Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [16]
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After abdicating, Kaiser Wilhelm II could settle in Utrecht (in the Netherlands) on the condition that he didn’t engage in political activity. One of his last acts was to send a telegram to Hitler congratulating him on the occupation of Paris.
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Meanwhile, in July 1919, in the Thuringian city of Weimar (where the constituent assembly briefly sought refuge during the Berlin chaos), the federalist constitution of a new democratic republic was adopted.
The so-called Weimar Republic (1919–33) was governed by a coalition of left and centre parties headed by President Friedrich Ebert of the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD; German Social Democratic Party) until 1925 and then by Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, a gritty 78-year-old monarchist. The republic, however, pleased neither communists nor monarchists.
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In 1923 a postage stamp cost 50 billion marks, a loaf of bread cost 140 billion marks and US$1 was worth 4.2 trillion marks. In November, the new Rentenmark was traded in for one trillion old marks.
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JEWS IN GERMANY
The first Jews arrived in present-day Germany with the conquering Romans, settling in important Roman cities on or near the Rhine, such as Cologne, Trier, Mainz, Speyer and Worms. As non-Christians, Jews had a separate political status. Highly valued for their trade connections, they were formally invited to settle in Speyer in 1084 and granted trading privileges and the right to build a wall around their quarter. A charter of rights granted to the Jews of Worms in 1090 by Henry IV allowed local Jews to be judged according to their own laws.
The First Crusade (1095–99) brought pogroms in 1096, usually against the will of local rulers and townspeople. Many Jews resisted before committing suicide once their situation became hopeless. This, the Kiddush ha-shem (martyr’s death), established a precedent of martyrdom that became a tenet of European Judaism in the Middle Ages.
In the 13th century Jews were declared crown property by Frederick II, an act that afforded protection but exposed them to royal whim. Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg, whose grave lies in Europe’s oldest Jewish cemetery in Worms, fell foul of King Rudolph of Habsburg in 1293 for leading a group of would-be emigrants to Palestine; he died in prison. The Church also prescribed distinctive clothing for Jews at this time, which later meant that in some towns Jews had to wear badges.
Things deteriorated with the arrival of the plague in the mid-14th century, when Jews were persecuted and libellous notions circulated throughout the Christian population. The ‘blood libel’ accused Jews of using the blood of Christians in rituals. The even more bizarre ‘host-desecration libel’ accused Jews of desecrating or torturing Christ by, among other dastardly deeds, sticking pins into communion wafers, which then wept tears or bled.
Money lending was the main source of income for Jews in the 15th century. Expulsions remained commonplace, however, with large numbers emigrating to Poland, where the Yiddish language developed. The Reformation (including a hostile Martin Luther) and the Thirty Years War brought difficult times for Jewish populations, but by the 17th century they were valued again for their economic contacts.
Napoleon granted Germany’s Jews equal rights, but the reforms were repealed by the 1815 Congress of Vienna. Anti-Jewish feelings in the early 19th century coincided with German nationalism and a more vigorous Christianity, producing a large number of influential assimilated Jews, such as the Düsseldorf-born poet Heinrich Heine (1797–1856).
By the late 19th century, Jews had equal status in most respects and Germany had became a world centre