00:51:57.599 --> 00:52:11.599 And um and I want to um just Max Weber was a famous sociologist, and he called the politics that were going on in Munich 1919 a bloody carnival, which it really was. 00:52:11.599 --> 00:52:19.840 It Munich was a fundamentally different place and had a very different culture um than Berlin. 00:52:19.840 --> 00:52:27.119 And it's it's in South Germany, next to Prussia, it's really the only region you hear about prior to 1871. 00:52:27.119 --> 00:52:35.840 Um for the Disney fans out there, it's where the Castle Neuschwanstein is located that you know is Cinderella's castle when you come into Disney World. 00:52:35.840 --> 00:52:41.360 Um, and it's located not far from Austria, and it's just much more laid back. 00:52:41.360 --> 00:52:44.639 Um and it had its own personality. 00:52:44.639 --> 00:52:48.400 When I think of Bavaria, I think kind of like Texas. 00:52:48.400 --> 00:52:53.519 You know, it's part of the US, but they have their own thing going on, and they're very proud of it. 00:52:53.519 --> 00:52:55.440 Oh, did you mean the Republic of Texas? 00:52:55.440 --> 00:52:57.440 Oh, yes, the Republic of Texas. 00:52:57.440 --> 00:52:57.840 Yes. 00:52:57.840 --> 00:53:00.480 Yeah, we were we were our own nation there for a little while. 00:53:00.480 --> 00:53:02.880 1836 to 1845, man. 00:53:03.199 --> 00:53:03.760 There we go. 00:53:04.000 --> 00:53:11.440 Oh but yes, the um the Republic of Texas, very much um individually minded. 00:53:11.440 --> 00:53:23.039 And in fact, after the war, a journalist, uh, his name was Kurt Eisner, um, he was able to organize and he succeeded with a socialist revolution in Bavaria. 00:53:23.039 --> 00:53:33.119 And he renamed the whole region the People's State of Bavaria and hoped that it would have its own independent government, become its own country. 00:53:33.119 --> 00:53:45.519 Um, kind of like in the Civil War when Tennessee tried to break up into the state of Franklin and the state of Tennessee, with East Tennessee becoming the state of Franklin. 00:53:45.519 --> 00:53:50.079 Um so he argued that going to war was Berlin's thing. 00:53:50.079 --> 00:53:53.840 It was, you know, all Berlin, not the fault of the Bavarians. 00:53:53.840 --> 00:53:55.039 It didn't work out. 00:53:55.039 --> 00:54:17.280 But he used um some documents that were from the Imperial Chancellor of Germany to Austria in early summer of um 1914, um before World War I broke out, promising them that if they went to war with Russia, that they would support Austria and go to war with them. 00:54:17.280 --> 00:54:21.360 And he's basically saying, look, guys, that's Berlin, not us. 00:54:21.360 --> 00:54:23.119 Treat us differently. 00:54:23.119 --> 00:54:30.480 Um but by the end of 1919, the people statehood of Bavaria had fallen apart. 00:54:30.480 --> 00:54:43.760 Um, leftists who were funded by Lenin of the Russian Revolution and used the motto workers of the world unite, um, established um a republic in Bavaria. 00:54:43.760 --> 00:54:49.039 And in German, it's the Reita Republic, and Reita means council. 00:54:49.519 --> 00:54:54.639 Which means which is the same, which is the same word as Soviet in Russia. 00:54:54.639 --> 00:54:58.000 So so they were trying to create a another Soviet state. 00:54:58.400 --> 00:55:04.400 And even if you look it up online, uh I think it pops up as like the Bavarian Soviet Republic. 00:55:04.400 --> 00:55:12.320 But yes, the leaders of the radical movement in April were executed um in May. 00:55:12.320 --> 00:55:26.480 And shortly thereafter, at the end of June, it was five years to the day of the assassination of the Archduke um Ferdinand of Austria, which is what triggered, well, the shot heard around the world. 00:55:26.480 --> 00:55:29.920 That's where some people pinned the start of World War I. 00:55:29.920 --> 00:55:32.239 That's a debate for another day. 00:55:32.239 --> 00:55:41.599 But it was June 28th that the Treaty of Versailles was signed, which in every possible way included Bavaria as part of Germany. 00:55:41.599 --> 00:55:45.039 Uh, so they didn't get out of the war guilt clause. 00:55:45.039 --> 00:55:47.199 They still had to pay reparations. 00:55:47.199 --> 00:55:50.719 Uh it was it was still, you know, they were included in it. 00:55:50.800 --> 00:55:52.079 Um they were Germany. 00:55:52.079 --> 00:55:53.119 Yeah, they were Germany. 00:55:53.119 --> 00:55:57.280 Everyone knows like, look, you may call yourselves Bavarian, but really we we know you're Germany. 00:55:57.599 --> 00:55:58.559 We we know it. 00:55:58.559 --> 00:56:10.880 You you decided when Bismarck tried to unify all of y'all back in the late 1860s and then in 1771 when you finished it, y'all decided to go with Prussia. 00:56:10.880 --> 00:56:12.159 So that's on you now. 00:56:12.719 --> 00:56:16.960 The so you're saying the French did not had not forgiven them for the Franco-Prussian War? 00:56:17.360 --> 00:56:25.199 No, because they were, like I said, like the second most important and biggest province in that area at the time. 00:56:25.679 --> 00:56:27.519 Welcome back to Versailles, Germans. 00:56:28.000 --> 00:56:28.320 Right. 00:56:28.320 --> 00:56:45.199 At any rate, the uh Bavarian Soviet Republic um only lasted about three weeks, and uh but Munich was just one example of a sad places all over the world who were going through a who am I crisis um after World War I. 00:56:45.199 --> 00:56:57.360 You had the British Empire was breaking apart, uh, the colonies were becoming independent, the Ottoman Empire was no more, and Germany had been pushed back. 00:56:57.360 --> 00:57:03.440 Russia was in the midst of famine and a brutal crackdown at this point by the Bolsheviks. 00:57:03.440 --> 00:57:07.679 By 1922, they would become the USSR. 00:57:07.679 --> 00:57:14.800 Even in China, the Qing dynasty, which would be the last um Chinese dynasty, was in its final throes. 00:57:14.800 --> 00:57:23.199 Um, and the US at this point was emerging as a global superpower, partially because everyone else had been beaten down by war. 00:57:23.199 --> 00:57:32.239 Um, but it was out of this chaos that this new, often more nationalistic uh ideologies would take root and spread.