The soldier’s cemetery near Verdun, battlefield in the First World War
Foto: picture alliance / dpa | Gerd Roth
As soon as the Basic Law is changed, a literally heavy book comes into the bookstores: the emeritus professor of the latest Genereine History in Bern, Stig Förster, has written a voluminous work on German military history from the early modern period to the present. It reflects a war history flanked by peace appeals and also deals with unfortunately mostly failed attempts to avoid armed disputes. Förster’s historical review is therefore in particular recommended that the peoples of crucial politicians are not allowed to be hustle and bustle by the military, armaments lobbyists and armaments industrialists. Of course, the dictum of the Prussian general and army reformer Carl von Clausewitz about the dictation of politics is not missing in the book either.
What was previously called “war loans” is now being devised euphemistically as a “special fund”. However, the loosening of the debt brake does not mean that it can only be accessed to the future. At least not unscathed.
The Prussian King Frederick II, often referred to in literature as “the great”, could only get through the Seven Years’ War with horrendous funds from England and somehow win. England, in turn, needed this “second front” in Europe to triumph in the fight for the colonies in North America. Förster makes it clear that pure power -political interests dominated and influenced the changing coalitions in all epochs he examined.
Nd.Diewoche – Our weekly newsletter
With our weekly newsletter . We’re Doing Look at the most important topics of the week and read them Highlights our Saturday edition on Friday. Get the free subscription here.
These also determined the eve of the First World War, as the political managers in Germany, first of all the “Iron Chancellor” Otto von Bismarck, from an inevitable war against France. The questions about the strength of the troops, a general conscription and its duration, according to the strategy to be elected as well as after the army of one’s own army and the respective role of the sub -armed forces, but also considerations for the participation of private companies (Krupp) in the equipment etc. guided international battles 1914 to 1918. The solutions then made were rarely optimal. It was no different at the time of the Nazi dictatorship. As is well known, the views between Hitler and others as well as the Wehrmacht generality often diverge here; And armaments policy decisions were also always a budget question, which is why Göring’s wish for the construction and use of strategic long -range bombers was answered as too expensive.
The respective political course is assessed by forester profund. The military historian describes Bismarck’s dismissal by Kaiser Wilhelm II as the only right decision of the otherwise weak monarch. The thesis of the Australian historian, Christopher Clark, who teaches in Cambridge, that all great powers stumbled into the First World War and that Germany does not have any special war debt (“Die Sleepwander”) is only worth a footnote. Despite the complicity of Russia and Austria, it is clear for forester: “The key that opened the pandora’s box was ultimately in Berlin.”
Wars always develop their own dynamics, hardly predictable. Clausewitz had already pointed out this in his book “From War”. Military conflicts have to be distinguished. The peasant wars bore a different character than the cabinet wars from the 16th to 18th centuries. The Franco-German war sparked according to Sedan and the captivity of Napoleon III. A first “People’s War” of the French Republic against the German Empire founded with Triumphaler gesture on January 18, 1971 in Versailles Castle.
The author occasionally added battles and marching plans to his text without delighting bellicist minds, but to illustrate events, murderous events. Again and again he invites his audience to think about failed efforts to avoid war. For their failure, he makes the rigids that emerged in the second half of the 19th century, liable to the entire social life in Germany, which was liable for his knowledge, which was two reasons for his knowledge: a deeply conservative mood that a strong army primarily called for any (socialist) overthrow attempts, as well as a nationalistic position that was aiming for a German world power. Bismarck, as well as his successors to daring, had prompted the “stubborn” attitude of the social democrats represented in the Reichstag to demonstrate the parliament with a coup d’état and to restore an authoritarian monarchy.
After interesting contemporary history of the military history of both German states during the Cold War, forester is devoted to the present, which is overshadowed by the second term of office of a unpredictable US president. “Nobody can predict where the journey is going. Therefore, the book has to end at this point. Only one thing is certain as long as humanity exists, history will continue. ”Stig forester closes his knowledge and instructive book with the words:»The End of History It was just a neokonservative chatter that arose in the euphoria after the victory of the West in the Cold War. «
Stig forester: German military history. From early modern times to the present. Chbeck, 1294 pages, born, € 49.90.