The German Problem

As a German myself I am a bit surprised that the side-effects of and aftermaths of WWI are not taken into consideration here which played a vital role in the whole story: 1) Germany was not part of the Versailles negotiations were reperations and cessions of territory were discussed therfore the peace treaty as a whole was widely viewed as a "Diktatfrieden" (dictated peace). Especially the part where Germany had to accept to be the only nation responsible for the atrocities happened felt revengeful and belittling to Germans 2) There was a common belief fueled by high ranking militaries and right wing politicians known as "Dolchstoßlegende" (Legend of the dagger blow). It said that Germany was on the verge of winning the WWI and didn't lose in battle but communists, socialists and other democrats put a knife in the back of our forces politically home which led to the defeat. The politicians and ambassadors who signed the Versailles treaty were part of this alleged conspiracy which led to the problem that the democratic system of the Weimar Republic was not accepted by a considerable part of the general society and the majority of industrials and upper class opposed democracy 3) On top of the economic crisis the winners of WWI still demanded that reperations had to be payed eventhough the nation was more or less bankrupt This is why the Weimar Republic was characterized by instabillity right from the beginning and throughout its existence.

German perspective here: My great grandparents and partly my grandparents grew up in Nazi Germany. My grandparents and my parents then lived through the socialist hell in East Germany. You know how I know that the current situation is bad? I know, because all 3 generations continuously describe how much they feel reminded of the times that led up to these horrible regimes. This applies to the corrupt political class, to the way information is presented in the (social) media landscape. This applies to how an elitest class demands everyone agree with their views and accept their decisions. This is reflected in the way that young people have absolutely no clue about the horrors of nazi or socialist regimes. I feel devastated... I have grown up being taught to question everything and everyone all the time... but I see 90% of my peers who either refuse to think things through because it might make them uncomfortable, or they deny everything I say claiming I am some sort of conspiratorial nutjob, or in the worst case... they either just quietly go along with it, or actively support it to benefit on a personal level. I am hopeless :(

The thing he didn't bring up is that Germany was paying horrible fees for WW1 during the depression as well. Germany really DID have it worse than a lot of places.

In Argentina, when Perón was asked about how could he lead massive group of people he just said: I didn't lead them, I just saw where they were going and started walking in front of them.

As a German, I see a paradigm shift in our society that worries me more and more: what you do or say is no longer relevant, what is more important (again) is who or what you are or which group you belong to. What amazes me above all is how confused ideologies from the USA are being adopted completely unthinkingly and uncritically and grafted onto our society, despite our different social and historical backgrounds. This trend has found its way into the German government in particular, which seems to be making more and more efforts to de-structuralise a hitherto functioning economic power for ostensibly moral but predominantly fantasised reasons.

With the recent testimony of the three University Presidents the German problem has become the American problem. Progressivism has a big downside.

Between 1871 en 1914, after the defeat against Prussia/Germany and having to give them Alsace-Lorraine, one of the only focus of our french politic, propaganda and education was "Get prepared, we got to have our revenge from the humiliation of 1870, we have to get back what we lost"... It's strange that they couldn't imagine that Germany would think the same thing after 1918...

My village had some one, who gathered old stories of local people. In one of the stories the people talk about the time leading up to Hitler: It was either the Swastika or hammer & sickle. People didnt see any other political choice. And in an exhibition in Munich, I saw people who resisted the Nazi movement, mainly communists. There were also photos, where the Nazis held protests against communism. It appears, if you were anti communist, you didnt have much of a choice, but vote radical. The parallels to todays world shocked me deeply.

Interesting Dr Fergusson would say that Germany had exactly the same economic conditions as any other developed country during the Great Depression… I am no historian, but it seems to me that they went through defeat in WWI, followed by a revolution, unrealistic war reparations that were calibrated at crippling the economy (compulsory coal deliveries, I.e. a key production factor), long term foreign occupation of a great part of its industrial mainland (Rhineland), a horrendous starvation in the early 20‘s, run-away inflation in the early 20‘s way before the Krach in 1929, massive unemployment somewhere in the 40 percents…. Aside from Russia, which other European country faced similar conditions at the time (and see what happened there)? I cannot see that economic conditions can be disregarded as relevant as providing the necessary terrain for the Nazi ideology to take off. I wonder what would happen in e.g. France of the US if you had over 40% long term unemployment coupled with political humiliation?

As a German i find myself to be a foreigner in my own land more and more. Perceiving this change in me as it happens and progresses sends shivers down my spine. It feels like you are not supposed to even question the standard narrative of any given topic and the ones i am wondering about are plenty. Political hypocricy, bad descisions regarding energy and migration politics, my change towards the carnivore lifestyle and this general mindset of seeing others failing as a good thing really leave me wondering if i am a bad culture fit or wether i just should give up and go down with the flow of everybody else.

They never talk about Weimar, they never tell you which books were burnt.

After living in the UK and US influenced Mexico (my home country) doesn’t surprised me that these two seem to skip over various (already stated in comments below) topics in German history. I live now in Germany and dedicated myself to learn their history through their system and compare that to the UKs and US version of general history.

The reason was Versailles. You can analyse as much as you want, try to rewrite history, etc. If you take people's bread and coal, in the mud and freeze of Germany - they will rise up. My grandmother stole potatoes and coal as a 5 year old. That was her JOB.

This interview excerpt perfectly encapsulates why there should be no taboo in discussions, no censorship and prohibition in studying and learning history. People have to learn, know and engage in discussions about bad ideas and ideologies exactly with the purpose of stopping them, understanding them and avoiding them to manifest at a societal level. We just can't afford the luxury to ban ideas that we don't like and get away with it. We either fight them through debate or we are condemned to see them take power again

It is interesting when Anglo-Saxons discuss Germany. The cultural and historical background is very different from that of Germany, which makes it not easy to get to the actual reasons for the catastrophe. Many aspects have already been added in the comments, mostly by Germans, which says a lot about my compatriots. I'm excited to hear what historians will report about the catastrophe we're currently sliding into. However, Germany's role in this will be manageable.

The question asked is that why depression in Germany and in the US didn't result in the same outcome? The answer is elaborate but a fundamental difference is that the depression in the US was a product of failure of economic programs (self imposed), but the depression in Germany was mainly from the outside pressures on Germany to pay back it's debt to Europe that resulted from WWI (mainly) so it became a national struggle that led to a national social movement (unfortunately in its misguided form).

3:20 I don't think it's acurate at all to say the US had an equally bad depression as Germany considering that Germany also had to deal with the fallout from the Treaty of Versaillies which had catastrophic effects on their economy. An example of this being they were banned from producing steam ships and had to revert to wind powered clipper ships. I think the difference here was that Germany was much more desperate due to their situation and would support anyone who would promise to make things better.

What was not mentioned in this discussion was the state that Germany was during the great depression. In a nutshell, Germany had areas which were facing local civil wars. In addition, the parties were acting like mobsters, the SPD, KPD and NSDAP Members were beating the crap out of each others, the result was the founding of "protection groups" within the parties, Reichsbanner for the SPD and SA for the NSDAP. I'm qite sure that this kind of unrest did not happen in the USA.

Compared to the superficial fluff and crap that occupies 98% of YouTube, this was intellectually highly stimulating….I could listen to Prof Ferguson all day….it’s only in later life that I have truly begun to appreciate the value of understanding history in great detail!

13:39 Very true, it is fascinating to see. A remark by one of my university teachers was that it barely even mattered what he was saying, the crowd would go wild anyway. Such speeches were absolutely massive, with people stirring each other up in their extreme enthusiasm